Happy Girl Lucky

Holly Smale

HarperCollins, £7.99

ISBN: 9780008254148

Holly Smale’s The Valentines series will fly off our shelves - and rightly so. The first one, Happy Girl Lucky, is surprisingly easy to read for a fairly chunky book: the stage directions and scripted format help. I also loved the morality behind the words.

Gill Ward is senior librarian at Fortismere School in North London

This is a very emotional and romantic novel. Standing up to the world and facing your problems might be hard, but this book proves that, with a little determination, anything can be accomplished. It makes you realise that fame and money are nothing compared with the loyalty and love of family.

Zeynep Yavuz, Year 8 (S2)

Making Every History Lesson Count

Chris Runeckles, edited by Shaun Allison and Andy Tharby

Crown House, £12.99

ISBN: 9781785833366

If I were a newly qualified teacher starting at Durrington High School - where the author is based and where the basic framework for this book was outlined and developed - I would be delighted. Making Every History Lesson Count provides clear rules on the approach to teaching and learning employed by the school, the expectations around lesson planning and assessment, the types of research on the mind and blogs from other educators that a teacher would be expected to read. It embodies the perfect “cookbook” or cultural acclimatisation tool and is onboarding par excellence.

Nick Dennis is director of studies at St Francis’ College in Hertfordshire. He tweets @nickdennis