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[[Category:Confident Readers|*]]
[[Category:New Reviews|Confident Readers]]==Confident readers==__NOTOC__{{newreview|author=Elise Broach|title=Masterpiece|rating=4|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Marvin and his family are a kindly bunch. They even get him to go down inside the bathroom sink drainpipe to retrieve a missing contact lens. This is not so difficult when you're a small kind of beetle like Marvin. But when they worry about the standard of birthday presents given to James, the boy of the human family that have unwittingly fostered them, things get very unpredictable. Marvin sees James being given a pen and ink sketching set, and when trying to deliver a special coin to James, falls into making a sketch himself of the view outside the window. A sketch James could never have created <!-- Remove - an ink masterwork that makes far too many adult human eyes bulge with surprise, delight - and possibly greed.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1406321834</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Linda NewberyMax Boucherat|title=LobThe Last Life of Lori Mills
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Lob is a Green Man – an ancient nature spirit and garden helper. Can you spot him hiding We meet Lori on the front cover of first evening she's got the book? Lucy believes house to herself – no neighbour to pop in Lob, though babysitter poorly, mother at work, just an avidly rule-breaking eleven year old, on her Mum and Dad tell her 'it's just Grandpa's story'lonesome. When Lucy finally manages to catch What could possibly go wrong? Snuggled in a fleeting glimpse of Lobblanket fort, she has one main intention, and that is entranced and delighted to share Grandpalog on to Voxminer, the world-building, critter-collecting game that is a hit in Lori's secretworld. But when Grandpa dies first Lori has a tiny inkling that this stormy night doesn't find herself entirely on her own, and his home is sold Lucy is heartbrokenthen she finds something even more spooky. She wonders if For the server she will ever see Lob againand her bestie and nobody else should be able to enter shows signs of tampering. What follows When malevolent eyes spark up on her phone screen, and her safe place in the game has been doctored – well, where is a journey through the seasons tracing Lucy's life after Grandpa's death and Lob's search girl to find a new garden home.turn?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0385610815</amazonuk>0008666482
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Scott Westerfeld|title=Extras|rating=4.5|genre=Teens|summary=In the future city of this book, many people live with what is called a reputation economy. With everybody practically a cyborg, they're online permanently, using optical and brain implants to see everybody's status, output and more. Many people have hovercam companions, to make their own documentaries Kieran Larwood and film their own lives. They rely on metablogs to interact and keep their popularity up. They continuously spread their opinions and interests in order to become more wellJoe Todd-known. A girl called Aya is struggling to get any renown, but things change, when she meets other people doing incredibly notorious things, but in complete secrecy and anonymity.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847389228</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Emma ThompsonStanton|title=Nanny McPhee and the Big BangDungeon Runners: Hero Trial|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Mr and Mrs Green are a happily married coupleMeet Kit. Like most of the people in his world, living on a farm with their three childrenit seems, but with he is an avid fan of Dungeon Running – the start sport where a team of the warwarrior, mage and healer enter specially prepared, century-old, magical mazes, Mr Green goes off and race to fight leaving his wife, Isabelthe exit, perhaps bothering with the treasure or the big bad and the children to fend for themselvespoints they grant you along the way. They are struggling to manage Unfortunately for Kit, the upkeep only thing he's seen of the farm latest race on the inn TV equivalent is that one team has been retired, eaten, and it looks as if Isabel may have to sella new trio of questors is needed. To make matters worse, her estranged sister sends her two Possibly very richunfortunately indeed for Kit, very spoilt children he has taken to live on the farm to escape goading from the bombs in London, but they are immediately at loggerheads with their rather wild country cousinstoken bully of his world and stumbled into declaring he'll enter as a team. They are fighting wildlyWhat chance does this friendless, muscle-free-zone have in actually managing that, wreaking havoc and destruction and ignoring Isabel's pleas how could he possibly hope to stop when there is a sudden knock at the door from, of course, the terrifyingly ugly, magical Nanny McPhee.succeed?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1408805014</amazonuk>1839945184
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Kate SaundersJames Sherwood Metts|title=BeswitchedPlanet Storyland
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Flora is furious at being sent away to boarding school, even one which is very progressive with luxurious facilities and school rock bands. Her parents need to sell her grandmother's house in Italy and build Things have been a granny flat at home, and Flora is resentful at having her life turned upside down bit sticky for a grumpy, unpleasant old womanthe Earthlings. On the trainAI and automation have been proceeding apace, she falls asleep often replacing jobs they're paid to do and wakes up other tasks that took time to find herself in another eraaccomplish. Trendy 21st century Flora is horrified Just as they were beginning to find herself in a hideous pinafore dress with a childish haircut get used to all this technological change and no make up. What has happened starting to think of other, new ways to her Ipodspend time, mobile phone along came an awful pandemic. Life was pretty much shut down and brand new laptop?, along with it, all the many daily social interactions on which they depend so heavily.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1407108972</amazonuk>1736128426
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jo NesboTom Percival|title=Doctor Proctor's Fart PowderThe Wrong Shoes|rating=45
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=LisaWill's best friend life is difficult, in a multitude of ways. He is bullied because he has moved away. The neighbourhood bullies'the wrong shoes', Truls he has the wrong shoes because his dad can't work and Trym Tranedoesn't have enough money for even the most basic of things like food, are causing havoc. Her and his dad is getting ready for Norwaycan's Independence Day celebrationst work because he lost his job at the college, was working a cash-in-hand job on a building site and had an accident. Oh Throw into that mix the fact that his mum and dad are separated, and thereWill's an anaconda on the loose life seems bleak in the sewersevery direction. And yet, he still has a tiny amount of hope. Then Nilly moves into her street He is good at art, and clings to the moments of joy when he is drawing, that feel like a light at the two end of them meet Doctor Proctor and discover his amazing fart powdera long, dark tunnel.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847386539</amazonuk>1398527122
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=K A S Quinn1805141872|title=The Queen Must Die (Chronicles of the Tempus) Teacher Who Knew Too Much|author=Rob Keeley|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=In this historical time-travelling extravaganza, Katie Berger-Jones-Burg (I know, it's 'Seventeen banks and a mouthfuljeweller’s have been raided. The police are baffled, but stay with me) is only Ben knows the daughter of Mimitruth – his Maths teacher, an ex-girl band member who has been married three timesMiss Judson, so far, hence Katie's hyphenated name. Katie has come home from school to find that Mimi has gone off with another man, Dr Fishberg, and as she begins to stress about the potential new addition to her surname she crawls into her hidey-hole space beneath her bed to escape for is really a little while. Here she keeps her diary safecracker! With police and her stash of booksgangster boyfriend Al on their trail, Miss Judson and she curls up to read her latest book, a compilation of letters from Princess Alice, Queen Victoria's youngest daughterBen go on the run. But Al needs them for one last job. She starts to feel a bit sleepy, but is suddenly startled awake by a flash of light. She finds herself in Victorian England, underneath a sofa and staring into the eyes of Princess Alice, who is just as startled as she is.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848873700</amazonuk>}}''
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Marie-Louise Fitzpatrick Christopher Edge|title=TimecatcherBlack Hole Cinema Club
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Jessie Minahan is a pretty average fictional twelve year old girl: she has a dog side-kick named Duff Lucas and she craves adventure. One day, when her scatty mother has an urgent need his friends are all booked in for buttons Jessie discovers the abandoned Dublin Button Factory in an old mill, now inhabited by two detectives, who have a bigmovie marathon at their local cinema, big secret. She also meets G who is not your average fictional twelve year old boy - for one, he's dead. His worst enemy is Greenwood – a large ghost who lives in place that has the mill and is full nickname of rules'The Black Hole'. Greenwood is also involved in this All big secret which Jessie movie fans, they're looking forward to lots of exciting films, and G soon discover is the Timecatcher. many, many snacks! It opens every seven years for three days and reveals However, as the past - 'shadow days' movie starts, they very quickly realise that something about this new film format is very different, and they are swept up into an adventure they couldn'shadow people't even imagine. It But as they lurch from one film genre to the next, can they figure out what on earth is about going on? Will they ever get back to open again the cinema, and there is a ghostly villain named Sullivan Ellz'mede who would do anything to have the power source at its heart... their real lives?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1842556770</amazonuk>1839942738
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Philip ArdaghAdam Stower|title=The Wrong End of the Dog (Grubtown Tales)Murray and Bun
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers|summary=If you haven't been Murray is supposed to Grubtown beforebe a humble, then feel welcome. It's an auspicious day for the town of grubby tidy and inept people with names like Rambo Sanskritfriendly cat, one who is able to sleep and eat and eat and sleep and Mango Claptrap, as well, whatever takes his fancy next of the two. For today is the day of film star Tawdrey HipboneBut he's gala charity premiere. But therea bad magician's to be no galacat, so his favourite bun has been turned into a hyperactive sticky rabbit called Bun, and little charity eitherthe catflap they both use can chuck them out, when a pelican (and not into the town mascot eitherregular back garden, but into a different one) comes world of frightening adventure and steals - yes, steals - the beloved dog Snooks - yes, Snooks - from where he was living the fine life in Tawdrey's hair - yes, hair.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>057124792X</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=David Grimstone|title=Gladiator Boy vs The Living Dead|rating=2.5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=[[A Hero's Quest (Gladiator Boy) by David Grimstone|A Hero's Quest]] introduced us to Decimus Rexwhiffs. This seventh book in the overall ''Gladiator Boy'' series (and start of time round it drops them into a new sub-series of 6) begins with our heroViking land, Decimus Rexwhere a troll hunter is expected – well, and his friends all having received messages from their former ally Teo. I say former because they all thought Teo one much bigger than Murray was dead. They're all hoping against hope that Teo is really alive, to be honest, but therehe's a nagging doubt that their nemesis Slavious Doom is setting a trap for them...|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340989270</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Jenny Valentine|title=Iggy turned up and Me and the Happy Birthday|rating=5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Ooh, hooray! Iggy and Flo are back! We loved their [[Iggy and Me by Jenny Valentine|first outing]], just as we love all Jenny Valentinehe's books for older readers. Flo's just your everyday run of the mill eight year old. Iggy's a normal five year old (going on six). Iggy's a funny little thing, Flo's sweet. They're sisters who do what sisters do, in a regular family. They learn ll have to swim, they fall ill, they make cakes, they ride bikes. They toddle along with life and have a lovely time. do…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0007283636</amazonuk>0008561249
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Gene KempAlex Bell and Tim McDonagh|title=No Way OutThe Glorious Race of Magical Beasts
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Alex Eli is a busy lad – by day an apprentice in the wondrous library we start by visiting with him, and Adam are twinsin the evening a helper at the dessert cafe his gran owns and runs. Eli lives with his lovely gran, and they're telepathic to boottoo – for there is a generation missing in the family. They're very close A few short years ago, but are also like chalk and cheese: AdamEli's looking forward parents were both lost to their holiday on Uncle Ben and Aunt Sadie's farmthe titular race, but Alex can't think a globe-trotting adventure where all entrants have to navigate the world in the company of anything worsea magical beast. Adam is always happy This has made the race anathema to read to their little sister Emmy, the pair – but Alex resents when a bad incident at the attention she gets (she's disabledeatery leads to a confession from gran, y'see). By and large, they're just ordinary kidsEli knows his only hope is to dare to enter what he most hates, with ordinary grumbles. When the car they're in goes through thick fog and crashes, they find themselves in a town from times past, with inhabitants who don't want sole aim the prize of magic at the end – the only thing to let them leave, and who have an eye on Emmypossibly save his gran.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0571244556</amazonuk>0571382231
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Lindsey LeavittHelen Cooper|title=Princess for HireThe Taming of the Cat
|rating=3.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Desi is not the happiest of teenagersOnce again, although when mice are teenage girls ever actually happy? pitched against cat. AnywayIn this case, principally, we have Brie the mouse, her ex-best friend Celeste is doing everything possible to humiliate up against Gorgonzola the cat – and alienate her from their friendsin case you're seeing a connection, they live in a cheese shop and therefore all the names used here seem to top it all off Celeste is also dating be the boy Desi has a huge crush on, Haydennames of cheeses. (He Anyway, Brie is perhaps a dubious prospect shunned, scorned and, if you must, mous-tracised, for Desi since he canthe way his habits don't even get her name right)match the other mice he lives with. Still, she has landed herself summer job working They nibble up paper wrapping from the cheese for a pet store bedding – he displays it as art and although makes stories based on the visuals on it involves being dressed . And that story-telling will come in a furry groundhog costume at least no-handy one can tell it's her in there. Wellnight, not until Celeste comes along when he feels all alone and unmasks hercast out. In front of Hayden. Desi finds herself feeling more and more like vapour every day, that she doesnIt't matter or s almost doesn't existas if there were another character from fable who had had to tell stories to keep themselves alive. Cue This makes Brie the top dog in the fairy-godmother style entrance of Meredithmouse community, though, an agent for Facade which is a magical company that offer jobs as all the others had the chance to teens with magical potential to work as substitute princesses..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>140524612X</amazonuk>0571376010
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Victoria ForesterLauren St John|title=The Girl Who Could FlyFinding Wonder
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Have you ever wondered what it would be like if you could fly? Roo's life has become almost impossibly difficult. It would be such a wonderful sensationHer mum died when she was young, soaring through and now she finds herself awoken in the air, looping 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 loop, swooping down over your house and gardencorner shop to buy a lottery ticket. But have you also stopped to think When asked what other people might think if they saw that you could fly whilst no one else could? Would children still want to be your friend? What would your family think? The little girl in this story, Piper McCloudshe has, she can fly. She lives on only name her parents farm and was always a littleaunt, wellJoni, unusualwho she knows her dad didn't think very highly of. But she has no one else, and after her mum found her floating in the air one day when she was a baby so off she decided goes to home school Piper, rather than expose live with her to the gossips in the villageunreliable aunt. But one day, at the village picnicThings continue to get worse for Roo, Piper flies during the baseball match as when she tries to catch and Joni leave London in Joni's old campervan, it breaks down in the ball, middle of nowhere and suddenly her whole life is turned upside down...then bursts into flames! Poor Roo!|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0330512536</amazonuk>0571376169
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Marcus SedgwickAdam Baron and Benji Davies|title=Lunatics and Luck (Raven Mysteries)Oscar's Lion|rating=4.53
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=It's obvious really. When an earthquake hits Castle OtherhandWe start incredibly bluntly, Valevinewith Oscar hoping to have his mother – or father, the head but mother is more likely – read him his very favourite book a couple of the householdtimes before he has to be ready for school. But when he enters his parents' bedroom, decides what the place needs all he sees is a machine to predict the futuremahoosive male lion on their bed, looking sheepish, and a new tutor admitting that he won't be hungry for his another two oldest childrendays. And why not? There But there are only those children, benefits to having a lion around – it can be shown as an unspoken threat to the bully that ruined a birthday party for Oscar the suicidal baby twinsother month. And it can shapeshift, Valevineso he can take it to school and it can get him out of a problem. And it's dreadful failed inventions and experimentswonderful to have around the house – not limiting his biscuit intake, Edgar being much more lax about the raven that narrates this series of booksrules, and a monkey. With bells so on. Clearly there is not enough weirdness there already to go aroundOK, it can't work a dimmer switch but it can give Oscar a wonderful time.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1842556959</amazonuk>0008596751
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Adam BladeJudith Eagle|title=Creta the Winged Terror (Beast Quest)The Stolen Songbird
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Our heroCaro's mother, Toma world-famous whistler, has failed to return home from her recent work trip abroad and is finding his fishing trip now missing. Her other mother, Ronnie, is having to go up North to take care of her sister who is unwell. So who is going to look after Caro? Sent to stay with his father bugged - literally - by a plague of sickening cockroach thingsGam, someone Caro has heard her mother despises, she feels frustrated and confused and worried. WhatAll 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 morehouse, the whole land of Avantia along with an orphan boy, Albie, who is suffering some form of horrid heatwaveliving there too. Can TomBut she soon finds herself caught up in a mystery, recognising yet another threat to his country from the evil Malvel, defeat his nemesis yet again - especially as said baddie has as she discovers a new weapon painting of darkness a massive host of 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. Is the painting somehow linked to the gang? And what has happened to Caro's mother? Is she somehow involved in the roaches, swarming as one giant monstermystery too?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1408307359</amazonuk>0571363148
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Lucy Coats and Anthony LewisTania Unsworth|title=The Beasts in the Jar (Greek Beasts and Heroes)Nowhere Island
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Atticus the sandalmaker Meet Gil. Just twelve, he is heading so determined to escape the great storytelling competition care system – the system that constantly puts him in Troyfutureless places that are not homes – and find a home for himself. On his way He is en route to yet another fosterer, when he meets jumps into an anonymous car, and lets it ride him to his future. That future seems to be in jeopardy when someone steals his one bag of belongings – but that someone lives with his brother in a number camp on an island between the two directions of people a motorway, a place inaccessible and, always eager definitely ignored enough to provide for an opportunity to hone his skillstheir safety and seclusion. Them, relates to them tales from Ancient Greek myths and legendsa mute girl also finding a home there, albeit so much more successfully. The beasts in the jar of the title? Pandora released them from what Over a few weeks we see if their oddball destinies can combine, or if this is one place where life as we mistakenly call her box.would want it just would not work…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1444000659</amazonuk>1804540080
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Glenn DakinHelen Peters|title=Candle Man: The Society of Unrelenting Vigilance Friends and Traitors|rating=4.53|genre=TeensConfident Readers|summary=Birthdays for Theo England, WW2. Two young girls are not exactly how we would recognise themnew at the country pile called Stanbrook. One blandis Nancy, destined to be in service all her life it seems, forgettable present from each of like the three people who live in his householdfemale generations before her. Some pink cake at the best of timesThe other is Sidney, a girl from a hoity-toity Sussex boarding school that has been removed there away from bomber flight-paths. A trip to the cemeteryThe girls are chalk and cheese, and if we hadn't guessed that then their behaviour with the butler making sure nobody else is in sighteach other over their first encounters would only prove it so. But this one something is different - some person unknown leaves something for him. And by the time burglars break inamiss, and force Theo to leave the confines of his bedroom first separately and find some of then in combination they realise the secrets Lord Evesham must be a rum 'un. Midnight deliveries are received under cover of the housesecrecy, it talk is too late - Theo is set on made of meetings with Germans, and not only that, a nightmarish trail between two warring forces, as local Spitfire factory has been attacked. But surely the truths of his destiny, his originsgirls are wrong, and his hands, come to the fore.upper class could never be so underhand?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1405246766</amazonuk>1788004647
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Diana Wynne-JonesJamie Littler|title=Enchanted GlassArkspire
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Andrew HopeTwo sisters, a rather woolly professorJuniper and Elodie, learns that his magical grandfather has diedborn fifteen minutes apart, leaving him his house are growing to be chalk and his field-of-carecheese. Andrew remembers some things Juniper is an eager hunter and trader in illicit magic, including relics from when he was a little boy, such as his grandfather leaving vegetables prior major wars left out in the Badlands. Elodie is intent on getting closer to power in one of the roof religious districts of Arkspire, perhaps even to become the shed for someone, or something, child in line to eat each night. He also remembers that there is something special about inherit the power of the beautifulWatcher, old coloured glass above the kitchen door, but not exactly what that is. It seems he closest to a ruler the district has forgotten a lot of what his grandfather taught him, including the mystery and one of the field-of-care he has inheritedfive major victors in said earlier war. But with Being trained in the magic that only five people can use would definitely change the entrance status of Aidan Cain, an orphan, into his house and his life the mysteries deepenwhole family. The two are drawn But in finding something oddly magical, Juniper might just be able to each othergain some power of her own – for good, howeveror for very, and slowly start to unravel the truth that surrounds them.very bad…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0007320787</amazonuk>0241586143
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=024162343X|title=Stolen History|author=Sathnam Sanghera|rating=5|genre=Children's Non-Fiction|summary=I 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 so much want to learn about the British army's successes (and occasional failures, but we didn't dwell on those) in what came to be called 'the colonies' as want to dispute what right the army had to be there in the first place. Looking back, I still believe I was right - but I regret that I lacked the maturity to approach 'the problem' politely. I wish I'd had Sathnam Sanghera's ''Stolen History''.}}{{Frontpage|author=Jean UreThiago de Moraes|title=Ice LollyOld Gods New Tricks
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=It's the funeralMeet Trixie. Laurel - Lolly to those that love her - is concentrating very hard and trying desperately to turn Forever getting into an ice lolly. Ice lollies are frozenscrapes, you seelarks and adventures involving flooding the school aircon with fart powder, and they don't feel so muchshe could almost be thought a young goddess of nuisance. They can But just when she't miss people s being told that by her one-last- mothers chance- who are gone and people who are still around can't hurt themgiving headteacher, the world changes. A frozen heart is Suddenly, practically everything electronic stops working – a sad thingpower-out, even of electric cars, but ithits not just the town the school's a safe thing. Auntie Ellen doesn't like in but the music at entire planet (apart from mobile phones, and all that powers the serviceInternet, she thinks itjust for our convenience's inappropriatesake). It isn't even a hymn Trixie, luckily, realises what has happened – the ancient Gods have taken the power of power from us. But And so she begins her epic quest, to gather all the people that can steal it was one of Laurel's mother's favouritesback – namely the characters from myth that have past form in stealing from the Gods, ie the semi-deities, giants, half-gods and Laurel think it's just perfect. Specialso on known as the tricksters. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0007281730</amazonuk>178845295X
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Philip WomackHannah Gold and Levi Pinfold|title=The LiberatorsFinding Bear
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Cass is not having the best of [[The Last Bear by Hannah Gold|Last time when it comes to secrets]], April had been on Bear Island, a lot further north than many people would venture, and finding a ridiculously unexpected but delightful friendship with a polar bear – that she called Bear. It's all very well being involved in a top-secret societyBack home, designed to keep things on the secret of the most secretive secret everdomestic and family front are a bit advanced, but those pesky people called adults are keeping things from not perfect for her as well - namely, her very originsand so can easily be ignored when word comes through from the islands Bear was last left on. Can MaxFor a bear doing very Bear-Ernest y things has been shot and wounded. Desperate to make sure he's OK, she wade through their junk store base and find her father return to the box Arctic and hope that in a world of very white and very dangerous things, she was delivered in? Can they survive can find one specific white and dangerous thing – and that the mysterious clown school they end up visiting? And friendship can they keep a mystical tuning fork from falling into the wrong hands?continue.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1409506312</amazonuk>0008582017
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Betty G BirneySimon Fox|title=Holidays According to HumphreyDeadlock|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Humphrey the hamster Late one night Graham Blake is worried. Everywhere he turns late back from his little pink ears he hears noises about shift on the school being closed. How can force, and then suddenly rings Archie, demanding he survive without all his adoring fans in room 26fetch something from a secret place, and what is life like for a classroom pet without a classroom? join him on the run. LuckilyThey get together, this is only but barely begin to smell the whiff of Southern trains when the summer holiday he father is misunderstandingarrested, and what do you know - he will soon be meeting familiar facesleaving Archie on the late express to Brighton, not at schooltoting a tin his father was determined to keep away from his colleagues, but at summer campand the bearer of a whole heap of questions.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0571250904</amazonuk>1839944420
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Keith MansfieldCath Howe|title=Johnny Mackintosh: Star BlazeMy Life on Fire
|rating=5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Before I get into the review of this book, I'd like to suggest that if you haven't read Keith MansfieldRen's first Johnny Mackintosh bookfamily home is destroyed in a fire. She, her parents, [[Johnny Mackintosh and the Spirit her little brother lose everything. She doesn't have any of London by Keith Mansfield|The Spirit her clothes, or any of London]]her special little knick-knacks from her cupboard, you go off and read now she is living at her grandmother's house where they can't touch anything, or do anything, or even eat the foods they normally eat. When she goes back to school she discovers that the review class are doing a special art project, creating boxes of their lives, to display things that first are important to them and then go and read the book itself. It's show who they are as a fantastic readperson. But because this is Ren has nothing to put in a sequelbox, there are obviously going and so she finds herself starting to be some SPOILERS aheadsteal things. So Small things, done things that people might not really miss, not when they have youso much already. But what will happen to her if someone finds out what she is doing?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1849161267</amazonuk>1839942835
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Neal ShustermanRob Keeley|title=EverwildThe Boy Who Disappeared and Other Stories|rating=54
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Neal Shusterman continues his part zany adventure, part philosophical enquiry, and part coming-of-age story that began Hooray! Bookbag favourite Rob Keeley is back with Everlost in this follow-up that is perhaps even better than its predecessor. Everlost is a kind of limbo and home return to children - Afterlights - who have died, but somehow missed the tunnel and the light - wherever and whatever the light actually is. Adults never make it thereshort story format! The Boy Who Disappeared treats us to eleven new tales, but significant or much-loved objects and buildings sometimes do. Mary Hightower, for instance, is so-called because she took up residence in New York in the Twin Towers. Mary thinks Everlost is a wonderful place and she "saves" the Afterlights she finds by giving them repetitive but addictive tasks each as fun to fill eternityread as his previous offerings. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847387322</amazonuk>B0BVW69N1G
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Alex MilwayLaura Noakes|title=Mousebeard's Revenge (Mousehunter Trilogy)Cosima Unfortunate Steals a Star
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=If you started this trilogy way back whenMeet Number One. Or rather, you would probably never expect the pirate, Mousebeard, and the hero and heroine, Emiline and ScratcherCosima Unfortunate. Or rather, just Cos to be working togetherher friends. But they are - so deep The practice in the home she lives in is for the world of Old Town girls to just be named by the number they correspond to in intriguethe ledger, subterfuge and wicked plansthey're all Unfortunates – young people with disabilities, uncommon mentalities or suchlike that they need Victorian society frowns greatly upon. But Cosima bears the tag as a surname because nothing else seems to combine forces - be known about where she came from, as the first ever inmate, and get other returning characters back on hand and on their side - to counter Mousebeard's enemies once and for allunique in having no known family in the outside world. OnlyDuring a daring escapade to steal some posh cakes from the kitchen one afternoon, one great thing has changedshe discovers a plan involving said outside world – a devilish Lord Fitzroy seems to want to adopt all the girls for his Institute. YesBut why, and what does that's right. body entail? Mousebeard And could it possibly bring Cos closer to the past she has had a shave...so little link with?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0571245102</amazonuk>0008579059
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Valerie Thomas and Korky PaulAlice M Ross|title=Winnie's JokesThe Nowhere Thief|rating=24.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Who turns off At last there is new stock in the lights at Halloween? The lights witchimpoverished yet over-full antiques shop Elsbeth and her mother run in a seaside town. Elsbeth knows this because she has stolen it. What does She also knows she should be free from worries about being found out, because she has the ability to leave this world, and use an Australian witch ride onunworldly 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 plunder. With eviction imminent, can Elsbeth nab anything to actually generate custom at the shop? A broomerang. Yep Well yes, is the answer, it's but the fact a joke book.mysterious man knows exactly which items come from these different Somewheres only raises more questions…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0192729063</amazonuk>1839943769
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=A G TaylorNatasha Farrant|title=Meteorite StrikeThe Rescue of Ravenwood|rating=45
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Sarah This story is not readyanother excellent adventure from the author of ''Voyage of the Sparrowhawk''. She's not ready to forgive Ravenwood is an old house, in the man who North of England, where Bea and Raffy have been living for most of their lives. They are part of a complex, extended family arrangement, as Bea is there with her fatherUncle Leo, and Raffy is there with his mum, for abandoning her and her young brother Robert eight years agothey are living together as a family. She cannot yet forgive They have grown up swimming in the circumstances of her mother dyingcove, and of roaming through the promise they were forced to maketrees, to go to Australia completely at one with all of the man, nature around the house and start a new lifeloving every inch of the place. She But now the house is under threat, as Leo is certainly not prepared for under pressure from his other two brothers to sell the meteor strike property to smash into Australia just a developer as it's becoming more and more expensive to maintain. The children find themselves worrying not only about where they fly above it're going to live, which downs the plane in a horrid crashbut if they'll even be together, and seems to carry with it an alien virus which forces many people to drop permanently asleepif Ravenwood itself will be torn down.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1409508579</amazonuk>0571348785
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Cynthia KadohataRobin Birch and Jobe Anderson|title=A Million Shades Secret Beast Club: The Unicorns of GreySilver Street|rating=3.54
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=At just twelve, Tin Jayden's nose is the youngest elephant handler forever in his village. Ever since a book, which means he can remember, Tin has dreamed knows a lot about mythological creatures – the phoenixes and unicorns of working with elephants and he loves his own elephant, Ladythe world, for example. Aisha is addicted to distractionher new tablet, even spending most where she can see videos of his nights sleeping by her sideanything that might be out there. Tin The problem, as their mothers see it, is much less keen on school, but his parents insist that he goes. Tin really canthey are never 'out there't see themselves, exploring the pointoutside world of Hackney, as his sole ambition is to become London. But when a narrowboat turns up carrying a fullyscience-fledged elephant trainer. His parents may talk about opportunities in the minded, educational purpose, and with a past involving Jayden's cousin, they find a magical world outside his village but if they don't involve elephantsnever knew existed. For many of those mythological creatures are real, heincluding the one Aisha thinks she's not interestedseen on a bit of local footage. The crew of the boat, including 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 woman on board, and her relative who lives as a figure in a painting, and become saviours of the unseen?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>184738823X</amazonuk>0241573483
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Gigi AmateauB09XWSXSKY|title=ChanceyMaestro Orpheus and the World Clock|author=Robert Penee and Joanne Grodzinski
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=ChanceyFrederick (or Fred, but never Freddy, please) couldn's dam was Starry Night and her owner loved that horse so much that she wanted a foal who was exactly t sleep. A tune, rather like her, but when Chancey was born she was bitterly disappointed for instead the ticking of the black Appaloosa with white marking Chancey a clock was born albinoplaying over and over in his mind. It was only happened every time he came to visit his striped hooves which proved his breedinggrandfather. The owner was not big enough He hadn't really wanted to overcome her feelings come; after all, he's ten now and when she fell on hard times it was Chancey who was left out in the field all those old clocks don't appeal to suffer despite the fact that he was no longer a young horsehim anymore.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>140632258X</amazonuk>}}''Who needs old clocks anyway? All they do is tell the time. And time isn't good for anything...''
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Laurie Halse AndersonNigel Baines|title=ChainsA Tricky Kind of Magic
|rating=4.5
|genre=TeensEmerging Readers|summary=Isabel and her sister Ruth are slaves. But they should be free - Miss Mary Finch left a will that said so. But Miss Mary Finch is dead and her greedy nephew and heir denies all knowledge of the will. So Isabel and Ruth are sold Cooper loves to the Locktons and taken to New Yorkperform magic tricks. The Revolutionary War is underway and New York is His father was a dangerous place. The Locktons are loyalistsmagician, but the patriots are in control of and named Cooper after the citygreat Tommy Cooper. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0747598061</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Michelle Harrison|title=The Thirteen Curses|rating=4|genre=Teens|summary=Red is back, but she But sadly Cooper's trapped in the fairy realm. Having swapped places with Tanyafather died suddenly, she is bound thereand now Cooper doesn't quite know who to be, but is still desperate or how to get both her and her brother back into the human world. She must seek an audience with the fairy court, but the realm is full of deception and cruelty – it will be a challenge just to get there. And guess what happens when she gets there? She is set another challenge, twisted with the cruelty of the Unseelie (Boo! Hiss!) court. Whilst the journey goes on, she reflects on her past: the car crash that killed her parents and her time at the childrenhis dad's home. Meanwhileprop rabbit starts talking to him, Tanya has returned to Elvesden Manor for half term and lethe ''really'' doesn't know what's just say that her ability to see fairies comes back into use when the new housekeeper and her pesky parrot land her and Fabian and the whole Manor crew into trouble with the little people.going on anymore!|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847384501</amazonuk>1444960261
}}
