Welcome to New London. Everybody is happy here.
Our perfect society achieves peace and stability by dispensing with monogamy, privacy, money, family and history itself. Now everyone belongs. You can be happy too. All you need to do is take your Soma pills.This is the brave new world of Aldous Huxley’s deeply sinister and prophetic novel, a society based on maximum pleasure and complete surveillance – no matter the cost.
Tracy has been in care as long as she can remember, and she hates it. So when a chance presents itself for her to get out, she jumps at it. But Tracy can never keep her mouth shut, tell the truth or turn down a dare for long, which inevitably gets her into A LOT of trouble. Jacqueline Wilson’s award winning series documents Tracy’s hilarious everyday life, from standing up to bullies in the playground, to starring in the school Christmas play, to finding the perfect family.
This book was instrumental for me, too – a frankly terrifying story of a boy being pulled into an ancient, mythic battle fought in the land right before us, which we cannot see but whose outcome affects us enormously. The way Cooper summons up the sense of being outside on a winter day is just perfect: special and liberating and sinister and silent all at once. The figure of The Black Rider was a huge inspiration for the character of The Midwinter King in The Midnight Guardians – in the first draft, Col was pursued not by the Lord of all Darkness, but by a sort of bounty hunter figure.
Before this book was published, Emma created daily illustrated posts on twitter, based on her relationship with her adorable little dog, Plum. I found them totally endearing, funny and poignant and so was delighted when she announced the publication of a big, fat, fully illustrated book version in 2014. Not only is this a sweet diary of Emma’s friendship with her dog, and Plum’s friendship with her doggy pals, it’s also a little peek into Emma’s life. Gorgeous!
review
Year group(s) the book is most suitable for:
Year group(s) the book is most suitable for:
Does the book contain anything that teachers would wish to know about before recommending in class (strong language, sensitive topics etc.)?
Does the book contain anything that teachers would wish to know about before recommending in class (strong language, sensitive topics etc.)?
Would you recommend the book for use in primary schools?
yes
Curriculum links (if relevant)
Curriculum links (if relevant)
Any other comments
Any other comments