|summary=Rumpelstiltskin is one of the better known of the tales from the Brothers Grimm and a perennial favourite. The poor miller shows off in front of the king about the abilities of his beautiful daughter - she can apparently spin straw into gold. The king insists that the girl be sent to the palace and when she arrives tells her to get a load of straw spun into gold - or suffer the (fatal) consequences. The girl is saved by the appearance of a dwarf who works his magic in return for the girl's necklace; on the second night it's her ring she gives up and on the third it's the promise of her first-born child.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>140830841X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Saviour Pirotta and Cecilia Johansson
|title=Grimm's Fairy Tales: Twelve Dancing Princesses
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=There was once a king who had twelve beautiful daughters. Frightened that they would sneak out and go dancing he locked them in a big bedroom at night, but each morning he would find their satin shoes danced to pieces. As he couldn't work out how they escaped he issued a proclamation to all the young men of the land. Any prince who worked out how they escaped could marry one of the daughters and would inherit the kingdom. But - if after three nights he hadn't discovered the secret, he would lose his head.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408308436</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Conrad Mason
|title=The Demon's Watch
|rating=4.5
|genre=Teens
|summary=''We're the Demon's Watch, son. Best you don't think of us as the good folk. More like the dangerous folk.''
Joseph Grubb lives in Fayt, a busy port between the Old and the New Worlds. In Fayt, humans, elves, trolls, ogres and fairies live together in relative peace. But it's not all harmony. The League of Light is threatening the port, wanting to force back into the Old World way of segregation and persecution of the fey folk. And there is suspicion of multiculturalims even in Fayt itself - Joseph is a half-goblin and an orphan. His goblin father was murdered for marrying a human woman and Joseph now lives and works at a tavern owned by an uncle who despises him and calls him Mongrel.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857560298</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Carl Hiaasen
|title=Chomp
|rating=5
|genre=Teens
|summary=Wahoo isn't a cool kid. He can't play sports, and he doesn't have the latest gear. But no one at school bullies him because Alice, the twelve-foot alligator who lives in his dad's zoo, accidentally bit his thumb off one day. The other kids reckon if he can walk away from an ordeal like that, then he must have something going for him. And by the time this story is over, he'll be up to his ears in street-cred.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444005065</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Ellen Emerson White
|title=Titanic: An Edwardian Girl's Diary 1912
|rating=4
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
|summary=Margaret Anne Brady had been at the orphanage for several years when one of the Sisters told her that she'd been asked to accompany a lady who was crossing the Atlantic. This was a dream come true for Margaret as he only relative - her brother William - lived in Boston and he'd been trying to save up her fare so that she could join him in the USA. Mrs Carstairs is wealthy and she and Margaret will be travelling First Class - on the maiden voyage of RMS ''Titanic''. All Margaret's dreams seemed to be coming true at once.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1407131419</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Catherine Jinks
|title=The Paradise Trap
|rating=3.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=When Marcus's mum has to economise over their holidays, it means just the two of them, revisiting a campsite she herself knew as a child, in a grotty old second-hand caravan. It's a greasy, shabby, squeaky little closet of a caravan, and no-one can agree on what the awful stink pervading it reminds them of. But when the trip is hyped up as a great time for both, it seems to have a chance of coming true, for a bizarre cellar to the caravan leads everyone to their dream trip - if only, unfortunately, one way...
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857386735</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Nicky Singer
|title=The Flask
|rating=5
|genre=Teens
|summary=Twelve-year-old Jess is dealing with a lot. Her beloved Aunt Edie has just died. Her mother is expecting twins - but these new babies will be Jess's half-brothers and will complete Jess's mother's marriage to her stepfather. But will they complete Jess's family? Will they even survive? Because the twins are conjoined. And in 70% of separations, only one twin lives. And if this weren't enough in the way of trials and tribulations, Jess's best friend Zoe is moving towards a relationship with a boy. Does this mean she will leave Jess behind?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007438761</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Steve Cole
|title=Cows in Action: The Viking Emoo-gency
|rating=3.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=The future world's balance between cows and humans is a lot different to our own, as the bovine species has evolved into something a lot more intelligent; so much so that in order to gain the upper hand, both parties are using time travel to snatch advantages in other times and places. In this episode of the series, it's a robotic ter-moo-nator and a fundamentalist scientist who have gone back to Viking times, leaving just three special cows from the current age with the task to go back and sort things out on the side of a happier, human-friendly existence. Can they succeed, or will much of what we know of since the Viking era be re-moo-ved from our history books?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849414017</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Ellie Boswell
|title=The Witch of Turlingham Academy
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Boarding school, midnight feasts, a crowd of best friends and cute boys to gaze at (though mostly from a safe distance): what more could you ask from a story for girls of twelve and under? Well, how about throwing a bit of magic into the mix? Perfect, huh?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907410953</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Barbara Mitchelhill
|title=Road to London
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Elizabethan London, made all the more wonderful by the splendour of the court and the magic of Shakespeare's imagination, is a perfect place to set an adventure. Mysteries, plots and conspiracies abound, and the stark contrast between the lives of the rich and the poor makes for a colourful and thought-provoking story. Add to that the privileged position we find ourselves in as we follow our young hero Thomas and his good friend Alice from the stinking streets full of cutthroats and foot-pads right into the presence of the Good Queen herself, and young readers are in for a treat.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849394075</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Liz Pichon
|title=Tom Gates: Everything's Amazing (sort of)
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Tom Gates, our chronicler of all that happens in Year 5, is back with more stories of all that's happening at school and at home. He and his friend Derek decide to enter Derek's dog, Rooster, in the local dog show, but they might have been just a little over-enthusiastic with the shampooing and Rooster ends up looking rather more fluffy than usual. Tom and his sister Delia are still at daggers drawn over, well, just about everything and she's not impressed by the noise that Tom and his band make when they're practicing. Still, Tom has a birthday coming up and his only worries are that some of Granny Mavis' baking might be just a little too unusual and if his Dad does DJ then the whole thing might turn into a disaster.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1407124412</amazonuk>
}}
