CHILDREN
NEVER FORGET YOU by Jamila Gavin (Farshore £8.99, 512 pages)
NEVER FORGET YOU
by Jamila Gavin (Farshore £8.99, 512 pages)
Four teenage girls thrown together at boarding school in 1937 are linked by the fact that their parents are abroad: the Indian Princess Noor; shy Polish Jewess Vera; melodramatic, neglected dodo; and narrator Gwen, whose parents live in India.
As Hitler’s fascists rise Germanyeach girl will be tested by her reaction to conflict and to each other as they move from the innocent dreams of youth to the brutal reality of adulthood in a violent world.
Based on the true story of Noor Inayat Khan, a WWII British Resistance agent in France, this exciting and deeply moving adventure is seamlessly interwoven with the accomplished skill of the award-winning Gavin.
A BEGINNER’S GUIDE TO RULING THE GALAXY by David Solomons (Nosy Crow £7.99, 336pp)
BEGINNERS’ GUIDE TO MASTERING THE GALAXY
by David Solomons (Nosy Crow £7.99, 336 pages)
When Niki, the new girl at school, starts following Gavin around, he’s irritated – and then shocked when she asks him to help her fix her damaged spaceship.
Niki is a princess on the run from her evil, intergalactic, almighty parents, Pam and Derek, who will destroy Earth if they find them.
This wonderfully funny story involves space cannibals, an AI unicorn, a rogue bounty hunter cat, and a terrifying twist when Pam and Derek take up yoga and open a Netflix account.
Insanely inventive and with a message about the importance of family, this is not to be missed.
THE FIRE CATS OF LONDON by Anna Fargher (Macmillan £7.99, 288 pages)
THE FIRECATS OF LONDON
by Anna Fargher (Macmillan £7.99, 288 pages)
London, 1666. Asta and her brother Ash, two young wildcats trapped in the woods after their mother’s death, are brought to the city to barbarically manufacture lucrative “medicine” to be sold by a cruel apothecary.
Asta is desperate to escape, but Ash believes the lies fed to him by his master’s pet cat, who says they are safer in captivity. Herbalist Miriam, an animal rescuer, wants to help them – but how? Then the Great Fire breaks out and they risk losing everything in the flames.
Another compelling non-animal cruelty novel from the author of The Umbrella Mouse.
