Tag Archives: Warwickshire Book Award

How to Look for a Lost Dog

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How to Look for a Lost Dog by Ann M. Martin

Book of the Week: 7 April 2019

Illustrator not credited

When you are looking for your lost dog you need a plan. You should draw radiating circles around your home town on a map, each one further away from the centre of your town. Then you telephone all the animal shelters within 15 miles, 30 miles and 60 miles to see if they have your pet. Rose is methodical and fond of rules, although not as interested in them as she is in prime numbers and homonyms, so this is her plan when her father lets their dog Rain out during Hurricane Susan and she doesn’t come home.

Rose’s father is finding life difficult since her mother left them alone. He resents what he sees as the interference of his brother Weldon in Rose’s upbringing and finds Rose’s fascination with homonyms tests his patience to its limit. When a hurricane strands them in their house and Rose is distraught about their missing pet, the situation gets to breaking point.

The inclusion of a dog and a central character who is autistic make the comparison with The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time an obvious one, but this is a book for younger readers and is in a lighter vein. You might enjoy it if you liked Wonder by R.J. Palacio or The London Eye Mystery by Siobhan Dowd.

Warwickshire Book Award 2019

The winner of the Warwickshire Book Award was announced on Thursday 4 April as S.T.A.G.S. by M.A. Bennett. The Year 7 judges and I were lucky enough to hear all six shortlisted authors talk about their work at The Bridge House Theatre, Warwick. Now the judges have read the shortlist, all the books are available to borrow from the Tim Pigott-Smith Library if you are looking for reading ideas for the holidays. If anything you want to read is already on loan, remember that reserving books is absolutely free.

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:

Outwalkers

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Outwalkers by Fiona Shaw

Book of the Week: 15 April 2018

Cover illustration by Levi Pinfold

Outwalkers are the opposite of ‘bona fides’ and have four main rules:
1. No technology
2. Be outside
3. Be hidden
4. Obedience to the gang

If you are a bona fide citizen of England you live by the Coalition government’s rules. Everyone has a chip implanted at birth and the country is a police state with ‘hubbers’ enforcing the law. Food banks are common, there is a wall between England and Scotland and travel is for a small number of the rich and government officials. Jake is an orphan, therefore his fate was to be educated in an academy, a place run more like a prison than a school. He manages to escape because he is worried about his beloved dog, Jet, who is being cared for by neighbours. Whilst on the run he teams up unwillingly with a gang of outwalkers: Poacher, Swift, Martha, Cass, Davie and Ollie and they set out to walk to Scotland and freedom.

The plot is packed with incident and there are some extremely tense set pieces, mostly involving climbing.  Alongside the tension and excitement is the story of Jake’s grief, longing for home and his parents, and love for his faithful dog.

If you enjoyed The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness this is definitely a book to try.

 

The Warwickshire Book Award 2018

The final week of last term saw us attend the Warwickshire Book Award. There were some excellent books on the shortlist: The Hypnotist by Laurence Anholt, Where the World Ends by Geraldine McCaughrean, Lie Kill Walk Away by Matt Dickinson, A Dangerous Crossing by Jane Mitchell, 928 Miles From Home by Kim Slater and The Haunting of Jessop Rise by Danny Weston.

These are all available to borrow from the Library.

The winning author was Matt Dickinson with Lie Kill Walk Away which was Book of the Week back in February.