Difference between revisions of "Newest Confident Readers Reviews"

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[[Category:Confident Readers|*]]
 
[[Category:Confident Readers|*]]
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{{newreview
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|author=Dave Rudden
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{{Frontpage
|title=Knights of the Borrowed Dark
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|author=Rob Keeley
 +
|title=Childish Spirits: 10th anniversary special edition
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers  
+
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Denizen Hardwick has spent the last eleven years – since he was two – at Crosscaper orphanage. He knows nothing about his family and is, therefore, surprised when he's suddenly summoned to visit an Aunt he didn't know he had. This is, however, only the first of many surprises. Before he even arrives at his Aunt's house, Denizen's world is abruptly turned upside down as he's introduced to a hidden world of shadows and an unseen enemy in the form of the Tenebrae. He soon discovers he has hidden powers but is he prepared for the cost of using them? Is he prepared to join the Knights of the Borrowed Dark? Does he really have a choice?
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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>014135660X</amazonuk>
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 +
The ''Childish Spirits'' series is one of his greatest achievements. It's a sequence of ghost stories centring on Ellie, a stalwart young girl who can cope with anything the spirit world throws at her, and Edward, a spoiled lordling and the first spirit Ellie encounters
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|isbn= 1783064617
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}}
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{{Frontpage
 +
|author=Max Boucherat
 +
|title=The Last Life of Lori Mills
 +
|rating=4.5
 +
|genre=Confident Readers
 +
|summary=We meet Lori on the first evening she's got the house to herself – no neighbour to pop in, babysitter poorly, mother at work, just an avidly rule-breaking eleven year old, on her lonesome.  What could possibly go wrong?  Snuggled in a blanket fort, she has one main intention, and that is to log on to Voxminer, the world-building, critter-collecting game that is a hit in Lori's world.  But first Lori has a tiny inkling that this stormy night doesn't find herself entirely on her own, and then she finds something even more spooky.  For the server she and her bestie and nobody else should be able to enter shows signs of tampering.  When malevolent eyes spark up on her phone screen, and her safe place in the game has been doctored – well, where is a girl to turn?
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|isbn=0008666482
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author= Amber Lee Dodd
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|author=Kieran Larwood and Joe Todd-Stanton
|title=We Are Giants
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|title=Dungeon Runners: Hero Trial
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers  
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|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Nine year old Sydney Goodrow is small for her age and she wants to stay that way. Her mum is only 124cm tall and her dad, when he was alive, wasn't much taller. Despite the challenges it can cause, Sydney knows that being little is special and that's why she tries hard with her regular 'shrinking exercises'. However, despite her best efforts, she can't help growing taller and growing up.
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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>1784294217</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1839945184
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|title=Eliza Rose
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|author=James Sherwood Metts
|author=Lucy Worsley
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|title=Planet Storyland
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=Teens
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|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Eliza's family isn't as wealthy as it once was. And she is well aware that her duty is to marry well in order to repair the Camperdowne fortunes. To this end, Eliza is sent from her family home at Stoneton Castle to Trumpton Hall, to be educated in the ways of noble ladies. Here, she meets the infamous Katherine Howard while she too is still a young girl. And from there, it's on to the Tudor court of Henry VIII, who is currently married to Anne of Cleves.
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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>1408869438</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1736128426
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}}
 +
{{Frontpage
 +
|author=Tom Percival
 +
|title=The Wrong Shoes
 +
|rating=5
 +
|genre=Confident Readers
 +
|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.
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|isbn=1398527122
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author= Peter Jay Black
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|isbn=1805141872
|title= Urban Outlaws Counterstrike
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|title=The Teacher Who Knew Too Much
|rating= 5
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|author=Rob Keeley
|genre= Confident Readers
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|rating=4.5
|summary= Thought the previous three books in this excellent series were heart-stopping? Reckon there's no way the tension could be ratcheted up any higher? Well hang on tight, brave reader, because this book's going to make you forget to eat, sleep, do your homework and (unless you're very, very careful) breathe, even. It's epic!
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|genre=Confident Readers
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408851490</amazonuk>
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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...''
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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
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Alan MacDonald and David Roberts
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|author=Christopher Edge
|title=Fame! (Dirty Bertie)
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|title=Black Hole Cinema Club
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 +
|genre=Confident Readers
 +
|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?
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|isbn=1839942738
 +
}}
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{{Frontpage
 +
|author=Adam Stower
 +
|title=Murray and Bun
 +
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Confident Readers  
 
|genre=Confident Readers  
|summary=Book eleventy-thump in this series, and there is still no let-up in the situations that Dirty Bertie can be clumsy in, have a naughty approach about, or be accident-prone throughoutAnd while these three short stories may not be everyday circumstances, they have a universal recognition for the very young target audience – probably the seven-to-tensSo we have Bertie successfully apply for a part in a TV presentation only to find it crosses a line; we see him get taken fishing, only for him to be bored and therefore naughty (and therefore successful, of course); and we have him and his friends trying to play as Robin Hood, only to find the sharing-out bit that normally follows the robbing just that bit too hard…
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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>1847156665</amazonuk>
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|isbn=0008561249
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Tom Huddlestone
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|author=Alex Bell and Tim McDonagh
|title=The Nest (Star Wars: Adventures in Wild Space)
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|title=The Glorious Race of Magical Beasts
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=The risk continues.  Having faced great danger in their search for knowledge about their kidnapped, explorer parents, Milo and Lina are tracking a rebellious radio broadcastBut once again you can probably bet your life on their quest taking them into great danger, and in a mysterious world of bizarrely crashed spacecraft and wild life, danger is certainly around…
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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 runsEli 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>140527994X</amazonuk>
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|isbn=0571382231
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Cavan Scott
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|author=Helen Cooper
|title=The Snare (Star Wars: Adventures in Wild Space)
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|title=The Taming of the Cat
 +
|rating=3.5
 +
|genre=Confident Readers
 +
|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?
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|isbn=0571376010
 +
}}
 +
{{Frontpage
 +
|author=Lauren St John
 +
|title=Finding Wonder
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Milo and Lina are used to haring around the universe, but never quite like this…  They have seen their parents kidnapped by the Empire, in need of the adults' knowledge from exploring as scientists in the Wild Space areaThey are hastening to the watery planet Thune to seek help, but unknown to them, they may be heading not so much away from the fire but towards a right frying-pan…
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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>1405279931</amazonuk>
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|isbn=0571376169
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=M G Leonard
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|author=Adam Baron and Benji Davies
|title=Beetle Boy
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|title=Oscar's Lion
|rating=5
+
|rating=3
 +
|genre=Confident Readers
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|summary=We start incredibly bluntly, with Oscar hoping to have his mother – or father, but mother is more likely – read him his very favourite book a couple of times before he has to be ready for school.  But when he enters his parents' bedroom, all he sees is a mahoosive male lion on their bed, looking sheepish, and admitting that he won't be hungry for another two days.  But there are benefits to having a lion around – it can be shown as an unspoken threat to the bully that ruined a birthday party for Oscar the other month.  And it can shapeshift, so he can take it to school and it can get him out of a problem.  And it's wonderful to have around the house – not limiting his biscuit intake, being much more lax about the rules, and so on.  OK, it can't work a dimmer switch but it can give Oscar a wonderful time.
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|isbn=0008596751
 +
}}
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{{Frontpage
 +
|author=Judith Eagle
 +
|title=The Stolen Songbird
 +
|rating=4
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary= When Darkus's dad disappears from a locked room in the Natural History Museum, everyone's desperate to discover what happened. However, when no clues are found, the police and the newspapers rapidly lose interest and Darkus is left to solve the mystery. Luckily, he has some very special friends to help him.
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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>1910002704</amazonuk>
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|isbn=0571363148
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author= Rachel Delahaye
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|author=Tania Unsworth
|title= Jim Reaper Son of Grim
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|title=Nowhere Island
|rating= 4
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|rating=4.5
|genre= Confident Readers
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|genre=Confident Readers
|summary= It's the age-old story. Boy (Jim) fancies older girl, in a distant, can't-talk-to-her-without-dribbling sort of way. Naturally, Jim won't discuss this with his best friend Will Maggot because by some evil twist of fate, the girl is Will's sister, and everybody knows sisters are definitely off limits. Not that Fiona's given him any encouragement: in fact the only time she speaks to either of them is when she's pointing out what losers they are.
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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>1848124872</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1804540080
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=A A Milne and E H Shepard
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|author=Helen Peters
|title=The House at Pooh Corner
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|title=Friends and Traitors
|rating=5
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|rating=3
|genre=For Sharing
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|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=The title of the book comes from the first story, in which Winnie and Piglet build a house at Pooh corner for Eeyore, but perhaps the most famous story in this second book is at chapter six, when the game of Pooh Sticks is inventedWe also meet Tigger for the first time and as with the first book [[Winnie-the-Pooh by A A Milne and E H Shepard|Winnie-the-Pooh]] each chapter is a short story in its own right, except for chapters eight and nine which have a degree of continuity as Owl's house is blown down in chapter eight and a new one is found for him at the Wolery in chapter nineIt's still not overly long even if you end up reading both as a bedtime story!
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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-pathsThe girls are chalk and cheese, and if we hadn't guessed that then their behaviour with each other over their first encounters would only prove it 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 attackedBut surely the girls are wrong, and the upper class could never be so underhand?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1405280840</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1788004647
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Neil Griffiths and Janette Louden
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|author=Jamie Littler
|title=The Dog with No Name
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|title=Arkspire
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Ella and Harry had been nagging their parents ''forever'' about getting a dog, but it wasn't until after the death of the goldfish ''and'' the Russian hamster, which they'd only seen five times because it was nocturnal, that their parents relented.  Off they went to the dog rescue centre and after what seemed like ''ages'' and lots of red tape they had their very own dogHe'd not been in the centre long and had no name but the whole family fell for him and brought him home.
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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 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>1908702249</amazonuk>
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|isbn=0241586143
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Jenny Colgan
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|isbn=024162343X
|title=Polly and the Puffin
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|title=Stolen History
|rating=4.5
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|author=Sathnam Sanghera
|genre=Emerging Readers
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|rating=5
|summary=Polly was in bed when there was LOUD bang from downstairsIt wasn't the storm which was raging outside.  It wasn't a monster or an alien from outer spaceIt was a puffin who had crashed through the front door and he had a broken wingPolly's mummy got the first aid kit out whilst Polly went to get the puffin some food and the next day they went to see the vet.  By then Polly had decided that the puffin would be called Neil and the vet asked her if she would be able to look after Neil until his wing was better, on the strict understanding that he would then have to return to the wild.
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|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0349131902</amazonuk>
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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''.
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Betty G Birney
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|author=Thiago de Moraes
|title=Spring According to Humphrey
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|title=Old Gods New Tricks
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Spring, of all things, is a dead endThe class, given the homework task of finding signs of spring, are just failing and failing, what with the bad weather.  And nobody can come up with any useful ideas for the class theme at the school's Family Fun Day, as being clowns has been nicked by someone elseHow can a humble classroom pet hamster help everyone and everything especially when he has been gazumped himself?  For the very child tasked with looking after Humphrey for the weekend has been sent a package containing what is alleged to be a sign of spring although to our hero the two tiny tadpoles in a tank look like two specks in gunk…
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|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>0571284183</amazonuk>
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|isbn=178845295X
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Emer Stamp
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|author=Hannah Gold and Levi Pinfold
|title=The Seriously Extraordinary Diary of Pig
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|title=Finding Bear
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Hello.  I is very happy to be giving a positive verdict on a third adventure for Pig, who speaks Pig, his best friend Duck, who speaks Pig but in a Duck font, and their best friend Cow who speaks bad.  This time the Chickens who was the evil ones is not hardly even mentioned, and the Cat that scared Pig and everyone else in [[The Super Amazing Adventures of Me, Pig by Emer Stamp|his second book]] is barely thought of, but there is another bad character to make up for itBut first I is having to report that Pig and Cow and Duck are making a big trouble for themselves, which is causing them to try and save the day and by mistake making the bad character notice CowAnd when I tells you the big trouble happens because Cow tries to hide Cow on the Farmer's roof you will knows just what a silly diary this series is.
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|summary=[[The Last Bear by Hannah Gold|Last time]], April had been on Bear Island, a lot further north than many people would venture, and finding a ridiculously unexpected but delightful friendship with a polar bear – that she called BearBack home, things on the domestic and family front are a bit advanced, but not perfect for her, and so can easily be ignored when word comes through from the islands Bear was last left on.  For a bear doing very Bear-y things has been shot and woundedDesperate to make sure he's OK, she and her father return to the Arctic and hope that in a world of very white and very dangerous things, she can find one specific white and dangerous thing – and that the friendship can continue.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1407153226</amazonuk>
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|isbn=0008582017
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Phil Earle and Sara Ogilvie
+
|author=Simon Fox
|title=Superhero Street
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|title=Deadlock
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Having really enjoyed the first book about the children on Storey street, [[Demolition Dad by Phil Earle and Sara Ogilvie]] I was looking forward to this follow upThis time the focus is on Mouse who lives in a rather manic household since after having Mouse his mother had twin boys, and then triplets!  Whilst his father is exhausted from trying to earn a living as a magician, his mother is, as you can imagine, run ragged with all the children, and Mouse feels rather neglected.  Mouse has a secret means of escape, however, because he leads an imaginary double life and his secret identity is Mouse the Mighty!  But what happens when he is forced to become a hero in real life?
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|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>1444013882</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1839944420
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author= Abi Elphinstone
+
|author=Cath Howe
|title=The Shadow Keeper
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|title=My Life on Fire
|rating= 5
+
|rating=5
|genre= Confident Readers
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|genre=Confident Readers
|summary= Moll and the rest of her tribe have been forced to move from the ancient forest and they are now hidden in a secret cave by the sea. They must find the secret amulet of truth to overcome the evil Shadowmasks and to achieve this they must slip past fierce smugglers, defeat horrific creatures and solve challenging clues. The threats mount and their courage is tested as Moll and her loyal wildcat Gryff, together with her friends Alfie and Sid battle to find the amulet before it is too late.
+
|summary=Ren's family home is destroyed in a fire.  She, her parents, and her little brother lose everything.  She doesn't have any of her clothes, or any of her special little knick-knacks from her cupboard, and now she is living at her grandmother's house where they can't touch anything, or do anything, or even eat the foods they normally eat. When she goes back to school she discovers that the class are doing a special art project, creating boxes of their lives, to display things that are important to them and show who they are as a person.  But Ren has nothing to put in a box, and so she finds herself starting to steal things. Small things, things that people might not really miss, not when they have so much already.  But what will happen to her if someone finds out what she is doing?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1471122700</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=1839942835
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author=Jenny Oldfield
+
|author= Rob Keeley
|title=Blue Moon
+
|title= The Boy Who Disappeared and Other Stories
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|genre=Dyslexia Friendly
+
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Anna thought that life was just about perfect.  She was home-schooled for much of the time, but spent quite a lot of time riding her horse, Blue Moon, with her friend Lee and his horse, Stormy.  There was even a secret meadow which the two twelve-year olds used to visit.  Then one evening, Anna dashed in late for supper at the ranch and realised that something was wrong - badly wrong.  Anna's mother had a tumour in her stomach which would require surgery.  As if that wasn't bad enough, her father was going to have to sell some of the horses to pay for the surgery.  Worried as she was about her mother there was one thought uppermost in Anna's mind: the best-trained horse on the ranch - and the one that was worth the most money - was Blue Moon.  Anna could not bear the thought of losing the animal who had known her since she was two years old.  She and Lee came up with a plan.
+
|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>1781125082</amazonuk>
+
|isbn= B0BVW69N1G
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author=Jenny Oldfield
+
|author=Laura Noakes
|title=Blue Moon
+
|title=Cosima Unfortunate Steals a Star
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|genre=Dyslexia Friendly
+
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Anna thought that life was just about perfectShe was home-schooled for much of the time, but spent quite a lot of time riding her horse, Blue Moon, with her friend Lee and his horse, StormyThere was even a secret meadow which the two twelve-year olds used to visit.  Then one evening, Anna dashed in late for supper at the ranch and realised that something was wrong - badly wrongAnna's mother had a tumour in her stomach which would require surgery.  As if that wasn't bad enough, her father was going to have to sell some of the horses to pay for the surgeryWorried as she was about her mother there was one thought uppermost in Anna's mind: the best-trained horse on the ranch - and the one that was worth the most money - was Blue MoonAnna could not bear the thought of losing the animal who had known her since she was two years old.  She and Lee came up with a plan.
+
|summary=Meet Number One.  Or rather, Cosima Unfortunate.  Or rather, just Cos to her friendsThe practice in the home she lives in is for the girls to just be named by the number they correspond to in the ledger, and they're all Unfortunates – young people with disabilities, uncommon mentalities or suchlike that Victorian society frowns greatly uponBut Cosima bears the tag as a surname because nothing else seems to be known about where she came from, as the first ever inmate, and unique in having no known family in the outside worldDuring a daring escapade to steal some posh cakes from the kitchen one afternoon, she discovers a plan involving said outside world – a devilish Lord Fitzroy seems to want to adopt all the girls for his InstituteBut 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>1781125082</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 plunderWith eviction imminent, can Elsbeth nab anything to actually generate custom at the shop?  Well yes, is the answer, but the fact a mysterious man knows exactly which items come from these different Somewheres only raises more questions…
 +
|isbn=1839943769
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author=Jean Ure
+
|author=Natasha Farrant
|title=Strawberry Crush
+
|title=The Rescue of Ravenwood
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Mattie has sometimes felt that she has her work cut out with her cousin Maya.  Maya's mum and Mattie's mum are twins and they live around the corner from each other, but Maya's mum is, well, just a bit fragile and Uncle Kevin, her dad, is absent at the moment and no one knows where he is.  All that would be enough to cope with, but Maya has ''crushes''Well, ''crushes'' doesn't do what happens justice: it really amounts to obsession and a new one starts when Maya falls off her bike (not unusual) and is 'rescued' by Jake Harper, the school heart throbWhat deeply worries Mattie is that Maya is twelve and Jake is eighteen and there are occasions, as Mattie listens to Maya, when she wonders if something really ''is'' going on. Or is it all in Maya's over-active imagination?  What should Mattie do?
+
|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 familyThey 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>000755396X</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=0571348785
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author= Cas Lester
+
|author=Robin Birch and Jobe Anderson
|title= Wilfred the (Un)Wise
+
|title=Secret Beast Club: The Unicorns of Silver Street
|rating= 5
+
|rating=4
|genre= Confident Readers
+
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary= Back in Ye Olden Days young Wilfred lands himself a dream apprenticeship training learning how to be a wizard under the instruction of Wincewart the Withering, Castle Mage and Soothsayer of Wallop in the Wold. But learning ''magik'' isn't easy and things can go drastically and hilariously wrong – like accidentally transporting himself one thousand years into the future, where he meets a girl called Bel who loves doing magic tricks herself.
+
|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>1848124643</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=0241573483
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author= Sarah Rubin
+
|isbn=B09XWSXSKY
|title= Alice Jones: The Impossible Clue
+
|title=Maestro Orpheus and the World Clock
|rating= 4.5
+
|author=Robert Penee and Joanne Grodzinski
|genre= Confident Readers
+
|rating=4
|summary= She's a bit of a loner, and she'd definitely prefer to work on proving an obscure theorem or two than spend time with the rest of her class. Still, the fact remains that Alice is rocket-science brainy, she's as determined as a hungry chimp in a banana shop, and she has the dry droll wit of the old fedora-wearing gumshoes of yesteryear. Look out bad guys, there's a new detective in town, and she won't give up till you're sporting a shiny pair of regulation handcuffs.
+
|genre=Confident Readers
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1910002860</amazonuk>
+
|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.
 +
 
 +
''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?
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author=A A Milne and E H Shepard
+
|author=Nigel Baines
|title=Winnie-the-Pooh
+
|title=A Tricky Kind of Magic
|rating=5
+
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
+
|genre=Emerging Readers
|summary=Is there anyone who doesn't know about Winnie-the-Pooh? You might know him as Pooh Bear and even if you haven't read the stories you'll know about playing Pooh Sticks or The Bear of Very Little BrainThis first book about the bear, originally published in 1926, has been translated into numerous language, including Latin - and that edition featured on the ''New York Times'' bestseller list.  It's difficult to believe that Pooh will be ninety in October 2016, not least because he's ageless and the books which feature him are not in the least dated.
+
|summary=Cooper loves to perform magic tricks.  His father was a magician, and named Cooper after the great Tommy Cooper. But sadly Cooper's father died suddenly, and now Cooper doesn't quite know who to be, or how to beAnd when his dad's prop rabbit starts talking to him, he ''really'' doesn't know what's going on anymore!
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1405280832</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

5star.jpg Children's Non-Fiction

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

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Review of

Old Gods New Tricks by Thiago de Moraes

4.5star.jpg Confident Readers

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

4.5star.jpg Confident Readers

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

4.5star.jpg Confident Readers

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

5star.jpg Confident Readers

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

4star.jpg Confident Readers

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

4star.jpg Confident Readers

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

4.5star.jpg Confident Readers

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

5star.jpg Confident Readers

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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