Knocked Out By My Nunga-Nungas by Louise Rennison

Another school library book. This time comedy. Very teenage comedy. Loads of snogging. Or thinking about snogging. Or writing in the diary about snogging. Or talking on the phone about snogging. Quite funny, but not as much as some of the others one I've read. More funny in a "was I ever like that? No, I don't think so ... but ..." type of way. Have to say, I wasn't as impressed as I'd hoped to be. Not my type of book perhaps ... maybe I've outgrown books about teenage comic snogging!

The Boy Who Lost His Face by Louis Sacher

From the author of Holes comes another great book. This was quite a funny book, again from the school library, and was a story of friendship as well as curses. Nice twist in the tale, and a mysterious yet bizarre epilogue. I have to say I am enjoying charging through these books written for a younger audience - they are enjoyable, light and easily digestible in style if not in content.

Checkmate by Malorie Blackman

It's been a long wait. But well worth waiting for!

The Noughts and Crosses trilogy started a few years ago, and the first book - Noughts and Crosses - was one of the best books I've ever read. It was on the BBC's "Big Read" 100 best books list, and is also in the 1001 Books to Read Before You Die.

The story is vaguely Romeo and Juliet, partly based on apartheid, and is very contemporary, dealing with issues of terrorism as well as racism and immigration. The love story is poignant, and at times you want bad things to happen, because the only alternative is even worse. Noughts and Crosses has one of most heartbreaking endings I've read in a book. The second book, Knife Edge, and the final installment, which I read in almost one sitting and finished just before midnight yesterday, continue the stories of the main characters over the next 16 years.

If the first book is the the possibility of hope, and the second is the loss of hope, then the third is the hope of hope. Once again, as the characters develop, reality kicks in, and even though you want the ultimate happy ending, you realise that there probably won't be an entirely happy one - but there may be a hopeful one, which would be enough. You hope and feel for the characters, agonising over their misunderstandings and their fears, frustrated over their inability to be honest and open with each other - but understanding, having read the other books, why it came to be this way.

I highly recommend the whole Noughts and Crosses trilogy (and anything by Malorie Blackman.)

Just In Case by Meg Rosoff

Another book from the school library. What do you do if you think Fate's out to get you? If you're David Case, then you decide to outwit Fate by changing your personality. David becomes Justin, he changes his clothes, his hobbies, his outlook on life. His little brother tries to communicate with him using his building bricks - Jstn Case What? - and his friend gets on well with his imaginary dog. A slightly surreal book ... very interesting. Who or what is Fate? Are some people unlucky? Or, if they have survived a number of near misses, are they not, in fact, very lucky?

Dangerous Reality by Malorie Blackman

I am still waiting, and looking forward to, reading the final book in the Noughts and Crosses trilogy. However, in the meantime, I was happy to borrow another of Malorie Blackman's books for children from the school library.

Dangerous Reality tells the story of Dominic, whose Mum has designed a Virtual Interactive Mobile System - VIMS for short. There is action in this book, but it also shows Dominic finding out more about himself.

This book is definitely written for younger readers (and younger than those that Noughts and Crosses is aimed at), but it's still nice to have a quick read that still has elements of suspense - I guessed at some of the twists, but not the biggest one, so that was good.