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[[Category:New Reviews|Confident Readers]] __NOTOC__<!-- Remove -->{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Gillian Cross1836285493|title= Shadow CatThe Double Life of a Wheelchair User|author=Rob Keeley|rating=4.5|genre= Confident Readers|summary= When Nolan's effervescent mother suddenly takes him on Will is a surprise journey he is in as much fear and doubt as the reader about what will happen next. Meanwhile music sensation Midir's daughter Feather is tired keen player of being controlled and dreading the next photo opportunity for the press. Thenvideo games, one nighta conscientious student, as her father prepares for a shockingslightly annoying brother and a supportive friend. But most of all, spectacular event, everything changeshe is an aspiring writer. Cross keeps us guessing as Nolan's world English is turned upside down his favourite lesson at his school, Marlowe Park, and one at which he has to make difficult choicesexcels. Why is This hasn't gone unnoticed by his mother in the clouds on an exultant high one minute headteacher, Mrs Howarth, and grey, stressed she has suggested to Will and in the doldrums his mum that he spends a couple of despair the next? Does Feather really want to afternoons a week at a different school, Station Road, where his ability might be his friend or do they just have the serval they have sworn to protect in common?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0192736736</amazonuk>better extended.

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Julian Clary and David Roberts1836282028|title= The BoldsFighting Spirit|author=Rob Keeley|rating= 54|genre= Confident Readers|summary= The Bolds''Would you like to adopt a ghost?'' ''Young spirit, born 1887, Mr seeks kind home to haunt. Gentleman by birth. Good company. Gets on well with other children. Jokes and Mrs and their two small childrenshocks a speciality.'' ''If interested, place outside your home three twigs, live in the shape of an ordinary semi-detached house in suburban Teddingtonarrow, pointing to your front door. They have jobs; Mrs Bold designs and sells flamboyant hats and Mr Bold writes jokes for Christmas crackers. But they are most definitely not an ordinary family. Oh no'' Hooray! They are Bookbag favourite Rob Keeley is celebrating a decade of his wonderfully entertaining [[Rob Keeley's ''Spirits'' series in fact hyenasChronological Order|Spirits]] series with a new adventure that is both a reboot and a continuation. So far they have managed to successfully pretend to be human beingsJust like Doctor Who, Edward Fitzberranger, our incorrigible Victorian ghost boy, has some new companions. Although very hairy Ruby and prone Jayden respond to laughing a lot they have kept this intriguing advertisement and Edward, who has broken the truth (rules as usual and their tails!) a secret absconded from everyone. But their grumpy next door neighbour, Mr McNumptyhis manor house home, is growing suspicious adopted by them and then takes up residence in.... a trip to the local safari park has repercussions. Will the Bolds' carefully long kept secret be revealed?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1783443057</amazonuk>wardrobe!

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Maudie SmithRob Keeley|title= The Cake, the Wolf and the WitchChildish Spirits: 10th anniversary special edition|rating= 54|genre= Confident Readers|summary= Max doesnAround here, we't believe in happy endingsre big fans of children's author Rob Keeley. How could he, when lovely, brave, caring Mum got killed climbing a mountain? He doesn't like heights or small dark spaces and s a ball of happy positivity, he doesn't like silly fairy stories. He absolutely hates being dressed in knickerbockersunderstands children, silk slippers and a cape he writes for Dad their pleasure and Ilonaenjoyment, not to lecture or hector.  The ''Childish Spirits's wedding, and in fact, the only thing that's worse, in series is one of his opinion, is the fact that once itgreatest achievements. It's over he'll have to share his home with a horrible new brother and sister. I mean, come sequence of ghost stories centring onEllie, people! Nettle is a total grouch stalwart young girl who's clearly never cracked a smile in can cope with anything the spirit world throws at her whole life, and little Wild is just . . . well, to tell the truthEdward, he's plain daft. He prances about the place like a demented butterfly, spoiled lordling and he never takes his baseball cap off, even to go to bed. How's Max supposed to get along with that pair?the first spirit Ellie encounters|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1444015605</amazonuk>1783064617

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Rose Lagercrantz and Eva ErikssonMax Boucherat|title=When I Am HappiestThe Last Life of Lori Mills|rating=4.5|genre=Emerging Confident Readers|summary=If Dani leaves her school for We meet Lori on the first evening she's got the summer holidays with one souvenirhouse to herself – no neighbour to pop in, babysitter poorly, mother at work, it will either be the memories of the fabulous friendship she formed with Ellajust an avidly rule-breaking eleven year old, who struck on her lonesome. What could possibly go wrong? Snuggled in a chord in [[My Happy Life by Rose Lagercrantz and Eva Eriksson|book one]] then moved awayblanket fort, or it will be a book she has written one main intention, and compiled that is to log on to remind 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 of all the happiness own, and then she has encountered along the wayfinds something even more spooky. That is not quite finished, for For the following day is server she and her bestie and nobody else should be able to be the great end enter shows signs of year partytampering. When malevolent eyes spark up on her phone screen, and her classroom decorations are complete and her dress safe place in the game has been bought new specially. But not all of life is happiness and jollity doctored – and Dani well, where is removed from the classroom a girl to face very bad news. What ending is in store, for her book and for oursturn?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1927271894</amazonuk>0008666482

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Noel Streatfeild Kieran Larwood and Joe Todd-Stanton|title=Ballet Shoes Dungeon Runners: Hero Trial

|summary=''Ballet Shoes'' tells Meet Kit. Like most of the story people in his world, it seems, he is an avid fan of three adopted orphans Dungeon Running – Paulinethe sport where a team of warrior, Petrova mage and Posy Fossil. Brought healer enter specially prepared, century-old, magical mazes, and race to 1930s London as babies by an eccentric explorer (Great Uncle Matthew, otherwise known as Gum)the exit, perhaps bothering with the treasure or the big bad and the girls have a comfortable life until points they grant you along the family begin to run out of moneyway. Luckily they are all given places at Unfortunately for Kit, the Childrenonly thing he's Academy seen of Dancing the latest race on the inn TV equivalent is that one team has been retired, eaten, and Stage Training 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 soon start to earn their own way stumbled into declaring he'll enter as child performers on the stagea team. What chance does this friendless, muscle-free-zone have in actually managing that, and how could he possibly hope to succeed?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0141359803</amazonuk>1839945184

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Gareth P JonesJames Sherwood Metts|title=Clash of the Rival Robots (Adventures of the Steampunk Pirates)Planet Storyland|rating=4.5

|summary=We learn Things have been a lot about the world of bit sticky for the Steampunk Pirates in this volume of their adventuresEarthlings. While having had references to Britain fighting France before now, we find the location matters more than [[Attack of the Giant Sea Spiders (Adventures of the Steampunk Pirates) by Gareth P Jones|last time]], as we head back to England. The Pirates AI and automation have been told of a way proceeding apace, often replacing jobs they're paid to get into the Tower of London to steal the Crown Jewels. We also learn a lot about their upbringing, if you can call it do and other tasks that – certainly more than last took time, as we see what made them piratical in the first place, which was a surprise to their inventor when it happenedaccomplish. But you never know, Just as they may be about were beginning to get used to face a showdown against said scientist – all this technological change andstarting to think of other, worsenew ways to spend time, his next generation of robotsalong came an awful pandemic. If only they perhaps had been programmed to avoid temptation…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847156061</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Karen McCombie|title= Catching Falling Stars|rating= 4.5|genre= Confident Readers|summary= It is 1940 Life was pretty much shut down and after a year of the ''phoney war'' London is suffering in the Blitz. Glory and her younger brother Rich have now been evacuated to a country village far from everything they know and love. When the arrangements made by their mother fall through the children are sent to live , along with Miss Saundersit, a cold and unwelcoming woman who is not popular in all the village and Glory wonders if many daily social interactions on which they would have been better off remaining in London despite the danger of falling bombs. The local children appear unfriendly and even in the countryside they are not completely safe from the enemy. All Glory wants is to return home to her parents but she will soon discover that her life is to change in unexpected ways and she will learn that her first impressions should not always be trusteddepend so heavily.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1407138898</amazonuk>1736128426

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Alexander McCall SmithTom Percival|title=Precious and the Zebra NecklaceThe Wrong Shoes

|summary=There Will's life is difficult, in a new girl at Precious Ramotswe's schoolmultitude of ways. Her name He is Nancybullied because he has 'the wrong shoes', he has the wrong shoes because his dad can't work and Precious is asked to look after her 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 make sure she settles had an accident. Throw into schoolthat mix the fact that his mum and dad are separated, and Will's life seems bleak in every direction. PreciousAnd yet, already he still has a budding detective tiny amount of hope. He is good at such a young ageart, soon sniffs out that there is a little bit of a mystery surrounding Nancy and on discovering that all Nancy has left clings to the moments of her parents joy when he is drawing, that feel like a fading photograph and light at the end of a zebra necklace she decides that she must try to help Nancy discover the truth about what happened to themlong, dark tunnel.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1780273274</amazonuk>1398527122

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Hilary McKay1805141872|title=Binny in SecretThe Teacher Who Knew Too Much|author=Rob Keeley

|summary=Reading Binny in Secret was rather like that moment when''Seventeen banks and a jeweller’s have been raided. The police are baffled, as a childbut only Ben knows the truth – his Maths teacher, I discovered that Noel Streatfield had written a LOT of other shoe books orMiss Judson, just is really a few years ago, when I suddenly discovered Jeanne Birdsall safecracker! With police and her Penderwick storiesgangster boyfriend Al on their trail, Miss Judson and I gorged Ben go on the run. But Al needs them, utterly delighting in their humour and kindnessfor one last job... I don't quite know how I haven't come across Hilary McKay before Goodness me, but of course now that Miss Judson is a terror! How on earth did a long list of nice teacher like her books have gone onto my 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 read' pile because I thoroughly enjoyed this story be as good as his father some day, and I immediately wanted more!|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444913409</amazonuk>who thinks Miss Judson is worth saving

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Kate PankhurstChristopher Edge|title= The Disappearing Dinner Lady (Mariella Mystery)Black Hole Cinema Club|rating= 4.5|genre= Confident Readers|summary=Mariella has to admit it: the school dinners have been much better lately. When Big G was Lucas and his friends are all booked in chargefor a movie marathon at their local cinema, vegetable mush was a place that has the order nickname of the day, but since the 'Ladies Who LunchThe Black Hole' agency have been supplying the meals. All big movie fans, they have been serving up heavenly dishes like 'Monday Munchie Madness're looking forward to lots of exciting films, 'Princess Pie' and 'Pirate Pasta Bake'. The mystery girls love many, many snacks! However, as the movie starts, they very quickly realise that something about this new menufilm format is very different, but and they are swept up into an adventure they couldn't even more than thatimagine. But as they lurch from one film genre to the next, can they love figure out what on earth is going on? Will they ever get back to the new dinner ladycinema, and to their real lives?|isbn=1839942738}}{{Frontpage|author=Adam Stower|title=Murray and Bun|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, Diana Dumplingwhatever takes his fancy next of the two. When Diana goes missing in mysterious circumstances But he's a bad magician's cat, so his favourite bun has been turned into a hyperactive sticky rabbit called Bun, Mariella and her friends are on the case 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 discover what really happened be honest, but he's turned up and he'll have to their favourite dinner lady.do…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1444012347</amazonuk>0008561249

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Tomiko Inui Alex Bell and Ginny Tapley Takemori (translator)Tim McDonagh|title=The Secret Glorious Race of the Blue GlassMagical Beasts

|summary=One problem with being four inches or so tall, as any [[The Borrowers: The Borrowers and The Borrowers Afield Eli is a busy lad – by Mary Norton|Borrower]]-type creature I'm sure will tell you, is getting around. There're day an apprentice in the impracticalities of being so small, encounters wondrous library we start by visiting with catshim, and in the evening a whole lot morehelper at the dessert cafe his gran owns and runs. But Eli lives with this modern world things can happen his lovely gran, too – such as an English governess-type taking for there is a married couple of Little People to Japan with hergeneration missing in the family. There they have kidsA few short years ago, and she leaves them with her favourite pupil – alongside Eli's parents were both lost to the most necessary equipmenttitular race, a small blue glass goblet, that helps globe-trotting adventure where all entrants have to navigate the human bond with world in the Little People by using it to donate milk to them on company of a daily basismagical beast. We're now into This has made the race anathema to the second generation of Japanese people looking after them, pair – but something much more threateningwhen a bad incident at the eatery leads to a confession from gran, all-enveloping and worrying than a cat Eli knows his only hope is around to dare to enter what he most hates, with the corner sole aim the prize of magic at the end – World War Twothe only thing to possibly save his gran.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1782690344</amazonuk>0571382231

{{newreviewplainFrontpage|author=Helen Cooper|title=In Their Shoes: Fairy Tales and FolktalesThe Taming of the Cat|rating=43.5

|summary=Lots of books haveOnce again, in their own way, shown fairy tales to have relied on certain tropesmice are pitched against cat. You certainly don't have to read them allIn this case, or indeed manyprincipally, to see we have Brie the wily child outsmart mouse, up against Gorgonzola the adult again cat – and again, people tricked into changing ownership of magical thingsin case you're seeing a connection, they live in a cheese shop and therefore all the power of being a stepmother, or names used here seem to be the power names of doing things in threescheeses. StillAnyway, Brie is shunned, scorned and, I think this if you must be one of a very rare few collections to look at footwear as a theme, mous-tracised, for the way his habits don't match the other mice he lives with a tidy. 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, small selection of fairy when he feels all alone and folk-tales cast out. It's almost as if there were another character from fable who had had to tell stories to entertainkeep themselves alive. This makes Brie the top dog in the mouse community, though, as all with 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 subject.cheese runs out?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1782691014</amazonuk>0571376010

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Ulrich Hub, Jorg Muhle and Helena Ragg-Kirkby (translator)Lauren St John|title=Meet at the Ark at Eight!Finding Wonder

|genre= Confident Readers|summary=An educated penguinRoo's life has become almost impossibly difficult. Her mum died when she was young, an agnostic penguin and a violent, smaller, young penguin walk into a snowdrift… You might not be able now she finds herself awoken in the middle of the night by the police banging on her door to make a full joke out of tell her that opening line, but this book practically does continue her dad has dropped dead on from therehis way to the corner shop to buy a lottery ticket. Three penguins – each a little different from the When asked what otherfamily she has, even if they generally look and definitely smell the sameshe can only name her aunt, and GodJoni, a subject who she knows her dad didn't think very highly of their conversation when a butterfly comes along. But she has no one else, of all thingsand so off she goes to live with her unreliable aunt. The young, hot-headed one (wellThings continue to get worse for Roo, as when she and Joni leave London in the pictures he wears a woolly hat, heJoni's bound to be hot-headed) leaves old campervan, it breaks down in umbrage, leaving just two – which is perfectly timed if you're a dove, the middle of nowhere and come along telling all the animals to get then bursts into Noah's Ark in pairs, as an almighty flood is about to happen…flames! Poor Roo!|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1782690875</amazonuk>0571376169

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Steven ButlerAdam Baron and Benji Davies|title=The Diary of Dennis the Menace: Canine Carnage (book 5)Oscar's Lion|rating=43

|summary= I'm sure Dennis the Menace has a hate-hate relationship We start incredibly bluntly, with schoolOscar hoping to have his mother – or father, but the nature mother is more likely – read him his very favourite book a couple of it is relevant when considering these bookstimes before he has to be ready for school. The fact But when he goes at enters his parents' bedroom, all he sees is the cause for them in the first place – he [[The Diary of Dennis the Menace by Steven Butler|originally]] was tasked with writing a journal as homeworkmahoosive male lion on their bed, looking sheepish, and turned it into a menacing manual admitting that he won't be hungry for us, his readersanother two days. But if he paid attention there he might realise £1,000 is not quite enough are benefits to build his own, self-aggrandising theme park, even if he manages having a lion around – it can be shown as an unspoken threat to employ the bummy, booky, wimpy types behind bully that ruined a birthday party for Oscar the scenesother month. The grand sum is what Dennis intends And it can shapeshift, so he can take it to win when The Fame Factor TV talent show hits townschool and it can get him out of a problem. That, as we can easily foretell, is going to be very menacingly interesting, but thatAnd it's wonderful to have around the house – not limiting his biscuit intake, being much more lax about the site of the titular carnage – for that we have to rely rules, and so on an unusual sleep-over…. OK, it can't work a dimmer switch but it can give Oscar a wonderful time.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0141355840</amazonuk>0008596751

{{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=Cheeky CharlieJudith Eagle|authortitle=Mat WaughThe Stolen Songbird

|summary=Caro''My book is about all the naughty things that my brother Charlie has done. Some of it is funnys mother, some of it is a bit sadworld-famous whistler, has failed to return home from her recent work trip abroad and lots of it is disgustingnow missing. Her other mother, because that's what Charlie can be. It might even make you be sickRonnie, so get readyis having to go up North to take care of her sister who is unwell.'' You know what So who is going to look after Caro? That's about the size of it. After Harry Sent to stay with Gam, someone Caro has introduced herself - she's almost seven years oldheard her mother despises, she doesn't like feels frustrated and confused and worried. All her summer holiday plans of building herself some equipment to practise her freckles, gymnastics are brought to a halt whilst sheis stuck inside this staid old Victorian lady's used to people thinking that someone called Harry ought to be a house, along with an orphan boy, and she has a younger brotherAlbie, who is three and called Charlieliving there too. This is Harry But she soon finds herself caught up in a mystery, as she discovers a painting of a bird hidden away inside her mum's book about Charlie. Charlie is old suitcase, and all across London a cheeky chappiefearsome gang called the Snakes are thieving artworks and terrorising people. He never shuts up. He likes Is the painting somehow linked to push his luck. the gang? And, having pushed his luck once, he likes what has happened to push it again. And again. And again. This is much to HarryCaro's exasperation, as mother? Is she explains by dint of a book full of anecdotes... somehow involved in the mystery too?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1508910510</amazonuk>0571363148

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Rachel Renee RussellTania Unsworth|title=Dork Diaries: Once Upon a Dork (Book 8)Nowhere Island|rating=34.5

|summary=There Meet Gil. Just twelve, he is wishing you had a fairytale relationship, and/or having so determined to escape the care system – the chance to change your life drastically system that constantly puts him in futureless places that are not homes – and then there find a home for himself. He is being able en route to yet another fosterer, when he jumps into an anonymous car, and lets it ride him to see what would actually happen if either wish came truehis future. Nikki wakes up on a typical school day That future seems to be in jeopardy when someone steals his one bag of belongings – but that someone lives with his brother in a hellish start – no alarm clock, due to her younger sister, sandwich all over her jumper, again due to her younger sister, and so camp onan island between the two directions of a motorway, a place inaccessible and so she can only wish definitely ignored enough to provide for something to take her out of it their safety and give her a dollop of fantasyseclusion. That something is dodgeballThem, and a mute girl also finding a home there, which bangs her on the head albeit so much she wakes up in more successfully. Over a sheer fantasy worldfew weeks we see if their oddball destinies can combine, or if this is one place where her BFFs are Goldilocks and Red Riding Hood, the world is peopled by other folk from school, but her hunky friend Brandon is still Prince Charming, and her enemy Mackenzie Hollister is still able to make her life hell…as we would want it just would not work…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>147114383X</amazonuk>1804540080

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Lincoln PeirceHelen Peters|title=Big Nate Lives It Up (Big Nate, Book 7)Friends and Traitors|rating=4.53

|summary=Life at school might actually be interesting for Big NateEngland, for onceWW2. Even if Two young girls are new at the building country pile called Stanbrook. One is so old Nancy, destined to be in service all her life it's falling downseems, an ancient student's journal much like his has been discoveredthe female generations before her. The other is Sidney, peppered with a girl's cartoons from a long, long time ago – proving even he can have a connection with something a century oldhoity-toity Sussex boarding school that has been removed there away from bomber flight-paths. (And I donThe girls are chalk and cheese, and if we hadn't mean the connection made when bits of the place actually fall onto his headguessed that then their behaviour with each other over their first encounters would only prove it so.) Unfortunately for NateBut something is amiss, another connection has been forced on him – he has had to buddy up with and first separately and then in combination they realise the new boy in classLord Evesham must be a rum 'un. ''He's newMidnight deliveries are received under cover of secrecy, dorkytalk is made of meetings with Germans, and has a name not only that sounds like , a British boarding school'', we're toldlocal Spitfire factory has been attacked. But what exactly is it about Breckenridge Puffington III that gives Nate a strong sense of déjà vu…surely the girls are wrong, and the upper class could never be so underhand?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0007581270</amazonuk>1788004647

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= StrefJamie Littler|title=J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan: The Graphic NovelArkspire

|genre=Graphic NovelsConfident Readers|summary=Here's a quiz question for you – despite the uniform seventy year copyright ruleTwo 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, which work has been including relics from prior major wars left out in the sole recipient Badlands. Elodie is intent on getting closer to power in one of an endless extension the religious districts of itArkspire, courtesy perhaps even to become the child in line to inherit the power of an ex-Prime Minister? The answer is obvious now at leastthe Watcher, the closest to a ruler the district has, as this is and one such volumeof the five major victors in said earlier war. It's a very readable and pleasant variant on J M Barrie's original stage version and novel regarding Peter Pan, which Being trained in the magic that only five people can use would definitely change the status of course helps and always will now help the Great Ormond Street Children's Hospitalwhole family. And But in finding something oddly magical, Juniper might just be able to gain some power of her own – for good, or for a boy who never grows upvery, at 111 years old he's in spritely good health.very bad…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1780272901</amazonuk>0241586143

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Helen Moss024162343X|title= Secrets of the Tombs 2: The Dragon PathStolen History|author=Sathnam Sanghera|rating= 5|genre= Confident ReadersChildren's Non-Fiction|summary= They donI 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 actually intend so much want to have an adventure: quite learn about the oppositeBritish army's successes (and occasional failures, but we didn't dwell on those) in factwhat came to be called 'the colonies' as want to dispute what right the army had to be there in the first place. As far as fifteen-year-old Ryan and his friend Cleo are concerned Looking back, being chased by bad guys and falling down deep holes is seriously overI still believe I was right -ratedbut I regret that I lacked the maturity to approach 'the problem' politely. But they I wish I'd had Sathnam Sanghera's ''Stolen History''re on their way to China .}}{{Frontpage|author=Thiago de Moraes|title=Old Gods New Tricks|rating=4.5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Meet Trixie. Forever getting into scrapes, larks and adventures involving flooding the school aircon with their parents anywayfart powder, so they can hardly refuse she could almost be thought a young goddess of nuisance. But just when Cleoshe's grandmother asks them to put being told that by her one-last-chance-giving headteacher, the world changes. Suddenly, practically everything electronic stops working – a jade bracelet shepower-out, even of electric cars, hits not just the town the school's had in but the entire planet (apart from mobile phones, and all that powers the Internet, just for eighty years back where it belongs. Whereour convenience's sake). Trixie, luckily, realises what has happened – the ancient Gods have taken the harm?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.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1444010417</amazonuk>178845295X

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Kjartan Poskitt Hannah Gold and Philip ReeveLevi Pinfold|title=Borgon the Axeboy and the Whispering Temple (Borgon the Axeboy 3)Finding Bear|rating=34.5

|summary=''[[The middle's nice Last Bear by Hannah Gold|Last time]], April had been on Bear Island, a lot further north than many people would venture, and crunchy finding a ridiculously unexpected but delightful friendship with a polar bear – that she called Bear. Back home, things on the squishy bits domestic and family front are horrible.'' Noa bit advanced, that's but not a predator in prehistoric times discussing the eating of us humans. Insteadperfect for her, it's Borgon and so can easily be ignored when word comes through from the Axeboy's mother, discussing peachesislands Bear was last left on. Yes, even in a world where For a lot of nasty animals are still around to potentially eat the likes of Borgon, there are still bear doing very Bear-y things for people to learnhas been shot and wounded. Borgon for one, in this third adventure in the series, has a lot Desperate to learn about religion – make sure he scoffs at the idea there's a god resident OK, she and her father return to the Arctic and hope that in a temple he world of very white and his friends have discoveredvery dangerous things, even if his friend Hunjah insists otherwise. The lesson is forced she can find one specific white and dangerous thing – and that the truth comes out, however, when some thieves turn up, having pegged the site as a location of many earthly riches…friendship can continue.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>057130737X</amazonuk>0008582017

{{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=Dead End Kids: Heroes of the Blitz Simon Fox|authortitle=Bernard AshleyDeadlock

|genre=TeensConfident Readers|summary=It's London in 1940. Most of the men have been conscripted and the East End Late one night Graham Blake is populated mainly by women and children. Josie and her friends are carrying late back from his shift on much as usualthe force, though, grouping into little gangs and arguing over turf via mud fights along the Thames. But then comes suddenly rings Archie, demanding he fetch something from a terrible night of bombing. It's the start of the Blitz secret place, and 57 consecutive nights of bombing for join him on the East Endrun. The fire service is stretched way beyond its capacity and They get together, but barely begin to smell the lucky ones make it out whiff of Southern trains when the shelters in father is arrested, leaving Archie on the morninglate express to Brighton, toting a tin his father was determined to keep away from his colleagues, while and the unlucky ones don't see another sunrisebearer of a whole heap of questions.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1408338955</amazonuk>1839944420

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Emma CarrollCath Howe|title=In Darkling WoodMy Life on Fire

|summary= In the early hours of the morning Alice’s mum receives the phone call they have been waiting forRen's family home is destroyed in a fire. The long awaited heart transplant that may save She, her parents, and her sick little brother, Theo’s, life is now possiblelose everything. Alice finds herself sent to stay with a grandmother she doesn’t know She doesn't have any of her clothes, miles away or any of her special little knick-knacks from her friends cupboard, and the life now she knows. There is no TVliving at her grandmother's house where they can't touch anything, or do anything, no phone signal and no internet but Alice feels drawn to or even eat the mysterious Darkling Wood surrounding the house despite her grandmother’s wish to have it chopped downfoods they normally eat. Meanwhile When she goes back in 1918 to school she discovers that the class are doing a young girl desperately waits for news special art project, creating boxes of her brother’s safe return from the fronttheir lives, to display things that are important to them and show who they are as a person. Her mother doesn’t like her playing But Ren has nothing to put in the nearby wood but it is there that a box, and so she discovers secrets and magic finds herself starting to steal things. Small things, things that give people might not really miss, not when they have so much already. But what will happen to her hope for the future. if someone finds out what she is doing?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>057131757X</amazonuk>1839942835

{{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=The Potion DiariesRob Keeley|authortitle=Amy AlwardThe Boy Who Disappeared and Other Stories

|genre=TeensConfident Readers|summary=Samantha Hooray! Bookbag favourite Rob Keeley is back with a mixer of potions extraordinaire. Which is just return to the short story format! The Boy Who Disappeared treats us to eleven new tales, each as well, because someone has fun to save read as his previous offerings.|isbn= B0BVW69N1G}}{{Frontpage|author=Laura Noakes|title=Cosima Unfortunate Steals a princess who has fallen in love with herselfStar|rating=4|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Meet Number One. Or rather, Cosima Unfortunate. Yes Or rather, you heard right! You might not think this 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 most enormous problem - princesses are so spoiled ledger, and pampered, is it any wonder they fall in love 're all Unfortunates – young people with themselves? disabilities, uncommon mentalities or suchlike that Victorian society frowns greatly upon. But this isn't what's happened. Princess Evelyn has taken Cosima bears the tag as a love potion meant surname because nothing else seems to make someone else fall be known about where she came from, as the first ever inmate, and unique in having no known family in love with ''her''the outside world. And the resulting havoc caused by the wrong person taking the right potion leads During a daring escapade to steal some very unstable magic that could threaten the very kingdom itself. Hence posh cakes from the ''Wilde Hunt''kitchen one afternoon, she discovers a plan involving said outside world – a national quest devilish Lord Fitzroy seems to want to find adopt all the ingredients girls for a curehis 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?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1471143562</amazonuk>0008579059

{{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=Thirteen Days of MidnightAlice M Ross|authortitle=Leo HuntThe Nowhere Thief

|genre=TeensConfident Readers|summary=Luke Manchett really isn't that upset when he gets At last there is new stock in the news that his father impoverished yet over-full antiques shop Elsbeth and her mother run in a seaside town. Elsbeth knows this because she has diedstolen it. You might think that's a tad harsh She also knows she should be free from worries about being found out, but Luke because she has been estranged from his father 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 yearsplunder. His primary concern is his mother With eviction imminent, can Elsbeth nab anything to actually generate custom at the shop? Well yes, who is disabled by crushing cluster headaches. Sothe answer, rather than worry her, Luke heads off to a lawyer's office to deal with but the reading of his father's will by himself. And he gets fact a shock. Luke's inheritance adds up to six million dollars. SIX MILLION!mysterious man knows exactly which items come from these different Somewheres only raises more questions…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1408337460</amazonuk>1839943769

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=John Dougherty and David Tazzyman (illustrator)Natasha Farrant|title=Stinkbomb and Ketchup-Face and the Bees The Rescue of StupidityRavenwood

|summary=WeThis story is another excellent adventure from the author of ''Voyage of the Sparrowhawk''ve been here before. The lovely children whose name Ravenwood is an old house, in the title North of England, where Bea and Raffy have been living for most of all these books – handy when they make time to try 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 check if they're in this one or not – are woken up in living together as a ridiculous way by a blackbird making his usual cameofamily. The Army They have grown up swimming in the cove, roaming through the trees, completely at one with all of Great Kerfuffle is asleep – all single cat the nature around the house and loving every inch of itthe place. The King But now the house is under threat, as Leo is wearing a badge that allows him under pressure from his other two brothers to pretend sell the property to not be the King – this time hea developer as it's thinking of keeping bees, although he has four animals that go 'quack' in a hive instead. Oh yeah, becoming more and the evil badgers are in prison having been naughtymore expensive to maintain. But The children find themselves worrying not only about where they will never follow the pattern and be evil and naughty and break out in order 're going to live, but if they'll even be eviller together, and more naughty, if Ravenwood itself will they?be torn down.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0192742736</amazonuk>0571348785

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Julian SedgwickRobin Birch and Jobe Anderson|title=Ghosts Secret Beast Club: The Unicorns of ShanghaiSilver Street

|summary=ShanghaiJayden's nose is forever in a book, 1926. The city is heavily divided between which means he knows a lot about mythological creatures – the natural, national areas, phoenixes and the enclaves unicorns of the foreigners – Russianworld, Frenchfor example. Aisha is addicted to her new tablet, American, Britishwhere she can see videos of anything that might be out there. Several of the younger international youths have formed the Ghost Society gangThe problem, after the principal characteras their mothers see it, Ruby, found another divide cleaving Shanghai in two – is that between the living and the deadthey are never 'out there' themselves, exploring the 'real outside world' and the Otherworldof Hackney, London. Her brother deadBut when a narrowboat turns up carrying a science-minded, she seemed to become the conduit for a poltergeist in her apartmenteducational purpose, and recently the gang have even managed to lock with a spirit into past involving Jayden's cousin, they find a bottle and cast it down magical world they never knew existed. For many of those mythological creatures are real, including the one Aisha thinks she's seen on a wellbit of local footage. But The crew of the gang is immediately falling apart – the lad she lovesboat, Charlieincluding a living gargoyle, are tasked with saving the rare critters – and his sister are diverting themselves from, or the kids unknowingly have been warned off, any further such activitythe magical sight needed to join in. Rose knows she has to find Dare they side with Leila, the source of the problem – woman on board, and cross any untold divides her relative who lives as a figure in her city to find a painting, and become saviours of the truth…unseen?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1444923900</amazonuk>0241573483

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Guillermo del Toro, Daniel Kraus and Sean MurrayB09XWSXSKY|title=TrollhuntersMaestro Orpheus and the World Clock|author=Robert Penee and Joanne Grodzinski|rating=4.5|genre=TeensConfident Readers|summary=West Coast USA in the 1960sFrederick (or Fred, but never Freddy, and the city is wracked and wrecked by a slew of missing children reportsplease) couldn't sleep. The parents with their new anguishesA tune, rather like the ticking of a clock was playing over and new rules against playing out after dark, have no idea of the horrors over in their vicinity – literally under their feet lies a city of trolls, guilty of snatching the childrenhis mind. Last It happened every time he came to go, Jack Sturgessvisit his grandfather. Cue the modern era and JackHe hadn't really wanted to come; after all, he's younger, ten now grown-up brother Jim, and Jim Jr live a sheltered life in the most barricaded and secure home imaginable, and Jim Jrall those old clocks don's life is as exciting as you'd expectt appeal to him anymore. Unfortunately, however, the trolls are about to make a return to their nastiest of ways – and their intentions are a lot more surprising than Jim Jr could ever predict…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1471405192</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Caroline Lawrence|title= The Case of the Bogus Detective|rating= 5|genre= Confident Readers|summary= Howdy folks! Welcome to Virginia City, bustling and busy home to prospectors, dancing girls, lawyers, gamblers and newspapermen. It's 1862, and our twelve-year-'Who needs old pal Pinky clocks anyway? All they do is continuing the quest to become a successful detective and eventually join Uncle Allan in tell the famous Pinkerton Detective Agency in Chicagotime. But And time isn't good for the moment there's so much crime right here in Nevada, thanks to the untold wealth being found daily in the nearby silver mines, that Pinky and financial partner Ping are soon busy day and night, chasing desperados, solving crimes and righting all manner of wrongsanything.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444010336</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Ali Sparkes|title=Car-Jacked|rating=5|genre=Confident Readers |summary=A boy genius who speaks Mandarin and Latin and a criminal who’s just robbed a bank and stolen a car: it’s an unusual pairing but, it turns out, a perfect team. ‘‘Car-Jacked’’ leads us through the twists and turns of 12-year old Jack’s adventure when his parents’ car is hi-jacked with Jack still inside.''|amazonuk=<amazonuk>019273346X</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Joan Aiken and Quentin Blake|title=Arabel’s Raven|rating=4.5|genre=For Sharing|summary=It’s been many, many years since I first met Arabel and her pet raven, Mortimer, whilst watching Jackanory on children’s televisionAnd that was why he was looking at the clock beside the bed. Bernard Cribbins used to read It was nearly twelve o'clock but at midnight the stories, and they became firm favourites of mineclock chimed only six times. Here I am returning There was nothing for it but to the first book in the series, well, just a handful of years later, go and find grandad - but where was he? And why had all the story has lost none of its charm.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847806910</amazonuk>clocks stopped at twelve o'clock?