Difference between revisions of "Newest Confident Readers Reviews"

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[[Category:Confident Readers|*]]
 
[[Category:Confident Readers|*]]
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{{newreview
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|author=Christine Hamill
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{{Frontpage
|title=The Best Medicine
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|author=Rob Keeley
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|title=Childish Spirits: 10th anniversary special edition
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|rating=4
 +
|genre=Confident Readers
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|summary=Around here, we're big fans of children's author Rob Keeley. He's a ball of happy positivity, he understands children, and he writes for their pleasure and enjoyment, not to lecture or hector.
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The ''Childish Spirits'' series is one of his greatest achievements. It's a sequence of ghost stories centring on Ellie, a stalwart young girl who can cope with anything the spirit world throws at her, and Edward, a spoiled lordling and the first spirit Ellie encounters
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|isbn= 1783064617
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}}
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{{Frontpage
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|author=Max Boucherat
 +
|title=The Last Life of Lori Mills
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary= Aspiring 12-year-old comedian Philip has plenty of complicated stuff going on in his life. There's the unrequited love of his life, The Goddess (also known as Lucy), who only seems to be aware of his existence during his most embarrassing moments. He's also somehow managed to end up as the unwilling poetry protégé of his English teacher. And worst of all, there's The Yeti, the dim-witted school bully determined to torment him to the ends of the earth (or the corridor, at least). Despite the troubles, Philip has always been able to rely on his best friend Ang, comedian Harry Hill, and good old mum, for company, inspiration and unconditional support, respectively. However, when his mum is diagnosed with cancer, Philip finds his life taking a turn into the unchartedShe has always been his rock, the ever-reliable presence in his life, the one who never fails to laugh at his jokes. Then, Ang starts acting weird, and on top of that, Harry Hill refuses to reply to Philip's fan mail. Keeping a sense of humour is tough when life seems to be intent on throwing an endless supply of lemons at you.   
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|summary=We 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 lonesomeWhat could possibly go wrong?  Snuggled in a blanket fort, she has one main intention, and that is to log on to Voxminer, the world-building, critter-collecting game that is a hit in Lori's world. But first Lori has a tiny inkling that this stormy night doesn't find herself entirely on her own, and then she finds something even more spookyFor the server she and her bestie and nobody else should be able to enter shows signs of tampering. When malevolent eyes spark up on her phone screen, and her safe place in the game has been doctored – well, where is a girl to turn?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1910411515</amazonuk>
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|isbn=0008666482
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author= Caroline Lawrence
 
|title= Escape From Rome: The Roman Quests
 
|rating= 5
 
|genre= Confident Readers
 
|summary= It is 94AD, and the Emperor Domitian is busy killing those he suspects of being disloyal to him. The accused are allowed no trial, no chance to prove their innocence: the soldiers simply come in the night and slaughter the whole family. Anyone who is civic-minded enough to denounce a 'traitor' gets half their property as a reward, so as you can imagine it is the richest people in Rome whose names are most often mentioned. Then comes the turn of Juba's family...
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1510100237</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Sofi Croft
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|author=Kieran Larwood and Joe Todd-Stanton
|title=Indigo's Dragon
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|title=Dungeon Runners: Hero Trial
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Indigo is a free spirit who loves exploring the mountains near his home in the Lake District. For all of his life, his family have entertained him with stories of dragons, but at thirteen, he's too old to believe in them now. However, when he receives a mysterious parcel in the post, Indigo is forced to rethink everything he thought he knew about mythical beasts, especially when he comes face to face with one that urgently needs his help...
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|summary=Meet Kit.  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 exit, perhaps bothering with the treasure or the big bad and the points they grant you along the way. Unfortunately for Kit, the only thing he's seen 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.  Possibly very unfortunately indeed for Kit, he has taken to the goading from the token bully of his world and stumbled into declaring he'll enter as a team.  What chance does this friendless, muscle-free-zone have in actually managing that, and how could he possibly hope to succeed?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1783759380</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1839945184
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=James Nicol
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|author=James Sherwood Metts
|title=The Apprentice Witch
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|title=Planet Storyland
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary= Arianwyn is about to take her all-important witch's assessment. Ignoring the taunts of her classmates, led by the beautiful and mean Gimma, Arianwyn looks set to pass until the test begins and her vision is blurred by a mysterious unknown glyph (the symbols used to control magic.) To her great humiliation, Arianwyn fails the evaluation. She is labelled an 'Apprentice Witch' and sent to the remote town of Lull in disgrace. Things don't get off to the best of starts there and the situation is made worse when Gimma arrives on holiday. Arianwyn is not happy but soon she has bigger problems. The townspeople have spotted a strange dark creature and, when a child is attacked, Arianwyn finds everyone is looking to her to prevent others getting hurt.
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|summary= Things have been a bit sticky for the Earthlings. AI and automation have been proceeding apace, often replacing jobs they're paid to do and other tasks that took time to accomplish. Just as they were beginning to get used to all this technological change and starting to think of other, new ways to spend time, along came an awful pandemic. Life was pretty much shut down and, along with it, all the many daily social interactions on which they depend so heavily.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1910655155</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1736128426
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Kimberly Brubaker Bradley
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|author=Tom Percival
|title=The War That Saved My Life
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|title=The Wrong Shoes
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Ada has a club foot, and she has spent all of her life hidden away in her mother's flat in London, used and abused by her mother who is ashamed of Ada, and angry with her.  Told that she is worthless, a monster, Ada is left to crawl around the flat on her hands and kneesShe tries, secretly, to use her foot to walk and it leaves her bleeding and in agony, but when Ada's little brother, Jamie, tells Ada that he is to be sent away, evacuated by the school because of the war Ada knows she must find a way to leave with him, and to escape her mother at all costs.  The two children manage to escape to the country, yet find themselves left unchosen on arrival in the new village.  They are foisted upon a single lady, Susan, who declares she does not want any evacuees, and that she is not a nice person. Has Ada gone from one nightmare situation straight into another?
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|summary=Will's life is difficult, in a multitude of ways.  He is bullied because he has 'the wrong shoes', he has the wrong shoes because his dad can't work and doesn't have enough money for even the most basic of things like food, and his dad can't work because he lost his job at the college, was working a cash-in-hand job on a building site and had an accidentThrow into that mix the fact that his mum and dad are separated, and Will's life seems bleak in every direction.  And yet, he still has a tiny amount of hope.  He is good at art, and clings to the moments of joy when he is drawing, that feel like a light at the end of a long, dark tunnel.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1925355640</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1398527122
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author= National Geographic Kids
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|isbn=1805141872
|title= Angry Birds Playground: Atlas (Angry Birds Playgrounds)
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|title=The Teacher Who Knew Too Much
|rating= 5
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|author=Rob Keeley
|genre= Confident Readers
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|rating=4.5
|summary=''Angry Birds Playground'' is a new educational book series based on a geographical theme. Rovio-the team responsible for the popular game- have teamed up with National Geographic Kids to create a stunning set of books that perfectly blend the cheeky humour from the game with informative text and breathtaking real-world photography. The series will appeal to young fans of the game and anyone who has an interest in the wonders of the natural world.
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|genre=Confident Readers
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1426324596</amazonuk>
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|summary=''Seventeen banks and a jeweller’s have been raided. The police are baffled, but only Ben knows the truth – his Maths teacher, Miss Judson, is really a safecracker! With police and her gangster boyfriend Al on their trail, Miss Judson and Ben go on the run. But Al needs them for one last job...''
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Goodness me, that Miss Judson is a terror! How on earth did a nice teacher like her manage to get mixed up with a bad 'un like Al? We'll find out. Luckily for Miss Judson, the pupil who discovers her terrible secret is Ben, the son of a famous magician who has ambitions to be as good as his father some day, and who thinks Miss Judson is worth saving
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Ali Sparkes
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|author=Christopher Edge
|title=Feather and Fang
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|title=Black Hole Cinema Club
|rating=5
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|rating=4
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Dax Jones is a COLA – a Child Of Limitless Ability. Dax can shift shape from a boy to an otter, falcon or fox while his friends in the COLA Project have psychic, telekinetic and healing powers. They live in Fenton Lodge, a boarding school that once felt like home but increasingly feels like a prison. Dax is the only one left who could leave without permission (he could fly away in falcon form) but he's not prepared to abandon his friends. Then the new head of the COLA Project, Forrester, installs an electronic dome over Fenton Lodge, trapping Dax as effectively as his friends. And, if this weren't bad enough, Forrester starts to categorise and transport the COLA children to hidden locations. When Dax finds himself separated from his friends, he becomes determined to escape. But has he left it too late?
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|summary=Lucas and his friends are all booked in for a movie marathon at their local cinema, a place that has the nickname of 'The Black Hole'. All big movie fans, they're looking forward to lots of exciting films, and many, many snacks!  However, as the movie starts, they very quickly realise that something about this new film format is very different, and they are swept up into an adventure they couldn't even imagine.  But as they lurch from one film genre to the next, can they figure out what on earth is going on?  Will they ever get back to the cinema, and to their real lives?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0192746057</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1839942738
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}}
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{{Frontpage
 +
|author=Adam Stower
 +
|title=Murray and Bun
 +
|rating=4.5
 +
|genre=Confident Readers
 +
|summary=Murray is supposed to be a humble, tidy and friendly cat, one who is able to sleep and eat and eat and sleep and, well, whatever takes his fancy next of the two. But he's a bad magician's cat, so his favourite bun has been turned into a hyperactive sticky rabbit called Bun, and the catflap they both use can chuck them out, not into the regular back garden, but into a world of frightening adventure and whiffs.  This time round it drops them into a Viking land, where a troll hunter is expected – well, one much bigger than Murray was, to be honest, but he's turned up and he'll have to do…
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|isbn=0008561249
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Clara Vulliamy
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|author=Alex Bell and Tim McDonagh
|title=Dotty Detective
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|title=The Glorious Race of Magical Beasts
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|genre=Emerging Readers
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|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Dorothy Constance Mae Louise, otherwise known as Dot, has just moved house and has had to change schools. Luckily she soon finds a friend, Beans, and together they form the top-secret 'Join the Dots Detectives'. Both Dot and Beans are huge fans of the TV programme 'Fred Fantastic – Ace Detective'. They've watched every episode and memorised all Fred's techniques. It's just as well they have because their classmate Laura has hatched a plot to prevent shy Amy singing in the talent contest and it's up to Dot and Beans to uncover the plan.  
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|summary=Eli is a busy lad – by day an apprentice in the wondrous library we start by visiting with him, and in the evening a helper at the dessert cafe his gran owns and runs.  Eli lives with his lovely gran, too – for there is a generation missing in the family.  A few short years ago, Eli's parents were both lost to the titular race, a globe-trotting adventure where all entrants have to navigate the world in the company of a magical beast.  This has made the race anathema to the pair – but when a bad incident at the eatery leads to a confession from gran, Eli knows his only hope is to dare to enter what he most hates, with the sole aim the prize of magic at the end – the only thing to possibly save his gran.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0008132496</amazonuk>
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|isbn=0571382231
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}}
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{{Frontpage
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|author=Helen Cooper
 +
|title=The Taming of the Cat
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|rating=3.5
 +
|genre=Confident Readers
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|summary=Once again, mice are pitched against cat.  In this case, principally, we have Brie the mouse, up against Gorgonzola the cat – and in case you're seeing a connection, they live in a cheese shop and therefore all the names used here seem to be the names of cheeses. Anyway, Brie is shunned, scorned and, if you must, mous-tracised, for the way his habits don't match the other mice he lives with. They nibble up paper wrapping from the cheese for bedding – 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 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 mouse community, though, as all the others had the chance to half-inch some cheese while the cat was distracted. But will the story have the successful sequel it needs when that cheese runs out?
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|isbn=0571376010
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Sylvia Bishop
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|author=Lauren St John
|title=Erica's Elephant
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|title=Finding Wonder
|rating=5
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|rating=4
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Erica Perkins is a very sensible young ladyWhen she wakes on the morning of her tenth birthday and finds a very confused elephant sitting on her doorstep, she doesn't jump up and down shouting ''Ooh, goody goody'', or ''Oh, you poor cuddly thing''She looks the elephant in the eye: ''Who left you'' she demanded ''And why?''  Erica lived with her Uncle JeffWell, she would live with him, if he was there, but he'd left when she was eight years old in search of a bird - the Lesser Pip-footed Woob - and it was up to Erica to cook and clean and, well, bring herself up. He'd left some money in an envelope but there was only £30.42 left and even the piece of paper which came with the elephant stating that Erica Perkins had a Legal Right to him didn't explain how she was going to be able to feed him.
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|summary=Roo's life has become almost impossibly difficultHer mum died when she was young, and now she finds herself awoken in the middle of the night by the police banging on her door to tell her that her dad has dropped dead on his way to the corner shop to buy a lottery ticket.  When asked what other family she has, she can only name her aunt, Joni, who she knows her dad didn't think very highly ofBut she has no one else, and so off she goes to live with her unreliable auntThings continue to get worse for Roo, as when she and Joni leave London in Joni's old campervan, it breaks down in the middle of nowhere and then bursts into flames! Poor Roo!
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1407159682</amazonuk>
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|isbn=0571376169
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Liz Pichon
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|author=Adam Baron and Benji Davies
|title=Tom Gates Super Good Skills Almost (Tom Gates 10)
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|title=Oscar's Lion
 
|rating=3
 
|rating=3
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Oh the quandaries of being a schoolchildWhat's worse – staying at school, and seeing the teacher be moody right up to the last bell of term, or having school breaks ruined by holidaying with your parents, and the sister you hate? Tom's adventure here is half and half half at school, half at the holiday home from hellCan the problems life continues to put on his shoulders be rescued by cheesy feet-flavoured crisp snacks, sticky-backed office notes, or perhaps a secret truth about his sister?
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|summary=We start incredibly bluntly, with Oscar hoping to have his mother – or father, but mother is more likely – read him his very favourite book a couple of times before he has to be ready for schoolBut 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 bully that ruined a birthday party for Oscar the other month.  And it can shapeshift, so he can take it to school and it can get him out of a problem. And it's wonderful to have around the house not limiting his biscuit intake, being much more lax about the rules, and so onOK, it can't work a dimmer switch but it can give Oscar a wonderful time.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>140715785X</amazonuk>
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|isbn=0008596751
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=David Walliams and Tony Ross
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|author=Judith Eagle
|title=The World's Worst Children
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|title=The Stolen Songbird
|rating=5
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|rating=4
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=At last [[:Category:David Walliams|David Walliams]] has produced a book for meI'm damned sure the previous ones (eight full novels and four picture books, and counting) are fine enough quality for me to consider, but I'm contraryWhether the author sells ten copies or a million I'll look for the more esoteric titles on their list – the essays not the novels, the short stories that get ignored and not the big-sellers, the [[Once Upon a Time in the North by Philip Pullman|Lee Scoresby spin-off]] and not the full ''His Dark Materials''.  But if you think that makes me bad – a reviewer who can spout about only the less populist works – I'm sure you will agree, after reading these pages, that I could be a heck of a lot more bad, if I triedThe children here, what's more, don't have to try.
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|summary=Caro's mother, a world-famous whistler, has failed to return home from her recent work trip abroad and is now missingHer other mother, Ronnie, is having to go up North to take care of her sister who is unwell.  So who is going to look after Caro?  Sent to stay with Gam, someone Caro has heard her mother despises, she feels frustrated and confused and worriedAll 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 a mystery, as she discovers a painting of a bird hidden away inside her mum's old suitcase, and all across London a fearsome gang called the Snakes are thieving artworks and terrorising peopleIs the painting somehow linked to the gang?  And what has happened to Caro's mother?  Is she somehow involved in the mystery too?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0008197032</amazonuk>
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|isbn=0571363148
 
}}
 
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{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author= The Crime Club
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|author=Tania Unsworth
|title= Mystery and Mayhem
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|title=Nowhere Island
|rating= 5
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|rating=4.5
|genre= Confident Readers
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|genre=Confident Readers
|summary= There are days when all you want is to shut out the world and sink into the delights of a detailed full-length story, crammed to the covers with fascinating characters and plot twists. And then there are days when you require something shorter a tale that's nonetheless richly colourful and exciting, a perfect jewel of a story that will stay for you for days afterwards. Well, luckily for you, the twelve members of The Crime Club provide both!
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|summary=Meet Gil.  Just twelve, he is so determined to escape the care system – the system that constantly puts him in futureless places that are not homes – and find a home for himself.  He is en route to yet another fosterer, when he jumps into an anonymous car, and lets it ride him to his future. That future seems to 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 two directions of a motorway, a place inaccessible and definitely ignored enough to provide for their safety and seclusion. Them, and a mute girl also finding a home there, albeit so much more successfully.  Over a few weeks we see if their oddball destinies can combine, or if this is one place where life as we would want it just would not work…
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1405282649</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1804540080
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Jo Cotterill
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|author=Helen Peters
|title=A Library of Lemons
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|title=Friends and Traitors
|rating=5
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|rating=3
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Calypso is a quiet young girl, passionate about books and reading and writing and, since her mum died a few years ago, she has lived alone with her dad who is busy writing his own book on the history of the lemonThere’s never enough food in their fridge, and the house isn’t clean, and Calypso is too busy taking care of herself and her father to have any friends of her own age.  But when a new girl, Mae, starts at school, Calypso discovers a kindred spirit, and when she visits Mae’s home she encounters a family quite the opposite to her ownStill, it is only when she discovers a secret that her father has been hiding from her that Calypso’s ability to cope begins to fail her, and she starts to wonder just how damaged her family is.
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|summary=England, WW2.  Two young girls are new at the country pile called Stanbrook.  One is Nancy, destined to be in service all her life it seems, like the female generations before her.  The other is Sidney, a girl from a hoity-toity Sussex boarding school that has been removed there away from bomber flight-pathsThe girls are chalk and cheese, and if we hadn't guessed that then their behaviour with each other over their first encounters would only prove it so.  But something is amiss, and first separately and then in combination they realise the Lord Evesham must be a rum 'unMidnight deliveries are received under cover of secrecy, talk is made of meetings with Germans, and not only that, a local Spitfire factory has been attacked.  But surely the girls are wrong, and the upper class could never be so underhand?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848125119</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1788004647
 
}}
 
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{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Mark Robertson and Sally Symes
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|author=Jamie Littler
|title=Dare to Care Pet Dragon
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|title=Arkspire
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=When I was growing up there was a holy grail of non-fiction and that was the cross section bookThese books would take a theme like ships or vehicles and show you in minute detail what exactly went on insideYou could see the pistons in a supercar or look at all the little crew members as they scuttle around a luxury linerThe books were fun to read, but even more importantly, amazing to look at.  This eye for illustration in non-fiction does not seem to be as popular anymore, but perhaps modern books are looking at the wrong materialA book on how to look after your Dragon would surely look good?
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|summary=Two sisters, Juniper and Elodie, born fifteen minutes apart, are growing to be chalk and cheese.  Juniper is an eager hunter and trader in illicit magic, including relics from prior major wars left out in the BadlandsElodie 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 power of the Watcher, the closest to a ruler the district has, and one of the five major victors in said earlier warBeing trained in the magic that only five people can use would definitely change the status of the whole family.  But in finding something oddly magical, Juniper might just be able to gain some power of her own – for good, or for very, very bad…
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847805892</amazonuk>
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|isbn=0241586143
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}}
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{{Frontpage
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|isbn=024162343X
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|title=Stolen History
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|author=Sathnam Sanghera
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|rating=5
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|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
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|summary=I was the bad company other people got into at school.  I was disruptive in religious education classes because I disputed the existence of a 'god'Where was the proof?  In history lessons, it was probably worse still.  Not too long after the end of WWII, I didn't so much want to learn about the British army's successes (and occasional failures, but we didn't dwell on those) in what came to be called 'the colonies' as want to dispute what right the army had to be there in the first place.  Looking back, I still believe I was right - but I regret that I lacked the maturity to approach 'the problem' politelyI wish I'd had Sathnam Sanghera's ''Stolen History''.
 
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{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Stewart Foster
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|author=Thiago de Moraes
|title=Bubble Boy
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|title=Old Gods New Tricks
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers  
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|genre=Confident Readers
|summary= Eleven year old Joe was born with a rare condition that means he has no immune system and, therefore, no resistance to the germs that surround us in our daily lives. The result is he's spent his whole life trapped in a bubble a small room in the hospital where the air is filtered and temperature and air purity is constantly monitored. His only escape is through his dreams of being a superhero and, unless something changes, it looks like he'll never get to see the outside world for himself.  
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|summary=Meet Trixie.  Forever getting into scrapes, larks and adventures involving flooding the school aircon with fart powder, she could almost be thought a young goddess of nuisance.  But just when she's being told that by her one-last-chance-giving headteacher, the world changes.  Suddenly, practically everything electronic stops working – a power-out, even of electric cars, hits not just the town the school's in but the entire planet (apart from mobile phones, and all that powers the Internet, just for our convenience's sake).  Trixie, luckily, realises what has happened – the ancient Gods have taken the power of power from us.  And so she begins her epic quest, to gather all the people that can steal it back namely the characters from myth that have past form in stealing from the Gods, ie the semi-deities, giants, half-gods and so on known as the tricksters.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1471145409</amazonuk>
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|isbn=178845295X
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Karen McCombie
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|author=Hannah Gold and Levi Pinfold
|title=The OMG Blog
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|title=Finding Bear
|rating=4
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|rating=4.5
|genre= Dyslexia Friendly
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|genre=Confident Readers
|summary= In the first weeks of term at a new secondary school four ''good'' girls find themselves thrown together in detention. From this inauspicious beginning a firm friendship develops as the girls, encouraged by their teacher to enter a blogging competition, find that they do have one very important thing in common…their embarrassing mums. The ''Our Mums Grrr'' blog is born!
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|summary=[[The Last Bear by Hannah Gold|Last time]], April had been on Bear Island, a lot further north than many people would venture, and finding a ridiculously unexpected but delightful friendship with a polar bear – that she called Bear.  Back home, things on the domestic and family front are a bit advanced, but not perfect for her, and so can easily be ignored when word comes through from the islands Bear was last left on. For a bear doing very Bear-y things has been shot and wounded.  Desperate to make sure he's OK, she and her father return to the Arctic and hope that in a world of very white and very dangerous things, she can find one specific white and dangerous thing – and that the friendship can continue.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781125430</amazonuk>
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|isbn=0008582017
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author= Shane Hegarty
+
|author=Simon Fox
|title= Darkmouth: Chaos Descends
+
|title=Deadlock
|rating= 4.5
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|rating=4.5
|genre= Confident Readers
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|genre=Confident Readers
|summary= Poor Finn just never gets a break. Like it or not he's a trainee Legend Hunter – which sounds quite jolly until you realise he doesn't spend his life in a nice quiet library looking up fairy tales from the distant past. Quite the opposite: Legends are the most vicious, bloodthirsty monsters you can imagine, and his village in Ireland just happens to be the place they use as a portal on their frequent attempts to conquer Earth.
+
|summary=Late one night Graham Blake is late back from his shift on the force, and then suddenly rings Archie, demanding he fetch something from a secret place, and join him on the run. They get together, but barely begin to smell the whiff of Southern trains when the father is arrested, leaving Archie on the late express to Brighton, toting a tin his father was determined to keep away from his colleagues, and the bearer of a whole heap of questions.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007545681</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1839944420
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author= Kiran Millwood Hargrave
+
|author=Cath Howe
|title=The Girl of Ink and Stars
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|title=My Life on Fire
|rating= 4.5
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|rating=5
|genre= Confident Readers
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|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=The Isle of Joya is a land engulfed by myth and legend – the inhabitants are forbidden to leave the island or even cross the borders of their village into the Forbidden Territories beyond their homes. Isabella Riosse is the map maker's daughter who dreams of exploring the forgotten and unmapped areas of her homeland. When her best friend Lupe, the Governor's daughter, goes missing Isabella is the only one left equipped with the right tools and knowledge to lead the search, as she ventures in to Joya's magical and mysterious regions.
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|summary=Ren's family home is destroyed in a fire.  She, her parents, and her little brother lose everything. She doesn't have any of her clothes, or any of her special little knick-knacks from her cupboard, and now she is living at her grandmother's house where they can't touch anything, or do anything, or even eat the foods they normally eat.  When she goes back to school she discovers that the class are doing a special art project, creating boxes of their lives, to display things that are important to them and show who they are as a person.  But Ren has nothing to put in a box, and so she finds herself starting to steal things.  Small things, things that people might not really miss, not when they have so much already. But what will happen to her if someone finds out what she is doing?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1910002747</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1839942835
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Swapna Haddow
+
|author= Rob Keeley
|title=Dave Pigeon
+
|title= The Boy Who Disappeared and Other Stories
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|genre=Emerging Readers  
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|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=The tag line on the cover of ''Dave Pigeon'' probably sums this story up. It's about ''How to Deal with Bad Cats and Keep (most of) Your Feathers''. Or, if you want a bit more, it's about two Pigeons – Dave and his trusty friend Skipper – who are unceremoniously attacked by a cat while on a routine croissant heist. Dave's wing is injured so he and Skipper set out to get their own back at the vicious cat. They plan to evict Mean Cat from his home and install themselves in his place with the kind Human Lady and her enviable supply of biscuits. You won't be surprised that things don't go exactly to plan.
+
|summary= Hooray! Bookbag favourite Rob Keeley is back with a return to the short story format! The Boy Who Disappeared treats us to eleven new tales, each as fun to read as his previous offerings.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0571323308</amazonuk>
+
|isbn= B0BVW69N1G
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author=Jonathan Meres
+
|author=Laura Noakes
|title=The World of Norm: 10: Includes Delivery
+
|title=Cosima Unfortunate Steals a Star
|rating=3.5
+
|rating=4
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=It is a truth universally acknowledged that while kids' series generally start by covering a whole term time or even a school year, by the time it's worked out that more books are called for all the following volumes will concern less and less groundThis is a case in point – it being book TEN in this series means it's just regarding two flipping daysThat way Norm can carry on having adventures without aging, with little in the way of consequence that people reading future books before seeing this one will have missed out on.  In lesser hands, it generally means the author can churn out a whole book without much forethought or providing much contentLuckily this series isn't the usual, and [[:Category:Jonathan Meres|the author]] here generally is better than the routine.
+
|summary=Meet Number One.  Or rather, Cosima Unfortunate.  Or rather, just Cos to her friends.  The practice in the home she lives in is for the girls to just be named by the number they correspond to in the ledger, and they're all Unfortunates – young people with disabilities, uncommon mentalities or suchlike that Victorian society frowns greatly uponBut Cosima bears the tag as a surname because nothing else seems to be known about where she came from, as the first ever inmate, and unique in having no known family in the outside worldDuring a daring escapade to steal some posh cakes from the kitchen one afternoon, she discovers a plan involving said outside world – a devilish Lord Fitzroy seems to want to adopt all the girls for his InstituteBut why, and what does that body entail?  And could it possibly bring Cos closer to the past she has so little link with?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>140834193X</amazonuk>
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|isbn=0008579059
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Kate DiCamillo
+
|author=Alice M Ross
|title= Raymie Nightingale
+
|title=The Nowhere Thief
|rating= 5
+
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary= It is the summer of 1975 and ten year old Ramie's dad has left home with another woman. Raymie is utterly heartbroken and believes that everything, absolutely everything, now depends on her, because Raymie has a plan. If she wins the Little Miss Central Florida Tire competition her name and her photo will be in the paper and then, Raymie believes, her father may just possibly come back home. At least she hopes that he will. To win the competition she must carry out some good deeds and learn to twirl a baton so she enrols in a baton twirling class where she meets Louisiana, timid and prone to fainting, and Beverly, cynical and determined to sabotage the competition. As the competition draws nearer and Raymie starts to despair that her plan will work circumstances conspire to draw the three girls together in an unlikely friendship that will challenge and change all three of them.
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|summary=At last there is new stock in the impoverished yet over-full antiques shop Elsbeth and her mother run in a seaside town. Elsbeth knows this because she has stolen it. She also knows she should be free from worries about being found out, because she has the 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 actually generate custom at the shop? Well yes, is the answer, but the fact a mysterious man knows exactly which items come from these different Somewheres only raises more questions…
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1406363138</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1839943769
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author= Lyn Gardner
+
|author=Natasha Farrant
|title= Rose Campion and the Stolen Secret
+
|title=The Rescue of Ravenwood
|rating= 4
+
|rating=5
|genre= Confident Readers
+
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary= The Victorian era in London – a time of expansion and exploration, but also of poverty, dark alleyways, youthful pickpockets and moustache-twirling villains. Well, so writers like Charles Dickens would have us believe, and readers can be pretty sure that a detective mystery set in the glittering world of the nineteenth century music hall will have colour, excitement and danger in profusion.   
+
|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 maintainThe 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.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857634860</amazonuk>
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|isbn=0571348785
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Lincoln Peirce
+
|author=Robin Birch and Jobe Anderson
|title=Big Nate Blasts Off
+
|title=Secret Beast Club: The Unicorns of Silver Street
|rating=4.5
+
|rating=4
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=First things first, no that title is not the puerile British schoolboy's meaning of blasting offI'm not entirely sure why the book is called that, to be honest.  But I do know that said British schoolboy – and many from many other countries too – will take to these pages, even if they have never seen any of the other books in [[:Category:Lincoln Peirce|this series]].  The humble hero with the spiky hair and quick wit is in trouble with (a) his comics of the teachers, (b) his finding the time to practise Ultimate Frisbee for an interschool cup, and (c) his emotions, as he falls big-time for the delightful Ruby Dinsmore.  Yes, the very Ruby Dinsmore the main school bully also wants to hang out with…
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|summary=Jayden's nose is forever in a book, which means he knows a lot about mythological creatures the phoenixes and unicorns of the world, for example.  Aisha is addicted to her new tablet, where she can see videos of anything that might be out thereThe problem, as their mothers see it, is that they are never 'out there' themselves, exploring the outside world of Hackney, London.  But when a narrowboat turns up carrying a science-minded, educational purpose, and with a past involving Jayden's cousin, they find a magical world they never knew existed.  For many of those mythological creatures are real, including the one Aisha thinks she's seen on a bit of local footage.  The crew of the boat, including a living gargoyle, are tasked with saving the rare critters – and the kids unknowingly have the magical sight needed to join in.  Dare they side with Leila, the woman on board, and her relative who lives as a figure in a painting, and become saviours of the unseen?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0008135312</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=0241573483
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Michael Bond
+
|isbn=B09XWSXSKY
|title=Love from Paddington
+
|title=Maestro Orpheus and the World Clock
|rating=4.5
+
|author=Robert Penee and Joanne Grodzinski
 +
|rating=4
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Consider some of the more pertinent questions of literatureWould things have been better if Rhett Butler ''did'' give a damnWhat would Jane Eyre have done if the men with the truth hadn't made the church in time? And, of course, how does a little bear with a fondness for marmalade actually turn up in Paddington Station, so very, very far from home? Well, while the actual short stories may never have answered any of those questions, this work does – in amongst suggesting why bears don't play cricket, and a host moreAs a result it may have a very different structure to the original books of linked short stories, but it's just as wonderful and characterful.
+
|summary=Frederick (or Fred, but never Freddy, please) couldn't sleep.  A tune, rather like the ticking of a clock was playing over and over in his mindIt happened every time he came to visit his grandfather.  He hadn't really wanted to come; after all, he's ten now and all those old clocks don't appeal to him anymore.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0008164355</amazonuk>
+
 
 +
''Who needs old clocks anywayAll they do is tell the time. And time isn't good for anything...''
 +
 
 +
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 timesThere 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?
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author=Malorie Blackman
+
|author=Nigel Baines
|title=Peace Maker
+
|title=A Tricky Kind of Magic
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=Dyslexia Friendly
+
|genre=Emerging Readers
|summary=Michela Corbin is something of a rebel, but even she understands that everyone must wear a Peace Maker Device all the time and that it must never be tampered with, as non-aggression is their society's founding principle.  The Peace Maker is the means by which this is enforced, but Michela wants to experience the full range of human emotions and the Peace Maker stops that.  When her mother captains their ship into enemy airspace and they come under attack it seems that Michela's freedom from the constraints of the Peace Maker might be the only thing that can save them.
+
|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!
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781125619</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=1444960261
 
}}
 
}}
 +
 +
Move on to [[Newest Cookery Reviews]]

Latest revision as of 08:02, 9 June 2024


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Review of

Childish Spirits: 10th anniversary special edition by Rob Keeley

4star.jpg Confident Readers

Around here, we're big fans of children's author Rob Keeley. He's a ball of happy positivity, he understands children, and he writes for their pleasure and enjoyment, not to lecture or hector.

The Childish Spirits series is one of his greatest achievements. It's a sequence of ghost stories centring on Ellie, a stalwart young girl who can cope with anything the spirit world throws at her, and Edward, a spoiled lordling and the first spirit Ellie encounters Full Review

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Review of

The Last Life of Lori Mills by Max Boucherat

4.5star.jpg Confident Readers

We 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-building, critter-collecting game that is a hit in Lori's world. But first Lori has a tiny inkling that this stormy night doesn't find herself entirely on her own, and then she finds something even more spooky. For the server she and her bestie and nobody else should be able to enter shows signs of tampering. When malevolent eyes spark up on her phone screen, and her safe place in the game has been doctored – well, where is a girl to turn? Full Review

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Review of

Dungeon Runners: Hero Trial by Kieran Larwood and Joe Todd-Stanton

4star.jpg Confident Readers

Meet Kit. 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 exit, perhaps bothering with the treasure or the big bad and the points they grant you along the way. Unfortunately for Kit, the only thing he's seen 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. Possibly very unfortunately indeed for Kit, he has taken to the goading from the token bully of his world and stumbled into declaring he'll enter as a team. What chance does this friendless, muscle-free-zone have in actually managing that, and how could he possibly hope to succeed? Full Review

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Review of

Planet Storyland by James Sherwood Metts

4.5star.jpg Confident Readers

Things have been a bit sticky for the Earthlings. AI and automation have been proceeding apace, often replacing jobs they're paid to do and other tasks that took time to accomplish. Just as they were beginning to get used to all this technological change and starting to think of other, new ways to spend time, along came an awful pandemic. Life was pretty much shut down and, along with it, all the many daily social interactions on which they depend so heavily. Full Review

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Review of

The Wrong Shoes by Tom Percival

5star.jpg Confident Readers

Will's life is difficult, in a multitude of ways. He is bullied because he has 'the wrong shoes', he has the wrong shoes because his dad can't work and doesn't have enough money for even the most basic of things like food, and his dad can't work because he lost his job at the college, was working a cash-in-hand job on a building site and had an accident. Throw into that mix the fact that his mum and dad are separated, and Will's life seems bleak in every direction. And yet, he still has a tiny amount of hope. He is good at art, and clings to the moments of joy when he is drawing, that feel like a light at the end of a long, dark tunnel. Full Review

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Review of

The Teacher Who Knew Too Much by Rob Keeley

4.5star.jpg Confident Readers

Seventeen banks and a jeweller’s have been raided. The police are baffled, but only Ben knows the truth – his Maths teacher, Miss Judson, is really a safecracker! With police and her gangster boyfriend Al on their trail, Miss Judson and Ben go on the run. But Al needs them for one last job...

Goodness me, that Miss Judson is a terror! How on earth did a nice teacher like her manage to get mixed up with a bad 'un like Al? We'll find out. Luckily for Miss Judson, the pupil who discovers her terrible secret is Ben, the son of a famous magician who has ambitions to be as good as his father some day, and who thinks Miss Judson is worth saving Full Review

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Review of

Black Hole Cinema Club by Christopher Edge

4star.jpg Confident Readers

Lucas and his friends are all booked in for a movie marathon at their local cinema, a place that has the nickname of 'The Black Hole'. All big movie fans, they're looking forward to lots of exciting films, and many, many snacks! However, as the movie starts, they very quickly realise that something about this new film format is very different, and they are swept up into an adventure they couldn't even imagine. But as they lurch from one film genre to the next, can they figure out what on earth is going on? Will they ever get back to the cinema, and to their real lives? Full Review

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Review of

Murray and Bun by Adam Stower

4.5star.jpg Confident Readers

Murray is supposed to be a humble, tidy and friendly cat, one who is able to sleep and eat and eat and sleep and, well, whatever takes his fancy next of the two. But he's a bad magician's cat, so his favourite bun has been turned into a hyperactive sticky rabbit called Bun, and the catflap they both use can chuck them out, not into the regular back garden, but into a world of frightening adventure and whiffs. This time round it drops them into a Viking land, where a troll hunter is expected – well, one much bigger than Murray was, to be honest, but he's turned up and he'll have to do… Full Review

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Review of

The Glorious Race of Magical Beasts by Alex Bell and Tim McDonagh

4star.jpg Confident Readers

Eli is a busy lad – by day an apprentice in the wondrous library we start by visiting with him, and in the evening a helper at the dessert cafe his gran owns and runs. Eli lives with his lovely gran, too – for there is a generation missing in the family. A few short years ago, Eli's parents were both lost to the titular race, a globe-trotting adventure where all entrants have to navigate the world in the company of a magical beast. This has made the race anathema to the pair – but when a bad incident at the eatery leads to a confession from gran, Eli knows his only hope is to dare to enter what he most hates, with the sole aim the prize of magic at the end – the only thing to possibly save his gran. Full Review

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Review of

The Taming of the Cat by Helen Cooper

3.5star.jpg Confident Readers

Once again, mice are pitched against cat. In this case, principally, we have Brie the mouse, up against Gorgonzola the cat – and in case you're seeing a connection, they live in a cheese shop and therefore all the names used here seem to be the names of cheeses. Anyway, Brie is shunned, scorned and, if you must, mous-tracised, for the way his habits don't match the other mice he lives with. They nibble up paper wrapping from the cheese for bedding – 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 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 mouse community, though, as all the others had the chance to half-inch some cheese while the cat was distracted. But will the story have the successful sequel it needs when that cheese runs out? Full Review

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Review of

Finding Wonder by Lauren St John

4star.jpg Confident Readers

Roo's life has become almost impossibly difficult. Her mum died when she was young, and now she finds herself awoken in the middle of the night by the police banging on her door to tell her that her dad has dropped dead on his way to the corner shop to buy a lottery ticket. When asked what other family she has, she can only name her aunt, Joni, who she knows her dad didn't think very highly of. But she has no one else, and so off she goes to live with her unreliable aunt. Things continue to get worse for Roo, as when she and Joni leave London in Joni's old campervan, it breaks down in the middle of nowhere and then bursts into flames! Poor Roo! Full Review

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Review of

Oscar's Lion by Adam Baron and Benji Davies

3star.jpg Confident Readers

We start incredibly bluntly, with Oscar hoping to have his mother – or father, but mother is more likely – read him his very favourite book a couple of times 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 bully that ruined a birthday party for Oscar the other month. And it can shapeshift, so he can take it to school and it can get him out of a problem. And it's wonderful to have around the house – not limiting his biscuit intake, being much more lax about the rules, and so on. OK, it can't work a dimmer switch but it can give Oscar a wonderful time. Full Review

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Review of

The Stolen Songbird by Judith Eagle

4star.jpg Confident Readers

Caro's mother, a world-famous whistler, has failed to return home from her recent work trip abroad and is now missing. Her other mother, Ronnie, is having to go up North to take care of her sister who is unwell. So who is going to look after Caro? Sent to stay with Gam, someone Caro has heard her mother despises, she feels frustrated and 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 a mystery, as she discovers a painting of a bird hidden away inside her mum's old suitcase, and all across London a fearsome gang called the Snakes are thieving artworks and terrorising people. Is the painting somehow linked to the gang? And what has happened to Caro's mother? Is she somehow involved in the mystery too? Full Review

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Review of

Nowhere Island by Tania Unsworth

4.5star.jpg Confident Readers

Meet Gil. Just twelve, he is so determined to escape the care system – the system that constantly puts him in futureless places that are not homes – and find a home for himself. He is en route to yet another fosterer, when he jumps into an anonymous car, and lets it ride him to his future. That future seems to 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 two directions of a motorway, a place inaccessible and definitely ignored enough to provide for their safety and seclusion. Them, and a mute girl also finding a home there, albeit so much more successfully. Over a few weeks we see if their oddball destinies can combine, or if this is one place where life as we would want it just would not work… Full Review

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Review of

Friends and Traitors by Helen Peters

3star.jpg Confident Readers

England, WW2. Two young girls are new at the country pile called Stanbrook. One is Nancy, destined to be in service all her life it seems, like the female generations before her. The other is Sidney, a girl from a hoity-toity Sussex boarding school that has been removed there away from bomber flight-paths. The girls are chalk and cheese, and if we hadn't guessed that then their behaviour with each other over their first encounters would only prove it so. But something is amiss, and first separately and then in combination they realise the Lord Evesham must be a rum 'un. Midnight deliveries are received under cover of secrecy, talk is made of meetings with Germans, and not only that, a local Spitfire factory has been attacked. But surely the girls are wrong, and the upper class could never be so underhand? Full Review

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Review of

Arkspire by Jamie Littler

4star.jpg Confident Readers

Two sisters, Juniper and Elodie, born fifteen minutes apart, are growing to be chalk and cheese. Juniper is an eager hunter and trader in illicit magic, including relics from prior major wars left out in the Badlands. 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 power of the Watcher, the closest to a ruler the district has, and 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 whole family. But in finding something oddly magical, Juniper might just be able to gain some power of her own – for good, or for very, very bad… Full Review

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Review of

Stolen History by Sathnam Sanghera

5star.jpg Children's Non-Fiction

I was the bad company other people got into at school. I was disruptive in religious education classes because I disputed the existence of a 'god'. Where was the proof? In history lessons, it was probably worse still. Not too long after the end of WWII, I didn't so much want to learn about the British army's successes (and occasional failures, but we didn't dwell on those) in what came to be called 'the colonies' as want to dispute what right the army had to be there in the first place. Looking back, I still believe I was right - but I regret that I lacked the maturity to approach 'the problem' politely. I wish I'd had Sathnam Sanghera's Stolen History. Full Review

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Review of

Old Gods New Tricks by Thiago de Moraes

4.5star.jpg Confident Readers

Meet Trixie. Forever getting into scrapes, larks and adventures involving flooding the school aircon with fart powder, she could almost be thought a young goddess of nuisance. But just when she's being told that by her one-last-chance-giving headteacher, the world changes. Suddenly, practically everything electronic stops working – a power-out, even of electric cars, hits not just the town the school's in but the entire planet (apart from mobile phones, and all that powers the Internet, just for our convenience's sake). Trixie, luckily, realises what has happened – the ancient Gods have taken the power of power from us. And so she begins her epic quest, to gather all the people that can steal it back – namely the characters from myth that have past form in stealing from the Gods, ie the semi-deities, giants, half-gods and so on known as the tricksters. Full Review

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Review of

Finding Bear by Hannah Gold and Levi Pinfold

4.5star.jpg Confident Readers

Last time, April had been on Bear Island, a lot further north than many people would venture, and finding a ridiculously unexpected but delightful friendship with a polar bear – that she called Bear. Back home, things on the domestic and family front are a bit advanced, but not perfect for her, and so can easily be ignored when word comes through from the islands Bear was last left on. For a bear doing very Bear-y things has been shot and wounded. Desperate to make sure he's OK, she and her father return to the Arctic and hope that in a world of very white and very dangerous things, she can find one specific white and dangerous thing – and that the friendship can continue. Full Review

1839944420.jpg

Review of

Deadlock by Simon Fox

4.5star.jpg Confident Readers

Late one night Graham Blake is late back from his shift on the force, and then suddenly rings Archie, demanding he fetch something from a secret place, and join him on the run. They get together, but barely begin to smell the whiff of Southern trains when the father is arrested, leaving Archie on the late express to Brighton, toting a tin his father was determined to keep away from his colleagues, and the bearer of a whole heap of questions. Full Review

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Review of

My Life on Fire by Cath Howe

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Ren's family home is destroyed in a fire. She, her parents, and her little brother lose everything. She doesn't have any of her clothes, or any of her special little knick-knacks from her cupboard, and now she is living at her grandmother's house where they can't touch anything, or do anything, or even eat the foods they normally eat. When she goes back to school she discovers that the class are doing a special art project, creating boxes of their lives, to display things that are important to them and show who they are as a person. But Ren has nothing to put in a box, and so she finds herself starting to steal things. Small things, things that people might not really miss, not when they have so much already. But what will happen to her if someone finds out what she is doing? Full Review

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Review of

The Boy Who Disappeared and Other Stories by Rob Keeley

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Hooray! Bookbag favourite Rob Keeley is back with a return to the short story format! The Boy Who Disappeared treats us to eleven new tales, each as fun to read as his previous offerings. Full Review

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Review of

Cosima Unfortunate Steals a Star by Laura Noakes

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Meet Number One. Or rather, Cosima Unfortunate. Or rather, just Cos to her friends. The practice in the home she lives in is for the girls to just be named by the number they correspond to in the ledger, and they're all Unfortunates – young people with disabilities, uncommon mentalities or suchlike that Victorian society frowns greatly upon. But Cosima bears the tag as a surname because nothing else seems to be known about where she came from, as the first ever inmate, and unique in having no known family in the outside world. During a daring escapade to steal some posh cakes from the kitchen one afternoon, she discovers a plan involving said outside world – a devilish 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? Full Review

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Review of

The Nowhere Thief by Alice M Ross

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At last there is new stock in the impoverished yet over-full antiques shop Elsbeth and her mother run in a seaside town. Elsbeth knows this because she has stolen it. She also knows she should be free from worries about being found out, because she has the 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 actually generate custom at the shop? Well yes, is the answer, but the fact a mysterious man knows exactly which items come from these different Somewheres only raises more questions… Full Review

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Review of

The Rescue of Ravenwood by Natasha Farrant

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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. Full Review

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Review of

Secret Beast Club: The Unicorns of Silver Street by Robin Birch and Jobe Anderson

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Jayden's nose is forever in a book, which means he knows a lot about mythological creatures – the phoenixes and unicorns of the world, for example. Aisha is addicted to her new tablet, where she can see videos of anything that might be out there. The problem, as their mothers see it, is that they are never 'out there' themselves, exploring the outside world of Hackney, London. But when a narrowboat turns up carrying a science-minded, educational purpose, and with a past involving Jayden's cousin, they find a magical world they never knew existed. For many of those mythological creatures are real, including the one Aisha thinks she's seen on a bit of local footage. The crew of the boat, including a living gargoyle, are tasked with saving the rare critters – and the kids unknowingly have the magical sight needed to join in. Dare they side with Leila, the woman on board, and her relative who lives as a figure in a painting, and become saviours of the unseen? Full Review

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Review of

Maestro Orpheus and the World Clock by Robert Penee and Joanne Grodzinski

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Frederick (or Fred, but never Freddy, please) couldn't sleep. A tune, rather like the ticking of a clock was playing over and over in his mind. It happened every time he came to visit his grandfather. He hadn't really wanted to come; after all, he's ten now and all those old clocks don't appeal to him anymore.

Who needs old clocks anyway? All they do is tell the time. And time isn't good for anything...

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? Full Review

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Review of

A Tricky Kind of Magic by Nigel Baines

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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! Full Review

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