The Stuff of Nightmares by Malorie Blackman

I always enjoy a bit of Malorie Blackman! This one was quite spooky - I was glad I was reading it in bed in the morning, and not the night before! Interesting to see that some of the dreams were originally short stories - makes sense.

Unheard Voices collected by Malorie Blackman

The second book I took out was Unheard Voices, a collection of stories and poems about slavery, to mark the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade. Some of the stories were passages from books written by freed slaves, others by the descendants of slaves. The book is split into about 5 parts, each part dealing with one aspect of the slave trade.

Some of the writing was amongst the most vivid and moving that I have ever read about the slave trade. Highly recommended.

Jack Sweettooth by Malorie Blackman

I decided to follow up "Tell Me No Lies" by reading some more Malorie Blackman. I thought I had read most of her titles in the school library, but managed to find another couple of books that I have started to read in the tube.

The first book, Jack Sweettooth, only took half the tube journey home to finish. It's a very short story, aimed at much younger children, and a nice tale about a little mouse, a family pet. There are three short chapters. Sweet.

Tell Me No Lies - Malorie Blackman

Yet another excellent book from Malorie Blackman. This time aimed at younger teens, I'd guess. An incredibly frustrating read, as well. Two young teenagers, Gemma and Mikey, meet at school. One has a secret, one works out what it is. They share something - neither lives with their mother, for different reasons - but what is so frustrating is the way they relate to each other. Half conversations, blurted phrases, frightened actions, all result in these two young people, who might have been friends, end up not understanding each other, resulting in bullying and other nasty consequences. I wanted to shake them both, to tell them to tell the other what they were really thinking, to give each other a second chance ... As my school librarian said, you can tell it's well written when it raises that emotion in you. So it must be good.

Double Cross by Malorie Blackman

Malorie Blackman is one of my favourite writers; in particular, I have enjoyed her Noughts & Crosses trilogy, which actually now has five books in it. (A short "interlude" was written for World Book Day, and Double Cross continues the story where Checkmate left off.) So it is probably appropriate that this was my first book finished in 2009.

I received Double Cross as a Christmas present from my parents, and began reading it in the bath before my grandparents arrived for our New Year party on 2 January. I finished it while in bed recovering from an accident on 5 January.

Double Cross tells the story of what happened to Callie Rose after the bombing written about in Checkmate. It deals with gang culture, and, as always, Blackman deals sensitively with the issues currently affecting our young people. A shooting, knives, crime, gang leaders, drugs and territorial issues - Tobey has to try to ensure he doesn't "slip" from one area into another.

While I didn't find the emotional pull as much as in the original Noughts and Crosses, I enjoyed continuing the story of Callum and Sephy and their families. I now need to find some time to read all five books in the correct order all the way through!

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.)

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.