|summary=A new Ice Age is coming. Winters are getting colder. There are fewer mammoths to hunt and no trees from which to fashion spears to kill them. A small group of Neanderthals is facing starvation this winter. One of them, Mica, is full of ideas to avert the impending doom, but the others simply won't listen to her. If something has never been before then it is ''nothing'' and simply not worth thinking about. Even Bear, who loves Mica, won't hear her. One night, Mica hears strange voices calling in the darkness. They fill her with a deep sense of longing. But to whom do these siren voices belong? And do they hold the key to Mica's future?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0192757113</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=David Nytra
|title=The Secret of the Stone Frog
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=You know the drill – you are a young boy and find yourself waking up alongside your older sister, but with your beds beside the bole of a huge tree in an enchanted forest. The advice you get is straightforward, but impossible to follow, as you don't stick to the straight and simple path home that you should. As a result you find a tempting house guarded by bees who steal the words out of your mouth, hoity-toity upper class lions, angler fish on the daily commute and more.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1935179187</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Mike Dilger
|title=Wild Town (RSPB)
|rating=4.5
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
|summary=
Would you like to know what about the thriving wildlife in Britain's towns and cities? What natural riches are out there, if only you know where (and how) to look? ''Wild Town'' will tell you. Divided into habitats - desert, grasslands, wetlands, forests, scrub, caves - the book describes animals, and some plants, to be found in each. You'll be amazed at what's out there. And you'll find out a lot about a teeming natural world right on your doorstep. It will tell you the best places to spot animals and plants - and, thanks to the wonderful photography, you'll have no trouble recognising them once you're there. From the iconic foxes and badgers to the less well known species of bird, amphibian and insect, it's all there in all its diversity and beauty.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408173905</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=John Jackson and Daniela Jaglenka Terrazzini
|title=Tales for Great Grandchildren
|rating=5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=
I love old folk tales and fables. The treasure chest of myth and legend contains universal stories, as relevant today as they were in the ancient communities in which they were first told. They speak of love, loss, jealousy, courage, cowardice and grief. They wonder about the world in which we live. They offer explanations, some magical, some plain common sense. They're joyful. They're sad. And sometimes they're frightening. They have all the light and shade that adds up to the human experience.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>095692123X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Kate O'Hearn
|title=Pegasus and The Origins of Olympus
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=As Emily watches her beloved Pegasus fade away due to a mysterious deadly plague she knows that she must do everything she can to save her old friend. This decision sends her on a thrilling and dangerous journey back in time to Ancient Greece and the origins of mythology. She discovers new allies from both ancient times and the modern day but also terrifying enemies who test her powers and courage. In addition Emily also has to struggle with her long running conflict with the secret government agency, the sinister C.R.U. Together with her friend Joel, Emily finds herself facing a colossal battle that she must win in order to save the Olympians in this fantasy adventure.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444910949</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Philip Caveney
|title=Crow Boy
|rating=5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Life is tough for Tom Afflick. He's the new boy at school — never a happy situation — and some of his classmates take every opportunity to bully him. They laugh at his accent, and once they find out his mum ran away from her English husband and is now living with the unlovely Hamish, then things go from bad to worse. He misses his friends back in Manchester, and his dad seems to be making barely any effort whatsoever to contact him. Then he makes a huge mistake: on the school trip to Mary King's Close (a real place, by the way, which you can visit next time you're in Edinburgh) he reveals that he already knows a lot about the beginnings of the plague because his class had already studied it, back in his old school. His fate is sealed, and number-one bully Gillies promises to thump him as soon as the teacher is out of sight.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1905916558</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Geraldine McCaughrean and Sophy Williams
|title=The Oxford Treasury of Fairy Tales
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=In this lovely collection of twenty fairy tales there's a brilliant range of stories. There are familiar favourites, such as 'Sleeping Beauty' and 'Hansel and Gretel', but then there are others which were new to me such as 'The Three Oranges' and 'The Thirteenth Child'. There's something for everyone really, with princess stories, witches and frogs, magical items and mysterious happenings!
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0192794469</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Sharon Creech
|title=The Great Unexpected
|rating=5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Naomi lives with her foster parents, Nula and Joe. She is afraid of dogs - one of her arms is useless after the dog attack that killed her father when she was just a baby. Nula and Joe aren't demonstrative, but Nula knows deep in her soul that she is loved and wanted. Best friend Lizzie is a perfect foil for Naomi. She's garrulous while Naomi is introspective. Outgoing while Naomi is reserved. She's openhearted while Naomi is cautious. Their friendship is the whole made by two very disparate halves. And then, one day, a boy falls out of a tree. Finn is nothing like anyone either girl has met before. And before she knows it, Naomi is beginning to question her friendship with Lizzie.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849390924</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Paul Moran
|title=Where's the Meerkat? Journey Through Time
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=It seems that one way for creators to keep kids poring over the pages of their books is to do what the people behind this have done – take most of the words out. There are a few hundred, giving us some brief story about a bunch of meerkats using a time machine, partly by accident, and therefore visiting several different major historical points in time, but one can ignore them, for it is the artwork that one has to scour for ten meerkats, a squirrel and a hawk. And that search is what is going to keep the young of all ages engaged in for quite some time…
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1843178044</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Daniela Sacerdoti
|title=Really Weird Removals.Com
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Twelve-year-old Luca and his younger sister Valentina don't know their Uncle Alistair, who had a row with their father about a decade ago. When Alistair returns to the Scottish island of Eilean to try to put things right, their dad doesn't want to have anything to do with him - but when Luca and Valentina meet him and the ghost he's brought with him, they're desperate to help their uncle with his Really Weird Removals Company. While their parents think they're helping to exterminate ants and cockroaches, they're actually relocating mermaids, sea serpents and trolls - but not everything out there is friendly. Can Alistair keep them safe? And what exactly did cause his row with their father?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0863159028</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Carlo Collodi, Geoffrey Brock, Umberto Eco and Fulvio Testa
|title=Pinocchio
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Of all the benefits of being at the hands of the book reviewing gods, the fact that now and again you get to visit a true classic, one of those books you think you know but have never read, stands out as being a major advantage. Consider Pinocchio – I've reviewed a [[Pinocchio by Winshluss|very adult graphic novel version]] that's definitely not for the faint-hearted, I've even performed in a stage version – but never read the original. I might never even have seen the Disney film but I have an inkling of what it's about, how it pans out, and what the thrust of the story is. And of course, a lot of my impressions are wrong. This volume is one of the best ways to get a crisp, accurate and clear insight into the reality.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849392625</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Charles Gilman
|title=Professor Gargoyle: Tales from Lovecraft Middle School
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Let's be honest – starting a new series with a boy alone in a new school, apart from his bullying nemesis, does not particularly strike one as original, or even interesting. But behind all the fabulous LCD message boards and technology, the brand new Lovecraft Middle actually holds some very interesting and ancient secrets. A host of children find a white rat waiting for them in their lockers when they're opened for the first time. The library seems to have a very unusual labyrinth of secret passages in, appropriately enough, the paranormal fiction section. And no-one, from the pupils to the staff, seem to be acting quite as they should…
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1594745919</amazonuk>
}}