The Highland Falcon Thief (Adventures on Trains, 1)

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I liked how his Uncle gave Hal the freedom to explore and enjoy the train on his own without hovering over him. That freedom gave Hal the confidence to interact with a lot of different people. I’ve been excited about this ever since I first heard about it f rom Amy at Golden Books Girl. As soon as I found out it was going to be Book of the Month at work, I coukd be found eagerly awaiting the postie every day to see if my copy had arrived yet! Hal is going on a trip with his Uncle Nat while his mum goes into hospital to have a baby. He’s not happy about it all – partly because of worries and wanting to be there for his mum, but also because trains are BORING and the trip will be BORING…right?

I have found that being involved in the UKLA judging process has reignited my enthusiasm and I have been so impressed by the diversity and richness of what is being written for young people. I have found powerful texts which really resonate and encourage the students I teach to explore new texts, or perhaps to rediscover the joy of reading”. Ruth Kidman Teacher Judge We all know that reading is fundamental to the development of children. Countless research shows the links between good reading skills from an early age and future success in life. However we also know it can be hard to get children really excited by books given the many other exciting leisure time activities fighting for their attention. The fact that these shortlists are judged by class teachers and can be heartily recommended to their peersmakes them particularly useful as co-sponsor Deborah McLaren, Director of Lovereading4kids said: “What a beautiful selection of winning books! Some of our absolute faves of the year; the UKLA committees and teacher judges have done a wonderful job of curating a stunning selection of quality texts and great reads to engage every age range. LoveReading4Kids and LoveReading4Schools are delighted to again partner with the UKLA to help encourage reading for pleasure and engender a lifelong love of reading in children”.My favourite character is probably Lenny because she is daring and ready to do anything! She leaves you hanging onto her every word for that last bit of information which will solve the puzzle of the Highland Falcon’s thief. She’s quite mysterious at the start but then at the end she’s an inspirational problem solver, when the Hal rescues her from the luggage cage.

Hal has been sent to stay with his uncle Nat while his mum has a baby. Uncle Nat is a travel journalist who specialises in train journeys, and he's taking Hal on an extra special trip - the final royal tour of the beautiful Highland Falcon steam train. Onboard are all of high society, and a jewelry thief. Can Hal and his new stowaway friend catch the thief? After what seemed like forever, a copy arrived and jumped straight to the top of my reading queue! And deservedly so, it was great. The latest book in the railway detectives series is Sabotage on the Solar Express, with book six The Arctic Railway Assassin, set for release in October 2022.

Synopsis

All the characters were interesting and the plot was very intriguing. I was so hooked by the story and wanted to know who stole the jwellery. I looked forward to getting to the illustrations, so I could see exactly what Hal was seeing. It was especially fun when he was drawing the other passengers. I felt like you could glean a better impression of their character through that. There are many high profile and super wealthy persons in this train and the women wears expensive jwellery. And one by one the jwellery starts disappearing.

Alex kan ook geweldig tekenen. Zo te zien loopt er dus genoeg creatief bloed door de familie. Want zijn oom is een beroemde schrijver. Adventures on Trains is a major mystery series for young readers, from bestselling authors M.G. Leonard and Sam Sedgman. Beautifully illustrated by Elisa Paganelli. The story was perfectly crafted. I doubted every person on the train at least once, including characters that I thought could not have done it. The big reveal at the end took me completely by surprise, and I gasped on several occasions because of the information we found out. I loved the final scene, where Hal, our main character, reveals how he figured everything out. It felt very Hercule Poirot-esque, and I loved every second of it. For the first time in the 11-14+ category the judges felt compelled to award Joint winners. Both Run Rebelby Manjeet Mann (Penguin) and The Last Paper Craneby Kerry Drewery (Hot Key) were considered so exceptional that both deserved the highest accolade. The extraordinary verse novel, Run Rebel, by debut British author Manjeet Mann, was praised for its complex representation, universal themes, and visceral emotional impact.The powerful Hiroshima survivor story, The Last Paper Craneby Kerry Drewery was praised for its sensitive and compassionate handling of history, the enriching discussion that it provoked and for the fact that it was so cleverly constructed with the use of different text formats and withthe illustration by Natsuo Seki enriching the emotional impact. Er waren zoveel verdachten, al kon ik er al een paar van mijn lijstje halen. Ik vond het leuk om met Alex en Lenny door de trein te lopen op zoek naar hints en mijn lijstje zo aan te passen. Uiteindelijk moet ik zeggen dat ik dader niet had geraden, of in ieder geval… nee dat zou een spoiler zijn en dat wil ik niet. 😛The Story of the Blue Planet, Andri Snær Magnason, Julian Meldon D’Arcy, (translator), Áslaug Jónsdóttir (Illustrator), (Pushkin Press) Met veel tegenzin gaat hij dan maar met zijn oom mee op reis in de trein, de Hooglanden-expres. Dit zal de laatste rit zijn voor deze trein en zijn oom is dol enthousiast. Zelfs het Britse koningspaar zal erbij aanwezig zijn. Kinderen, behalve Alex, zijn verboden! I also liked that it was a robbery rather than a murder, allowing children (or parents!) who aren’t keen on that aspect of the genre can still enjoy solving a crime. I also really liked the use of Hal’s sketchbooks, which served not only to illustrate the book beautifully (with a little help from Elisa Paganelli!) but also as an aid to the solving of the crime itself – so many of the leads and clues they end up following come thanks to Hal’s documentation of the journey.