Reviews by pupils of Westbourne School, Sheffield, the winning school in this year's Guardian Young Critics award

Olivia Moore, 13
Before I Die by Jenny Downham

Before I Die by Jenny Downham is incredibly touching and a very deep book. It is full of emotion and meaning. This excellently written book is about a girl with a perfectly good life until she finds out she has terminal cancer and everything starts changing.

Tessa only has a few months to live so she makes a list of ten things she wants to do before she dies, some of which are sex, drugs and doing something illegal. Another main character, Zoey, plays a big part in this book, being Tessa's best friend, and promises Tessa that she will do everything on her list with her, until Zoey starts acting strangely and has some important news that she tries to hide from Tessa.

When Tessa goes into hospital a few weeks before she dies, she writes a list of instructions for her family and friends for after she dies.

I really enjoyed this book because it got my full attention after the first few pages; it really grasped me. It just got straight to the point with some extra, but needed, information on the side.

I truly recommend this book to readers who want a change in their reading material.

This book is so real but so sad and so very true.

Beth Butler, 13
The Goldsmith's Daughter by Tanya Landman

This is the story of Itacate, who defies tradition and risks her life to pursue her dreams. According to the priests she is destined for a worthless life and to bring ill fortune to those closest to her. She is determined to prove the priests wrong using her great skill as a goldsmith.

The story becomes more complicated when she falls in love with one of the Spanish invaders. The author, Tanya Landman, has broadly based the story on 16th-century Mexico but has altered some of the sequence of events.

The book is well written and I think it gives a good insight into the Aztecs' life and how everything was done to please the gods in a personal, exciting and interesting way.

I think this is a unique book. I haven't read one like it before but I would definitely read it again even though I know the story. I would recommend this book for girls and boys who like excitement in a historical and cultural setting.

The story is written in the first person, which is good because it means that when she can't show her emotions you still know her secrets and how she is feeling, in some detail. A range of emotions was evoked in me from cheerful and excited to dejected.

Some descriptive passages I found too detailed and I felt should have not been there as the story would still be understandable.

Itacate's character develops throughout the book. At the beginning she is almost contented with the way she lives but as the book goes on we see her getting more wild and wanting to be free. The ending is wonderful with all the threads of the story tied together.

Robert Brooks, 13
The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness

The Knife of Never Letting Go, written by Patrick Ness, is a wonderful story about a young boy escaping his childhood and becoming a man in a world where everybody can hear each other's thoughts.

This is a heart-warming coming-of-age story with a twist of fantasy. This book would appeal to all children aged 13 and over, so long as they don't mind a hefty story.

The book starts off funny – it describes how quickly you find out how little a dog has to say when it starts to talk – but then gets sadder as the deaths start occurring.

There are some beautiful descriptions of the world the boy is passing through, even if some words are misspelt; the boy telling the story can barely read or write so complicated words are spelt how they sound.

I loved The Knife of Never Letting Go, and will be buying the rest of the trilogy as soon as they are published. I just hope that they are as good as this one.

Tommie Hassali, 13
Bad Blood by Rhiannon Lassiter

Rhiannon Lassiter's Bad Blood follows the emotions of Catriona, Katherine, Roley and John who wrestle with the personalities of their new stepfamily. A holiday in the Lake District only heightens their feelings towards one another when they become players in the Make-Believe Game. A game awakened by their own unhappiness brings to life Delilah, a sinister doll and Fox who destroys the boundaries of reality and fantasy. The game intensifies when Alice, whose family holds its own mystery, becomes a victim of the wood.

John, the youngest and wisest, leads them from the darkness. Gently, quietly he understands the strategy of the game and that only by reinventing themselves will they be rescued from the horror that engulfs their world.

The book's pace is riveting. It holds the reader in the haunting world of the supernatural but at the same time does not shy from the reality of the modern day family, and the subjects of homosexuality and mental illness. Amidst these strands emerge the very real difficulties facing adolescents and their awareness of themselves and each other.

The book and the characters emerge from a suffocating darkness to a golden light of emotions that will radiate hope in all who read it.