February Top Book Picks
February has been a bumper month for fantastic new releases in children’s and YA publishing. We’ve finally got our hands on some much anticipated new titles that we can’t wait to share with you!
Fill your library with the very best books published each month with Book Launch. Every month we create a new collection packed with the latest titles from beloved series and exciting debuts from new authors so your shelves stay current and your readers stay curious.
The much anticipated new verse novel from Sarah Crossan doesn’t disappoint. This is a sensational and immersive thriller questioning controversial methods of controlling teen behaviour.
‘Connie Ryder is taken from her home in the dead of night and sent to Silver Lake Academy – a remote, high-security facility for ‘troubled’ teens. At Silver Lake, the vulnerable and the violent are locked in together under a brutal regime that aims to improve their behaviour. But when Connie learns she’s been given the bed of a missing girl named Belle, she is drawn deep into a chilling web of secrets and lies…’
This novel is a beautiful exploration of grief, friendship and survival against all odds. Connie’s observations about control, silencing emotion and mental health against the back drop of fear and mystery will have your students reading this in one sitting!
‘Packed with facts, stories, and secrets that tech leaders don’t want you to know, this book invites kids to step back from their screens and discover how capable, confident and adventurous they can be in the real world. The Anxious Generation started a world-changing conversation about the effects of smartphones and social media on young people. Now bestselling authors Jonathan Haidt and Catherine Price have teamed up to talk directly to kids, showing them it’s possible to live a fulfilling smartphone-free life.
Featuring a practical Tech Rebel Reset strategy, the book will show children how to:Break free from their phonesCreate more freedom in their dayRe-discover the joy of screen-free adventures. It can help them be amazing.’
I can’t overstate the importance of every child and teenager having access to this book. It needs to be in every classroom and Iibrary across the country. The Amazing Generation gives tweens and teens not only the information they need to realise the damage social media and screens do to their developing brains, self esteem and happiness but also solutions and tips for how to stop using incredibly addictive platforms. It is essential reading for students, teachers and parents. Most of the details will not be new to any of us: we all know kids should spend less time on screens. The power is in its simple messages, the quotes provided by young adults, the diagrams and pictures, the graphic novel emphasising how different life could be for the young people in our care.
‘Three children are off on a hunt for the perfect book! But first they’ve got to get through the noisy, cheerful playground, a sprinkly, splattery fountain, a chatty, clattery cafe and then choose from HUNDREDS of books! Will they each find the perfect book?’
The perfect way to celebrate the joy of reading with a twist on everyone’s favourite We’re Going on a Bear Hunt. This is a wonderful book to share around World Book Day in school. Take your class on a book hunt around your library, classroom and round the whole school! We can’t wait to see how you use this to create magical lessons about reading!
‘Eleven-year-old Zubair is a seventh son. This means a LOT of big brothersHe’ll use time-travel to fix things between them. But each trip comes at a cost. If he changes something small in the past, it can have a huge effect on his future. But when Zubair’s granny arrives from Pakistan and gives him a mysterious amulet, he discovers it means something else, too: he has inherited a gift. The seventh sons in his family have the ability to time-travel. With his dad a shadow of his former self since his car accident, and his mum always tired and angry, Zubair has a genius idea.
And if he gets it wrong, the results could be devastating . . .’
Time travel is always so popular with our students and this book does not disappoint! Trying to solve his family’s problems, Zubajr experiments with changing the past only to find the consequences unpredictable… This is an uplifting story about family life, sibling relationships and the special bond between grandson and granny. Zubair goes on a journey of discovery to find out more about his roots: learning more Punjabi and how Partition impacted his own family whilst trying to hold his parents’ rocky relationship together. A wonderful story to share with children aged 10-13.
‘He’s brave! He’s strong! He’s the size of a jam jar! He’s Tiny Hercules, the world’s tiniest hero – and he’s winning his way back to Tiny Olympus, one legendary deed at a time!Tiny Hercules has been banished to Earth as a punishment for ruining Tiny Zeus's bodacious party.
To get home he must complete twelve legendary tasks but it isn't going to be easy – even for a demigod. Crash landing in the peaceful town of Chutney-on-Toast, Tiny Hercules soon spots his first task: defeating a lion! (or maybe it's a cat!)All hell breaks loose in this zany comic book adventure!’
Graphic novels are so popular with younger students so we’re always on the look out for high quality, hilarious new titles to capture their imagination. This is a fabulous re-imagining of the 12 Labours or Hercules written for a modern audience. It comes highly recommended by my daughter!
The Wonder of Life on Earth packs billions of years of evolution into one amazing 80-page book, journeying through disasters, evolutionary oddities, and a planet shaped by supervolcanoes, toxic air, and asteroids – always focusing on the most pivotal, important moments. Talented botanical illustrator Raxenne Maniquiz brings to life a parade of strange and marvellous creatures. Travel back in time to look inside bacteria and the first cells, to the planet's first trees and plants, to the weird rangeomorphs, and on to armoured fishes, dinosaurs, nimble mammals and resourceful apes and primates.
Henry's gripping narrative makes it easy to understand the carbon cycle, natural selection, fossilisation and the galactic fluctuations that have shaped our planet and the life on its surface. Complete with a glossary, a timeline and a view into the future, this astonishing and readable natural history is perfect for younger readers and anyone looking for an accessible introduction to the biggest topic around: LIFE.
Red Star Rebels by Amie Kaufman
8 HOURS TO STOP AN EXPLOSION ... 8 HOURS TO FALL IN LOVE.
It's 2067, and the Graves family has transformed Mars from a lifeless rock into a chaotic patch of settlements - equal parts national pride, and corporate power grab. Enter Hunter Graves: handsome, ambitious, and with spectacularly bad timing. He shows up unannounced at the United Nations base just in time for a toxin alert to set off every alarm they've got.Then the evac pods leave without him. Also stranded: Cleo, a sharp-tongued stowaway with no intention of dying today, and even less patience for overconfident trust fund boys. But the enemy of your enemy is the jerk who might just help you survive.
There is no toxin. There is a team of invading mercenaries planning to blow up the base - and every trace of their crime - in eight hours. Now, Hunter and Cleo have one shot to stop the explosion, escape alive, and deal with the inconvenient fact that they're falling for each other.
The clock is ticking.
