==Confident readers==
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{{newreview
|author=Liz Kessler
|title=Philippa Fisher and the Stone Fairy's Promise
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=In the third book of this enchanting series Liz Kessler manages to show both the delights and the sorrows of friendship: a topic which is eternally popular with young (and not so young) readers. Philippa has travelled with her father and mother to Ravenleigh to spend New Year with her new friend Robyn. But she has only just arrived when disaster strikes. Daisy, her other best friend and fairy godsister (like a fairy godmother but the same age as you), realises Philippa's mother is in danger, and tries to help. But in order to do so she has to break a lot of rules, and a series of catastrophes means Philippa ends up with Daisy in ATC (Above The Clouds), a sector of the fairy world. And the other fairies don't realise who she is ...
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1842559966</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Jane Smiley
|summary='Strength in What Remains' is the inspirational account of Deogratias, a man who has fled from the genocide and civil war in Burundi (just south of the equator in East Central Africa, bordering Rwanda). He escapes to New York, out of fear and want of a safer life; only his new found American life isn't quite what it promised.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0385616422</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Lynne Reid Banks
|title=I, Houdini
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Houdini is not your usual, commonplace hamster. Oh no, he is a hamster on a mission, a mission to escape! From his very first glorious taste of freedom he spends his life inventing ways to escape and scurrying away (usually straight into a heap of trouble) at every possible opportunity. This is his tale, related entirely from his own, rather conceited, point of view.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007341539</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Andrew Matthews and Tony Ross
|title=The Merchant Of Venice (Shakespeare Stories)
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Bassanio's got the hots for Portia, and she for him. His friend, Antonio, borrows money from Shylock so Bassanio can woo her. Antonio is usually well-off, but all his money is tied up with his ships at the moment. Due to past rivalries, Shylock demands that Antonio pay him back with a pound of flesh if he can't come up with the money. Meanwhile, Portia is putting various suitors to the test. As someone wise once said elsewhere, the course of true love never did run smooth.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408305046</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Gabrielle Lord
|title=April (Conspiracy 365)
|rating=4
|genre=Teens
|summary=It's April and Cal has survived three months of his year on the run. Will the fourth bring him any closer to answers about the Ormond Singularity? And can he trust Winter Frey?
You guys last saw Cal in January, feeling rather shell-shocked after his father's death from a mysterious disease and his brush with a crazed lunatic who told him that his father was murdered and he'd be next unless he could hold out until next New Year's Eve. Within days, Cal found himself on the run, accused of battering his own sister, and in search of something called the Ormond Singularity.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340996471</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Zizou Corder
|title=Halo
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=When Halo is a baby, a centaur finds her crawling up a beach, the sole survivor of a shipwreck. This scene shows, right from the first page, the courage and determination which characterise her during the course of this book. No one has any idea who this human child is, but the golden owl amulet and the curious tattoo on her forehead suggest she is special. She is adopted by the family and for ten years she and her centaur brother Arko lead an idyllic life on the island of Zakynthos. But ten years later Halo is kidnapped by fishermen and sold into slavery. She escapes and disguises herself as a boy because as a girl she can have little or no respect, and no freedom of action. Still disguised as a boy she lives with the Spartans, falls in love, and is given clues to her true identity by the famous Oracle at Delphi.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141328304</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Philip Ardagh
|title=Trick Eggs and Rubber Chickens: Grubtown Tales
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=If you haven't been to Grubtown before, then feel welcome. As newly arrived lorry driver John Jones finds out, it's a place of exceedingly silly names for people – Blue-Ridge Handheld my favourite so far – and exceedingly silly things happening for exceedingly silly reasons. One of those silly things is John Jones arriving into town with a giant octopus on the back of his lorry – a real, live one, destined for the brand new aquarium and carwash. Another, coinciding, silly thing, is the mayor having a huge festival day for the opening of his new home, which he has just finished knitting.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0571247938</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Emily Bearn
|title=A Seaside Adventure (Tumtum and Nutmeg)
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=There's something very comforting about returning to a story with familiar friends and this latest in the Tumtum and Nutmeg series does not disappoint. Our brave little mousey friends are heading off for some new excitement, this time travelling by train to the seaside to keep an eye on Arthur and Lucy who have been sent to stay with their Uncle. Nutmeg is sure it won't be any bother, but Tumtum suspects they may well end up on another adventure!
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1405248203</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Joe Friedman
|title=Boobela and Worm Ride the Waves
|rating=3.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=
Boobela is a girl who is just like any other little girl, except for the fact that she isn't little - she's a giant. Worm is her best friend (he actually is a worm) and he rides around in a box she straps to her shoulder. This outing sees them visiting some underground caves and learning to surf, amongst other adventures.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1842556819</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Sally Gardner
|title=The Red Necklace
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Paris's streets are already humming with talk of revolution, when the young gypsy Yann Margoza is summoned to perform his magic at the chateau of a selfish, debt-ridden marquise. He is to tell the assembled aristocracy their future. But what he hoped would be the ticket to a better life turns into a nightmare when he has a vision of the richly-dressed crowd drowning in a sea of blood.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1842556347</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Kaye Umansky
|title=Clover Twig and the Perilous Path
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=There's non-stop fun and action in this story. Granny Dismal comes to warn Mrs Eckles that the Perilous Path has been spotted in the forest, and this kicks off a funny story involving witches (both good and bad), trolls, missing little boys, clowns, imps and magic sweeties. It's the sequel to Clover Twig and the Incredible Flying Cottage, but I don't think I lost out too much for not having read that first. Everyone is generally so well described, and previous story arcs are quickly filled in if required. This is the sort of book I would have stayed up late reading under the covers with a torch when I was a little girl myself, and is now the sort of book I would steal from my daughter's room late at night so I can keep reading it without waiting for a chapter a night!
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408801876</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=R J Anderson
|title=Rebel (Knife)
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Fifteen years after the events of Knife, the Queen of the Oakenwyld is dying of old age. She charges Knife's daughter, Linden, with the task of finding other faeries out in the world. Knife is now living in the human world with her husband Paul, and her mission to protect the Oak is put in jeopardy by the arrival of Paul's teenage cousin, Timothy.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408307375</amazonuk>
}}