Difference between revisions of "Newest Confident Readers Reviews"

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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Rob Keeley
|title=The Curse of the Chocolate Phoenix
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|title=Childish Spirits: 10th anniversary special edition
|author=Kate Saunders
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|rating=4
|rating=3.5
 
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=So I’ve jumped right into the world of Skittle Lane, going straight to the sequel, The Curse of the Chocolate Phoenix. One of the great things about this book is that while going straight to number two makes you want to find and read the first one because you know it’ll be a good book, you’re not lost. It stands easily by itself as a fairly awesome magical adventure.
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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>1407129872</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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{{Frontpage
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|author=Max Boucherat
|title=Phoenix
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|title=The Last Life of Lori Mills
|author=SF Said
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Lucky thinks he is a normal Human boy. But one night, he dreams that the stars are singing to him and he can feel a mysterious power rising within him. When he wakes, his bedclothes are scorched. And when his mother finds out, Lucky's world is turned upside down and he finds himself on an alien spaceship, on the run, and in the middle of a warzone. Everything Lucky has been brought up to believe is being tested. The war between Human and Axxa is raging, so why does Lucky's mother trust alien renegades more than she does humans? Where is his father? What are the secrets his mother has kept from him all his life?  
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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>038561814X</amazonuk>
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|isbn=0008666482
 
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{{Frontpage
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|author=Kieran Larwood and Joe Todd-Stanton
|title=Sweetness and Lies
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|title=Dungeon Runners: Hero Trial
|author=Karen McCombie and Jessica Secheret
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Dyslexia Friendly
 
|summary=Starting a new school is always tough, and when Tilly is the only girl from her primary to win a place at the more exclusive Beech Cliff School, her old friends abandon her as being too posh. She quickly makes friends with Mia, but when a new girl Amber Sweet tries to join the group Mia definitely feels that two is company and three is a crowd. Amber is torn between loyalty to Mia and her own conscience as Tia is openly cruel to Amber. Tilly soon begins to question Mia's jokes and put downs. There doesn't seem to be any way Tilly can be friends with both girls, Mia won't allow it. Can she find the courage to stand up to Mia and risk having no friends? And would Amber even want to be her friend any more if she did?
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781121990</amazonuk>
 
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{{newreview
 
|title=The Black Dragon (Mysterium)
 
|author=Julian Sedgwick
 
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|genre=Teens
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|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Danny is a fish out of water at his public schoolHalf Chinese, he's still a newcomer after over a year, having grown up in a circus called The MysteriumThose days behind him, he delights at the chance to go to Hong Kong with his guardian aunt Laura, even while she's there working as an undercover journalist, investigating nightmarish Triad gangsOnce in that exotic world it's a quandary to know just what side who is on, what with corrupt crops, people who are not as they appear and more – but what on earth is the connection between all this and the dark, disastrous ending the circus suffered?
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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>1444913700</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1839945184
 
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{{Frontpage
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|author=James Sherwood Metts
|title=Ways To See a Ghost
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|title=Planet Storyland
|author=Emily Diamand
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Isis has spent half her life effectively being the adult in the family. After a dreadful car accident which killed her little sister Angel five years previously, her mother Cally falls apart, and her father walks out on them. Isis is left to cope as best she can, though the early days are hard: there's often no food in the house, her uniform is grubby and too small, and she has to take responsibility for getting herself to and from school.
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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>1848775547</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1736128426
 
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{{Frontpage
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|author=Tom Percival
|title=My Big Fat Zombie Goldfish 2: The Sea-quel
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|title=The Wrong Shoes
|author=Mo O'Hara and Marek Jagucki
 
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Mo O'Hara's [[ My Big Fat Zombie Goldfish by Mo O'Hara|first book]] made quite a splash in our house, with both of my sons declaring it ''the best book ever''. Considering the number of books in our house, that is really saying something. [[My Big Fat Zombie Goldfish by Mo O'Hara|My Big Fat Zombie Goldfish]]  had everything a boy could want - a mad scientist - a computer hacker and a zombie ( or more accurately a zombie goldfish) along with action, adventure and a huge helping of humour. My sons have been counting the days until the release of the sequel (or should we say Sea-quel?)My Big Fat Zombie Goldfish  was always going to be a difficult act to follow. When your first book is absolutely perfect, children do expect you to carry on the same vein. Thankfully, Mo has pulled it off again with a sequel just as good as the original.
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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 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>1447228197</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1398527122
 
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{{Frontpage
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|isbn=1805141872
|title=The Mysterious Misadventures of Clemency Wrigglesworth
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|title=The Teacher Who Knew Too Much
|author=Julia Lee
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|author=Rob Keeley
|rating=4
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|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Clemency Wrigglesworth is orphaned and penniless when she starts her long journey back to England from India. On board ship she is put in the care of a charming and kindly nanny, Mrs Potchard, who resolves to trace Clemency’s long lost relations on their arrival at Southampton. Whilst Mrs Potchard’s investigations continue Clemency is taken in by the Marvel family, an unusual and entertaining bunch, but very different from what Clemency has been used to. However, they are kind and Clemency gradually relaxes despite the worry that someone is following her. But then the sinister Miss Clawe arrives at the Marvels’ home and Clemency is taken away with only the clothes she is wearing leaving all her belongings behind. Concerned about their young charge Gully Potchard and Whitby Marvel set out to find and help her and with the help of a travelling theatre group of knife throwing Red Indians they set off. However, Clemency's problems are worse than they realise; can they find her in time?
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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>0192733672</amazonuk>
 
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{{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
|title=Cherry Green Story Queen
 
|author=Annie Dalton and Charlie Adler
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Dyslexia Friendly
 
|summary=At first glance, I expected this to be a fairly typical girl's story for tweens. I certainly was not expecting a story of such beauty or depth. This is a very enjoyable read, but is it much more than light fiction. I enjoyed it so much, I wanted to share the book with my sons, but I had to be very careful to hide the cover. Being typical boys, they are not going to want to hear a story that looks so much like a girl's story. This book has something in common with 'The Arabian Nights, Tales of 1,001 Nights'. In fact it shares a direct link with the ancient book. But this story will only give us three nights of magic. Still three nights might just be enough to change the lives of six children in foster care. This also shares the basic message of 'The Allegory of the Long Spoons' a well known parable by  the Rabbi Haim which has passed into the folk lore of many cultures. The basic message is that the difference between heaven and hell is not so much a difference in physical circumstances, but rather is the result of how we treat one another.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781122008</amazonuk>
 
 
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{{Frontpage
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|author=Christopher Edge
|title=Knight Quest (Time Hunters, Book 2)
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|title=Black Hole Cinema Club
|author=Chris Blake
 
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=The second instalment of Blake’s 'Time Hunters' series sees our heroes Tom and Isis transported to medieval times in the hope of retrieving a second lost amulet, which is hidden in a golden sword. 'Knight Quest' is an action packed story with plenty of thrills and action, but is crammed with enough historical facts to keep fussy parents happy.
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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>000751400X</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1839942738
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Adam Stower
|title=Shrinking Violet is Totally Famous
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|title=Murray and Bun
|author=Lou Kuenzler
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
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|genre=Confident Readers  
|summary=In this latest installment of the popular 'Shrinking Violet' series, we find our eponymous heroine all in a flutter because her favourite TV star, Stella Lightfoot, is in town. An excited Violet and her best friend Nisha rush to the local book shop in the hope of meeting Stella, but we know what happens when Violet gets too excited...
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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>1407130064</amazonuk>
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|isbn=0008561249
 
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{{Frontpage
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|author=Alex Bell and Tim McDonagh
|title=Magnificat
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|title=The Glorious Race of Magical Beasts
|author=Marilyn Edwards
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|rating=4
|rating=5
 
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Ben is most definitely a ''dog person''. He would love his own pet dog, but mum keeps refusing. He has the next best thing, an online cyberdog called Shadow, but what he really wants is a living, breathing, loyal canine companion to call his own. His best friend has a dog. Why can’t he? It seems like it is never the right time to approach mum about it, as she is always tired, teary and depressed since dad left.
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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>1846471478</amazonuk>
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|isbn=0571382231
 
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{{Frontpage
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|author=Helen Cooper
|title=Heart-shaped
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|title=The Taming of the Cat
|author=Siobhan Parkinson
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|rating=3.5
|rating=5
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=Ok. Before I even start reviewing, I need to explain just how much I loved this book. It's the companion to an earlier story from Siobhan Parkinson, ''Bruised'', over the same timeframe, and following a supporting character whose story is intimately connected. Before I'd read to the end of the first chapter of ''Heart-shaped'', which is all of two-and-a-half pages long, I'd fallen in love with Annie. And I knew I couldn't bear to read her story without reading Jono's, in ''Bruised'', first. So I rushed orff to Amazon and downloaded it to my Kindle. You might not find that particularly surprising, but it is. I review books. I hardly ever buy books because I have a pile of advance copies shouting ''My turn! My turn!'' whenever I look their way.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444903608</amazonuk>
 
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{{newreview
 
|title=Oliver Fibbs 2: The Giant Boy-Munching Bugs
 
|author=Steve Hartley
 
|rating=5
 
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=
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|summary=Once again, mice are pitched against cat. In this case, principally, we have Brie the mouse, up against Gorgonzola the cat – and in case you're seeing a connection, they live in a cheese shop and therefore all the names used here seem to be the names of cheeses.  Anyway, Brie is shunned, scorned and, if you must, mous-tracised, for the way his habits don't match the other mice he lives with.  They nibble up paper wrapping from the cheese for bedding – he displays it as art and makes stories based on the visuals on it.  And that story-telling will come in handy one night, when he feels all alone and cast out.  It's almost as if there were another character from fable who had had to tell stories to keep themselves alive. This makes Brie the top dog in the mouse community, though, as all the others had the chance to half-inch some cheese while the cat was distracted.  But will the story have the successful sequel it needs when that cheese runs out?
Oliver Tibbs is an average child in a very above average family. His mother is a brain surgeon, his father a famous architect, his sisters are the stars of the National Ballet Academy and his little brother is a genius with a talent for maths and a chess champion. Oliver's parents are desperate to find some as of yet undiscovered talent for their ordinary son, but so far it looks likes Oliver's only talents are reading comics, making up fibs, and eating pizza. I think Oliver did have his own genius though, as most children do, and while his parents desperately searched for something he could excel at, his hidden talent was right under their noses the whole time.
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|isbn=0571376010
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1447220242</amazonuk>
 
 
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{{Frontpage
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|author=Lauren St John
|title=The Taming of the Tights
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|title=Finding Wonder
|author=Louise Rennison
 
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Tallulah has ''secretly done Number 6 with the Dark Black Crow of Heckmondwhite'', if you don't knowWhat that means is that she has had a lip-lock with a Yorkshire boy who's all dark and moody and mean-seeming, and she shouldn't perhaps have snogged him because she likes another boy, and another, older boy – with a girlfriend – seems to like her a lotWhat that means is that we are firmly in [[:Category:Louise Rennison|Louise Rennison]] territory.
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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 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 auntThings continue to get worse for Roo, as when she and Joni leave London in Joni's old campervan, it breaks down in the middle of nowhere and then bursts into flames!  Poor Roo!
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007323921</amazonuk>
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|isbn=0571376169
 
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{{Frontpage
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|author=Adam Baron and Benji Davies
|title=The Grunts All At Sea
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|title=Oscar's Lion
|author=Philip Ardagh and Axel Scheffler
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|rating=3
|rating=4
 
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Mr and Mrs Grunt are a rather despicable couple. They are dirty and violent and always throwing things at each other. They eat things like dead badger scraped off the roadside, and like using ''very rude words''. But as disgusting and depraved as they are, they are not evil. They are more like overgrown, badly behaved toddlers who haven't seen a bath in years. They fight and throw things, but honestly seem to care about each other as well on some level. They live with their adopted, or more accurately kidnapped son, who doesn't seem to notice that wearing dresses is unusual for a boy, and Mrs Grump has taken the trouble to dye them blue. Rather than a house they live in a caravan that looks like a cross between a camping caravan and an outhouse, and is pulled by a large elephant, with two donkeys riding in their own trailer behind.
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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>0857630717</amazonuk>
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|isbn=0008596751
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Judith Eagle
|title=The Year of Big Dreams
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|title=The Stolen Songbird
|author=Karen McCombie
 
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Flo Brown's mum is in the final of a huge TV talent show! Millions of viewers want to see her give a life-changing performance - but they aren't expecting what they see. What will happen to Flo, her mum, and her gran Olive after the show is complete?
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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 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?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1407131737</amazonuk>
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|isbn=0571363148
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Tania Unsworth
|title=Sam's Spitfire Summer
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|title=Nowhere Island
|author=Ian MacDonald and Charlie Clough
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=Dyslexia Friendly
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|genre=Confident Readers
|summary='Sam's Spitfire Summer' is billed as a thrilling WW2 adventure. In my opinion it is not. This is not a high octane adventure. Instead it is the story of a rather ordinary boy, homesick, terribly frightened and unsure of himself after being evacuated from London. This book describes the life of a child during WW2 with such realism that I honestly wonder if it might have some basis in fact. It describes Sam's loneliness, and fear, being separated from his parents as his father goes away to fight the Germans, and his Mother remains in London, with the risk of bombing. This book really gives a good glimpse at how Sam feels being evacuated. He misses his home desperately and is frightened by the large animals in the country - such as cows.
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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>1905637438</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1804540080
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{{Frontpage
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|author=Helen Peters
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|title=Friends and Traitors
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|rating=3
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|genre=Confident Readers
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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?
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|isbn=1788004647
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Jamie Littler
|title=Anton and Piranha
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|title=Arkspire
|author=Milena Baisch and Chantal Wright
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|rating=4
|rating=5
 
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Anton just can't understand his grandparents. He was looking forward to a camping holiday, but only because he expected a pool. The campground his grandparents chose has a lake instead of a pool and Anton is terrified of the dark water and creeping aquatic vegetation. What's worse his grandparents want him to swim in it. There are fish in the water, and snails and all sorts of slimy things. So Anton watches the other children have fun and gets nasty because he is left out. He isn't happy with his grandparents other ideas either. They want him to play board games instead of watch the telly at night, and they even want him to make friends. Not the internet sort, he has plenty of those. They want him to make friends with real children. How positively uncivilised of them. But when Grandpa takes him fishing, he does make a friend, a very close friend, even if it is a fish.
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|summary=Two sisters, Juniper and Elodie, born fifteen minutes apart, are growing to be chalk and cheeseJuniper 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>1849396191</amazonuk>
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|isbn=0241586143
 
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{{Frontpage
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|isbn=024162343X
|title=The Smallest Horse in the World
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|title=Stolen History
|author=Jeremy Strong and Scoular Anderson
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|author=Sathnam Sanghera
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
|genre=Confident Readers
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|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
|summary=Bella despises the new girl at school, Swan. Swan is always bragging about her rich father, her fancy house, their Ferrari etc... And to make matters worse, she is rude, bossy and much bigger than Bella. Bella has problems at home too. Her parents have split up and she misses her father; her mother is always working and she doesn't seem to have any close friends. Things look pretty dismal after an argument with Bella, but every thing changes when Bella's favourite picture breaks and out steps a real live horse. A very tiny horse, but a horse all the same, and a talking one at that. Bella would love to keep the little horse, Astra, but the horse is desperate to be reunited with her true master, Rufus.
+
|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>1842999958</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Thiago de Moraes
|author=Victoria Eveleigh
+
|title=Old Gods New Tricks
|title=Joe and the Lightning Pony
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Joe has discovered that his pony, Lightning, is brilliant at mounted games - you know that ones we see kids and their ponies playing at the Horse of the Year ShowWhat we see is the competition for the Prince Phillip Cup and Joe can't wait for him and Lightning to try out for the local Pony Club teamHe adores Lightning - the pony we heard so much about in [[Joe and the Hidden Horseshoe by Victoria Eveleigh|Joe and the Hidden Horseshoe]] - but he knows that he'll soon be too big for the herOther children might worry about how they would get another pony to ride but Joe is worried about LightningJoe and his family brought her back to health - but would that continue if the pony was sold on?
+
|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 nuisanceBut just when she's being told that by her one-last-chance-giving headteacher, the world changesSuddenly, 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 usAnd 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>1444005928</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=178845295X
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Hannah Gold and Levi Pinfold
|author=Dan Smith
+
|title=Finding Bear
|title=My Friend the Enemy
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=It's 1941. Peter wishes the war away every single day. His father is away fighting. They rarely hear from him. Mr flipping Bennett is always at his house. Making sure he and his mother are managing, apparently. That's not what the other children are saying. They say Peter's mother is Mr Bennett's fancy woman. And they bully Peter about it. Despite farms lying all around, there isn't much food. Everything is rationed.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>190843581X</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Ali Sparkes
 
|title=Out Of This World
 
|rating=4
 
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=The best thing about being a book reviewer is the sheer variety of reading material you get access to. In the last few weeks alone I’ve been immersed in blasphemous hilarity, paranormal mystery and even the landscapes of deepest darkest Transylvania. This book, however, is the first one I’ve read in ages that dragged me right out the door on an adventure.
+
|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>0192794124</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=0008582017
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Simon Fox
|author=Chris Blake
+
|title=Deadlock
|title=Time Hunters: Gladiator Clash
+
|rating=4.5
|rating=3.5
 
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=''Time Hunters'' is a new series of six books featuring a young Egyptian princess and a modern-day schoolboy who team up to locate six hidden amulets, scattered in a variety of dangerous historical locations. ''Gladiator'' ''Clash'' is the first book in the series and sees the duo magically transported to ancient Rome, where they train with gladiators and compete for a chance to fight in the arena with the most feared gladiator of all, Hilarus, who is currently unbeaten and just happens to possess the lost amulet.
+
|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>0007514093</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=1839944420
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Cath Howe
|author=Anne Plichota and Cendrine Wolf
+
|title=My Life on Fire
|title=Oksa Pollock: The Last Hope
+
|rating=5
|rating=3.5
 
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Oksa is a French girl whose family has just moved to London to open a restaurant with the parents of her best friend Gus. She is a determined (some might say headstrong) and energetic thirteen-year-old whose lively imagination often leads her to see herself as a ninja warrior. But the truth is far more astonishing. She and her family come from a magical hidden land called Edefia, and she is soon to discover that she has a unique and terrifying destiny, one which will put her and everyone she holds dear in serious danger.
+
|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>178269000X</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=1839942835
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author= Rob Keeley
|author=Kate Maryon
+
|title= The Boy Who Disappeared and Other Stories
|title=Invisible Girl
+
|rating=4
|rating=4.5
 
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=The day that it happened, that everything changed for Gabriella had felt the same as any other. If she had realised that she would not sleep in her own bed again she may have snuggled down for a little longer. If she had known how very hungry she would get she would have made time for an extra piece of toast that morning. If Gabriella had known what was going to happen she may have begged her Dad to change his mind. However in the space of twenty four hours Gabriella was to lose her home, her Dad, her school and her best friend. She finds herself totally alone and stakes everything on being able to find her brother, Beckett, whom she has not seen for several years. She believes if she can find Beckett she will have found a home and a family.
+
|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>0007466900</amazonuk>
+
|isbn= B0BVW69N1G
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Laura Noakes
|author=Victoria Eveleigh
+
|title=Cosima Unfortunate Steals a Star
|title=Joe and the Hidden Horseshoe
 
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Joe did not want to moveBirmingham suited him just fine. It was where his friends were and his school - and he'd got life sorted quite nicely.  But his father had got his dream job as head of a group of village primary schools and the family - Mum, Dad, Joe and his younger sister Emily - moved to a farmhouse in DevonHis Mum was determined that she and Emily would have ponies to ride and not being prone to thinking things through before acting it wasn't long before Lady and Lightning arrived in a horsebox. Mum should have made checks on the ponies before deciding to buy them and she should have been even more wary when the ponies were delivered with little ceremony.  But she wasn't.
+
|summary=Meet Number One.  Or rather, Cosima Unfortunate.  Or rather, just Cos to her friendsThe 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 worldDuring a daring escapade to steal some posh cakes from the kitchen one afternoon, she discovers a plan involving said outside world – a devilish Lord Fitzroy seems to want to adopt all the girls for his 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>144400591X</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=0008579059
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Alice M Ross
|author=Jeremy Strong and Scoular Anderson
+
|title=The Nowhere Thief
|title=Chuckle Bob's Great Escape
+
|rating=4.5
|rating=5
 
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Chuckle Bob looks positively wicked in the first illustration of this book, but then who can blame him for feeling a bit cranky? He wants to swing in the trees and run in the grass, not sit in a cage all day. When he sees a chance to escape, he takes it, causing all sorts of mayhem in the process. Once out of his cage he turns the entire pet shop into a disaster zone. He lets the parrot loose, but it falls into the fish tank. Fish get knocked everywhere, including down the pet store assistant's top, and then he lets out the gerbils and rabbits as well. While Mr Rush, the pet store owner and his assistant Maya try to deal with all the mischief he has caused, an unsuspecting customer enters the door, and Chuckle Bob makes his escape, with just a bit more mayhem of course.
+
|summary=At last there is new stock in the impoverished yet over-full antiques shop Elsbeth and her mother run in a seaside town. Elsbeth knows this because she has stolen it. She also knows she should be free from worries about being found out, because she has the ability to leave this world, and use an unworldly portal of kaleidoscope colours to enter other worlds, where the sea levels are rising dramatically and the buildings are generally empty of humans and ripe for plunder. With eviction imminent, can Elsbeth nab anything to actually generate custom at the shop?  Well yes, is the answer, but the fact a mysterious man knows exactly which items come from these different Somewheres only raises more questions…
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781122156</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=1839943769
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Natasha Farrant
|author=Francesca Simon and Tony Ross
+
|title=The Rescue of Ravenwood
|title=Horrid Henry's Nightmare
 
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Horrid Henry was the first chapter book my son ever read alone. It was quickly followed by a succession of books in the series and my son's confidence in reading grew by leaps and bounds with this engaging series that gets young children reading and keeps them reading. The simple fact is, with such a large number of books in the series, any child who reads through the whole lot will improve their reading skills. As he has grown older, his tastes in books have changed, but as I sat down to read 'Horrid Henry's Nightmare' to my four year old he was happy to listen in as well and we all enjoyed sharing this book as a family.
+
|summary=This story is another excellent adventure from the author of ''Voyage of the Sparrowhawk''.  Ravenwood is an old house, in the North of England, where Bea and Raffy have been living for most of their lives.  They are part of a complex, extended family arrangement, as Bea is there with her Uncle Leo, and Raffy is there with his mum, and they are living together as a family.  They have grown up swimming in the cove, roaming through the trees, completely at one with all of the nature around the house and loving every inch of the place. But now the house is under threat, as Leo is under pressure from his other two brothers to sell the property to a developer as it's becoming more and more expensive to maintain.  The children find themselves worrying not only about where they're going to live, but if they'll even be together, and if Ravenwood itself will be torn down.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444000160</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=0571348785
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Robin Birch and Jobe Anderson
|author=Darren Shan
+
|title=Secret Beast Club: The Unicorns of Silver Street
|title=Hagurosan
 
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=The story begins with a young child, living in a small village at the foot of a holy mountain. When he is told to take a small cake as an offering to the spirits of the shrine, he is disappointed as he would rather play with his friends, but he does as he is told. It is a long walk though and he soon grows hungry. Surely the gods will not mind if he has just a tiny nibble at the cake? But one nibble leads to another and by the time Hagurosan arrives at the shrine, he has eaten the whole cake. All children make mistakes, but what Hagurosan has done is a terrible offense in the culture he lives in.
+
|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>1781122067</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=0241573483
 
}}
 
}}
 +
{{Frontpage
 +
|isbn=B09XWSXSKY
 +
|title=Maestro Orpheus and the World Clock
 +
|author=Robert Penee and Joanne Grodzinski
 +
|rating=4
 +
|genre=Confident Readers
 +
|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.
  
{{newreview
+
''Who needs old clocks anyway?  All they do is tell the time.  And time isn't good for anything...''
|author=Soman Chainani
+
 
|title=The School for Good and Evil
+
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?
|rating=3.5
+
}}
|genre=Confident Readers
+
{{Frontpage
|summary=Sophie has waited her whole life for this night - the night that two children will be taken from her village of Gavaldon to the School for Good and Evil. Sophie has been doing Good Deeds and practising her beauty regime especially. Unlike the other children in the village - who cut their hair and try to be rude if they're good, or hastily says some prayers and do kind things if they're bad in an effort to avoid being chosen - Sophie just knows she's going to be taken for Good, and she can't wait.
+
|author=Nigel Baines
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007492936</amazonuk>
+
|title=A Tricky Kind of Magic
 +
|rating=4.5
 +
|genre=Emerging Readers
 +
|summary=Cooper loves to perform magic tricks.  His father was a magician, and named Cooper after the great Tommy Cooper. But sadly Cooper's father died suddenly, and now Cooper doesn't quite know who to be, or how to be.  And when his dad's prop rabbit starts talking to him, he ''really'' doesn't know what's going on anymore!
 +
|isbn=1444960261
 
}}
 
}}
  
{{newreview
+
Move on to [[Newest Cookery Reviews]]
|author=Sage Blackwood
 
|title=Jinx, the Wizard's Apprentice
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|summary=Everybody knows you don't stray off the path when you're deep in the woods. And everybody knows, too, that stepparents usually want you out of the way — permanently. So poor Jinx has no difficulty in understanding, even at the tender age of six, that things are not going well for him. Rescued by a wizard, he spends much of the next few years quietly helping out round the house. It's not a bad life: Simon Magus is gruff to the point of rudeness, but the house is warm and the food is tasty and plentiful.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>178087247X</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

3.5star.jpg Confident Readers

Once again, mice are pitched against cat. In this case, principally, we have Brie the mouse, up against Gorgonzola the cat – and in case you're seeing a connection, they live in a cheese shop and therefore all the names used here seem to be the names of cheeses. Anyway, Brie is shunned, scorned and, if you must, mous-tracised, for the way his habits don't match the other mice he lives with. They nibble up paper wrapping from the cheese for bedding – he displays it as art and makes stories based on the visuals on it. And that story-telling will come in handy one night, when he feels all alone and cast out. It's almost as if there were another character from fable who had had to tell stories to keep themselves alive. This makes Brie the top dog in the mouse community, though, as all the others had the chance to half-inch some cheese while the cat was distracted. But will the story have the successful sequel it needs when that cheese runs out? Full Review

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Review of

Finding Wonder by Lauren St John

4star.jpg Confident Readers

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

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Review of

Oscar's Lion by Adam Baron and Benji Davies

3star.jpg Confident Readers

We start incredibly bluntly, with Oscar hoping to have his mother – or father, but mother is more likely – read him his very favourite book a couple of times before he has to be ready for school. But when he enters his parents' bedroom, all he sees is a mahoosive male lion on their bed, looking sheepish, and admitting that he won't be hungry for another two days. But there are benefits to having a lion around – it can be shown as an unspoken threat to the bully that ruined a birthday party for Oscar the other month. And it can shapeshift, so he can take it to school and it can get him out of a problem. And it's wonderful to have around the house – not limiting his biscuit intake, being much more lax about the rules, and so on. OK, it can't work a dimmer switch but it can give Oscar a wonderful time. Full Review

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Review of

The Stolen Songbird by Judith Eagle

4star.jpg Confident Readers

Caro's mother, a world-famous whistler, has failed to return home from her recent work trip abroad and is now missing. Her other mother, Ronnie, is having to go up North to take care of her sister who is unwell. So who is going to look after Caro? Sent to stay with Gam, someone Caro has heard her mother despises, she feels frustrated and confused and worried. All her summer holiday plans of building herself some equipment to practise her gymnastics are brought to a halt whilst she is stuck inside this staid old Victorian lady's house, along with an orphan boy, Albie, who is living there too. But she soon finds herself caught up in a mystery, as she discovers a painting of a bird hidden away inside her mum's old suitcase, and all across London a fearsome gang called the Snakes are thieving artworks and terrorising people. Is the painting somehow linked to the gang? And what has happened to Caro's mother? Is she somehow involved in the mystery too? Full Review

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Review of

Nowhere Island by Tania Unsworth

4.5star.jpg Confident Readers

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

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Review of

Friends and Traitors by Helen Peters

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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

5star.jpg Children's Non-Fiction

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

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Review of

Old Gods New Tricks by Thiago de Moraes

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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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