Bookstoker Young Readers
13 Reasons Why
A contentious handling of teen suicide in the novel of the much hyped Netflix series
New and Collected Poems for Children
An exuberant journey to the heart of childhood imagination
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
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Review by Kirstin
New and Collected Poems for Children
An exuberant journey to the heart of childhood imagination
In this 2017 edition, our Poet Laureate presents poems from previous collections, plus a handful of new. A delicious assortment, it honours the fantastical landscape of our children’s inner lives, and tells us that poetry belongs to us all, it is the music of being human.
Review by Kirstin
The Private Blog of Joe Cowley: Straight Outta Nerdsville by Ben Davis
Cheerfully asinine teen diary, for the big kids in your life.
‘Too old for Wimpy Kid? Meet Joe Cowley’. A fitting tag line to lead us into the fourth instalment of this series. 16-year-old Joe and his band ‘Sound Experience’, move to London, in pursuit of stardom and cosmopolitan living. A squirm- inducing comedy of embarrassment is to follow. Do you have a teenage boy in your life who chuckles at flatulence, cringe comedy, and the word ‘knobber’ as a term of insult? If they also happen to be reluctant readers, then the Joe Cowley series could well be an essential purchase.
Review by Kirstin
13 Reasons Why
A contentious handling of teen suicide in the novel of the much hyped Netflix series
Hannah Baker is dead. She committed suicide two weeks ago, shocking her local community. But there are thirteen reasons why she died, and she wants Clay Jensen to know what they are. Her secrets call to him from beyond the grave, and what they reveal blows his world apart. The buzz around 13 Reasons Why has been huge. First published a decade ago, public interest has been reignited by the recent 13-part Netflix series, rocketing it into the bestseller charts.
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Fancy a historical fiction novel? Here are some of our favourites.
The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet
If you read one book this year, let this be it
The Quincunx
Lose yourself in this epic historical novel
The Blue Flower
Historical fiction at it's best. A modern classic.
The Leopard
Sensual, sensuous and melancholic Italian classic
Review by Meg
Golden Hill
A brilliant debut novel about New York in its infancy
New York, a small frontier town on the tip of Manhattan Island, 1746. One rainy autumn night, a mysterious, handsome stranger, fresh off the long Atlantic crossing from England, turns up at a counting house on Golden Hill Street in Manhattan. The enigmatic young man has a suspicious yet compelling proposition. From his pocket, he produces what seems to be a promissory note for a thousand pounds that he wishes to cash. An enormous sum of money in 1746, this bill has the power to shake the whole local economy as well as the political establishment. And, amiable and charming though Smith is, he won’t explain who he is or where he comes from, let alone what he is planning to do in the colonies that requires so much money.
Review by Julie
The Handmaid’s Tale
Back to the future in this creepy, dystopian tale
I devoured Margaret Atwood’s The Blind Assassin and Alias Grace when they came out quite a few years ago, but somehow missed The Handmaid’s Tale. That was a mistake. Atwood’s dystopian, futuristic story about a totalitarian regime where women’s bodies are political currency has become a modern classic since it was published in 1985. Even more relevant now with religious and political extremism on the rise, The Handmaid’s Tale is about to come out as a TV-series. I suggest reading it first. It’s creepy, it’s dark and it’s a page-turner that will keep you reading long into the night.
Three Mesmerising Books on Medicine
Do No Harm: Stories of Life, Death and Brain Surgery
Engrossing insight into the life of a brain surgeon
Being Mortal
Surprisingly reassuring on a grim subject
Gut: The Inside Story of Our Body’s Most Underrated Organ
Fascinating insight, farts and all
Bookstoker Young Readers
The Girl of Ink & Stars
Waterstones prize winner captures the power of myth in this inventive tale
The Bookshop Girl
A joyously bookish crime caper
The Hate U Give
Ignite your teenager's social conscience with this acclaimed debut
Review by Kirstin
The Hate U Give
Ignite your teenager's social conscience with this acclaimed debut
Starr’s best friend, Khalil, is murdered by a police officer, in front of her eyes. Khalil, a young black man, is unarmed. The officer, who is white, shoots Khalil in the back. In this electrifying new YA novel, we join Starr, in her fight for justice against the hostile might of the U.S establishment.
