Cambridge High School Library 2024

By: Kasie West Location: FIC WES Genre: Romance A perfect suumer read for those on our Summer Reading Holiday programme What do you do when you’ve fallen for your best friend? Funny and romantic, this effervescent story about family, friendship, and finding yourself is perfect for fans of Sarah Dessen and Jenny Han. Seventeen-year-old Abby Turner’s summer isn’t going the way she’d planned. She has a not-so-secret but definitely unrequited crush on her best friend, Cooper. She hasn’t been able to manage her mother’s growing issues with anxiety. And now she’s been rejected from an art show because her work “has no heart.” So when she gets another opportunity to show her paintings, Abby isn’t going to take any chances. Which is where the list comes in. Abby gives herself one month to do ten things, ranging from face a fear (#3) to learn a stranger’s story (#5) to fall in love (#8). She knows that if she can complete the list, she’ll become the kind of artist she’s always dreamed o...

By: Jennifer Estep Location: FIC EST Genre: Fantasy- magic Series: A Crown of Shards #1 Gladiator meets Game of Thrones A royal woman becomes a skilled warrior to destroy her murderous cousin, avenge her family, and save her kingdom in this first entry in a dazzling fantasy epic —an enthralling tale that combines magic, murder, intrigue, adventure, and a hint of romance . In a realm where one’s magical power determines one’s worth, Lady Everleigh’s lack of obvious ability relegates her to the shadows of the royal court of Bellona, a kingdom steeped in gladiator tradition. Seventeenth in line for the throne, Evie is nothing more than a ceremonial fixture, overlooked and mostly forgotten. But dark forces are at work inside the palace. When her cousin Vasilia, the crown princess, assassinates her mother the queen and takes the throne by force, Evie is also attacked, along with the rest of the royal family. Luckily for Evie, her secret immunity to magic helps her escape the mas...

By: Sarah J Schmitt Location: FIC SCH Genre: Young Adult Fantasy “ Everyone has something to learn and something to teach. Once you have done those two things, you have accomplished your life mission and it’s time to come home.” “Then” If you had one chance to change your future, would you?  This feels a bit like 5 People You Meeet In Heaven cross Book Thief! Seventeen-year-old RJ always gets what she wants. So when her soul is accidentally collected by a distracted Grim Reaper, somebody in the afterlife better figure out a way to send her back from the dead or heads will roll. But in her quest for mortality, she becomes a pawn in a power struggle between an overzealous archangel and Death Himself. The tribunal presents her with two options: she can remain in the lobby, where souls wait to be processed, until her original lifeline expires, or she can replay three moments in her life in an effort to make choices that will result in a future deemed worthy of being saved. I...

By: Kirk Wallace Johnson Location: NF 920 JOH Genre:   Bizarre and shocking crime! A whodunnit for bird lovers and fly fishermen Who is Edwin Rist? Johnson  makes his true-crime debut with this enthralling account of a truly bizarre crime.... Johnson goes deep into the exotic bird and feather trade and concludes that though obsession and greed know no bounds, they certainly make for a fascinating tale. The result is a page-turner that will likely appeal to science, history, and true crime readers * Publishers Weekly * One summer evening in 2009, twenty-year-old musical prodigy Edwin Rist broke into the British Museum of Natural History. Hours later, he slipped away with a suitcase full of rare bird specimens collected over the centuries from across the world, all featuring a dazzling array of priceless feathers. Kirk Wallace Johnson was waist-deep in a river in New Mexico when he first heard about the heist, from his fly-fishing guide. When he discovered tha...

By: Antonio Iturbe Location: FIC ITU Genre: Historical Fiction- Holocaust This book is FULL! “Books are extremely dangerous; they make people think.”  ―  Antonio Iturbe,  The Librarian of Auschwitz “Throughout history, all dictator, tyrants, and oppressors, whatever their ideology - whether Aryan, African, Asian, Arab, Slav, or any other racial background; whether defenders of popular revolutions, or the privileges of the upper classes, or God's mandate, or martial law - have had one thing in common: the vicious persecution of the written word. ―  Antonio Iturbe,  La bibliotecaria de Auschwitz  Or newspapers as well.... Based on the experience of real-life Auschwitz prisoner Dita Kraus, this is the incredible story of a girl who risked her life to keep the magic of books alive during the Holocaust. Fourteen-year-old Dita is one of the many imprisoned by the Nazis at Auschwitz. Taken, along with her mother and father, from the Terezín ghetto in P...

By: Peter Watts Location: FIC WAT Genre:  Science Fiction Bottom Line:  If you love a sci-fi that makes you really think, but is also full of action, this is one you won't want to miss!  - Shannon She believed in the mission with all her heart. But that was sixty million years ago. How do you stage a mutiny when you're only awake one day in a million? How do you conspire when your tiny handful of potential allies changes with each shift? How do you engage an enemy that never sleeps, that sees through your eyes and hears through your ears and relentlessly, honestly, only wants what best for you? Sunday Ahzmundin is about to find out. Every time I read Peter Watts, I find myself looking up words that I had no idea existed. I like to think of myself as a pretty smart guy, and Watts' books blow a hole in that idea every single time. I love them despite this. Or maybe because of it. It is a joy to see someone work at the very top of their game and make it look so eff...

By: Caleb Carr Location: FIC CAR Genre: Thriller- Historical Fiction “The defenders of decent society and the disciples of degeneracy are often the same people.”   When The Alienist was first published in 1994, it was a major phenomenon, spending six months on the New York Times bestseller list, receiving critical acclaim, and selling millions of copies. This modern classic continues to be a touchstone of historical suspense fiction for readers everywhere. The year is 1896. The city is New York. Newspaper reporter John Schuyler Moore is summoned by his friend Dr. Laszlo Kreizler—a psychologist, or “alienist”—to view the horribly mutilated body of an adolescent boy abandoned on the unfinished Williamsburg Bridge. From there the two embark on a revolutionary effort in criminology: creating a psychological profile of the perpetrator based on the details of his crimes. Their dangerous quest takes them into the tortured past and twisted mind of a murderer who will kill again ...

By: Hayley Lawrence Location: FIC LAW Genre: Law-Love- Life -Loss "A captivating and raw read about a school girl writing to a prisoner on death row (only a year older than herself).  It is a story of hope, determination and personal sacrifice. " It’s not because Bel’s mother was murdered. It’s not because her father is a politician. Bel writes to a Death Row prisoner as an easy way out of an assignment. But now he’s written back. Drawn to Micah’s world inside a Thai prison, she finds herself falling for the boy with ragged hair, shackles and a terrible past. Will Bel lose him too? And could it mean losing the people who mean the most to her at home? Whatever happens, none of them will ever be the same . "Inside the Tiger is a must-read for those who find themselves unsure about approaching and even befriending those who are vastly different to themselves. Anyone wanting to grow in their capacity for empathy and understanding will thoroughly enjoy and benefit ...

By: Christelle Dabos Location: FIC DAB Genre: Fantasy Series: The Mirror Visitor #1 Translated by Hildegarde Serle Translated from the French, this international bestseller is world-building at its best. The unusual settings, original characters, dark intrigue, and fast-moving plot result in a book that leaves readers eagerly awaiting the next volume. It has great adult crossover as the characters and situations cross age levels.' * School Library Journal Long ago, following a cataclysm called ‘The Rupture’, the world was shattered into floating celestial islands, known now as Arks. Ophelia lives on Anima, an Ark where objects have souls. Beneath her worn scarf and thick glasses, Ophelia hides two powers: the ability to read the past of objects and their human owners, and the ability to travel through mirrors. When she is promised in marriage to Thorn, the young girl must leave her family and follow her fiancé to Citaceleste, the floating capital of a distant Ark. Why has sh...

By: Maureen Goo Location: FIC GOO Genre: Young Adult- Romance I have just been to the USA and those American food trucks house the most delicious food, especially the mexican ones. Tacoedelicious. What a perfect setting for a youth fiction novel! Teenage angst, joy, family, relationships, all mixed with salsa and guacamole! From the author of  I Believe in a Thing Called Love , a laugh-out-loud story of love, new friendships, and one unique food truck. " This was a light, adorable read! I loved the food truck aspect as well!!  I loved every INCH of this book. It's sweet and funny and full of pranks and pure joy. Clara has such a clear, distinct voice; there's no other character is YA lit like her right now, and I absolutely couldn't get enough. This book has real depth too - why we hold things at arms length and why caring about this is so hard. PICK UP THIS BOOK. You won't regret. Very highly recommended . Goodreads recommendation Clara Shin lives for pr...

By: Emma Mills Locvtion: FIC MIL Genre:Youth Fiction- Romance “ The thing about fic is that is comes from love. Characters you love so much, that you feel so deeply for, you'll watch them fall in love a thousand different ways, over and over.”   “Dreams don't have to be realistic- that's why they're dreams. You have to work to make them happen. Or else they would be...realities" Filled with intense and important friendships, a wonderful warts-and-all family, shiveringly good romance, and sharp, witty dialogue, this story from Emma Mills ( First & Then ) is about finding the people you never knew you needed. Sloane isn’t expecting to fall in love with a group of friends when she moves from New York to Florida—especially not a group of friends so intense, so layered with private tragedies and secret codes, so all-consuming. Yet that’s exactly what happens. And it will lead her (and, um, her dad) on a life-changing adventure. Sloane becomes closest to Ver...

By: Christina Dalcher Location: FIC DAL Genre:Dystopia, Feminism Set in a United States in which half the population has been silenced,  Vox  is the harrowing, unforgettable story of what one woman will do to protect herself and her daughter. On the day the government decrees that women are no longer allowed more than one hundred words per day, Dr. Jean McClellan is in denial. This can't happen here. Not in America. Not to her.  This is just the beginning... Soon women are not permitted to hold jobs. Girls are not taught to read or write. Females no longer have a voice. Before, the average person spoke sixteen thousand words each day, but now women have only one hundred to make themselves heard. ...not the end.  PRAISE FOR VOX  "Christina Dalcher's debut novel, set in a recognizable near future and sure to beg comparisons to Margaret Atwood's dystopian The Handmaid's Tale, asks: if the number of words you could speak each day was suddenly and severely li...

By: David Chariandy Location: FIC CHA Genre: Coming of age, Immigrant I wanted the best for these boys, I wanted their mothers dreams for them and all her hard work to matter, I wanted his intelligence to count, I wanted the romance to blossom, I wanted belonging to happen, I wanted them to get a break, I wanted them to be couragous for the right things.... Michael and Francis are the bright, ambitious sons of Trinidadian immigrants. Coming of age in the outskirts of a sprawling city, the brothers battle against careless prejudices and low expectations. While Francis aspires to a future in music, Michael dreams of Aisha, the smartest girl in their school, whose eyes are firmly set on a life elsewhere. But one sweltering summer night the hopes of all three are violently, irrevocably cut short. In this timely and essential novel, David Chariandy builds a quietly devastating story about the love between a mother and her sons, the impact of race, masculinity and the senseless loss of...

By: Stuart Turton Location: FIC TUR Genre: Mystery How do you stop a murder that’s already happened? At a gala party thrown by her parents, Evelyn Hardcastle will be killed--again. She's been murdered hundreds of times, and each day, Aiden Bishop is too late to save her. Doomed to repeat the same day over and over, Aiden's only escape is to solve Evelyn Hardcastle's murder and conquer the shadows of an enemy he struggles to even comprehend--but nothing and no one are quite what they seem. Aiden Bishop is destined to relive the same day over and over again, in eight different bodies, until he can solve the murder of Evelyn Hardcastle. If he does not succeed at the end of that time, the loop restarts and he loses all of his memories of the previous loop, forcing him to start over from scratch with even the basics – who am I? What am I doing here? He realizes that he is both the hunted and the hunter, an innocent and a deceiver, in this highbrow whodunnit.  “ The Se...

By: Todd Lockwood Location: FIC LOC Genre: Fantasy, Dragons Series: Evertide#1 " The master of dragon art brings the same skills to dragon storytelling. This is a compelling, fully realized story which is as detailed and exciting as anything since the Pern tales. A sure winner." --Terry Brooks The debut novel from the acclaimed illustrator--a high fantasy adventure featuring dragons and deadly politics. Maia and her family raise dragons for the political war machine. As she comes of age, she hopes for a dragon of her own to add to the stable of breeding parents. But the war goes badly, and the needs of the Dragonry dash her hopes. Her peaceful life is shattered when the Summer Dragon--one of the rare and mythical High Dragons--makes an appearance in her quiet valley. The Summer Dragon is an omen of change, but no one knows for certain what kind of change he augurs. Political factions vie to control the implied message, each to further their own agendas. And so Maia...

By: Robert Muchamore Location: FIC MUC Genre: Dystopia THE writer of the Cherub series has a new book!!! "Tis book was difficult to put down once I got into it. Muchamore poses an interesting question : "What would happen if gene editing technology became common place and could be undertaken anywhere by anyone?" The answer is frightening. Fast paced and well researched, I really enjoyed this book and I will be recommending it to all my students." Trish- a well respected school librarian! Harry and Charlie are teenagers who meet at a time when gene-editing technology is starting to explode. Now, with a lab in the garage, anyone can beat cancer, enhance their brain to pass exams, or tweak a few genes for a year-round tan and perfect beach body. But in the wrong hands gene-editing is the most deadly weapon in history. Killer T is a synthetic virus with a ninety per cent mortality rate, and the terrorists who created it want a billion dollars before they'l...

By: Lousie O'Neill Location: FIC ONE Genre: Retelling Fantasy “ We are women. And women are warriors, after all.” “I'm beginning to wonder that if, when we call a woman crazy, we should take a look at the man by her side, and guess at what he has done to drive her to insanity.”   “It is your father who has insisted on calling me a 'witch'. That's is simply a term that men give women who are not afraid of them, women who refuse to do as they are told” Deep beneath the sea, off the cold Irish coast, Gaia is a young mermaid who dreams of freedom from her controlling father. On her first swim to the surface, she is drawn towards a human boy. She longs to join his carefree world, but how much will she have to sacrifice? What will it take for the little mermaid to find her voice? Hans Christian Andersen's original fairy tale is reimagined through a searing feminist lens, with the stunning, scalpel-sharp writing and world building that has won Louise her legi...