Newest Confident Readers Reviews
Nancy Parker's Spooky Speculations by Julia Lee
Nancy Parker, likeable maidservant, and part-time super sleuth, returns in this enjoyable mystery story set in 1920. Nancy is delighted to be rescued from her job on the fruit and vegetable market stall when she is offered the job of housemaid at an old house by the sea thanks to her old friend Ella who lives nearby. However strange noises and bumps in the night coupled with ghostly appearances soon disturb Nancy's contentment. The two friends team up and decide to investigate the mysterious happenings. However all does not go smoothly for our young heroines as they cope with unfriendly neighbours, spooky cellars and Nancy's kindly but eccentric boss. Full review...
Born to Dance (Dance Trilogy 1) by Jean Ure
Maddy O'Brien is just eleven years old and her life revolves around ballet dancing. It's not surprising really: her father is a leading choreographer, her mother was a ballerina but now runs her own ballet school, her brother, Sean, has just been promoted to soloist and her sister Jen might be having a baby but she was in the business too. Maddy's enthusiasm for ballet isn't the usual passing interest which many young girls have - she's longing to be off to ballet school full time. In the meantime she and a couple of her friends are looking over the new arrivals at their school and Maddy is convinced that one of them is a ballet dancer. Only Caitlyn is adamant that she's not and quite definite that she doesn't go to classes. Full review...
The Misadventures of Max Crumbly: Locker Hero by Rachel Renee Russell
We start this book introducing us to Max Crumbly in the dark. Literally – I don't mean as regards knowing very little about him and it. It's clearly a diary-styled, heavily pictorial, light read for a young audience, but we're in the dark as regards Max because he is in the dark. School bully Thug Thurston has locked him in his locker, and he's scribbling a goodbye to the world in his journal, with the help of a handy pocket torch. Over an extended flashback – a flashback that would never really work otherwise in a diary-styled book – we see more of who Max is. He's buddy to the boyf of Nikki Maxwell from this author's other series, and is a friendless yet cool chap at his middle school, which he's riding out – complete with Thug – because the alternative is his gran's version of home-schooling, which is much worse. But when the locker, official notes of his attending late, and problems with classroom beauty Erin all conspire to make Max hate school even more, you might just expect him to change his mind. But events here will more than make up his resolve… Full review...
The New Adventures of Mr Toad: A Race for Toad Hall by Tom Moorhouse and Holly Swain
Poop-poop! Yes, that must be the most inaccurate representation of the noise a toad makes. But of course, it's not just a toad, but Mr Toad – Toad of Toad Hall. The irrepressible juvenile driver, thrusting himself into the Edwardian era, and scaring the bejaysus out of his friends, Moley, Ratty and Badger. But he's long gone. Toad Hall is a shell – a ruin compared to what it once was. Stumbling into its underground regions (don't ask) are Mo, Ratty and TJ – Toad Junior, in full – and what they're about to discover will shock them. But that's nothing compared to the shock that what they find will face, for Mr Toad will be revived after a century of being frozen, and not like what he finds one bit. Apart, that is, from the modern cars… Full review...
My Name is Victoria by Lucy Worsley
Miss V is the daughter of Sir John Conroy. Sir John Conroy is the comptroller of the household of the widowed Duchess of Kent. And the widowed Duchess of Kent is mother to the young Princess Victoria, who will go on to be one of Britain's most memorable monarchs. Miss V is also called Victoria - well, Victoire actually - but distinctions of rank are important, especially when one of you will become a queen. Full review...
The Secret Keepers by Trenton Lee Stewart
Reuben is a small boy growing up with his mum in a big city full of injustice and fear. The family have little money and working two jobs means that Reuben's mum trusts him to be on his own a lot. For a young child Reuben develops a lot of independence, which really helps him when he finds an unusual and precious object and decides to try to uncover its secret. He hopes it might be valuable and dreams of being able to buy his mum her ideal home. Unfortunately there is someone else also looking for the object and Reuben enters into a dangerous game of hide and seek as he dares to take on the most powerful and ruthless man in the city Full review...
The Goldfish Boy by Lisa Thompson
Matthew has OCD. Not that he knows that's what it is. He just likes things clean, he really hates germs, or going outside, and he feels safest upstairs in his room and the front bedroom, where he can control the dirt, and where he can watch everything that's going on outside, making notes on his neighbours' activities. When a little boy, Teddy, from next door goes missing one day, it turns out that Matthew was the last person to see him, and with all of his neighbours as suspects Matthew struggles against his crippling anxieties in order to try and uncover the truth of what happened to Teddy. Full review...
All Mary (Mary Plain 2) by Gwynedd Rae and Clara Vulliamy
Mary is growing up – and going out into the world. Which you might expect of a young girl in society, but this is a young girl bear in society. Still, she's finding the Ps and Qs and her manners are equally as important as our daughters would. But when she's told to be on her best behaviour and she thinks it is something to sit upon, is there any hope? Full review...
Mostly Mary (Mary Plain 1) by Gwynedd Rae and Clara Vulliamy
Meet Mary Plain. She's a bear, living in a pit in the Swiss city of Berne, and bears have been there as a tradition for centuries. She's not been there long, for she's just an exuberant, slightly stroppy and definitely naïve, little cub, trying to catch up to her two slightly-older cousins, loving life with her aunt and uncle, and the generations above them. She's got a lot to learn about life, however – from how snow and ice change her world to what sitting on sticky paint can mean. Oh the innocence of little tykes – such as these books were written for. Full review...
The Painted Dragon (The Sinclair's Mysteries) by Katherine Woodfine
Ornate hats, the best cigars, fine foods and delicate perfumes – Mr Sinclair offers it all in his wondrous new department store, a marvel never before seen on the streets of London. Comfort, refinement and luxury abound, with smoking rooms, tea rooms and even an art gallery to excite and intrigue the haut monde as they examine the merchandise and chatter their days away. But beneath the wealth lies something more sinister, and once again Sophie and Lil find themselves solving a complicated and multi-layered mystery. Full review...
Who Let the Gods Out? by Maz Evans
Zeus retired as chief god a long time ago, so the rulers of things are the Constellations, even when they're a far-too-juvenile nineteen hundred year old like Virgo. Feeling left out, she steals the ambrosia that the Earth resident known as Prisoner Forty-Two needs, with hardly any clue as to what to do with it or where he is. So it's no surprise that she crashlands on the farm where Elliot lives. He's got enough problems without worrying about a girl who seems doolally arriving – his father is nowhere to be seen, his mother has got dementia and the farm is a week from being repossessed. It's the birth of a most mismatched partnership – the wise-cracking but hard-done-by lad, and his problems, and the godlike girl who thought she could do it all, but stumbles at the first receipt of sarcasm. But not even together can they see the bigger problems around the corner, for both of them – nor the enormity of the help they might end up calling on… Full review...
The Shakespeare Plot 1: Assassin's Code by Alex Woolf
Shakespeare's London – a vibrant, colourful city rich with promise, new discoveries and great art. A place, too, rife with conspiracies and schemes for murder and mayhem. Add to the mix a mysterious code, a girl disguised as a boy and a young servant asked to spy on his aristocratic master, and the stage is set for thrills and adventure. Full review...
Where Zebras Go by Sue Hardy-Dawson
I doubt if you could have zebras, foxes, the end of the world, penguins, dinosaurs and people out of fairy tale all together if it wasn't in a book of poetry. Even short stories would struggle to fit the breadth of content into as few pages as this volume does. Add in home life, school life and, er, football, and you really do have a diverse selection of subjects. All have caught the eye of our author ever since she started her career – some of these poems date back a decade – and now she is going to try her damnedest, with some brilliant design, to make sure they all catch the eye of you. Full review...
Hilo: Saving the Whole Wide World (Hilo Book 2) by Judd Winick
Judd Winick certainly knows how to keep his readers in suspense. The first Hilo book ended on a massive cliffhanger and I've been eagerly awaiting the next instalment to find out what happens next. The first book was pure comic-book joy, with bright and bold artwork and an engaging fish-out-of water story about a boy with superpowers who fell to earth with no memory of his identity. In this sequel, Hilo returns and discovers that mysterious portals are opening up all over town, releasing all sorts of strange creatures from other dimensions. As the townsfolk run in panic from the invading monsters, its the job of Hilo and his friends to send them back where they came from and seal the portals for good. Full review...
His Royal Whiskers by Sam Gayton
What would you do if your only son was accidently transformed into a cat? The Czar is beside himself, as a war chief, the emperor of the land, he needs an heir strong enough to follow his legacy. Instead, he has a fluffy ginger kitten. He is the laughing stock of his enemies, and he really needs to turn these odds back in his favour. So he forces those responsible to change the cat into a giant cat through the same magic they used the first time: alchemy. Full review...
Tilt by Mary Hoffman
To make an author, you first show someone books. To make a reader, you first show them the books they want to, and/or can, read. To make a builder, you first show someone buildings. I use those platitudes to introduce Simonetta, or Netta, who lives in Pisa late in the thirteenth century. She is surrounded by fabulous buildings – it's not for nothing the area will become known as the Field of Miracles, for the Cathedral, Baptistry and bell tower look gorgeous. But something is wrong with the latter one – it's definitely leaning, cracks are showing, and over the hundred-plus years it's taken to get this far people have built the floors at odd angles to correct the problem. Netta is intent on being the person who can solve it, alongside her father who's employed to finish it off. But therein lies the problem – it's all well and good showing someone buildings, and making them want to be an architect, but if they're the wrong gender then all hope is lost… or is it? Full review...
Until We Win by Linda Newbery
The best journeys are made with little steps. Lizzy is slowly leaving her boring village behind – by being cheeky yet clever at her lessons, and getting a job in an office in the nearest proper town – and by saving to buy, and teaching herself to ride, a bicycle. All that's under the watchful eye of a mother insistent she learns to knuckle down with the housework on behalf of the men, and an older brother working at the village hunt. At the office, however, further steps are suggested to her – shorthand and typing classes, but she gets diverted. A chance encounter in a tea rooms puts more stepping stones in her way – en route to becoming a fully committed Suffragette, concerned only with making demands for votes for women. Full review...
Worst Ever School Trip: Beaky Malone by Barry Hutchison
Dylan 'Beaky' Malone has a reputation as a prolific liar. He lies to his teachers, friends and family and has become so good at it, he rarely gets caught out. Everything changed, however, when he stepped into Madame Shirley's magical truth-telling machine. Now it's impossible for Beaky to tell a lie, but worse than that, he now has a habit of blurting the truth out without warning. So whether it's telling the headteacher that his breath smells, confessing undying love for the dinner lady, or embarrassing his friends by sharing their deepest secrets, the saying: the truth hurts has never been more appropriate. Full review...
Mark of the Plague: a Blackthorn Key Adventure by Kevin Sands
London during the plague – a terrifying place to be in any era. And in 1665, a time when relics and blessings are considered just as effective – if not more so – than medicines, it spreads at a horrific rate. Imagine it: if one person in a family starts to show the distinctive signs, everyone in the household is sealed in, meaning that they too will almost inevitably succumb and die a painful death. Quacks sell all manner of rubbish to desperate townsfolk, and prophets draw large crowds as they preach repentance for sin. Full review...
Welcome to Nowhere by Elizabeth Laird
Omar is a twelve-year-old boy living in Bosra, Syria. He works two small jobs before and after school. He prefers the jobs to school. Omar dreams of becoming a successful entrepreneur with a network of businesses to rule over. He's already developing a successful sales patter. Omar has a clever sister who wants to be a teacher, and a clever brother who few realise is clever because he has cerebral palsy and people can't see past his speech impediment. He has a father who works for the government, a mother who worries too much, a hypercritical granny and a couple of annoying younger siblings. Full review...
Alice Jones: The Ghost Light by Sarah Rubin
Actors are superstitious creatures at the best of times, but it doesn't help that the cast (including Alice's twin Della) is rehearsing in a historic old theatre once ravaged by fire and haunted, so they say, by the ghost of a former leading lady. After a spate of inexplicable and apparently random accidents threaten the show Alice's sister insists she investigate and stop the culprit before someone is seriously hurt. But can it all be blamed on the shady businessman who wants to tear the place down and build a multi-plex instead, or is the explanation something a good deal more spooky? Full review...
St Grizzle's School for Girls, Goats and Random Boys by Karen McCombie
Dani's mum is a zoologist which – according to Dani – means she's obsessed with penguins' bums. There are lots of penguins in Antarctica and it's, therefore, not surprising that Dani's mum can't turn down the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to join a three month expedition to study her beloved penguins in their natural habitat. But where does that leave Dani? Mum thinks it means sending Dani to a sensible boarding school for girls. Dani hates the idea and she hates the school even more when she arrives and discovers the new headteacher has made some rather unusual changes. Dani's convinced there is no way she'll ever fit in in a school where students run wild, where the receptionist barely speaks English, and where they have to remember to lock their dormitory door to keep out the resident goat. Full review...
What Not to Do If You Turn Invisible by Ross Welford
Meet Ethel. Yes, it's an old-fashioned name for such a young girl, but she has connections with the generations that came before, in that she lives with her gran in the far north-east of England. Mother dead, and dad long absent, it's them and the dog, and very little in the way of friendship, mostly because Ethel is not allowed to be as cool as she would wish, and because she has horrendous acne. The nearest thing to a friend would seem to be a boy in class who has allegedly awful BO, and obviously worse, is an Arsenal fan. So why are we meeting Ethel? Oh yes, it's because she woke up one morning, after trying a sunbed that had been offloaded on to her for free, to find she'd been on it well over an hour, and had in fact become totally invisible. Full review...
Star Wars Rogue One: Mission Files by Jason Fry
Out of several books I've seen to tie-in to the seventh official cinema movie in the Star Wars universe, this – and the resulting review – is the greatest source of spoilers. What you get is a surprisingly mature look at the background and events to Rogue One for such a juvenile book, with some fine stills photographs, and a volume that introduces all the main characters and gears you up to understand and enjoy a lot of the events of the film. So if you don't want to know those in advance, look away now. But certainly consider this as a purchase for reading once you've watched it. Full review...
