Good Reads: Corby Business Academy

Our Good Reads were chosen by young people at Corby Business Academy, Corby, Northamptonshire. Thanks to Amy McKay, the school’s librarian and winner of the 2016 School Librarian of the Year Award.

Dandelion Clocks

Rebecca Westcott, Puffin, 978-0-1413-4899-5, £6.99 pbk

My favourite book is Dandelion Clocks by Rebecca Westcott, because it was very emotional and made you think about how Olivia (the main character) felt when she lost someone really close to her.  I especially enjoyed the part where Olivia’s mum gave her her diaries from when she was younger and how similar her life was to Olivia’s at the same age. I liked how whenever Olivia didn’t feel like doing anything she would take pictures with her camera, I think this made her feel calm and relaxed. The photos she took of her Mum were treasure she wanted keep forever, so it was really sad when something horrible happened to them. I also really enjoyed the best friend/boyfriend drama in this book, I think when Olivia and her best friend had a fight but then made friends it was very true to life.  I really recommend this book to anyone who likes emotional and heart-breaking stories

Adel Mester

A Seven Letter Word

Kim Slater, Macmillan Children’s Books, 978-1-5098-0112-1, £9.99 hbk

A Seven Letter Word has got lots of twist and turns.  It is a really good page turner and the twists made me never want to put this book down. It is about a kid called Finlay who lives with his Dad. Finlay suffers a lot with a stammer which makes him stutter on his words, his Mum left him when he was younger and now he’s trying find out why she left him and where she is. In the book Finlay has a passion for scrabble, a board game him and his mum used play together all the time. Finlay starts to train for the Scrabble Championships, but there is something that is getting in the way of his training. I recommend this book to people who like heart-warming and heart touching books.

Sydney Masters

Wing Jones Katherine Webber, Walker Books, 978-1-4063-6909-0, £7.99 pbk

Wing Jones is not out until next year but my librarian let me read a proof copy.  The reason I love this book is because it makes you ask questions that you have to know the answer to, which means you have to keep reading. Another reason I love this book is that it makes me realise the things I can achieve in life if I try.  In this book Wing Jones is a character I can relate to and that makes it feel like the book was meant for me.  The family in the book are having a rough time and it keeps getting worse. Wing is a really good character and I liked how she felt stuck between different worlds, I think other readers will get this too. This book makes you feel lots of different emotions and you could read it over and over and it still won’t get old.

Elaine Kahwa

Frozen Charlotte

Alex Bell, Stripes Publishing, 978-1847154538, £6.99 pbk

I like this book because it is a horror and is very scary! It is part of a series called Red Eye which are written by a variety of excellent authors such as: Tom Becker, Graham Marks and Lou Morgan. Frozen Charlotte is about a girl called Sophie who stays at her cousins’ house whilst her parents are away on honeymoon. All her cousins are a bit weird, Cameron has lots of secrets, Lilias has a fear of bones and Piper seems too good to be true. Then there is the other cousin. The cousin that’s not meant to be there, the cousin that came back… Maybe she didn’t make the wisest decision after all. I highly recommend this book to anybody who likes horror and is over 12, and I definitely rate it five stars!

Paige Scott

Naruto series, Viz LLC, £6.99

Masashi Kishimoto

My favourite books are the Naruto series, which are manga.  It is my favourite because of the Japanese words that are hard to say and the great art that Masashi Kishimoto does. I especially like all the action and all the stylish stuff. The best part about them though is the characters, my most favourite character is probably a guy called Minato Namikazoe (Alanito’s dad). My favourite jutsu in Naruto is the planetary rasen-shuriken, it is very powerful and the best thing about it is that Naruto and a monster called the nine-tailed fox fuse together to create it, and if they create fox shadow clones they can fuse them with the original to make it 1000x more powerful than it already is. There are also movies for this series and an anime; it is a very successful series. I love this manga; it is the best one I have ever read.

Josh Bogle

Superhero Street

Phil Earle, Orion Children’s Books, 978-1444013887, £6.99 pbk

Superhero Street is about a boy called Mouse who lives in an ordinary house, in an ordinary neighbourhood.  Mouse has always known he could be a great superhero, only one thing has stopped him. He doesn’t have any superpowers. But when Mouse accidentally foils a bank robbery he finds himself living his dream, the life of a true superhero. At least until a two-faced, evil villain manages to sneak right past him and cause trouble.

Altogether, I think this book is very creative and imaginative! I really like the turn of events that happen to Mouse and would recommend this book to everybody! I also like all the other superheroes Mouse makes friends with and how silly but funny they are. It’s a great adventure story, which is very funny and exciting.  There are illustrations throughout and they really make the story come to life.

Angela Bujac