Welcome to Bookstoker!
We’re here to help you find that book that you can’t put down, the book you’ll push on all your friends, the book that’ll change your life.
We read literary fiction, non-fiction, classics and children’s books, all genres and styles embraced in our aim to share the love. You’ll also find fabulous Bookstagrams and literary news.
A world of bookish delights!
Kirstin and Julie
Ant Stevenson is finding life complicated. As a 15-year-old boy who likes boys, the questions are piling up and there don’t seem to be any answers. We join him in Year 11 as he navigates changing friendships and the thorny topics of masculinity, sexuality, and internalised homophobia. With warmth, relatability and personal insight, Different for Boys by Patrick Ness helps Ant (and us) unpick the issues.
After a series of unfortunate school-related events, culminating in setting fire to his headteacher’s trousers, Harvey Small’s exasperated mother makes a momentous decision. Harvey is to go to Madame Bogbrush’s School for Gifted Giants, a curious decision as Harvey is neither gifted nor a giant. Equipped with stilts and a sense of foreboding, Harvey is set to discover that the world is far bigger than grown-ups would have us believe. Welcome to Small! by Hannah Moffatt, a merrily riotous tale shortlisted for the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize 2023.
We’re big fans of Enchanted Lion Books, publishers of gloriously unusual children’s literature. You Can’t Kill Snow White by Beatrice Alemagna is a stunning offering from their imprint, Unruly, on a mission to bring rich and innovative picture books to teenagers, because ‘we never age out of pictures’. In this revisiting of the Brothers Grimm fairytale classic, Alemagna shifts perspective to the jealous queen, asking the reader to focus on her dark heart, and the suffering behind it. Stripped of Disneyfication and much closer to the Brothers’ original, it’s a beautiful and brutal affair.
Voracious young bookworms need a steady diet of fabulous fiction, and their obliging parents are often relieved to discover a book series that stretches into infinity. How marvellous it is to report then, that There’s a Beast in the Basement by Pamela Butchart is the thirteenth in a series of uproarious school adventures spent in the company of Izzy and her intrepid pals. Previous exploits have seen their school seemingly plagued by aliens, werewolves and demon dinner ladies. This time round, there’s a beast lurking in the boiler room, and it has a murderous glint in its eyes. Read full Review
Practical, empathic and relatable, Failosophy for Teens by Elizabeth Day takes its lead from Albert Einstein’s assertion that failure is, in fact, success in progress. Hard enough to accept as an adult, for teenagers grappling with the challenges of life in our 21st century Insta-perfect world, learning to be at peace with failure is a big ask. Day’s toolkit includes practical exercises and advice ranging from zen philosophy to the scientific. ‘Failure just is,’ and this empowering guide aims to both defuse and soothe.
As we approach the first anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the media spotlight has occasionally dimmed. Published in association with the UN Refugee Agency, You Don’t Know What War Is by Yeva Skalietska serves as a heartfelt reminder, while offering young readers a window into the war through the eyes of a child. Yeva’s diary documents the early days of the invasion in her home city of Kharkiv, and her escape to safety, often via the kindness of strangers. Supplemented with photos, verbatim text messages from her left-behind friends, and news headlines, it’s a humbling read.
Published here in English for the first time, Glowrushes by Roberto Piumini is an enchanting classic of Italian children’s literature. Set in Turkey in bygone days, it tells the tale of an acclaimed artist, Sakumat, who has been summoned to the palatial home of a young invalid named Madurer. Stricken with a mysterious illness, Madurer is doomed to a short life within the confines of his windowless bedchambers. It will be Sakumat’s task to bring him the outside world via the magic of his paintbrush. What follows is a rich and affecting celebration of art, storytelling and friendship.
Bridie Sweeney is a slum-dwelling Victorian match girl. In her smoggy world of bone-weary souls, it’s hard to believe in the existence of magic. But as this is a fairytale, exist it does, in the form of three very special matches, the striking of which will illuminate Bridie’s path to an empowered future. The Little Match Girl Strikes Back by Emma Carroll is an audacious retelling of Hans Christian Anderson’s classic tale, one in which, instead of dying quietly in the street, our heroine leads the match factory workers out on strike.
Her foster mother, Annie, favours yoga as a de-stressing activity, but for Charlene it’s knitting, the rhythmic clickety click of the needles calming her troubled mind. An angry soul, she’s been knitting an awful lot lately, in a bid to deal with the death of her mother and life in the care system. When Annie’s antagonistic son destroys a very special blanket she’s making, Charlene’s rage leads to her stabbing his hand with her knitting needle. In Needle by Patrice Lawrence, we accompany an unrepentant Charlene on her journey to a police cell, and learn why sorry really is the hardest word.
Early on in the proceedings of The Zebra’s Great Escape by Katherine Rundell, we’re told by an agitated zebra that ‘adults always want to follow the rules!’ This is why times of crisis traditionally call for a free-spirited child, in this case a young girl called Mink. Flagrantly flouting bedtime orders, Mink is accosted in a city playground one evening by the distressed creature, who tells her that his parents have been captured by a moustachioed scoundrel. He needs her help, and as it turns out, so does an entire living alphabet of wild creatures in this deliciously colourful story from one of our favourite writers.
