Summer Reading List by sccenglish

Summer Book List, 2012

his is our first list of summer reading recommendations for pupils, and we hope that parents will also find it useful when encouraging their sons and daughters to keep up and extend their reading over the summer holidays. The first reason for is simple: pure pleasure, since the school summer vacation is one of the few times in life when for day after day you can dedicate yourself to reading something you are interested in and really enjoy. The second is more educational: all pupils can make real intellectual strides in these months, instead of succumbing to the ‘summer slide’. You should also read newspapers, magazines and articles on websites too: good reading is everywhere around you. This list is not supposed to be comprehensive. It just gives you a start on what books might interest you from a mostly contemporary selection, and in the era of the internet it will be easy to research more before you buy your paperback or e-book, or go to your local library. On www.sccenglish.ie there is also a link to many more lists from publications and institutions (top right of the site, ‘Summer Reading’). In future years we will expand and refresh the list. Meanwhile, choose a good book, sit back and enjoy the holidays... Tom McConville, Librarian Julian Girdham, Head of English Department Our thanks to Marie Haslett (History & historical fiction) and Humphrey Jones (Science) for contributing many suggestions in their areas of expertise.

Fiction

Mostly Junior 1. Millions by Frank Cottrell Boyce: A bag full of money drops into the lives of Damian and Anthony, and suddenly they can buy anything they want, except their mum has died and their dad is suffering, they’ve just moved house and they’re in a new school... Funny, poignant novel of bereavement, childhood and new life. 2. The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne: Nine-year-old Bruno’s father is a concentration camp commandant, only he doesn’t know that; then he meets Shmuel who lives on the other side of the wire and wears pyjamas. [Second World War – Holocaust] 3. The Sight by David Clement-Davies: A pack of wolves seeks shelter from the winter, a legend clinging to them of man and wolf, power and death - the Sight has come into their world. 4. The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly: David mourns the loss of his mother and takes refuge in the myths and fairy tales she loved; as war rages across Europe he is soon propelled into a land that is both imaginary and frighteningly real.

5. Al Capone does my Shirts by Gennifer Choldenko: Moose Flanagan moves with his family to live on Alcatraz Island, to its new life, new school, new friends; only his older sister Natalie is autistic, a different kind of imprisonment, and that puts all kinds of pressure on his family. [Family life, childhood, humour] 6. Arthur: the Seeing Stone Trilogy by Kevin Crossley-Holland: Medieval England and sixteen-year-old Arthur de Caldicott is eager to grow up and become a knight, his life intertwined with that of his mythical namesake, King Arthur. 7. The Midnight Zoo by Sonya Hartnett: Two boys on the run across a war-ravaged countryside carry a secret bundle--one night in a deserted town they find a zoo filled with animals. 8. Mockingbird by Kathryn Erskine: Caitlin, who has Asperger’s syndrome, misses her dead brother Devon who used to explain the world to her, and her father, who cries all the time - now she sets about finding closure, a word she has discovered in a dictionary [Bereavement, family life]. 9. Inkheart by Cornelia Funke: First in a suspense-filled darkly comic trilogy (Inkspell, Inkdeath) wherein twelve-year-old Meggie discovers to her peril that fictional characters do not cease living when a book is closed. 10. Coraline by Neil Gaiman: Coraline finds a secret corridor behind a locked door that takes her into another house terrifyingly similar to her own but with counterfeit parents and a terrible quest on which her survival, and much more, depends [Fantasy, horror]. 11. The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman: Nobody Owens (Bod) is a normal boy who happens to live in a graveyard where he is raised and educated by ghosts; it is in the land of the living that danger lurks, in the form of the man, Jack, who has already killed Bod’s family. 12. I, Coriander by Sally Gardner: Coriander Hobie lives in Oliver Cromwell’s London, her late mother a fairy come into the mortal world, her prosperous father under suspicion for aiding the Royalist side during the Civil War - she must deal with the two worlds, one a threatening and repressive regime, the other holding a vengeful fairy queen. 13. Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer:The first in an extended series, in which young Artemis Fowl, a brilliant criminal mastermind, kidnaps a fairy, Captain Holly Short of the LEPrecon unit, and sees his troubles begin. Snappy, funny and highly imaginative fantasy. 14. Chalkline by Jane Mitchell: The chalkline of the title is the one scratched on a wall against which a child is measured - if he is taller than it he is deemed big enough to be a soldier by the Kashmiri Freedom Fighters, and nine-year-old Rafiq is tall for his age. 15. Goodnight, Mr Tom by Michelle Magorian: The childhood classic in which Willie is evacuated to the countryside where he is billeted with gruff widower, Tom Oakley, and a surprising friendship develops - and then Willie is summoned back to blitz-torn London by his mother [Friendship]. 16. War Horse by Michael Morpurgo: Out of the shocking destruction of the First World War trenches comes this moving story of Joey, a farm horse turned cavalry charger, who experiences both the deadly carnage and the truest of friendships. [War, friendship]. 17. The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness: The first in the Chaos Walking trilogy: Todd Hewitt lives in a weird world of men with his talking dog, Manchee, where everyone can hear everyone else’s thoughts in a never-ending Noise and then he discovers first, silence, and secondly, Viola, a girl, and soon they’re on a desperate run from Prentisstown. Highly recommended fantasy adventure. 18. The Recruit by Robert Muchamore: First in the multitudinous CHERUB series, high quality and topically gritty secret agent fiction, in which CHERUB agents are fully-trained professionals with one essential advantage: adults never suspect that children are spying on them. 19. Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan: Percy Jackson series: Percy’s father is Poseidon, Greek god of the sea so Percy is half god, half boy and just happens to live a semi-normal teenage American life as well as having to deal with the jealous and combative denizens of Mount Olympus--who now also all live in America. A funny, fast-paced series, and a good introduction to Greek mythology. 20. The Penalty by Mal Peet: Mal Peet is a wide-ranging author--this is one of his Paul Faustino series, in which the south American sports journalist investigates the disappearance of El Burjito (the Little Magician), a teenage football prodigy, and is drawn into a world of murder, corruption, slavery and the occult. 21. Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli: Stargirl Caraway is a highly unconventional girl who comes Mica Area High School where at first her different approach wins hearts and minds, but soon threatens the status quo; Leo, desperately in love with her, urges her to become the one thing she won’t be, normal. 22. Journey to the River Sea by Eva Ibbotson: Orphan Maia is sent to spiteful distant cousins in the rainforests of the Amazon but meets a mysterious boy and begins a spectacular

journey to the heart of an extraordinary new world. 23. Hitler’s Canary by Sandi Toksvig: Bamse’s mother is a famous actress and his friend Anton one of the most daring boys in Denmark; when the Germans invade he must decide whether to stay out of trouble or join his brother in the resistance. [War, childhood]. 24. Spud by John van de Ruit: Spud Milton is beginning his first year in boarding school--there will be trouble ahead including illegal night swimming, teacher-baiting, girls, friendship...and complete insanity. 25. The Silver Notebook by Enda Wyley: Timothy Finn has no father, or so he thinks, until a silver notebook arrives on his birthday. 26. Creature of the Night by Kate Thompson: When Bobby’s mother moves his family to the country all he wants to do is to get back to his out-of-control life in Dublin, but disappearances and whispers of murder soon have them involved with the creature of the night . J 27. A Note of Madness by Tabitha Suzuma: Pressure of a coming concert pushes top young pianist Finn into mental illness where being alive feels worse than being dead - a fine study of depression and recovery. 28. Carbon Diaries 2015 by Saci Lloyd: It’s 2015 and the UK is the first nation to introduce carbon rationing - as her family spirals out of control Laura acerbically chronicles the world around her. 29. Everybody Jam by Ali Lewis: Danny Dawson lives in the Australian outback, his older brother Jonny dead in an accident, his teenage sister pregnant, and now it’s time for the annual cattle muster. 30. Blood Red Road by Moira Young: There are no laws in Saba’s world and when her twin brother is stolen she pursues his captors through a wasted land, trusting no-one, not even the handsome thief who saves her life. [Fantasy] 31. The Alchemyst-the secrets of the immortal Nicholas Flamel by Michael Scott (first in series). Twins Sophie and Josh Newman become involved in magician Nicholas Flamel’s struggles with evil Dr John Dee and the secret of eternal life/ [Magic, fantasy] 32. Blood Red, Snow White by Marcus Sedgwick. A novel of real-life author Arthur Ransome in the revolutionary Russia of 1917; a journalist, he leaves his English home, his wife and daughter, and falls in love with Russia - and Evgenia. 33. Angus, Thongs and full-frontal snogging by Louise Rennison: Georgia Nicolson series. Very funny diary of young teen Georgia Nicolson as she struggles to come to terms with changes in her own life as well as influence those around her [Humour]. 34. Scrivener’s Moon by Philip Reeve: The third in the Fever Crumb series, itself a prequel to Reeve’s fantastic Mortal Engines series about warring cities on wheels, sees Fever at the heart of the great war that is about to change the future of humankind. [Fantasy] 35. Northern Lights by Philip Pullman (His Dark Materials trilogy). Lyra and her daemon set off for the far North in search of Roger and encounter armoured polar bears and witch-queens who fly through frozen skies, and a woman and a golden monkey who are conducting experiments too horrible to mention. Highly recommended. [Fantasy] 36. Wolf Brother by Michelle Paver (first in Chronicles of Ancient Darkness series); Young Torak, an outcast from his clan like his father, lives in the pre-historic ancient Forest with only an orphaned wolf cub as a companion--soon he must face a foe that he can neither outrun nor outwit. 37. Bruised by Siobhan Parkinson: Jono and Julie’s mother is an alcoholic and their granny is dead; when one day their mother hits Julie Jono decides it’s time to protect his little sister and the only way to do that is to go. [Childhood, family life] 38. Sabriel by Garth Nix (first in trilogy): Sabriel must leave school and go in search of her father who is in danger as Charter Magic, which keeps them safe is in danger from Free Magic/Vivid, exciting fantasy adventure. 39. Airborn by Kenneth Oppel: Matt Cruse is a cabin boy on the airship Aurora, and friend and rival to spirited and rich Kate de Vries--then one night air pirates board the Aurora [Fantasy]. 40. Out of Shadows by Jason Wallace: Young Robert Jacklin has just moved to newly independent Zimbabwe but for some of his schoolmates the war is not over, black is not equal to white, and they are ruthless enough to take it to the very top [Africa, racism].

Older Fiction 41. The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins: America in the future is ruled brutally from a central Capitol, and one girl called Katniss finds herself in deadly conflict with its rulers. 42. Watership Down by Richard Adams: Fiver’s sixth sense tells him something terrible will happen to the warren. He and his brother Hazel and a small band of rabbits begin an epic and perilous journey - a fable for our time.

43. Empire of the Sun by J. G. Ballard: A young British boy separated from his parents is imprisoned in Shanghai with other civilians by the Japanese and sees extraordinary times become ordinary where the rulers become the ruled, brutality abounds and human behaviour is reduced to its essence. 44. The Fault in our Stars by John Green: Funny, irreverent and deeply moving story of Hazel, a terminal cancer sufferer on hold, who meets Augustus Waters, tall, gorgeous, intelligent - and also a cancer sufferer [Teenage love, bereavement]. 45. Genesis by Bernard Beckett: Intelligent, determined Anaximander faces the examination of her life in the isolated island Republic--a powerful philosophical novel on the meaning of freedom and free will. 46. Noughts and Crosses Trilogy by Malorie Blackman: Callum is a nought, a second class citizen, and Sephy is a cross, daughter of one of the most powerful men in the country...and then a bomb explodes [Racism, love, fantasy adventure]. 47. A Swift Pure Cry by Siobhan Dowd: A young girl becomes pregnant and the baby dies at birth--and then a second dead baby is found. This is a sensitive, powerful re-imagining of a true story from the Ireland of the 1970s. 48. No and Me by Delphine de Vigan: Lou Bertignac is thirteen, has an IQ of 160 and a troubled family life after the death of her sister; then in the Gare d’Austerlitz she befriends No, an elusive homeless girl, and life begins to return to her family. 49. The Ropemaker by Peter Dickinson: The magic in the Valley is dying and four companions must find the ancient sorcerer, their desperately dangerous journey shadowed by the mysterious Ropemaker, who might - or might not - control the rope of time itself. [Fantasy] 50. The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas: The classic swashbuckler - young d’Artagnan comes to Paris to seek his fortune and immediately finds himself challenged to duels by Athos, Porthos and Aramis, only for them to become his greatest companions as they become embroiled in the intrigues of the French court and the machinations of Cardinal Richelieu and the beautiful Lady de Winter. 51. Divided Loyalties by Denis Hamley: Ellen, a British nurse and Matthias, a German soldier, met and fell in love at the end of the First World War; now it is 1939 and their son Walter is filled with hatred of his father’s origins [War, family life] 52. Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld: First in a proposed trilogy about an intriguing world that mimics our historical one, where the Clankers of the Austro-Hungarian Empire pit their machines against the Darwinists of the British Empire, who evolve living creatures into tools: Prince Aleksandar, on the run from his own people, encounters Deryn Sharp, a girl dressed as a boy, whose airship of living animals has crash-landed in enemy territory. 53. Ostrich Boys by Keith Gray: Teenagers Kenny, Sim and Blake steal the urn that contains the ashes of their friend Ross, to bring to Ross, a tiny village in Scotland, and on the way discover that having known Ross will affect them for the rest of their lives. [Friendship] 54. Guitar Girl by Sarra Manning: Seventeen year-old Molly Montgomery’s band, The Hormones, unexpectedly hits the bigtime, and suddenly hazards include fame, first love, threatened friendship, screaming fans, exhaustion and sleazy managers. Realistic and well-written. 55. Broken Soup by Jenny Valentine: Rowan Clark is trying to hold her family together after her brother Jack’s death as her parents can’t cope - and then a boy in the school lunch queue hands her a photographic negative, of her brother as it turns out, and so begins a search. 56. Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: The story of two sisters caught up in the Biafra-Nigerian war of the late 1960s. 57. Lean on Pete by Willy Vlautin: Heartbreaking and beautifully told story of Charley, a 15 year-old boy, who sets off on a journey to find his aunt, the only adult who might care for him. 58. Hetty Feather by Jacqueline Wilson: Hetty is abandoned as a baby and suffers hardship and friendship in Victorian England as she searches for her real mother. 59. How I live now by Meg Rosoff: Worldly fifteen-year-old Daisy is sent from New York to England to spend the summer with cousins, one of whom is Edmond...and then comes war and separation as she goes on the run with young Piper. 60. Reading in the Dark by Seamus Deane: A haunting story about a young boy in Derry and the troubles his family become entangled in over the decades. 61. Atonement by Ian McEwan: Briony, a young girl, makes a terrible mistake at an English country house in 1935, a mistake that will blight the lives of many other people for ever. 62. Breath by Tim Winton: A great novel about surfing, and about Western Australia. 63. Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro: It becomes clear before long that Hailsham boarding school is nothing like St Columba’s (we hope).... 64. Skippy Dies by Paul Murray: A very funny novel set in a boarding school (based on Blackrock College) which captures memorably the confusions and dramas of boys’ adolescence.

65. Bad Day at Blackrock by Kevin Power: The aftermath of a tragic death as seen through the lives of privileged former pupils of a boarding school, set in Dublin at the height of the Celtic Tiger. 66. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini: Two boys from two very different backgrounds are the closest of friends in pre-Taliban Afghanistan, before something happens to change everything for ever. 67. Hotel Juliet by Belinda Seaward: A dramatic love story which moves between Zambia and England). 68. Regeneration by Pat Barker: The story of physically and mentally wounded soldiers at an Edinburgh hospital in the First World War, including the poet Wilfred Owen (first part of the Ghost Road trilogy). 69. Slaughterhouse-5 by Kurt Vonnegut. Both horrifying and hilarious, this take on war is partly set in Dresden during its firebombing in 1945. 70. A Game of Thrones by George R.R.Martin (Book 1 in the series A Song of Ice & Fire).Set in the fictional land of Westeros, a battle to rule the seven kingdoms begins. Sometimes brutal, always “unputdownable”. 71. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury: The great science fiction author has just died: this is his most famous book, the story of a society where books are outlawed, and the houses of their owners are burned down. 72. Fools of Fortune by William Trevor: A great story told by the greatest Old Columban writer, set just after the First World War - with a whole chapter set in our school, too. 73. Me Cheeta by James Lever: The story of a famous Hollywood chimpanzee told by, well, the famous Hollywood chimpanzee. Blisteringly funny. 74. The Lincoln Rhyme series by Jeffrey Deaver: A great series of thrillers featuring a wheelchair bound forensic detective; Deaver is one of the best thriller-writers around. 75. Blindness by Jose Saramago: This is definitely dark: the story of a world in which (almost) everyone turns blind and what happens as a result: it is also a rivetting story by this Portuguese Nobel Prize winner. 76. Pigeon English by Stephen Kelman: Harrison Opuku is eleven, newly arrived from Ghana and lives in a block of flats in a sink estate; he observes everything with the same innocence, vitality and interest, but when a boy is stabbed to death he begins his own murder investigation. 77. Rule of the Bone by Russell Hoban: Chappie Dorset - “Bone” - is a 21st century Holden Caulfield abandoned by adults to a semi-feral world of drugs, theft and worse yet he is always uniquely himself, struggling to be decent and learning, learning as he progresses towards a form of peace. 78. Before I Die by Jenny Downham: Tessa is sixteen and dying of cancer; that makes time short so she’s got to do a lot of living quickly - a humorous, tender and redemptive book. 79. Alone in Berlin by Hans Fallada: A German couple lose their son in the war and begin a postcard campaign against the Reich. 80. Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter by Tom Franklin: Set in rural Mississippi where Silas Jones is a black law enforcement officer while Larry Ott, his white boyhood friend, has been ostracised for life for the suspected murder of a teenage date when Larry is shot old certainties no longer apply. 81. Candy by Kevin Brooks: Joe loves Candy, but that love takes him into a world of addiction, violence and hopelessness an uncomfortable look at the realities of some lives by young adult writer Brooks. 82. Tinkers by Paul Harding: George William Crosby is dying at home with his family around him and imagines his whole house collapsing in on him, and then the sky and heavens - in his last hours he revisits the mystery of his father and grandfather before him in a beautifully written, elegiac novel. 83. Skinny by Ibi Kashlik: Holly and Giselle are sisters, Holly a rising track star, Giselle an anorexic on self-destruct, tormented by her troubled relationship with her late father. 84. Emperor: Gates of Rome by Conn Iggulden: First of the Emperor quartet, a sword-and-sandals epic tracing the bloody rise to power of Julius Caesar [Historical - Ancient Rome]. 85. Alexander, Child of a Dream by Valerio Massimo Manfredi: First in trilogy, a finely written imaginative account of the boyhood of Alexander the Great, soon to become conqueror of the known world. [Historical - Ancient Greece]. 86. Wolf Totem by Jiang Rong: Beautifully evocative of the delicate eco-balance between wolves and nomadic herdsmen of Inner Mongolia, threatened in turn by the arrival of the officious bustling modern People’s Republic. 87. Dissolution by C. J. Sansom: First in the terrific Shardlake series. Matthew Shardlake, Tudor lawyer, is sent by Thomas Cromwell to investigate a sinister murder as Henry VIII dissolves the monasteries [Crime, Historical fiction - Tudor England].

88. Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel: Sympathetic, intelligently-written account of the rise of Thomas Cromwell, Henry VIII’s enforcer, followed now by the newly released sequel, Bring up the Bodies [Historical fiction - Tudor England]. 89. The Help by Kathryn Stockett: Jackson, Mississippi, 1962 - aspiring journalist Miss Skeeter begins to wonder why black maids raise white children yet aren’t trusted with the silver, and decides it’s their stories that need to be heard [Racism]. 90. One day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksander Solzhenitsyn: set in the Soviet labour camps of the 1950s, this famous book describes a single day in the life of one prisoner. 91. The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver: looks at the experience of a Baptist missionary’s family who go to the Congo in 1959 and whose fate unfolds over the

subsequent decades. 92. The Family on Paradise Pier by Dermot Bolger: a novel about three members of a privileged Donegal family following their lives as they interact with great events between 1915 and 1945. 93. The Siege by Helen Dunmore: set in the siege of Leningrad, this is an uplifting tale of decent people engulfed by disaster in 1941. 94. Pompeii by Robert Harris : gripping story set against the explosive events of 79 A.D. 95. Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks: a love story that also looks at the realities and horrors of the trenches of the First World War.

General non-fiction 1. Whoops by John Lanchester: An entertaining and scary account of how the world has got into its current financial mess. 2. Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight: an African Childhood by Alexandra Fuller: Beautifully evocative account of a childhood in Zimbabwe, Malawi and Zambia in the 1970s. 3. Zeitoun by Dave Eggers: Powerful story of how one man tried to help others in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina but then found himself a victim in awful circumstances. 4. Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser: Entertaining and horrifying story of where your burgers really come from; it will put you off fast food for life. 5. The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid by Bill Bryson: A very funny and affectionate evocation of a childhood in 1950s America. 6. The Shark Net by Robert Drewe: Beautifully told story of the author’s youth in Western Australia, and of how it overlapped with the story of a serial killer. 7. Krakatoa by Simon Winchester: The story of the massive 1883 volcanic eruption, with lots of fascinating historical and scientific detail. 8. Stasiland: true stories from behind the Berlin Wall by Anna Funder: This Australian journalist researched the stories of those who worked for the East German secret police, or whose lives were affected by the Stasi: the stories are consistently interesting and moving. 9. Dreams from my Father by Barack Obama: Long before anyone imagined he could become the most powerful person in the world, Obama produced this candid and beautifully written account of his upbringing. 10. Ship of Fools by Fintan O’Toole: The sub-title says it all : ‘How stupidity and corruption sank the Celtic Tiger’. Very readable account of our recent economic troubles.

Sports 1. Friday Night Lights : a town, a team and a dream by H.G.Bissinger: Often called ‘one of the best sports books ever written’ (and ‘better than the awful movie’), this tells the story of a team of 17 year-old boys in the most intense year of their lives. 2. Seabiscuit by Laura Hillenbrand: Great story of a special horse that won races against all the odds. 3. Only a Game by Eamonn Dunphy: One of the best accounts of what it is like to be an ordinary professional sportsman, set in English football before the Premier League era. 4. Brilliant Orange by David Winner: Holland may have been knocked out of Euro2012 in the first round, but the country still has a very distinguished football pedigree, and this is a fascinating study of the sport, and the country. 5. The Damned Utd by David Peace: Vivid and controversial semi-fictional account of the very short time that possibly the greatest of all English football managers, Brian Clough, spent with the greatest team of the 1970s, Leeds United.

6. Shakespeare by Bill Bryson: A well-researched, accurate and interesting account of the playwright’s life: not too academic, and recommended for general readers. 7. On and Off the Field by Ed Smith: The Wisden Book of the Year 2004 tells the story of an extraordinary cricket season for the author

Science 1. The Young Atheist's Handbook by Alom Shaha: An enthralling story of a young Muslim's exploration and appreciation of the world of science and his ensuing struggles with his faith. 2. A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson: An entertaining and surprisingly readable look at the history of the universe, planet Earth and human discovery. 3. A Really Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson: Again, an entertaining look at the history of science - this time aimed at younger readers and using wonderful illustrations. 4. The Science of Harry Potter by Roger Highfield: Highfield reveals new depth to Rowling’s series of books - revealing the true (and unexpected) science behind Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardry. 5. Tweeting the Universe by Marcus Chown & Govert Scilling: In 140 pages, two masterly popularisers present 140 explanations of the biggest questions in physics - in the form of 10 or so tweets per page. 6. Why Does E=mc2? (and Why Should We Care?) by Brian Cox & Jeff Forshaw : An exciting and accessible explanation of Einstein’s famous equation. 7. How to Destroy the Universe … and 34 other really interesting uses of physics by Paul Parsons: If you want to get to grips with science behind relativity, antigravity and parallel universes, or if you are really more interested in learning how to teleport, travel through time or achieve immortality, this is the perfect introduction to the amazing world of modern physics. 8. How to Live Forever: and 34 Other Really Interesting Uses of Science by Alok Jha: Dealing with an assortment of questions, from the very small to the very big, the book explores the majesty of the universe, cloned sheep, alien worlds, invisibility cloaks, how the mind works, quantum weirdness, parallel dimensions and time travel.

Senior History 1. Bomber Boys by Patrick Bishop: Fascinating history of the men of Bomber Command in World War II. 2. All Hell Let Loose - The World at War 1939-45 by Max Hastings: wonderful new book about that monumental struggle which left 60 million dead, focusing on its impact on people around the world. 3. Savage Continent : Europe in the Aftermath of World War Two by Keith Lowe: looks at the chaos, dislocation, famine and mass expulsions which happened in the aftermath of World War II 4. Inside Hitler’s Bunker by Joachim Fest tells the fascinating story of Hitler’s last days reconstructed from eye-witness accounts. 5. The End by Ian Kershaw: tries to explain why the Germans followed Hitler’s suicidal orders to the end. 6. A Woman in Berlin by Anonymous: one of the most harrowing accounts of war-time Berlin you could read by an intelligent, well-educated journalist. 7. The Road to Wigan Pier by George Orwell: a famous observant study of the wretched lives of the working class in the north of England during the depression of the 1930s. 8. Aristocrats by Stella Tillyard: the story of the Lennox sisters whose lives spanned the Georgian period of English and Irish history. 9. In the Footsteps of Mr Kurtz: Living on the Brink of Disaster in the Congo by Michela Wrong looks at the regime of the African despot Mobuto Sese Seko who plundered and pauperised his nation. 10. The Second World War in Photographs by Richard Holmes: this well-known historian has provided the text to explain some 500 photographs from the archive of the Imperial War Museum. 11. The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank: one of the most famous and eloquent books in the world! (Junior) And finally, two History of Art books 1. How to read a Painting: decoding, Understanding and Enjoying the Old Masters by Patrick de Rynck: illustrated book that looks at some of the clues to the meaning of some of the masterpieces of art history which may elude the modern eye. 2. Michelangelo and the Pope’s Ceiling by Ross King is about the creation of one of the world’s great masterpieces, the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.