Tag Archives: Feminism

Little Bang

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Litle Bang by Kelly McCaughrain

Book of the Week: 2 June 2024

Cover illustration by Andrew Bannecker

It’s New Year’s Eve in Belfast and Sid is telling his mum, Lucille, that he is going to a house party to celebrate his sixteenth birthday. Sid comes across as the archetypal ‘bad boy’ with his half-shaved head, eybrow piercings and ‘attitude’ and his mother is convinced that he’s going to be brought home in a police car, and not for the first time. What Sid doesn’t tell her is that he will be ‘up Conclare Hill seeing the New Year in with the smartest, quietest girl in school…’

Mel (‘the smartest, quietest girl in school’) is a physics geek who lives with her strict parents, her sister Leah and Leah’s husband ‘Smug Nigel’ who spends his time moralising whilst being ‘between jobs’. Mel got to know Sid in History class when the teacher moved him to sit by her to prevent him being distruptive. Surprisingly, they sparked off one another and have secretly arranged to meet up with their friends to sit in a tent with a bonfire and beers on New Year’s Eve. The evening turns into a first date, one thing leads to another and, as a result, Mel finds she is pregnant.

We hear the rest of their story from their individual points of view, from their initial dread of telling their parents, to the response of their school and their friends and the situation in Northern Ireland at the time. The story is set in 2018, when the Irish abortion referendum was being held. However, abortion was still illegal in Northern Ireland until 2019 and Mel and Sid feel they have very little support and even less useful information. The examination of their plight never gets in the way of the enjoyment of getting to know them both, plus the various well-drawn people around them. Circumstances aside, this is an involving, thoughtful, and sometimes funny look at growing up and making extremely difficult choices.

Suitable for older readers. A note in the book on content reads: ‘Please be aware that the following pages contain discussions of – and references to – teenage pregnancy, abortion and miscarriage.’

Books with similar themes include Trouble by Non Pratt. When Hannah falls pregnant, new boy Aaron offers to claim he is the baby’s father to save her revealing who he really is.

Boys Don’t Cry by Malorie Blackman. Dante is waiting for his A-level results when his ex-girlfriend turns up with their baby daughter, leaves her with him and doesn’t come back.

The Agency for Scandal

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The Agency for Scandal by Laura Wood

Book of the Week: 4 February 2024

Cover illustration by Mercedes Debellard

Eighteen year old Isobel Stanhope leads a double life. Most of the time she is a rather forgettable young woman, outshone by her friend Teresa Winter and Sylla Banaji, the socialite daughter of a baronet. It being 1897, the year of Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee, most of society is centred on celebratory parties, theatre trips and fancy dress balls, all of which Isobel attends, mainly in the hope of seeing the handsome Max Vane, the eighth Duke of Roxton. Not that he seems to care. She has been introduced to him several times and he never even remembers her name. Not even Isobel’s closest friends know that, when her father died, he left the family with hardly any money and consequently she is working hard to support her mother and pay her little brother’s boarding school fees. Her mother is an invalid who keeps to her room, rather like Miss Havisham, and is unaware that nearly everything in the rest of the house has been sold to raise money. Isobel’s darkest secret is that she works for an undercover detective agency called The Aviary, run by the formidable Mrs Finch. The agency exists to investigate infidelities, thefts and murders and is run by women for the benefit of women. Isobel is a valued member of staff because she has been taught to pick locks by her father and is able to pass as a young boy. She dresses as a street urchin called Kes and has contacts in the criminal underworld.

When she is recruited by a villain called Rook to steal a valuable ruby brooch at the Devonshire House fancy dress ball, she realises she is mixed up in a dangerous plot that may involve the powerful Lord Morland who is angling to be Britain’s next Prime Minister. She has mixed feelings when Max Vane gets involved as she is not sure whose side he is on.

The author Sarra Manning calles the book ‘A perfect mash up of Bridgerton and Enola Holmes‘. I would add the recent Apple TV series The Buccaneers to the comparison. The story romps along with plenty of action and subterfuge, as well as romance. I have read a couple of novels for adults with some similar themes and settings recently and found this one a lot more fun.

There is a sequel called The Season for Scandal which has just been published.

The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks

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The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart

Book of the Week: 16 December 2018

Cover image not credited

We learn from chapter one that Frankie has been responsible for some outrageous pranks at her exclusive private school, Alabaster Preparatory Academy, but how and why they happened is the subject of the rest of the book.

Soon after Frankie starts her sophomore year (our Year 11) she starts dating Matthew who is a senior (our Year 13). He introduces her to his best friend Alessandro, known as Alpha, who is ‘top dog’ in a secret society called the Loyal Order of the Basset Hounds. Only boys can be members and they dedicate their time to playing pranks on campus. Frankie feels that Matthew is hiding something from her and treating her rather like her family do – as harmless and adorable. She sets out to discover his secret and infiltrate the secret society.

You might give this a try if you enjoy books by John Green or Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld.

Warwickshire Secondary School Book Award 2019

Last week we heard that the winner of the Warwickshire Year 9 Book Award was Fiona Shaw with her book Outwalkers and we started on the Warwickshire Book Award for 2019 with a team of Year 7 readers.

If you like the sound of some of the 2019 shortlisted books, why not try something with a similar theme? There are some suggestions below:

Girls Can’t Hit

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Girls Can’t Hit by T.S. Easton

Book of the Week: 21 May 2017

T.S. Easton has to be given credit: how many authors have books with titles that rhyme? His very funny 2014 book was …

This is not a sequel, but it does explore the same theme of why should people be put off doing something that is traditionally associated with the opposite sex? Fleur is sixteen and has two friends: feisty Blossom, keen on historical re-enactments and feminism; and Pip, a slow but dangerous driver, who is also keen on historical re-enactments, but only the peaceful parts. If there’s any actual fighting, he runs off and hides in the woods. When Fleur accompanies Blossom to complain about what Blossom sees as a sexist flyer for Bosford Boxing Club, she’s persuaded to join the club on the understanding that it’s just about the fitness and no actual sparring will be involved. But will it stay that way?

Mixed in with all the humour, rivalry and friendships are lots of fascinating details about boxing that might make the reader view it afresh. This is definitely for you if you liked Boys Don’t Knit and its sequel (An English Boy in New York), or if you enjoy funny books such as Socks Are Not Enough by Mark Lowery or books by Tom Ellen and Lucy Iveson.

T.S. Easton also writes science fiction and thrillers under the name Tom Easton. You can find those in the Library too.