|summary=Oh, I'm so glad this series has finally arrived! Paver's Chronicles of Ancient Darkness about Torak and Renn and Wolf is my absolute favourite middle grade sequence of recent years. Michelle has a such a way of writing. Her books are identifiably children's books - there's no diluting attempt at crossover fiction. Her research is impeccable but she uses it to flavour and colour her stories, never to be didactic. She writes from the point of view of animals but is never twee and anthropomorphic. Her characters - human and animal - are truly alive; vital and colourful and, as in all good children's books, called upon to show extraordinary courage. There's a little bit of magic but not enough to get in the way of the story or the characters, and it's all in keeping with prehistoric, superstitious societies.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141339268</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Jean Ure
|title=Lemonade Sky
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Deborah Tindall has three children - Ruby, Tizz and Sam and she loves them to bits. It's just that she's a little bit fragile mentally and not what you would call a responsible parent. The last time that she went off and left the three girls to fend for themselves they were taken into care and it was months before the authorities felt that it was safe to let the girls go home. So when the girls wake up one morning and find that their mother isn't there they're determined that no one will realise. The have to keep going as normal: their mother was away for ten days last time so how will they manage?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007431643</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Francesca Simon and Tony Ross
|title=A Horrid Factbook: Food
|rating=4
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
|summary=For a horrid child our Henry has acquired a lot of facts, you know and the latest of his Horrid Fact Books is about food. It follows the usual format of quick-fire facts liberally accompanied by brilliant illustrations from Tony Ross. The book's divided into chapters which are just the right length to appeal to the emerging reader and to give a regular feel-good buzz when there's another chapter under the belt. With ninety-nine pages of text there's enough to give the sense of having read ''a book'' but without it being too much of a trial. It ticks all the boxes as an early reader.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444006339</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Susie Day
|title=Pea's Book of Best Friends
|rating=5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Pea isn't too sure about moving from Tenby to London. Instead of starting secondary school with her friend Dot, she'll be by herself. But now that her mum is a best selling author, things are changing, and Pea and her sisters Clover and Tinkerbell will have to adjust. Can she find someone to fill the Dot-shaped hole in her life (and particularly at the desk next to her in lessons?)
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849415226</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Eva Ibbotson
|title=The Abominables
|rating=5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Oh, this is a lovely, lovely book! It will tug at your heart-strings right till the very last page, and you will quickly grow as fond of these wonderful Tibetan creatures as Lady Agatha was. Agreed, they are very large and clumsy, and extremely hairy, but make no mistake: in this story it is the humans, not the yetis, who are abominable.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1407132970</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Dan Freedman
|title=Final Whistle
|rating=3.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Jamie Johnson has seen the good and the bad of a football career. He has been to the World Cup finals, he has helped his team win the English premiership and thus taken them to Europe, and things are still on the rise - except he also has a bit of a crook knee from a car crash, and is still only 19. But this being the modern age of football, he might not stay at that club - especially not when (a) Barcelona come calling for his services, and (b) his team need to sell him just to stay afloat. What awaits this young star in the next stage of his life in the big time?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1407111442</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Oldman Brook
|title=The Wizard of Crescent Moon Mountain
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Greybeard is the wizard of Crescent Moon Mountain and when we first meet him he's expecting guests at his home. The first to arrive are three dwarfs, Wattlespalf, Gendralf and Igralf and whilst they might not be the most becoming of creatures they have expertise with some unusual weaponry. Not long afterwards they're followed by Forrester and Stryker. The two young men arrive in human form but the reality, as we'll find out, is that they're shape-shifters. The six thought that the gathering was complete but they're joined by two elves as a result of a dramatic rescue mission. That the two boys survived the snows which surround the wizard's house is surprising enough, but elves have been extinct for thousands of years and Finn and his younger brother Beezle arrive through an accident in time.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848767617</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Henry Winkler and Lin Oliver
|title=Zero to Hero - Ghost Buddy
|rating=4
|genre=confident Readers
|summary=Billy Broccoli has moved to a new house and school and is anxious about fitting in and making new friends. Things are made more difficult for him because his mum is the head teacher of his new school and Billy is also learning to cope with a new stepfather and stepsister. Just when Billy thinks things could not get any more difficult he discovers a ghost in his bedroom wardrobe. Not just an ordinary ghost either. His own personal ghost is Hoover Porterhouse, a teenage ghost with attitude, who is going to help Billy learn not only how to be cool but also how to deal with the obnoxious school bully. This is the first in a new series by Henry Winkler and Lin Oliver and on the basis of this first instalment it promises to be as successful as their popular Hank Zipzer series.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1407132288</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Morris Gleitzman
|title=Pizza Cake
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Once again the book reviewing gods appear to have it wrong. Not allowing me time to read [[:Category:Morris Gleitzman|Morris Gleitzman's]] too-good-for-mere-kids [[Once by Morris Gleitzman|Once, Then]] and [[Now by Morris Gleitzman|Now]] trilogy, instead comes a new collection of his short tales. And once again with his invention, exuberance and humour, he - and they - have served me right.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141343710</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Lily Blake
|title=Snow White and the Huntsman
|rating=3.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=They say it's always best to read the book before watching the film, but what if they don't come in the usual order? This novelisation of the film ''Snow White and the Huntsman'' definitely comes after the screenplay, offering a second opportunity to look at the world and action of ''this'' Snow White, who, while experiencing the Dark Forest at the hands of a huntsman ridiculously called Eric, realises that to snatch the kingdom from her evil step-mum she has to get a bit feisty.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907411704</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Katie Davies
|title=The Great Dog Disaster
|rating=3.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Suzanne's dad is shouting again, loud enough to be heard through the kitchen walls into the house next door, where Anna lives. He must think he sounds like a stuck record, saying for the umpteenth time they can't and won't have a dog as a pet. But what if it's left Suzanne in a will? Unfortunately, what gets delivered is nothing like the dreamt-of Cheetah or Bullet, but the most lumpen, lazy, poo-smelly attempt at a dog ever. And unfortunately, the attempts to train and exercise it involves Anna in lots of poo-smelly-bit shoving, and so much time and effort it could even break their friendship...
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847385982</amazonuk>
}}
