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[[Category:Confident Readers|*]]
[[Category:New Reviews|Confident Readers]] __NOTOC__<!-- Remove -->{{newreview|author=Peter Jay Black|title=Blackout (Urban Outlaws)|rating=5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Fans of thrillers will be the first to admit that character development is not always the first priority in their favourite books. In fact, in some series heroes change less than ''The Simpsons'', even after dozens of adventures. So, finding a story which has heart-pounding drama, well-drawn characters and even – believe it or not – a few scenes which would melt the hardest heart makes this excellent series a must-read.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1619635925</amazonuk>}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Tom PalmerRob Keeley|title=Rugby AcademyChildish Spirits: Surface to Air|rating=5|genre=Dyslexia Friendly|summary=We first met Rory in [[Rugby Academy: Combat Zone by Tom Palmer|Combat Zone]] when circumstances forced him to go to Broadlands Boarding School when both his parents were posted abroad by the RAF. It wasn't his choice - I mean they played ''rugby'' rather than his beloved football - but it wasn't long before he discovered that not only did he enjoy rugby, he was rather good at it. It was also something of a relief to be at a school where there were other boys in a similar situation to himself. By the time that we meet Rory again time has moved on and he's on his way to Toulon to play in an international schools rugby tournament.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781123985</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Irfan Virk|title=My Mate's as 'Ard as Nails: (My Obdurate Companion)10th anniversary special edition
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Around here, we're big fans of children'It was one of those days when you feel that somethings author Rob Keeley. He's going to happen: something bada ball of happy positivity, he understands children, and he writes for their pleasure and enjoyment, something you know you won't be able not to avoidlecture or hector. Freddy felt it as soon as he woke up...''
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Cathy HopkinsMax Boucherat|title=A Home for ShimmerThe Last Life of Lori Mills|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Great coverWe meet Lori on the first evening she's got the house to herself – no neighbour to pop in, babysitter poorly, mother at work, just an avidly rule-breaking eleven year old, on her lonesome. What could possibly go wrong? Snuggled in a blanket fort, she has one main intention, and that is to log on to Voxminer, the world-art building, critter-collecting game that is often a compelling factor hit in making Lori's world. But first Lori has a purchase decisiontiny inkling that this stormy night doesn't find herself entirely on her own, so who could resist and then she finds something even more spooky. For the lure server she and her bestie and nobody else should be able to enter shows signs of a fluffy white retriever pup, with a shiny black nose and smiling tampering. When malevolent eyesspark up on her phone screen, beckoning readers to pick up the book and read her story? 'A Home for Shimmer' safe place in the game has been doctored – well, where is the story of a bond between a girl and her pup and the many obstacles that they must face to stay together.turn?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1471117936</amazonuk>0008666482
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Steven Butler Kieran Larwood and Steve May (illustrator)Joe Todd-Stanton|title=The Diary of Dennis the MenaceDungeon Runners: Bash Street Bandit (Book 4)Hero Trial|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Something is wrong in BeanotownMeet Kit. You'd normally think that Like most of the people in his world, it seems, he is an avid fan of Dungeon Running – the sport where a team of warrior, mage and healer enter specially prepared, century-old, magical mazes, and race to the only thing wrong about exit, perhaps bothering with the place is Dennis treasure or the Menace – his dastardly deeds big bad and novel naughtinessthe points they grant you along the way. But no – this time itUnfortunately for Kit, the only thing he's worseseen of the latest race on the inn TV equivalent is that one team has been retired, eaten, and a new trio of questors is needed. Someone is being a menace Possibly very unfortunately indeed for Kit, he has taken to everyone the goading from the token bully of his world and it isnstumbled into declaring he't even Dennisll enter as a team. The Colonel's garden gnomes are all bottom-upWhat chance does this friendless, and even the park plants spell out ''Bummuscle-Face''. And our hero has no idea who is outfree-menacing him. It's up to him and his naughty Gnasher to try zone have in actually managing that, and work out what is causing everyone – Softie or not – how could he possibly hope to be so worried.succeed?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0141355824</amazonuk>1839945184
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Mike RevellJames Sherwood Metts|title=StonebirdPlanet Storyland
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=People keep telling Liam he's Things have been a bit sticky for the man of the house since his dad walked out on the family Earthlings. AI and went automation have been proceeding apace, often replacing jobs they're paid to live with his girlfriend in Australia, even though do and other tasks that's quite a burden took time to put on the shoulders of a ten-year-oldaccomplish. He tries his hardest Just as they were beginning to live up get used to everyone's expectationsall this technological change and starting to think of other, but it's not easy: the family has new ways to move house spend time, along came an awful pandemic. Life was pretty much shut down and school to be nearer Gran, who's suffering from dementia; his mum is falling apart because she simply can't cope along with the pain of losing her remaining parent in this wayit, and his older sister is more interested in her new boyfriend than anything Liam's going through. And that's before all the usual new kid in school bullying beginsmany daily social interactions on which they depend so heavily.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1848667175</amazonuk>1736128426
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Ruth FitzgeraldTom Percival|title=Emily Sparkes and the Friendship FiascoThe Wrong Shoes
|rating=5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=When it comes to books for the younger age rangeWill's life is difficult, I tend to be more interested in a multitude of ways. He is bullied because he has 'the adventure storieswrong shoes', he has the wrong shoes because his dad can't work and doesn't have enough money for even the fantasiesmost basic of things like food, and his dad can't work because he lost his job at the mysteries than the more realistic contemporary books. Occasionallycollege, though, something was working a cash-in -hand job on a building site and had an accident. Throw into that mix the fact that genre comes along which completely captivates me - his mum and dad are separated, and Ruth FitzgeraldWill's debut is one life seems bleak in every direction. And yet, he still has a tiny amount of those bookshope. I picked it up to take a quick look after it was recommended to me as being a perfect 'mood-buster' He is good at art, and within 5 pages I was enchanted. (I was also attracting some strange looks on clings to the Tubemoments of joy when he is drawing, having burst out laughing loudly three times by that feel like a light at the end of the fifth page - there are definite queries as to how suitable this is as a public transport read!)long, dark tunnel.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0349001820</amazonuk>1398527122
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Robin Stevens1805141872|title=Arsenic For Tea (A Wells and Wong Mystery)The Teacher Who Knew Too Much|author=Rob Keeley
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Some detectives ''Seventeen banks and a jeweller’s have a dark and sorrowful pastbeen raided. Others The police are gifted baffled, but only Ben knows the truth – or burdened – with extraordinary skillshis Maths teacher, Miss Judson, and is really a few are so intellectual they can barely relate to the people around them. But Hazel Wong safecracker! With police and Daisy Wells, heroines of this delightful detective seriesher gangster boyfriend Al on their trail, are just ordinary schoolgirls who enjoy solving puzzles Miss Judson and mysteries and who somehow end up right at Ben go on the centre of the occasional deadly dramarun. But Al needs them for one last job...|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0552570737</amazonuk>}}''
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Patrick Modiano, Sempe (illustrator) and William Rodarmor (translator)Christopher Edge|title=Catherine CertitudeBlack Hole Cinema Club
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=What little I know of Patrick Modiano was gained from the number of 'no, we've never heard of him, either' articles Lucas and summaries that came our way when he won the Nobel Prize his friends are all booked in for Literature a movie marathon at their local cinema, a place that has the end nickname of 2014'The Black Hole'. They suggested his oeuvre was matureAll big movie fans, slightly thriller-based but not exclusively sothey're looking forward to lots of exciting films, and asked lots of accumulative questions regarding identity with regard to the Vichy government during WWII. many, many snacks! Identity is a lot more fixed in this musing little pieceHowever, for as the adult voice-over looks back over a wide removemovie starts, they very quickly realise that something about this new film format is very different, and says there will always be a little bit of her living the events and situations of the bookthey are swept up into an adventure they couldn't even imagine. Those situations are of a young dance-school attendeeBut as they lurch from one film genre to the next, and her loving and much-loved father, living a cosy life in Paris – even if the girl never once really works can they figure out what it on earth is her father does for a living…going on? Will they ever get back to the cinema, and to their real lives?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1783443022</amazonuk>1839942738
}}
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers|summary=There are a few important things Murray is supposed to know about the Island Kingdom of Great Kerfuffle. One is that it is pestered by be a criminal gang of badgershumble, tidy and friendly cat, one who find it impossible is able to just sit around in prison, but always have to escape sleep and eat and eat and cause danger sleep and nastiness to other people, even if they are on well, whatever takes his fancy next of the whole incredibly stupidtwo. You also need to knowBut he's a bad magician's cat, howeverso his favourite bun has been turned into a hyperactive sticky rabbit called Bun, that brother and sister Stinkbomb and Ketchup-Face are great at solving the problems catflap they both use can chuck them out, not into the badgers causeregular back garden, and getting through the adventures in but into a very self-knowing way, even discussing the lengths world of the chapters frightening adventure and the style of story as they go about their businesswhiffs. Here the problem This time round it drops them into a Viking land, where a troll hunter is revealed quite late onexpected – well, one much bigger than Murray was, so in an effort not to spoil the plot Ibe honest, but he's turned up and he'll just point out that in a book this stupidly, deliriously daft you hardly need bother about the plot in the first place, and can just relax and have the sheer joy of entertainment for an hour or so.to do…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0192738259</amazonuk>0008561249
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=The New Enemy: Liam Scott Book 3Alex Bell and Tim McDonagh|authortitle=Andy McNabThe Glorious Race of Magical Beasts
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=When Eli is a busy lad – by day an apprentice in the wondrous library we start by visiting with him, and in the seven schoolgirls evening a helper at St Etheldreda's School the dessert cafe his gran owns and runs. Eli lives with his lovely gran, too – for Young Ladies there is a generation missing in Victorian Ely see their headmistress and her brother drop dead at dinner, they're more concerned about their future than the loss of the two adultsfamily. Knowing that if anyone discovers what A few short years ago, Eli's happened they'll be sent home parents were both lost to families who don't want themthe titular race, they launch a daring plan globe-trotting adventure where all entrants have to cover up navigate the sad news, and run world in the school themselvescompany of a magical beast. When This has made the race anathema to the pair – but when a bad incident at the deaths turn out eatery leads to be caused by poisona confession from gran, thoughEli knows his only hope is to dare to enter what he most hates, they're left not just trying to run a school and convince an alarming number with the sole aim the prize of visitors that nothing's wrong - but also magic at the end – the only thing to solve the murders before there's another killingpossibly save his gran.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1848124376</amazonuk>0571382231
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Gene KempHelen Cooper|title=The Turbulent Term Taming of Tyke Tilerthe Cat|rating=43.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Meet Tyke TilerOnce again, mice are pitched against cat. I first did so a very long time ago – I might even In this case, principally, we have my copy of Brie the original paperbackmouse, with its ending-spoiling cover artworkup against Gorgonzola the cat – and in case you're seeing a connection, as one they live in a cheese shop and therefore all the names used here seem to be the names of the few books I carried over from those dayscheeses. Tyke Anyway, Brie is a schoolchild in the last year before big schoolshunned, scorned and is permanently in trouble, partly due to hanging round if you must, mous-tracised, for the way his habits don't match the other mice he lives with Danny Price. It seems wherever Danny unfortunately leads, Tyke follows They nibble up paper wrapping from the cheese for bedding – whether he displays it as art and makes stories based on the visuals on it. And that story-telling will come in handy one night, when he feels all alone and cast out. It's digging sheep bones out almost as if there were another character from fable who had had to tell stories to keep themselves alive. This makes Brie the top dog in the town weir systemmouse community, or handling stolen goods when Danny nicks a highthough, as all the others had the chance to half-value note from one of inch some cheese while the teacher's pursescat was distracted. How is But will the story have the term going to end, successful sequel it needs when everything Danny does seems to reflect badly on Tykethat cheese runs out?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0571313914</amazonuk>0571376010
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Betty G BirneyLauren St John|title=Imagination According to HumphreyFinding Wonder|rating=3.54
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=If you havenRoo't already, meet Humphrey – the most squeakily vocal inhabitant of Classroom 26s life has become almost impossibly difficult. The charming and inventive hamster is here with yet another of his main novels – as opposed to early readersHer mum died when she was young, quiz and joke books, anthologies, [[Humphrey's World now she finds herself awoken in the middle of Pets the night by Betty G Birney|guides the police banging on her door to having pets]] – there are so many around tell her that my edition didn't try her dad has dropped dead on his way to put them all on one inventory page, but chose the corner shop to leave buy a few outlottery ticket. Here the series continues with Humphrey and the same children as he's befriended over the last few volumesWhen asked what other family she has, she can only name her aunt, Joni, and itwho she knows her dad didn's storytimet think very highly of. The class is being read a novel about a boy and the dragons doing evil to his village's weatherBut she has no one else, and everyone is trying so off she goes to write creatively about flying as a responselive with her unreliable aunt. But when someone threatens Things continue to bring a real-life dragon to classget worse for Roo, how could the little class pet be safe, especially as when he hasnshe and Joni leave London in Joni't s old campervan, it breaks down in the imagination to see what the result could be?middle of nowhere and then bursts into flames! Poor Roo!|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0571282512</amazonuk>0571376169
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Stephen PastisAdam Baron and Benji Davies|title=Timmy Failure: Mistakes Were MadeOscar's Lion|rating=4.53
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Timmy Failure We start incredibly bluntly, with Oscar hoping to have his mother – or father, but mother is the CEO more likely – read him his very favourite book a couple of Total Failuretimes before he has to be ready for school. But when he enters his parents' bedroom, all he sees is a mahoosive male lion on their bed, looking sheepish, and admitting that he won't be hungry for another two days. But there are benefits to having a lion around – it can be shown as an unspoken threat to the best detective agency in townbully that ruined a birthday party for Oscar the other month. This book is nothing short And it can shapeshift, so he can take it to school and it can get him out of a historical record of problem. And it's wonderful to have around the house – not limiting his life as an investigatorbiscuit intake, being much more lax about the rules, helped (or perhaps hindered) by his polar bear partner Total and grade-obsessed friend Rolloso on. OK, and always wary of his rival Corrina Corrinait can't work a dimmer switch but it can give Oscar a wonderful time. Can Timmy come out ahead of his evil nemesis?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1406339814</amazonuk>0008596751
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Rick RiordanJudith Eagle|title=Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief The Stolen Songbird
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Percy Jackson always thought he was Caro's mother, a normalworld-famous whistler, has failed to return home from her recent work trip abroad and is now missing. Her other mother, if rather naughtyRonnie, kidis having to go up North to take care of her sister who is unwell. Then he vaporised his maths teacher So who is going to look after Caro? Sent to stay with Gam, someone Caro has heard her mother despises, she feels frustrated and ended confused and worried. All her summer holiday plans of building herself some equipment to practise her gymnastics are brought to a halt whilst she is stuck inside this staid old Victorian lady's house, along with an orphan boy, Albie, who is living there too. But she soon finds herself caught up in Camp Half-Blooda mystery, as she discovers a special place for children painting of a bird hidden away inside her mum's old suitcase, and all across London a fearsome gang called the Greek GodsSnakes are thieving artworks and terrorising people. With Zeus, king of Is the painting somehow linked to the Gods, convinced Percy gang? And what has stolen his magical lightning bolt, war could be about happened to break out - can Percy find the lightning thief and save Caro's mother? Is she somehow involved in the daymystery too?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0141346809</amazonuk>0571363148
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Francesca SimonTania Unsworth|title=Horrid Henry's Tricky TricksNowhere Island|rating=34.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Horrid Henry Meet Gil. Just twelve, he is up so determined to his usual antics escape the care system – the system that constantly puts him in this latest compilation of trickiest tricks everfutureless places that are not homes – and find a home for himself. The book features ten stories He is en route to yet another fosterer, which include some outrageous prankswhen he jumps into an anonymous car, like Henry trying and lets it ride him to his future. That future seems to wake be in jeopardy when someone steals his one bag of belongings – but that someone lives with his brother in a camp on an island between the deadtwo directions of a motorway, win a pet talent contest place inaccessible and definitely ignored enough to provide for their safety and spend seclusion. Them, and a mute girl also finding a hair-raising weekend with his awful cousinhome there, Stuck-up Stevealbeit so much more successfully. But none of this compares to his scariest challenge ever; braving Over a girls' sleepover at his neighbourfew weeks we see if their oddball destinies can combine, Moody Margaret's house.or if this is one place where life as we would want it just would not work…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1444012088</amazonuk>1804540080
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Walter de la MareHelen Peters|title=Peacock Pie: A Book of RhymesFriends and Traitors
|rating=3
|genre=Children's Rhymes and VerseConfident Readers|summary=It was a surprise for me to read online that Walter de la Mare spent so much of his life in and around London – born England, WW2. Two young girls are new at least in what the country pile called Stanbrook. One is now the borough of GreenwichNancy, passing away destined to be in Twickenhamservice all her life it seems, like the female generations before her. The reason I say this other is Sidney, a girl from a hoity-toity Sussex boarding school that out of the copious poems collected herehas been removed there away from bomber flight-paths. The girls are chalk and cheese, it's as and if cities donwe hadn't exist. Hardly anything of the subjects is manmadeguessed that then their behaviour with each other over their first encounters would only prove it so. The concentration But something is fully on the idyllic amiss, and pastoral, first separately and then in following on so closely in combination they realise the footsteps Lord Evesham must be a rum 'un. Midnight deliveries are received under cover of his debut collectionsecrecy, 'Songs talk is made of Childhood' from 1902meetings with Germans, still veryand not only that, very much Victoriana local Spitfire factory has been attacked. But surely the girls are wrong, and the upper class could never be so underhand?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0571313892</amazonuk>1788004647
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Chris O'Dowd and Nick Vincent MurphyJamie Littler|title=Moone Boy: the Blunder YearsArkspire
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Poor Martin MooneTwo sisters, Juniper and Elodie, surrounded by his sisters who drive him crazyborn fifteen minutes apart, he decides are growing to get himself be chalk and cheese. Juniper is an imaginary friendeager hunter and trader in illicit magic, including relics from prior major wars left out in the Badlands. He enlists Elodie is intent on getting closer to power in one of the religious districts of Arkspire, perhaps even to become the child in line to inherit the help power of his friend who already the Watcher, the closest to a ruler the district has an imaginary friend, and thus begins a wild adventure because what happens when one of the five major victors in said earlier war. Being trained in the magic that only five people can use would definitely change the status of the imaginary friend you imagine isn't any good at being your imaginary friendwhole family. But in finding something oddly magical, and who you'd really like to Juniper might just be your imaginary friend is the customer services representative who comes able to try and help you out?!gain some power of her own – for good, or for very, very bad…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1447270940</amazonuk>0241586143
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Tohby Riddle024162343X|title=UnforgottenStolen History|author=Sathnam Sanghera|rating=3.5|genre=Graphic NovelsChildren's Non-Fiction|summary=Think of fallen angels, and Lucifer and I was the like come to mindbad company other people got into at school. But they donI was disruptive in religious education classes because I disputed the existence of a 't have to have fallen with such speedgod'. Where was the proof? In history lessons, for such a distance or with such effectit was probably worse still. This book concerns one such creatureNot too long after the end of WWII, and while itI didn't so much want to learn about the British army's not named as an angel as suchsuccesses (and occasional failures, and itbut we didn't dwell on those) in what came to be called 'the colonies's identified only by nobody knowing from where it comes yet everyone silently gets as want to dispute what right the army had to appreciate its presence, it certainly looks like a Western, Christian, angel formbe there in the first place. And so the plot of this gentleLooking back, poetic picture book looks at I still believe I was right - but I regret that I lacked the chance of such a bad thing as maturity to approach 'the fall of an angel being followed by anything more positiveproblem' politely. I wish I'd had Sathnam Sanghera's ''Stolen History''.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1742379729</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Andy Griffiths and Terry DentonThiago de Moraes|title=The 13-Storey TreehouseOld Gods New Tricks|rating=34.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Andy Meet Trixie. Forever getting into scrapes, larks and Terry live in adventures involving flooding the school aircon with fart powder, she could almost be thought a tree house so fantastic it caters for every whim – as long as youyoung goddess of nuisance. But just when she're a primary schools being told that by her one-last-chance-aged boygiving headteacher, that isthe world changes. ThereSuddenly, practically everything electronic stops working – a power-out, even of electric cars, hits not just the town the school's swimming on one level, bowling on anotherin but the entire planet (apart from mobile phones, as much marshmallow as you could eat and all that powers the gadgets and gizmos their brilliant imaginations could come up withInternet, just for our convenience's sake). But this idyllic life also comes with responsibilities Trixie, luckily, realises what has happened – one moment you're painting a cat yellow the ancient Gods have taken the power of power from us. And so she begins her epic quest, to see if gather all the people that can steal it becomes a canary and flies away (no spoiler back – it does)namely the characters from myth that have past form in stealing from the Gods, ie the next you get reminded of an overdue deadline to write a booksemi-deities, giants, half-gods and so on known as the tricksters. What on earth could possibly happen to inspire such a book overnight?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1447279786</amazonuk>178845295X
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Frank Cottrell BoyceHannah Gold and Levi Pinfold|title=DesirableFinding Bear
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Teenage Sam and his little sister Lizzie are starving [[The Last Bear by Hannah Gold|Last time]], April had been on the streets of LondonBear Island, which is gripped by terrible cold. Asking an old businessman for moneya lot further north than many people would venture, and finding a man who looks at them ridiculously unexpected but delightful friendship with such sheer contempt a polar bear – that Sam's heart fills with hateshe called Bear. He swears that he will seek vengeance Back home, things on the domestic and rob the old manfamily front are a bit advanced, but not caring whether his victim will live or dieperfect for her, and so can easily be ignored when word comes through from the islands Bear was last left on. But before he can do so, For a strange spirit appears bear doing very Bear-y things has been shot and wounded. Desperate to himmake sure he's OK, she and warns him about the terrible path he will put himself on with this violent act. Can Sam resist the temptation her father return to gain revenge? Several more spirits show him the possible consequences Arctic and hope that in a world of his actionvery white and very dangerous things, as we see Dickens's classic A Christmas Carol from a new viewpointshe can find one specific white and dangerous thing – and that the friendship can continue.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1408854139</amazonuk>0008582017
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|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Who knew how much trouble a rainy day could bring? When nothing else inspires themLate one night Graham Blake is late back from his shift on the force, children Michael and Callie and police cat sergeant Atticus all enter a draw-some-pickles competitionthen suddenly rings Archie, for the chance to win demanding he fetch something from a trip to, ersecret place, and join him on the pickle factoryrun. Atticus has been around a bit – he used They get together, but barely begin to be smell the world's best cat burglar – and he seems to recognise one whiff of Southern trains when the faces father is arrested, leaving Archie on the pickle jars as an old enemylate express to Brighton, but at least the main baddies of the series – the Russian spy mistress and her cattoting a tin his father was determined to keep away from his colleagues, and the town magpies – are miles away and tucked up safely inside bearer of a giant shark. So lo and behold when Atticus's entry wins, and the whole family gets taken to the factoryheap of questions. And lo and behold when the factory owner seems rather suspicious, and lo and behold when a certain shark gets captured…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0571305334</amazonuk>1839944420
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Michael MorpurgoCath Howe|title=Listen to the MoonMy Life on Fire
|rating=5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=ItRen's Mayfamily home is destroyed in a fire. She, her parents, 1915and her little brother lose everything. World War I is underway and the Scillionians She doesn't have already seen losses. Like the rest any of her clothes, or any of Britainher special little knick-knacks from her cupboard, and now she is living at her grandmother's house where they are beginning to realise that this war woncan't be over any time soontouch anything, or do anything, or even eat the foods they normally eat. When Alfie and his father she goes back to school she discovers that the class are out fishing one daydoing a special art project, creating boxes of their lives, to display things that are important to them and show who they hear are as a child's criesperson. On one of the archipelago's uninhabited islands, they find But Ren has nothing to put in a half-starved little girlbox, abandoned and in a terrible stateso she finds herself starting to steal things. She can only speak one word: Lucy. Who is this foundling? Is she a ghost? A mermaid? Or Small things, more worryinglythings that people might not really miss, could not when they have so much already. But what will happen to her if someone finds out what she be a German spy? The name Wilhelm is on the label of her blanket, after all. And why does she gaze at the moon with such longing in her eyesdoing?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0007339631</amazonuk>1839942835
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Evangeline Lilly and Johnny Fraser-AllenRob Keeley|title=The SquickerwonkersBoy Who Disappeared and Other Stories
|rating=4
|genre=Children's Rhymes and VerseConfident Readers|summary=Selma Hooray! Bookbag favourite Rob Keeley is back with a young girl who finds a strange attraction on the edge of a fair – a large gypsy caravan-styled contraption, which she enters, alone but for her shiny red balloon. She appears return to be alone, until nine marionette puppets suddenly appear on the stage within, and a disembodied voice introduces them all short story format! The Boy Who Disappeared treats us to her. They are the Squickerwonkerseleven new tales, and each as we are about fun to see, they can reveal someone's entire character with the simplest of actions…read as his previous offerings.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1783295457</amazonuk>B0BVW69N1G
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Sally Gardner and David RobertsLaura Noakes|title=The Matchbox Mysteries (Wings and Co 4)Cosima Unfortunate Steals a Star
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=This was my first introduction Meet Number One. Or rather, Cosima Unfortunate. Or rather, just Cos to the Wings & Co fairy detective agencyher friends. It's certainly The practice in the home she lives in is for the girls to just be named by the number they correspond to in the sort of book I really should have come across sooner since itledger, and they's wonderfully odd! re all Unfortunates – young people with disabilities, uncommon mentalities or suchlike that Victorian society frowns greatly upon. With Emily working alongside of Fidget, But Cosima bears the talking cat, as well tag as a lot of keys and an overly talkativesurname because nothing else seems to be known about where she came from, egotistic magic lamp this isn't as the sort of book you read as a bedtime story first ever inmate, and drift off half way through! In this book there is trouble unique in having no known family in Podgy Bottomthe outside world. Someone is stealing carsDuring a daring escapade to steal some posh cakes from the kitchen one afternoon, shrinking them down into she discovers a plan involving said outside world – a matchboxdevilish Lord Fitzroy seems to want to adopt all the girls for his Institute. But why, and what does that body entail? And could it possibly bring Cos closer to the past she has so little link with?|isbn=0008579059}}{{Frontpage|author=Alice M Ross|title=The Nowhere Thief|rating=4.5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=At last there is also a crazy purple bunny new stock in the impoverished yet over-full antiques shop Elsbeth and her mother run in a troublesome broomstickseaside town. Elsbeth knows this because she has stolen it. Will She also knows she should be free from worries about being found out, because she has the detective agency be able ability to leave this world, and use an unworldly portal of kaleidoscope colours to enter other worlds, where the sea levels are rising dramatically and the buildings are generally empty of humans and ripe for plunder. With eviction imminent, can Elsbeth nab anything to figure out what on earth actually generate custom at the shop? Well yes, is going on?the answer, but the fact a mysterious man knows exactly which items come from these different Somewheres only raises more questions…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>144401014X</amazonuk>1839943769
}}
{{Frontpage|author=Natasha Farrant|title=The Rescue of Ravenwood|rating=5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=This story is another excellent adventure from the author of ''Voyage of the Sparrowhawk''. Ravenwood is an old house, in the North of England, where Bea and Raffy have been living for most of their lives. They are part of a complex, extended family arrangement, as Bea is there with her Uncle Leo, and Raffy is there with his mum, and they are living together as a family. They have grown up swimming in the cove, roaming through the trees, completely at one with all of the nature around the house and loving every inch of the place. But now the house is under threat, as Leo is under pressure from his other two brothers to sell the property to a developer as it's becoming more and more expensive to maintain. The children find themselves worrying not only about where they're going to live, but if they'll even be together, and if Ravenwood itself will be torn down.|isbn=0571348785}}{{newreviewFrontpage|author=K A S QuinnRobin Birch and Jobe Anderson|title=Secret Beast Club: The Queen Alone (Chronicles Unicorns of the Tempus)Silver Street
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Katie Jayden's nose is backforever in a book, which means he knows a lot about mythological creatures – the phoenixes and once more unicorns of the world, for example. Aisha is addicted to her new tablet, where she's back in Victorian Englandcan see videos of anything that might be out there. This timeThe problem, howeveras their mothers see it, she isnis that they are never 'out there't quite sure who called her back in time or for what themselves, exploring the outside world of Hackney, London. But when a narrowboat turns up carrying a science-minded, educational purpose , andwith a past involving Jayden's cousin, unfortunatelythey find a magical world they never knew existed. For many of those mythological creatures are real, something went wrong as including the one Aisha thinks she came and she brought someone else along 's seen on a bit of local footage. The crew of the boat, including a living gargoyle, are tasked with her! In saving the final episode of rare critters – and the Chronicles of kids unknowingly have the Tempus we see Katie trying magical sight needed to save Prince Albert's lifejoin in. Dare they side with Leila, trying to prevent Britain messing up the outcome woman on board, and her relative who lives as a figure in a painting, and become saviours of the American Civil War, and rescuing Queen Victoria from an asylum!unseen?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1848870566</amazonuk>0241573483
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Angie SageB09XWSXSKY|title=PathFinder (TodHunter Moon Book One) Maestro Orpheus and the World Clock|author=Robert Penee and Joanne Grodzinski
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Twelve year old Alice TodHunter MoonFrederick (or Fred, who prefers to be known as Todbut never Freddy, is a Pathfinderplease) couldn't sleep. A tune, a member rather like the ticking of a fishing tribe with a mythical history of travelling across the starsclock was playing over and over in his mind. It happened every time he came to visit his grandfather. She lives a nice life in her Pathfinder community until her father He hadn't really wanted to come; after all, her only surviving parent, doesn’t come back from a fishing trip he's ten now and Tod all those old clocks don't appeal to him anymore. ''Who needs old clocks anyway? All they do is left alone with her horrid step-aunt Mitzatell the time. And time isn't good for anything...'' |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408858150</amazonuk>And that was why he was looking at the clock beside the bed. It was nearly twelve o'clock but at midnight the clock chimed only six times. There was nothing for it but to go and find grandad - but where was he? And why had all the clocks stopped at twelve o'clock?
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Nigel Baines
|title=A Tricky Kind of Magic
|rating=4.5
|genre=Emerging Readers
|summary=Cooper loves to perform magic tricks. His father was a magician, and named Cooper after the great Tommy Cooper. But sadly Cooper's father died suddenly, and now Cooper doesn't quite know who to be, or how to be. And when his dad's prop rabbit starts talking to him, he ''really'' doesn't know what's going on anymore!
|isbn=1444960261
}}
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