Difference between revisions of "Newest Confident Readers Reviews"

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{{newreview
 
|title=Shoutykid (1) - How Harry Riddles Made a Mega-Amazing Zombie Movie
 
|author=Simon Mayle
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|summary=Meet Harry Riddles – 10.3 years old, constant gamer, and more or less one of life's major losers.  He's stuck in Cornwall with a sister he hates, a sister's boyfriend who shares his room with his smelly teenager feet, and a dad who's nothing more than a failed writer of movie screenplays.  Perhaps Harry, the Shoutykid of the title, can call the shots himself, with his ideas of TV shows featuring a kid adopting a vegetarian baby zombie.  Er – perhaps not.  But he might get somewhere when he learns a lesson from his transatlantic cousin – to ask for help when it's needed.  And so he does ask – he asks Sam Mendes, Harry Styles, the Queen…  What could possibly go wrong?
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007531885</amazonuk>
 
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{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|title=Haunt
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|author=Rob Keeley
|author=Curtis Jobling
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|title=Childish Spirits: 10th anniversary special edition
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Kissing the girl he’d loved from afar for ages is the best moment of Will’s life – unfortunately, it’s not far off being the last one. Racing to break the good news to his friend Dougie, he’s involved by an accident and finds himself a ghost. Somehow, Dougie is able to see him, and after an initial panic that he may be going mad or need an exorcist, Will’s best friend is persuaded to try and help him move on. Neither of them is quite sure what that will involve, until they meet another ghost – a murdered schoolgirl who’s spent half a century or so haunting a seriously scary house. Can the boys solve her mystery?
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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>1471115771</amazonuk>
 
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{{newreview
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The ''Childish Spirits'' series is one of his greatest achievements. It's a sequence of ghost stories centring on Ellie, a stalwart young girl who can cope with anything the spirit world throws at her, and Edward, a spoiled lordling and the first spirit Ellie encounters
|author=David Almond and Vladimir Stankovic
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|isbn= 1783064617
|title=Klaus Vogel and the Bad Lads
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Dyslexia Friendly
 
|summary=The Bad Lads had been together for years.  They were scamps, mischief makers - lads having a bit of fun - and they were led by Joe Gillespie who was a year or two older.  The lads thought that Joe was great but there was a niggling feeling amongst one or two of the boys that he was getting a bit more extreme and that some of his pranks were actually - deliberately - going to hurt people. The fire at Mr Eustace's (he was a conchie, you see) happened the same week that Klaus Vogel arrived in the town of Felling.  The scrawny refugee from East Germany who knew hardly any English would change things for the Bad Lads.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781122695</amazonuk>
 
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Max Boucherat
|title=Jane of Lantern Hill
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|title=The Last Life of Lori Mills
|author=L M Montgomery
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|rating=4.5
|rating=5
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|genre=Confident Readers
|genre=Teens
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|summary=We meet Lori on the first evening she's got the house to herself – no neighbour to pop in, babysitter poorly, mother at work, just an avidly rule-breaking eleven year old, on her lonesomeWhat could possibly go wrong?  Snuggled in a blanket fort, she has one main intention, and that is to log on to Voxminer, the world-building, critter-collecting game that is a hit in Lori's worldBut first Lori has a tiny inkling that this stormy night doesn't find herself entirely on her own, and then she finds something even more spookyFor the server she and her bestie and nobody else should be able to enter shows signs of tampering.  When malevolent eyes spark up on her phone screen, and her safe place in the game has been doctored – well, where is a girl to turn?
|summary=Lucy Maud Montgomery, the Canadian author, is best known for her classic story, ''Anne of Green Gables'', but in her lifetime she wrote a large number of books that are not so well knownThis story is one of them, and is, in fact, one of my favourite stories.  Jane Stuart is a wonderful heroineShe is straight-talking, down-to-earth, and funny tooThis book follows her journey from a life of misery, closeted in a home lacking in love, through to a joyous happy ending.
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|isbn=0008666482
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0349004447</amazonuk>
 
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Kieran Larwood and Joe Todd-Stanton
|title=The Case of the Exploding Loo
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|title=Dungeon Runners: Hero Trial
|author=Rachel Hamilton
 
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Noelle (or ''Know-All'' to many) is daughter to a famous TV presenter and science boffin, intent on making the human race a much smarter oneWell, he was, for he visited a Portaloo one Christmas Market time and it blew up, leaving just his shoes.  Only Noelle and her sister, the vicious Holly, are left thinking the case is something much greater – the police have given up, as has the girls' mother, who has turned into a slob on the couchBut impetus is given to Noelle by unusual things her unusual maths teacher has been getting her to solve…
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|summary=Meet KitLike 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 teamWhat chance does this friendless, muscle-free-zone have in actually managing that, and how could he possibly hope to succeed?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1471121313</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1839945184
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=James Sherwood Metts
|title=Terror Town: Elf Girl and Raven Boy 5
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|title=Planet Storyland
|author=Marcus Sedgwick
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Nobody wants to go to Terror Town. It might have a fabulous castle, a Horror Hotel to stay in, and more, but nobody wants to go there. Oh, except for Elf Girl and Raven Boy, who need to collect something from the Hotel in order to defeat the Goblin King. And lo and behold, the Singing Sword held at the Hotel is just given away as a complete annoyance – but getting what they came for so easily could only come at a price…
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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>1444005278</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1736128426
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Tom Percival
|title=The Secrets of Stonehenge
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|title=The Wrong Shoes
|author=Mick Manning and Brita Granstrom
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|rating=5
|rating=3.5
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|genre=Confident Readers
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
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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 accident.  Throw 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 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.
|summary=I hope you agree with me about the sheer optimism of this book's title.  It carries a certain chutzpah to pretend to show all the secrets about a mystical site which remains, even with a lot of evidence, sheer conjectureYes we know when the stones were erected, and from where they came under the orders of what kind of prehistoric man, but nothing is guaranteed in the occult world of pagan ritual, prehistoric pantheons and primitive perpetual calendarsThis book won't admit to doubt beyond saying some people have different ideas about Stonehenge, but it will succeed in giving a fleeting glimpse to some of the mysteries and oo-er factors that make the site so intriguing for all ages to this day.
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|isbn=1398527122
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847805205</amazonuk>
 
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=1805141872
|title=Ogres Don't Dance (Ogden the Ogre)
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|title=The Teacher Who Knew Too Much
|author=Kirsty McKay
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|author=Rob Keeley
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Meet Ogden the Ogre.  Getting lost in the forest one night after a raid on the village for a bit of human-shaped supper he finds a barn full of colourfully-dressed people having a riotous time, dancing away happily. Obviously Oscar wants to join in, but it's only when he chances on meeting Willow, an incredibly independent nine year old girl, that he gets the opportunity to learn how to dance. But will he stick to the promise he has to give her in return, that of never eating another human, or will he leave her a weeping Willow?
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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>1849397155</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=Sentinel
 
|author=Joshua Winning
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Horror
 
|summary=In many ways this book is not as typical of fantasy and mild horror as the summary might suggest. Unlike a lot of stories where we join the main character in the aftermath of a major event, this one begins before Nicholas is orphaned. The ever-increasing tension as his parents leave for a train journey, coming so soon after a menacing and mysterious prologue, makes it pretty clear to us that they won't be returning, and that Nicholas will soon be in deadly danger himself.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1909717096</amazonuk>
 
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Christopher Edge
|title=Tale of a Tail
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|title=Black Hole Cinema Club
|author=Margaret Mahy and Tony Ross
 
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Imagine you have a dog.  (That would be nice...I'd like a dog).  Now imagine that the dog is magical! He's a special sort of dog who can grant wishes, just with a special up and down wag of his tail. There couldn't be anything better, could there, than a dog that grants wishes? Just so long as you're always very careful about what you wish for whenever that dog is within hearing range!
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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>1444012150</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1839942738
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Adam Stower
|title=A-Maze-ing Minotaur
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|title=Murray and Bun
|author=Juliet Rix and Juliet Snape
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|rating=4.5
|rating=3.5
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|genre=Confident Readers  
|genre=Confident Readers
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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 twoBut 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=Greek Myths are fantasticThey are full of action, characters and more gore than a truck load of video nasties, but how do you tell them to children?  Remove the grisly bits for one and write them in a way that will appeal to the modern adolescent.  This is exactly what writer Juliet Rix and illustrator Juliet Snape set out to do in ‘A-Maze-ing Minotaur’.  Anything that uses the word “a-maze-ing”, must appeal to kids, right?
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|isbn=0008561249
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847804314</amazonuk>
 
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Alex Bell and Tim McDonagh
|title=House of Secrets: Battle of the Beasts
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|title=The Glorious Race of Magical Beasts
|author=Chris Columbus and Ned Vizzini
 
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Columbus and Vizzini’s sequel to ''House of Secrets'' is action packed, cinematic and compelling. Their influences are myriad and range from the ''Goonies'' and early [[Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by J K Rowling|Harry Potter]] (directed by Columbus) to the fantastical and creepy writings of pulp novelist Robert E Howard, Gothic author [[:Category:H P Lovecraft|H P Lovecraft]] and Ray Bradbury. The result resembles an explosion of colours from a renegade paint box of genres crossed with high octane movie plots. Fantasy, science fiction, magic, action, horror and war combine to create a curious mix of the supernatural and the historical.
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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>000749016X</amazonuk>
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|isbn=0571382231
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Helen Cooper
|title=Flora and Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures
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|title=The Taming of the Cat
|author=Kate DiCamillo and K G Campbell
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|rating=3.5
|rating=5
 
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Holy bagumba! What a gem of a book. When Kate DiCamillo decided to tell a story featuring a crazy vacuum cleaner, a 'natural-born cynic' who loves comics and a special squirrel she probably didn't imagine the odyssey her book would take. What she has created is an affectionate tribute to the super heroes of comic books intertwined with the belief that anything is possible. It is further illuminated by the expressive, imaginative and humorous graphics of K G Campbell. There is interplay between individual full page black and white drawings and panels of sequential art as the antics of DiCamillo’s eccentric and vulnerable characters evolve. This is enhanced by the use of speech bubbles shaped like clouds and experimentation with different fonts.
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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?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1406354562</amazonuk>
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|isbn=0571376010
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Lauren St John
|title=The Curse of the Pampered Poodle: Mariella Mystery 4
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|title=Finding Wonder
|author=Kate Pankhurst
 
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=In this latest instalment of the popular ''Mariella'' ''Mystery'' series, the Mystery girls are off for a sleepover at the local museum to investigate some decidedly strange goings-on involving a stuffed poodle called Misty. If reports are to be believed, bad luck seems to follow this cursed canine everywhere, leaving death and disaster in her wake. It is said that anyone who insults Misty will hear a loud bark and then be plagued with bad luck as the infamous curse strikes again.
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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>1444008943</amazonuk>
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|isbn=0571376169
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Adam Baron and Benji Davies
|title=An Episode of Sparrows
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|title=Oscar's Lion
|author=Rumer Godden
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|rating=3
|rating=5
 
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=It is post war London and in a private garden in a prosperous square someone has been digging up the earthThe formidable Miss Angela Chesney of the Garden Committee is convinced that a gang of local boys from nearby Catford Street is to blame. Her sister Olivia, a more thoughtful and kindly woman, worries about these children, ‘the sparrows’ and believes that there is more to this than petty theft. Meanwhile in Catford Street a little girl named Lovejoy Mason, abandoned by her mother to the care of restaurant owner Vincent and his wife, nurtures hopes and dreams of her own. As this story unfolds these very different lives become entangled in ways none of them could have anticipated.
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|summary=We start incredibly bluntly, with Oscar hoping to have his mother – or father, but mother is more likely – read him his very favourite book a couple of times before he has to be ready for schoolBut when he enters his parents' bedroom, all he sees is a mahoosive male lion on their bed, looking sheepish, and admitting that he won't be hungry for another two days.  But there are benefits to having a lion around – it can be shown as an unspoken threat to the bully that ruined a birthday party for Oscar the other month. And it can shapeshift, so he can take it to school and it can get him out of a problem.  And it's wonderful to have around the house – not limiting his biscuit intake, being much more lax about the rules, and so on. OK, it can't work a dimmer switch but it can give Oscar a wonderful time.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1844088510</amazonuk>
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|isbn=0008596751
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Judith Eagle
|title=Valentine Joe
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|title=The Stolen Songbird
|author=Rebecca Stevens
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|rating=4
|rating=5
 
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Rose’s grandfather Brian takes her to Ypres to pay their respects to his dead brother, but while there she notices the grave of a 15-year-old boy, Valentine Joe. Tormented by thoughts of such a young lad dying so tragically, she wakes up that night and looks out of the window to see the strange sight of a 1910s town, and a soldier marching. Slipping back in time, she meets Valentine Joe himself – but why has this happened, and what will the future be for these two children?
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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>1909489603</amazonuk>
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|isbn=0571363148
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Tania Unsworth
|title=The Raven
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|title=Nowhere Island
|author=Edgar Allan Poe and Yanai Pery
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|rating=4.5
|rating=3
 
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=A man sits, slumped over his books and in his quite ugly pyjamas, seeking relief from grief, when he starts to be haunted by a knocking from outside his chambersHe only sees a darkness when he first opens the door mirroring the darkness inside, for he is in mourningWhen he opens the window, he is doubly haunted – both by the memories of his beloved Lenore, and the figure of a raven that enters the room and remains, with its one-word mantra of a messageWe are in the world of the 1840s and of [[:Category:Edgar Allan Poe|Poe,]] as never seen before…
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|summary=Meet Gil.  Just twelve, he is so determined to escape the care system – the system that constantly puts him in futureless places that are not homes – and find a home for himself.  He is en route to yet another fosterer, when he jumps into an anonymous car, and lets it ride him to his futureThat 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 seclusionThem, and a mute girl also finding a home there, albeit so much more successfullyOver 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>189747699X</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1804540080
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Helen Peters
|title=
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|title=Friends and Traitors
Pigsticks and Harold and the Incredible Journey
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|rating=3
|author=Alex Milway
 
|rating=4
 
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=In a world where explorer's backpacks are able to fit pigs, hamsters, voles and ducks, sits Pigsticks, dreaming of surpassing his forepigs in their adventuresWhen his itchy feet get the better of him and he finds himself in need of an explorer's assistant, he finds Harold the hamster – well, angry mice don't really cut itThey make an unlikely duo, but when the Battenburg cake is packed the earth is their oyster, and in trying to find the ends of it they make for a most unlikely journey too…
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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 soBut something is amiss, and first separately and then in combination they realise the Lord Evesham must be a rum 'unMidnight deliveries are received under cover of secrecy, talk is made of meetings with Germans, and not only that, a local Spitfire factory has been attacked.  But surely the girls are wrong, and the upper class could never be so underhand?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1406340553</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1788004647
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Jamie Littler
|title=Childish Spirits
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|title=Arkspire
|author=Rob Keeley
 
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Ellie and her mum and brother Charlie have moved into Inchwood Manor. Ellie's mum is going to transform the old house into a heritage visitor attraction. Ellie doesn't mind this but she does wish her dad had come too. But for some reason, he hasn't. And if Ellie wasn't texting him, he wouldn't even know how they were getting on. There's a great deal of work to be done to get Inchwood Manor ready and mum is busy with manager Marcus. Charlie is busy being fed up at being stuck in the back end of beyond. And so neither of them notice the strange things that Ellie does...
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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>1783064617</amazonuk>
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|isbn=0241586143
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=024162343X
|title=Operation Sting (SWARM)
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|title=Stolen History
|author=Simon Cheshire
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|author=Sathnam Sanghera
|rating=3
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|rating=5
|genre=Confident Readers
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|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
|summary=There are bugs and there are bugsThe latest ultra-secret British security body, SWARM, uses both at the same time – micro-robots based around the forms of a mosquito, scorpion, spider, butterfly, stag beetle, dragonfly and centipedeThey're only supposed to be showing themselves off as surveillance operatives while a high-tech weapon device is transported by a sole human agent across London, when it's stolenThe dangers of it being in the wrong hands, the very fact that the demonstration failed, and the disapproval of the Home Secretary at not knowing SWARM ever was on the cards in the first place, all pile the pressure onto the tiny robots' shoulders…
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|summary=I was the bad company other people got into at schoolI 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 stillNot 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>1847154379</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Thiago de Moraes
|title=Tom Gates: A Tiny Bit Lucky
+
|title=Old Gods New Tricks
|author=Liz Pichon
+
|rating=4.5
|rating=3.5
 
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=It's enrichment week at Tom Gates' school, which means lessons in unlikely subjects, such as pizza cooking and film-makingIt's been badly tagged onto the school's inspection period, too, so the staff – who have never been appreciative enough of Tom's ways at doodling and ways into and out of scrapes – are even more on tenterhooks.  It's also enrichment week at home, with Tom's parents deciding he needs less time watching TV and more time witnessing dad get all excited about making a kiteTom's enrichment ideas for himself involve doodling more, rocking with his school band, and eating more caramel wafers, but he's not going to get his own way – the only one who will is the new neighbourhood cat from next door…
+
|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 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>1407138871</amazonuk>
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|isbn=178845295X
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Hannah Gold and Levi Pinfold
|author=Lauren St John
+
|title=Finding Bear
|title=Dead Man's Cove and Kidnap in the Caribbean: Two Laura Marlin Mysteries
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=The first book in the Laura Marlin series was [[Laura Marlin Mysteries: Dead Man's Cove by Lauren St John|Dead Man's Cove]] and it introduced us to the young orphan who dreams about being a detectiveWe loved the story and the fully rounded and well-drwawn characters.
+
|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 woundedDesperate to make sure he's OK, she and her father return to the Arctic and hope that in a world of very white and very dangerous things, she can find one specific white and dangerous thing – and that the friendship can continue.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444012983</amazonuk>
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|isbn=0008582017
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Simon Fox
|title=Arrowhead
+
|title=Deadlock
|author=Ruth Eastham
+
|rating=4.5
|rating=4
 
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Thirteen-year-old Jack doesn’t believe in the local myths and legends of Norway. Until he finds the frozen body of a Norse warrior boy trapped in the ice, carrying with him an ancient arrowhead. The arrowhead bears a terrible curse, which leaves the adults struck down and nature itself turning on Jack’s town, and the rest of the world. With only his friends Skuli and Emma to help him, can Jack save the day?
+
|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>140713793X</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1839944420
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Cath Howe
|title=The Tin Snail
+
|title=My Life on Fire
|author=Cameron McAllister
+
|rating=5
|rating=4.5
 
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=
+
|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?
It's France at the 1938 Paris Motor Show. A wonderful new car has been unveiled: the ''Deux Chevaux'' or 2CV for short. It looks a bit odd and is nicknamed ''Tin Snail'' but this is a car for the people: functional, reliable, affordable. And its inventor is just 13 years old! But WWII is about to break out and France is about to be occupied by the Germans. The Tin Snail must face a perilous journey - ''to carry a farmer and his wife, a flagon of wine and a tray of eggs, across a bumpy field in a sleepy French village without spilling a drop or cracking a shell'' - and then go into hiding...
+
|isbn=1839942835
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857551299</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author= Rob Keeley
|title=Mutant City
+
|title= The Boy Who Disappeared and Other Stories
|author=Steve Feasey
 
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|genre=Teens
+
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=After a devastating chemical war, the world is slowly rebuilding itself. A select group had hidden away in underground bunkers and, when they re-emerged, built six cities in which the genetically pure live in luxury and comfort. But outside the city walls, everything is very different. The survivors there are mutants, fighting for survival in degrading, impoverished circumstances.
+
|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>140884303X</amazonuk>
+
|isbn= B0BVW69N1G
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Laura Noakes
|title=Hairy Horror
+
|title=Cosima Unfortunate Steals a Star
|author=Sandra Glover
 
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=In many ways, Anna’s life changed for the better when her mum married Steve. She now has a real dad for the first time in her life, as well as a beautiful home in the countryside and a gorgeous new baby brother, Jamie. In fact, you could describe her new life as almost perfect, apart from one rather major detail: her teenage brother Hal has a Top-Secret lab in the basement and he has been working on a BIG project involving a hairy tarantula called Tula. If there is one thing that Anna can’t stand, it’s spiders and Tula is anything but an ordinary spider...
+
|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>1783440333</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=0008579059
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Alice M Ross
|title=The Case of the Secret Tunnel (Maisie Hitchins)
+
|title=The Nowhere Thief
|author=Holly Webb
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary='Maisie Hitchins' is a detective series set in Victorian London centred on the adventures of our titular heroine who lives and works in her grandmother’s boarding house. In 'The Case of the Secret Tunnel', Maisie has to solve a mystery involving art smugglers, stolen washing and the London Underground. Sleuthing is hard work, but Gran won’t be pleased if Maisie neglects her chores, especially as the boarding house has a new guest, one who seems to be acting very suspiciously indeed...
+
|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>1847154360</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=1839943769
}}#
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|title=Seventeen Coffins
 
|author=Philip Caveney
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|summary=Poor Tom! He's barely recovered from his time-slip journey to plague-ridden seventeenth century Edinburgh when he's off again, this time to the nineteenth century. Just like on his first journey he's lost and friendless, and in deadly peril – but somehow, he ends up once again employed to feed the pigs. It seems some things never change.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1905916744</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Natasha Farrant
|title=Charlie Merrick's Misfits in Fouls, Friends, and Football
+
|title=The Rescue of Ravenwood
|author=Dave Cousins
+
|rating=5
|rating=3.5
 
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=The world, we are told, loves a trier, and Charlie Merrick is one of the world's biggestHis only hobby and only skill is in football, but his intent is never matched by his actual talent – a statement that stretches to most of his team-matesWith several under-12s league games under their belt and with no points to their name, Charlie must try his hardest to get the squad working as a team, which is hard considering what he has to put up with, and even harder when he makes some very unfortunate decisions…
+
|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 placeBut now the house is under threat, as Leo is under pressure from his other two brothers to sell the property to a developer as it's becoming more and more expensive to maintain.  The children find themselves worrying not only about where they're going to live, but if they'll even be together, and if Ravenwood itself will be torn down.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0192736590</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=0571348785
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Robin Birch and Jobe Anderson
|title=The Glass Bird Girl
+
|title=Secret Beast Club: The Unicorns of Silver Street
|author=Esme Kerr
 
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Edie is a new student at Knight’s Haddon boarding school but not just any new student. Planted there by her uncle, who can fix anything, she’s been given a mission – to investigate the problems his client’s daughter, Russian princess Anastasia is having. But what seems like it’ll be a straightforward case of schoolgirl bullying is actually much more complicated, and dangerous.
+
|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>1908435992</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=0241573483
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=B09XWSXSKY
|author=Paul Dowswell
+
|title=Maestro Orpheus and the World Clock
|title=Red Shadow
+
|author=Robert Penee and Joanne Grodzinski
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=It's Moscow in 1940. Misha's life transformed when his father was offered a job in the Kremlin by his old revolutionary comrade, Stalin. Misha's life is easier in many ways than those of his peers - he lives in a spacious and comfortable flat, and he has plenty of good food to eat.
 
 
 
But Russia is at war - currently allied to Hitler's Germany but about to be betrayed by them. And Stalin is both paranoid and unstable - this is the time of the purges and nobody is safe from denunciation.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408826240</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|title=Marooned in Manhattan
 
|author=Sheila Agnew
 
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=After her mother's death, Evie has to move to Manhattan to live with her uncle Scott, who she doesn't know too well. Initially she's convinced that she'll take him up on his offer to let her return to Ireland and move in with her godmother at the end of the summer. Between helping him out in his veterinary practice, making new friends, and getting to know the city, though, Evie starts to wonder whether she should stay in New York - but one person wants to take the decision out of her hands. Will she be able to make the choice for herself, and if so, where will she end up living?
+
|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>1847175589</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
  
{{newreview
+
''Who needs old clocks anyway? All they do is tell the timeAnd time isn't good for anything...''
|title=Ash Road
 
|author=Ivan Southall
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|summary=The North Wind is blowing.  It's churned its way across two thousand miles of Australia, and it brings with it ferocity, and an endless dryness. Above, below, to either side of it, and in front of and behind it, is heat.  This is a summer in the early 1960s and the land is suffering ''above-century heat''Unfortunately, through pure accident, three young lads out camping in the bush have started a fire, and it's getting worse and worse under the conditions that are ideal for it. Although in the leeward side of a large reservoir, the small community of Ash Road would surely suffer if the conflagration were to become big enough to threaten them – and it is, it is…
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1922147494</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
  
{{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=Tom Palmer
 
|title=Over The Line
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Dyslexia Friendly
 
|summary=Jack Cock made his debut as a professional footballer for Huddersfield Town and that fragile dream of playing for his country came just a little bit closer, but this was just before the beginning of the First World War, when there was immense pressure on young men to do the honourable thing and join the war to fight in France.  ''Over the Line'' is the story of Jack's war, of joining the Footballers' Battalion, playing in the Flanders Cup, fighting in the trenches and not just surviving but being decorated for braveryAfter the war he scored England's first international goal and was one of the first of the modern generation of 'professional footballers'.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781123934</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Nigel Baines
|title=Mars Evacuees
+
|title=A Tricky Kind of Magic
|author=Sophia McDougall
+
|rating=4.5
|rating=5
+
|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 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!
|summary=If you want to know how the average young adolescent thinks and speaks, read this book. Yes, it's a sci-fi adventure with monsters and robots and space travel. And yes, it's a story of war to the death with invisible aliens. But kids are kids, no matter what the circumstances, and anyone brave enough to get on a ship for a week with three hundred young people and no parents is, frankly, asking for trouble.
+
|isbn=1444960261
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1405268670</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
  
{{newreview
+
Move on to [[Newest Cookery Reviews]]
|title=Going Home
 
|author=Cliff McNish
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|summary=Ralphie, Fred, Mitch and Bessie are the ‘No-Hopers’- dogs who have been at Happy Paws Rescue Centre for so long that it seems unlikely they will ever find new homes. Bessie, a beautiful collie, has a fear of being touched; Mitch can’t stop chasing cats; Fred is depressed and despondent and Ralph is horribly disfigured. Luckily for them, Happy Paws has a policy of never putting a healthy dog down. However, when a new manager takes over the centre, the rules change and it becomes a desperate race against time to find the No-Hopers a home.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444011006</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

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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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