Tower Hamlets Schools Library Services

Author: slsadmin

  • Mental Health and Wellbeing

    Mental Health and Wellbeing

    Reading anything at all (except perhaps social media posts) can be highly beneficial to mental health and wellbeing.

    Reading Well for Children

    We have sets of Reading Well for Children for loan. The books were selected by The Reading Agency and are all recommended by health experts, as well as people with lived experience of the conditions and topics covered and their relatives and carers.

    Reading Well for children provides quality-assured information, stories and advice to support children’s mental health and wellbeing. Books have been chosen and recommended by leading health professionals and co-produced with children and families.

    The booklist is targeted at children in Key Stage 2 (aged 7-11), but includes titles aimed at a wide range of reading levels to support less confident readers, and to encourage children to read together with their siblings and carers.

    To request a set, please use the request form. Request for Resources Form

    We’ve also compiled some suggestions of books that specifically promote wellbeing and have put links to our library catalogue.

    Catalogue links

     

    Feel-Good Books

    A selection of funny or just life-affirming books to help bring a smile to your storytime.

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    Coping with loss and bereavement

    A selection of books to share with children dealing with loss.

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    Reading well for children

    Reading Well for children The Reading Agency have published a list of books to promote mental wellbeing for children.  All these titles are available to borrow from the Schools Library Service.  If your school subscribes, use the request form to order.

  • (blog) Stick Boy

    (blog) Stick Boy

    Stick Boy by Paul Coomey

    The main character, Stick, is exactly what the title says. Drawn with a round white head and a stick body which can fall apart and be put back together! He’s moved to a new town and a new school because of bullying, his third school in three years, and given how he looks it’s hard to fit it and not be noticed. It seems as if the same thing is happening again when Gretchen and Sam pick on him from the very first day. However, gradually, Stick makes some real friends and together they get involved in a plot involving an evil ICT teacher, hacking computers and the opening event of The New Mega Mall. The race is on to prove to unsuspecting families that their new HOMEBOT (…think Alexa plus) is part of a sinister plot plan to rule their lives.

  • TakeOff! 2021

    TakeOff! 2021

    The Takeoff! 2021 list is 22 great books for children in years 3 and 4 published (paperback) between April 2020 and April 2021.

    These books are selected each year by Schools Library Services librarians and aim to cover a diverse  range of authors, subjects and genres.

    For new primary fiction for years 5 and 6, see our Must Read booklist!

    Posters and Bookmarks for the 2021 booklists will be delivered soon to subscribing schools!

    Click to view the books!

    Max Against Extinction Tim Allman Max is back and he’s on a mission to save the Bramble Field from being torn up, ripped out and replaced with a boring old office block. But first he’s got to try and get his school and head teacher Mr Costive on his side… ‘Trees and newts, not desks and suits!’
    Stick and Fetch Off the Leash Philip Ardagh Together, Sally and her dog are Stick and Fetch: Detectives. Even on holiday there are plenty of crimes to solve and mysteries to unravel. Such as, who is Major Mayhem? Why is that door frightened? And where could the small-bottle-of-shampoo robbers be hiding?  This is the third story about Sally Stick and her dog Fetch.
    Too Small Tola and the Three Fine Girls Atinuke Clever Tola may be small but she is mighty! Stories of precious gold earrings, busy big brothers and sisters, strict Grandmummy’s and selling groundnuts.. and Tola’s the star in all!
    Skeleton Keys: The Haunting of Luna Moon Guy Bass Skeleton Keys has fantabulant fingers which open doors to hidden worlds. This is the strange tale of Luna Moon, whose family is disappearing before her very eyes – she is convinced her grandfather has come back to haunt the family, and Skeleton needs to get to the bottom of the mystery before the whole family is gone.
    Agents of the Wild 2: Operation Icebeak Jennifer Bell Why are the Adelie penguins in the Antarctic behaving so bizarrely? And what is causing earth tremors there? And why are their TV crews in the icefields? This is a new case for Agnes and Attie – agents of SPEARS, the society for the protection of endangered and awesomely rare species!
    Agent Asha: Mission Shark Bytes Sophie Deen Asha Joshi is a coder, so she’s the perfect person for the top-secret Children’s Spy Agency to send to hack into the biggest tech company in the world, fight deadly sharks and figure out why the Internet has stopped working.
    Olga and the Smelly Thing from Nowhere Elise Gravel When Olga, animal-scientist-in-training, finds a pink, hairy creature living in her rubbish bin, it’s a dream come true – it’s a weird new species!  It looks like a cross between a hamster and a potato, smells terrible and says only the word MEH! And it’s the perfect subject for Olga’s very scientific Observation Notebook
    Kitty and the Treetop Chase Paula Harrison What do a girl who can talk to animals and a boy who can talk to birds do when they find trouble? They try and solve it of course! Kitty and Ozzy must work together to solve the mystery of the Bakery Dog and the Missing Collar, but they’d better finish before morning!
    Fish Kid and the Lizard Ninja Kylie Howarth You’d have thought eating slimy sea cucumbers and jellyfish would make you ill, but it’s given Bodhi some amazing new powers… but what is this animal climbing up his wetsuit?  Can it really be a Lizard Ninja? And can the two of them save the oceans?
    The Monster Doctor John Kelly It’s not every day that someone’s arm falls off in the street in front of you. Even weirder when they turn out to be just a little bit dead. Luckily, there’s a monster doctor just round the corner! And apparently she wants new boy Ozzy to be her new trainee Monster Nurse…
    Good Knight, Bad Knight and the Flying Machine Tom Knight After a small incident with some exploding barrels of poo, twins Warrick and Willow ask Good Knight Godwin and Bad Knight Berk to help them build a flying machine. Little do they know how quickly they (and their village, and a forlorn chicken called Lettuce) will need it when some cheese-munching barbarians invade…
    Theodora Hendrix and the Monstrous League of Monsters Jordan Kopy The first rule of the Monstrous League of Monsters is to keep hidden from humans – a rule that orphaned Theodora usually has no trouble with, But now a series of anonymous letters suggest that someone is about to reveal their secret. If Theodora doesn’t act fast, she may lose her family for ever…
    Willow Wildthing and the Swamp Monster Gill Lewis Something amazing happens in the woodland behind Willow’s house –  she enters The Wilderness, where magic and nature collide and children take on the characteristics of the wild creatures they are named after. But there are shadows, and secrets, and … MONSTERS!
    The Secret Time Machine and the Gherkin Switcheroo Simone Lia A worm and a bird are the most unlikely of friends – but now Marcus is in trouble. He didn’t think his friend Laurence would actually believe him when he said his super brainy aunt built a time machine. After all, he only boasting to win a silly argument.  Now how on earth will he make it come true?
    Anisha, Accidental Detective: school’s cancelled Serena Patel Everyone thinks it’s Anisha’s fault that her fantastic volcano project explodes and floods the school and gets her disqualified from chance to win a prize trip to the national space centre.  Can Anisha, her best friend Milo, a pet rat, and a high-school vlogger catch the real culprit?
    Attack of the Heebie Jeebies Tom Percival It’s no good going to bed angry – you just get bad dreams and for Erika, the bad dreams mean being attacked by a mob of hungry Heebie Jeebies and being hunted by a terrifying Angermare! But can Dream Team help Erika overcome her worries and get home, or will she be trapped forever?
    Sona Sharma, Very Best Big Sister Chitra Soundar Sona’s house is full of people who joke often and argue sometimes. Relatives come unannouncedand friends drop in all the time. Then one day Amma tells Sona she is going to have a baby. Is that good? Sona isn’t sure – she has always enjoyed being an only child. When Sona learns that there will be a baby naming ceremony, she is determined to find the perfect name for her new brother or sister.
    Scribble Witch: notes in class Inky Willis When Molly finds Notes, a tiny paper witch, lurking in her pen pot, school is never the same again – but some of the things Notes does are absolutely NOT helpful and get Molly into trouble…
    Last : The Story of a white Rhino Nicola Davies What’s it feel like to be an animal in the zoo? What does it feel like to be the very last one of your kind in a zoo? This is the real story of Sudan, the very last male Northern White Rhino in the world.
    Johnny ball accidental football genius Matt Oldfield Johnny Ball LOVES football and everything to do with football, but he’s not quite good enough to make the Tissbury Primary School team for the super-huge Under-11s County Cup. But best friend Tabia manages to get him made into Assistant Manager, so can Johnny lead the Tissbury Primary team all the way to County Cup glory?
    Little Badman and the Time-travelling Teacher of Doom Humza Arshad Humza Khan has faced deadly alien slugs, killer aunties and double maths, but now he has to face something even scarier – his dad! He’s pretty fed up with Humza and Umer being naughty, so he’s sending them away . . . to school… in Pakistan.  But when they get there, something weird is going on – someone has been messing with time!
    Boy in the jam jar Joyce Dunbar Dylan loves football, space and his dog Pluto, but the sounds he hears are getting faint and other children are starting to make fun of him. But he doesn’t want hearing aids – they’re for old people…

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  • Must Read 2021

    Must Read 2021

    44 of the best new fiction titles for your primary school Library, aimed at years 5 and 6.

    The Must Read Book list is one of our annual selections of the best fiction for primary schools chosen by librarians from the Schools Library Service and primary and secondary schools, and is a suggested list to buy for your school library.

    For fiction for years 3 and 4, take a look at our Takeoff! booklist.

    The book list represents a selection of the best new fiction first published in paperback within the last year, and covers a diverse range of subjects, genres, authors and interests.

    Titles from the 2021 Teen and Primary lists will be chosen for the Tower Hamlets Book Award short list. Don’t forget to register for this event!

    Posters and Bookmarks for the 2021 booklists will be delivered soon to subscribing schools

    Please contact the library for any further information about the book list.

    Click to view the books!

    The Infinite Patience Agbabi Elle is a leapling, born on 29th February, so has a birthday every four years.  But some leaplings have a special gift – they can leap into the future.  When Elle finds she is one of these, she is excited about being able to travel to the future, but there are dark forces at work, and suddenly, she is in a race against time to save the world.
    The Space We’re In Katya Balen Frank feels a whirlpool of emotions towards his younger brother Max, who is on the autistic spectrum, and resents the parental time that Max demands.  Just when it seems life couldn’t be more difficult for Frank, tragedy happens, and the whirlpool deepens.  Can Frank and his family through the most painful of times.
    Wonderscape Jennifer Bell Three children find themselves trapped aboard The Principia – a scientific research ship sailing through hazardous waters, captained by Isaac Newton, after they investigate a mysterious explosion on their way to school.

    Lost in the year 2473 in the Wonderscape, an epic in-reality adventure game, they must call on the help of some unlikely historical heroes, to play their way home before time runs out.
    Tamarind & the Star of Ishta Jasbinder Bilan Tamarind never knew her Indian mum, Chinty, who died soon after she was born. So when she arrives at her ancestral home, a huge mansion in the Himalayas surrounded by luxuriant gardens, she’s full of questions for her extended family. But instead of answers, she finds an ominous silence.
    Stars with Flaming Tails Valerie Bloom I traveled once around the world
    On stars with flaming tails,
    And touched the colors of my dreams
    Along some silver trails.
    Morgana Mage in the Robotic Age Amy Bond Morgana loves robots and longs to attend robotics school in the city. But when she finally finds a way, she learns of a troubling secret hiding beneath its gleaming surface: a secret that threatens the balance of civilisation. Caught between two worlds, only Morgana has the power to find a solution.
    My brothers name is Jessica John Boyne Jason is Sam’s beloved older brother. He’s looked out for him from the moment of his premature birth, through his struggles with dyslexia and has always been his hero. Their bond is especially important because their parents are ambitious politicians, totally focussed on their work and with little time for their teenage boys.

    When Jason sits the family down to tell them his ‘secret’ everything goes into freefall for Sam.
    The Restless Girls Jessie Burton For her twelve daughters, Queen Laurelia’s death is a disaster beyond losing a mother. Their father cannot bear the idea of the princesses ever being in danger and decides his daughters must be kept safe at all costs. But the eldest still has one possession her father can’t take: the power of her imagination. A feminist retelling of a classic fairytale.
    Freddy Vs School Neil Cameron Okay humans, listen up! My name is FREDDY. I live with my Mum and Dad. I go to school. Oh yeah, the MAIN thing: I am an AWESOME ROBOT! With awesome robotic SUPERPOWERS! But I’m hardly ever allowed to USE them, and definitely not at SCHOOL. Which is going to be a PROBLEM…
    Zombierella: Fairy Tales Gone Bad Joseph Coelho A yellow moon hangs in a satin sky the night Cinderella, barefoot and in hand-me-downs, slips at the top of the stairs … and dies. But not for long. Cinderella goes forth as Zombierella. With her skin as cold as ice, can she seek revenge on her three cruel, fake sisters, once and for all?
    Stick Boy Paul Coomey When you’re drawn with a round white head and a stick body which can fall apart and be put back together again, it’s hard to fit it.  Stick boy is at his third school in three years and it’s still hard to make friends.  But when he uncovers a plot involving an evil ICT teacher, hacking computers and the opening event of The New Mega Mall, he must work with Gretchen and Sam to prove to unsuspecting families that their new HOMEBOT is part of a sinister plot plan to rule their lives.
    Boy Everywhere A M Dassu Sami and his family travel from privilege to poverty, across countries and continents, from a comfortable life in Damascus, via a smuggler’s den in Turkey, to a prison in Manchester. A story of survival, of family, and of bravery.
    The Soup Movement Ben Davis Jordan promises his very good friend he would do an act of kindness whenever he could and help change the world. Was that really why he gave up his mum’s wholesome soup to a homeless man? In any case, that one small gesture became life changing, and helped Jordan adjust to a world without Rio.
    Undercover Robot: My First Year as a Human David Edmonds Year 7 is tough enough without having to pretend you’re a human, but that’s exactly what Dotty has to do. Only she now also has to worry about a boy in her class outing her in order to win a reward…
    Vi Spy: Licence to Chill Maz Evans Vi has an unusual family – her mother is ex-secret service and her father is one of the bad guys – so there’s plenty of secrets to be uncovered, and supervillains to defeat.
    The Boy Who Met a Whale Nizrana Farook Set in Sri Lanka, Razi, a fisherboy, meets Zheng, who’s escaped a shipwreck and is full of tales of sea monsters and missing treasure. But the villains who are after Zheng are soon after Razi and his sister, Shifa, too.
    Darwin’s Dragons Lindsay Galvin Syms Covington has landed the job of a lifetime – cabin boy on Charles Darwin’s Beagle – but when he is separated from the crew during a storm, his life takes a truly extraordinary turn.  Shipwrecked on a Galapagos island, he makes a discovery that could change the world – and make his fortune. But should he share his find, or will it lead to the extinction of a legendary species?
    When life gives you mangoes Getten Life in rural Jamaica seems idyllic but Clara is trouble by an unmentionable event last summer. Old friend Gaynah is acting mean towards her, quirky new friend Rudy friend is causing ripples all round, but it takes a big storm to reveal secrets and clear the air.  A multi-layered story about community with an amazing twist.
    Twisted threads of polly freeman Pippa Goodhart A moving tale of hard times in the 1830s. Polly and her Great Aunt Jem scratch a living by their sewing and mending but when their landlady throws them out on the street they end up in a workhouse in St Pancras.

    Visions of Oliver Twist ensue with grey, sloppy gruel and hard, unpaid work until Polly befriends Min and together they are sold as apprentices to a Manchester cotton mill.
    Proud of Me Sarah Hagger-Holt Not quite’ twins Becky and Josh take turns to tell this two mums family story from different angles.  Both are born through donor donation and Josh is desparate to find his so called real dad.  Beth is not bothered. She’s too busy with teenage angst – so confused about her feelings for sassy new girl in her school!  Will they be able to sort out their feelings and learn to accept who they are?
    When stars are scattered Victoria Jamieson Omar and his younger brother, Hassan, have spent most of their young lives in Dadaab, a refugee camp in Kenya. Life is hard there: never enough food, achingly dull, and without access to the medical care that Omar’s non-verbal brother needs.  But it’s better than their life in Somalia. Heartbreak, hope, and the joy of friendship come together in this graphic novel about day-to-day life in the biggest refugee camp in the world
    Queen of Freedom Catherine Johnson 1720 in Jamaica, a group of ex-slaves – Maroons – buildthemselves a town but need the wisdom and tactical skills of Nanny to ensure their freedom from the English Redcoats who are determined to wipe them out.  Based on a true story.
    More to the Story Hena Khan When Jameela Mirza is picked to be feature editor of her middle school newspaper, she’s one step closer to being an award-winning journalist like her late grandfather. The problem is her editor-in-chief keeps shooting down her ideas. ~Inspired by Louisa May Alcott’s ‘Little Women’, featuring four sisters from a modern American Muslim family living in Georgia.
    The Strangeworlds Travel Agency L.D. Lapinski The Strangeworlds Travel Agency is not like any travel agency you might have encountered before. It stores hundreds of suitcases which are the gateways to different, magical worlds where Flick and Jonathan are led on a series of adventures and a quest to rescue a world struggling to survive in the magical multiverse.  Along the way, they are also desperate to find out what has happened to Jonathan’s Dad…..
    Evernight Ross Mackenzie Thousands of years ago, the Evernight came to the Silver Kingdom and turned everything to darkness and chaos. It was only defeated thanks to the skill and bravery of the Witches. But now the Evernight is about to return…
    The Beast and the Bethany Jack Meggitt-Phillips Ebenezer Tweezer is  511-year-old. He keeps a beast in the attic of his mansion, who he feeds all manner of things and in return the beast vomits out presents for Ebenezer, as well as potions which keep him young and beautiful. But the beast grows ever greedier, and soon only a nice, juicy child will do.
    Planet Omar: increditble rescue mission Zanib Mian When Omar and his friends come back after the school holidays, their lovely teacher seems to have been replaced by somebody much more grumpy. Overhearing other teachers talking about her, Omar decides something terrible has happened. Could she possibly have been abducted by aliens?!
    Children of the Benin Kingdom Dinah Orji Papa Eze found Ada as a baby in the forest, and brought her up as his own.  Sh;es always known this, but now she is 12, it is time for him to tell her the whole truth about where she is from – a truth that sends her on a journey deep into the rainforest to the ancient Edo kingdom of Benin.
    Where The World Turns Wild Nicola Penfold Juniper and her brother live in a walled city from which nature has been banished, following the outbreak of a deadly man-made disease many years earlier. When scientists discover that they hold the key to fighting the disease, the pair must flee for their lives. As they journey into the unknown, they soon learn that there’s cruelty in nature as well as beauty.
    Lightfall: the Girl and the Galdurian Tim Probert Bea’s grandpa goes missing (he’s a Pig Wizard by the way) on a mysterious trip and worse still he’s left the Jar of Eternal Flame behind him! Concerned for his safety, Bea teams up with Galdurian Cad to search for her Pig Wizard Grandpa and, since they’re searching, the rest of the vanished Galdurian people. However, eternal darkness is stirring…
    Swordswoman Devika Rangachari It’s 1854 , the British are taking over India and they refuse to recognise Queen Lakshmibai’s’s adopted son as rightful heir to the Jhansi kingdom.   The queen is determined to save her kingdom for her son and, using her skill and teactical expertise, sets about training are army of both men and women to fight for their rights.  But will they be strong enough to defeat the British?
    The Forest of Moon and Sword Amy Raphael Twelve-year-old Art lives in a small village in Scotland. Her mother has always made potions that cure the sick, but now the townspeople say she is a witch. One cloudless night, Art’s mother is arrested and taken to England. Art mounts her horse, taking a sword, a tightrope, and a herbal recipe book, and begins a journey through wild forests, using nature’s signs and symbols to guide her.
    The Night Bus Hero Onjali Rouf Hector is always in detention; his family are in despair and Hector just keeps getting nastier each day. Until he goes too far and picks on a homeless man. That starts a chain of events involving thefts from famous London landmarks (all along the N15 night bus route) and a daring finale at St Paul’s Cathedral.
    The Good Thieves Katherine Rundell Do two wrongs make a right?  Is stealing OK if you are only stealing back what is rightly yours? Vita’s beloved grandfather Jack has been cheated out of his home and possessions by a notorious conman with Mafia connections and Vita is determined to get it back for him.
    The Boy Who Made Everyone Laugh Helen Rutter Billy is good at making lists, but most of his lists are about how to get rid of his stutter -which he absolutely must do if he is to follow his dream to become the world’s funniest stand-up comedian
    The Boy who fooled the world Thompson Cole’s family are always struggling for money, and kids at school laugh at him for his old clothes and old trainers, but when his Mum is made redundant from her job at the art museum, things get worse.  To save the museum, and Mum’s job, Cole must solve the puzzle of the museum’s most famous painting
    The Phoenix Colossal Comics Collection : Race to adventure Various A bumper comic book full of the laugh-out-loud humour, thrilling adventure and general awesome from the Phoenix. Race across the country with the fastest girl in the land; follow the misadventures of a beefy barbarian chef; embark on a crazy odyssey through Ancient Greece alongside its hapless hero, and more!
    The Prince and the dressmaker Jen Wang Prince Sebastian is looking for a bride–or rather, his parents are looking for one for him. Sebastian is too busy hiding his secret life from everyone. At night he puts on daring dresses and takes Paris by storm as the fabulous Lady Crystallia–the hottest fashion icon in the world capital of fashion!
    How to Be a Hero Cat Weldon When trainee valkyrie Lotta mistakes an unconscious thief, Whetstone, for a fallen hero and takes him triumphantly to Valhalla, things are definitely not turning out to be epic or glorious. But things really start to go wrong when Loki gets involved with a plan to unleash chaos across the nine worlds. Can Whetstone prove himself a hero after all?
    Turtle boy M Evan Wolkenstein Will is learning that life is too short to live in a shell. Kids at school call Will Turtle Boy because of his funny-looking chin. But when Will meets RJ – suffering from an incurable disease – he learns not everyone is his enemy. RJ has a bucket list of adventures which extends way beyond his hospital room, and he needs help ticking them off.
    Vote For Effie Laura Wood The fact that she is new at the school, not made many friends yet and the current junior class preseident is the mos popular boy in school does not put Efie off running for high office.  The injustices – there’s no girl’s football team, no recycling system and the school doesn’t have a librarian – are so great, SOMETHING needs to be done.
    Roxy and Jones: the great fairytale coverup Angela Woolfe Once Upon a Modern Time, in the city of Rexopolis, in the Kingdom of Illustria, lived twelve-year-old Roxy Humperdinck, half-sister to Hansel and Gretel (not that she knows it). Now Roxy’s about to discover the truth about her world and her family: that witches are real, magic is real and fairy tales are not only real … but recent history.
    Time School Nikki young When you’re running late for school, then you find your usual train has turned into an old steam train, you know it’s not going to be a normal day. And today, Jess, Nadia, Tomma and Ash find themselves spending the day at Hickley School. One hundred years in the past.
    The Creature Keeper Damaris Young Cora just knows she’s the right person for the job of creature keeper at the mysterious Direspire Hall, and she has a knack with all the strange and magical creatures kept there. But there’s one stranger than all the others and someone wants it….

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  • Teen booklist 2021

    Teen booklist 2021

    33 of the best new fiction titles for your secondary school Library

    The Teenage Book list is selected annually by librarians from the Schools Library Service and secondary schools, and is a list of recommended fiction to buy for your school library.

    The teen list represents a selection of the best new fiction first published in paperback within the last 12 months, and covers a diverse range of subjects, genres, authors and interests.

    Titles from the Teen and Primary lists will be chosen for the Tower Hamlets Book Award short list in July. Remember to let us know if you want to participate in this event!

    Posters and Bookmarks for the 2021 booklists will be being delivered soon to subscribing schools!

    Please contact the library for more information on the Teen List or to request additional posters or bookmarks (subscribing schools only).

    Click to view the books!

    Clap when you land Elizabeth Acevedo Two 16-year old half-sisters, one living in New York and the other in the Dominican Republic, discover each other and hidden family secrets when their beloved Papa dies in a plane crash. With both girls’ families crushed – but in different ways – by the tragedy, and amidst bitter feelings of anger, betrayal, grief and guilt, Camino and Yahaira meet each other in Dominica to bury Papa, and search for a way forward.
    Children of Virtue and Vengeance Tomi Adeyemi In this gripping sequel to Children of Blood and Bone, Zélie has achieved her goal of returning magic to the magi but it has made the people of Orisha more divided than ever before. Both Zélie and Amari want to fix what they have done and unite the people, but they end up having very different ways of going about it.
    Cinderella is Dead Kalynn Bayron It’s 200 years after Cinderella found her prince, but the fairy tale is over. Teen girls are now required to appear at the Annual Ball, where the men of the kingdom select wives. If a suitable match is not found, the girls not chosen are never heard from again. This fresh take on the classic tale roots for girls to break down the gender constructs of the world around them.
    Song beneath the tides Beverely Birch While on holiday in Africa with her family, Ally begins an intense friendship with Leli, a local teenager.  Set against the backdrop of Ally and Leli’s tender love story, Song Beneath the Tides is a sophisticated story that both looks back at colonialism, and also explores the modern issues pf poverty and cultural devastation caused by big business and mass tourism.
    The Short knife Elen Caldecott It is the year 454AD. Mai has been kept safe by her father and her sister, Haf. But when Saxon warriors arrive at their farm, the family is forced to flee to the hills where British warlords lie in wait. A stunning novel that celebrates difference and finding your own way, when even speaking your mother tongue can be dangerous.
    Tiger Heart Penny Chrimes Fly never meant to end up in a cage with a man-eating tiger. And though she’s sure she’s no princess, when the tiger addresses her as ‘your majesty’, she can’t help but vow to free him and return him home. But the bird-filled jungles and cloud-topped mountains of the tiger’s homeland are an ocean away. And not everyone wants the tiger – or Fly – to get there alive.
    Blood Moon Lucy Cuthew During Frankie’s first sexual experience with Benjamin, she gets her period. It’s only blood, they agree. No shame. Then a graphic meme goes viral, turning their intimacy into something mortifying and damaging. As the online shaming takes on a horrifying life of its own, her universe implodes. But can laughter, bravery and the fiercest of friends help Frankie find her way out of the darkness?
    On Midnight beach Marie-Louise Fitzpatrick Donegal, 1976. When a dolphin takes up residence in Carrig Cove, Emer and her best friend feel like they have an instant connection with it. Then Dog Cullen and his sidekick, Kit, turn up, and the four friends begin to sneak out at midnight to go down to the beach, daring each other to swim closer and closer to the creature. As the summer days get longer and hotter the fame and fortune the dolphin brings to thevillage builds resentment amongst their neighbours across the bay, and simmering tensions erupt into something worse…
    The Life I’m In Sharon G Flake Char is not a good person, a bully who has made lives a misery. Thrown out of her home, she boards a bus and sets out to find her own path, but finds herself trapped in a web of human trafficking. Trapped in an underbelly of society that exploits the vulnerable, Char will need to direct all her strength and determination to help herself and her fellow victims.
    The Gilded Ones Namina Forna Sixteen-year-old Deka lives in fear of the blood ceremony that will determine whether she will become a member of her village. But on the day of the ceremony, her blood runs gold, the color of impurity – and Deka knows she will face a consequence worse than death .The Gilded Ones is a empowering fantasy tale that deals racism, misogyny, inequality and much more.
    The Lost Soul Atlas Zana Fraillon Told in both the past and present, Twiggy wakes up in the Afterlife with no memories, a raven for a guide and a mysterious Atlas to guide him along his path. We then go on to learn about Twiggy’s missing father and his life on the street in a glorious questing tale of fantasy, family, love and belonging which shines a light on homelessness and poverty.
    Deeplight Frances Hardinge Good money can be made from relics of the gods, and these are plentiful beneath the waves if you are brave enough to dive down and get them.  But there are people who want to do more with the relics than just sell them – they want to ressurrect the gods themselves, regardless of the danger.  Hark realises he has to stop them…
    The Deathless Girls Kiran Millwood Hargrave In their traveller community, divining day is the day young people find out their destiny, but twins Lil and Kizzy are captured and enslaved before they can learn theirs.  In the harsh and brutal castle kitchens of the cruel Boyar Valcar, Lil meets Mira, a fellow slave and learns about the Dragon, a terrifying creature who takes girls as gifts…
    Hijab and Red Lipstick Yousra Imram Being a teenager isn’t easy. And it doesn’t help when you have a mega strict Egyptian dad who tells you that everything is “haram” – forbidden. All Sara wants to do is experiment with makeup and fashion, but her dad’s conservative interpretation of Islam makes it impossible. Things get even harder when her dad lands himself a job in the Arabian Gulf and moves his family to a country where the patriarchy rules supreme.
    Mic Drop Sharna Jackson It is October half-term and the pop star TrojKat is filming a music video in the The Tri.Sister  super-slueths Nik and Norva set out to solve the case when a mysterious tragedy strikes the singer, in this exhilarating sequel to the phenomenal High Rise Mystery.
    Henna Wars Adiba Jaigirdar When Nishat comes out to her parents, they say she can be anyone she wants – as long as she isn’t herself. Because Muslim girls aren’t lesbians. Nishat doesn’t want to lose her family, but she also doesn’t want to hide who she is, which only gets harder once Flávia walks into her life.
    The Boy I Am K. L. Kettle Jude is running out of time, ever since the death of his best friend at the hands of the all-powerful Chancellor, Jude has been desperate to escape the path set out for him. Once a year, lucky young men in the House of Boys are auctioned to the female elite. But if Jude fails to be selected before he turns seventeen, a future deep underground in the mines awaits.
    Skulduggery Pleasant : Bedlam Derek Landy On a desperate journey to recover her sister’s lost soul, Valkyrie Cain goes up against the High Sanctuary itself, and there’s nothing Skulduggery Pleasant can do to stop her. Or help her. And with Abyssinia’s grand plan about to kick off in a night of magic, terror, and bloodshed, it falls to the hapless Omen Darkly to save the lives of thousands of innocent people.
    Boy Queen George Lester Robin Cooper’s life is falling apart. While his friends prepare to head off to University, Robin is looking at a pile of rejection letters and facing a future without the people he loves the most. Unsure about what to do next, he and his best friends go and drown their sorrows at a local drag show, where Robin realizes there might be a different, more sequinned path for him…
    A Kind of spark Elle Macnicoll 11-year-old Addie campaigns for a memorial in memory of the witch trials that took place in her Scottish hometown. Addie knows there’s more to the story of these ‘witches’, just like there is more to hers. Can Addie challenge how the people in her town see her, and her autism, and make her voice heard. A engrossing story of friendship, courage and self-belief.
    Run Rebel Manjeet Mann Amber is trapped – by her father’s rules, by his expectations, by her own fears. Now she’s ready to fight – for her mother, for her sister, for herself. But freedom always comes at a price.
    Gut Feelings C. G. Moore This is the story of Chris, of what happened to him at age eleven and how that would change the rest of his life. A life-affirming and powerful coming of age verse novel that explores chronic illness, who we are and how we live.
    Burn Patrick Ness On a cold Sunday evening in early 1957, Sarah Dewhurst waits with her father in the parking lot of a gas station for the dragon he has hired to work on their failing farm. Sarah is mixed race and faces awful discrimination in her tiny backwards town of Frome, but the dragon, called Kazimir, is about to change her life forever.
    And the ocean was our sky Patrick Ness With harpoons strapped to their backs, the proud whales of Bathsheba’s pod live are engaged in an ongoing war against the world of men. With stunning illustrations by Rovina Cai , this book is a unique reverse retelling of Herman Melville’s Moby Dick , published in 2019 to celebrate the bicentennial of  Melville’s birth.
    The Black Kids Christina Hammonds Reed Los Angeles, 1992, and everything changes one afternoon in April, when four police officers are acquitted after beating a black man named Rodney King half to death. Suddenly, Ashley’s not just one of the girls. She’s one of the black kids. As violent protests engulf LA and the city burns, Ashley tries to continue on as if life were normal. Even as her self-destructive sister gets dangerously involved in the riots. Even as the model black family façade her wealthy and prominent parents have built starts to crumble.
    Forever Ends on Friday Justin A. Reynolds Jamal’s best friend, Q, doesn’t know that he died, and that he’s about to die again. He doesn’t know that Jamal tried to save him. And that the reason they haven’t been friends for two years is because Jamal blames Q for the accident that killed his parents. But what if Jamal could have a second chance? A new technology allows Q to be reanimated for a few weeks before he dies – permanently. And Q’s mom is not about to let anyone ruin this miracle by telling Q about his impending death. So how can Jamal fix everything if he can’t tell Q the truth?
    Concrete Rose Angie Thomas For seventeen-year-old Maverick ‘Mav’ Carter, the son of a former gang legend, it is not easy to sell dope, finish school, and raise a child. In this prequel to  Angie Thomas’s The Hate U Give, loyalty, revenge, and responsibility threaten to tear Mav apart in  this searing and poignant exploration of Black boyhood and manhood.
    Girl boy sea Chris Vick Bill narrowly survives the sinking of his yacht in a storm off the coast of Morocco. After many days alone, he rescues another survivor, a girl called Aya, from the nomadic Berber tribe, whose migrant ship was destroyed by the same storm. Hungry, sunburned, and with no idea what will happen next – Aya tells Bill the tales of Shahrazad of the Arabian Nights, who told 1000 stories to quell the murderous desire of the Persian King.  What starts out as a thrilling nautical survival story soon transforms into something much more mystical.
    Other words for home Jasmine Warga Jude never thought she’d be leaving her beloved older brother and father behind, all the way across the ocean in Syria. But when things in her hometown start becoming volatile, Jude and her mother are sent to live in Cincinnati with relatives. American movies haven’t quite prepared her for starting school in the US – and her new label of “Middle Eastern,” an identity she’s never known before. But this life also brings unexpected surprises. New friends, a whole new family, and a school musical that Jude might just try out for. Maybe America is a place where Jude can be seen as she really is.
    The Enigma Game Elizabeth Wein It is 1940 and Louisa just lost her parents to the war. Louisa is part Jamaican and struggles with the racism of the time, and the added difficulty this causes for her in finding work. When she moves to Scotland for a new job, Louisa immediately becomes a member of a secret spy operation, in this exciting war time adventure. I hand Elizabeth Wein my heart on a platter every time I begin one of her stories, and she smashes it to a pulp each time with characters and stories full of love and feeling and the immeasurable sense of loss and destruction that WW2 brought with it.
    And the stars were burning brightly Danielle Jawando When fifteen-year-old Nathan discovers that his older brother Al, has taken his own life, his whole world is torn apart. Al was special, talented. He had so many dreams, so why did he do it? Convinced that his brother was in trouble, Nathan decides to retrace Al’s footsteps. As he does, he meets Megan, Al’s former classmate, who is as determined as Nathan to keep Al’s memory alive.
    Genesis Begins Again Ailcia D Williams There are ninety-six reasons why thirteen-year-old Genesis dislikes herself. She knows the exact number because she keeps a list. She is determined to fix her family, and she’s willing to try anything to do so… even if it means harming herself in the process. But when Genesis starts to find a thing or two she actually likes about herself, she discovers that changing her own attitude is the first step in helping change others.
    Windrush child Benjamin Zephaniah Leonard is torn from his idyllic childhood home and beloved Grandmother to start a new life in Manchester. Then, as we know, the streets are not paved with the promised gold and there are many struggles for a black boy growing up in a racist environment. A very personal story following the life of Leonard from 1947, when he was born in Maroon Town Jamaica, until 2018 at the height of the Windrush scandal in Britain.

    [associated_posts]

  • International Women’s Day

    International Women’s Day

    8th March is International Women’s Day

    From www.internationalwomensday.com the theme for 2021 is ‘Choose to Challenge’

    A challenged world is an alert world and from challenge comes change.
    So let’s all choose to challenge.

    How will you help forge a gender equal world?
    Celebrate women’s achievement. Raise awareness against bias. Take action for equality.

    Here’s a selection of books suitable for your schools for celebrating this day (at any time of the year!). Place any requests via www.towerhamlets-sls.org.uk/request

    THSLS International Womens Day Booklist

  • (blog) The Twisted Threads of Polly Freeman

    (blog) The Twisted Threads of Polly Freeman

    The Twisted Threads of Polly Freeman by Pippa Goodhart

    A moving tale of hard times in the 1830s. Polly and her Great Aunt Jem scratch a living by their sewing and mending but when their landlady throws them out on the street they end up in a workhouse in St Pancras.

    Visions of Oliver Twist ensue with grey, sloppy gruel and hard, unpaid work until Polly befriends Min and together they are sold as apprentices to a Manchester cotton mill.

    The story paints a vivid picture of the heat, noise and unrelenting grind of children’s labour in Victorian mills but Polly has a fiery spirit so keeps a sense of optimism and is determined to be reunited with her Great Aunt.

    In her quest she hears tales of the Scottish Mother and African Father whom she never knew. She finds resonance with her own lot as an unpaid apprentice, no different from a slave, and her Father’s enslavement in Jamaica.

    This book is highly recommended and gives an absorbing insight into poor children’s lives in that era. It would enhance any historical curriculum topic on Victorian England by giving a child’s perspective of those hard times.

  • (blog) Windrush Child

    (blog) Windrush Child

    Windrush Child by Benjamin Zephaniah

    A very personal story following the life of Leonard from 1947, when he was born in Maroon Town Jamaica, until 2018 at the height of the Windrush scandal in Britain.

    Leonard’s Dad arrived in England on the iconic ship, just seven months after Leonard was born, in search of a better life for his family in the ‘land of opportunity’. On docking in Britain, he sends Leonard a postcard of the HMS Windrush which his son keeps all his life.

    He sends for his wife and child when Leonard is ten years old and so Leonard is torn from his idyllic childhood home and beloved Grandmother to start a new life in Manchester. Then, as we know, the streets are not paved with the promised gold and there are many struggles for a black boy growing up in a racist environment.

    However, maybe the worst shock comes in the final chapter, set in 2018, which really makes us wonder what kind of society we are living in…

    The book has an afterword endorsed by Amnesty International, which gives some facts about the Windrush Scandal and suggests what young people can do to make their voices heard.

  • (blog) My Brother’s Name is Jessica

    (blog) My Brother’s Name is Jessica

    My Brother’s Name is Jessica by John Boyne

    Jason is Sam’s beloved older brother. He’s looked out for him from the moment of his premature birth, through his struggles with dyslexia and has always been his hero. Their bond is especially important because their parents are ambitious politicians, totally focussed on their work and with little time for their teenage boys.

    When Jason sits the family down to tell them his ‘secret’ everything goes into freefall for Sam.

    This book is an engrossing family story of how Jason’s need to live as Jessica has an impact on all of them. It deals sensitively with transgender issues and gives a good sense of what Jessica is going through as he tries to explain his feelings to Sam.  It maybe deals with the issues with too light a touch? I’m not sure we really get a full sense of the pain of a family’s rejection and effect the lack of empathy can have  on a transgender child, but it is certainly a place to start understanding this important issue.