Warehouse (Definitions)

Children's Books

Keith Gray

Growing Up & Facts of Life

DEFINITIONS

Subtitled "The Pillow Book of Cordelia Kenn", this is the story of Cordelia from the time she is 15 until she is 20. She is pregnant and plans to give this account to her daughter on her 16th birthday so that they can share their youth together. She chooses the old and famous Japanese book "The Pillow Book" by Sei Shonagon' as a model in order to include all kinds of things she has already written as well as the episodes and thoughts she has now as she compiles her book. She tells of her mother (who died when Cordelia was 5) of her father and her aunt Doris (who marry when she is 16), of her love for William Blacklin, the boy with whom she chooses to have her first sex - and with whom she falls deeply in love. She writes about Julie Martin her teacher who helps her spiritually, describes her love affair with an older married man and her terrifying sexual experience with an unbalanced young man who is obsessed with her. The book includes thoughts on being a women, on poetry, music, reading and writing, on being pregnant and finally of her marriage to William. "This Is All" is an anthology, written in six 'books' of Cordelia's adolescent life, by turns funny, poignant, sad, exciting, fascinating ironic and truthful about topics that parents often do not tell their children. It is a richly entertaining and challenging read.

This Is All: The Pillow Book of Cordelia Kenn

Aidan Chambers

Teen & Young Adult

Stories tell of a bizarre hitchhiker, a World War II bomber that drives its crews mad, a church with a congregation of living and dead, and a series of impossible crimes

Break of Dark

WESTALL, Robert

Literature & Fiction

Drawing on his own experiences in the First World War, Charles Yale Harrison tells a stark and poignant story of a young man sent to fight on the Western Front. It is an unimaginably harrowing journey, especially for one not yet old enough to vote. In sparse but gripping prose, Harrison conveys a sense of the horror of life in the trenches. Here is where soldiers fight and die, entombed in mud, surrounded by rats and lice, forced to survive on insufficient rations. Harrison captures the only kind of humour possible under the circumstances of life on the Western Front. - dark and sardonic, a mingling of comedy and horror.

Generals Die in Bed

Charles Yale Harrison

In 1699 William Milmullen took his six pupils to the lakeside but only he returned after a creature rose up from the water and devoured the six boys right before his eyes. The whole town was shocked and terrified by the tragedy. Many were now too frightened to go out on the lake to fish, and the town's economy was under threat. William Milmullen recovered from the shock of what he'd seen. He named the creature 'The Mourn', and declared himself 'Mourner'. He took upon himself the responsibility to appease the creature by feeding livestock into the lake and vowed his family would forever be responsible for the safety of the town, and that every Milmullen son would take the mantle of Mourner at the age of 16. This novel is set in the present day, and nobody believes in monsters anymore. These days the town is somewhat embarrassed about its monster stories and to many the Milmullen family is a bit of a joke. The family, however, have held onto their duty, believing that if they forsake the creature it will rise from the lake again. Tim Milmullen turns 16 in a week's time. On his birthday he will become the 13th Mourner. But Tim doesn't know if he wants the role. For one thing all the kids at school tease him, calling his father crazy, saying Old William back in 1699 killed the schoolboys himself and made up the story. And Tim's biggest problem is that he doesn't know if he believes in the legend or not. How can he dedicate his whole life to something he has never seen? The Fearful is a story about Faith, about why some people believe in things they've never seen, and about society's intolerance towards others' beliefs. But at its heart it's a tale of a father and son trying to understand each other's ways.

The Fearful

Gray, Keith

Action & Adventure

Ostrich Boys

It's not really kidnapping, is it? He'd have to be alive for it to be proper kidnapping.' Kenny, Sim and Blake are about to embark on a remarkable journey of friendship. Stealing the urn containing the ashes of their best friend Ross, they set out from Cleethorpes on the east coast to travel the 261 miles to the tiny hamlet of Ross in Dumfries and Galloway. After a depressing and dispiriting funeral they feel taking Ross to Ross will be a fitting memorial for a 15 year-old boy who changed all their lives through his friendship. Little do they realise just how much Ross can still affect life for them even though he's now dead. Drawing on personal experience Keith Gray has written an extraordinary novel about friendship, loss and suicide, and about the good things that may be waiting just out of sight around the corner ...

Other Echoes

Other Echoes is the delicate and sensitive story of a young woman's growing self-awareness after revisiting her past. Flora is eighteen and recovering from an illness in the sanatorium at her boarding school. To while away the time, she starts to write down the story of her childhood - how at nine years old, she moved to Borneo with her parents, and encountered people and events shaped by the tragedies of the Second World War. In making sense of her own memories, Flora uncovers the ideas and emotions that make her the person she is today.

Adele, Geras

Hellbent

McGowan, Anthony

When the book opens, Eve, who is the narrator, is just coming into consciousness. She has been given by God to the Serpent to raise. Her sense of wonder as the Serpent introduces her to life in Paradise is a strength of the book; she learns about nature, love and the way that the new and fascinating world works. When she comes into contact with God - who rears Adam - she is wary of his dominance and egotism. One day, becoming impatient to discover whether or not he's designed the male and female to procreate properly, God rushes Adam and Eve into intercourse. The Serpent alone recognizes the consequences of God's act. 'Until today Eve has felt...that the world was good...' but 'Adam as good as raped her.' Eve is devastated by the experience. Eve leaves the Garden to gain some distance from God and to discover what exists in the outside world; the Serpent accompanies her. They make several journeys - one to a volcano, one to a desert, one to a mountain range and one to the sea (where Eve swims out to sea against the instructions of the Serpent and nearly drowns). On their return to the Garden, the roots of the apple tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil begin to grow; the Serpent sensing that time is running out to teach Eve that love making is good, changes into a man and makes love to her with great sensitivity. After this, she is prepared to accept her role as the mother of humankind. God is outraged by Eve's and also Adam's interest in the tree of knowledge. He is at his capricious worst: everything must bow to his wishes. They realise that if they are to have any freedom of will, they must leave God and the garden. The Serpent warns them that this will involve future suffering, but Eve feels she must develop and be her own person. They go forth...

Garden

Elsie V. Aidinoff

Historical Fiction

The story of "The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas" is very difficult to describe. Usually we give some clues about the book on the cover, but in this case we think that would spoil the reading of the book. We think it is important that you start to read without knowing what it is about. If you do start to read this book, you will go on a journey with a nine-year-old boy called Bruno. (Though this isn't a book for nine-year-olds.) And sooner or later you will arrive with Bruno at a fence. We hope you never have to cross such a fence.

Boy in the Striped Pyjamas: A Fable

John-Boyne

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