Books

Zak Monroe is (Not) My Friend

Sam has been best friends with Cal, Fin and Jay for EVER. They’re all about to move up to a new school together – scary but exciting.

But then he overhears them saying they’re not going to put him on their Friends Lists! So Sam will be stuck in a different tutor group with a lot of kids he doesn’t know. Help!

How can Sam convince them to change their minds?

Can he keep on hiding his new friendship with ‘weird’ new boy Zak Monroe? And what will happen when these two sides of Sam’s life collide?

This is a very timely and necessary book as it discusses with great sensitivity and nuance issues which are almost universal. Interestingly, it also shines a light on the fact that sometimes people who are being bullied can also bully others in a misguided attempt to protect themselves. (Books For Keeps)

With strong themes of what true friendship looks like and the importance of being confident enough to stand out from the crowd, as its main character negotiates that tricky transition from primary to secondary school, this is a story that will resonate with many of those picking it up, one that would make a brilliant, shared read in Year 6 and one that I really enjoyed. (Emma at Waterstones Blackburn)

Worrybot

Josh is such a worrier. He worries about everything. Water slides. School. Global warming. Sleepovers. But he knows something is really wrong when his mum and dad begin to act strangely… His family is moving to Brighton and he must start a new school with new teachers, new pupils and new everything! He used to have his own Worrybot – a home-made cardboard robot which was supposed to eat up his worst fears if he wrote them down on bits of paper and posted them into its mouth. It did help a bit … but now Josh is terrified that his anxiety will return when he starts at his new school. And he is more than a bit surprised to discover that there’s a robot in his new class – a real-life learning robot which sits on the desk next to his and allows classmate Charlie to join lessons remotely. Soon Charlie becomes Josh’s best – perhaps his only – friend. Will Charlie’s friendship help Josh overcome his fears, or will it just give nasty Noah more reasons to make fun of him? And why won’t Charlie come to school anyway?

A gentle but profound story about friendships, confidence and school refusal with an absolutely audacious plot twist. (Kitty Empire – The Observer)

An excellent story dealing with friendships, feelings and transition, Worrybot is one I definitely recommend for your classrooms and it would make an excellent class read. (CHECK ‘EM OUT BOOKS)

If there was ever a middle-grade book to read this summer – this is it! (Little Blog of Library Pleasures)

This is a beautifully paced and plotted story, dealing with issues of anxiety and school-refusal with great sensitivity. The child characters are absolutely believable, their interactions and conversations laced with authenticity. (V’sViewfromtheBookshelves)

With the post-pandemic rise in ‘emotionally based school avoidance’, there surely is a place for a children’s book which shows real understanding of the experience of anxiety, and also a way to live with it and still enjoy life. (The British Journal of Psychiatry)

Has Anyone Seen Archie Ebbs?

Archie Ebbs has the perfect life. Good friends, a nice home and classmates who laugh at (nearly) all his jokes. But all that is about to change. As his family lose their home and move into temporary housing, Archie has his own worries… is he really starting to become invisible? While his older sister is determined to hide their situation from her friends, Archie finds himself disappearing. But being invisible isn’t nearly as much fun as it ought to be. Only with the help of his new (and also invisible) neighbour, Zofia, can he get back his beloved cat, Dinger. And start to make himself visible again.

‘More and more children in the UK live in precarious home circumstances, but treating a serious subject with sometimes laugh-out-loud humour is a rare skill’, said Editor Rebecca Lloyd. ‘Archie is a brilliant, relatable and heart-warming character who carries his story with a lightness of touch that had me rooting for him from the off.’  

‘Has Anyone Seen Archie Ebbs? is a hugely empathetic read that’s warm, fun and full of heart.’ (Ben Davis, author of ‘The Soup Movement’ and ‘The Private Blog of Joe Cowley’ series)

‘An important story wrapped up in humour, empathy, a mystery to solve and a touch of magic. Archie’s story is a call to pay attention to people around us because we don’t know what problems they’re facing.’ (Clare Fayers, author of ‘Storm Hound’.

‘I liked Archie Ebbs because it made me have a tingling sensation of happiness and sadness and joy. It makes me want there to be a second book. Archie’s perfect life is about all the wrong way. Archie learns to look at life in lots of different ways and with the help of a forgotten friend Archie takes a different path.’ (By: Harry (age 9) Rating: 4.5/5

‘Hidden homelessness, and its devastating effect on children is tackled with sensitivity and humour in this important book.’ (Marianne Levy – The i – best children’s books for Easter 2022)

(Publication Date: April 7th 2022)

Trust Games

The next time I saw her on – Monday morning in drama – she was all smiles. But Hannah wasn’t fooling anyone. She was just a great actress. How else could she have managed to look so fascinated by Mr Moore’s lesson on Bertolt Brecht?  

“Packham is an extremely good writer who covers tricky subjects with a great lightness of touch. His books are deceptively simple quick reads with very gripping storylines, but they always manage to be immensely thought provoking. This book is no exception“. (Books for Keeps)

Firewallers

Can her life get any worse? Jess returns from a nightmare day at school to find her Dad’s suspended from work and gone into hiding. To escape the slobbering newshounds all eager for the full story, Mum drags Jess and her sister off to a remote Scottish island. Modern technology’s forbidden and there’s only a bunch of teenage uber geeks for company. Without Facebook or even a mobile, Jess feels totally disconnected for everyone back home. And why are they there anyway? What are they really running away from?

“Comic and sinister by turns, this story is so good it almost reads itself”. (The Independent)

“Overall it’s an easy recommendation as a very good book with a wonderful narrator”. (The Bookbag)

“All teenagers—male and female—should read this immensely entertaining, topical and thought provoking book”. (Books For Keeps) 

comin 2 gt u

Sam Tennant has been brutally murdered in an online computer game. What’s worse, it looks like his killers are out to get him in real life too. ‘The Emperor’ and ‘OllyG78’ say they know him from school, and soon turn his classmates against him with their vindictive website.

With his father away, his mother preoccupied with a particularly difficult work case, and his dying granddad absorbed in some dark, wartime secrets of his own, Sam’s only support comes from terminally shy Abby and Stephen the resident class nerd. 

As the threats become more sinister, Sam faces a desperate struggle to identify his persecutors before things get really deadly.