Summer Holiday Reading
Term 4, 2022
This season's best books for Middle School
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✈✈✈ Off on an adventure these holidays? Scroll to the bottom to see the eBooks or audiobooks available from the AHS collection ✈✈✈
The Jammer by Nova Weetman
The Ministry of Unladylike Activity by Robin Stevens
The start of a thrilling new mystery series from the number-one-bestselling, award-winning author of Murder Most Unladylike.
1940. Britain is at war, and a secret arm of the British government called the Ministry of Unladylike Activity is training up spies. Enter May Wong: courageous, stubborn, and desperate to help end the war so that she can go home to Hong Kong (and leave her annoying school, Deepdean, behind forever). May knows that she would make the perfect spy. After all, grown-ups always underestimate children like her. When May and her friend Eric are turned away by the Ministry, they take matters into their own hands. Masquerading as evacuees, they travel to Elysium Hall, home to the wealthy Verey family – including snobby, dramatic Nuala. They suspect that one of the Vereys is passing information to Germany. If they can prove it, the Ministry will have to take them on.
But there are more secrets at Elysium Hall than May or Eric could ever have imagined.
And then someone is murdered…
Mistletoe and Murder by Robins Stevens
Runt by Craig Silvey
'You don't have to carry the weight of the world in your tool belt.'
Annie Shearer likes to fix things. She lives in the country town of Upson Downs with her best friend, an adopted stray dog called Runt. The two share a very special bond. After years evading capture, Runt is remarkably fast and agile, perfect for herding runaway sheep. But when greedy local landowner Earl Robert-Barren puts her family's home at risk, Annie directs Runt's extraordinary talents towards a different pursuit - winning the Agility Course Grand Championship at the lucrative Krumpets Dog Show in London. However, two things stand in her way. There is Fergus Fink, a vain and villainous dog handler determined to prevent Annie from upstaging him. And a curious predicament: Runt will only obey Annie's commands if nobody else is watching. Though she's used to fixing problems on her own, Annie enlists the help of her quirky family. There's Susie, her vibrantly fashionable mother, who is the worst baker in the nation. Her father, Bryan, who inherited the family farm and has a hidden passion for flower cultivation. Her teenage brother Max, an aspiring daredevil. And her grandmother Dolly, a one time champion sportswoman who, years after the death of her husband Wally, is now looking for love. Each make sacrifices and employ their own unique skills to get Annie and Runt to London. With all eyes on them, Annie and Runt must beat the odds and the fastest dogs in the world to save her farm. Runt is a heartwarming and hilarious tale of kindness, friendship, hurdles, hoops, tunnels, see-saws, and, above all, being yourself and bringing out the best in others.
The case of the missing Marquess by Nancy Springer
#1 in an Enola Holmes mystery
While searching the clues to her missing mother's whereabouts, fourteen-year-old Enola Holmes, the younger sister of Sherlock Holmes, suddenly gets involved in the kidnapping of a young Marquess and must put the search for her mother on hold in order to save the spoiled girl from her dangerous captors.
Spaceboy by David Walliams
Ginger Meggs by Tristan Bancks
The Grandest Bookshop in the World by Amelia Mellor
The Book Sellers Apprentice by Amelia Mellor
If you love Little Women try ...
Book 1 Little Women
Meg is the eldest and on the brink of love. Then there's tomboy Jo who longs to be a writer. Sweet-natured Beth always puts others first, and finally there's Amy, the youngest and most precocious. Together they are the March sisters. Even though money is short, times are tough, and their father is away at war, their infectious sense of fun sweeps everyone up in their adventures - including Laurie, the boy next door. And through sisterly squabbles, their happy times and sad ones too, the sisters discover that growing up is sometimes very hard to do.
Book 2 Good Wives
Good Wives is the second story about the March family. Three years on from Little Women, the March girls and their friend Laurie are young adults with their futures ahead of them. Although they all face painful trials along the way - from Meg's sad lesson in housekeeping to Laurie's disappointment in love and a tragedy which touches them all - each of the girls finally finds happiness, if not always in the way they expect. The book includes a behind-the-scenes journey, including an author profile, a guide to who's who, activities and more.
The third book in the Little Women quartet sees headstrong Jo, now grown-up and married, setting up a school with all the rewards and troubles that follow After her marriage to Professor Friedrich Bhaer, Jo uses the money from her inheritance from Aunt March to set up a school at Plumfield. Their latest arrival is Nat Blake, a timid orphan boy whose life so far has been spent playing the violin to make money on the streets. Nat joins the 10 other children at the school - a gang made up of neglected children, orphans, and also Meg's twin boy and girl. The touching friendship and camaraderie between the group is expertly described. The peaceful equilibrium of the school is troubled though when Nat introduces Dan to the mix - the latter then leads the boys into experimenting with drinking, smoking, fighting, and playing cards.
Book 4 Jo's Boys
Ten years after the school at Plumfield was founded, Jo's boys - including wanderer Dan, sailor Emil and musician Nat - are grown up and discovering more about the world. But life after childhood can be confusing and frightening, and it is Jo and the warm-hearted March family who can comfort and guide the boys when they need it the most.
Ebook and Audiobooks from Sora
The Valley of Lost Secrets by Lesley Parr
Two Wolves by Tristan Bancks
Escape from Mr Lemoncello's Library by Chris Grabenstein
Nevermoor by Jessica Townsend
Wundersmith by Jessica Townsend
Hollowpox, The for Morrigan Crow by Jessica Townsend
The Wishing Spell by Chris Coffer
The Breadwinner by Deborah Ellis
The World's Worst Children by David Walliams
Additional Great Books for the Holidays
Honour Among Ghosts by Seam Williams
Solve Your Own Mystery: The Monster Maker by Gareth P Jones
Berani by Michelle Kadarusman
The Reindeer and the Submarine by Beverly McWilliams
Which Way to Anywhere by Cressida Cowell
Dusty in the Outwilds by Rhiannon Willams
Waiting for the Storks by Katrina Nannestad
The Book of Wondrous Possibilities by Deborah Abela
The Girl called Corpse: An Elston- Fright Tale by Reece Carter
What about Thao by Oliver Phommavanh
Digging up Day by Morris Gleitzman
Speck of Stars by Henry Boffin
The Little Match Girl Strikes Back by Emma Carroll and Lauren Child
How to be Primeminister and Survive Grade 5 by Carla Fitzgerald
Spark by M. G. Leonard
The Dangerous Business of Being Trilby Moffat by Kate Temple
The Goodbye Year by Emily Gale
AHS Library wishes you a very Merry Christmas and happy READING.
Reference List
EM_prize. (2015). Christmas Santa Claus resting on deckchair at ocean sandy beach stock photo [Stock image]. iStock. https://www.istockphoto.com/photo/christmas-santa-claus-resting-on-deckchair-at-ocean-sandy-beach-gm499746074-80410595
Grand Residences by Royal Resorts. (2021). Beach books [Photograph]. https://blog.grandresidencesbyroyalresorts.com/2020/06/19/beach-books/