The Dare Game by Jacqueline Wilson

"The Dare Game” is a stunning story. It’s about a girl called Tracy Beaker who stays in a children’s home while her glamorous mum is away modelling. Later Tracy gets a foster mum called Cam.
Throughout the book Tracy doesn't like Cam because she’s not fashionable - she wants her real mum, not a foster mum. Tracy does really badly at school and decides to run away.
Tracy finds an old abandoned house and meets Alexander who makes lots of stuff out cardboard and is very shy. Later on she finds a boy called Football in the street. Before they know it, they are playing a dare game in the abandoned house.............THEY ARE TAKING RISKS WITH THEIR LIVES!!! Later on she finally gets her mum back  but is it really what she wants?

 If I were you, I would grab this book. I DARE YOU!!!!


By  animal girl 2000

Agent 21: Code Breaker by Chris Ryan

“Agent 21: Code Breaker” is about a boy called Zac Darke who gets trained to be a secret agent. After an unknown bomber causes an explosion in a station and kills many people, they start investigating the city to try and find out who the bomber is. Will Zac be able to break the cipher before the bomber strikes again? Pick the book up today to find out!


I thought that this book was really good because there was a lot of action in it. Chris Ryan is a really good writer because he knows how to engage the readers in the book. 

Mrs. Esplin's been reading...

We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves - Karen Joy Fowler (enjoyed this,  Girl goes to visit her Grandparents and when she returns her sister is missing.  Very original twist in this book, thought provoking too).

​Gone Girl - Gillian Flynn (tension mounts and mounts throughout the book, ending totally unbelievable in my opinion, have not seen the film).

Wild - Cheryl Strayed  (autobiography of a woman who goes on the Pacific Crest trail in America to find herself in the mid 90s, I did go to see the film first.  Very interesting and well written account of a life in freefall before she finds herself while walking the trail)

The Woman in the Fifth - Douglas Kennedy (like both the books I have read of his.  This one is set in Paris and has a twist too)

The Boy Who never Was - Karen Perry  (Set in Tunisia and Dublin about a boy presumed dead in an earthquake in Tunisia and the guilt his father feels as he is out when the earthquake occurs.  Good study of parental guilt)

The Hive - Gill Hornby (Interesting study of a group of Primary school mothers on the PTA and their bitching and power struggles)

Animal Dreams - Terry Quinn (lovely illustrations and text)

To Love and To Cherish - Lyn Andrews (rubbish lovey dovey stuff set around the time of the Wall Street crash in 1929 my sister gave me, not recommended unless you like Mills and Boon.  Unfortunately when I start a book I feel obliged to go on until I finish).

Depths - Henning Mankell and The Ice Princess - Camilla Lacksberg (both these books are Swedish noir.  The first set at the start of WW1.  The second is set in the present day.  I like the feeling of isolation and space that pervades both these novels.)

Mrs.MacNeill's been reading...

Really enjoyed Peter May's Lewis Trilogy - BlackhouseLewisman, and The Chessmen. I think it was the fact I have been to these places on the islands and could visualise.  I like trilogies, following the characters through their lives. Finding out how life was, rituals and how people lived etc. I'd have never of guessed who the killer was in the first book - took me by surprise.

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn- I struggled with but persisted and it did get better, but felt it was all over the place in the beginning, very hard to follow the story line.

The Adventure of Captain Underpants by Dav Pilkey - boys in ASD wanted this and enjoyed it, I liked it too as it was full of boys imagination and their humor.

Bloodline by Lynda La Plant - very good. There are lots of characters but she interacts with them much better than gone girl woman. The thrill of what will happen next keeps you reading i.e who dunit !

Blue Skies by Fleur MacDonald - a story which is filled with drama, romance, mystery and friendship. It is a tale to be inspirational. 

The Twelfth Card by Jeffrey Deaver - thriller with Lincoln Rhyme in it. Fabulous I loved it. I have read a few of his though. Good how it has the historical part to it from American history re slavery and freemen.

Mrs Hart's been reading...


The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton


The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian - Sherman Alexie


My Lover's Lover - Maggie O'Farrell

The Shock of the Fall - Nathan Filer


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