Book Review

Ink Pellet’s book review section covers an eclectic selection of new fiction, teachers’ guides, audio books and classics.

Many of our reviews are written by teachers, so we have an expert eye on how texts will work in the classroom. We hope to create a useful archive of reviews so that you can use this as a reference.

If you would like to join our panel of reviewers, please join in or email the editor john@inkpellet.co.uk.

We hope the section inspires you to share new fiction with your pupils or to revisit old favorites yourself.

  1. Book Review – Testaments

    Book Review – Testaments  

    By Margaret AttwoodPublished by Penguin Since its publication in September, Margaret Attwood’s long-awaited sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale has made literary history at least twice. It was the first book ever to be longlisted for the Booker prize before its publication and it was kept securely under wraps just as the later Harry Potter titles […]

  2. Book Review – The Body: A Guide for Occupants

    Book Review – The Body: A Guide for Occupants  

    By Bill BrysonPublished by Doubleday Because I did A level zoology at school along with a long defunct pre-nursing O level called Anatomy, Physiology and Hygiene – and have always avidly devoured newspaper reports of medical research and developments – I thought I had reasonable knowledge of how the human body works. Then I read […]

  3. Book Review – Playing By Ear

    Book Review – Playing By Ear  

    Published by Nick Hern Books Anyone who has ever worked with, or even met, veteran theatre director Peter Brook (see Lou Stein on p15 of this issue, for example) comments on his legendary, profoundly influential presence. That same humble, sometimes quirky, glittering charisma sings through his writing too. His latest book is a series of […]

  4. Book Review – A Beginner’s Guide to Devising Theatre

    Book Review – A Beginner’s Guide to Devising Theatre  

    By Jess Thorpe & Tashi GorePublished by Methuen Drama Theatre does not have to start with a script and a story given to the cast by someone else. Watch any group of children in a playground playing a make-believe game. The story is emerging as they play. Well slightly more formal theatre can, of course, […]

  5. Speak Up!

    Speak Up!  

    Speak Up! By Laura Coryton Published by Red Shed (Egmont)

  6. The M Word

    The M Word  

    The M Word By Brian Conaghan Published by Bloomsbury

  7. Playwriting – Structure, Character, How and What to Write

    Playwriting – Structure, Character, How and What to Write  

    Playwriting – Structure, Character, How and What to Write By Stephen Jeffreys Published by NHB

  8. The Collected Peter Pan

    The Collected Peter Pan  

    The Collected Peter Pan By JM Barrie, Edited by Robert Douglas-Fairhurst Published by OUP

  9. Book Review: The Real Traviata

    Book Review: The Real Traviata  

    By René Weis Published by Oxford University Press Verdi’s 1853 opera La Traviata is based on La Dame aux Camelias, an 1848 novel by Alexandre Dumas which he reworked as a play in 1852. The inspiration for all of this was a French courtesan, named Marie Duplessis who shot from poverty to luxury and refinement […]

  10. Book Review: Monsters

    Book Review: Monsters  

    By Sharon Dogmar Published by Andersen Press The exceptionally clever but emotionally immature Mary Godwin was 16 when she met and eloped with Percy Byshe Shelley. He, of course, was already married. That makes her story the perfect subject for modern teenagers who might have got as far as their A levels at the age […]