Synopsis: This is the second title in the Archisan series. Once again Taya and Lorkrin, the Myunan teenagers, find themselves facing real dangers as they race to save their parents trapped in the mines under Mount Absaleth. In the company of their Uncle Emos and Draegar, the Parsinor, they will have to travel across the territory of the xenophobic Reisenicks. But Absaleth is no ordinary ...

Synopsis: Set in a world where the sea is made of gas; where Myunans are a race of shape-changers, modelling their flesh like plasticine; a world under threat from the militaristic, technology-loving Noranians, Taya and Lorkin, Myunanan teenagers with an unerring instinct for trouble, are catapulted into a race to save the coastland countries from the consequences of the mysterious Harv ...

Synopsis: In this first person narrative, sixteen year old Keith Martin gives an account of his experience as a very special child minder. When his mother goes away to an Open University summer school, he is given the job of looking after his three year old sister, Annie. Although it is the summer holidays, Keith is happy to take on the role of child-minder, as it will be a means of ear ...

Synopsis: The year is 1901. As Queen Victoria lies dying, Montmorency and his friends are already in mourning, and determined to track down the killers who have wrecked their lives. It’s personal obsession, but Montmorency has public duties too, and when the two collide, he must decide which comes first.

Can he stop Doctor Farcett’s slide into insanity? And how can he ...

Synopsis: On the island of Tarnagar, is an asylum where you can be locked up for dreaming. Dante is the kitchen boy who brings the inmates their meals. Bea is the privileged daughter of doctors. Their worlds collide when Ezekiel Semiramis, a new patient arrives. He knows more than he should. He knows Dante’s mother didn’t kill herself but was murdered. He knows about the rui ...

Synopsis:Rosita is a young girl whose loving mother commands a strange kind of magic, but their happiness dies in the icy cold of a snow-bound gulag. Her mother is forced to hide her precious treasure and Rosita’s spirit is crushed by the cruelty and envy of the other children. She takes the name Sloe and tries to keep her head down, but when her own innocence leads to her mother& ...

Synopsis: The valiant MacKenzies, Doug and Becca, are caught in a storm and find their transport, the fighting ship Expedience, beached on a volcanic island. Unable to continue the search for their lost father and mother, they instead seek to learn more about the Honourable Guild of Specialists and its role in their parents'disappearance. Doug is inclined to trust their uncle, but B ...

Synopsis:  The Tide Knot continues the story begun in Ingo of Sapphy and her brother Conor and their dangerous relationship with the sea world. In this second novel, Ingo encroaches on the world of the air when the tide knot is broken, the power of the tides is unleashed, and the sea inundates the fishing village of St Pirans.

Review:In The Tide Knot,...

Synopsis: Genetically engineered to be part bird, part human this is the story of a bunch of kids, lead by Max (Maximum Ride) and their attempts to rescue one of their flock from the evil laboratory who bred them. A fast-paced action thriller by best-selling adult author James Patterson.

Review:This is a tough book to review. It is really quite bad in places but it did keep ...

Synopsis: “Time we were heading for the surface,” Mr Marks said calmly. “And don’t worry about the noises. There are always noises in caves. Rock falls in the distance. No danger to us.”

 And that’s when it happened.

Review: Yet another excellent book for teenagers from talented author Catherine MacPhail.