The Others by Sarah Merrett

2024   

Reuben lives with his grandmother.  He has to wear special glasses because he has something wrong with his eyes. He and his grandmother are constantly looking for visitors form other planets.

Then one day they arrive. Grandma rushes off to find out more about them. Reuben is left mainly to his own devices. However, he finds a survivor form the crashed space ship; he calls her Blue because a blue light comes from her.

Archie, a local grocer’s son, befriends Reuben and together they look after Blue, saving her from captivity by the scheming Professor Pinfield who wants to win the Pierre Guzman prize – a huge cash award for anyone who could communicate with life on another planet.

Grandma has sent a letter to Reuben to let him know what is going on but he left their home before it arrived.  It is the first time he has ventured out beyond the gates of their house. He is almost overwhelmed by the activity there.

Reuben and his grandmother do find each other again and Blue is reunited with the other survivors of the crash and with some of her other people who have bene living on Earth form some time. Now he finds the truth out about himself: he is also from the other planet and he has to keep his eyes covered because of the way they behave. He can gradually learn to keep this under control.

He has the choice of staying with Grandma or joining the ‘others’ like him. At the end of the book it looks as if he’s going to divide his time between the two places.  After all, he has found a good friend in Archie.

The book is 340 pages long.  It uses a blocked text and an adult serif with difficult   ‘a’s and ‘g’s.   Each chapter heading has a black and white picture of Inky, Reuben’s’ cat, a telescope and Reuben’s special glasses. There are a few full page black and white illustrations.

There is a short bio of the author at the beginning of the books and several notes from her at the end. She explains all about the Guzman prize which really existed.   

 

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Fight for the Future by Jeanette Greaves

2021 

upper secondary  Key Stage 4, ages 14 -17, Greaves Jeanette, werewolves

Twins Anthony and Tomas are on the run. The White Pack does not like their pack; they see them as mongrels.

Yes, they are werewolves and need to fit into a human way of life. They seek half-blood wives and find them. They both have sons but the danger from the White Pack grows so they have to leave.  Staying may put their families in danger.  Many from their own pack have already been killed.

There are a few nods toward the Master Race: members of the White Pack in human form have blond hair. They have a very controlled breeding programme, whereas Anthony and Tomas’ pack mate more through love matches.

Jeanette Greaves has quite a literary style here so may appeal more to the most able readers. In any case, this book is probably for the older reader in the YA group.

The paperback is 268 pages long.    

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Note, this is an affiliate link and a small portion of what you pay, at no extra cost to you,  may go to Bridge House Publishing.   

Dark Sky by Cyan Brodie

2015 

A girl is found dead.

She is Caddy, Matt’s brother. When the police car arrives at his home he thinks it is to do with some drugs he may have sold. A polish girl is taken to hospital after a bad reaction to the drugs.

Matt has other problems: his friends owe money to Slippy their supplier. He has to hide from him as well.

His relationship with his father and step-mother becomes even more strained than it was before. He is thrown out of university.

The police seem to solve the crime and close the case.

Matt now has a tentative relationship with Amy, Caddy’s best friend, and the person who discovered her body at the back of the school bus.

Between them they work out that the police have it wrong and in their attempt to uncover the real culprits, their lives are put in danger. Their rescue comes from an unlikely source: Jimmy, who lives a strange life and who is related to the real murderer.

Matt has to go to court because of drug offences. We leave the story in that open-ended state that thrives in YA: we’re not sure what his sentence will be, how his life will carry on or how his relationship with Amy will work out. We are left feeling optimistic, however.

The book in paperback is 322 pages. Pace is aided by very short chapters. We are mainly in Matt’s point of view but occasionally we slip into others’. Note, this text contains a lot of strong language. 

 

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Note, this is an affiliate link and a small portion of what you pay, at no extra cost to you,  may go to Bridge House Publishing