HappyHead

HappyHead by Josh Silver

Book of the Week: 20 August 2023

Cover image by Shutterstock

The HappyHead Project offers young people the opportunity to find lasting happiness and success and Seb Seaton, who has been selected as one of its first intake of students, is on his way to the isolated campus to take part.

His parents are concerned about his failing grades and his mental health and although Seb is dreading having to mix with strangers and take part in possibly challenging activities, he wants to please his parents and perhaps experience a fresh start after some problems in school.

He and the other students are welcomed with a speech from the founder Dr Eileen Stone, who tells them that emotional problems amongst young people are at an all-time high and that loneliness and dysfunction are preventing them from achieving their potential. HappyHead is going to help them deal with these challenges and, at first, the disciplined routine and mindfulness sessions seem designed to achieve that. Seb is introduced to his team mates who range from the shy and reticent Ash to the ultra-competitive Eleanor. The most intriguing person he meets is the unsettling Finn with his piercing gaze, tattoos and uncooperative attitude. Seb doesn’t know what to make of him but can’t get him out of his mind.

As the days pass, Seb, who has been slightly sceptical to begin with, starts to feel more and more uneasy about many elements of the course. Finn tries to persuade him that there is a threatening purpose behind all the exercises and the almost fanatical emphasis on happiness. Should he be believed and who can Seb truly trust in this bewildering new environment?

HappyHead has been compared to The Hunger Games, and it does have the element of survival tests and ongoing tension, but includes more low-key and relatable dilemmas. Seb is a sympathetic and witty narrator who we can all root for.

A sequel called Dead Happy is due in 2024.

If you enjoy reading dystopian fiction that features sinister organisations, try The Disappeared by C.J. Harper and two books by William Sutcliffe – Concentra8 and We See Everything.

More dystopian fiction can be found on this list I created a few years ago.

Three Hours

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.

 

The Rules

The Rules by Tracy Darnton

Book of the Week: 20 September 2020

Cover images by Shutterstock

It’s December and Amber is at the bowling plaza with Julie, her social worker. Although Amber feels her life has improved since being at Beechwood, a boarding school, Julie is saying they are having problems placing her with a foster family over the holidays. Amber responds with her usual defensive sarcasm until Julie says a letter has been received from Amber’s father who is trying to get in touch. Julie thinks this is good news because she, like everyone else, has been taken in by him. Amber, however, knows better. She knows how her father operates and that she has to take her ‘grab-and-go bag’ and leave immediately. She gets a train and heads north to a holiday home owned by some previous foster parents.

Amber’s father is a ‘prepper’or survivalist, but is also controlling and abusive. Amber’s mum became mentally ill under the pressure and violence of their life and had to be hospitalized. Amber managed to escape, but her father has been searching for her for the last two years in between trips to see his family and contacts in the States. Now he is trying to hunt her down. When she hears the creak of upstairs floorboards in her holiday refuge, she gets ready for fight and flight, but it turns out to be a young guy who shared her foster home for a brief spell. Josh lives on his wits and by a combination of busking and charity and is as cheerful and easy-going as Amber is tense and organized. He seems to want to tag along, but will he be more of a liability than an asset?

The cleverly-structured game of cat and mouse plays out in bleak, windswept countryside and isolated villages with the threat of discovery a constant source of tension. The grim situation is regularly lightened by Josh’s playful presence, and the uncertainty of his and Amber’s fate will probably ensure you read this in a single sitting.

A must read for fans of Tracy Darnton’s ‘The Truth About Lies’ or books by M.A. Bennett or Sue Wallman.

Wranglestone

Wranglestone by Darren Charlton

Book of the Week: 8 March 2020

Illustration by Jana Heidersdorf

Wranglestone weaves together a tense, and sometimes gory, plot about zombies in a future of isolated communities, with a tender love story, all vividly and lyrically described.

In a dark future of no internet, electricity or modern conveniences, Peter and his dad live on Skipping Mouse Island in a house on stilts where they dread the coming of winter. With the first fall of snow, their friends and neighbours gather together for a final social before digging in for winter. The freezing of the lake means the Restless Ones can drag themselves across the ice and prove more than just a threat. Some of Peter’s neighbours decide he is a hazard to the community after he fails to stop a dangerous stranger from trying to join them. He has to be saved from disaster by his dad and Cooper, a boy he has long admired from afar, who lives on a neighbouring island. It is decided that Peter needs a trip to the mainland in order to toughen up and it is here that he and Cooper discover that the adults around them have been economical with the truth and that true danger comes in forms other than those of the Restless Ones.

Amongst the tension and terror runs a thread about how we create enemies through a tendency to ‘other’ those who are unlike ourselves and the importance of empathy and understanding in counteracting this.

If you would like to find out more, the author’s website is here. I was amazed that he wasn’t actually born and brought up in the American wilderness after reading such wonderful descriptions of the scenery.

Hacked

Hacked by Tracy Alexander

Book of the Week: 10 April 2016

Hacked

Dan’s grandmother always says that he is ‘too bright for his own good’. When his restless mind discovers coding he finds it gives him access to all kinds of benefits, not all of them legal. He starts by getting his little sister free credits for the online hangout ‘Club Penguin’ then moves up to hacking to provide phone credits for friends. From there he drifts on to the dark web where he provides coding for a virtual friend called Angel which triggers all kinds of mayhem in his real life. Does Angel have anything to do with a missing drone and a terrorist threat?

Hacked is not just a suspenseful story, with convincing-sounding details about hacking, but a book about activism and the politics of surveillance. It has more in common with the American book Little Brother by Cory Doctorow than stories about gaming such as Erebos. The serious content is conveyed in an easy, readable style. Dan is likeable, if naive and misguided, and his family and friends are warm and sometimes funny. A small criticism is that Dan is at first described as having ADHD but almost instantly ‘cured’ and the plot is wrapped up a bit too quickly at the end. However, there is a sequel called Alias which I am adding to my wish list.

The Carnegie Medal Shortlist 2016

Image: The Ravensbourne School Libraries http://ravensbournelibraries.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/cilips-carnegie-medal-short-list-2016.html

Image: The Ravensbourne School Libraries http://ravensbournelibraries.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/cilips-carnegie-medal-short-list-2016.html

The Carnegie Medal is awarded by librarians each year for an outstanding book for children and young people.

All eight books are in stock in the Library and anyone is welcome to read along with me or write a review.

So far, I have read The Lie Tree, There Will Be Lies, (‘Lies’ is a popular word for titles this year) The Rest of Us Just Live Here and Five Children on the Western Front (the only one that is aimed at younger children). I am currently reading The Ghosts of Heaven – an intriguing story in quarters that can be read in any order and which should still make sense.

The winning book will be announced on 20 June.

Borderline

Borderline by Allan Stratton

Book of the Week: 13 September 2015Borderline

Sami Sabiri feels his dad is being too strict when, after a misunderstanding, he moves him to a private school where he is the only Muslim student. A small gang of boys, headed by Edward Thomas Harrison the Third, make Sami’s life a misery with racist bullying and remarks about his religion. When his old friends, Marty and Andy, suggest a trip to an island across the border in Canada, Sami seizes the chance to rebel and escape his troubles. But then, Sami finds out his father has been deceiving him and his mother, and they all become the subject of a terrorist investigation by the FBI. Despite Sami’s rocky relationship with his dad he sets out to uncover the truth behind the accusations.

As with Allan Stratton’s ‘The Dogs’ the author has the ability to write fast-moving thrillers with believable and sympathetic characters. Here, he explores anti-Muslim attitudes without ever letting it overwhelm the telling of a good story.

Try this if you enjoyed ‘The Dogs’ or books such as ‘Acceleration’ by Graham McNamee (both are Canadian writers) or ‘Hate’ by Alan Gibbons.

Night Runner

Night Runner

by Tim Bowler

Book of the Week:18 January 2015

Nightrunner

Zinny feels the whole world is against him and now there’s a man in the street watching his window. Why is a man in such a flash coat hanging around in a down-at-heel part of town and what is his interest in Zinny’s house?

This story starts with a feeling of menace and tension and doesn’t let up until the end of what is a short, but fast-paced read. Zinny has plenty of problems: an abusive father, an overworked mother and being bullied at school, but the arrival of Flash Coat (as he calls the sinister gangster who watches his house) tops them all. The threats of violence from the gang are grittily convincing, as are Zinny’s efforts to protect his family and his efforts to escape. The book is not called ‘Night Runner’ for nothing; the scenes where Zinny races through the streets are edge-of-the-seat stuff.

If you like Tim Bowler’s ‘Blade’ series or just enjoy fast-moving thrillers, this book is for you.

The author’s website is here