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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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 

Looking for Lucie by Amanda Addison

 2024  

 

upper secondary  Key Stage 4, ages 14 -17, Addison Amanda, identity, arranged marriages, partition,  nature  / nurture debate,   

Lucie doesn’t know who her father is. She is dark-skinned and doesn’t look like the rest of her family: Mum Tori, sister Maisie and step-dad Steve.  She cannot answer the question “Where are you from originally?” Or even the kinder question “Where are you from?”   Mum Tori is keeping a secret. Tori is a professional photographer. Lucie is good at art.

Nav is brilliant at maths, taking after his mother Maryam. His dad is a GP.  Mum and Uncle Nabeel share a secret.

Lucie and Nav collide in a corridor on the day A-Level results come out.  Lucie’s phone is broken. Nav offers to get it mended. Lucie is anxious as she has sent off a DNA test and needs the phone for two-step authentication. Fortunately Nav has this covered.

And then the coincidences that we forgive in all stories begin. Maryam has set up a site where people can register their DNA for free and Nav loads up Lucie’s result. They find a match; it is Maryam.  She is in fact Lucie’s aunt. Now that that is out in the open Tori, Maryam and Nabeel have to come clean about the secrets they’re holding.  Lucie’s father was Hanif, Maryam and Nabeel’s brother. Hanif too was good at art. Tori thought Hanif had deserted her but if fact he died in an accident as he was running away from having to face an arranged marriage. The shock of this made the family more understanding when Maryam wishes to marry Maneer who was of lower status than herself – though there was some respect for him being a doctor. To save the honour of the girl who had been supposed to marry Hanif, Nabeel married her. The readers, Tori and Lucie are surprised at how well that has worked.       

Lucie and Nav are cousins and remain firm friends as they both go through university.

The book is 259 pages long in blocked serif text. There is a family tree at the end of the book which does provide a bit of a spoiler.  There is a postscript from the author about how she came to write the book.         

Find your copy here  

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.