The Pocket Scavenger by Keri Smith

I now spend my time looking at the ground for stuff.  This is a book version of the scavenger hunts you used to go on as a kid, with a bit of a twist.  You are given items to find and attach into the book and then invited to randomly select an alteration such as adding text or triangles.  It's been good fun, I'm 38 and am happily looking for things with my 9 year old who is as delighted as I am when we find something.  My only concern is hygeine and making sure in using this you didn't cut yourself.  It is also a bit American orientated, I think British rubbish is a bit different in quality.  It does make you look at the world differently, I now see all those bits and pieces in the gutters I would have ignored before.

Journey to the End of the World by Henning Mankell

15 year old Joel Gustafson lives with his lumberjack father Samuel in the far north of Sweden, so far north that it snows on his graduation day in June.  Joel cooks for his father, his mother Mummy Jenny left when he was only a baby.   Samuel and Joel spend hours poring over world maps together dreaming of this time Joel will be old enough to leave school and sign on as a sailor, and they can sail away from the cold north together.  But then a letter for Samuel arrives telling him where Mummy Jenny is and the pair take an overnight train journey south to Stockholm to find her.  Joel's life begins to shift and change, Joel is coming of age, Samuel is ageing and the docks and the ships and sea are close at hand.

At first I found the writing in this story quite stilted and alien but by the end I was fully engaged.  Mankell's story of a boy stepping out into the world and the aching sadness of the narrative is slow burning but memorable.

The Long Shadow by Mark Mills

13 year old Ben Makepeace watches his friend Jacob Hogg sledge a dangerous corner and come careering off into a field of wickedly sharp saplings.  As he runs down the hill to the body lying still  he is briefly convinced Jacob is dead but as he opens his eyes and smiles Ben is both relieved and angry.

31 years on Ben is an unsuccessful screenwriter trying to be there for his 13 year old son Toby as his ex wife Madeleine moves on with her life with new partner Lionel, and keep his head above water.  His agent calls to say billionaire Victor Sheldon has expressed an interest in Ben's screenplay and wants to meet him at his country pile, Stoneham House near Oxford.  Victor turns out to be Jacob, the boy who took up the world of high finance and immense fortune that both Jacob and Ben were groomed for as schoolboys at Dean House boarding school.  Victor offers Ben space at Stoneham House to finish his screenplay.  Ben meets and begins to fall for sculptor Mo, he plays cricket with the local villagers, Toby comes to stay and meets Victor's son Marcio, and after helping Victor out with the purchase of a vintage speedboat Ben is rewarded with the offer of a lifetime.  But doubts begin to creep in as small events expose cracks in the rich beauty of the surface of Victor's life and Ben finds himself facing a past in which a single misunderstanding has blighted a life.

My only reason for not giving this 5 stars was the predictability, however, it is beautifully written, a sad story about what man a childhood can create if the child is not loved and cherished.

Symmetry: A Very Short Introduction by Ian Stewart

Although this is a Very Short Introduction book it is not a beginner's book, I found many of the concepts difficult to follow and understand as they require a fairly high level understanding of mathematical theory: algebra, quadratic equations, string theory, game theory.  However, although I was a little lost at times I was able to understand enough to get a flavour of how symmetry functions across a wide range of disciplines: chemistry, biology and geometry, from the structure of atoms in elements and planet in galaxies to Rubik's cubes, sand dune formation and the running gait of animals.  Written by an expert who sees clearly how the concepts formed in high mathematics have an application in every aspect of our lives.

The Etymologicon by Mark Forsyth

Forsyth meanders delightfully through the English language in a completely idiosyncratic and entertaining way, a perfect book for anyone who goes to look up a word in a dictionary and, like me, gets completely sidetracked by the other interesting words on the way.  The English language with all its idioms and history is a byzantine thing and Forsyth is a delighted child in a candy shop of words.

The Tessellations File by Chris de Cordova

The majority of this book is a set of 40 black and white line drawings of tessalations increasing in complexity which are free to photocopy and useful for parents and teachers alike.

However, at the beginning there is an excellent 8 page introduction by de Cordova on tessellations, how they work and how to extend the basics to create tessellations of your own, along with a short bibliography.  Good if you're a bit mystified by the maths of the whole thing.

Pretty Girl Thirteen by Liz Coley

Angie Chapman is walking to the front door of her house.  Which is a little odd because the last thing she remembers is being in the woods at Guide Camp and the sight of a strangers eyes.  There is a plastic bag in her hand and she is wearing clothes she would never choose.  A strange ring on her finger, fingers that look odd, and scars on her wrists.  As she unlocks her front door to let herself in and calls out her mother hurtles hysterically down the stairs to meet her.  And Angie's nightmare begins.  She isn't 13 any more, she's 16 and the past 3 years have been simply lost to her.

Angie faces the trauma of medical examinations, police questioning and finally returning to high school and the friends who are 3 years older than she remembers them.  Psychiatrist Dr Grant is employed to help with Angie's amnesia and it emerges that she is suffering dissociative identity disorder: her self has fractured into separate personalities who developed to protect Angie from her ordeal but are not yet ready to communicate with her.

An absolutely gripping thriller that had me telling my family to go away so I could finish it and I was sad to finish it, really the highest praise I could give a book.