Year 7 and 8 book club students at Beaumont School have started lively discussions about the merits of the shortlisted books for the Children's Book Award 2016.
The shortlist for older readers this year is:
Listen to the Moon by
Michael Morpurgo
May, 1915.
Alfie and his fisherman father find a girl on an
uninhabited island in the Scillies – injured, thirsty, lost… and with
absolutely no memory of who she is, or how she came to be there. She can
say only one word: Lucy.
Where has she come from? Is she a mermaid, the victim of a German U-boat, or even – as some islanders suggest – a German spy…?
Smart by
Kim Slater
There's been a murder, but the police don't care. It was only a homeless old man after all.
Kieran cares. He's made a promise, and when you say something out loud,
that means you're going to do it, for real. He's going to find out what
really happened. To Colin. And to his grandma, who just stopped coming
round one day. It's a good job Kieran's a master of observation, and
knows all the detective tricks of the trade.
Apple and Rain by
Sarah Crossan
When Apple's mother returns after eleven years of absence, Apple feels
whole again. She will have an answer to her burning question - why did
you go? And she will have someone who understands what it means to be a
teenager - unlike Nana. But just like the stormy Christmas Eve when she
left, her mother's homecoming is bitter sweet, and Apple wonders who is
really looking after whom. It's only when Apple meets someone more lost
than she is, that she begins to see things as they really are.
