There’s something very strange about Bosque de Nubes, and it isn’t just Iris’ odd Aunt Ursula, or the surreal paintings on every wall. When Iris visits the old house in Spain to try to convince her Aunt to leave it all to her, she finds dark shadows in the woods and… Read more »
Genre: Children's Fiction
Review: The Copper Gauntlet, Cassandra Clare and Holly Black
Callum Hunt and his Chaos-ridden wolf Havoc are about to head back to the Magisterium school for his second year. This time, Call is harbouring a terrible secret about himself, and throughout this book Call struggles to come to terms with his feelings about, well, pretty much everything. With proper fourteen-year-old… Read more »
Review: The Red Sun by Alane Adams
I’ve been struggling a little bit with middle grade reads of late and this one was no exception. While it took me quite awhile to get into the story after getting through a hefty chunk of the book I was quite intrigued to see how this one went and finished… Read more »
Review: Serafina and the Black Cloak by Robert Beatty
I will admit about 20% through this book I nearly put it down as a DNF, even though it had a beautiful cover and the synopsis had me intrigued I was finding it very difficult to get into. Thankfully I kept going because I then finished the remaining 80% in… Read more »
Review: Jinx’s Fire, Sage Blackwood
The battle for the Urwald is drawing in, with enemies on all sides. Jinx, now a powerful fourteen-year-old wizard, is currently trying to convince the various inhabitants of the enormous forest to group together and form an independent nation, while at the same time work out what the evil Bonemaster… Read more »
Review: Nightbird, Alice Hoffman
– A beautifully written middle-grade book, but the story was fairly simple. Twig and her mother live in the small town of Sidwell, where there are rumours of a monster lurking. Twig keeps the monster a secret – it’s her brother, James. Twig is forbidden to visit the new family next… Read more »
Review: Pennyroyal Academy, MA Larson
A young girl is lost in an enchanted forest, her only idea of where to go a flyer depicting a princess of the Pennyroyal Academy. The academy is taking in all sorts of boys and girls and training them to be princesses and knights, just like the famous Princess Cinderella and… Read more »
Review: Monstrous, MarcyKate Connolly
This is Philippa and Angelya’s joint audio review for MarcyKate Connolly’s new stand-alone middle-grade fantasy book, Monstrous. The review is an extract from episode 21 of Tea in the Treetops Podcast, originally recorded on February 18, 2015. This is a spoiler-free review, although we do hint at how things turn out. You’ve been… Read more »
Review: The Low Road, Daniel Kirk
“You take the high road, and I’ll take the low road…” I happened to be in the Junior section of my local library when I spied this enormous book with an elfin face peeking out along the spine. The Low Road is the first in a middle-grade series about Matt… Read more »
Review: The Iron Trial, Holly Black & Cassandra Clare
This is Philippa and Angelya’s joint audio review for Magisterium: The Iron Trial. The review is an extract from episode 15 of Tea in the Treetops Podcast, originally recorded on October 29, 2014. You can find links to all our podcast episodes on the main podcast page. Quotes from the… Read more »