A magical rug, a medical mystery and a huge blue whale by various authors - book reviews -

Age 9 plus:

Tiger Skin Rug

Joan Haig

A warm, endearing and mesmerising brand of magic is guaranteed to cast a spell over young readers in this enchanting tale of friendship and family.

Tiger Skin Rug is a finalist in the People’s Book Prize Winter 2020/21 competition and comes from the pen of Joan Haig who was born in Zambia before moving with her family to the happy isles of Vanuata in the South West Pacific and finally settling with her husband and children in the Scottish borders.

Featuring an old promise, a mysterious tiger and a magical adventure, it’s a thrilling tale steeped in cultural wonders and the author’s imaginative power as we enter the lives of two homesick brothers from India, now living in Scotland.

Lal and his brother Dilip miss home. They don’t like drizzle, midges, or the tiger skin rug in their creepy new house. All they want is to go back to India.

But that’s before they make friends with Jenny, and before the tiger comes back to life. The tiger tells them it will take them home in return for their help… because it cannot rest until it fulfils an old promise.

Can Lal, Dilip and Jenny help the tiger on its quest? Who is trying to stop them and will they ever get back home?

From a Scottish village to an Indian mountain, from the back streets of London to the palaces and sewers of Mumbai, Haig explores the power of legends and stories, families and forgiveness in a beautiful story that speaks loudly about the importance of home and the extinction threat to tigers.

Heartwarming, vivid and compelling, this is a story that makes you want to believe in magic!

(Pokey Hat, paperback, £6.99)

Age 9 plus:

Mark Anchovy: War and Pizza

William Goldsmith

No youngster will want to miss a slice of the action when they get their hands on this second tasty tale of a pizza delivery boy who serves up a big portion of danger in his dual role as a private detective.

Mark Anchovy: War and Pizza is the second book in a brilliant middle-grade series from talented writer and illustrator William Goldsmith and it comes packed with comedy, capers, tall orders, mouth-watering mystery… and food glorious food!

Pizza delivery boy Colin Kingsley, aka Mark Anchovy, is on his second case for the Golden Spatula League, the greatest of all detective agencies and it only recruits children. Parachuted into Russia on a school exchange programme, he must find a missing casket of blingtastic egg cups, missing for over a century.

His only lead is a frail 108-year-old ex-detective called Swirly Ben… who happens to be on the hit list of nasty jewel thief called Heidi Hyde High. On top of all that, crusty history teacher Mr Hogstein is directing the school play. Oh, and Colin’s sister Alicia has found out what ‘extra anchovies’ really means.

Goldsmith’s fully illustrated Russian adventure dishes up madcap action, super sleuthing, a winter wonderland of laughs, and more puns than a school text book on English grammar!

Ideal for pizza and adrenalin addicts, and anybody aiming to follow in the footsteps of Agatha Christie, Mark Anchovy is a delicious favourite on the middle-grade reading menu.

(Piccadilly Press, paperback, £6.99)

Age 9 plus:

The Boy Who Met a Whale

Nizrana Farook

If your idea of adventure runs to shipwrecks, storms, sea monsters and buried treasure, then you’re in for a thrilling adventure set in faraway Sri Lanka.

Nizrana Farook, who was born and raised in Colombo, Sri Lanka, but now lives in Hertfordshire, steals our hearts again with another exhilarating and atmospheric story set in the beautiful landscapes of her home country.

Her debut novel, The Girl Who Stole an Elephant, was Waterstones Children’s Book of the Month in January 2020 and was previously shortlisted for the inaugural Joan Aiken Future Classics Prize.

And now The Boy Who Met a Whale sweeps us away to fictional Sri Lanka for an adventure steeped in rich detail, wonderful storytelling, and jam-packed with peril, kidnap and a huge blue whale!

Razi, a local fisherboy, is watching turtle eggs hatch when he sees a boat bobbing into view. With a chill, he notices a small, still hand hanging over the side.

Inside is Zheng who has escaped a shipwreck and is full of tales of sea monsters and missing treasure and Razi and his sister Shifa don’t know what to believe. But the villains who are after Zheng are very real and are soon they are after Razi and Shifa as well. And so begins an exhilarating adventure in the shadow of the biggest sea monster of them all...

Expect fast-paced action, a voyage full of fun, heroes and villains, and a flight of imagination all the way to a land of magical creatures!

(Nosy Crow, paperback, £7.99)

Age 10 plus:

Robin Hood: Piracy, Paintballs & Zebras

Robert Muchamore

He might be a modern-day Robin Hood… but he’s still out to catch the villains who are cheating the poor and vulnerable!

Welcome back to international bestselling author Robert Muchamore’s contemporary take on the old legend of Sherwood Forest in the second book of an enthralling series that began with Hacking, Heists & Flaming Arrows and delivers the same gripping formula of fun, action and thrills.

After its vast car plants shut down, the prosperous town of Locksley has become a wasteland of empty homes, toxic land and families on the brink. And it doesn't help that the authorities are in the clutches of the profit-obsessed Sheriff of Nottingham, in cahoots with evil underworld boss Guy Gisborne.

When his dad is framed for a robbery, Robin Hood and his brother Little John are hounded out of Locksley and must learn to survive in Sherwood Forest. But Robin is determined to do more than survive. Small, fast and deadly with a bow, he joins forces with Marion Maid and her eccentric family and harness his inimitable tech skills to strike a blow against Gisborne and the Sheriff.

But when Clare Gisborne and Little John return to school after the Locksley Riot, there’s rebellion in the air and Robin Hood’s name is graffitied on every wall.

Power dynamics are shifting… now, instead of being a feared bully, the daughter of Locksley’s most hated criminal finds herself shunned by classmates and pelted with yoghurt and rotting fruit.

Meanwhile at the abandoned Sherwood Designer Outlets, Robin has plans of his own. He is determined to hack Sheriff Marjorie Kovacevic’s office so that the rebels know her every move, and to work with animal rights activists to end a cruel trophy hunt inside the grounds of Sherwood Castle...

Brimming with guts, gusto, gags and gripping adventures, this Robin Hood and his merry men as you’ve never before seen them… enjoy!

(Hot Key Books, paperback, £7.99)

Age 9 plus:

A Double Detectives Medical Mystery: Diagnosis Danger

Roopa Farooki

Here’s the perfect medicine for lockdown boredom blues… a thrilling medical mystery!

London doctor Roopa Farooki returns with the second book in her excellent mystery series starring two sleuthing twins with attitude, aptitude, and an ability to diagnose danger.

Twins Ali and Tulip have grown up with a surgeon mother and so have picked up lots of knowledge of first aid and medicine, and know all about being medics. They know something about being detectives too, which is a good job because there’s a new case that needs their skills.

While their mum is brain-doctoring at the hospital during half term, a mysterious figure viciously attacks Momo, one of the twins’ friends, and then disappears. Without a minute to spare, Ali and Tulip are straight on the case. But will they find the culprit before it’s too late?

Farooki’s fresh and fun take on the detective genre is a delight for all mystery-loving readers, and – with its sprinkling of fascinating facts wrapped neatly inside the all the action – there is plenty of inspiration for youngsters who harbour their own medical ambitions.