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
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.
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Kirstin and Julie
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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.
Review by Kirstin
The Girl of Ink & Stars
Waterstones prize winner captures the power of myth in this inventive tale
The Girl of Ink & Stars has just added Waterstones Children’s Book 2017 to it’s collection of glowing accolades. Isabella lives on the myth-rich isle of Joya. Her father was once an accomplished cartographer, and she has inherited this gift. It provides a rich backdrop to her childhood. When her best friend Lupe vanishes, Isabella joins the search party, venturing into the uncharted interior of Joya, where nebulous terrors are lurking in it’s dark heart.
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Review by Kirstin
The Bookshop Girl
A joyously bookish crime caper
Property Jones lives in a bookshop. As if this isn’t the height of good fortune in itself, her family wins a raffle to become owners of the world famous Montgomery Book Emporium. This is, of course, a staggeringly marvellous turn of events. Or is it? Property wonders if maybe it’s just too good to be true.
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Three books on grief
Grief Works
Compassionate and constructive on mourning
Grief is the Thing with Feathers
Glorious on grief
Michael Rosen’s Sad Book
A comforting and illuminating read for melancholic moments
News by Julie
It’s official! Kindles are out, physical books are in.
I knew it! Although I occasionally use my Kindle, I’ve always had a soft spot for the real thing. The Guardian perfectly sums up why.
Here are some things that you can’t do with a Kindle. You can’t turn down a corner, tuck a flap in a chapter, crack a spine (brutal, but sometimes pleasurable) or flick the pages to see how far you have come and how far you have to go. You can’t remember something potent and find it again with reference to where it appeared on a right- or left-hand page. You often can’t remember much at all. You can’t tell whether the end is really the end, or whether the end equals 93% followed by 7% of index and/or questions for book clubs. You can’t pass it on to a friend or post it through your neighbour’s door.
How eBooks lost their shine ‘Kindles now look clunky and unhip’
News by Julie
Maylis de Kerangal wins Wellcome Book Prize 2017 for Mend the Living
Beautifully written, shockingly sad and profoundly thought-provoking, Mend the Living made a huge impression on me when I read it last year. This novel on organ donation is a well-deserved winner of the Wellcome Book Prize 2017. Highly recommended!
Review by Jane
The Power
F**k the Patriarchy
A clever imagining of a world in which women (literally) have the power, this Baileys-shortlisted novel blends science fiction with dystopian global politics. Think The Hunger Games meets late Jeanette Winterson with a dash of Malory Blackman, this is a book your teenage daughter will love.
News by Julie
Pulitzer Prize for Fiction 2017 goes to…
Great choice for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction 2017! Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad was one of my favourite new books last year. An American slave story written with imagination and originality. Read the full review here.
Review by Julie
Stay With Me
Not flawless but pretty impressive nonetheless
Yejide and Akin fall head over heals in love when they meet at university in Ife, Nigeria in the 1980s. Marriage follows soon thereafter as should babies, but none arrive. The humiliation of childlessness (particularly strong in Nigeria) propels Yejide, Akin and the tenacious mother-in-law to go to extreme lengths to fix it, jeopardising their mental health and relationship on the way. I was gripped by 26-year-old Adébáyò’s storytelling, despite her sometimes uneven writing. An easy, accessible novel that should garner many fans.
