Cambridge High School Library 2024

By: Amie Kaufman and jay Kristoff Location: FIC KAU Genre: Sci Fi, a dystopic fantasy with romance, creative and very unique! Visually,  Illuminae  is an extremely fun and unique kind of book. It's a romantic space opera told through a collection of interview transcripts, diary entries, emails and gorgeous space images . The year is 2375 and one of the mega-corporations that control much of deep space has just fired the opening salvo in an intergalactic war, destroying Kady and Ezra's planet. Forced to flee on a small fleet of crippled rescue ships alongside thousands of other refugees, the fear of enemy warships chasing them down is at first all-consuming but soon becomes the least of their worries. A deadly plague is ravaging the refugees on the ships; the fleet's AI, which should be protecting them, may actually be an enemy; and High Command is refusing to acknowledge that there may be a serious problem. As Kady plunges into a tangled web of data in search of th...

  Guess what is coming to the big screen!!!! This is going to be amazing and this book was always going to be a movie. As always read it first!

By:John Donoghue Location: FIC DON Genre: Historical, WWII, Brilliant read I was taught chess by my Dad in our lounge, by the fire on cold winters nights in the heart of Canterbury. Chess has warm memories, and as I now use it in the library to teach and challenge some of our young men, I have grown to value its power to give ability to self determine the plays you make in life. I tell the boys that the queen is the AK47, they like that! I am also so proud my Dad taught me this game as well as my brothers, it is something I have reflected on a bit lately, the things my Dad did to give me a chance to flourish. Like Chess in this book, but it was about survival! Chess is the centre article to this story about guilt, forgiveness and redemption. This is the story  mainly of three men, the 'watchmaker' and Jew Emil Clement, former SS officer and now priest Paul Meissner and Willi Schweninger who worked in the Propaganda Ministry during WWII. Going back and forth in time between...

By: Julie Murphy Location: FIC MUR Genre: Romance, YA, Your body is yours- be proud if it Working in a high school I see so many students who feel self-conscious, people who make snide comments about someone's appearance without thinking, and moments of people doubting themselves for whatever reason. This novel is about Willow (full name Willowdean) who is called 'Dumplin' ' by her mum. Why? Because her mum is an ex beauty queen who basically sees people for who they are based on their exterior. Sound familiar? Willow rocks. She breaks out against this cruel nickname and even decides to enter a beauty competition that her mum is running! Queue the outrage... *now*... Yep- she shocks her friend, her mum, and she even gets the hot  boy. Oh and do you want to know Willow's tip for how to get a bikini body? It is nearly summer after all- Step One- take one body. Your body will do. Step Two- put a bikini on it. Done that? Now you have yourself a bikini ...

By: Brandon Sanderson Location: FIC SAN Genre: Sanderson- thats all! “Well, when the fear of death seizes you—when the dark thoughts come—you stare the darkness right back, and you tell it, ‘I will not listen to you, for I am infinite Batmans.” I loved L egion and this is not a genre or author I normally read, but I respect Sanderson big time, he has a huge following with many of our students but most of all my son! This was the series by him I read to find out why he was so popular. I was not disappointed! I was sucked in, I laughed, I was desperate to be in with the crowd that solved the mystery... it was a great read! Legion I reckon must be named after the dude in the Bible who has many inhabitants, or "aspects".  One man- many personalities with superpowers! This is book number two... Stephen Leeds, AKA “Legion,” is a man whose unique mental condition allows him to generate a multitude of personae: hallucinatory entities with a wide variety of personal character...

By: Robyn Schneider Location: FIC SCH Genre: Break your heart- Youth Fiction with illness and some loving! A bitter-sweet, coming-of-age novel that's perfect for fans of John Green and Stephen Chbosky. Extraordinary Means is a darkly funny story about true friendships, ill-fated love and the rare miracle of second chances. Tuberculosis is a disease I have seen close up overseas. Most of us in NZ over a certain older age have tattooed scars on our shoulder that informs us we are immunized from TB. New Zealand is now basically clear of this scourge. But back in the day we had plenty of it and as I look out my office window I see a local landmark called Sanatorium Hill  or perhaps correctly now known as Mangakawa. This is where sufferers went to get clean air to rid there bodies of the TB disease. I wonder what it would be like if all the people in that sanatorium were teenagers, suffering, loving, surviving and hoping t...

By: Tom Leveen Location: FIC LEV Genre:  YA -  Cyber Bullying Huge topics are covered in this moving and all to realistic book; cyber bullying, youth suicide, understanding sexuality, and the power of teenagers who hurt other so badly only to protect themselves. It is about being swept up in meanness. " This is a  novel better made for thinking, rather than enjoying--Random is a novel that I'll think about for a while in a way I hadn't anticipated.This novel, is sitting with me--it's taken refuge in my brai n."   Jazman- Goodreads Tori is known as one of the Canyon Seven, a group of teens whose malicious online comments has caused  of one of their classmates to commit suicide. It is the night before her trial begins, and she is busy hating everything about her life. She hates her parents who removed the computer from her room and took away her iPhone, leaving her with a crappy, old flip phone. She hates her brother who stopped talking to her when she was...

By: Anthony Doeer Location: FIC DOE Genre: WWII in beauty,in pain,  in heart and in soul How so apt that on my first day back on the blog I have chosen this  PULITZER PRIZE winner. This book is set in Paris, the city of light. Twice in its history it has been shut down, curfew-ed, darkened. Once in WWII when this story is written and the other this weekend when raging militants terminated the lives of innocents in heartless gore.  Darkened. Paris. This story is one I read on my  recent journeys and as I traveled the story traveled with me. It is beautifully written, it is about a bout a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths collide in occupied France as both try to survive the devastation of World War II. It is about how enemy's exist and in mutual respect for humanity they fight for life, they fight for meaning in an arena of death and hate. They fight for a world where  innate reason plays a st...

By: Mrs Bichan Location: In the Library Genre:  Be the change... What a journey I  have had. Four different nations in six weeks. Each different, each unique, each one with its own powerful story to tell. Each nation I reckon can be defined by what you eat in it and what you read there. Australia I had an amazing steak, cooked on my own on the restaurants BBQ, self sufficient, hardy and just like Bryce Courtney s characters in The Potato Factory.  South Africa on the other hand is another story. The range of food is amazing but the seafood is the best, it is beautifully cooked, flavorsome and tender. Nothing in my mind beats a Pamela Joost novel, it is well crafted, tender and leaves you wanting more.  Tanzania- the food is not great, these people live in tough places and the staple diet is Ugali, a stiff dough made from cassava flour.  It is tasteless. I did not find any books written by Tanzanian authors, I hope one day there will be some as sweet a...