Recommended Reads
Recommended reads are supplied by the Library to keep you abreast what's new to the Library catalogue, reviews and ratings are also supplied when possible.
April 2007
Blitzcat
by
Synopsis:
Blitzcat (like a good number of Westall's books) is set during the Second World War. The main "character" of the story is a cat and her journey to find her owner – the backdrop is the terror and danger of Britain during the Blitz. Westall used the premise that cats have an innate ability to find their owners and are often able to navigate over long distances with determination and courage – this is known as psi-trailing. The cat is called Lord Gort and the owner she is seeking (Geoffrey Wensley) is in the RAF. (www.dooyoo.co.uk/printed-books/blitzcat-robert-westall/422603)
From the publisher:
She made her way down the cliff, and on to the beach. At the edge of the waves, she stopped, shaking her wet paws. She knew that somewhere ahead was her person, but far, far away. She miaowed plaintively; stood staring at the moving blur of uncrossable sea.
She led the way to safety, out of the blazing hell of blitzed Coventry. People touched her for luck; feared her as an omen of disaster. Wherever she went, she changed lives…
From her beginning to her end she never wavered.
She was the Blitzcat.
Review:
"Westall's writing has always been strong and vivid but he has rarely written as confidently as this."
Times Literary Supplement
"A moving and stirring novel"
School Library Journal
Category:
Fiction
Rating:
The Dressing Station
by
From the publisher:
An unforgettable medical odyssey. Jonathan Kaplan has been a hospital surgeon, a flying doctor, a ship's medical officer and a battlefield surgeon. He has worked in places as diverse as Burma, Kurdistan, America, Mozambique, England and Eritrea. THE DRESSING STATION presents a vivid, moving account of the varied faces of medicine he has encountered.in a mixture of reportage, confession and exposition Kaplan talks about the practice of medicine and of its shortcomings, because medicine is not always benign or balanced. At its extremes it is a process of treating the casualties, for life is a war, and being a doctor is serving in that war.
Review:
[Kaplan] offers a salutary reminder of what war really means, not only to combatants but also to those caught in the crossfire…
Sue Cullinan, Time Magazine
More a meditation on human suffering than a memoir, "The Dressing Station: A Surgeon's Odyssey" is forensically observed, clinically recorded.
Esquire
…vivid, honest and unpretentious, he bravely allows jaw-dropping horror to follow moments of hurtful revelation attained in futile blood-red landscapes.
Paul Dale, The List
Category:
Senior Fiction
Rating:
Toxic Childhood: How The Modern World Is Damaging Our Children And What We Can Do About It
by
From the publisher:
Children throughout the developed world are suffering: instances of obesity, dyslexia, ADHD, bad behaviour and so on are all on the rise. And it's not simply that our willingness to diagnose has increased; there are very real and growing problems.
Sue Palmer, a former head teacher and literacy expert, has researched a whole range of problem areas, from poor diet, lack of exercise and sleep deprivation to a range of modern difficulties that are having a major effect: television, computer games, mobile phones. This combination of factors, added to the increasingly busy and stressed life of parents, means that we are developing a toxic new generation.
TOXIC CHILDHOOD illustrates the latest research from around the world and provides answers for worried parents as to how they can protect their families from the problems of the modern world and help ensure that their children emerge as healthy, intelligent and pleasant adults.
Review:
"Horribly convincing"
Independent
"A great book".
MyChild magazine
"One of the most talked about books on the marketÉ teems with perceptive observations and sound advice."
Family Bulletin
Category:
Senior Fiction
Rating:
