Slick

Slick by M. M. Vaughan

Book of the Week: 26 January 2020

Cover design by Leo Nickolls

‘My name is Danny, and I need your help. First off, I should tell you that this isn’t my story – it’s Eric’s. Well, the name he was given was Eric, but I called him Slick, and he was my best friend. I say was because he died six months ago … Two, and this is kind of important: Slick was a robot.’

We are told from the very beginning that Slick is a robot, or android, but how he became Danny’s best friend and why he ‘died’ are the questions we need answering. Slick and his family have just moved to Ashland and are keen to get to know everyone. Danny, who regularly gets into trouble in school and who worries about his mum since his dad left them, is really only interested in computer games. When he first meets Slick he discounts him as a ‘weirdo’ who takes everything literally and is obsessed with brand names. After this unpromising start, Slick proves impossible to avoid and Danny becomes more and more intrigued about his mysterious weekly visits to a dentist and his parents who either ignore him, or turn up uncannily quickly when he gets injured. As the story progresses, being told alternately by Slick and Danny, we realise that Slick has no idea what he actually is and is only eager to make friends and understand the world. Danny, however, is intent on finding out where Slick came from and what exactly is going on with his unusual new friend.

This is an intriguing science fiction book that makes us think about what it means to be human and how the power of friendship can alter our lives.

Darius the Great is Not OK

Darius the Great is Not OK by Adib Khorram

Book of the Week: 19 January 2020

Cover art by Adam Carvalho

A leisurely and sensitive read about the power of friendship to transform lives.

Darius, like his father, suffers with depression and gets picked on at school. When his family discovers that his grandfather from Yazd in Iran is terminally ill they go to visit. Darius has never met his grandparents and knows little about his Persian heritage, except for his specialist knowledge of tea-making. Everything is disorientating until he meets Sohrab, the son of his grandparent’s neighbours. and they strike up a friendship. Gradually, Darius starts to feel almost more at home in Iran that he does in America.

This is Adib Khorram’s first novel and it is hard to believe he has never visited Iran. There is plenty of attention to detail and vivid descriptions of food, drink and the Persian way of life.

That Asian Kid

That Asian Kid by Savita Kalhan

Book of the Week: 12 January 2020

Images by iStock and Shutterstock. Cover design by Emma Rogers

Your teacher keeps giving you poor marks, but you think your essays are just as good as those of your friend Tom who is in the same class. You even suspect that the reason for her antagonism may be the colour of your skin, but your friends and family tell you that you are a bit of a ‘smart-alex’ and may have too high an opinion of your own work. Then, one day as you take a shortcut home through the woods, you discover this same teacher has a secret that could end her career. Should you reveal it?

This tense story of Jeevan’s moral dilemma gives the reader plenty to think about – just as you think he has made a choice, the situation changes or new information comes to light and he is thrown into further state of anxiety. Jeevan is surrounded by some likeable and well-drawn characters in the shape of family and friends. Even if you would choose a totally different course of action, you can’t help but empathise with him and find so much of the story warm-hearted and believable.

In the Shadow of Heroes

In the Shadow of Heroes by Nicholas Bowling

Book of the Week: 5 January 2020

Illustration by Erica Williams

Cadmus knows that he is treated far better than most slaves. His master, Tullus, had found him abandoned as a baby by the roadside outside Athens. Having no family himself, he took pity on the child and brought him back to Rome to be brought up in his household. Tullus gave him an education and made him more of a personal assistant than a normal slave. One night, some armed guards carrying a bronze strongbox visit Tullus’s villa and demand that he carries out a task for the Emperor Nero. Tullus seems unwilling and frightened, but the next day he and Cadmus visit the library connected to the Temple of Apollo to look for information. That is when Tullus disappears, causing Cadmus’s life to be thrown into disarray. Without a master he has no home, no food and no hope. Should he try to return to Greece, the country of his birth? Before he can decide, he is woken in the middle of the night by a strange, fierce girl who has been sent with a message on a wax tablet for Tullus. She is Togodumna, daughter of Caradog, granddaughter of Cunobeline, King of the Catuvellauni, or Tog for short. Together, they decide that their only hope is to find Tullus and solve the mystery of the message on the wax scroll. Their quest is made more difficult and dangerous by being entangled with Nero’s ruthless determination to find treasures from Ancient Greek mythology that he believes are still in existence.

Try this eventful, well-plotted adventure if you like the Percy Jackson series or Caroline Lawrence’s Roman Mysteries books.