[[Category:Confident Readers|*]]
[[Category:New Reviews|Confident Readers]] __NOTOC__ <!-- Remove -->
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|summary=What life can you find for yourself, when it seems to be marked out at the start that this – the only one you get – begins at such a lowly place? That's the question the dog in ''Dog'' faces, especially when a snide spider tells him he is the runt of the litter, and instead of being bought has been selected by an adult only because he's free. He wasn't even really chosen, and they had thought to get a cat. Oddly enough the mutt gets to be called Spider by Tom, the lad who gets to call him his, but he's fraught with self-doubt. The spider tells him he's only going to cause harm – which he does. But the neighbourhood cat declares that Spider has something of the feline in his mongrel mix, and tempts him across to her way of living. Tom himself, meanwhile, is being nudged into thinking he's beginning at a lowly place – he ignores his absent mother, he has the privilege of a scholarship for him to get beaten up and bullied at school, and he can't see much future for himself, either. Can Spider work out his lot, and match his life with that of Tom, or will outside agencies get in the way?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782691715</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author= Amanda Foody
|title= Daughter of the Burning City
|rating= 4
|genre= Confident Readers
|summary=Gomorrah, a travelling circus as big as a city, tours the land, entertaining the crowds with fantastic shows of magic, illusion and sleight of hand. But the proprietor of Gomorrah, Villiam, believes he has a far more important role than merely organising the acts in the circus. He has political ambition, which he keeps a secret from his adopted daughter. Growing up in the circus, Sorina knows that she will one day become the Proprietor and take over from her father. At sixteen, she is keen to start learning everything she can from Villiam.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848455445</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=L Frank Baum, Michel Laporte, Olivier Latyk and Vanessa Mieville (translator)
|title=The Wizard of Oz
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=''Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Hollywood any more.'' And no, indeed we are not. We are in the realm of L Frank Baum, and not the cinema version of this fantasy quest story. So those slippers are silver and not ruby, the companions do not get given solid things that may imply they have achieved what they seek, and the flying monkeys played backwards do not work out to be singing Pink Floyd records, or whatever the urban myth was. Otherwise, we're pretty much on the same, assured, solid ground, with the greyness of Kansas (in a scene that seemed to foretell of the Dust Bowl decades later) being swapped for the quartet of queer, questing characters, the yellow bricked road and everything else you would want of a young reader adaptation of the novel.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>191027738X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=William Steig
|title=The Real Thief
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Meet Gawain. He's a goose, with great plans to be a great architect, who's fallen instead into being the Chief Guard of the Royal Treasury belonging to King Basil the bear. Only the two of them have keys to enter through the only door into the place, but lo and behold, some of the gems have been stolen. Gawain promises to be even more diligent than he already is – ''I check, I double-check and I re-double-check'', he insists. But more and more things go missing, and soon Gawain is being accused of betraying King Basil's trust and helping himself. I would say he's out on his ear as a result, but, you know – he's a goose.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782691456</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Marian Orlon, Jerzy Flisak and Eliza Marciniak (translator)
|title=Detective Nosegoode and the Museum Robbery (Detective Nosegood 3)
|rating=3.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=[[Detective Nosegoode and the Music Box Mystery (Detective Nosegoode 1) by Marian Orlon, Jerzy Flisak and Eliza Marciniak (translator)|Last time I met with]] the retired Detective Nosegoode and his loyal and helpful dog Cody – the dog that can speak human language, what's more – there was a most intriguing case for the two to solve – that proceeded to go about in less than perfect ways. This third volume of the pair's adventures contains prequels – a selection of three shorter works that convey dramas from the latter stage of Nosegoode's career. So a museum curator is convinced the town's masterpiece landscape is due to be stolen, the chess club has a robber, and Nosegoode gets a tip-off from his mentor about a pickpocket being in town. It's almost too much for even a clever little old man and his clever little hound.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782691596</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author= A A Milne and E H Shepard
|title= The Christopher Robin Collection
|rating= 5
|genre= Confident Readers
|summary='The Christopher Robin Collection'' is a compilation of stories and poems and what not, from A. A. Milne's original works, so it's a new book but with existing content, perfect for re-remembering as Owl might say, but equally good for discovering for the very first time, just like Pooh and the North Pole (''Discovered by Pooh…Pooh found it'').
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1405288019</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author= Paul Bright, Brian Sibley, Jeanne Willis, Kate Saunders and Mark Burgess
|title= The Best Bear in All the World
|rating= 4
|genre= Confident Readers
|summary= Winnie the Pooh is a classic, and sometimes classics should be left untouched by the hands of time. After all, can you improve on perfection? With A.A. Milne no longer with us, there are limited options for continuing the stories of Pooh, Piglet, Rabbit and the gang, but in this authorised sequel the show must and indeed does go on, with four new tales about the bear with very little brain.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>140528661X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Lauren St John
|title=The Snow Angel
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Makena was born and raised in the city of Nairobi but she dreams of mountains, in particular Mount Kenya. When her father takes her on her first real exploration of the mountain, and she gets a brief glimpse of a strange sparkling fox, Makena thinks life can't get any better. Within weeks, however, her perfect world is shattered. Makena finds herself scratching out an existence in the city slums. She contracts cholera and almost dies. Luckily a pair of young charity workers are led to her by a fleeting image of a fox and offer her a new start and a trip to the Scottish Highlands. But will Makena be able to accept their kindness?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1786695898</amazonuk>
}}
