Waddesdon Shadowers 26

Birdie
Birdie was an amazing set in the 1950s, told through the eyes of a young animal lover. It explored racism and discrimination with real awareness, emotion and sensitivity. Although the plot felt slow at times, the storyline was still compelling. Birdie's connection with her aunt and horse made the book feel heartfelt. Personally, I'm not a huge animal-lover, but I really connected with how the book handled the issues of racism.

Kat

Chronicles of a Lizard Nobody
Chronicles of a Lizard Nobody was an amusing and entertaining read. The characters felt relatable and I liked how it included topics such as bullying and general childhood struggles. However, the random, whacky storyline makes it feel more suited for younger readers. While the humour works at times, I felt that some of the harsher topics were treated to lightly. Overall, the story reads more like a comedy than a serious exploration of its themes.

Kat

Ghostlines 
Ghostlines is a book about a local girl in a small village on a small island meeting a boy from the mainland that wants nothing to do with the small island. It is a heartwarming tale of friendship and homesickness. overall an 8

leo

Wolf Siren
This book is a parody on the story of little red riding hood which I found very intriguing and exciting. It follows a girl called red with a sight impairment. The way the book was written matched the sight impairment which I thought was a very interesting way to write the book. Overall a 7

leo

The Boy I Love
This book is about two young soldiers in WW1 that come to love each other. I think that the way it was written was heartfelt and dealt with the topic of LGBTQAI+ and WW1 well. Overall an 8

leo

Popcorn
It was a good book that dealt with the topic of anxiety well and I loved the little illustrations they really helped explain the plot more. Overall this book is a 7.5 out of 10

leo

The Boy I Love
I really liked how this book links to the history of world war one but still keeps a storyline. It helps you think about the struggle soldiers had fighting in the war. The amount of action keeps it engaging and you want to keep reading to find out what happens.

Niamh

The Boy I Love
I enjoyed The Boy I Love because it was emotional and interesting. The story shows the challenges people faced during World War I and has strong themes of love and courage. The characters were realistic, and the book made me think about how difficult life was at that time.

lea

Ghostlines 
Ghostlines was an exciting and adventurous book. I liked the island setting and the mystery throughout the story. The friendship between the characters felt real, and the book kept me interested from beginning to end.

Lea

Chronicles of a Lizard Nobody
This book was funny and entertaining. I liked Zeke because he was a relatable character, and the story had lots of humour. It was enjoyable to read and also taught important lessons about friendship and being yourself.

Léa

Popcorn
This empowering book evoked deep concentrated thought on a variety of levels and topics. They presented the strong family problems in a realistic world and they also did this with friendship. The metaphorical title implies what it could be like with these real world deep emotions. Overall, I think this was a powerful and moving book.

Benjamin

Wolf Siren
This book is an empowering read about sexism and shows how when humans are not sexist they can achieve more and better things. I would recommend this for anyone who likes mystical fiction and animals.

Levi

Popcorn
Popcorn is a book that I personally wasn't a huge fan of but might appeal to other people better. It is a book which manages to balnce serious topics in a fun and explainable way. It is a good way to appeal and help other's who are struggling with the same thing. Overall, Popcorn is great for younger people who are struggling with bullying or anxiety or people that want a simpler explanation. The target age is around 8-11 for this.

Meriel

Chronicles of a Lizard Nobody
Lizard nobody is a hilariously funny book that highlights people's darker side of life people don't see. For example mental health and hidden disablity's. Overall it is an amazing book for people struggling but for a younger age group.

Meriel

Ghostlines 
Ghostlines is an achingly beautiful middle-grade novel exploring the meaning of home, the pain of losing a sibling, and the healing power of nature and friendship. It follows Tilda, a fiercely loyal island girl tasked with befriending an angry newcomer, Albie, as they navigate loss, a forbidden haunted island, and a dangerous storm. Five stars ⭐

Faith

Birdie
Birdie is a heartfelt book about refugees with a good plot and the blurb gives no spoilers.

leo

Ghostlines 
Ghostlines was a book wrapped up in mystery. It represented the feeling of being an outcast and the uncertainty of not fitting in. This book emphasized the way young children feel when they are presented with something new ; some are inviting whilst some just want to go back to how they were. In addition to this, it also showed the way children react to someone leaving or separation as a kind of grief and as a sinking feeling. The book was set extremely well and I could defiantly picture everything crystal clear. In my opinion I recommend this book to those who relate to just wanting to "go back home". As well as this, I believe anyone should be able to read this book if wanted.

Kat

The Boy I Love
I think this book was great, it brings a typically unheard of topics (homosexual people during ww1), being a mix of homosexual romance category and historical categories.

Stanley

Wolf Siren
Wolf siren is a fairytale twist on little red riding hood and highlights the range of disabilities that people struggle with. Its main plot relies on the village's sexism where female's get the more dangerous jobs and struggle to survive. It is a powerful and moving story which makes you feel a good kind of empty inside and makes you feel whole again. It deals with powerful topics such as grief, injustice, sexism and personal development. It's main character goes through the journey of being able to accept herself and who she is and understand that even though people may hate her and her friends, she can change people's hearts and the way they think. Overall, I would highly recommend it as it is a really moving and mysterious book that creates a vivid, imaginable scene that you can be in.

Meriel

Chronicles of a Lizard Nobody
This was a very interesting look into deep themes such as grief. It looked at these with a lightness that younger readers could understand while also being sensitive to audiences who have experienced these sort of experiences or who are currently living through them. I enjoyed this as a read and the plot was entertaining. The blurb did not give away any hints of what to come which made the read more exciting.

Levi

Ghostlines 
I have found this book really interesting and pretty easy to keep track in most parts of the books and i like the suspense in it and mysterious.

Roxie

Wolf Siren
It is a good book, very inspirational. Touches on topics children's books typically don't touch on but I believe they are topics children need to hear about. Such as sexism and more. It's a fairytale turned mature and grownup but still good for children.

Aiden and Stanley

The Boy I Love
The Boy I Love was emotionally rich book full of romance and mystery .This book was a real page turner! Every moment was so captivating and really represented the life of a average gay soldier on the trenches of WW1. In my opinion, it definitely is a book for people that enjoy romance, WW1 or LGBTQ+ based storylines because it represents the general struggle people of the LGBTQ+ community go through. As someone who does not know much about the lives of a gay soldiers in the trenches this book definitely changed my perspective on this topic. Although, I would recommend that someone under the age of 12 probably should not read this book unless they are viewed as mature enough. Overall, I think this book was very well set and really painted a picture of the aspects of gay soldiers during the time period of WW1.

Kat

Chronicles of a Lizard Nobody
it was an amazing book... however I found it really difficult to follow along with the actual plot.

Faith

The Boy I Love
I loved how this book portrayed the the individual and presence of the characters and how we get to learn their personality very strongly. I also liked how the book/author enhanced he setting to make it as if you were there in real life (The trenches in WW1).

Benjamin

Wolf Siren
I found it was very hard to get into although there was some very good description in some parts in the book

Roxie

Ghostlines 
Ghostlines is really good at setting the scenery of the island and the suspense in it makes you want to keep reading. The characters are really easy to relate to making you imagine them better, I really enjoyed this book.

Niamh

The Boy I Love
I loved the book and couldn't stop reading. Its hard to get fully invested into a book that isn't normally about adventure. Having a romance book that isn't just "they fell in love" is an good idea and I think we need more books like this. bravo.

faith

Chronicles of a Lizard Nobody
I quite liked this book because it showed all the different characters as animals helping to present real life problems like bullying and poverty. I also enjoyed how Zeke was just a hall monster with his friends (Alicia and Daniel) and thought that the school needed a hero to defeat the school villain but he made more friends and faced his fears and helped save the day. I would recommend this book to just about anyone because it is a fun read, but I think that younger children would enjoy this book the most.

Benjamin

Chronicles of a Lizard Nobody
It is a great book with an amazing and heartwarming plot that will keep you reading. It is about a lizard called Zeke (and his friends Alisha and Daniel) who have adventures together around their school. Personally, I really enjoyed it as it balanced very contrasting concepts very well, such as everyone being an animal to severe mental health problems. Overall I think it is a really good book.

Leo

Popcorn
I find Popcorn a very interesting read because of the deep topic of anxiety and how you’re not alone in the world and there are people who understand you and want to help.

Luke