Prejudices, murder-mysteries and fairies are topics for discussion in this week's roundup!

This week reader Awesome-Charlie wrote a fantastic review of The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne! In this iconic read, set in Germany during the Second World War, a nine-year-old boy called Bruno befriends a boy with very different circumstances to his own.

I would rate this a book a 9/10 because I think there are too many unanswered questions at the end, they do give a sense of mystery and intrigue you to read on but you expect some of the questions to be answered at the end. Other than that I think it was a great book putting into perspective what Jews had to go through and that this happened less than 70 years ago! ... I particularly liked this book because you had to do a lot of thinking to work out who was who and what was going on sometimes, especially with 'the Fury'. I would recommend this book to anyone over the age of 10.

With similar tones of partiality and prejudice, one of our site members Safah wrote a wonderful review of the literary classic: To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. This tale follows the story of a young African-American man on trial during the time of the Great Depression when rights for African-Americans had only just been won and inequality was still commonplace.

'Lee masterfully spins a tale of prejudice and ignorance of equality through the young yet intelligent eyes of a little girl... The characters in To Kill a Mockingbird are vividly drawn to build an entire world... Lee uses a perfect blend of character, mystery and history to portray the past as accurately and honestly as a classic such as this could. A touching book, simply for being so remarkably real.'

Meanwhile, in a terrific review of The Butterfly Clues by Kate Ellison, Butterly Rainbow warns

Get ready to be whooshed away by the terror and the romance of this book.' In this novel Penelope finds an antique butterfly necklace which belonged to a murdered girl, and tries to uncover her killer's identity.
'I really liked this book a lot as it was a thriller with lots of dramatic twists and turns. I would rate this book a 10/10! This book may not be appropriate for children below 12. I would recommend it for readers between the ages of 12 and 15.'

Continuing this murder-mystery genre, in Spirit and Dust by Rosemary Clement-Moore, Daisy Goodnight is a teenager who can speak to the dead – and uses this gift to help the FBI solve homicides! However despite an engaging plotline, reader ABitCrazy found the ending of the book disappointing:

'I think at the start this was an unputdownable book... I thought the story was really good as it started unraveling, but... when I got to the end it was so bad, it was really, really disappointing. I really enjoyed the start but I think the end ruined any joy I ever had of it. I wouldn't read it again.'

Then we move onto a mystery tale about a girl called Minnie Piper and her friend Frankie – who 'swirly whirl through a path of unusual codes and riddles'.
Site member Mimi123 wrote an excellent review of Minnie Piper: The Ladybird Code - in which she praised Caroline Juskus' prose.

'The way the author wrote was tremendous! And she put in some random funny things that were made up! That's the part where I got confused... I think the book should have been longer then it would have been better... I would love to read more of Caroline Juskus's books because this was quite amusing and it drags you in when you have to work out the codes and follow the riddles.'

To conclude this week, XoXo, Book Worm_98 wrote a delightful review of Yellow Cake by Margo Lanagan - an enchanting collection of ten 'simply brilliant' short stories. In her critique XoXo, Book Worm_98 described surprise at enjoying a novel she initially considered 'too childish'.

'When I first saw the cover, my head immediately went into my 'this-book-is-too-childish-for-me' phase, but did I learn my lesson – don't judge a book by its cover, at least not one by Margo Lanagan! ... In this collection of ten short stories, each with a completely different theme, completely different, deeply explored characters, as well as imagination and power of words I would kill to have, I find that there is simply no better author than her!'

And that wraps up this week's roundup. Thank you for all your brilliant reviews, we very much enjoyed reading them!

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