|summary=Let's be honest – starting a new series with a boy alone in a new school, apart from his bullying nemesis, does not particularly strike one as original, or even interesting. But behind all the fabulous LCD message boards and technology, the brand new Lovecraft Middle actually holds some very interesting and ancient secrets. A host of children find a white rat waiting for them in their lockers when they're opened for the first time. The library seems to have a very unusual labyrinth of secret passages in, appropriately enough, the paranormal fiction section. And no-one, from the pupils to the staff, seem to be acting quite as they should…
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1594745919</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Marcus Sedgwick
|title=Monster Mountains: Raven Boy and Elf Girl 2
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Meet, if you didn't [[Raven Boy and Elf Girl by Marcus Sedgwick|last time]], Raven Boy and Elf Girl. He's got a rat in his pocket, and can communicate with animals and birds, while she has a magical bow, but doesn't know how to use it properly. They don't have a home forest any more, as the Goblin King sent an ogre to demolish it. This is the first sequel amongst the series of six volumes, as they encounter different landscapes in turn on their way to confront him and put him to rights – somehow. Here they face the freezing cold, a giant yeti, the three evil trolls chasing them since book one for their supper – and Jeremy.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444004867</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Jeremy de Quidt
|title=The Feathered Man
|rating=4
|genre=Teens
|summary=Klaus is a street kid who has been taken in by Kusselman, the tooth-puller. Kusselman is a hard taskmaster, fond of using a belt to discipline and control his young apprentice, and he isn't fussy where he finds teeth to sell to the rich of the town. So there's nothing unusual in a trip to Frau Drecht's miserable boarding house, home to those with no money and no other place to go. When her residents die off, as they tend to do with depressing regularity, Frau Drecht sells their teeth to Kusselman and their poor, wasted bodies to the School of Anatomy for dissection. Frau Drecht has also taken a street child for a servant. But to keep Liesel in line, Frau Drecht uses a hot iron, not a belt.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0385613598</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Jeff Norton
|title=The Dead are Rising (MetaWars)
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Jonah's father died in the battle for control of the Metasphere. He was a Guardian - a terrorist or freedom fighter, depending how you see things - and he had infiltrated himself into a position of trust with the Millenials, the group supporting the billionaire inventor who created and controlled an online world in which people living in a post peak-oil and devasted Earth spend most of their time. But before he died, Jason Delacroix's memories had been uploaded to the Metasphere as an avatar.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408314606</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Maggie Pearson
|title=Short Christmas Stories
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=The latest offering in the successful ''Short Series'' from Oxford University Press, this book contains a selection of very short stories, none more than two pages long, on a Christmas theme. There are over forty tales in this collection, some are derived from traditional tales from different countries, some are more current and the wide variety of funny, thought-provoking, spooky and occasionally scary stories provides something to suit all tastes.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0192794698</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Sally Gardner
|title=A Palace Full of Princesses
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Early readers are the stepping stones between picture books and 'real' books. They've still got plenty of pictures (very useful if you need the odd clue about a big word) but they've got more structure about them. Chapters give the emerging reader a sense of achievement and the end of a chapter is a useful point to aim for when you're just starting out. Above all they're stories which appeal to the reader so that it's not 'something you have to do at school' but an activity you really look forward to. If children get that idea in the early years at school then they have a pleasure which will stay with them all their lives.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444007742</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Francesca Simon and Tony Ross
|title=Horrid Henry's Fearsome Four
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Recently I was talking to the teacher of a class of seven-year-olds about books. It was, she said, very easy to find books for girls, but much more of a challenge to find something suitable for the boys. And by 'something suitable' she meant the sort of books which boys like to read, something 'edgy' which appealed to their inner racal. The early reading stage is important for all children, but it's the boys who are most likely to be 'lost' at this stage if the books they see don't feel relevant to their lives. So what does appeal? Well, [[The Brilliant World of Tom Gates by Liz Pichon|Tom Gates]] always goes down well and so does Horrid Henry.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444006576</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=David Borgenicht
|title=Monkeyfarts: Wacky Jokes Every Kid Should Know
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Do your children like telling jokes? My daughter loves jokes. The trouble is, she makes hers up and, sadly, they're not very funny! She's five years old and she understands the construction of jokes, especially knock knock jokes, but when it comes to finding the funny punch line...well, it's not her forte! So, when this book arrived she was keen to take a look.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1594746052</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Josh Lacey
|title=The Sultan's Tigers
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Tom's dad is the black sheep of the family – the only one who isn't a thieving adventurer and dishonest chancer. Tom's granddad was like that, but has just died. Tom's uncle tends that way – and even Tom himself learnt the benefits of such a life in the [[Island of Thieves by Josh Lacey|first book in the series]]. With the passing of the granddad, Tom is alone in the empty house when a desperate burglar implies a family secret is worth a lot of money – which leads to Tom and Uncle Harvey disappearing tout suite to India on the trail of treasure. Out of eight gem-encrusted tiger statuettes, seven have been bought by the same oligarch – but the eighth was hidden by one of Tom's ancestors, and might be there still, and they might be first to the priceless object – but they are not the only people on the treasure hunt…
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849394547</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Chris Riddell
|title=Alienography 2: Tips for Tiny Tyrants
|rating=3.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=As we found out at quite painful length and horrid detail, even Darth Vader was young once. Alright, he didn't start out that evil, but other space supremoes and galactic governors do – and chances are you know a child that would like nothing more than to romp around destroying planets and completely and utterly having their way, with no-one daring to call 'bedtime!' for fear of being grabbed by the unmentionables. With ten(-ish) tips for that child, and several asides, diversions and added frivolity, is this large book, all with the intention of filling the black hole of ignorance in the wannabe ruler of worlds.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0230741045</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Frank Cottrell Boyce
|title=Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and the Race Against Time
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=There's nothing like a good villain to spice up a tale, and they come in all shapes and sizes in this, Frank Cottrell Boyce's second book about [[Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Flies Again by Frank Cottrell Boyce|Chitty Chitty Bang Bang]]. The previous story ended with them trying to flee Tiny Jack, a nasty piece of work with a seriously horrid Nanny and a fondness for feeding people to his pet piranhas, and as this book opens they find themselves nose-to-nose with a dinosaur. A real, live one, with her mind firmly fixed on lunch.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>023075774X</amazonuk>
}}
