Readers Recommends - 20 February 2023

Reader's Recommends is our weekly live session, streamed live on Facebook, where we recommend the best, the popular and the latest Reads from all genres and WHY you should read them!

Each week, our Representative Thomas Bulpin, is joined by at least three Representatives from different Publishing Companies, and in this week's edition, Thomas was joined by three amazing reps, Mary-Anne Viljoen from Penguin Randon House, Marianne Van Loggerenberg from Pan Macmillan South Africa and Verushka Louw from Jonathan Ball Publishers.

Mary-Anne Viljoen's Recommends:

She's Gone By David Bell

When 17-year-old Hunter Gifford wakes in the hospital on the night of homecoming, he's shocked to learn he and his girlfriend, Chloe Summers, have been in a terrible car accident. Hunter has no memory of the crash, and his shock turns to horror when he is told Chloe's blood has been found in the car-but she has disappeared.

2. Let's Get This Potty Started By Rose Rossner 

Give your favorite big kid a boost of confidence with this silly board book that celebrates their wins as they learn to use the potty. With adorable animal illustrations, fun rhymes, and potty training steps covering wiping, flushing, washing hands, and more, this funny story will have readers laughing off the stress of potty training. The perfect story to encourage your favorite little stinker that they can doo-doo it!

3. PRE ORDER: Fritz and Kurt By Jeremy Dronfield 

Fritz, along with his father, is taken to a Nazi prison camp, a terrible place, full of fear. When his father is sent to a certain death, Fritz can't face losing his beloved Papa. He chooses to go with him and fight for survival.

Marianne Van Loggerenberg's Recommends:

1. PRE ORDER: Promise Boys By Nick Brooks

The Urban Promise Prep School vows to turn boys into men. As students, J.B., Ramon, and Trey are forced to follow the prestigious "program's" strict rules. Extreme discipline, they've been told, is what it takes to be college bound, to avoid the fates of many men in their neighborhoods. This, the Principal Moore Method, supposedly saves lives.

2. There's Nothing Faster Than A Cheetah By Tom Nicoll

 Three, two, one . . . the race has begun and the animals are off!
Rhinos on roller-skates, foxes in fire engines, lions in lorries, penguins on pogo sticks . . .There's nothing faster than a cheetah.
Or is there . . . ?

3. Anna Hibiscus 8 Book Box Set By Atinuke 

Have Fun, Anna Hibiscus:
Anna Hibiscus has never been away from her home in Africa, surrounded by her parents and baby brothers, as well as all of her aunts and uncles and cousins.
                                            

Veruhkah Louw's Recommends:

1. A Thousand Heartbeats By Kiera Cass

Annika has lived a life of comfort and luxury as the Princess of Kadier-but now, after her mother's death, she's weighted under the looming threat of a loveless marriage arranged by her cold father.

2. Uglies By Scott Westerfeld

Tally is about to turn sixteen, and she can't wait. In just a few weeks she'll have the operation that will turn her from a repellent ugly into a stunningly attractive pretty. And as a pretty, she'll be catapulted into a high-tech paradise where her only job is to have fun.

3. PRE ORDER: Thieves By Lucie Bryon

Ella can't seem to remember a single thing from the party the night before at a mysterious stranger's mansion, and she sure as heck doesn't know why she's woken up in her bed surrounded by a magpie's nest of objects that aren't her own. And she can't stop thinking about her huge crush on Madeleine, who she definitely can't tell about her sudden penchant for kleptomania.

4. PRE ORDER: Twelfth Grade Night By Molly Booth

The problem? All Vi's new friends assume she's not even into guys. And before Vi can ask Orsino to the dance, he recruits Vi to help woo his crush, Olivia. Who has a crush of her own . . . on Vi.