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[[Category:New Reviews|Confident Readers]] __NOTOC__<!-- Remove -->{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Matthew Clark Smith and Matt Tavares1836285493|title=Lighter than Air: Sophie Blanchard, the First Woman PilotThe Double Life of a Wheelchair User|author=Rob Keeley|rating=4.5|genre=Children's Non-Fiction Confident Readers|summary=We're in ParisWill is a keen player of video games, a conscientious student, a slightly annoying brother and – not to be too rude about things – we seem surrounded by idiotsa supportive friend. For oneBut most of all, it seems they think the perfect place to experiment with manned hot air balloon flights he is in the middle of the biggest city in the world. For another, they think only men could suffer the slightly colder and slightly thinner air experienced on such an adventure – women would never be able to copeaspiring writer. Meanwhile, a young girl English is dreaming of flighthis favourite lesson at his school, as so many are wont to doMarlowe Park, completely unaware that she will soon marry and one of the most famed balloonistsat which he excels. They will have joint journeys skyward, before This hasn't gone unnoticed by his early demise – leaving the young womanheadteacher, Sophie BlanchardMrs Howarth, and she has suggested to go it alone Will and become the first female pilothis mum that he spends a couple of afternoons a week at a different school, Station Road, where his ability might be better extended.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0763677329</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Lorraine Gregory 1836282028|title=Mold and the Poison Plot The Fighting Spirit|author=Rob Keeley|rating=54|genre=Confident Readers |summary=Mold's mum abandoned him in 'Would you like to adopt a dustbin when he was a baby but the binmen didnghost?'' ''t want himYoung spirit, born 1887, seeks kind home to haunt. Gentleman by birth. Good company. Gets on well with other children. Luckily old Aggy gave him Jokes and shocks a speciality.'' ''If interested, place outside your home andthree twigs, in the shape of an arrow, pointing to your front door...'' Hooray! Bookbag favourite Rob Keeley is celebrating a decade of his wonderfully entertaining [[Rob Keeley's ''Spirits'' series in Chronological Order|Spirits]] series with a crusty one-legged sailor as new adventure that is both a reboot and a friendcontinuation. Just like Doctor Who, Edward Fitzberranger, our incorrigible Victorian ghost boy, Mold is happyhas some new companions. Happy until Aggy is accused of poisoning the King. Suddenly Mold finds himself alone Ruby and thrust into the unlikely role of hero. He sets off Jayden respond to rescue Aggy this intriguing advertisement and along Edward, who has broken the way finds himself trying to save the King rules as usual and absconded from his manor house home, is adopted by them and prevent a war with the Boggerstakes up residence in.... It's a lot for one small boy with an enormous nose but luckily he finds he's uniquely fashioned to sniff out danger. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0192745824</amazonuk>wardrobe!

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Danny WallaceRob Keeley|title= Hamish and the Gravity BurpChildish Spirits: 10th anniversary special edition|rating= 4|genre= Confident Readers|summary=BUUUUUURRRRRRRRPPPPP!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.

A terrifying noise The ''Childish Spirits'' series is rumbling through the sleepy town one of Starkley (the fourth most boring town in Britain) and having his greatest achievements. It's a peculiar effect sequence of ghost stories centring on the residents. Gravity has gone into reverse and the poor townsfolk are floating skywardEllie, helplessly trying to grab onto whatever they a stalwart young girl who can in order to slow their ascent. Hamish Ellerby has just arrived home to find his family stuck to cope with anything the ceiling, along with a bowl of fruitspirit world throws at her, six batteries and a wind-up meerkat. What could be causing this strange phenomenon? Could it be leading up to something bigger? A ''gravity-belch'', or heaven forbidEdward, a ''gravity-FART''? It's up to Hamish and his gang, the PDF, to solve the mystery spoiled lordling and restore order to Starkley in time for the official visit from the Public Office of Pride, or POP (shouldn't it be POOP?).first spirit Ellie encounters|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1471147126</amazonuk>1783064617

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Sarah CarrollMax Boucherat|title=The Girl In BetweenLast 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?|isbn=0008666482}}{{Frontpage|author=Kieran Larwood and Joe Todd-Stanton|title=Dungeon Runners: Hero Trial

|summary=After Meet Kit. Like most of the people in his world, it seems, he is an avid fan of Dungeon Running – the sport where a family argumentteam of warrior, a girl mage and her mother are stuck out on the streets of Irelandhealer enter specially prepared, finding shelter finally in an century-old, abandoned millmagical mazes, and race to the exit, perhaps bothering with the treasure or the big bad and the points they grant you along the way. The mill becomes Unfortunately for Kit, the girlonly thing he's castle, where she finally feels safe from seen of the lurking threat of 'latest race on the authorities' inn TV equivalent is that one team has been retired, eaten, and some a new trio of the strange men in her mother's lifequestors is needed. Her motherPossibly very unfortunately indeed for Kit, however, seems he has taken to be tumbling deeper into depression, keeping her daughter locked up, out the goading from the token bully of sight inside, his world and now there are strange men in hard hats coming around the mill to measure and make notesstumbled into declaring he'll enter as a team. Can the two of them move onWhat chance does this friendless, muscle-free-zone have in actually managing that, or will they be too late and how could he possibly hope to escapesucceed?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1471160629</amazonuk>1839945184

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jonathan Litton and Thomas HegbrookJames Sherwood Metts|title=The Earth Book: A World of Exploration and WonderPlanet Storyland

|genre=Children's Non-FictionConfident Readers|summary=The EarthThings have been a bit sticky for the Earthlings. I kind of quite like itAI and automation have been proceeding apace, you know – it seems often replacing jobs they're paid to serve my purpose. I don't think I've taken too much out of it, all told, do and if it's divided up into 200 countries I'm getting close other tasks that took time to having visited a quarter of themaccomplish. But way back when I just didn't Just as they were beginning to get on with studying it. I didn't like geography – what with having used to draw maps, oxbow lakes all this technological change and whatnot I starting to think it was one of those subjects I other, new ways to spend time, along came an awful pandemic. Life was put off through the pictorial element – pretty much shut down and dropped , along with it as soon as I could. But then, I didn't have all the likes of this book to inspire me…many daily social interactions on which they depend so heavily.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1848575246</amazonuk>1736128426

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Meg RosoffTom Percival|title=Good Dog McTavishThe Wrong Shoes

|summary=McTavish did wonder whether 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 making working a mistake cash-in adopting the Peachey family: it was -hand job on a decision which came from the heart rather than the headbuilding site and had an accident. You see Throw into that mix the Peacheys were dysfunctional: Ma Peachey, an accountant by profession, decided fact that she was fed up with chasing around after an ungrateful familyhis mum and dad are separated, so she resigned and dedicated herself to her yoga with half Will's life seems bleak in every direction. And yet, he still has a hint that she might also dedicate herself to her yoga teachertiny amount of hope. She gave up cooking, cleaning, bakingHe is good at art, washing and all clings to the other things which kept the family goingmoments of joy when he is drawing, such as finding lost keys and getting people out of bed so that they got to wherever they were going on time. And feel like a light at the family? Well, they had no idea end of how to copea long, with one exceptiondark tunnel.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1781126836</amazonuk>1398527122

{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1805141872|title=The Teacher Who Knew Too Much|author=Tom AnglebergerRob Keeley|rating=4.5|titlegenre=Confident Readers|summary=Marvel Rocket ''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 Groot: Keep Ben go on Truckinthe 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}}{{Frontpage|author=Christopher Edge|title=Black Hole Cinema Club

|summary=Last time our favourite space-gun toting small, furry woodland creature Lucas and his humanoid yet woody friend Grootfriends are all booked in for a movie marathon at their local cinema, escaped a [[Marvel Rocket and Groot: Stranded on Planet Shopping Mall by Tom Angleberger|planet-sized shopping mall of death]], complete with their new companion in place that has the form nickname of a tape dispenser'The Black Hole'. All big movie fans, and an old friend (for Ithey'm sure Rocket would think of any old space ship re looking forward to lots of his as a friendexciting films, much as I'm sure that if the reverse were technically possibleand many, the ship would never do the same back). many snacks! But when they run out of fuelHowever, as we were led to expectthe movie starts, there they very quickly realise that something about this new film format is only one optionvery different, and that is to land on the nightmarish world – nightmarish to Rocket, at least – of HappyHappyFunFunthey are swept up into an adventure they couldn't even imagine. But what's this? The whole world's inhabitants are now stuck hiding in caves for fear of as they lurch from one film genre to the dangers of the roadnext, as every vehicle can they figure out what on earth is seemingly going on a collision course with them, in a planet-wide instance of road rage. ? Surely even Rocket, who laughs in Will they ever get back to the face of dangercinema, and Groot, who says ''I am Groot'' in the face of danger, cannot hope to helptheir real lives?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1405285478</amazonuk>1839942738

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Tom AnglebergerAdam Stower|title=Marvel Rocket Murray and Groot: Stranded on Planet Shopping MallBun|rating=4.5|genre=Confident Readers |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 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…|isbn=0008561249}}{{Frontpage|author=Alex Bell and Tim McDonagh|title=The Glorious Race of Magical Beasts

|summary=''I am Groot''. I know what you're saying there, it ''Eli is'' good to see a busy lad – by day an apprentice in the japery of our favourite small woodland creature wondrous library we start by visiting with him, and tree-man-thing in book formthe evening a helper at the dessert cafe his gran owns and runs. Eli lives with his lovely gran, even if here it too – for there is a particularly unusual formgeneration missing in the family. Everything here is unusualA few short years ago, on Planet Shopping MallEli's parents were both lost to the titular race, a globe-trotting adventure where our heroes all entrants have arrived – and not by choiceto navigate the world in the company of a magical beast. Take This has made the first place they go race anathema to the pair – but when a bad incident at the eatery leads to, a dry-cleanersconfession from gran, so that Rocket can clean Eli knows his clothes of space piranha blood – the toilet in back just tries only hope is to dare to eat him. The sickly-sweet sweet shop is manned by angry robot tooth fairiesenter what he most hates, with a battle mode, and they too have the consumption sole aim the prize of peculiar life-forms in mind. Can magic at the end – the stranded duo battle every evil only thing around, and survive to find a way off-world? And can they cope with being forced to enter partnership with a purple tape dispenser?possibly save his gran.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>140528546X</amazonuk>0571382231

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Philip Ardagh and Tom Morgan-JonesHelen Cooper|title=Norman The Taming of the Norman from Normandy (Little Gems)Cat|rating=3.5|genre=Dyslexia FriendlyConfident Readers|summary=Meet NormanOnce again, mice are pitched against cat. Norman In this case, principally, we have Brie the Normanmouse, from Normandyup 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. Not Big Bad Norman the Norman from NormandyAnyway, Brie is shunned, scorned and not Norma , if you must, mous-tracised, for the Norman way his habits don't match the other mice he lives with. They nibble up paper wrapping from Normandy the cheese for bedding – he displays it as art and not even Nora makes stories based on the Norman from, well visuals on it doesn't say, but my guess is Normandy. Norman isn't very big at And that story-telling will come in handy one night, when he feels all – he's just a little boy, alone and he's not badcast out. Or at least he doesnIt't think he iss almost as if there were another character from fable who had had to tell stories to keep themselves alive. But because his father, Big Bad Norman, is buried This makes Brie the top dog in three parts (don't ask)the mouse community, and little baby Norman has inherited Big Bad Norman's big bad Norman swordthough, he's going as all the others had the chance to visit half-inch some cheese while the three parts – but only good cat was distracted. But will happen… Rightthe story have the successful sequel it needs when that cheese runs out?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1781126976</amazonuk>0571376010

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Jane MitchellLauren St John|title= A Dangerous CrossingFinding Wonder|rating= 54|genre= Confident Readers|summary= Award winning author Jane Mitchell passionately believes in using literature as a conduit to highlight Human RightsRoo' issues that children need to understand and talk abouts life has become almost impossibly difficult. She explains Her mum died when she was young, ''Children hear and now she finds herself awoken in the political rhetoric on middle of the right side and night by the left side – police banging on her door to tell her that we should open our doors and let everybody inher dad has dropped dead on his way to the corner shop to buy a lottery ticket. When asked what other family she has, versus we should build barriersshe can only name her aunt, we should build wallsJoni, we should ban peoplewho she knows her dad didn't think very highly of. And children are struggling But she has no one else, and so off she goes to make sense of it, adults are struggling live with her unreliable aunt. Things continue to make sense of itget worse for Roo, we donas when she and Joni leave London in Joni't know what approach to take and what our views are because this is news old campervan, this is completely different to all of us.'' 'A Dangerous Crossing' gets to it breaks down in the heart middle of the matter. nowhere and then bursts into flames! Poor Roo!|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1910411582</amazonuk>0571376169

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Jane KerrAdam Baron and Benji Davies|title=The Elephant ThiefOscar's Lion|rating=53|genre= Confident Readers|summary= In 1872 Maharajah the elephant was sold at auction in Edinburgh 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 zoo ownercouple of times before he has to be ready for school. Shortly after boarding the train to But when he enters his new home parents' bedroom, all he destroyed the train carriage sees is a mahoosive male lion on their bed, looking sheepish, and his new owner then decided admitting that they would walk to his new home in Manchesterhe won't be hungry for another two days. The journey was But there are benefits to take them ten days. Jane Kerr has used this event having a lion around – it can be shown as an unspoken threat to the inspiration bully that ruined a birthday party for her debut novel for children that tells Oscar the other month. And it can shapeshift, so he can take it to school and it can get him out of a story that is excitingproblem. And it's wonderful to have around the house – not limiting his biscuit intake, being much more lax about the rules, compelling and ultimately very movingso on. OK, it can't work a dimmer switch but it can give Oscar a wonderful time. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1910655759</amazonuk>0008596751

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Joshua KhanJudith Eagle|title= Dream MagicThe Stolen Songbird|rating= 54|genre= Confident Readers|summary= ItCaro's great mother, a world-famous whistler, has failed to welcome our old friends back in thisreturn home from her recent work trip abroad and is now missing. Her other mother, the second of their adventuresRonnie, even though we know it means they'll be going through all sorts is having to go up North to take care of terrors and dangers once more as they battle not one but two enemies bent on destroying Gehennaher sister who is unwell. Lady Lilith Shadow may be the sole heir So who is going to look after Caro? Sent to stay with Gam, someone Caro has heard her countrymother despises, but she's still just a girl feels frustrated and confused and therefore expected worried. All her summer holiday plans of building herself some equipment to do nothing more useful than marry some feeble-witted prince practise her gymnastics are brought to forge a halt whilst she is stuck inside this staid old Victorian lady's house, along with an alliance with a stronger kingdom. Her friend Thornorphan boy, on the other handAlbie, who is living there too. But she soon finds herself caught up in a peasant boy from mystery, as she discovers a painting of a neighbouring country with bird hidden away inside her mum's old suitcase, and all across London a talent for getting into scrapes fearsome gang called the Snakes are thieving artworks and an absolutely wonderful giant bat he uses terrorising people. Is the painting somehow linked to travel round on (when the batgang? And what has happened to Caro's mother? Is she somehow involved in the mood to be helpful, that is). Together they make a great team. mystery too?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1407172093</amazonuk>0571363148

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Elena Favilli and Francesca CavalloTania Unsworth|title=Good Night Stories for Rebel GirlsNowhere Island

|genre=Children's Non-Fiction Confident Readers|summary=It's been said very often that 'history is told by the winners'Meet Gil. Well, too often historyJust twelve, he is so determined to escape the care system – the news and even destinies system that constantly puts him in futureless places that are written by men, not homes – and the proof is between these coversfind a home for himself. I didn't know anything about this before reading itHe is en route to yet another fosterer, when he jumps into an anonymous car, even if and lets it has become the most richly-backed crowd-funded book everride him to his future. I'd never heard That future seems to be in jeopardy when someone steals his one bag of the Hollow Flashlight, powered purely by body warmth belongings – which is rich if you're old enough to remember the brou-ha-ha when but that someone lives with his brother in a maverick British bloke did a wind-up radio. I'd never read about camp on an island between the Niger female who has successfully made two directions of a stand against forced, arranged marriagemotorway, rejecting a cousin for a fate she wishes place inaccessible and definitely ignored enough to write provide for herselftheir safety and seclusion. My ignorance mayThem, perhaps, show me up to be and a mute girl also finding a chauvinist of sortshome there, but I think it is further evidence that 'the gaze is male' and that the media are phallocentricalbeit so much more successfully. I hope too that this book doesn't turn any of its readers into Over a feministfew weeks we see if their oddball destinies can combine, for that would be as bad as the chauvinist charge against me. If anything it is designed to create equals, and that or if this is one place where life as we would want it should be, even if there is still a long way to go…just would not work…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>014198600X</amazonuk>1804540080

{{newreview|title=Evie's GhostFrontpage

|summary=Evie Two sisters, Juniper and Elodie, born fifteen minutes apart, are growing to be chalk and cheese. Juniper is not happyan eager hunter and trader in illicit magic, including relics from prior major wars left out in the Badlands. Not only has her mother disrupted their hitherto happy duo by Elodie is intent on getting marriedcloser 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, she has flown off on honeymoon with new husband Marcus and sent Evie off the closest to stay with a godmother she hasn't seen for years 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 barely rememberuse would definitely change the status of the whole family. And if that weren't bad enough, godmother Anna lives But in a creaky old mansion miles from anywherefinding something oddly magical, without such necessities as internet access and a mobile phone signal. Anna doesn't even Juniper might just be able to gain some power of her own a television– for good, or for heavens sake.very, very bad…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0857638424</amazonuk>0241586143

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Sarah Driver024162343X|title= The Huntress: SeaStolen History|author=Sathnam Sanghera|rating= 45|genre= Confident ReadersChildren's Non-Fiction|summary= Feisty heroines who refuse to accept I was the limitations set on them by men abound bad company other people got into at school. I was disruptive in literature at religious education classes because I disputed the moment – which is all to existence of a 'god'. Where was the good – and thirteen-year-old Mouse is no exceptionproof? In history lessons, it was probably worse still. She lives a precarious but happy life on Not too long after the end of WWII, I didn't so much want to learn about the British army'Huntresss successes (and occasional failures, but we didn't dwell on those) in what came to be called ' with her one-eyed grandma, who is the shipcolonies's captain, and her little brother Sparrow. Their tribe worships as want to dispute what right the whales as gods, protecting and working together with them army had to defeat be there in the vicious and bloodthirsty terrodylsfirst place. Looking back, and despite her young age Mouse is already a gifted diver for I still believe I was right - but I regret that I lacked the maturity to approach 'the pearls which they trade for foodproblem' politely. I wish I'd had Sathnam Sanghera's ''Stolen History''. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1405284676</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=Stargazing for BeginnersThiago de Moraes|authortitle=Jenny McLachlanOld Gods New Tricks|rating=4.5|genre=TeensConfident Readers|summary=Meg loves spaceMeet Trixie. And when we say Meg loves space Forever getting into scrapes, this doesn't quite explain how much Meg loves space. Meg loves all things space to larks and adventures involving flooding the exclusion school aircon with fart powder, she could almost be thought a young goddess of almost everything elsenuisance. She has a space mural in But just when she's being told that by her bedroomone-last-chance-giving headteacher, the world changes. She belongs to Suddenly, practically everything electronic stops working – a stargazing club with her grandfatherpower-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). She is determined to become an astronaut one day Trixie, luckily, realises what has happened – the ancient Gods have taken the power of power from us. And so she dreams of winning a competition that will earn begins her a place on a trip epic quest, to NASA gather all the people that can steal it back – namely the characters from myth that have past form in Houstonstealing from the Gods, ie the semi-deities, giants, half-gods and so on known as the tricksters. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1408879751</amazonuk>178845295X

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Ryan Tubridy Hannah Gold and P J LynchLevi Pinfold|title=Patrick and the PresidentFinding Bear|rating=4.5|genre=Emerging Confident Readers |summary=Meet Patrick. Such [[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 direction is ridiculously unexpected but delightful friendship with a little facetious here, because it's who ''he's'' going to meet polar bear – that's the keyshe called Bear. He lives in New Ross, County WexfordBack home, things on the domestic and his school has been chosen to perform as family front are a choir bit advanced, but not perfect for the much-anticipated arrival of President J F Kennedy, as the man traces the path of his Irish ancestryher, in what (in addition to stop-overs in England and Italy on so can easily be ignored when word comes through from the same trip) islands Bear was to be his last state visit abroadleft on. But surely just being one among three hundred on such an auspicious, yet brief, occasion is not enough for such an enterprising lad? For a bear doing very Bear-y things has been shot and wounded. WellDesperate to make sure he's OK, noshe and her father return to the Arctic and hope that in a world of very white and very dangerous things, for his connected parents have got another trick up their sleeve for him…she can find one specific white and dangerous thing – and that the friendship can continue.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1406366927</amazonuk>0008582017

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Matt ForbeckSimon Fox|title=Star Wars: Rogue One: Junior NovelDeadlock|rating=34.5

|summary=The bad thing about bad people Late one night Graham Blake is they keep 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 getting worsethe run. The Empire has done so much evilThey get together, but they're finding new depths – they've managed barely begin to get enough smell the whiff of a special kind of crystal to power a new planet-shattering weapon, Southern trains when the Death Star. The Rebel Alliance, such as it father isarrested, have found out this is no mere rumour, courtesy of word from leaving Archie on the horse's mouth in the shape of an escaped Imperial pilot, and news has followed it that could inspire them late express to fight backBrighton, of a potential set of plans showing toting a flaw in the weapon's construction. But with the search for the plans going tin his father was determined to be so dangerouskeep away from his colleagues, and with anything that might result from them going to be such the bearer of a hare-brained response, how dare they possibly commit any whole heap of their limited resources on even getting them?questions.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1405285680</amazonuk>1839944420

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Meurig Bowen, Rachel Bowen and Daniel FrostCath Howe|title=The School of MusicMy Life on Fire|rating=35|genre=Children's Non-FictionConfident Readers|summary=I have Ren's family home is destroyed in a love/hate relationship with musicfire. I love it in that I own several large bookshelves full of CDsShe, and have seen and met quite a few noted performers, from Radiohead to Philip Glassher parents, but I hate it in that as regards making it I can only hit things (and that only with my hands, never with my feet at the same time)her little brother lose everything. Only in the last few years She doesn't have people been at all appreciative any of my singingher clothes, for want or any of a better wordher special little knick-knacks from her cupboard, and one of those suggested closing my eyes to sound better (I think now she also may have plugged is living at her ears when I wasngrandmother's house where they can't looking)touch anything, or do anything, or even eat the foods they normally eat. That from a kid who was lumbered with something big and brass When she goes back to lumber about on school she discovers that the school bus withclass are doing a special art project, creating boxes of their lives, dammitto display things that are important to them and show who they are as a person. But hey, what's the use of my own example being so off-putting, when there is Ren has nothing to put in a world of pleasurebox, mental and physical exercise and fun so she finds herself starting to be had from being active in music? steal things. This bookSmall things, dressed as the lesson programme of a full-onthings that people might not really miss, proper musical college, is only designed to encourage and informnot when they have so much already. But does itwhat will happen to her if someone finds out what she is doing?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847808603</amazonuk>1839942835

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Paul GallicoRob Keeley|title= ThomasinaThe Boy Who Disappeared and Other Stories|rating= 4.5|genre= Confident Readers|summary= A father and his six year old daughter, Mary MacDhui, are struggling Hooray! Bookbag favourite Rob Keeley is back with a return to cope with the death of Mary’s mother. They move from Glasgow so that Mr MacDhui can take up a short story format! The Boy Who Disappeared treats us to eleven new job tales, each as fun to read as Vet in a small Scottish seaside resort. Burying his head in a job he does not wholly love, Mr MacDhui spares his young daughter little time or attention, and she finds solace in her new friends and her beloved pet cat. Thomasina, a remarkable cat, drives the plot in this story, which Paul Gallico tells with heart breaking and emotional twists and turnsprevious offerings.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0007395183</amazonuk>B0BVW69N1G

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Hilda OffenLaura Noakes|title=Message from the MoonCosima Unfortunate Steals a Star

|genre=Children's Rhymes and VerseConfident Readers|summary=YesMeet Number One. Or rather, that Cosima Unfortunate. Or rather, just Cos to her friends. The practice in the home she lives in is really a 'Message from for the girls to just be named by the number they correspond to in the Moonledger, and they' you receive courtesy of this bookre all Unfortunates – young people with disabilities, uncommon mentalities or suchlike that Victorian society frowns greatly upon. You also get But Cosima bears the point of view of the sea itselftag as a surname because nothing else seems to be known about where she came from, as well as children seeing the city night from their bedroom window and other people witnessing geese flying overfirst ever inmate, and you even get unique in having no known family in the outside world. During a message daring escapade to steal some posh cakes from the kitchen one afternoon, she discovers a plan involving said outside world – a snaildevilish Lord Fitzroy seems to want to adopt all the girls for his Institute. The range of verses in this book is however but one of its many qualities…But why, and what does that body entail? And could it possibly bring Cos closer to the past she has so little link with?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1909991430</amazonuk>0008579059

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Alice M G Leonard Ross|title=Beetle Queen The Nowhere Thief

|genre=Confident Readers |summary=A modern Cruella De Vil – only with beetles rather than Dalmatians – Lucretia Cutter has a plan: a plan that will dramatically (At last there is new stock in the impoverished yet over-full antiques shop Elsbeth and theatrically) unleash her latest batch of genetically modified and highly intelligent beetlesmother run in a seaside town. Elsbeth knows this because she has stolen it. The consequences will She also knows she should be devastating for mankind but few realise free from worries about being found out, because she has the danger. Luckily firm friends Darkusability to leave this world, Virginia and Bertolt have figured out that Lucretia Cutter is up use an unworldly portal of kaleidoscope colours to something enter other worlds, where the sea levels are rising dramatically and the buildings are determined generally empty of humans and ripe for plunder. With eviction imminent, can Elsbeth nab anything to do whatever it takes to stop actually generate custom at the shop? Well yes, is the answer, but the evil beetle diva.fact a mysterious man knows exactly which items come from these different Somewheres only raises more questions…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1910002771</amazonuk>1839943769

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=W S MarkendaleNatasha Farrant|title=Owen PendragonThe Rescue of Ravenwood|rating=3.5|genre=TeensConfident Readers|summary=Monsters are slipping through somehow This story is another excellent adventure from somewhere to kidnap children the author of ''Voyage of the Sparrowhawk''. Ravenwood is an old house, in Cornwall the North of England, where Bea and the army seems powerless to do anything about itRaffy have been living for most of their lives. 12-year-olds Owen 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 Mary assume they too are therefore powerless living together as they watch friends 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 neighbours disappearloving every inch of the place. Imagine their surprise when they realise that thanks But now the house is under threat, as Leo is under pressure from his other two brothers to sell the property to an ancient relative, they have a developer as it's becoming more influence on what happens than they think and not just on what happens on Earthmore expensive to maintain. And their distant relative? The former monarch children find themselves worrying not only about where they're going to live, but if they'll even be together, and head of the round table, no less: King Arthurif Ravenwood itself will be torn down.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1524667579</amazonuk>0571348785

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Charlotte Guillain Robin Birch and Yuval ZommerJobe Anderson|title=Secret Beast Club: The Unicorns of Silver Street Beneath My Feet|rating=54|genre=Children's Non-FictionConfident Readers|summary=ItJayden's one thing for nose is forever in a non-fiction book for the young to show them something they themselves can explore , which means he knows a lot about mythological creatures – the pattern phoenixes and unicorns of the starsworld, perhapsfor example. Aisha is addicted to her new tablet, or the life in their back yardwhere she can see videos of anything that might be out there. But when The problem, as their mothers see it gets to things , is that they are equally important to know about but are impossible to see in real lifenever 'out there' themselves, whyexploring the outside world of Hackney, then the game is changedLondon. The artistic imagination has to be keyBut when a narrowboat turns up carrying a science-minded, in portraying the invisibleeducational purpose, and presenting what can only come from the pages of with a past involving Jayden's cousin, they find a bookmagical world they never knew existed. And this example does it at its bestFor many of those mythological creatures are real, as it delves into including the layers one Aisha thinks she's seen on a bit of local footage. The crew of the soil below said back yardboat, down and downincluding a living gargoyle, through all are tasked with saving the different kinds of rock, until we reach rare critters – and the unattainable centre of kids unknowingly have the planetmagical sight needed to join in. And there's only one way to go from there – back out Dare they side with Leila, the other sidewoman on board, with yet more for us to be shown. It's and her relative who lives as a figure in a fantastic journeypainting, then – and a quite fantastic volume.become saviours of the unseen?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1784937312</amazonuk>0241573483

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Matilda WoodsB09XWSXSKY|title=The Boy, Maestro Orpheus and the Bird World Clock|author=Robert Penee and the Coffin MakerJoanne Grodzinski|rating=4.5

|summary=Alberto is a carpenterFrederick (or Fred, but never Freddy, please) couldn't sleep. A tune, rather like the very best ticking of a clock was playing over and over in the town of Allorahis mind. It happened every time he came to visit his grandfather. But He hadn't really wanted to come; after the plague sweeps through the townall, taking many of the citizens and Albertohe's wife ten now and children, he turns his skills away from furniture and toys all those old clocks don't appeal to making coffinshim anymore. ''Who needs old clocks anyway? All they do is tell the time. Wrapped in sadness, and waiting only And time isn't good for anything...'' And that was why he was looking at the clock beside the plague to come and claim his life too, Alberto lives alone, keeping company with bed. It was nearly twelve o'clock but at midnight the dead who are delivered to his house to await their coffinclock chimed only six times. One day, however, he realises that he must have a living visitor, as food starts There was nothing for it but to go missing. He begins to leave scraps of food, to try and discover who his mystery thief is…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1407178695</amazonuk>find grandad - but where was he? And why had all the clocks stopped at twelve o'clock?