Mrs Keane recommends ...

 Fiction

Northwood by Brian Falkner
(Adventure/Fantasy) Cecelia Undergarment is a courageous girl. When she discovers a neighbour's dog needs her help she hatches a plan. Unfortunately her plan didn't involve the place she finds herself, Northwood Forest, a dark and mysterious place from which no one has ever returned. 
(Book trailer HERE)

An Elephant in the Garden by Michael Morpurgo

(Historical-WWII) Lizzie's father is fighting in the war, her mother works at Dresden Zoo. To save a zoo elephant Lizzie's mum brings it home to live in their backyard. But when the bombing starts it's not safe there either and the family and elephant must leave to find somewhere safe to stay.

The Strange Case of Origami Yoda series by Tom Angleberger
(Humorous stories) Tommy's friend Dwight does some weird things, but he does one cool thing - origami. One day he makes a Yoda finger puppet, and Yoda gives great advice that really works. Tommy wants to know how Yoda can be so smart when Dwight really isn't smart. Is Yoda using The Force?
(Book trailer HERE)

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

(Historical/Children's Classic) Orphaned Mary is sure she won't like living at her uncle's estate until she finds a secret garden, locked and forgotten since the death of her aunt. Mary starts working on the garden to restore it to its former glory. When she finds she has a young invalid cousin living in the house she hopes the secret garden will work its magic on him too.

Grimsdon by Deborah Abela
(Science fiction/Adventure) When the sea surged into Grimsdon three years ago many were rescued, some were lost. Those left behind inhabit the floors of buildings which still rise above the water. Isabella, Griffen and friends survive by scavenging, hiding from bounty hunters & making deals. But these aren't their only worries, they also fear the monster of the deep!
(Book trailer HERE)

Mrs Keane recommends ...

Senior Fiction:

  
Skulduggery Pleasant series by Derek Landy (Fantasy/Horror/Humour)
In the Shadow of the Palace by Judith Simpson (Historical-India)
The 13 Treasures and sequels by Michelle Harrison (Fantasy)
The Ranger's Apprentice series by John Flanagan (Adventure/Fantasy)
Malice and Havoc by Chris Wooding (Horror)
The Supernaturalist by Eoin Colfer (Fantasy/Adventure)
The Gypsy Crown by Kate Forsyth (Historical-England/Adventure)
At the Sign of the Sugared Plum & Petals in the Ashes by Mary Hooper (Historical-England)

The Lord of the Rings series by J.R.R.Tolkien (Fantasy/Classic)
Send Simon Savage by Stephen Measday (Time-travel/Adventure)
The Merlin Conspiracy by Dianna Wynne Jones (Fantasy)
The Phoenix Files series by Chris Morphew (Mystery/Thriller)
Oracle by Jackie French (Historical-Ancient Greece)
The Crowfield Curse and sequel by Pat Walsh (Fantasy/Horror)
Knife and sequels by R.J.Anderson (Fantasy)
The Bartimaeus Trilogy by Jonathan Stroud (Fantasy)

You can follow the links on the book or series titles above to a review or homepage for that book or series.

Have you read any of these books? 
What books would you recommend?

Michael Morpurgo

Another in a series of posts about popular children's authors and their books.

Michael Morpurgo is, in his own words, “oldish, married with three children, and a grandfather six times over.” Born in 1943, he attended schools in London, Sussex and Canterbury - at least one of these was horrible enough to inspire him to describe it obliquely in The Butterfly Lion.  He went on to London University to study English and French, followed by a brief and unsuccessful spell in the army. He then took up teaching and a job in a primary school in Kent. It was there that he discovered what he wanted to do - write children's books. Michael Morpurgo has a gift for magical storytelling, and his books also often tackle social issues. Out of the Ashes, for example, is about the foot and mouth crisis in the United Kingdom in 2001. He is probably one of the best-known writers for children around today and has published over 100 books, many of which have received awards and/or been translated into other languages.

While teaching he realized that many of his students had very little experience of animals other than what they see on television, this gave Michael and his wife the idea of setting up Farms for City Children. They moved to Devon over thirty years ago to develop this idea and now run three farms where over 2000 children a year stay for a week as 'farmers'.

In our library we have a Picture Book Wombat Goes Walkabout by Michael Morpurgo and a number of  Fiction & Senior Fiction books, including Cock-a-doodle-doo, The Nine Lives of Montezuma, The Butterfly Lion, The Amazing Story of Adolphus Tips, Shadow, Out of the Ashes and Private Peaceful. 

Upper Hutt Library currently holds copies of more than 50 children's books by Michael Morpurgo and two audio books.

The above information about Michael Morpurgo was adapted from here, here, and here.

You can follow this link find out more about Michael Morpurgo and his books 

Little Women

The third in a series of posts about children's classic books available for borrowing from our school library.

Little Women, a novel written by Louisa May Alcott, is the heartwarming story of the March family that has thrilled generations of readers. It was originally published in two volumes in 1868 (Little Women) and 1869 (Good Wives), and was first published as a single volume in 1880. It is the story of four sisters - Jo, Meg, Amy and Beth - and of the courage, humor and ingenuity they display to survive poverty and the absence of their father during the American Civil War. The novel  is loosely based on the author's childhood experiences growing up with her three sisters and was written and set in the Alcott family home, Orchard House, in Concord, Massachusetts. Two sequels featuring the March sisters were also published, Little Men in 1871 and Jo's Boys in 1886.

A number of Movie and Television adaptions have been filmed, the most recent in 1994.

We have a copy of Little Women in the Senior Fiction.  Other books by Louisa May Alcott are available from Upper Hutt Public Library.

For more information about Louisa May Alcott try this biography.

The information above was adapted from  here and here.

Eva Ibbotson

The second in a series of posts about popular children's authors and their books.

Eva Ibbotson was born Maria Charlotte Michelle Wiesner in Vienna, Austria in 1925. Growing up in Austria, Eva moved with her family to England after the Nazis took power during the 1940s. She earned a degree at the University of London and had intended to be a physiologist, but was put off by the amount of animal testing that she would have to do. Instead, she married and raised a family, returning to school to become a teacher in the 1960s. One of her first written works was a television play produced in 1965 and her first children's book The Great Ghost Rescue, was published in 1975. , Eva's books include tongue-in-cheek ghost stories, ‘old fashioned’ historical adventures and adult historical romances (recently reissued for young-adults). She died at her home in Newcastle, England on 20 October 2010, aged 85.

Eva Ibbotson books we have in our library:
Monster Mission; Journey to the River Sea;
Dial a Ghost; The Star of Kazan.
If you liked any of these books then Upper Hutt Library currently holds copies of other books written by Eva Ibbotson. For example:
The Beasts of Clawstone Castle; The Dragonfly Pool; The Secret of Platform 13.
And for teens: The Secret Countess; The Morning Gift & others.

Much of this information about Eva Ibbotson came from Eva Ibbotson Biography & Eva Ibbotson at Wikipedia. If you would like to know more about Eva or her books you can follow these links.

Black Beauty

This is the first in a series of posts about children's classic books available for borrowing from our school library.

Black Beauty by Anna Sewell is the compelling tale of a spirited young Thoroughbred that captured the hearts of readers throughout Victorian England when it was first published in 1877. Black Beauty grows up in the fields and horse meadows of Victorian England but when the young black colt is sold, he has no idea of the hardships he is about to face. Read his story in his own words as he tells of his life in nineteenth-century England, his treatment under many different masters, both good and bad, and as he faces and overcomes danger, mistreatment and cruelty in a world that cares little for the happiness of animals.

We have two copies of Black Beauty in the library, one in Fiction and one in Senior Fiction.