Monthly Archives: November 2020

Bloom

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Bloom by Kenneth Oppel

Book of the Week: 29 November 2020

 

Illustration by M.S. Corley

‘Seth gazed out the window. Below, the Vancouver airport looked normal enough, until he noticed the sinkholes in the runways. A jet jutted out of a huge crater, its left wing snapped against the tarmac. Over neighbourhoods, Seth saw streets turned into canyons by the tall black grass. Roadblocks were everywhere, pit-plant holes in the parks and golf courses. Charred sinkholes in the asphalt and sidewalks. Hardly anyone outside. Even from up here, he could see pollen glittering in the air.’

World-wide havoc is being wreaked by disturbingly destructive alien plants that destroy crops, block out the light and threaten human life. On Salt Spring Island, three teenagers: Anya, who is allergic to ‘everything’, Petra, who has a rare allergy to water, and Seth, who is a foster child with mysterious scars that he tries to keep hidden, are the only people who are not only unaffected, but whose health seems to improve. Can they play a role in defeating this threat to life on the planet?

This is a wonderfully detailed creation of a catastrophe, aspects of which might sound familiar to us in the present pandemic. There are  action-packed sequences of horrific battles with these monster plants and gruesome descriptions of those who fall foul of them. The botanical details are well-researched too. Every time I checked some unlikely-sounding fact, it turned out to be true. This is the first in a trilogy, with ‘Hatch’ due in the autumn and ‘Thrive’ in summer 2021.

If you would like to read more books featuring scary plants, try ‘Boy in the Tower’ by Polly Ho-Yen or the classic ‘Day of the Triffids’ by John Wyndham.

Kenneth Oppel has written has written a variety of books. The following are all in the Library: ‘The Boundless’, ‘Every Hidden Thing’, ‘Half Brother’, ‘This Dark Endeavour’, ‘Such Wicked Intent’ and my personal favourite, ‘The Nest’.

If you enjoy books about alien threats to life on Earth, try books by Mark Walden, Pittacus Lore, Rick Yancey and Virginia Bergin. Here is a list I made for Year 8 about alien invasions.

 

A Night Divided

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A Night Divided by Jennifer A. Nielsen

Book of the Week: 22 November 2020

Cover art by Tim O’Brien

It is Sunday August 13th1961 when Gerta, her brother Fritz and their mother wake in their Berlin home to see barbed wire fences dividing them from, not only West Berlin, but from Gerta’s father and older brother Dominic who had been visiting the West for a couple of nights. The fence is being guarded by the Grenztruppen, the border police, who carry rifles and are not facing the supposed enemy of the West, but instead stopping those in East Berlin from escaping communist rule.

At first, the family’s main worry is separation. Then, because Gerta’s father is considered a dissident, the Stasi (the secret police) bug their flat and the family arouse the suspicion of neighbours and friends. Gerta and Fritz long to escape. Are they prepared to risk being shot and how will they cross the Wall and the Death Strip to reach the other side and freedom?

This book is fictional, but is based on true stories from those who lived with the Berlin Wall for twenty-eight years and those who escaped. It provides a vivid picture of what it must have been like to live in an anxious and oppressed society where the secret police had huge powers and so many people were informants. The author points out that there was one police officer for every166 citizens, whereas the Gestapo had one officer for every 2,000 citizens and the KGB one for every 5830 people. The book provides a valuable history lesson in the form of a tense thriller.

If you would like to read more fiction with this setting, try ‘Sektion 20’ by Paul Dowswell. Year 8 are looking at politics in literature with particular reference to George Orwell, so here is my reading list on that theme:

The Wolf Road

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The Wolf Road by Richard Lambert

Book of the Week: 15 November 2020

Illustration by Holly Ovenden

The Wolf Road is a powerful and painful exploration of a boy’s grief after his parents are killed in a car crash and he has to live with his prickly-natured grandmother in the wilds of the Lake District.

Lucas is convinced a wolf caused the car crash by stepping into the path of his parents’ car. Once he is in his grandmother’s cottage he believes the wolf is shadowing him as well as killing the neighbouring farmer’s sheep. Lucas cannot concentrate at school and is too angry to respond to those people who try to help him or form a relationship with him. Nothing in this book is cosy or easily resolved. Just like the short, vivid depictions of the natural world that surrounds Lucas, everything is raw and messy and wild. The bullies in the story are believable and chilling.

Some books that share similar themes include:

 

Three Hours

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Three Hours by Rosamund Lupton

Book of the Week: 8 November 2020

Photography by Getty Images

Prepare to be gripped!

A gunman’s bullet hits Mr Marr, the Headmaster, and, as he falls, two sixth formers drag him into the library, perform first aid and barricade the door with books. They listen in fear as the click of the shooter’s footsteps stops outside the entrance to the room. In another part of the school, students are hiding under seats in the theatre and a teacher in the pottery studio is attempting to stay calm. Mr Forbright, the Deputy Head, is alone in the Head’s office struggling to take charge and warn the staff.

From page one we are catapulted into an identifiable, credible and terrifying situation which plays out from multiple viewpoints, including those of anxious parents, and students who are sadly familiar with snipers and bombs. Fourteen-year-old Rafi has protected his brother on the perilous journey from Syria to Britain where he thought they had found sanctuary in a rural school in Somerset. No one knows the identity of the killer, but in the outside world a police psychiatrist is doing her best to discover who he is.

Whilst this all works brilliantly as a page-turning thriller, it is so much more than that. We get a glimpse into the souls of those under siege and listen to their thoughts and feelings as they undergo an experience that should only exist in our worst nightmares.

Suitable for older readers and grown-ups.