Difference between revisions of "Newest Confident Readers Reviews"

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[[Category:Confident Readers|*]]
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{{newreview
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|author= Philip Caveney
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{{Frontpage
|title= One For Sorrow
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|author=Rob Keeley
|rating= 5
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|title=Childish Spirits: 10th anniversary special edition
|genre= Confident Readers
 
|summary= You'd think, wouldn't you, that Tom Afflick would move heaven and earth to avoid leaving Manchester to go to Edinburgh: on his last two visits there he ended up tumbling into the past, where he met all manner of scary folk. But parents tend to be pretty determined to get their own way about such things, and no way are they going to swallow some mad tale about him being chased by plague doctors and other assorted murderers. So, off he has to go, and yes – he's barely set foot in ''Auld Reekie'' when he's time travelling again, in a wondrous mix of drama, real live people and deadly peril.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1905916957</amazonuk>
 
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{{newreview
 
|author=Dave Cousins
 
|title=Charlie Merrick's Misfits in I'm a Nobody, Get Me Out of Here!
 
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=What is that saying, about the best laid plans of mice and misfits gang aft agley?  Charlie and his fondly thought of friends in the soccer squad we met [[Charlie Merrick's Misfits in Fouls, Friends, and Football by Dave Cousins|last time]] are hoping for a simple trip to a summer camp for a week's educative training.  But no, their dopey manager has booked them in to a survival camp by mistake. Instead of hitting the back of the net they're building tarpaulin shelters. They can't set any watching footie-heads ablaze, for they have to spark their own fires at night.  They can still score, however, as there's a points-based competition to hand, but now that Charlie has dropped his team in the proverbial, they're once more really up against it…
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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>0192738232</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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{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=John McNally
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|author=Max Boucherat
|title=The Forbidden City (Infinity Drake, Book 2)
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|title=The Last Life of Lori Mills
|rating=4
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|rating=4.5
|genre=Teens
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|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=
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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 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 spooky.  For the server she and her bestie and nobody else should be able to enter shows signs of tamperingWhen malevolent eyes spark up on her phone screen, and her safe place in the game has been doctored – well, where is a girl to turn?
Finn may be only 9mm tall and still a teenager, but he's already saved the world once. Accidentally shrunk by his mad scientist Uncle Al, he joined a crack military team and helped foil the threat of a lethal bio-weapon, the Scarlatti wasp. But there's no let-up for Finn. Before Al can restore him to normal size, a new threat emerges.
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|isbn=0008666482
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007521650</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Tom Palmer
 
|title=Rugby Academy: Deadlocked
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Dyslexia Friendly
 
|summary=It's the third story in the ''Rugby Academy'' series and so far we've heard from Woody in [[Rugby Academy: Combat Zone by Tom Palmer|Combat Zone]] and Rory in [[Rugby Academy: Surface to Air by Tom Palmer|Surface to Air]].  In this, the final book in this brilliant series, we hear from Owen.  We left the team at the end of ''Surface to Air'' when Borderlands had got through to the World Championship in New ZealandDespite the elation of doing so Owen isn't entirely comfortable with Jesse, the team captainHe has no doubts that he was a brilliant player - the best on the team - but he can't respect him as a person.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781123993</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=E L Konigsburg
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|author=Kieran Larwood and Joe Todd-Stanton
|title=From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs Basil E Frankweiler
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|title=Dungeon Runners: Hero Trial
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Eleven-year-old Claudia Kincaid is tired of being taken for granted. As the oldest of four children, she suffers many an injustice, and the interplay of school and home life is becoming monotonous. She decides to run away from her home in Greenwich, Connecticut to live in the New York City Metropolitan Museum of Art. Middle brother Jamie, 9, is her chosen companion, not least because he can fund their venture. By cheating his friend Bruce at card games, Jamie has accumulated more than $24 – which, in 1967 when this classic children's novel first appeared, was not an insignificant amount.
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|summary=Meet Kit.  Like most of the people in his world, it seems, he is an avid fan of Dungeon Running – the sport where a team of warrior, mage and healer enter specially prepared, century-old, magical mazes, and race to the exit, perhaps bothering with the treasure or the big bad and the points they grant you along the way. Unfortunately for Kit, the only thing he's seen of the latest race on the inn TV equivalent is that one team has been retired, eaten, and a new trio of questors is needed.  Possibly very unfortunately indeed for Kit, he has taken to the goading from the token bully of his world and stumbled into declaring he'll enter as a team. What chance does this friendless, muscle-free-zone have in actually managing that, and how could he possibly hope to succeed?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782690719</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1839945184
 
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}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Rachel Renee Russell
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|author=James Sherwood Metts
|title=Dork Diaries: Drama Queen (Dork Diaries 9)
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|title=Planet Storyland
|rating=4
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|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Meet Mackenzie Hollister.  She's a typical American tweenager – concerned in popularity, looks, the hot guys like Brandon, and getting one over on all those around her. That's made a lot more easy by her parents being spoilingly rich – if Mackenzie, say, wants a new cover for her diary she will just rip up a new $220 leopard print designer blouse and use that.  But the problem is, what she's reading back over, and what she's writing in, isn't ''exactly'' her diary – it's the diary belonging to our beloved heroine, Nikki, and Mackenzie has managed to purloin it for evil deeds. Can Nikki get it back – or live at all without her beloved journal?  And could there actually be something worse than her biggest enemy of, like, all time, being the person reading it?
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|summary= Things have been a bit sticky for the Earthlings. AI and automation have been proceeding apace, often replacing jobs they're paid to do and other tasks that took time to accomplish. Just as they were beginning to get used to all this technological change and starting to think of other, new ways to spend time, along came an awful pandemic. Life was pretty much shut down and, along with it, all the many daily social interactions on which they depend so heavily.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1471117707</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1736128426
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Lewis Carroll and Sir John Tenniel
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|author=Tom Percival
|title=Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
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|title=The Wrong Shoes
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=It can hardly have escaped anyone's attention that 2015 is the 150th anniversary of the publication of Lewis Carroll's ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' and we've seen numerous anniversary editions.
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|summary=Will's life is difficult, in a multitude of ways.  He is bullied because he has 'the wrong shoes', he has the wrong shoes because his dad can't work and doesn't have enough money for even the most basic of things like food, and his dad can't work because he lost his job at the college, was working a cash-in-hand job on a building site and had an accident.  Throw into that mix the fact that his mum and dad are separated, and Will's life seems bleak in every direction.  And yet, he still has a tiny amount of hope.  He is good at art, and clings to the moments of joy when he is drawing, that feel like a light at the end of a long, dark tunnel.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1447287118</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1398527122
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Guy Bass and Pete Williamson
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|isbn=1805141872
|title=The Beast of Grubbers Nubbin (Stitch Head)
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|title=The Teacher Who Knew Too Much
|rating=4
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|author=Rob Keeley
 +
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=It's all wrong in Castle Grotteskew. The very walls should be terrified by the monsters the Mad Professor in the basement is creating, out of various body parts and different animals. But no, the clamour of noise, the unlikely activities and horrendous appetite for food come from something else entirely – a hundred rescued human orphans. That appetite needs feeding – so it’s perfect timing for the village below the castle, Grubbers Nubbin, to have their annual podge-a-thon feast.  But when Stitch Head and his human friend Arabella go to purloin some human food – there being no decent alternative – they're horrified to find something even worse than the monsters trapped in the castle above…
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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>1847156096</amazonuk>
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Goodness me, that Miss Judson is a terror! How on earth did a nice teacher like her manage to get mixed up with a bad 'un like Al? We'll find out. Luckily for Miss Judson, the pupil who discovers her terrible secret is Ben, the son of a famous magician who has ambitions to be as good as his father some day, and who thinks Miss Judson is worth saving
 
}}
 
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{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Cassie Beasley
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|author=Christopher Edge
|title=Circus Mirandus
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|title=Black Hole Cinema Club
|rating=5
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|rating=4
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Micah is an orphan who has been raised by his grandfather, but now Micah’s grandfather is dying. And if that wasn’t bad enough, his horrible great aunt has arrived to take care of him, cutting their limited time together further. But don’t worry all hope is not lost. When grandpa Ephraim was a child he visited the mysterious Circus Mirandus, where he was promised a miracle by the miraculous Man Who Bends Light. All Micah has to do is get a message to the Light Bender and his grandfather can have his miracle. With the help of Jenny Mendoza (the smartest girl in the class), Micah sets his sights on the circus, a task that requires unconditional love and faith. Aunt Gertrudis is wrong, Ephraim’s stories aren’t just stories ... are they?
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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>1101892315</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1839942738
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Owen Davey
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|author=Adam Stower
|title=Mad About Monkeys
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|title=Murray and Bun
|rating= 4
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|rating=4.5
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
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|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Of all the many millions of animals on our planet that deserve a large format hardback non-fiction book, I guess monkeys are one of the ideal places to startThey are, of course, our distant cousins, with the ancestor we have in common with them walking around our world within the past thirty million yearsThey have a large range across the planet, they have over 250 variant species, and they have a lot of interesting facts and details regarding their social life, their diet, their diversity and their potential future – all of which makes this an interesting read whatever your species bias may be.
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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 whiffsThis 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>1909263575</amazonuk>
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|isbn=0008561249
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Josh Lacey
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|author=Alex Bell and Tim McDonagh
|title=Dragonsitter Trouble
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|title=The Glorious Race of Magical Beasts
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=You don't need me to tell you what it's like when your uncle owns two dragons.  He's  the pig-headed type who has a mummy and baby dragon living with him, and he must live on a remote island off Scotland, and he must spend half the time hunting the world of dragons in Outer Mongolia, or searching for the yeti, so that trouble starts from the very moment you arrive with your mother and sister to housesit for him – there's no food, the dragons are pooing everywhere and you can't even use the front door properly because he didn't leave the key in an obvious placeStill, that's nothing compared to when the neighbouring farmer gets his guns trained on the dragons when he accuses them of stealing his sheep… Or how about when your big birthday party is here, and the magician is booked – and the two dragons come to stay, because somebody else with the talent to care for them has the hots for your mother…
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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 familyA 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>1783442972</amazonuk>
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|isbn=0571382231
 
}}
 
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{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Jo Simmons
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|author=Helen Cooper
|title=Super-Loud Sam
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|title=The Taming of the Cat
|rating=5
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|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Sam is loudNot just loud as in the loudest lad in class, and not just loud as in loudest fire alarm in schoolNo, Sam is '''LOUD''' loudStop traffic in the streets loud.  Scary loud.  Loud enough to make passing birds forget how to fly loud.  There's little rhyme or reason for this, just as there is no real reason why his best friend Nina does nothing but knit all the livelong day, even when walking to school.  It's just something you have to acceptBut what's this?  Their favourite teacher has vanished, and a new one has taken his place – Mrs Mann.  She's ridiculous with her weirdly large hands, her huge cardigan and even huger beehive hairdoThe biggest thing about her though is the threat she poses – that of eternal silence in her lessons.  How can Sam possibly continue at school, when even him clearing his throat is like a plane crash in your ears?
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|summary=Once again, mice are pitched against catIn this case, principally, we have Brie the mouse, up against Gorgonzola the cat – and in case you're seeing a connection, they live in a cheese shop and therefore all the names used here seem to be the names of cheesesAnyway, Brie is shunned, scorned and, if you must, mous-tracised, for the way his habits don't match the other mice he lives withThey nibble up paper wrapping from the cheese for bedding – he displays it as art and makes stories based on the visuals on it.  And that story-telling will come in handy one night, when he feels all alone and cast out.  It's almost as if there were another character from fable who had had to tell stories to keep themselves aliveThis 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 distractedBut will the story have the successful sequel it needs when that cheese runs out?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1407152300</amazonuk>
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|isbn=0571376010
 
}}
 
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{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Christopher Myers
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|author=Lauren St John
|title=My Pen
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|title=Finding Wonder
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|genre=Emerging Readers
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|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=How long does it take you to read a picture book? Don't worry counting the number of words, forget totalling the pages, and ignore how many times you may return to bring it off the shelfWhat matters so much more than how long it takes to scan a page can be how long it lies in the memory, and what it can lead to.  This example, for instance, can be perused in seconds, but creates a vivid and long-standing mental image, and will if it hits the right buttons lead to untold future activities. You can't judge something like this on the value of time.
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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>1423103718</amazonuk>
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|isbn=0571376169
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Cath Senker and Melvyn Evans
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|author=Adam Baron and Benji Davies
|title=Ancient Egypt in 30 Seconds: 30 Awesome Topics for Pharaoh Fanatics Explained in Half a Minute (Children's 30 Second)
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|title=Oscar's Lion
|rating=4
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|rating=3
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
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|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Egypt.  It's up there with dinosaurs, space travel and not much else that can hold a young child throughout the length of their school careerConsidering a lot of them will grow up declaring they have no interest in, or even a hatred for, history, it all was relevant a long, long time ago – and with Carter's finding of King Tut's tomb closing in on its centenary it won't go away yetThere are indeed books that solely concern themselves with the history of our love affair with EgyptBut I guess it does boil down to it being introduced by a fine teacherWhether this latest book will supplant the human in giving us all the lessons we need remains to be seen.
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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 daysBut there are benefits to having a lion around – it can be shown as an unspoken threat to the bully that ruined a birthday party for Oscar the other monthAnd it can shapeshift, so he can take it to school and it can get him out of a problemAnd 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>1782402373</amazonuk>
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|isbn=0008596751
 
}}
 
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{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Jonathan Meres
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|author=Judith Eagle
|title=The World of Norm: 8: May Contain Buts
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|title=The Stolen Songbird
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Why is it the only person in Norm's world able to think straight is Norm? His best mate Mikey is clamming up on certain subjects, and blaming mood swings on his hormones (well, he is all of thirteen, after all). His dad seems to be mourning the loss of an antique bottle of aftershave, his mother thinks sorting the recycling is a cure for boredom, and his grandfather is all full of weird expressions and euphemism thingiesThat's not to mention his younger brothers, who have it in mind to use mum's hair straightener on the dogAnd that's certainly not to mention the girl next door, who evidently has been incapable of thinking straight since birth, but at least is doing the good thing by moving house.  It's a flipping miracle that Norm can get through a weekend like this without anything disastrous happening. Or can he?
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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 worriedAll her summer holiday plans of building herself some equipment to practise her gymnastics are brought to a halt whilst she is stuck inside this staid old Victorian lady's house, along with an orphan boy, Albie, who is living there too.  But she soon finds herself caught up in a mystery, as she discovers a painting of a bird hidden away inside her mum's old suitcase, and all across London a fearsome gang called the Snakes are thieving artworks and terrorising peopleIs the painting somehow linked to the gang?  And what has happened to Caro's mother? Is she somehow involved in the mystery too?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408334062</amazonuk>
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|isbn=0571363148
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author= Piers Torday
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|author=Tania Unsworth
|title= The Wild Beyond
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|title=Nowhere Island
|rating= 5
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|rating=4.5
|genre= Confident Readers
 
|summary= Stories for younger readers about the effects of climate change, known as cli-fi, are growing massively in popularity right now, as environmental disasters and the disappearance of many of the planet's animals and plants hit the news on a depressingly regular basis. Shrinking glaciers mean rising water levels and the slow extinction of polar bears, and in many cities pollution and smog are so dire at times that governments are forced to ban cars and urge their citizens to stay indoors. But far from frightening children with tales of ever-increasing destruction and death, Piers Torday offers them a way to hope. No matter how bad things are, this trilogy tells us, all it takes is determination, and together we'll save our beautiful world.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848668481</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Caleb Krisp and John Kelly
 
|title=Anyone But Ivy Pocket
 
|rating=5
 
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=12-year-old maid Ivy Pocket is at a loose end after her employer the Countess Carbunkle leaves her for South America "for no other reason than it is far enough away from Paris to ensure that I never see you again." Charitably deciding that the old woman is 'bonkers' on the basis that anyone who doesn't see how wonderful she is couldn't possibly be in their right mind, Ivy thinks she'll stroll into another job but finds it more difficult than she'd expect - until the Duchess of Trinity gives her an important mission; to deliver a priceless diamond necklace to the granddaughter of an estranged friend. But what should be a simple task becomes fraught with danger as Ivy faces obnoxious aristocrats, strange creatures, and betrayal.
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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>1408858630</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1804540080
 
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{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Esme Kerr
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|author=Helen Peters
|title=Mischief at Midnight
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|title=Friends and Traitors
 
|rating=3
 
|rating=3
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary= At the slightly strange school of Knight's Haddon, there's always something intriguing going on. New girl Janet, cool and confident even when arguing with the teacher's, is the big surprise for Edie this term, and they become friends - but Anastasia feels forced out by the newer student's presence. Then some things happen which make Edie start to wonder if Janet is hiding something - can she solve another mystery?
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|summary=England, WW2.  Two young girls are new at the country pile called Stanbrook.  One is Nancy, destined to be in service all her life it seems, like the female generations before her.  The other is Sidney, a girl from a hoity-toity Sussex boarding school that has been removed there away from bomber flight-paths.  The girls are chalk and cheese, and if we hadn't guessed that then their behaviour with each other over their first encounters would only prove it so.  But something is amiss, and first separately and then in combination they realise the Lord Evesham must be a rum 'un.  Midnight deliveries are received under cover of secrecy, talk is made of meetings with Germans, and not only that, a local Spitfire factory has been attacked.  But surely the girls are wrong, and the upper class could never be so underhand?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>190948900X</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1788004647
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Gareth P Jones
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|author=Jamie Littler
|title=Attack of the Giant Sea Spiders (Adventures of the Steampunk Pirates)
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|title=Arkspire
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=It's a three-way battle in the Slurring Mariner pubOn the one hand, four Steampunk Pirates – a fine mix of vicious, nefarious and metallic mariners who would make any passing human gulp (which is more than you could ever say of the beer).  On another, the Dread Captain Inkybeard, who is married to a squid who lives on his head and keeps his facial hair darkOn the third, a ridiculously rich, ridiculously French and ridiculously successful recruiter – but to just what is he taking so many seamen? Whatever it is, it's enough to get the Pirates and Inkybeard working together (ish) to solve the problem – but someone else might just be controlling the whole farrago…
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|summary=Two sisters, Juniper and Elodie, born fifteen minutes apart, are growing to be chalk and cheese.  Juniper is an eager hunter and trader in illicit magic, including relics from prior major wars left out in the BadlandsElodie is intent on getting closer to power in one of the religious districts of Arkspire, perhaps even to become the child in line to inherit the power of the Watcher, the closest to a ruler the district has, and one of the five major victors in said earlier warBeing trained in the magic that only five people can use would definitely change the status of the whole family. But in finding something oddly magical, Juniper might just be able to gain some power of her own – for good, or for very, very bad…
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847155995</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=0241586143
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Liz Pichon
+
|isbn=024162343X
|title=Yes! No (Maybe...) (Tom Gates)
+
|title=Stolen History
|rating=3.5
+
|author=Sathnam Sanghera
 +
|rating=5
 +
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
 +
|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''.
 +
}}
 +
{{Frontpage
 +
|author=Thiago de Moraes
 +
|title=Old Gods New Tricks
 +
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary= WorkIt's not something Tom Gates has been guilty of much before now – unless it's to work out how and where to hide his favourite caramel wafers, or how to deflect the evil grin of his slightly goth older sister.  But it's on the cards this time round – not only does his mother have the inspired idea of clearing the house out for a car boot sale (which causes disasters) the school is having an enterprise competition, where groups of students have to create something to sell on to their peers at a profitBut it's not like Tom wants much of course, he's a simple lad, with no real desires as such – he's never going to want to go hell for leather to get anything, is he?
+
|summary=Meet TrixieForever 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 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>1407143190</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=178845295X
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Linda Chapman and Kate Hindley
+
|author=Hannah Gold and Levi Pinfold
|title=Best Friends’ Bakery: Birthdays and Biscuits
+
|title=Finding Bear
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=In this, the fourth story in the Best Friends’ Bakery series, Hannah is recovering from her sadness at being thrown off the Junior Baker show on TVFortunately there’s plenty going on in her town and at her mum’s bakery to keep her busyThere’s a new beauty shop opening to bake for, a doggy rescue centre in trouble, and a new girl who seems intent on stopping anyone from befriending her. How will Hannah get on with these new challenges in her life?
+
|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>1444011944</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=0008582017
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Frances Hardinge
+
|author=Simon Fox
|title=Cuckoo Song
+
|title=Deadlock
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Marketed as a twisted fairy tale, ''Cuckoo Song'' is so much moreHardinge’s lyrical style sets it apart from other fantasy reads. Such phrases as ''she was weeping spider silk'' lend it a melody all of its own.  At the story’s heart is the sense of wanting to belong and connect with others. It revolves around Piers Crescent’s daughter Triss who wakes up after an accident to find that her world has changed. She doesn’t feel that she is herself and starts to exhibit extremely peculiar behaviour. She is ravenous and inexplicably binge eats. For some reason her little sister Pen appears to hate her, scissors act strangely around her and her parents are anxious for her to remain ill and cosseted. She has memories from the time before she nearly drowned but she can’t visualise the actual incident.
+
|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 runThey 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>0330519735</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=1839944420
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Phil Earle and Sara Ogilvie
+
|author=Cath Howe
|title=Demolition Dad
+
|title=My Life on Fire
|rating=4.5
+
|rating=5
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Jake's dad is a wrestlerNobody knows however, because Jake's dad also insists that Jake keeps it a secret, so that no one realises that come the weekend he leaves behind the demolition sites that he works on, puts on his spandex suit and enters the ring as 'Demolition Man'! But Jake is so proud of his dad that his alter ego can't remain a secret for long, and he sets about trying to change his dad's life through the world of wrestling.
+
|summary=Ren's family home is destroyed in a fireShe, 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>1444013866</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=1839942835
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author=Meg Cabot
+
|author= Rob Keeley
|title=Notebooks of a Middle-School Princess
+
|title= The Boy Who Disappeared and Other Stories
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=The author of the hugely successful ''Princess Diaries'' has written a brand-new series for younger girls, telling the story of awkward middle-school student Olivia Grace. She discovers that her father is actually the Prince of Genovia, making her...a princess! Not everyone responds well to the news, however, and poor Olivia is soon thrown into a world of jealous bullies, intrusive paparazzi, disgruntled relatives and a whole new family she never knew existed.
+
|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>1447280652</amazonuk>
+
|isbn= B0BVW69N1G
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author=Rachel Hamilton
+
|author=Laura Noakes
|title=The Case of the Exploding Brains
+
|title=Cosima Unfortunate Steals a Star
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary= You'd think, with one parent in prison and the other one hardly ever moving from the sofa, that middle school student Noelle Hawkins would have far too many problems on her hands already to start worrying about the occasional little explosion at the Science Museum. After all, that's the kind of thing that's bound to happen in a place littered with heaps of seriously wacky inventions, right?
+
|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>147112133X</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=0008579059
 +
}}
 +
{{Frontpage
 +
|author=Alice M Ross
 +
|title=The Nowhere Thief
 +
|rating=4.5
 +
|genre=Confident Readers
 +
|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…
 +
|isbn=1839943769
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author=Dave Lowe
+
|author=Natasha Farrant
|title= Squirrel Boy vs the Squirrel Hunter
+
|title=The Rescue of Ravenwood
|rating=4
+
|rating=5
|genre=Confident Readers  
+
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary= Ten year old Walter Kettle is an ordinary boy until he eats a nut. Then he transforms into unlikely superhero Squirrel Boy whose only superpowers seem to be a large bushy tail, an ability to climb trees and run very fast, and a sudden understanding of ‘Squirrelish’ (the language used by squirrels). In his second adventure, we join Walter to find out whether these unusual powers will be enough to defeat the determined Squirrel Hunter and save the squirrel population in the local park.
+
|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>1907912738</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=0571348785
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author=Lewis Carroll
+
|author=Robin Birch and Jobe Anderson
|title=Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (150th Anniversary Edition with Dame Vivienne Westwood)
+
|title=Secret Beast Club: The Unicorns of Silver Street
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Somewhere the book reviewing gods have a list of those classic titles that you cannot deny or begrudge their place in literary history, that are soon to have a 150th birthday party with my name on an inviteThat means little, as I – and in fact most people – will of course be reading them on their unbirthday, but the list does include the current recipient of that honour, ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland''It being long out of copyright anyone can put together a 150th birthday edition for it, but this is one of the more distinctive efforts, for it comes with the help of Dame Vivienne WestwoodAnd even though I have [[Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (150th Anniversary Edition) by Lewis Carroll and Anthony Browne|spoken before]] of how I don't take to the book, I can hereby declare this party was made all the better for being twice as long, all courtesy of the presence of Lewis Carroll.
+
|summary=Jayden's nose is forever in a book, which means he knows a lot about mythological creatures – the phoenixes and unicorns of the world, for example.  Aisha is addicted to her new tablet, where she can see videos of anything that might be out thereThe problem, as their mothers see it, is that they are never 'out there' themselves, exploring the outside world of Hackney, London.  But when a narrowboat turns up carrying a science-minded, educational purpose, and with a past involving Jayden's cousin, they find a magical world they never knew existedFor many of those mythological creatures are real, including the one Aisha thinks she's seen on a bit of local footage.  The crew of the boat, including a living gargoyle, are tasked with saving the rare critters – and the kids unknowingly have the magical sight needed to join inDare 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>178487017X</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=0241573483
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author=Alexander McCall Smith
+
|isbn=B09XWSXSKY
|title=Akimbo Adventures
+
|title=Maestro Orpheus and the World Clock
|rating=5
+
|author=Robert Penee and Joanne Grodzinski
 +
|rating=4
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=I am, it must be said, something of an Alexander McCall Smith addictI have handed out free copies of his books for World Book Night, I met him in Oxford at a literary festival, and I read pretty much everything he writes as he writes it! This time it’s a children’s book, with three stories in one volume all about a boy called AkimboHe lives on the edge of a game reserve in Africa, and these stories are all about his rather amazing adventures with the animals who also share his home.
+
|summary=Frederick (or Fred, but never Freddy, please) couldn't sleepA tune, rather like the ticking of a clock was playing over and over in his 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>1405265345</amazonuk>
+
 
 +
''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 bedIt 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?
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author=Sarah Garland
+
|author=Nigel Baines
|title=Azzi in Between
+
|title=A Tricky Kind of Magic
|rating=5
+
|rating=4.5
|genre=For Sharing
+
|genre=Emerging Readers
|summary=Our story begins in a country at warUnfortunately you could probably put a name to it (although it isn't named) as it happens all too regularlyOur heroine is Azzi, a young girl whose life was not ''too'' affected by the war, but every day it came a little closer.  Her father still worked as a doctor and her mother made beautiful clothes.  Her grandmother wove warm blanketsThen the day came when they had to run, for their lives, and escape was by boat and they became refugees.  The three of them - for Grandma had been left behind - had been luckier than most for they were accepted on a temporary basis into another country (again it's not named) and they had a home, although it was just one room.
+
|summary=Cooper loves to perform magic tricksHis father was a magician, and named Cooper after the great Tommy CooperBut sadly Cooper's father died suddenly, and now Cooper doesn't quite know who to be, or how to beAnd when his dad's prop rabbit starts talking to him, he ''really'' doesn't know what's going on anymore!
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847806511</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=1444960261
 
}}
 
}}
 +
 +
Move on to [[Newest Cookery Reviews]]

Latest revision as of 08:02, 9 June 2024


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Review of

Childish Spirits: 10th anniversary special edition by Rob Keeley

4star.jpg Confident Readers

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

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

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Review of

The Last Life of Lori Mills by Max Boucherat

4.5star.jpg Confident Readers

We meet Lori on the first evening she's got the house to herself – no neighbour to pop in, babysitter poorly, mother at work, just an avidly rule-breaking eleven year old, on her lonesome. What could possibly go wrong? Snuggled in a blanket fort, she has one main intention, and that is to log on to Voxminer, the world-building, critter-collecting game that is a hit in Lori's world. But first Lori has a tiny inkling that this stormy night doesn't find herself entirely on her own, and then she finds something even more spooky. For the server she and her bestie and nobody else should be able to enter shows signs of tampering. When malevolent eyes spark up on her phone screen, and her safe place in the game has been doctored – well, where is a girl to turn? Full Review

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Review of

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

4star.jpg Confident Readers

Meet Kit. Like most of the people in his world, it seems, he is an avid fan of Dungeon Running – the sport where a team of warrior, mage and healer enter specially prepared, century-old, magical mazes, and race to the exit, perhaps bothering with the treasure or the big bad and the points they grant you along the way. Unfortunately for Kit, the only thing he's seen of the latest race on the inn TV equivalent is that one team has been retired, eaten, and a new trio of questors is needed. Possibly very unfortunately indeed for Kit, he has taken to the goading from the token bully of his world and stumbled into declaring he'll enter as a team. What chance does this friendless, muscle-free-zone have in actually managing that, and how could he possibly hope to succeed? Full Review

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Review of

Planet Storyland by James Sherwood Metts

4.5star.jpg Confident Readers

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

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Review of

The Wrong Shoes by Tom Percival

5star.jpg Confident Readers

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

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Review of

The Teacher Who Knew Too Much by Rob Keeley

4.5star.jpg Confident Readers

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

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

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Review of

Black Hole Cinema Club by Christopher Edge

4star.jpg Confident Readers

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

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Review of

Murray and Bun by Adam Stower

4.5star.jpg Confident Readers

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

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Review of

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

4star.jpg Confident Readers

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

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Review of

The Taming of the Cat by Helen Cooper

3.5star.jpg Confident Readers

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

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Review of

Finding Wonder by Lauren St John

4star.jpg Confident Readers

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

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Review of

Oscar's Lion by Adam Baron and Benji Davies

3star.jpg Confident Readers

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

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Review of

The Stolen Songbird by Judith Eagle

4star.jpg Confident Readers

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

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Review of

Nowhere Island by Tania Unsworth

4.5star.jpg Confident Readers

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

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Review of

Friends and Traitors by Helen Peters

3star.jpg Confident Readers

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

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Review of

Arkspire by Jamie Littler

4star.jpg Confident Readers

Two sisters, Juniper and Elodie, born fifteen minutes apart, are growing to be chalk and cheese. Juniper is an eager hunter and trader in illicit magic, including relics from prior major wars left out in the Badlands. Elodie is intent on getting closer to power in one of the religious districts of Arkspire, perhaps even to become the child in line to inherit the power of the Watcher, the closest to a ruler the district has, and one of the five major victors in said earlier war. Being trained in the magic that only five people can use would definitely change the status of the whole family. But in finding something oddly magical, Juniper might just be able to gain some power of her own – for good, or for very, very bad… Full Review

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Review of

Stolen History by Sathnam Sanghera

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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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