Recommended Young Adult Reads from Amelia!

Published on 04 August 2024

Port Fairy Library regular, Amelia, has shared her recommended young adult books and two reviews with us!

Here are my top picks from the library for Teens and Tweens, and two book reviews:

One of us is Lying - By Karen M. McManus
The Fault in Our Stars - John Green
The School Masters Daughter - Jackie French
I Can Jump Puddles - Alan Marshell
The War That Saved My Life - Kimberly Brubaker Bradley
The Glimme - Emily Rodda and Marc McBride
A Tale of Magic - Chris Colfer
Finding Gobi - Dion Leonard
How to Save The World With a Chicken and an Egg - Emma Sheva
Hans Christian Anderson

One of us is lying

By Karen M. McManus

A geek, a jock, a criminal, a princess, a murder. Who would you believe? In a murder mystery case, Bronwyn, Copper, Addy and Nate are all suspects. All deny it was them.

I found ‘One of us is lying’ an intriguing book that I was unable to put down. I haven’t read many murder mystery/thriller books before, and the ones that I have read before are more the boarding school dramas, like ‘Murder Most Unlady Like’, when you can clearly see what is coming, and doesn’t really have a very thrilling plot. Whereas, in ‘One of us is lying’, I had no idea what was coming next. Just when I thought I had the plot sorted in my head, there would be another plot twist or sub plot that made me rethink my theory.

I was a bit nervous about reading ‘One of us is lying’ at first because, as I said, I hadn’t really read that type of book before. I had no idea about how dark it was or wasn’t going to be. It turns out though, that it was the perfect mix of dark, thrilling, intriguing and stimulating for my first time with the genre. It kept me fully involved with the plot the whole way through.

I would recommend this books to older readers, as it does have some sexual references and more violent parts. I highly recommend it to fans of murder mysteries, or people like me, who are just starting out.

How to save the world with a chicken and an egg

By Emma Shevah

I think “How to save the world with a chicken and an egg” is a powerful book that mix’s just the right amount of silly and fun into serious matters.

One of the two main characters, Ivy, is a headstrong young girl who likes being listened to and to be taken seriously, a thing that rarely happens, for the sake of the animals she is trying to help.

Nathaniel, the second main character is an awkward boy who does not know what to do around people, blurting out random facts when he is feeling nervous.

I loved how Emma Shevah slowly built up a picture of the two characters throughout the book so that I was still learning new things about them both well into the story. I could picture what both Ivy and Nathaniel looked like, as well as their surroundings, an even what they were thinking.

I think the plot she has chosen is an excellent one, keeping you intrigued at what the “Impossible Possible” is. I love how much Emma includes little animal facts into the story through Nathaniel, and how she makes both the characters human, complete with faults and personalities that are totally unique. (And that don’t instantly click.)

I would have liked to read more about chickens, as the title is “How to save the world with a chicken and an egg”, as the one chicken in the story is mostly forgotten about as the book progresses and I would have loved to read more about Dot Tthe chicken.)

Other than that, I think it was a wonderful book and I recommend it to people of all ages.

Thanks,

Amelia