Fear by Michael Grant – now in stock!

The much awaited new book from Michael Grant has arrived and a few have already flown out the door. The fifth book in the series that started with Gone, a book thats been apart of our Top Fifteen for Teens since its beginning. We didn’t even know it was going to be a series then! But we stand by our choice and by the looks of it theres some kids out there who agree with us.

Everyone in town over the age of fourteen has completely disappeared and the chaos you might expect rapidly unfolds, from blind panic to the band of bullies who want to take control. 13-yr-old Sam becomes a sort of leader without meaning to, that is until the secretive but seemingly organised boarding school kids come back to town. Did I mention they can’t get past the painful dome to the nuclear power plant enclosing them that seems to be the reason for all this madness? Then there’s talking seagulls and people start getting interesting abilities and powers… And that’s just the first book. If your looking for a new series to hook your young teen into these Lord Of The Flies-esque adventures could be it.

Gone, Hunger, Lies, Plague and Fear are all out now and in stock at Fairfieldbooks, $22.95.

Don’t Call me Ishmael: not so new but a good one

For some years I’ve been aware of the Ishmael books by Michael Gerard Bauer and have had people whose opinion I respect tell me how good they are.  I’ve finally read the first book, Don’t Call Me Ishmael and it is now on our recommended shelves for teens.  It’s terrific.

Ishmael is 14 years old and his unusual name has become the bane of his existence.  His father insists on telling anyone who makes a comment on the name the ‘hilarious’ circumstances which led to his newborn son being given that particular moniker.  The boys at Ishmael’s new school don’t find it amusing though, in fact it causes him a great deal of grief from the school bully, Barry Bagsley.  An alliance forms between Ishmael and the other ‘unusual’ boy, James Scobie.

What I really like about this book, apart from the fact that is well written, funny and believable is that everything isn’t neatly tied up by the end.  The bully is still a bully and Ishmael ends the school year knowing that Barry will still be the same next year, but he  is learning to deal with it and knows that he doesn’t want to be cruel like Barry, even when the opportunity arises.

Don’t Call Me Ishmael is the first of three books, and they are terrific for boys and girls aged 12 and up. Highly recommended.  $20

Top Books for Young Adults

Our wall of Top Tens got expanded to Top Fifteens a little while ago now, with the exception of our Young Adult list. With our original 20 books for teenagers we had, loosely, 10 for boys and 10 for girls. We’re having a really hard time deciding how many to add, and what books! So even though we haven’t finished deciding what books to add to the twenty we can all agree on is these;

Five Books for Teenager Boys AND Girls

Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan

(The link above will take you to our other blog, where this review is)

Six Impossible Things by Fiona Wood

Graffiti Moon by Cath Crowley

Dreaming of Amelia by Jaclyn Moriarty  – also on the other blog

Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist by Rebecca Cohn and David Levithan

We haven’t blogged about all of these but rest assured someone, often more than one of us, has read them and loved them! Just ask us in store if you’d like to hear more. 3 out of the 5 are also by Australian authors. Go Aussie.