Monthly Archives: September 2016

Kook

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Kook by Chris Vick

Book of the Week: 25 September 2016

kook

The blurb writer of Kook sums up the book with: ‘A boy. A girl. And the wave that sweeps them away.’ But this is no cosy romance. There is a powerful wave of feeling between Sam, who moves to Cornwall with his family, and wild-child Jade who lives to surf, but there are also mighty, real-life waves that can wreak havoc on people and places. This is a tense and exciting story which stands out partly through virtue of its setting – I have never read a thriller that centers on surfing before – and the realistic descriptions of what it’s like to surf.

Jade and her friends: Big G, Rag and Skip, are searching for a legendary wave that forms off The Devil’s Horns. Jade believes that a film of her surfing the as-yet-un-ridden wave on YouTube will bring her fame and fortune. Apart from the danger involved, there is the problem than no-one knows the location of The Devil’s Horns, except Sam who thinks he may have found a clue.

Gripping though the story is, it never swamps the well-developed characters who are not always likeable but are believable and often fascinating. It’s good to know that Chris Vick is already working on a book with a similar setting called Storms. Find out more here  You could also watch some surfing videos that help to visualize some of the surfing scenes in the story.

 

The drinking, drugs and sex aspect of the book make it more suitable for older teenagers but these are all sensitively handled.

The Bubble Boy

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The Bubble Boy by Stewart Foster

Book of the Week: 18 September 2016

bubble-boy

Joe has an immune deficiency condition that means he has had to spend his entire life in a sterile hospital room. As if this isn’t enough, his parents were killed in a car crash some years ago and his only relative is his sister Beth who is studying to be a doctor. Beth visits him as often as she can but she has her own life to lead and her studies mean she has to move from London to Edinburgh. Joe’s other relationships are with the nurses and doctors who take care of him, particularly his nurse, Greg, who calls him ‘mate’, and with Henry who lives in America and has a similar condition.

Joe is frequently poorly and understandably anxious about the outside world. He likes watching football and superhero movies and sometimes the life that goes on outside his hospital windows. Into this closed environment comes a new nurse, Amir, who acts slightly crazy and who seems to believe in extra-terrestrials. Joe wonders if he is for real but also finds that Amir has plans to enliven the routine of hospital life. Should he go along with Amir’s schemes or carry on with life as he knows it?

If you are looking for an action-packed plot then this is probably not the book for you. If, however, you enjoyed books such as Wonder by R.J. Palacio, Ways to Live Forever by Sally Nichols and Life Interrupted by Damian Kelleher you may like this.

We Need to Talk about Kelvin

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We Need to Talk about Kelvin by Marcus Chown

Book of the Week: 11 September 2016

we-need-to-talk

This is a great title for a book, being a pun on the famous novel We Need to Talk about Kevin by Lionel Shriver. As we have not had a non-fiction book as a Book of the Week for a while, I thought I would pick this new-to-our-Library volume, published in 2009, that takes everyday things and uses them to explain scientific truths.

The first chapter deals with how ‘the reflection of your face in the window tells you about the most shocking discovery in the history of science: that at its deepest level the world is orchestrated by random chance; that ultimately things happen for no reason at all.’

Marcus Chown has an entertaining way of explaining the most complex concepts and of leaving you wanting to know more. If you would like to find out more, his website is here or, if you would like to get a taste of his style, he explains electricity in a brief animation here

Concentr8

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Concentr8 by William Sutcliffe

Book of the Week: 4 September 2016

concentr8

Welcome to the start of a brand new academic year! I’m looking forward to hearing what you have read over the summer holidays. Here is our first book of the week.

Concentr8 is a mix of thriller and satire set in a version of London very like our own, featuring a strangely familiar mayor in the person of Hugo Nelson – a man with a shock of ‘Hollywood blonde’ hair and a love of publicity.

The story is told over the course of six days by various characters starting with Troy, a teenager involved in riots rather like those in London in 2011. The riots are thought to be a result of young people being taken off a Ritalin-like drug called Concentr8 that is meant to control ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) a condition that the government of the day believes is running at record levels. Troy has a charismatic friend called Blaze who always goes one step further than anyone else and who decides that the chaos created by the riots would be a good opportunity to kidnap a government official and hold him hostage.

Characters caught up in the drama relate this increasingly tense turn of events. As well as Troy and Blaze there is Karen, Blaze’s girlfriend; Femi, his reluctant follower; Lee, who is not the sharpest knife in the box; as well as the hostage, the mayor, a negotiator and a journalist.

The characters are hard to like but convincingly portrayed and, whilst the reader might not warm to the group of disaffected teenagers, the author paints a compelling picture of the part that society has played in creating their situation.

Gritty language and mature content may make this more suited to older readers.

If you want to read more stories about the breakdown of society and young people fending for themselves, you could try the adult books Lord of the Flies by William Golding or A High Wind in Jamaica by Richard Hughes. Another, slightly gentler story of riots in London is told in I Predict a Riot by Catherine Brunton.

William Sutcliffe has written a similarly powerful book called The Wall which is in stock in the Library and which you can read about here 

All the books mentioned above are available in the School Library.