Christmas Reads

Enjoy some good books while the snow is

falling, the frost is biting, and the fire is warm

in the hearth!

Susan Hill’s A Kind Man is good for the soul.

Tommy Carr meets Eve Gooch when he helps

her to retrieve a parcel which has fallen into

the canal. When Eve brings him home, her

mother responds: ‘Only the one thing I’d ask...

which you maybe haven’t thought of or can even

answer and you should…Is he a kind man?’

Tommy is indeed a kind man; his selflessness

and the delicately explored moral nuances

surrounding it create a story

that is gentle but striking.

Tommy and Eve are a

working class couple living

in the industrial north in the

1930s. When they move to a cottage in the countryside and have their first

child, their ‘cup overfloweth’, but then tragedy strikes. In her simple, staccato

prose, Susan Hill creates a stunning parable of loss and bereavement, magic

and transformation.

And if you’re in the mood for something a little creepy, our

Croydon High Community Book Club recommends John

Fowles’ The Collector, A deeply disturbing psychological

thriller. Frederick, lonely and socially inept, collects

butterflies and takes photographs. He

stalks, captures and collects Miranda, a

beautiful well-educated art student –

everything he is not. He imprisons her in

his cellar, hoping that she will fall in love

with him. Fowles tells the story from two

different perspectives – Miranda’s, and

Frederick’s (her ‘Caliban’); a

claustrophobic interplay of two minds.

E V E RY G I R L - E V E RY DAY

Our 6th Form Books & Breakfast Club enjoyed Erin Kelly’s He Said/She Said.

Laura and her boyfriend Kit travel to Cornwall to witness a total eclipse; after

the event Laura witnesses a brutal attack which she reports to the police. Their

lives, including that of the victim’s, change forever. A gripping psychological

thriller which keeps you guessing until the end!

In Jennifer Donnelly’s These Shallow Graves, Jo Montfort is beautiful and rich.

She resists her parents’ plans to ‘marry well’; she aspires to be a writer. Tragedy

strikes when her father is found dead and she discovers uncomfortable secrets and

lies. Sienna (Year 8) gives the book a 10 out o f 10. She writes that ‘it’s

simultaneously a coming of age story as well as a book about society’s hold over

you…it is a really powerful read’. A worthwhile Young Adult novel (for mature

Year 8s and up)

Tara (Year 7) recommends Silverwing by Kenneth Oppel, featuring a bat, the

runt of his colony, who is desperate to prove his worth during the winter

migration to Hibernaculum, many miles away in the south. He will face

difficult terrain and weather as well as dangerous enemies. Tara writes that ‘

I was gripped. I have learned that every book has a hidden secret that is

waiting to be discovered’. A thrilling adventure (the first of a trilogy) for

age 10 and up.

14 December 2018