Difference between revisions of "Newest Confident Readers Reviews"

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[[Category:Confident Readers|*]]
 
[[Category:Confident Readers|*]]
[[Category:New Reviews|Confident Readers]]
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[[Category:New Reviews|Confident Readers]]__NOTOC__ <!-- Remove -->
==Confident readers==
 
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{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Ali Sparkes
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|author=Rob Keeley
|title=Unleashed : A Life and Death Job
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|title=Childish Spirits: 10th anniversary special edition
|rating=3.5
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|rating=4
|genre=Teens
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|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=A new series about what happens when Britain's most important and secret assets - teenagers with paranormal abilities - get a week's holiday. In book one, Lisa gets involved with kidnapping and assassination attempts. And she only wanted to go shopping at Harvey Nicks!
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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.  
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0192756060</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
  
{{newreview
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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
|author=Michelle Magorian
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|isbn= 1783064617
|title=Goodnight Mister Tom
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|summary=It's been a long time since I read 'Goodnight Mister Tom' at school. Picking it up again twenty five years later I wondered how good I would find it.  I needn't have worried.  This wonderful story captured my attention from the very beginning and I became so caught up in Tom and Will's lives that I didn't want it to end.  Set during World War Two, William Beech has been evacuated from London and is placed with Tom Oakley, thanks mainly to his proximity to the local church, as Willie's God-fearing mother requested he be close to a church.  They seem an unlikely match, the gruff old man who keeps himself to himself and the thin, timid young boy, but there lies the joy of the story, in watching their relationship grow.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141332255</amazonuk>
 
 
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}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Max Boucherat
|author=Barbara Mitchelhill
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|title=The Last Life of Lori Mills
|title=Run Rabbit Run
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=dad in Rochdale, Lancashire. Two months ago their mum was killed by a bomb which fell on her shop. Lizzie is being bullied and taunted at school and on the way home, because her dad won't join the army. He is a conscientious objector who doesn't believe it's right to kill people. As conscription has been introduced making nearly all men aged 18-51 liable to be called up for military service (and therefore required to fight), this means he is breaking the law and may well be treated as a criminalDad has decided they are going to move to Whiteway, a Colony (a sort of alternative community), for people who don't believe in war, in Gloucestershire.
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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 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 tamperingWhen 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>1849392498</amazonuk>
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|isbn=0008666482
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Kieran Larwood and Joe Todd-Stanton
|author=Annette Hart
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|title=Dungeon Runners: Hero Trial
|title=Blood and Allegiance
 
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Bryony was orphaned when she was very young and since then has lived in the Abbey at Ambleton, but once she reached her fourteenth birthday her cousin, Unwin, King of Athlandia, required that she join him at courtShe lost the only friends she had known, her clothes were replaced with much grander garments and she became a part of the inner circle of the courtIt wasn't long before she realised that her cousin was far from benevolent – but he was fighting an uprising and perhaps what he was doing was necessaryThen Milly, her maid, is punished for stepping slightly out of line and Bryony realises how little she knows of other people in Kynbury and even of the history of her own family.
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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 wayUnfortunately 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 neededPossibly 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 teamWhat chance does this friendless, muscle-free-zone have in actually managing that, and how could he possibly hope to succeed?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1903491797</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1839945184
 
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}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=James Sherwood Metts
|author=Jenny Nimmo
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|title=Planet Storyland
|title=The Secret Kingdom
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Protected by a moon cloak, a ring, and three mysteriously powerful leopards, Timoken the magician and his camel Gabar seek a new home after the boy is forced to flee the secret kingdom. But will they ever find peace with the vicious viradees on their trail? This prequel to the Charlie Bone series contains new and old characters, including a couple of brief cameos from Charlie himself, but is well worth reading as a stand-alone or introduction to the series if you've never heard of it.
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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>1405257326</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1736128426
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Tom Percival
|author=Caroline Lawrence
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|title=The Wrong Shoes
|title=The Western Mysteries: The Case of the Deadly Desperados
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|rating=5
|rating=4.5
 
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=It is always a little worrying when an author finishes a popular and well-loved series to start something new. Will the new characters be as interesting as the old, familiar ones? Will the books just be a pale retelling of the plots in a new context? But fans of Ms Lawrence's [[The Prophet from Ephesus (The Roman Mysteries) by Caroline Lawrence|Roman Mysteries]] need not worry. What we have here is a rip-roaring tale of the Wild West, with tons of credible local colour, a bunch of villains every bit as wicked as those to be found in Ancient Rome, and a likeable lead character.
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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 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.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444001698</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1398527122
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=1805141872
|author=Marcus Sedgwick
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|title=The Teacher Who Knew Too Much
|title=Raven Mysteries: Magic and Mayhem
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|author=Rob Keeley
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Life is never completely dull at Castle Otherhand. Edgar the resident raven may get bored a little, and end up pecking and plucking at things he shouldn't, but that at least keeps the humans there on their toes. And even Edgar must admit to being rushed off his talons when he has to save the day yet again, this time from death by cabbage, and things that go quack in the night.
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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...''
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1842556975</amazonuk>
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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
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Christopher Edge
|author=John Stephens
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|title=Black Hole Cinema Club
|title=The Emerald Atlas: The Books of Beginning
 
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Whisked away from their parents in the dead of night ten years ago, Kate, Michael and Emma have seen more than their fair share of orphanages. Nobody wants to adopt three children together - least of all when the youngest has a strong penchant for using her fists whenever she can - and so when we meet them, they're on their way to yet another. But the orphanage at Cambridge Falls is unlike any other. They're the only children in residence, the housekeeper seems to think they are members of the French royal family, and the town is in the middle of a barren wasteland and is bereft of children.
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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 imagineBut 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>0857530186</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1839942738
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Eva Ibbotson and Sharon Rentta
 
|title=One Dog And His Boy
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|summary=All Hal had ever wanted was a dog.  Other presents never mattered, expensive though they were: he wanted a dog.  But – his mother wouldn't entertain the ideaShe was far too busy (shopping) and neurotic about the possibility of dirt, puddles or ''hairs''. His father was busy too.  He worked hard to fund their lavish lifestyle and was away so much that he spent more time in the air than he did at home.  It wasn't as though Hal had many friends either.  He'd just been moved from a school where he had friends (because he wasn't doing well enough) to another where he'd made no friends.  All he wanted was a dog.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1407124234</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Adam Stower
|author=Joan Lennon
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|title=Murray and Bun
|title=Slightly Jones Mystery: The Case of the Glasgow Ghoul
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
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|genre=Confident Readers  
|summary=There are spooks and ghouls aplenty in this story: readers avid for a delicious shiver or two will be pleased to know they appear right from the very first chapter. And in keeping with the wonderfully Victorian flavour of the book, it is body-snatchers, digging up a corpse to sell to a local doctor, who encounter the terrifying spectres. This is not a horror story, however, despite the scary setting of its opening pages: the haunted cemetery is simply one element in the complicated case of the disappearing treasures.
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|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…
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846471141</amazonuk>
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|isbn=0008561249
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Alex Bell and Tim McDonagh
|author=Chris Van Allsburg
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|title=The Glorious Race of Magical Beasts
|title=The Mysteries of Harris Burdick
 
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Thirty years ago, Harris Burdick walked into a book publisher's office with samples of his work. He had fourteen stories ready for publication, but just brought one picture and caption from each. Burdick was never heard of again. The publisher spent many years trying to track down Burdick, showing the pictures to people - many of whom were inspired to write their own stories. (Shh about ''The rights of Chris Van Allsburg to be identified as...'').
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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>184939279X</amazonuk>
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|isbn=0571382231
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Helen Cooper
|author=Diana Wynne Jones
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|title=The Taming of the Cat
|title=Power of Three
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|rating=3.5
|rating=4.5
 
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Gair's father is the chief of their mountGair's mother is famous for being incredibly wise.  His brother and sister, Ceri and Ayna, both have special gifts, and so it is just Gair who is left feeling ordinary and out of placeHowever, when a powerful curse begins to affect the livelihoods not just of his people but also their enemies, the Dorig, and the Giants, it is up to Gair to find a way for them all to survive...
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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 cheesesAnyway, 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?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007113706</amazonuk>
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|isbn=0571376010
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Lauren St John
|author=Elena Pasquali and Sophie Windham
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|title=Finding Wonder
|title=The Three Trees: A Traditional Folktale
 
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|genre=For Sharing
 
|summary=There are three trees standing side by side on a hill.  They dream together of what they hope to become in the future; one wishes to become a chest for the finest treasures, one wishes to be a ship carrying a mighty King, and the last wants to stay on the hillside quietly pointing up to heaven.  The first is cut down and made into a trough, but then it turns out it is a trough in the stable where Mary gives birth to Jesus, so it becomes the manger for him.  The second is made into a simple fishing boat, but then it is the boat which Jesus goes in when there is a big storm and he calms the waves.  The third tree is cut down and forgotten in a yard until one day it is made into a cross.  It is, of course, the cross Jesus is crucified on and becomes the symbol of hope, forever pointing to heaven.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0745961703</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Nick Butterworth
 
|title=Tales From Percy's Park: After the Storm
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=For Sharing
 
|summary=One day, after a particularly wild and windy evening, Percy the Park Keeper discovers on his check around the park that an old oak tree has fallen down in the storm.  All of the animals who lived in the tree ask Percy to help them find a new home.  He loads them up in his wheelbarrow and, after a bit of an adventure, they finally find a new place for Percy to rebuild their homes.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007155158</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Alex T Smith
 
|title=Claude in the City
 
|rating=5
 
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Claude is a sweet little dog who wears a beret and whose best friend is a sock called Sir BobblysockThey live with Mr and Mrs Shinyshoes,  and when Mr and Mrs Shinyshoes go out, Claude and Sir Bobblysock go out and have their own adventures which, in this book, involve capturing a thief in an art gallery and solving a medical mystery in the local hospitalClaude, who reminds me a little bit of Snoopy, is very endearing and it's amazing how much personality an old sock can have!
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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 ticketWhen 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!
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340998997</amazonuk>
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|isbn=0571376169
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Adam Baron and Benji Davies
|author=Pippa Funnell
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|title=Oscar's Lion
|title=Tilly's Pony Tails: Moonshadow the Derby Winner
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|rating=3
|rating=4
 
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=We've met Tilly Redbrow before.  She's of native American Indian descent but living with her adoptive family in the UK.  To say that she is mad on horses is something of an understatement – just about everything she does revolves around themThis time she and her friends are having a sleepover at the Silver Shoe Stables, where although no one is supposed to know about it a famous racehorse is staying incognito because his history as a Derby winner means that horse thieves are after him.
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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 daysBut 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.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444000918</amazonuk>
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|isbn=0008596751
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Judith Eagle
|author=Ali Sparkes
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|title=The Stolen Songbird
|title=S.W.I.T.C.H: Ant Attack
 
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=It seems that Josh and Danny are about to meet their matchDespite being almost eaten by cats, birds, spiders and more when they've turned into creepy crawlies before in this series, they have a far worse foe this time - Tarquin, the snooty posh brat from up the roadHow they survive him turning them into ants, and his misguided attempts to kill them, while all the time the next door neighbour's scientific research which is allowing all this transformation has to be kept a top secret, are all elements of this fourth book in the series.
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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 missing.  Her other mother, Ronnie, is having to go up North to take care of her sister who is unwellSo 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 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>0192729357</amazonuk>
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|isbn=0571363148
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Tania Unsworth
|author=Charlotte Haptie
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|title=Nowhere Island
|title=Ice Angel
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|rating=4.5
|rating=5
 
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Rockscar City is controlled by the Scarspring family – or at least, its water supply is, which comes to the same thing. And the water which the citizens receive is stale and unpleasant, especially in the summer months. City authorities are obliged to spend vast amounts of money looking for new wells, but for some reason each excavation is sabotaged as soon as it is begun. So when Zack and Clovis decide to use the pure, sweet water from a secret spring high in the mountains to make and sell delicious ices, they run into all kinds of danger. Unless they're very careful, they will be made to disappear, just as their father did twelve years before.
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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>0340894180</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1804540080
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Helen Peters
|author=Ali Sparkes
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|title=Friends and Traitors
|title=S.W.I.T.C.H: Grasshopper Glitch
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|rating=3
|rating=4.5
 
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=One minute Mrs Potts is an innocent old biddy living next door to Josh and Danny, the next she's horrifying them by turning them into spiders, then bluebottle fliesBut now they're working for her, trying to complete her bizarre body-swapping researchShe's paying them back by driving them to schoolLuckily there's not a chance that they might SWITCH while at school, or have to suffer a bully while in the shape and form of a grasshopper.  Oops...
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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 herThe 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 soBut 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?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0192729349</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1788004647
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Jamie Littler
|author=Ali Sparkes
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|title=Arkspire
|title=S.W.I.T.C.H: Fly Frenzy
 
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Josh and Danny have only recently recovered from being turned into spiders by the peculiar scientist woman next doorBut however adamant they are it'll never happen again, they don't foresee a time when they're willingly taking a repeat dose of the SWITCH serum, becoming tiny flying detectives, and almost drinking up spills from the toilet rim...
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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 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…
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0192729330</amazonuk>
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|isbn=0241586143
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=024162343X
|author=Peter Millett
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|title=Stolen History
|title=The Curse of the Catastrophic Cupcakes (Boy Zero Wannabe Hero)
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|author=Sathnam Sanghera
|rating=3.5
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|rating=5
|genre=Confident Readers
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|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
|summary=Boy Zero Wannabe Hero has defeated General Pandemonium twice before, but as with all supervillains, he's relentless. This time, the General has come up with a wicked plan to conquer the world by making everyone float off into space by feeding them catastrophic cupcakes. Will Boy Zero be able to save the world yet again?
+
|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' politely.  I wish I'd had Sathnam Sanghera's ''Stolen History''.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0571253261</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Thiago de Moraes
|author=Betty G Birney
+
|title=Old Gods New Tricks
|title=My Pet Show Panic! (Humphrey's Tiny Tales)
+
|rating=4.5
|rating=3.5
 
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Humphrey is the classroom hamster of room 26 of Longfellow School. He's good friends with Og the frog, as well as the pupils at the school. We've met Humphrey [[Holidays According to Humphrey by Betty G Birney|lots]] [[Humphrey's Great-Great-Great Book of Stories by Betty G Birney|of times]] [[School According to Humphrey by Betty G Birney|before]] and thoroughly enjoyed his adventures every time. This time round, we're treated to a new series of tiny tales, for newly confident readers. Our first small adventure with Humphrey sees him being entered into a pet show, and trying not to fall foul of Clem, the big, yappy dog.
+
|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>057124632X</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=178845295X
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Hannah Gold and Levi Pinfold
|author=Ali Sparkes and Ross Collins
+
|title=Finding Bear
|title=S.W.I.T.C.H: Spider Stampede
+
|rating=4.5
|rating=4
 
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Meet Josh and DannyEight year old twins, both think they are taller than their brother, and both think the other is weird - Danny because Josh loves creepy crawlies, bugs and insects, and Josh because Danny doesn'tBut they're about to be joined in equal amounts of terror when a mad scientific experiment turns them into spiders.
+
|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 BearBack 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 woundedDesperate 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>0192729322</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=0008582017
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Simon Fox
|author=Christopher Russell and Christine Russell
+
|title=Deadlock
|title=The Warrior Sheep Go West
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=I like these Warrior Sheep, and the scrapes they get in by following their ancient prophecies and in trying to save their world.  [[The Quest of the Warrior Sheep by Christopher Russell and Christine Russell|Last time]] they thought a mobile phone was itself a call from the gods, but still did have to save the day.  Here they misread a page on the Internet - and if you can't accept Internet-using sheep, your children surely will - and decide to go to America to save their whole species.
+
|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>1405243775</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=1839944420
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Cath Howe
|author=Jana Oliver
+
|title=My Life on Fire
|title=The Demon Trappers: Forsaken
 
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=You know that old saying, 'never judge a book by its cover', I'm guilty of it. I always fall into the trap – if the cover isn't amazing I pre-judge. And that's exactly what I did when this book landed on my doorstep – I took one look at the broody vamp looking girl on the cover and thought 'emo'. How wrong I was.
+
|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>0330519476</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=1839942835
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author= Rob Keeley
|author=Robert Arley and Marisa Lewis
+
|title= The Boy Who Disappeared and Other Stories
|title=Big Big Secrets
+
|rating=4
|rating=3.5
 
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=When Jake's science experiment goes wrong he isn't faced with a room full of bad-smelling chemicals and a D grade as most students would be - instead he discovers that he has shrunk his teacher to the size of a Barbie doll! His friend, Annie, gets roped in to help him take care of his newly miniaturised teacher, keeping it a secret and trying, desperately, to find a way to reverse the process...
+
|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>0954540263</amazonuk>
+
|isbn= B0BVW69N1G
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Laura Noakes
|author=Holly Webb
+
|title=Cosima Unfortunate Steals a Star
|title=Rose and the Silver Ghost
 
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=This is the fourth volume in the ''Rose'' series, and its blend of magic, peril and excitement has proved a winning formula. Rose herself is a delightful character, combining the down-to-earth, practical qualities one would hope for in a housemaid with growing magical powers and a mysterious past. In this story, she discovers there may be a way to find out what happened to her mother a decade before, but her path is, as usual, fraught with danger and thrills.
+
|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 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?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408304503</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=0008579059
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Alice M Ross
|author=Garth Nix and Sean Williams
+
|title=The Nowhere Thief
|title=Troubletwisters
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=Jack and Jaide Shield, twins, are living perfectly normal lives until a brief visit from their elusive father sparks an unexplainable, chaotic, reality-bending storm that destroys their home and introduces them to the mysterious world of the Wardens, a group gifted with diverse powers, and their perpetual struggle against a force known only as The Evil. As young Wardens, or Troubletwisters, just growing into their Gifts, the pair struggle to make sense of the chaos that surrounds them and discover the true nature of their heritage.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1405258578</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Adam Blade
 
|title=The Chronicles of Avantia: Call to War
 
|rating=4
 
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Our three heroes and their magical giant beasts are still trying to snatch the quarters of an ancient, power-giving mask from the clutches of their realm's enemyThey're not doing too well in the chase, for he has two of the bits, and even his assistant they thought dead at the end of [[First Hero (The Chronicles Of Avantia) by Adam Blade|book one]] is still aroundCan they have any luck this third time of asking, even when their country is being ravaged, turning once-helpful villagers against their quest, and their enemies are getting stronger by the battle?
+
|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 itShe 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 plunderWith 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>1408307499</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=1839943769
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Natasha Farrant
|author=Dan  Jerris
+
|title=The Rescue of Ravenwood
|title=The Deathless Pirate King (Dragon Blood Pirates)
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|summary=Well, after a six-book series, Al and Jack the 21st-Century boys found an ancient, treasured sword and scabbard, but they and their magic are incomplete.  Four special diamonds are who-knows-where, but the first just might be found when they try to reunite a lovely, kidnapped princess with her freedom and her family jewels.  Standing in the way, a near-undead pirate with sharp blades at the toes of his shoes...
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408308231</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Katie Davies and Hannah Shaw
 
|title=The Great Cat Conspiracy
 
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Meet the new catA vicious thing, it's fond of having a go at any passing human feet, and is even able to stand its ground against the neighbourhood dogsIt also has a great habit of making a mess with its kills, which comes to a head (literally) when the front end of what was the vicar's prize carp ends up on Tom's pillowAfter that the cat vanishes.  Has it finally met a match?  Has it been catnapped - and if so, who is seeking revenge by doing so?
+
|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 livesThey 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 placeBut 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.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847385974</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=0571348785
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Robin Birch and Jobe Anderson
|author=Judith Viorst and Lane Smith
+
|title=Secret Beast Club: The Unicorns of Silver Street
|title=Lulu and the Brontosaurus
 
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Lulu is every parent's worst nightmare.  She always, ''always'' gets what she wants, quite often by rolling around on the floor screaming until the light bulbs popShe is, quite simply, a child in desperate need of Supernanny!  For her birthday Lulu decides she would like a BrontosaurusHer parents, for once, say no, and no amount of screaming makes them change their mindSo Lulu sets off into the forest to find a brontosaurus by herselfThe trouble is, when she finally does find one he isn't too keen on the idea of being her pet and actually would much prefer that she became his pet!
+
|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 exampleAisha 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, LondonBut 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 existedFor 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>0857071475</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=0241573483
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Alan Silberberg
 
|title=Milo and the Restart Button
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|summary='Starting over is like pressing the reset button on a game that makes you lose all your points and wipes out any of the good stuff you've spent hundreds of hours learning...'
 
 
 
Milo's restart button was pressed by the death of his mother. Since that awful day, life has not been good. His father has retreated inwards, his sister is always angry, and they've moved house several times.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857071904</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=B09XWSXSKY
|author=Sharon King and Rose King
+
|title=Maestro Orpheus and the World Clock
|title=The Daily Journal of Arabella Crumblestone
+
|author=Robert Penee and Joanne Grodzinski
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Arabella Crumblestone was making her way along a dry-stone wall in Northumbria, courtesy of a sheep named Leroy, when she met the two human children, Faith and GeorgeGeorge gave her a piece of chocolate (although she didn't know that's what it was) and she was grateful. The boy had no words, but he hummedThe next day he returned to the wall with his sister who never seemed to stop talkingArabella was lonely – but could she trust Faith and George?  Hunger, cold and loneliness made her decision for her and before long she had a bed in Faith's warm pocket.
+
|summary=Frederick (or Fred, but never Freddy, please) couldn't sleepA tune, rather like the ticking of a clock was playing over and over in his mindIt happened every time he came to visit his grandfatherHe 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>0956741304</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Derek Keilty
 
|title=Will Gallows and the Snake-bellied Troll
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|summary=Will Gallows is not your average boy.  Finding out the name of the baddie who gunned down his policeman father, he takes it upon himself to get revenge, by bringing him in - even though he's the nastiest gunslinger around.  Oh, and a troll with snakes coming from his belly.  Will, being not your average boy, is half-elf, however, and can talk to his flying horse to help him on his way. But is there more to the story of his father's death than he thinks, and just what is it with all the earthquakes his town is suffering?
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849392366</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
  
{{newreview
+
''Who needs old clocks anyway?  All they do is tell the time.  And time isn't good for anything...''
|author=Elliot Skell
 
|title=Neversuch House
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|summary=Omnia is a girl who likes to know things, and when she sees something unusual she sets out to find out what is happening. It is a decision which almost kills her. Something is not right at the heart of Neversuch House, and at least one person is determined to stop her finding out what it is.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847387438</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
  
{{newreview
+
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?
|author=Ruthie Knapp and Jill McElmurry
 
|title=Who Stole Mona Lisa?
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|summary=Taking in a history of its production, as well as its theft, ''Who Stole Mona Lisa?'' is an intriguing look at La Gioconda. The story is told from the point of view of Leonardo da Vinci's painting herself, and will strike a chord with any intelligent and curious youngsters.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408811588</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Nigel Baines
|author=Chris Mould
+
|title=A Tricky Kind of Magic
|title=Spindlewood: Pip and the Wood Witch Curse
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
+
|genre=Emerging Readers
|summary=Pip doesn't want to be sold to Captain Snarks as a pirate's cabin boy. He is sure he'll get sea-sick, and he would far rather continue to work at the stable yard. But the foul-breathed drunkard who runs the orphanage refuses to listen: he will receive more money for the lad if he sends him to sea. On the way to the docks Pip manages to escape, and he stows away in the rear carriage of the Stage Fright Theatre Company, charmingly described as 'dancing masters of the macabre'. Our hero remains there for many days, hidden from everyone and only occasionally sneaking out to find a bone to gnaw, until the travelling troupe arrives at its destination, Hangman's Hollow. And then Pip's troubles begin in earnest.
+
|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 beAnd when his dad's prop rabbit starts talking to him, he ''really'' doesn't know what's going on anymore!
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340970693</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=1444960261
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Melissa Wareham
 
|title=Take Me Home: Tales of Battersea Dogs
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
 
|summary=Melissa Wareham always wanted a dog but her parents would never allow it and she didn't get good enough exam results for her next option – becoming a vet.  Not one to be deterred she joined the staff at Battersea Dogs Home, first as a kennel maid and eventually as the head of rehoming.  'Take Me Home' is the story of some of the highlights of her life at the home and some of the dogs which she met whilst she was there.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849413924</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Betty G Birney
 
|title=School According to Humphrey
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|summary=After six near-perfect books' worth of adventures in Room 26, the class pet Humphrey the hamster faces a nightmare at the start of termThe entire pupil population has changed, and all his friends he's got to know and love (and be loved by) have been replaced by a new intake.  Here are the absurdly tall and the unfortunately short, both with the same first name; here is the girl in a wheelchair pestered by an over-attentive helper.  Can Humphrey solve all their problems - as he usually does - and, is the biggest problem of all the fact that his old friends no longer have a classroom pet?
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0571255418</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
  
{{newreview
+
Move on to [[Newest Cookery Reviews]]
|author=Morris Gleitzman
 
|title=Grace
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|summary='In the beginning there was me and Mum and Dad and the twins. And talk about happy families, we were bountiful. But it came to pass that I started doing sins. And lo, that's when all our problems began.'
 
 
 
This is exactly how Grace talks because she lives with her family as part of a separatist fundamental Christian sect. She goes to a church school. The school bus driver is a church Elder because she mustn't talk to or touch an outsider as outsiders are unclean. She can't eat outsider food without purifying it first - even ice cream must be microwaved. She wears her unruly, curly hair in a bun and woe is upon her when wisps free themselves from her hairpins.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>014133603X</amazonuk>
 
}}
 

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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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Review of

Deadlock by Simon Fox

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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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