Changes

[[Category:New Reviews|Confident Readers]] __NOTOC__<!-- Remove -->{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Chris Colfer1836285493|title=The Land Double Life of Stories: Beyond the Kingdomsa Wheelchair User|author=Rob Keeley|rating=4.5

|summary=The last [[The Land Will is a keen player of Stories: A Grimm Warning by Chris Colfer|Land of Stories]] book left readers on video games, a conscientious student, a cliffhanger with slightly annoying brother and a shock revelation about the identity supportive friend. But most of the antagonistall, the villainous 'Masked Man'he is an aspiring writer. Since thenEnglish is his favourite lesson at his school, fansMarlowe Park, myself included, have been waiting desperately for the next book in the series in order to see how our twin heroes Alex and Conner deal with this surprising twist in the taleone at which he excels. The waiting is over; the new book is here This hasn't gone unnoticed by his headteacher, Mrs Howarth, and ready she has suggested to transport us once again to the magical Land Will and his mum that he spends a couple of Stories..afternoons a week at a different school, Station Road, where his ability might be better extended.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0316339385</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Catherine Storr1836282028|title= Clever Polly and the Stupid WolfThe Fighting Spirit|author=Rob Keeley|rating= 54|genre= Emerging Confident Readers|summary= Polly opens the door one day ''Would you like to find adopt a large black wolf standing on the doorstep. With no preamble whatsoeverghost?'' ''Young spirit, not even a cursory helloborn 1887, the wolf informs Polly that he intends seeks kind home to eat her uphaunt. Incredibly Polly invites the wolf into her home and even into the kitchen! What can she be thinking of? Well, young Polly is clever, resourceful, independent and charmingGentleman by birth. The wolf is a wolf of very little brainGood company. Therefore it is not long before she is able to outwit the wolf and send him packingGets on well with other children. This first story is very short but sets the scene for the ongoing battle of wits between Polly Jokes and the wolf that will continue for the remaining twelve short stories in this charming and entertaining book.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141360232</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Rupert Wallis|title=All Sorts of Possible|rating=4.5|genre=Teens|summary=''When the sinkhole opened, there was no time to break or turn the wheel, and the old green Land Rover was snatched off the dirt road over the smoking rimshocks a speciality.''

Somehow''If interested, place outside your home three twigs, Daniel makes it out of the sinkhole and emerges to safety with just a few scratches and bruises. But his father isn't so lucky. While he lies in hospital in an induced coma due to a severe brain injury, Daniel is released into the care shape of his aunt, a woman he has never met. There had been a family falling out after Daniel's mother died when he was just a babyan arrow, and since then it's just been Daniel and his dad. Although his aunt seems nice enough, Daniel finds it difficult pointing to trust her or open up to heryour 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 new adventure that is both a reboot and a continuation.Just like Doctor Who, Edward Fitzberranger, our incorrigible Victorian ghost boy, has some new companions.. Ruby and there's a lot Jayden respond to open this intriguing advertisement and Edward, who has broken the rules as usual and absconded from his manor house home, is adopted by them and takes up aboutresidence in....|amazonuk=<amazonuk>147114366X</amazonuk>a wardrobe!

{{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=Fuzzy MudRob Keeley|authortitle=Louis SacharChildish Spirits: 10th anniversary special edition

|summary=Tamaya isnAround here, we't allowed to walk home from school on her ownre big fans of children's author Rob Keeley. And Tamaya doesnHe't like to break any rules. So when walking partner Marshall insists on taking s a "shortcut" through the woods one dayball of happy positivity, she goes with himhe understands children, even though she isn't really supposed to walk through the woods. Unbeknownst to Tamayaand he writes for their pleasure and enjoyment, Marshall has chosen the route in order not to avoid school bully Chad, who has threatened him with a reckoning. A reckoning for nothing at all - but you know, that's how school bullies worklecture or hector.

But lying in the woods The ''Childish Spirits'' series is an even greater threat than Chad..one of his greatest achievements.It's a sequence of ghost stories centring on Ellie, a stalwart young girl who can cope with anything the spirit world throws at her, and Edward, a spoiled lordling and the first spirit Ellie encounters|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1408864746</amazonuk>1783064617

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Paul Stewart and Chris RiddellMax Boucherat|title=Scavenger 2: Chaos ZoneThe Last Life of Lori Mills

|summary=York is a lad 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 a missionher lonesome. So would you beWhat could possibly go wrong? Snuggled in a blanket fort, if your space station habitation was constantly attacked by evolvedshe has one main intention, mutated and evil robots. Trying that is to get log on to Voxminer, the core of things – both the situation and the centre of the giant biosphere carrying the last humans to world-building, critter-collecting game that is a future planet to reside on – hehit in Lori's just starting to enter the second level, alongside some surprising companions (surprising, world. But first Lori has a tiny inkling that is, if you haventhis stormy night doesn't read [[Scavenger 1: Zoid by Paul Stewart find herself entirely on her own, and then she finds something even more spooky. For the server she and Chris Riddell|book one]]) her bestie and a lot nobody else should be able to enter shows signs of gung ho spirittampering. The next stage is a 'mid deck' levelWhen malevolent eyes spark up on her phone screen, where all of Earth's habitation zones have and her safe place in the game has been recreated doctored – but nothingwell, either animal or human, has stayed the same since the ship's launch…where is a girl to turn?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1447234421</amazonuk>0008666482

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Katherine WoodfineKieran Larwood and Joe Todd-Stanton|title= The Mystery of the Clockwork SparrowDungeon Runners: Hero Trial|rating= 54|genre= Confident Readers|summary= This entrancing Edwardian mystery Meet Kit. Like most of the people in his world, it seems, he is set in an avid fan of Dungeon Running – the exoticsport where a team of warrior, sensuous mage and opulent world of a Department store which draws healer enter specially prepared, century-old, magical mazes, and race to the reader in exit, perhaps bothering with enticing sights, sounds the treasure or the big bad and smells from the startpoints they grant you along the way. When Unfortunately for Kit, the only thing he's seen of the heroine Sophie first steps latest race on to the shop floor she feels like she inn TV equivalent is "stepping inside a chocolate box". Furthermore there is also something sacred about the experience- "Nowthat one team has been retired, a reverent hush hung in the aireaten, and she found herself almost tiptoeing…gazing around her at the immense chandeliersa new trio of questors is needed. Possibly very unfortunately indeed for Kit, he has taken to the glittering looking-glasses, goading from the glossy walnut panelling. It smelled luscious: no sawdust now, but a glorious fragrance token bully of cocoa his world and candied violets and some other spicy scentstumbled into declaring he'll enter as a team. What chance does this friendless, like the cigars muscle-free-zone have in actually managing that Papa used , and how could he possibly hope to smoke after dinner." succeed?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1405276177</amazonuk>1839945184

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=David O'Doherty and Chris JudgeJames Sherwood Metts|title=Danger is Still Everywhere: Beware of the Dog!Planet Storyland

|summary=Meet GordonThings have been a bit sticky for the Earthlings. HeAI and automation have been proceeding apace, often replacing jobs they's a very safe betre paid to do and other tasks that took time to accomplish. Just as they were beginning to get used to all this technological change and starting to think of other, new ways to spend time, along came an awful pandemic. Life was pretty much shut down and, now you have met himalong with it, as heall the many daily social interactions on which they depend so heavily.|isbn=1736128426}}{{Frontpage|author=Tom Percival|title=The Wrong Shoes|rating=5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Will's life is difficult, in a source multitude of highly intelligent and descriptive warnings about dangerways. He and is bullied because he alone can voice warnings about has 'the Puddle Shark you might get eaten bywrong shoes', he has the Parp Donkey that might evict you by farting through your letter box, wrong shoes because his dad can't work and doesn't have enough money for even the Headphones Crab that – wellmost basic of things like food, and his dad can't work because he lost his job at the illustration here says it all. Nowcollege, I know what you're thinkingwas working a cash-in-hand job on a building site and had an accident. Advice this intelligent Throw into that mix the fact that his mum and salient could only really come from Docter Noel Zonedad are separated, the worldand Will's only Level Five Dangerologistlife seems bleak in every direction. And you'd be rightyet, he still has a tiny amount of hope. Gordon He is good at art, and clings to the name Noel gives to his wardrobe. And Noel moments of joy when he is currently living in Gordon the wardrobedrawing, as his house has been taken over by a messy, noisy, and incredibly dangerous puppy. Add into the mix that feel like a pet contest hosted by light at the world's most dangerous man and you have a recipe for disaster (when all you wanted was end of a completely safe recipe for cabbage souplong, as well…)dark tunnel.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>014135920X</amazonuk>1398527122

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Gillian Cross1805141872|title= Shadow CatThe Teacher Who Knew Too Much|author=Rob Keeley

|genre= Confident Readers|summary= When Nolan's effervescent mother suddenly takes him on 'Seventeen banks and a surprise journey he jeweller’s have been raided. The police are baffled, but only Ben knows the truth – his Maths teacher, Miss Judson, is in as much fear really a safecracker! With police and her gangster boyfriend Al on their trail, Miss Judson and doubt as Ben go on the reader about what will happen nextrun. But Al needs them for one last job... Meanwhile music sensation Midir's daughter Feather ' 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 tired Ben, the son of being controlled 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|rating=4|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Lucas and dreading the next photo opportunity his friends are all booked in for a movie marathon at their local cinema, a place that has the pressnickname of 'The Black Hole'. Then All big movie fans, one nightthey're looking forward to lots of exciting films, as her father prepares for a shockingand many, spectacular eventmany snacks! However, everything changes. Cross keeps us guessing as Nolan's world the movie starts, they very quickly realise that something about this new film format is turned upside down very different, and he has to make difficult choicesthey are swept up into an adventure they couldn't even imagine. Why is his mother in the clouds on an exultant high But as they lurch from one minute and grey, stressed and in the doldrums of despair film genre to the next, can they figure out what on earth is going on? Does Feather really want Will they ever get back to be his friend or do they just have the serval they have sworn cinema, and to protect in commontheir real lives?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0192736736</amazonuk>1839942738

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Julian Clary and David RobertsAdam Stower|title= The BoldsMurray and Bun|rating= 4.5|genre= Confident Readers|summary= The BoldsMurray is supposed to be a humble, Mr tidy and Mrs friendly cat, one who is able to sleep and eat and their two small children, live in an ordinary semi-detached house in suburban Teddington. They have jobs; Mrs Bold designs eat and sells flamboyant hats sleep and Mr Bold writes jokes for Christmas crackers, 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 are most definitely both use can chuck them out, not an ordinary family. Oh no! They are in fact hyenas. So far they have managed to successfully pretend to be human beings. Although very hairy and prone to laughing into the regular back garden, but into a lot they have kept the truth (world of frightening adventure and their tails!) a secret from everyonewhiffs. But their grumpy next door neighbourThis time round it drops them into a Viking land, where a troll hunter is expected – well, one much bigger than Murray was, Mr McNumptyto be honest, is growing suspicious but he's turned up and then a trip he'll have to the local safari park has repercussions. Will the Bolds' carefully long kept secret be revealed?do…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1783443057</amazonuk>0008561249

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Maudie SmithAlex Bell and Tim McDonagh|title= The Cake, the Wolf and the WitchGlorious Race of Magical Beasts|rating= 54|genre= Confident Readers|summary= Max doesn't believe in happy endings. How could he, when lovely, brave, caring Mum got killed climbing Eli is a mountain? He doesn't like heights or small dark spaces and he doesn't like silly fairy stories. He absolutely hates being dressed busy lad – by day an apprentice in knickerbockers, silk slippers and a cape for Dad and Ilona's weddingthe wondrous library we start by visiting with him, and in fact, the only thing that's worse, in his opinion, is evening a helper at the fact that once it's over he'll have to share dessert cafe his home with a horrible new brother gran owns and sisterruns. I mean Eli lives with his lovely gran, come on, people! Nettle too – for there is a total grouch whogeneration missing in the family. A few short years ago, Eli's clearly never cracked parents were both lost to the titular race, a smile globe-trotting adventure where all entrants have to navigate the world in her whole life, and little Wild is just the company of a magical beast. . . well, This has made the race anathema to tell the truth, he's plain daft. He prances about pair – but when a bad incident at the place like eatery leads to a demented butterflyconfession from gran, and Eli knows his only hope is to dare to enter what he never takes his baseball cap offmost hates, even with the sole aim the prize of magic at the end – the only thing to go to bedpossibly save his gran. How's Max supposed to get along with that pair?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1444015605</amazonuk>0571382231

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Rose Lagercrantz and Eva ErikssonHelen Cooper|title=When I Am HappiestThe Taming of the Cat|rating=3.5|genre=Emerging Confident Readers|summary=If Dani leaves her school for Once again, mice are pitched against cat. In this case, principally, we have Brie the summer holidays with one souvenirmouse, it will either be up against Gorgonzola the memories of the fabulous friendship she formed with Ellacat – and in case you're seeing a connection, who struck a chord they live in [[My Happy Life by Rose Lagercrantz and Eva Eriksson|book one]] then moved away, or it will be a book she has written cheese shop and compiled to remind her of therefore all the happiness she has encountered along names used here seem to be the waynames of cheeses. That Anyway, Brie is not quite finishedshunned, scorned and, if you must, mous-tracised, for the following day is to be way his habits don't match the other mice he lives with. They nibble up paper wrapping from the great end of year party, cheese for bedding – he displays it as art and her classroom decorations are complete and her dress has been bought new speciallymakes stories based on the visuals on it. But not And that story-telling will come in handy one night, when he feels all of life is happiness alone and jollity – and Dani is removed cast out. It's almost as if there were another character from the classroom fable who had had to tell stories to face very bad newskeep themselves alive. What ending is This makes Brie the top dog in storethe mouse community, for her book and for oursthough, as all the others had the chance to half-inch some cheese while the cat was distracted. But will the story have the successful sequel it needs when that cheese runs out?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1927271894</amazonuk>0571376010

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Noel Streatfeild Lauren St John|title=Ballet Shoes Finding Wonder

|summary=Roo's life has become almost impossibly difficult. Her mum died when she was young, and now she finds herself awoken in the middle of the night by the police banging on her door to tell her that her dad has dropped dead on his way to the corner shop to buy a lottery ticket. When asked what other family she has, she can only name her aunt, Joni, who she knows her dad didn'Ballet Shoest think very highly of. But she has no one else, and so off she goes to live with her unreliable aunt. Things continue to get worse for Roo, as when she and Joni leave London in Joni'' tells s old campervan, it breaks down in the story middle of three adopted orphans nowhere and then bursts into flames! Poor Roo!|isbn=0571376169}}{{Frontpage|author=Adam Baron and Benji Davies|title=Oscar's Lion|rating=3|genre=Confident Readers|summary=We start incredibly bluntly, with Oscar hoping to have his mother – or father, but mother is more likely – Paulineread him his very favourite book a couple of times before he has to be ready for school. But when he enters his parents' bedroom, all he sees is a mahoosive male lion on their bed, looking sheepish, Petrova and Posy Fossiladmitting that he won't be hungry for another two days. Brought But there are benefits to 1930s London having a lion around – it can be shown as babies by an eccentric explorer (Great Uncle Matthew, otherwise known as Gum), unspoken threat to the girls have bully that ruined a comfortable life until birthday party for Oscar the family begin other month. And it can shapeshift, so he can take it to run school and it can get him out of moneya problem. Luckily they are all given places at the Children And it's Academy of Dancing and Stage Training wonderful to have around the house – not limiting his biscuit intake, being much more lax about the rules, and soon start to earn their own way as child performers so on the stage. OK, it can't work a dimmer switch but it can give Oscar a wonderful time. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0141359803</amazonuk>0008596751

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Gareth P JonesJudith Eagle|title=Clash of the Rival Robots (Adventures of the Steampunk Pirates)The Stolen Songbird

|summary=We learn Caro's mother, a lot about the world -famous whistler, has failed to return home from her recent work trip abroad and is now missing. Her other mother, Ronnie, is having to go up North to take care of the Steampunk Pirates her sister who is unwell. So who is going to look after Caro? Sent to stay with Gam, someone Caro has heard her mother despises, she feels frustrated and confused and worried. All her summer holiday plans of building herself some equipment to practise her gymnastics are brought to a halt whilst she is stuck inside this staid old Victorian lady's house, along with an orphan boy, Albie, who is living there too. But she soon finds herself caught up in this volume a mystery, as she discovers a painting of their adventuresa bird hidden away inside her mum's old suitcase, and all across London a fearsome gang called the Snakes are thieving artworks and terrorising people. While having had references Is the painting somehow linked to the gang? And what has happened to Britain fighting France before nowCaro's mother? Is she somehow involved in the mystery too?|isbn=0571363148}}{{Frontpage|author=Tania Unsworth|title=Nowhere Island|rating=4.5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Meet Gil. Just twelve, we find he is so determined to escape the location matters more than [[Attack of care system – the Giant Sea Spiders (Adventures of the Steampunk Pirates) by Gareth P Jones|last time]]system that constantly puts him in futureless places that are not homes – and find a home for himself. He is en route to yet another fosterer, when he jumps into an anonymous car, as we head back and lets it ride him to Englandhis future. The Pirates have been told That future seems to be in jeopardy when someone steals his one bag of belongings – but that someone lives with his brother in a way to get into camp on an island between the Tower two directions of London a motorway, a place inaccessible and definitely ignored enough to steal the Crown Jewelsprovide for their safety and seclusion. We Them, and a mute girl also learn finding a lot about their upbringinghome there, albeit so much more successfully. Over a few weeks we see if you their oddball destinies can call it that – certainly more than last timecombine, or if this is one place where life as we see what made them piratical would want it just would not work…|isbn=1804540080}}{{Frontpage|author=Helen Peters|title=Friends and Traitors|rating=3|genre=Confident Readers|summary=England, WW2. Two young girls are new at the country pile called Stanbrook. One is Nancy, destined to be in service all her life it seems, like the first placefemale generations before her. The other is Sidney, which was a surprise to girl from a hoity-toity Sussex boarding school that has been removed there away from bomber flight-paths. The girls are chalk and cheese, and if we hadn't guessed that then their behaviour with each other over their inventor when first encounters would only prove it happenedso. But you never knowsomething is amiss, and first separately and then in combination they may realise the Lord Evesham must be about to face a showdown against said scientist – rum 'un. Midnight deliveries are received under cover of secrecy, talk is made of meetings with Germans, andnot only that, worse, his next generation of robotsa local Spitfire factory has been attacked. If only they perhaps had been programmed to avoid temptation…But surely the girls are wrong, and the upper class could never be so underhand?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847156061</amazonuk>1788004647

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Karen McCombieJamie Littler|title= Catching Falling StarsArkspire|rating= 4.5|genre= Confident Readers|summary= It Two sisters, Juniper and Elodie, born fifteen minutes apart, are growing to be chalk and cheese. Juniper is 1940 an eager hunter and after a year of trader in illicit magic, including relics from prior major wars left out in the ''phoney war'' London Badlands. Elodie is suffering intent on getting closer to power in one of the religious districts of Arkspire, perhaps even to become the Blitz. Glory and her younger brother Rich have now been evacuated child in line to a country village far from everything they know and love. When inherit the power of the arrangements made by their mother fall through Watcher, the children are sent closest to live with Miss Saundersa ruler the district has, a cold and unwelcoming woman who is not popular one of the five major victors in said earlier war. Being trained in the village and Glory wonders if they magic that only five people can use would have been better off remaining in London despite definitely change the danger status of falling bombsthe whole family. The local children appear unfriendly and even But in the countryside they are not completely safe from the enemy. All Glory wants is to return home finding something oddly magical, Juniper might just be able to gain some power of 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 trusted.own – for good, or for very, very bad…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1407138898</amazonuk>0241586143

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Alexander McCall Smith024162343X|title=Precious and the Zebra NecklaceStolen History|author=Sathnam Sanghera

|summary=There is [[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 new girl at Precious Ramotswe's schoolridiculously unexpected but delightful friendship with a polar bear – that she called Bear. Her name is NancyBack home, things on the domestic and Precious is asked to look after family front are a bit advanced, but not perfect for her , and make sure she settles into schoolso can easily be ignored when word comes through from the islands Bear was last left on. Precious, already For a budding detective at such a young agebear doing very Bear-y things has been shot and wounded. Desperate to make sure he's OK, soon sniffs out she and her father return to the Arctic and hope that there is in a little bit world of a mystery surrounding Nancy very white and very dangerous things, she can find one specific white and on discovering that all Nancy has left of her parents is a fading photograph dangerous thing – and a zebra necklace she decides that she must try to help Nancy discover the truth about what happened to themfriendship can continue.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1780273274</amazonuk>0008582017

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Hilary McKaySimon Fox|title=Binny in SecretDeadlock

|summary=Reading Binny in Secret was rather like that moment whenLate one night Graham Blake is late back from his shift on the force, as a child, I discovered that Noel Streatfield had written a LOT of other shoe books orand then suddenly rings Archie, just demanding he fetch something from a few years agosecret place, when I suddenly discovered Jeanne Birdsall and her Penderwick stories, and I gorged join him on them, utterly delighting in their humour and kindnessthe run. I don't quite know how I haven't come across Hilary McKay beforeThey get together, but barely begin to smell the whiff of course now Southern trains when the father is arrested, leaving Archie on the late express to Brighton, toting a long list of her books have gone onto my 'tin his father was determined to read' pile because I thoroughly enjoyed this story keep away from his colleagues, and I immediately wanted more!the bearer of a whole heap of questions.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1444913409</amazonuk>1839944420

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Kate PankhurstCath Howe|title= The Disappearing Dinner Lady (Mariella Mystery)My Life on Fire|rating= 4.5|genre= Confident Readers|summary=Mariella has to admit it: the school dinners have been much better latelyRen's family home is destroyed in a fire. When Big G was in charge She, vegetable mush was the order of the dayher parents, but since the 'Ladies Who Lunchand her little brother lose everything. She doesn' agency t have been supplying the mealsany of her clothes, they have been serving up heavenly dishes like 'Monday Munchie Madness'or any of her special little knick-knacks from her cupboard, 'Princess Pie' and now she is living at her grandmother'Pirate Pasta Bakes house where they can't touch anything, or do anything, or even eat the foods they normally eat. The mystery girls love When she goes back to school she discovers that the new menuclass are doing a special art project, but even more than creating boxes of their lives, to display things that, are important to them and show who they love the new dinner lady, Diana Dumplingare as a person. When Diana goes missing But Ren has nothing to put in mysterious circumstancesa box, Mariella and her friends are on the case so she finds herself starting to discover steal things. Small things, things that people might not really miss, not when they have so much already. But what really happened will happen to their favourite dinner lady.her if someone finds out what she is doing?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1444012347</amazonuk>1839942835

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Tomiko Inui and Ginny Tapley Takemori (translator)Rob Keeley|title=The Secret of the Blue GlassBoy Who Disappeared and Other Stories

|summary=One problem with being four inches or so tall, as any [[The Borrowers: The Borrowers and The Borrowers Afield by Mary Norton|Borrower]]-type creature I'm sure will tell you, Hooray! Bookbag favourite Rob Keeley is getting around. There're the impracticalities of being so small, encounters with cats, and a whole lot more. But back with this modern world things can happen – such as an English governess-type taking a married couple of Little People return to Japan with her. There they have kids, and she leaves them with her favourite pupil – alongside the most necessary equipmentshort story format! The Boy Who Disappeared treats us to eleven new tales, a small blue glass goblet, that helps the human bond with the Little People by using it each as fun to donate milk to them on a daily basis. We're now into the second generation of Japanese people looking after them, but something much more threatening, all-enveloping and worrying than a cat is around the corner – World War Tworead as his previous offerings.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1782690344</amazonuk>B0BVW69N1G

{{newreviewplainFrontpage|author=Laura Noakes|title=In Their Shoes: Fairy Tales and FolktalesCosima Unfortunate Steals a Star

|summary=Lots of books haveMeet Number One. Or rather, in their own wayCosima Unfortunate. Or rather, shown fairy tales just Cos to have relied on certain tropesher friends. You certainly donThe practice in the home she lives in is for the girls to just be named by the number they correspond to in the ledger, and they't have to read them re allUnfortunates – young people with disabilities, uncommon mentalities or indeed manysuchlike that Victorian society frowns greatly upon. But Cosima bears the tag as a surname because nothing else seems to be known about where she came from, as the first ever inmate, and unique in having no known family in the outside world. During a daring escapade to steal some posh cakes from the kitchen one afternoon, she discovers a plan involving said outside world – a devilish Lord Fitzroy seems to want to adopt all the girls for his Institute. But why, and what does that body entail? And could it possibly bring Cos closer to see the wily child outsmart past she has so little link with?|isbn=0008579059}}{{Frontpage|author=Alice M Ross|title=The Nowhere Thief|rating=4.5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=At last there is new stock in the adult again impoverished yet over-full antiques shop Elsbeth and againher mother run in a seaside town. Elsbeth knows this because she has stolen it. She also knows she should be free from worries about being found out, people tricked into changing ownership because she has the ability to leave this world, and use an unworldly portal of magical thingskaleidoscope colours to enter other worlds, where the sea levels are rising dramatically and the power buildings are generally empty of being humans and ripe for plunder. With eviction imminent, can Elsbeth nab anything to actually generate custom at the shop? Well yes, is the answer, but the fact a stepmothermysterious man knows exactly which items come from these different Somewheres only raises more questions…|isbn=1839943769}}{{Frontpage|author=Natasha Farrant|title=The Rescue of Ravenwood|rating=5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=This story is another excellent adventure from the author of ''Voyage of the Sparrowhawk''. Ravenwood is an old house, or in the power North of doing things in threesEngland, where Bea and Raffy have been living for most of their lives. Still, I think this must be one They are part of a very rare few collections to look at footwear complex, extended family arrangement, as a themeBea is there with her Uncle Leo, and Raffy is there with his mum, and they are living together as a tidyfamily. They have grown up swimming in the cove, small selection roaming through the trees, completely at one with all of fairy the nature around the house and folk-tales loving every inch of the place. But now the house is under threat, as Leo is under pressure from his other two brothers to sell the property to a developer as it's becoming more and more expensive to maintain. The children find themselves worrying not only about where they're going to entertainlive, but if they'll even be together, all with that subjectand if Ravenwood itself will be torn down.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1782691014</amazonuk>0571348785

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Ulrich Hub, Jorg Muhle Robin Birch and Helena Ragg-Kirkby (translator)Jobe Anderson|title=Meet at the Ark at Eight!Secret Beast Club: The Unicorns of Silver Street

|genre= Confident Readers|summary=An educated penguinJayden's nose is forever in a book, an agnostic penguin which means he knows a lot about mythological creatures – the phoenixes and a violentunicorns of the world, smallerfor example. Aisha is addicted to her new tablet, young penguin walk into a snowdrift… You where she can see videos of anything that might not be able to make a full joke out there. The problem, as their mothers see it, is that they are never 'out there' themselves, exploring the outside world of that opening lineHackney, but this book practically does continue on from thereLondon. Three penguins – each But when a narrowboat turns up carrying a little different from the otherscience-minded, even if they generally look and definitely smell the sameeducational purpose, and Godwith a past involving Jayden's cousin, they find a subject magical world they never knew existed. For many of their conversation when those mythological creatures are real, including the one Aisha thinks she's seen on a butterfly comes along, bit of all thingslocal footage. The youngcrew of the boat, hot-headed one (wellincluding a living gargoyle, are tasked with saving the rare critters – and the kids unknowingly have the magical sight needed to join in . Dare they side with Leila, the pictures he wears woman on board, and her relative who lives as a woolly hat, he's bound to be hot-headed) leaves figure in umbrage, leaving just two – which is perfectly timed if you're a dovepainting, and come along telling all become saviours of the animals to get into Noah's Ark in pairs, as an almighty flood is about to happen…unseen?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1782690875</amazonuk>0241573483

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Steven ButlerB09XWSXSKY|title=The Diary of Dennis Maestro Orpheus and the Menace: Canine Carnage (book 5)World Clock|author=Robert Penee and Joanne Grodzinski

|summary= I'm sure Dennis the Menace has a hate-hate relationship with schoolFrederick (or Fred, but the nature of it is relevant when considering these booksnever Freddy, please) couldn't sleep. The fact he goes at all is the cause for them in A tune, rather like the first place – he [[The Diary ticking of Dennis the Menace by Steven Butler|originally]] a clock was tasked with writing a journal as homework, playing over and turned it into a menacing manual for us, over in his readersmind. But if It happened every time he paid attention there he might realise £1,000 is not quite enough came to build visit his owngrandfather. He hadn't really wanted to come; after all, self-aggrandising theme park, even if he manages 's ten now and all those old clocks don't appeal to employ the bummy, booky, wimpy types behind the sceneshim anymore.  ''Who needs old clocks anyway? The grand sum All they do is what Dennis intends to win when The Fame Factor TV talent show hits towntell the time. That, as we can easily foretell, is going to be very menacingly interesting, but And time isn't good for anything...'' And thatwas why he was looking at the clock beside the bed. It was nearly twelve o's not clock but at midnight the site of the titular carnage – clock chimed only six times. There was nothing for that we have it but to rely on an unusual sleepgo and find grandad -over…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141355840</amazonuk>but where was he? And why had all the clocks stopped at twelve o'clock?