Mr Ripley's Enchanted Books: #1 Book Recommendation September 2014 - Paul Southern - Killing Sound

When Jodie’s parents were killed years ago during one of her father’s experiments with sound waves, Jodie was thought to be the only witness. But something else was released into the room that night. And its silence is deadly …

Jodie is cursed with a terrible gift. She just doesn’t know it yet. When she stumbles across one of her dead father’s old papers on sound waves in the attic, it sets her on a terrifying journey to find out more, leading her across the streets of London to the dark, untrodden tunnels of the Underground, where she is forced to face the truth. Her worst nightmare is about to become real. Worse, she can hear it coming.

Notes from the Author

"I wanted to write a book that, as a teenager, I would love to have read. I also wanted to scare the living daylights out of myself. Killing Sound is a book about the imagination and ghosts and science and superstition. It has a lot of Victorian melodrama and gothic horror to it – very dark and creepy – and I would recommend you sleep with the "I wanted to write a book that, as a teenager, I would love to have read. I also wanted to scare the living daylights out of myself. Killing Sound is a book about the imagination and ghosts and science and superstition. It has a lot of Victorian melodrama and gothic horror to it – very dark and creepy – and I would recommend you sleep with the light on after reading it. It was inspired by a quote I read about the London Underground from 1860: ‘The forthcoming end of the world would be hastened by the construction of underground railways burrowing into infernal regions and thereby disturbing the devil.’ As soon as I saw it, I was drawn inexorably down there to see if it were true."

About the Author

Paul Southern is a former 90’s pop star and academic who has previously written scary crime novels for adults. He was due to be born on Halloween night sometime in the 1960’s, and it still rankles with him that he wasn't . He has lived all over the UK but eventually settled in Manchester (which is quite scary, too). He can be found building various contraptions designed to ward off evil and wearing a top hat on midnight walks.

Mr Ripley's Highlighted New Books: Published April 2013 - UK Post Two

                                           

Gill Arbuthnott - Dark Spell - Published by Kelpies - 25 April, 2013

15-year-old Callie Hall has just found out she's a witch, and things keep going wrong. Sometimes her mind seems to make things happen, things she can't control. She can set fire to things without a match, and when she's angry people can get hurt. Her friend Josh understands she's a bit weird, but its only on a dark and dangerous visit to the tunnels under the ruins of St Andrews' castle that he realises just how strange she really is. Something comes back with Callie -- in Callie, something she can't escape. Can Callie control her power long enough to send back the darkness, before it takes over her life? And will Josh ever understand her secret? A brilliant, engrossing teen fantasy from the author of Winterbringers and The Keeper's Daughter.

                                           

Conrad Mason - The Goblin's Gift  - Published by David Fickling Books - 4 April, 2013

Joseph Grubb is the newest member of the Demon's Watch. He and his fellow watchmen protect Port Fayt, where humans live in peace alongside trolls, elves and fairies. And now the town needs them more than ever, because the almighty League of the Light has sent an armada to wipe it off the map.

Fayt's only hope is to persuade the magical merfolk to fight with them. But the merfolk won't go to war. Not unless their princess is returned to them from the clutches of the most dangerous nine-year-old in the Ebony Ocean.

It's up to Joseph and his friend Tabitha to rescue the mermaid princess . . . But a secret from Joseph's past is about to change everything.

                                     

Eoin Colfer - W.A.R.P - The Reluctant Assassin - Published by Puffin - 11 April, 2013
The reluctant assassin is Riley, a Victorian boy who is suddenly plucked from his own time and whisked into the twenty-first century, accused of murder and on the run.

Riley has been pulled into the FBI's covert W.A.R.P. operation (Witness Anonymous Relocation Program). He and young FBI Agent Chevie Savano are forced to flee terrifying assassin-for-hire Albert Garrick, who pursues Riley through time and will not stop until he has hunted him down. Barely staying one step ahead, Riley and Chevie must stay alive and stop Garrick returning to his own time with knowledge and power that could change the world forever.

                                           

Arnett Mindee - Nightmare Affair - Published by Tor Teen - 13 April, 2013

Sixteen-year-old Dusty Everhart breaks into houses late at night, but not because she's a criminal. No, she's a Nightmare. Literally. Being the only Nightmare at Arkwell Academy, a boarding school for magickind, and living in the shadow of her mother's infamy, is hard enough. But when Dusty sneaks into Eli Booker's house, things get a whole lot more complicated. He's hot, which means sitting on his chest and invading his dreams couldn't get much more embarrassing. But it does. Eli is dreaming of a murder. Then Eli's dream comes true. Now Dusty has to follow the clues - both within Eli's dreams and out of them - to stop the killer before more people turn up dead. And before the killer learns what she's up to and marks her as the next target.

Mr Ripley's Highlighted New Books: Published April 2013 - UK Post One

                                                 

Julia Golding - Young Knights of the Round Table - Published By OUP Oxford,  4, April 2013

HUMANS ARE THE ENEMY! 

That's what Rick's been taught to believe by the Fey Folk who stole him. Taken to the magical realm of Avalon, he's been trained, alongside other kids like him, into an elite force of warriors. 

When rumours start that a new generation of knights are re-forming the Round Table to attack Avalon, the Fey entrust Rick with a mission: go to Earth, find the knights, and stop them.

Simple, right? Well, not exactly . . . No training could prepare him for the shock of being a modern teenager. And when he discovers that the Fey have been lying to him, Rick has to ask: if humans aren't the enemy-who is?

                                                

Gillian Cross - After Tomorrow - Published By OUP Oxford, 4 April 2013 

What if you woke up tomorrow and everything had changed? Money is worthless. Your friends are gone. Armed robbers roam the streets. No one is safe. For Matt and his little brother, Taco, that nightmare is a reality. Their only hope of survival is to escape through the Channel Tunnel. But danger waits on the other side...Stay or go. What would you do?

                                           

Martha Wells - Emilie and the Hollow World - Published By Strange Chemistry, 4 April 2013

While running away from home for reasons that are eminently defensible, Emilie’s plans to stow away on the steamship Merry Bell and reach her cousin in the big city go awry, landing her on the wrong ship and at the beginning of a fantastic adventure.

Taken under the protection of Lady Marlende, Emilie learns that the crew hopes to use the aether currents and an experimental engine, and with the assistance of Lord Engal, journey to the interior of the planet in search of Marlende’s missing father.

With the ship damaged on arrival, they attempt to traverse the strange lands on their quest. But when evidence points to sabotage and they encounter the treacherous Lord Ivers, along with the strange race of the sea-lands, Emilie has to make some challenging decisions and take daring action if they are ever to reach the surface world again.

                                          
Helen Grant - Silent Saturday: Forbidden Spaces Trilogy - Published By Bodley Head, 4, April 2013

Seventeen-year-old Veerle is bored with life in suburban Brussels. But a chance encounter with a hidden society, whose members illegally break into unoccupied buildings around the city, soon opens up a whole new world of excitement - and danger.

When one of the society's founding members disappears, Veerle suspects foul play. But nothing can prepare her for the horror that is about to unfold when an old foe emerges from the shadows... No one is safe, and The Hunter will strike again...

Mr Ripley's Book Choice: Gobbolino, The Witch's Cat,70th Anniversary - Ursula Moray Williams illustrated by Catherine Rayner

             

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Macmillan Children's Books (11 Oct 2012)

                        

The 70th anniversary edition of this classic and timeless tale

No one could mistake Gobbolino for a simple kitchen cat, with his sparky whiskers and magic tricks, but that’s just what the witch’s kitten wants to be. Instead of learning how to turn mice into toads for the witch’s brew, Gobbolino sets out on an adventure to find a family and a home of his own.

Reissued for its 70th anniversary with illustrations by the award-winning Catherine Rayner, this classic tale has been loved by generations of children.

Book Choice - Dave Shelton - A boy and a Bear in a Boat and Reading

A boy and a bear go to sea, equipped with a suitcase, a comic book and a ukulele. They are only travelling a short distance and it really shouldn't take long. But then their boat encounters 'unforeseeable anomalies'...

 Faced with turbulent stormy seas, a terrifying sea monster and the rank remains of The Very Last Sandwich, the odds soon become pitted against our unlikely heroes. Will the Harriet, their trusted vessel, withstand the violent lashings of the salty waves? And will anyone ever answer their message in a bottle?

'He looked past the bear. There was still no sign of land ahead of them. But there was no sign of the land they'd set out from behind them either. In fact in every direction all he could see was sea and sky. He looked at his watch but it showed exactly the same time now as it had when they had set off. He held it to his ear but it was silent.'

A Boy and a Bear in a Boat is a very unusual book. The storytelling is calm, rich and surprising - much like the sea on which the Harriet journeys. A sea which stretches on past the horizon but which also seems to extend and grow onwards - like the journey that the boy and the bear are making together. The boy is curious, impatient and definitely not impressed with the boat's captain. But the bear rows on, at ease with their progress and routine. Mostly. The habits that the bear relishes - taking tea, singing along to his ukelele, and ever rowing onwards - puzzle, disgust and delight the boy in turn. Their story is one of hilarity, trouble and glee. ..And then there is The Very Last Sandwich to contend with.

• Hardcover: 300 pages
• Publisher: David Fickling Books (5 Jan 2012)
• Language English
• ISBN-10: 0385618964
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