Aysha Kala

  • Read by: Aysha Kala

    Duration: 10 hrs 30 mins

    Car headlights.The last thing Ash hears is the snap of breaking glass as the windscreen hits her and breaks into a million pieces like stars. But she made it, she's still here. Or is she?

    This New Year's Eve, Ash is gets an RSVP from the afterlife she can't decline: to join a clan of fierce girl reapers who take the souls of the city's dead to await their fate.

    But Ash can't forget her first love, Poppy, and she will do anything to see her again ... even if it means they only get a few more days together. Dead or alive ...

    NOT EVEN DEATH CAN TEAR THEM APART.

    Key Stage 4
  • Read by: Aysha Kala

    Duration: 7 hrs 30 mins

    Milo lives on board the Sesquipedalian, or 'Quip' - a magical train that uses the power of imagination to travel through both Story and the real world. The train is owned by Milo’s uncle, Horatio, and Milo has witnessed many of his uncle’s dodgy dealings as a book smuggler trading in rare books. When Horatio takes on a dangerous new job, he needs the help of Tilly Pages. And Tilly owes Horatio a favour. But when poisoned copies of The Wizard of Oz are sent to Horatio and Tilly's grandfather, sending them both into deep sleeps, Milo and Tilly find themselves racing against time to save them - and to figure out what is going on.

    Key Stage 2
  • Read by: Aysha Kala

    Duration: 4 hrs

    The shark was beneath my bed, growing large as the room, large as the lighthouse, rising from unfathomable depths until it ripped the whole island from its roots. The bed was a boat, the shark a tide, and it pulled me so far out to sea I was only a speck, a spot, a mote, a dying star in an unending sky...

    Julia has followed her mum and dad to live on a remote island for the summer - her dad, for work; her mother, on a determined mission to find the elusive Greenland shark. But when her mother's obsession threatens to submerge them all, Julia finds herself on an adventure with dark depths and a lighthouse full of hope...

    A beautiful, lyrical, uplifting story about a mother, a daughter, and love - with timely themes of the importance of science and the environment.

    Key Stage 2
  • Read by: Aysha Kala

    Duration: 11 hrs

    From the green hilltops of Kampala, to the terraced houses of London, Neema Shah's extraordinarily moving debut Kololo Hill explores what it means to leave your home behind, what it takes to start again, and the lengths some will go to protect their loved ones.

    When you're left with nothing but your secrets, how do you start again?

    Uganda 1972


    A devastating decree is issued: all Ugandan Asians must leave the country in ninety days. They must take only what they can carry, give up their money and never return.

    For Asha and Pran, married a matter of months, it means abandoning the family business that Pran has worked so hard to save. For his mother, Jaya, it means saying goodbye to the house that has been her home for decades. But violence is escalating in Kampala, and people are disappearing. Will they all make it to safety in Britain and will they be given refuge if they do?

    And all the while, a terrible secret about the expulsion hangs over them, threatening to tear the family apart.

    Contemporary Fiction
  • Read by: Aysha Kala

    Duration: 10 hrs 48 mins

    In the village of Great Wyrley near Birmingham, someone is mutilating horses. Someone is also sending threatening letters to the vicarage, where the vicar, Shahpur Edalji, is a Parsi convert to Christianity and the first Indian to have a parish in England. His son George - quiet, socially awkward and the only boy at school with distinctly Indian features - grows up into a successful barrister, till he is improbably linked to and then prosecuted for the above crimes.

    When he is released early, his conviction still hangs over him. Having lost faith in the police and the legal system, George Edalji turns to the one man he believes can clear his name - the creator of the world's greatest detective. When he writes to Arthur Conan Doyle asking him to meet, Conan Doyle agrees…

     

    Crime & Law
  • Read by: Aysha Kala

    Duration: 4 hrs 26 mins

    October and her dad live in the woods. They know the trees and the rocks and the lake and stars like best friends. They live in the woods and they are wild. And that's the way it is. Until the year October turns eleven. That's the year October rescues a baby owl. It's the year Dad falls out of the biggest tree in their woods. The year the woman who calls herself October's mother comes back. The year everything changes.

    Written in Katya Balen's heart-stoppingly beautiful style, this book is a feast for the senses. And, as October fights to find the space to be wild in the whirling chaos of the world beyond the woods, it is also a feast for the soul.

    Key Stage 2
  • Read by: Aysha Kala

    Duration: 10 hrs 30 mins

    What if everything you set yourself up to be was wrong? Frances has always been a study machine with one goal, elite university. Nothing will stand in her way; not friends, not a guilty secret – not even the person she is on the inside. But when Frances meets Aled, the shy genius behind her favourite podcast, she discovers a new freedom. He unlocks the door to Real Frances and for the first time she experiences true friendship, unafraid to be herself. Then the podcast goes viral and the fragile trust between them is broken.

    Caught between who she was and who she longs to be, Frances’ dreams come crashing down. Suffocating with guilt, she knows that she has to confront her past....She has to confess why Carys disappeared....Meanwhile at uni, Aled is alone, fighting even darker secrets. It’s only by facing up to your fears that you can overcome them. And it’s only by being your true self that you can find happiness. Frances is going to need every bit of courage she has.

    Key Stage 3
  • Read by: Aysha Kala

    Duration: 14 hrs 38 mins

    For the first time, behavioural and data scientist, activist and writer Dr Pragya Agarwal unravels the way our implicit or 'unintentional' biases affect the way we communicate and perceive the world, how they affect our decision-making, and how they reinforce and perpetuate systemic and structural inequalities.

    Sway is a thoroughly researched and comprehensive look at unconscious bias and how it impacts day-to-day life, from job interviews to romantic relationships to saving for retirement. It covers a huge number of sensitive topics - sexism, racism, ageism, homophobia, colourism - with tact, and combines statistics with stories to paint a fuller picture and enhance understanding. Throughout, Pragya clearly delineates theories with a solid grounding in science.

    This book will enables us to open our eyes to our own biases in a scientific and non-judgmental way.

    Psychology & Sociology
  • Read by: Aysha Kala

    Duration: 7 hrs 20 mins

    Tilly Pages is a bookwanderer; she can travel inside books, and even talk to the characters she meets there. But Tilly’s powers are put to the test when fairytales start leaking book magic and causing havoc.

    On a wintery visit to Paris, Tilly and her best friend Oskar bravely bookwander into the land of fairytales to find that characters are getting lost, stories are all mixed-up, and mysterious plot holes are opening without warning. Can Tilly work out who, or what, is behind the chaos so everyone gets their happily-ever-after?

    Key Stage 2
  • Read by: Aysha Kala

    Duration: 7 hrs 30 mins

    Tilly and Oskar embark on an impromptu trip to the Library of Congress in Washington, DC, in search of an elusive group of bookwanderers called the Archivists, who they believe are the key to restoring the balance and saving the British Underlibrary.

    Along the way, the friends realise that something strange is happening in the world of bookwandering: books are disappearing, people are forgetting their favourite stories, and stories are trying to drag Tilly into them.

    Tilly and Oskar will need the help of some of their dearest fictional friends to be able to solve the mystery . . . and save bookwandering forever.

    Key Stage 2
  • Read by: Aysha Kala

    Duration: 7 hrs 42 mins

    Yesterday Crumb is no ordinary girl. She was born with fox ears that have cursed her to a lonely life working in the circus and her origins are a complete mystery. But she is about to escape into the adventure of a lifetime when she learns that she's a strangeling who's lost her magic.

    Taken in by Miss Dumpling the flamboyant Tea Witch, Yesterday is introduced to a magical, walking teashop filled with fantastical customers, a flying teapot turtle called Pascal and powerful spells in every teacup!

    Yesterday starts to rediscover her magic and to feel a sense of belonging. But a mysterious figure of darkness is working hard to ensure her new life comes crashing down - and it all starts with a deadly shard of ice in Yesterday's heart...

     

    Key Stage 2
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