Explore students’ perspectives on studying English at A Level English as a subject is facing challenges: decline in A Level (from 79,000 in 2016 to 64,000 in 2021) and UG numbers; university courses cut and English academic jobs lost). Sadly, this is not a new phenomenon and wider discourse around English studies has likely added…
What a great book! Using cartoons, (depicting all sorts of people), the author looks at many aspects of anxiety; from what it is and how it can stop us doing things, to how to look after ourselves and build up our metaphorical toolbox to deal with it, because, as the book says, EVERYONE feels anxious…
This book was a genuine surprise. It begins in relatively light-hearted fashion with the narrator’s (the resolute Nadia) discovery that a supervillain lives on her street. This supervillain, AKA Paddle Boy, seems intent on committing acts of senseless evil and wanton destruction. However, Invisible Boy is on hand, ready to come to the rescue. Nadia’s…
The Ickabog, a story written first for the author’s children and then published online a few chapters at a time during the first national lockdown of 2020, is now a handsome hardback volume beautifully illustrated by talented children from around the world selected from 18,000 competition entries. It is a fairytale about a foolish king In…
This is a wonderfully imaginative story from the author of Brightstorm. Grace, her mother and brother Bren are members of a family tasked with being the guardians of a teleportation system, the Griffin Gate, that enables them to act as law fighters when necessary, to protect Moreland their home. Although she is still too young…
We all know how quickly our world is changing and this particularly applies to the spheres of entertainment and technology. This book gives a short introduction into some of the major developments that have taken place, especially in the last century. Often it is the background technologies that have enabled change to take place, e.g.,…
The back cover of the book says, “Embark on a journey by train that embraces the sense of adventure as the world whizzes by.” This book takes you on a ride of 13 of the most legendary train routes of the globe. Through a series of double illustrated pages it covers a whole series of…
This is a book that honours the dead. After an introduction about archaeology in general, every section gives details from around the world of how after death people’s bodies have been preserved, sometimes deliberately, sometimes by the effects of natural phenomena. The text is straightforward and honest, but sensitive, about the rituals surrounding death, burial…
This is the second title in the series about a girl called Owl, who suddenly discovers that the world of the Fae is real and that her father (who she has never known) is Jack Frost, the harbinger of Winter. In this story, the world seems to be stuck in an eternal summer, where the…