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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==Confident readers==
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Rob Keeley
|author=Salman Rushdie
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|title=Childish Spirits: 10th anniversary special edition
|title=Luka and the Fire of Life
 
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Back in 1990, Salman Rushdie followed up his controversial 'Satanic Verses' with a book dedicated to his then nine year old son, Zafar, called 'Haroun and the Sea of Stories'. Now, his second son, Milan, finally gets a book of his own, although he had to wait until he was 13 for his father to get around to it. 'Luka and the Fire of Life' is very much a follow up to 'Haroun' and it is certainly helpful, although not necessary, if you have read that book as many of the events in the first book are referred to here.
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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>0099555328</amazonuk>
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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
{{newreview
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|author=Max Boucherat
|author=Catherine Bruton
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|title=The Last Life of Lori Mills
|title=We Can Be Heroes
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Ben is spending the summer with his grandparents because his mother is ill again. She won't stop going out for runs and is not eating properly. She's gone back to stressing out about having the "right" cutlery and worrying about technology and health hazards. And her beautiful hair has started falling out. Ben's father was killed in the 9/11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center and with his mother incommunicado, he's feeling very lonely indeed.
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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 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>1405256524</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=Rachel Renee Russell
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|title=Dungeon Runners: Hero Trial
|title=Dork Diaries: Pop Star
 
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=When I saw that both the [[Dork Diaries by Rachel Renee Russell|first]] and [[Dork Diaries: Party Time by Rachel Renee Russell|second]] books in this series had already been put into [[Double Dork Diaries: Two Tales from a Not-so-fabulous Life by Rachel Renee Russell|one compendium]], I wondered quite whyWere they not selling quite as I expected they would, despite their breeziness and simple charms for the beginner reader?  Would the third book prove to be a major change in format, hence an early wrapping-up?  Well, the answers are in here - as are all those assets, and no real surprises or alterations.
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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 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>0857071181</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1839945184
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=James Sherwood Metts
|author=Andy Briggs
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|title=Planet Storyland
|title=Tarzan: The Greystoke Legacy
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Robbie Canler is on the run. From what, it takes us a while to find out, but it's clear that it's something bad when the alternative is working for an illegal logging team in the jungle of the Congo. The work is tough at the best of times, and when things start going wrong for the team, it's definitely not the best of times. And then Jane Porter, his boss's daughter, disappears... Can she be found? And why do all these strange things keep happening to the loggers? It's almost as if there was a weird presence in the jungle.
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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>057127238X</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1736128426
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Tom Percival
|author=E D Baker
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|title=The Wrong Shoes
|title=The Wide-Awake Princess
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|rating=5
|rating=4
 
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Princess Annie is Sleeping Beauty's younger sisterHer sister, Gwendolyn, was given various magical gifts at her birth making her graceful and beautiful, but then a bad fairy created the spell that Gwendolyn would prick her finger on a spinning wheel before she turned 16 and sleep for one hundred yearsSo far, so familiar.  All of the upset over Gwendolyn's christening led to the King and Queen being very scared when their second daughter, Annabelle, was born.  They invited only one fairy along and asked her adviceShe cast a spell on Princess Annie that made her impervious to all magicAlthough this seemed like a good idea it means that none of her family like to be too near her because her spell tends to affect their own magical enchantments, making them less beautiful, more wrinkled and aged.  Annie does her best to please her parents and to try and protect her sister, but in the end the wicked fairy's magic spell comes true and Gwendolyn and everyone in the castle falls asleep.  Everyone, that is, except for Annie...
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|summary=Will's life is difficult, in a multitude of waysHe 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 directionAnd yet, he still has a tiny amount of hopeHe 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>1408807572</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1398527122
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=1805141872
|author=David Almond
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|title=The Teacher Who Knew Too Much
|title=My Name Is Mina
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|author=Rob Keeley
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=We first Mina in Skellig. A homeschooled, William Blake-loving, slightly precious child, she arrived in Michael's life with not a little whiff of the culture shock about her. Now, we can find out what really makes Mina tick as we read through her journal. Mina is full of contradictions. She likes to be different, individual, but she doesn't like being a misfit. She wants friends but she doesn't know how to make them or to keep them. She is both reflective and impulsive.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340997265</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Elen Caldecott
 
|title=Operation Eiffel Tower
 
|rating=4
 
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Jack, Ruby, Lauren and Billy live in a seaside town. Jack helps out at the crazy golf course and he's got a mean shot or two up his sleeve. Lauren likes boys, ''Teen Thing'' magazine and looking down her nose at her younger siblings. Ruby's world revolves around winning a teddy on the grab-a-bear machine in the amusement arcade. Billy is just a baby so he doesn't do very much if it doesn't involve cuddling Teddy Volvo.
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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>1408805731</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
  
{{newreview
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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
|author=Kate Maryon
 
|title=A Million Angels
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=Mima's father is the light of her life. She loves him more than anything. But he's also an army officer and this story opens with him leaving for a six month tour of Afghanistan. Her mother is heavily pregnant and her grandmother is spending all her time thinking about her childhood sweetheart. Her friend Jess is busily trying to make friends at school - army brats are forever having to make new friends. So nobody really has time to pay attention to Mima, who can't get her fears about her father being killed and injured out of her mind...
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007326297</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Christopher Edge
|author=Helen Moss
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|title=Black Hole Cinema Club
|title=Adventure Island: The Mystery of the Whistling Caves
 
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=There must be many a parent around who grew up devouring Famous Five adventure storiesI certainly did, so I was excited to read the first in a new series of stories by Helen Moss which bring a flavour of Blyton's famous books into the present day.
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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>1444003283</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1839942738
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Adam Stower
|author=Neal Shusterman
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|title=Murray and Bun
|title=Everfound
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|rating=4.5
|rating=5
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|genre=Confident Readers
|genre=Teens
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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…
|summary=We rejoin the limbo world of ''Everlost'' for this final volume in Neal Shusterman's ''Skinjacker'' trilogy with Mary Hightower asleep and encased in a glass coffin, Allie tied to the front of a train, and Nick still amnesiac and still puddling chocolate wherever he goes. Milos is trying to continue with Mary's demonic plan to end the living world, but he lacks her charisma and the vapour of Afterlights is getting smaller as a steady trickle decamps.
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|isbn=0008561249
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857071823</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Alex Bell and Tim McDonagh
|author=Joy Cowley and Gavin Bishop
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|title=The Glorious Race of Magical Beasts
|title=Just One More
 
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=What happened when a dragon moved into the town's library? Or when Cowgirl Katie's horse went shopping and rode on the escalator? This fun collection of short stories is unusual, odd and very entertaining!
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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>1877467677</amazonuk>
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|isbn=0571382231
 
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}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Helen Cooper
|author=Chris Van Allsburg
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|title=The Taming of the Cat
|title=Queen of the Falls
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|rating=3.5
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
 
|summary=Annie Edson Taylor was sixty-two years old and a widow.  She didn't have very much money saved and she was worried about her future - until she had an inspiration.  She would have a barrel made - a very stout and water-tight barrel - and she would be the first person to brave the thundering waters of Niagra Falls in this barrel.  Chris Van Allsburgh tells us her story from the moment of inspiration right through to the times after the epic trip, but in truth the words are simpy there to eleborate on his wonderful drawings.  They're so good that you could be forgiven for thinking that they're black and white photographs on occasions.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849392722</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Monica Dickens
 
|title=Dora at Follyfoot
 
|rating=4
 
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Follyfoot Home of Rest for Horses is owned by the Colonel, but he's been very ill in hospital and now he has to go away to a warm climate to recuperateIt's not ''quite '' certain who is in charge of the farm in his absenceIt might be Dora or it might be Steve – but there's one thing that is quite clear: they're both under strict instructions not to buy any horsesWhat's Dora to do though, when she realises that unless she buys the cream-coloured, lame horse, Amigo, it will end its days pulling a log cart?  Well, obviously she ''has'' to buy the horse with money she borrows from the shady Ron Stryker.  How's she to pay it back though?
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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 withThey 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 outIt'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>1849393265</amazonuk>
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|isbn=0571376010
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Lauren St John
|title=Candle Man: Society of Dread
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|title=Finding Wonder
|author=Glenn Dakin
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=We left Theo after he had discovered his true identity as the Candle Man and defeated his evil ex-guardian, Dr Saint. The young boy is still ambivalent about his superhero status and conflicted over his ability to use tripudon energy to melt his - and London's - enemies. But the fight against evil pays no attention to inexperience or moral ambiguity and Theo is about to find himself down in the Network again. This time, his attempts to return The Society of Good Works to its original benevolence are thwarted by the renaissance of an old, and even more terrifying, villain - Dr Pyre. With his friends abducted and enslaved, Theo must use his Candle Man abilities once again...
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1405246774</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|title=My Name is Rose
 
|author=Sally Grindley
 
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Rosa comes from a Romany gypsy community. She travels around Eastern Europe with her family, only stopping occasionally for school. Her father says her education comes from her family's connection with the land and the Roma traditions. And Rose agrees. She is happy and never happier than when her parents are playing music and there is noise and laughter and gaiety.
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|summary=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!
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408814021</amazonuk>
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|isbn=0571376169
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Adam Baron and Benji Davies
|title=Asylum
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|title=Oscar's Lion
|author=Rachel Anderson
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|rating=3
|rating=4
 
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Sunday arrived in the UK at Lowestoft. He'd have preferred Iceland, ''which, so he'd heard, was cold and treeless but democratic and respectful of human life''. Sent from a refugee camp by his Auntie Pru, Sunday is very religious and very respectful of human life, unlike the militia who destroyed his village. So it's difficult for Sunday to become a Muslim. But that's what he has to do. His papers confiscated by a shady people trafficker, Sunday finds himself the unpaid caretaker at Hawk Rise, a condemned London tower block. And his name isn't Sunday any more; it's Piet Ali.  
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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 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.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340997680</amazonuk>
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|isbn=0008596751
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Judith Eagle
|author= Glenda Millard
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|title=The Stolen Songbird
|title=A Small Free Kiss in the Dark
 
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Skip is a runawayShipped around from one foster family to another, he finally plans an escapeEnding up homeless on the streets, he befriends an elderly homeless man called Billy.  Just as Skip seems to be finding an unusual kind of stability in his life the city he lives in is suddenly bombed, and overnight his life changes againBilly and Skip find themselves responsible for three more people: Max, Tia and the baby. Soon they're running away again, but this time to try to save their lives.
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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 tooBut 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>1848770278</amazonuk>
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|isbn=0571363148
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Tania Unsworth
|author=Karen McCombie
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|title=Nowhere Island
|title=Six Words and a Wish
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Jem has a dad who's a clown, a best friend who's a hypochondriac, a house where it's always Christmas, and a sister who's missing – or is she? Gracie left home after something Jem said, and the younger girl has always wondered whether she's to blame for her big sister's disappearance. When her mother receives a present from Gracie on her birthday, she thinks she might finally be able to ask her. As well as hoping her sister returns, Jem also tries to form a band, helps her dad do his clown shows, and may even have found a cute boy she likes…
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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>1407107887</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1804540080
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Helen Peters
|author=Patrick Ness
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|title=Friends and Traitors
|title=A Monster Calls
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|rating=3
|rating=4.5
 
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Conor wakes up from his nightmare at 12.07am. To. The yew tree from the churchyard has uprooted itself, transformed into a huge monster and is waiting at his window, full of threat. Conor, though, is unimpressed. Nothing could be as frightening as his nightmare. Nothing could be as frightening as his waking life, for that matter. So he snorts in contempt. But the monster shrugs off this reaction and tells Conor he must listen to three stories and then tell one of his own. And that fourth story must be The Truth.
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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-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?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1406311529</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1788004647
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Jamie Littler
|author=Fiona Dunbar
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|title=Arkspire
|title=Divine Freaks
 
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Unless you really love science, Mr Wesley's Biology lessons can occasionally seem a little dull. Still, a spot of boredom might have been better, in Kitty Slade's opinion, than the mean grey-faced man who turned up, began to dissect a rat, then just as suddenly disappeared again. Leaving her, of course, to explain to her mystified teacher just why she had leapt from her seat, shoved him aside and lunged at thin air. The rest of the class didn't mind: watching Kitty dash about the room screaming was way more fun than anything Mr Wesley could do. Things got a little heated after that, however, and Kitty stormed out of school, convinced she was losing her mind.
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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 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…
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408309289</amazonuk>
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|isbn=0241586143
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=024162343X
|author=Elyne Mitchell
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|title=Stolen History
|title=The Silver Brumby
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|author=Sathnam Sanghera
|rating=4
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|rating=5
|genre=Confident Readers
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|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
|summary=When Bel Bel's foal was born she called him Thowra, which meant 'wind'. Like her he was a creamy, silver brumby. They're the wild horses of Southern Australia and Bel Bel knew that her foal would not have an easy life. As a stallion he would have to fight to keep his own herd of mares and foals but his main enemy would be man. The brumbies were regularly captured and herded away but the creamy, silver brumbies were the biggest prizes of all. 'The Silver Brumby' is Thowra's story as he matures from young foal to adult stallion.
+
|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>0007425201</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Thiago de Moraes
|author=Sally Gardner
+
|title=Old Gods New Tricks
|title=Cinderella
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=For Sharing
 
|summary=Most little girls must surely know the story of Cinderella by heart.  My little girl likes nothing better than putting on her princess dress and parading around the house talking about pumpkins and lost shoes.  This version of the familiar story is written specifically for early readers and manages to capture the magic of this wonderful fairy tale.  I once got to be Cinderella, in my very last year at school before I left for University (surely just on the verge of being too old!)  It is a wonderful, magical story and I never get tired of hearing it and it is, fortunately, my daughter's favourite too so we both sat down eagerly to try out this new retelling by Sally Gardner.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444002414</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Darren Shan
 
|title=Ocean of Blood (The Saga of Larten Crepsley)
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=In book two of this prequel series about the beloved orange-haired vampire from Darren Shan's Cirque du Freak series, we find Larten Crepsley and his friend Wester Flack finally free of the restrictions and privations imposed upon them by their master, Seba Nile. The young vampires have joined the Cubs, and are wandering the world enjoying all the "pleasures" human life can give them - wine, women, song, and a ringside seat at as many bloody wars as they could shake a stick at (plus a good supply of fresh blood in the aftermath of battle).
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007315880</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Gennifer Choldenko
 
|title=No Passengers Beyond This Point
 
|rating=4
 
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=India is fourteen and, like many teenagers, doesn't see much outside her own narrow sphere of interest. She's spiky and defensive and reacts to any setbacks with anger and aggression, usually turned against her family. But inside, like many teenagers, she's rather lonely and lost. Finn is twelve and not as good at basketball as he'd like. He's not as popular as he'd like either. But he is honest and loyal, and he longs for a chance to prove it. Mouse is six and a bit of an oddity. She has an imaginary friend and a brain the size of a planet. This doesn't always make her easy to get along with.  
+
|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>1408815729</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=178845295X
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Hannah Gold and Levi Pinfold
|author=Jackie French and Bruce Whatley
+
|title=Finding Bear
|title=Queen Victoria's Knickers
+
|rating=4.5
|rating=4
 
|genre=For Sharing
 
|summary=A message from the palace has arrived!  It's from Queen Victoria, and as mum reads it she cries out 'The Queen wants my knickers!'  Queen Victoria, ruler of the British Empire, has riches galore, but she has no knickers, so the dressmaker's family set about making her some.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007418310</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Philip Caveney
 
|title=Night on Terror Island
 
|rating=5
 
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Kip is a real film buff, and because his dad runs the local independent cinema he gets to see all the latest films as a reward for making the popcorn and generally helping out each evening. But this happy state cannot continue for much longer: the big multiplexes on the edge of town are taking all their clients, and the Paramount Picture Palace may soon have to close for good. Things start to look up when the eccentric Mr Lazarus arrives, but Kip is suspicious: the new projectionist may have a gift for raising the quality of the films he shows to enviable standards, but he knows far more than he should about everyone who works at the cinema. And he talks about stars, films and cinemas of the past as if he had actually been there.
+
|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>1849392706</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=0008582017
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Simon Fox
|author=Ellie Irving
+
|title=Deadlock
|title=For the Record
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Luke is obsessed with records. He's so busy planning on breaking world records when he grows up, and playing world records DVD games, that he doesn't take much of an interest in what's going on around him. But that's about to change, because when the village of Port Bren is chosen to host a waste-incinerator plant his house will be demolished and the graveyard where his dad's buried will be destroyed – unless the village is too historically important for this to happen. How can they put themselves on the map in one week? Luke comes up with the idea to break 50 world records… but why won't his mum let him take part?
+
|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>0370331982</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=1839944420
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Cath Howe
|author=Wolfren Riverstick
+
|title=My Life on Fire
|title=While We Sleep... the Dream Snatchers Cometh!
+
|rating=5
|rating=4
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|summary=You could be forgiven for thinking that the Jackson family was unimaginative.  Jack Jackson, the head of the household was generally known as Pa, even before he had any children to call him by that name.  His wife, Jacqueline, was known as Ma.  You could put all this down to accident but naming their first child Jackie (after a comic which Ma had enjoyed in her youth) and their second child Jacques might confirm your fears.  It was a few years before they acquired a pet, but the cat was to be called Jackson and the Dutch Hamster Sjaak.  Guess what their house was called?  Yup – it was Jacksonville.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0955431433</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Sabbithry Persad
 
|title=Garbology Kids: Where Do Recyclable Materials Go?
 
|rating=3.5
 
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=I was once told that a lot of children think that milk comes out of a bottle or a carton and are disconcerted to find that it actually comes out of a cowThe thinking has been reversed in Sabbithry Persad's book 'Where Do Recyclable Materials Go?'  It's all very well dividing up your waste but it doesn't make a lot of sense unless you actually know what happens to it after you put it out at the kerbAnd it all started when Tiana and Peter went looking for their dog Bubbles who ''loved'' to go running after the recycle truck.
+
|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 personBut Ren has nothing to put in a box, and so she finds herself starting to steal thingsSmall 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>0981243908</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=1839942835
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author= Rob Keeley
|author=Mark Walden
+
|title= The Boy Who Disappeared and Other Stories
|title=H.I.V.E.: Higher Institute of Villanous Education
 
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Otto Malpense is one of the newest students at the Higher Institute of Villainous Education, better known as HIVE. So is his new friend Wing. As you'd expect, neither of them are keen to stay there – although this is less to do with moral scruples than with the thought of wasting six years studying how to be evil when they consider they're rather good at it already, thank you very much. A plot to escape is hatched…
+
|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>0747597219</amazonuk>
+
|isbn= B0BVW69N1G
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Lauren St John
 
|title=Laura Marlin Mysteries: Kidnap in the Caribbean
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|summary=ideal guardian for the crime-and-detection-obsessed young girl, because his job is swathed in secrecy and involves a great deal of creeping out of the house late at night to meet mysterious strangers. But for now they can both relax: Laura has won a holiday for two in the Caribbean, and all she and Calvin have to do is sunbathe and swim. Needless to say, that isn't how things turn out.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444000217</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Laura Noakes
|author=Lissa Evans
+
|title=Cosima Unfortunate Steals a Star
|title=Small Change for Stuart
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|summary=Poor Stuart Horten is rather small for his age.  Unfortunately for him, if you put his initial with his surname it becomes 'shorten', which is just asking for trouble.  Still, he's happy and has lots of friends.  Or, at least, he does until his parents move house and he finds himself living in a strange town (his father's hometown) in the school holidays, looking at the prospect of a long, boring and lonely summer ahead of him.  He soon discovers, however, that there is a mystery surrounding his family's history in the town, and it looks as though Stuart might just be the one to uncover what really happened...
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>038561800X</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Ruth Eastham
 
|title=The Memory Cage
 
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Alex is worried about Grandad. So is the rest of the family. It started with a lot of small things, things that Alex can help him with, like lost keys and glasses. Last night though, Grandad set fire to his pillow. Alex has hidden it, but knows that this is dangerous, and it can't stay a secret for long. Grandad has Alzheimers, and Mum and Dad are thinking of putting him in an old people's home. He is also worried that 'big brother' Leonard knows what has happened and will give them both away.
+
|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>1407120522</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=0008579059
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Alice M Ross
|author=Philip Ardagh
+
|title=The Nowhere Thief
|title=Grubtown Tales: When Bunnies Turn Bad
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=This book is a lesson in never assuming anything you shouldn'tJust because Jilly Cheeter and Mango Claptrap are on the cover, don't assume it isn't about a lad called Failing Toucan instead - because if you did, you'd be wrongWhile on the subject of the noteworthy names used throughout Grubtown, never assume to know the gender of someone called Asphalt Nosegay. And just because it's called When Bunnies Turn Bad, and has lots of rabbits on the cover and throughout, don't assume it isn't about the dangerous and tangled task of taking a chimp back to the old folks' home where he lives.
+
|summary=At last there is new stock in the impoverished yet over-full antiques shop Elsbeth and her mother run in a seaside townElsbeth 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 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>0571272363</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=1839943769
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Natasha Farrant
|author=Moira Young
+
|title=The Rescue of Ravenwood
|title=Blood Red Road
 
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=
 
Saba has lived in the desolation surrounding the dried-up Silverlake for all of her eighteen years. The family has just one neighbour - a chaal addict, so not exactly sociable - so Saba's only companions are her father, her twin brother Lugh, and younger sister Emmi. Saba worships Lugh, resents Emmi for their mother's death in childbirth, and is confused by her father, who believes he can read the future in the stars. But it's all she knows and as long as Lugh is close, she's happy enough.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1407124250</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Gill Lewis
 
|title=Sky Hawk
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=Rob and Euan want to chase Iona McNair off Callum's farm. She's newly returned to the village, staying with her grandfather, her mother nowhere to be seen. It's a close community and rumours abound - and Iona is a bit of a pariah amongst the children. But something about her draws Callum in and Iona returns the favour by trusting him with her deepest secret: she's found an osprey's nest high above the loch and she's desperate to protect the endangered birds. And so the two of them forge a friendship as they try to keep Iris and her mate out of harm's way.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0192756230</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Sarah Brennan and Harry Harrison
 
|title=Chinese Calendar Tales: The Tale of Rhonda Rabbit
 
|rating=3.5
 
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Here in this tale we find ourselves back in the year 221BC, and the Emperor Qin Shi Huang is having some rodent issuesAs this is from a series of books called ''The Chinese Calendar Tales'' I think I was expecting the story to relate more to the Chinese zodiac and the rabbit's place within itHowever, this is really just a story about a very naughty rabbit who keeps eating the Emperor's vegetables, his mission to capture and kill her, and the unfortunate conclusion to this romp of a tale...
+
|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 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.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>9881888255</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=0571348785
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Robin Birch and Jobe Anderson
|author=Kevin Crossley-Holland
+
|title=Secret Beast Club: The Unicorns of Silver Street
|title=Bracelet of Bones (Viking Sagas)
 
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=It's 1036 in Trondheim, Norway. Solveig lives with her father, stepmother and stepbrothers. Her mother died many years ago and neither Solveig nor her father Halfdan have ever truly recovered. Before his injury, Halfdan was a Viking mercenary and his dearest wish is to rejoin his old commander, Harald Hardrada in Miklagard (Constantinople). He promises Solveig that, should the call ever come, he will take her with him...
+
|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 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?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847249396</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=0241573483
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=B09XWSXSKY
|author=Kaye Umansky
+
|title=Maestro Orpheus and the World Clock
|title=Tales From Witchway Wood: Crash 'n' Bang
+
|author=Robert Penee and Joanne Grodzinski
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=The Whichway Rhythm Boys is a band made up of Filth (who is Witch Sludgegooey's fiend) on drums, Arthur the Dragon on piano (he lives with his mum and likes a nice hot curry) and O'Brian the Leprechaun on penny whistle who is often mistaken for a Pixie, much to his disgustTogether they play gigs in the woods, for Zombie balls and suchlike, but the music they really love to play is Crash 'n' Bang!
+
|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 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.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408801884</amazonuk>
+
 
}}
+
''Who needs old clocks anyway? All they do is tell the time.  And time isn't good for anything...''
  
{{newreview
+
And that was why he was looking at the clock beside the bedIt 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?
|author=Wolfren Riverstick
 
|title=A Cat Called Ian
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|summary=The lad was trouble.  He was a bully, a thief and a liar.  We've all known someone like him – the company into which you hope that your own child doesn't fallHe's cocky with it too, convinced that he can do whatever he likes and get away with it – and that's when we meet him on his way to climb the great white oak at the top of Sunrise Hill, despite the fact that his mother has told him he's not toIt was a difficult climb and it wasn't long before he remembered the old story that some people climbed so far up the tree and then were never seen again.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0955431409</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Nigel Baines
|author=Patricia Leitch
+
|title=A Tricky Kind of Magic
|title=Jinny at Finmory: The Summer Riders
+
|rating=4.5
|rating=4
+
|genre=Emerging Readers
|genre=Confident Readers
+
|summary=Cooper loves to perform magic tricks.  His father was a magician, and named Cooper after the great Tommy CooperBut 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!
|summary=On the first day of the summer holidays Jinny was looking forward to riding her horse, a beautiful Arab mare called Shantih, over the moors for the summer and life seems just about perfect when she meets a girl of her own age who's camping on the beach with her family and her ponyWhat could spoil that?  Well, Jinny's father used to be a probation officer and he's agreed to take a boy and a girl from the city to give them a holiday for a couple of weeksThe boy has been in trouble with the police for stealing and the girl walks with a limp.  Just having them around is going to be bad enough, but there's worse to come.
+
|isbn=1444960261
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846471125</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
  
{{newreview
+
Move on to [[Newest Cookery Reviews]]
|author=Ali Sparkes
 
|title=Unleashed : A Life and Death Job
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Teens
 
|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!
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0192756060</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

1398527122.jpg

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

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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

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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

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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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