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[[Category:Confident Readers|*]]
[[Category:New Reviews|Confident Readers]]==Confident readers==__NOTOC__<!-- Remove -->{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Lesley HowarthMax Boucherat|title=MapheadThe Last Life of Lori Mills|rating=4.5|genre=TeensConfident Readers|summary=MapHead and his father Ran are of We meet Lori on the first evening she's got the Subtle World. Ran can travel through timehouse to herself – no neighbour to pop in, babysitter poorly, mother at work, just an avidly rule-breaking eleven year old, make things disappear and erase human memorieson her lonesome. MapHead can flash the map of any place across his face and bald scalp. MapHead is What could possibly go wrong? Snuggled in a halfling blanket fort, she has one main intention, and now he that is almost 12, Ran has brought him to meet his human mother. As they need log on to pass for humansVoxminer, they've taken new names the world- Boothe and Powersbuilding, from critter-collecting game that is a random movie - practised their Englishhit in Lori's world. But first Lori has a tiny inkling that this stormy night doesn't find herself entirely on her own, and enrolled MapHead at then she finds something even more spooky. For the same school as his half-brotherserver she and her bestie and nobody else should be able to enter shows signs of tampering. When malevolent eyes spark up on her phone screen, and her safe place in the game has been doctored – well, where is a girl to turn?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1846471206</amazonuk>0008666482
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Rob KeeleyKieran Larwood and Joe Todd-Stanton|title=The Alien in the Garage and Other Stories Dungeon Runners: Hero Trial
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Would aliens like custard creams? Can fake tan hide a big lie? Are TV remotes sinister objects? Do secrets make you popular? Rob Keeley explores all these questions and more Meet Kit. Like most of the people in his world, it seems, he is an avid fan of Dungeon Running – the sport where a super collection team of slightly spookywarrior, mage and healer enter specially prepared, century-old, magical mazes, and race to the exit, blackly comic short storiesperhaps bothering with the treasure or the big bad and the points they grant you along the way. They Unfortunately for Kit, the only thing he're beautifully observed s seen of the latest race on the inn TV equivalent is that one team has been retired, eaten, and you can see that Rob knows children wella new trio of questors is needed. He Possibly very unfortunately indeed for Kit, he has taken to the goading from the emotional landscape exactly right token bully of his world and is equally accurate when describing stumbled into declaring he'll enter as a team. What chance does this friendless, muscle-free- zone have in actually managing that, and sometimes gently mocking - peer relationships. how could he possibly hope to succeed?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1848765797</amazonuk>1839945184
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Susan Cooper, Joseph Delaney, Berlie Doherty, Jamila Gavin, Matt Haig, Robin Jarvis, Derek Landy, Sam Llewellyn, Mal Peet, Philip Reeve and Eleanor UpdaleJames Sherwood Metts|title=HauntedPlanet Storyland
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Milly-Molly-Mandy doesnThings have been a bit sticky for the Earthlings. AI and automation have been proceeding apace, often replacing jobs they't much mind being an only child when she has people like Little Friend Susan, Billy Blunt re paid to do and Miss Muggins's Jilly other tasks that took time to play withaccomplish. And what fun Just as they have! With overnight guestswere beginning to get used to all this technological change and starting to think of other, trips in the pony-trapnew ways to spend time, dressing up as Proper Ladiesalong came an awful pandemic. Life was pretty much shut down and, running races and even forming secret clubsalong with it, there's never a dull momentall the many daily social interactions on which they depend so heavily.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>023075497X</amazonuk>1736128426
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Joyce Lankester BrisleyTom Percival|title=Milly-Molly-Mandy's FamilyThe Wrong Shoes
|rating=5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Millicent Margaret Amanda (thatWill's Millylife is difficult, in a multitude of ways. He is bullied because he has 'the wrong shoes', he has the wrong shoes because his dad can't work and doesn't have enough money for even the most basic of things like food, and his dad can't work because he lost his job at the college, was working a cash-Mollyin-Mandy to you hand job on a building site and me) lives with Father had an accident. Throw into that mix the fact that his mum and Mother dad are separated, and Grandpa and Grandma and Uncle and Aunty (and Toby the dog) Will's life seems bleak in a nice white cottage with a thatched roofevery direction. And do you knowyet, she he still has all sorts a tiny amount of adventureshope. She goes out into town alone to fetch things for her extended family He is good at art, she goes and clings to a concert where she even knows one the moments of the performersjoy when he is drawing, she gets invited to parties in that feel like a light at the village hallend of a long, and she does it all with the company of Little Friend Susan and Billy Bluntdark tunnel.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0230754988</amazonuk>1398527122
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Saviour Pirotta and Mark Robertson1805141872|title=The Giant Book of Giants|rating=4|genre=Confident Readers|summary=There's a rather large giant's eye starting back at me from the cover of this book...I'm not scared though, because the book promises that the giant contained within is a gentle giant who will guard my room! And he really is contained within since this is a book set which includes a book of giant stories from around the world as well as a huge giant poster (over one metre high!) which is in 3D and contains moving parts!|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1405260084</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewTeacher Who Knew Too Much|author=Cathy Cassidy|title=The Chocolate Box Girls: Marshmallow SkyeRob Keeley
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=It doesn't seem like 'Seventeen banks and a year since I first met the Tanberry sisters in [[Cherry Crush: The Chocolate Box Girls by Cathy Cassidy|Cherry Crush]] because they're all very fresh in my mindjeweller’s have been raided. The five girls police are baffled, but only Ben knows the truth – four of them are called Tanberry his Maths teacher, Miss Judson, is really a safecracker! With police and Cherry is their step-sister – are all just preteen or in her gangster boyfriend Al on their early teenstrail, with Honey as the oldest Miss Judson and Coco as Ben go on the youngestrun. But Al needs them for one last job.. Honey is still not coping with the fact that her father has left – and is now living in Australia – or with the arrival of Paddy and Cherry. On occasions she's not just difficult – she's ''dreadful''.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141384808</amazonuk>}}
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Paul GeraghtyChristopher Edge|title=The HunterBlack Hole Cinema Club
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=At Lucas and his friends are all booked in for a movie marathon at their local cinema, a place that has the start nickname of 'The HunterBlack Hole'. All big movie fans, they're looking forward to lots of exciting films, Jamina and her grandfather are walking in the bush collecting honey. Jamina wants to see elephants but her grandfather tells her it is unlikely because not many have been seen since , many snacks! However, as the hunters came. Initiallymovie starts, she is quite enthralled by the idea of hunters and proclaims they very quickly realise that she wants to be one. She starts to play at hunting but something about this game ends in her becoming lost. She new film format is drawn towards a sad very different, and desperate cry and eventually comes across a small baby elephant trying they are swept up into an adventure they couldn't even imagine. But as they lurch from one film genre to wake his dead mother. She leads the baby away and hopes next, can they figure out what on earth is going on? Will they ever get back to head towards home but all around she senses danger and is aware that the poachers are never that far away. She feels hunted herself cinema, and through this journey she comes to realise that hunting is bad and that she no longer wishes to become a hunter.their real lives?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1849393761</amazonuk>1839942738
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Fiona DunbarAdam Stower|title=Kitty Slade: Fire Murray and RosesBun|rating=4.5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=In the second in the Kitty Slade seriesMurray is supposed to be a humble, tidy and friendly cat, Kitty lives with her Greek grandmother (Maro) one who home educates Kittyis able to sleep and eat and eat and sleep and, her brother Sam and sister Flossiewell, whatever takes his fancy next of the two. Kitty has a rare condition: she can see ghosts. On But he's a trip to Oxenden to stay with Marobad magician's friendscat, Kitty experiences some strange Poltergeist-type phenomenaso his favourite bun has been turned into a hyperactive sticky rabbit called Bun, and discovers that the family catflap they both use can chuck them out, not into the regular back garden, but into a world of Sir Ambrose Vyner (Marofrightening adventure and whiffs. This time round it drops them into a Viking land, where a troll hunter is expected – well, one much bigger than Murray was, to be honest, but he's friends Dinky, Charlie turned up and their children Louis and Emily) are under a curse.he'll have to do…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1408309297</amazonuk>0008561249
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Ian BeckAlex Bell and Tim McDonagh|title=The Hidden Kingdom|rating=5|genre=Teens|summary=Prince Osamu is a pampered, spoiled young orphan who has never known friends his own age or been told what to do. He spends his life surrounded by beauty and riches in a world where most people do not even dare to raise their eyes to his face, collecting the exquisite pots made by Master Masumi and writing poems. His tutors have told him about the demons of Hades which try, every few centuries, to break through the barrier and take over this world, and that it is his responsibility to repel them, but he dismisses all this as old wives' tales. And then one night the forces of the Emissary attack the palace, and every certainty he had is gone in a flash.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0192755633</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Martin King|title=Jack Hunter - Secret Glorious Race of the King|rating=3|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Jack Hunter was not impressed by the idea of moving from Southend to Barnoldswick. It was a long journey, he'd left all his friends behind and to cap it all the rather sassy girl next door announced that his bedroom was haunted. The family had moved north because his Mum's father was getting a bit frail and needed looking after, but when Jack goes to see Grandad he realises that there's a lot more to the old man than meets the eye. He has a secret to share with Jack – and a gold coin which does seem to show that what Grandad says about buried treasure is true. He hunted for it for years and now he's handed the quest on to Jack.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>B005EIQ3ZE</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Jana Oliver|title=The Demon Trappers: ForbiddenMagical Beasts
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=After Eli is a busy lad – by day an apprentice in the wondrous library we start by visiting with him, and in the demon attack on evening a helper at the Tabernacledessert cafe his gran owns and runs. Eli lives with his lovely gran, Riley Blackthorne has got too – for there is a lot to think aboutgeneration missing in the family. Her (dead) Father turned up A few short years ago, Eli's parents were both lost to warn her about the impending attacktitular race, but just made him and Riley look guilty a globe-trotting adventure where all entrants have to navigate the world in the processcompany of a magical beast. Riley doesn't care about that This has made the race anathema to the pair – but when a bad incident at the eatery leads to a confession from gran, she wants to know who reanimated her Father and stole Eli knows his body. Her bet only hope is on Ozymandiasto dare to enter what he most hates, with the creepiest sole aim the prize of all magic at the necromancers end – plus she did tick him offthe only thing to possibly save his gran.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0330519484</amazonuk>0571382231
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Gareth P JonesHelen Cooper|title=The Considine CurseTaming of the Cat
|rating=3.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Fourteen-year-old Mariel and her mother emigrated to Australia when she was very smallOnce again, mice are pitched against cat. It's just In this case, principally, we have Brie the two of themmouse, apart from her motherup against Gorgonzola the cat – and in case you's succession of boyfriendsre seeing a connection, and Mariel has always believed they have no family live in a cheese shop and are alone in therefore all the names used here seem to be the worldnames of cheeses. Then one day her mother tells her that her maternal grandmother has died Anyway, Brie is shunned, scorned and that they, if you must, mous-tracised, for the way his habits don're going back to England t match the other mice he lives with. They nibble up paper wrapping from the cheese for bedding – he displays it as art and makes stories based on the funeralvisuals on it. And what's morethat story-telling will come in handy one night, when she gets there she will meet her five uncles he feels all alone and six cousins for the first time since she was a babycast out. Mariel is both angry and mystified It's almost as if there were another character from fable who had had to tell stories to keep themselves alive. Why did her mother keep This makes Brie the top dog in the mouse community, though, as all the information about others had the family a secret? What right did she have chance to deny Mariel half-inch some cheese while the opportunity to belong to a big loving family group? And what cat was distracted. But will the story have the successful sequel it about Grandma needs when that made her mother hate her so muchcheese runs out? But Mariel's mother, true to form, won't answer any of her questions, and relations between them remained strained throughout the book.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1408811510</amazonuk>0571376010
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Rob StevensLauren St John|title=S.T.I.N.K.B.O.M.B.: Secret Team of Intrepid-Natured Kids Battling Odious Masterminds, BasicallyFinding Wonder
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Archie loves planesRoo's life has become almost impossibly difficult. Her mum died when she was young, and is never happier than when his pilot father lets him take now she finds herself awoken in the controls middle of the night by the police banging on her door to tell her that her dad has dropped dead on his Dragonfly 600 jet aircraftway to the corner shop to buy a lottery ticket. When asked what other family she has, she can only name her aunt, with its ability to hoverJoni, move at five times the speed who she knows her dad didn't think very highly of a helicopter and land and take off vertically. But in the honourable tradition of the hidden heroshe has no one else, his slightly nerdy preoccupation and so off she goes to live with flying, not her unreliable aunt. Things continue to mention going round with chocolate-guzzling Barney who lives in a dream-world of spiesget worse for Roo, conspiracies as when she and enemy agentsJoni leave London in Joni's old campervan, gets him bullied at school it breaks down in the middle of nowhere and nagged at by his teachers.then bursts into flames! Poor Roo!|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0330530240</amazonuk>0571376169
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Adam GidwitzBaron and Benji Davies|title=A Tale Dark and GrimmOscar's Lion|rating=43
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Not many books begin We start incredibly bluntly, with the hero and heroine losing their heads (literally) Oscar hoping to have his mother – or father, but mother is more likely – read him his very favourite book a couple of times before page thirtyhe has to be ready for school. And But when he enters his parents' bedroom, all he sees is a mahoosive male lion on their bed, looking sheepish, and admitting thathe won's not t be hungry for another two days. But there are 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 only misfortune to befall Hansel and his sisterother month. No sooner are their heads and necks reunited And it can shapeshift, so he can take it to school and they've fled their murderous parents, than the two children find themselves in front it can get him out of an edible housea problem. And we all know what happens if you eat peopleit's homeswonderful to have around the house – not limiting his biscuit intake, being much more lax about the rules, donand so on. OK, it can't we? Well, maybework a dimmer switch but it can give Oscar a wonderful time.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1849393702</amazonuk>0008596751
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Sam OsmanJudith Eagle|title=Serpent's GoldThe Stolen Songbird
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Most children probably know more about Hindu gods Caro's mother, a world-famous whistler, has failed to return home from her recent work trip abroad and Creation myths than they do about ley linesis now missing. Her other mother, Ronnie, so there is a whole wealth having to go up North to take care of new information 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 ideas worried. All her summer holiday plans of building herself some equipment to be found in practise her gymnastics are brought to a halt whilst she is stuck inside this series of books about the adventures of Wolfiestaid old Victorian lady's house, along with an orphan boy, Albie, Tala and Zi'ibwho is living there too. Ancient beliefs about stone circles and megaliths But she soon finds herself caught up in a mystery, magic circlesas she discovers a painting of a bird hidden away inside her mum's old suitcase, and all across London a fearsome gang called the Great Pyramid at Giza Snakes are thieving artworks and terrorising people. Is the Knights Templar are painting somehow linked through these mysterious lines with modern sites like Battersea Power Station and to the Tate Modern as our three heroes battle gang? And what has happened to Caro's mother? Is she somehow involved in the forces of wickedness.mystery too?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1407105760</amazonuk>0571363148
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Lucinda HareTania Unsworth|title=Dragon Whisperer: Flight to Dragon IsleNowhere Island|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Quenelda DeWinter is the Meet Gil. Just twelve year old daughter of Earl Rufus DeWinter, he is so determined to escape the commander of care system – the Stealth Dragon Servicessystem that constantly puts him in futureless places that are not homes – and find a home for himself. As He is en route to yet another fosterer, when he 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 member camp on an island between the two directions of the nobilitya motorway, Quenelda should be at Grimalkin's College a place inaccessible and definitely ignored enough to provide for Young Ladies their safety and learning how to curtsey properlyseclusion. Them, like her jealous brother Darcy's fianceeand a mute girl also finding a home there, the ladylike Armeliaalbeit so much more successfully. However, Quenelda is Over a dragon whisperer, and few weeks we see if their oddball destinies can communicate both telepathically and through dreams with dragonscombine, and her ambition or if this is to enrol at the Stealth Dragon Services Battle Academy at Dragon Isle.one place where life as we would want it just would not work…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0552560235</amazonuk>1804540080
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Albert Uderzo and Renee GoscinnyHelen Peters|title=Where's Asterix?Friends and Traitors|rating=43
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Following 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 tradition of 'Where's Wally' books here female generations before her. The other is Sidney, a 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 have hadn'Where's Asterix?t guessed that then their behaviour with each other over their first encounters would only prove it so. But something is amiss, and first separately and then in combination they realise the Lord Evesham must be a rum ' un. There Midnight deliveries are 12 different scenes from the Asterix stories where you have to find received under cover of secrecy, talk is made of meetings with Germans, and not just Asterix but only that, a whole range of other characters hidden throughout as welllocal Spitfire factory has been attacked. Turn it into a competition as you win a laurel wreath for each character you find!But surely the girls are wrong, and the upper class could never be so underhand?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1444004441</amazonuk>1788004647
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Emily BearnJamie Littler|title=Tumtum and Nutmeg: Trouble at Rose CottageArkspire|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Mysterious things Two sisters, Juniper and Elodie, born fifteen minutes apart, are afoot growing to be chalk and cheese. Juniper is an eager hunter and trader in illicit magic, including relics from prior major wars left out in Rose Cottagethe Badlands. It appears that some new mice, Elodie is intent on getting closer to power in one with golden teethof the religious districts of Arkspire, have moved into perhaps even to become the kitchen and are threatening child in line to inherit the tranquil lives power of Tumtum the Watcher, the closest to a ruler the district has, and Nutmeg who live one of the five major victors in Nutmouse Hallsaid earlier war. After some investigation they discover Being trained in the magic that only five people can use would definitely change the status of the new mice are town mice, intent on causing troublewhole family. Will the children discover who has been stealing their thingsBut in finding something oddly magical, or discover a way Juniper might just be able to stop their father from selling Rose Cottage before it's too late and their livesgain some power of her own – for good, as well as Tumtum and Nutmeg'sor for very, are changed forever?very bad…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1405256559</amazonuk>0241586143
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=David Benedictus024162343X|title=Return to the Hundred Acre WoodStolen History|author=Sathnam Sanghera
|rating=5
|genre=Confident ReadersChildren's Non-Fiction|summary=Christopher Robin is back! At least that's what I was the Rumour spreading like wild fire through the Hundred Acre Wood saysbad company other people got into at school. He's returning for more adventures with Pooh and Piglet and Rabbit and Owl and Kanga and Roo and Tigger and Eeyore and, as I was disruptive in religious education classes because Idisputed the existence of a 'm sure yougod'll agree. Where was the proof? In history lessons, that is a Very Good Thingit was probably worse still. From exciting new friends (Lottie Not too long after the Otter giving Kanga some welcome female company) end of WWII, I didn't so much want to adventures learn about the British army's successes (and competitionsoccasional failures, with water slides but we didn't dwell on those) in what came to locate, bees be called 'the colonies' as want to relocate, books to write and schools dispute what right the army had to found, this book picks up where be there in the previous one left offfirst place. Looking back, and really does read like an organic 3rd part of a trilogy (poetry books excepted) rather than a tag on I still believe I was right - but I regret that comes some 80-plus years after I lacked the original and from maturity to approach 'the pen of anotherproblem' politely. I wish I'd had Sathnam Sanghera's ''Stolen History''.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1405251603</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jackie MartinThiago de Moraes|title=Burglar BoyOld Gods New Tricks|rating=34.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=''Burglar Boy'' opens Meet Trixie. Forever getting into scrapes, larks and adventures involving flooding the school aircon with fart powder, she could almost be thought a big scene young goddess of nuisance. But just when she's being told that by her one- Dean is halfway though robbing a house when last-chance-giving headteacher, the owner returnsworld changes. Chased by an irate man with a good aim and a golf club Suddenly, he barely makes it out in one piece. But he dutifully returns home and divvies up practically everything electronic stops working – a pile of illpower-gotten goods to Callumout, his older brothereven of electric cars, who rewards him for hits not just the town the school's in but the risk entire planet (apart from mobile phones, and all that powers the bruises with a paltry fiver. StillInternet, itjust for our convenience's more pocket money than Dean is likely sake). Trixie, luckily, realises what has happened – the ancient Gods have taken the power of power from us. And so she begins her epic quest, to see gather all the people that can steal it back – namely the characters from his mothermyth that have past form in stealing from the Gods, ie the semi-deities, who has lapsed further giants, half-gods and further into a bottle of vodka since her most recent boyfriend leftso on known as the tricksters. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1907552146</amazonuk>178845295X
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Emma KennedyHannah Gold and Levi Pinfold|title=Wilma Tenderfoot and the Case of the Rascal's RevengeFinding Bear
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Wilma Tenderfoot[[The Last Bear by Hannah Gold|Last time]], April had been on Bear Island, assistant to the great Detective Theodore Pa lot further north than many people would venture, and finding a ridiculously unexpected but delightful friendship with a polar bear – that she called Bear. Goodman Back home, is off to solve another case with things on the help of domestic and family front are a bit advanced, but not perfect for her loving dog, Pickleand so can easily be ignored when word comes through from the islands Bear was last left on. The future of Copper Island hangs in the balance, For a bear doing very Bear-y things has been shot and Wilma thinks it's possible that she may just yet discover who her parents really are..wounded. Desperate to make sure youhe're sitting comfortablys OK, you won't want she and her father return to put this the Arctic and hope that in a world of very white and very dangerous things, she can find one down!specific white and dangerous thing – and that the friendship can continue.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0330535234</amazonuk>0008582017
}}
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Polly Conway Late one night Graham Blake is having to deal with rather a lot at late back from his shift on the moment. Her mum has got force, and then suddenly rings Archie, demanding he fetch something from a fabulous new job – but it’s in Spain! That leaves Polly to live with her dad, her new stepmother who she can’t standsecret place, and her baby brother who’s just annoyingjoin him on the run. Depressed by the problems in her life They get together, she ignores her dad’s rules and turns but barely begin to smell the friend2friend website to find comfort. As she gets increasingly addicted to whiff of Southern trains when thesitefather is arrested, she starts to lose focus leaving Archie on the important things in her life – including her family late express to Brighton, toting a tin his father was determined to keep away from his colleagues, and the Star Makers’ new productionbearer of a whole heap of questions.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1409520919</amazonuk>1839944420
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Elliott SkellCath Howe|title=Neversuch House: Mask of the EvergonesMy Life on Fire
|rating=5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=The Halibuts are an extraordinary Ren's familyhome is destroyed in a fire. She, her parents, and her little brother lose everything. Almost two centuries ago She doesn't have any of her clothes, or any of her special little knick-knacks from her cupboard, and now she is living at her grandmother's house where they can't touch anything, or do anything, or even eat the Captain used his immense wealth foods they normally eat. When she goes back to school she discovers that the class are doing a special art project, creating boxes of their lives, to buy up land display things that are important to them and surround it by show who they are as a high wallperson. He took But Ren has nothing to put in a wifebox, and employed families of servants so she finds herself starting to serve his every needsteal things. Money was no object Small things, and subsequent generations of Halibuts had anything they desired on one condition: if they ever left the grounds of the Housethings that people might not really miss, not when they could never returnhave so much already. But what will happen to her if someone finds out what she is doing?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847387446</amazonuk>1839942835
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Diana Wynne JonesRob Keeley|title=Earwig The Boy Who Disappeared and the WitchOther Stories
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Earwig lives at St Morwald's children's home. Unlike some orphans in literature she's perfectly happy there since she seems to have everyone answering her every whim, and she loves spending time Hooray! Bookbag favourite Rob Keeley is back with her best friend Custard. Things are soon a return to change though as one day a rather strange couple, Bella Yaga and the Mandrakeshort story format! The Boy Who Disappeared treats us to eleven new tales, come each as fun to look for a child to foster and the one they pick is Earwig!read as his previous offerings.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0007416857</amazonuk>B0BVW69N1G
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Francesca Simon and Pete WilliamsonLaura Noakes|title=The Parent Swap ShopCosima Unfortunate Steals a Star|rating=4.5|genre=For SharingConfident Readers|summary=Ava's parents like Meet Number One. Or rather, Cosima Unfortunate. Or rather, just Cos to nagher friends. They nag her about her spellingThe practice in the home she lives in is for the girls to just be named by the number they correspond to in the ledger, about eating and they're all Unfortunates – young people with her knife and forkdisabilities, uncommon mentalities or sitting straight on her chair, or going suchlike that Victorian society frowns greatly upon. But Cosima bears the tag as a surname because nothing else seems to bed on time...nagbe known about where she came from, nagas the first ever inmate, nag! and unique in having no known family in the outside world. But then During a daring escapade to steal some posh cakes from the kitchen one day afternoon, she finds discovers a plan involving said outside world – a card advertising 'The Parent Swap Shop' devilish Lord Fitzroy seems to want to adopt all the girls for his Institute. But why, and when her parents nag her one more time what does that body entail? And could it possibly bring Cos closer to the past she packs them off and sets out to find herself a new set of parents!has so little link with?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1444002678</amazonuk>0008579059
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Philip ArdaghAlice M Ross|title=The Eddie Dickens TrilogyNowhere Thief
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Meet Eddie DickensAt last there is new stock in the impoverished yet over-full antiques shop Elsbeth and her mother run in a seaside town. Aged eleven years old, he's only been allowed to Elsbeth knows this because she has stolen it. She also knows she should be away free from home twice in his life - once for worries about eight years on a boatbeing found out, when a crate of luggage went because she has the ability to school in his placeleave this world, and once for about three years. Now though he is being forced use an unworldly portal of kaleidoscope colours to move in with Mad Uncle Jack enter other worlds, where the sea levels are rising dramatically and Even Madder Aunt Maud, as his parents the buildings are very illgenerally empty of humans and ripe for plunder. But they're so deliriously bonkersWith eviction imminent, there's very little chance of him getting can Elsbeth nab anything to actually move in with them. generate custom at the shop? Who Well yes, is the answer, but the fact a mysterious man knows - he might even end up stuck in an orphanage instead?exactly which items come from these different Somewheres only raises more questions…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0571274692</amazonuk>1839943769
}}
|rating=5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=On moving to middle school, eleven year old EliseThis story is another excellent adventure from the author of ''s life takes a turn for Voyage of the worseSparrowhawk''. She's bullied by her cool Ravenwood is an old house, in the North of England, where Bea and popular locker-buddy AmandaRaffy have been living for most of their lives. They are part of a complex, extended family arrangement, and embarrassed by as Bea is there with her best friend Franklin – who's decidedly uncool Uncle Leo, and certainly not popular – she's alsostruggling to cope Raffy is there with his mum, and they are living together as a family. They have grown up swimming in the new arrivals cove, roaming through the trees, completely at her home, Aunt Bessie's younger sister Annie one with all of the nature around the house and her baby daughter Avaloving every inch of the place. Just when she doesn't know how she can cope with everything But now the house is under threat, help arrives in as Leo is under pressure from his other two brothers to sell the form of property to a strange key with her name on developer as it's becoming more and more expensive to maintain. As she opens a door to The children find out themselves worrying not only about her pastwhere they're going to live, but if they'll even be together, Elise starts to realise that she can take control of her futureand if Ravenwood itself will be torn down.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0141336064</amazonuk>0571348785
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Morris GleitzmanRobin Birch and Jobe Anderson|title=Too Small to FailSecret Beast Club: The Unicorns of Silver Street
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=OliverJayden's parents own an investment banknose is forever in a book, which means he knows a lot about mythological creatures – the phoenixes and unicorns of the world, for example. They are very rich and also very busy and they need Aisha is addicted to her new tablet, where she can see videos of anything that might be in the city for out there. The problem, as their work. This means mothers see it, is that Oliver lives in a penthouse flatthey are never 'out there' themselves, largely in exploring the company outside world of Hackney, London. But when a narrowboat turns up carrying a succession of housekeepersscience-minded, educational purpose, and he canwith a past involving Jayden't have s cousin, they find a petmagical world they never knew existed. Of late For many of those mythological creatures are real, Oliver has been spending including the one Aisha thinks she's seen on a lot bit of local footage. The crew of time with his nose pressed up against the boat, including a pet shop windowliving gargoyle, falling are tasked with saving the rare critters – and the kids unknowingly have the magical sight needed to join in love . Dare they side with Leila, the woman on board, and her relative who lives as a figure in a black-painting, and-white dog that he knows he'll never be able to take home.become saviours of the unseen?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0241955203</amazonuk>0241573483
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=James RollinsB09XWSXSKY|title=Jake Ransom Maestro Orpheus and the Howling Sphinx|rating=5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=James Rollins has hit upon a truly brilliant premise in this series. People and creatures from our world have been transported at various times to a savage, prehistoric place called Calypsos, and in the first volume, [[Jake Ransom and the Skull King's Shadow by James Rollins|Jake Ransom and the Skull King's Shadow]] Jake and his sister find themselves suddenly whisked to a city where Romans, Mayans, Neanderthals and groups from many other societies, places and eras live more or less peaceably side by side. Their archaeologist parents disappeared three years before, and the two young people's struggles to survive, and to defeat Kalverum Rex, the Skull King, go side by side with their hope of finding a trace there of their mother and father.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444000853</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewWorld Clock|author=Geraldine McCaughrean|title=King Arthur Robert Penee and a World of Other StoriesJoanne Grodzinski
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=The prolific, award winning author Geraldine McCaughrean has collected together twenty four stories from around the world in this highly impressive collection, garnered from four earlier collections. It includes the familiar from the Western tradition (Wilhelm Tell, Pygmalion, King Arthur) to those that are completely new to me, from Bolivia, Togo, Japan, the Middle East. The stories are no more than five pages long, making them ideal for bedtime reading Frederick (or hometime reading in a school).|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444002376</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Julia Jones and Claudia Myatt|title=Strong Winds Trilogy: The Salt-Stained Book|rating=5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Donny and his mother left their bungalow on the outskirts of Leeds and headed off to Suffolk to meet Donny's great aunt. It was never going to be easy as Skye, Donny's mother, was deaf and just about mute. She and Donny communicated by signing and usually they managed quite wellFred, but when Skye had a breakdown in a car park in Colchesternever Freddy, their camper van was towed away and fourteen-year-old Donny was taken into care. He please) couldn't understand why none of the officials would believe him – in fact, were they all that they seemed? And why will no one let him see his mother?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1899262040</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Kallie George and Abigail Halpin|title=The Melancholic Mermaid|rating=4.5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Maude is a mermaid who was born with two tailssleep. Her parents tell her it makes her special, stronger and faster, but amongst the other mermaid children it makes her an outcast. She is lonely, and she longs for a friend. Feeling sorry for herself one day she isn't paying attention and she is captured by a fisherman who sells her to a circus. On the same day that Maude was born, Tony was born in a cottage by the sea. He has webbed hands andA tune, rather like Maude, is teased at school and left lonely and sad. His parents send him to live with the circus, believing he will be accepted and happy there but Tony is still lonely and he misses the sea. But then one day he is put in charge ticking of a new attraction for the circus. A mermaid with two tails...|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1897476531</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Joanna Philbin|title=Celebriteens: In the Spotlight|rating=4|genre=Teens|summary=Girls usually get together because they've got something in common clock was playing over and for Lizzie, Carina and Hudson it's their famous parents. Lizzie's mother is a supermodel and even over in her thirties she's still one of the most beautiful women in the worldhis mind. Lizzie's – notIt happened every time he came to visit his grandfather. Well, sheHe hadn's not exactly ugly but compared t really wanted to her mother (and she always is) she just doesn't come up to scratch. Carina's dad is a rich (''very'' rich) businessman and ; after all, he's determined that C (as she's known) is going to join the company ten now and eventually take over. Carina has other ideas. Hudson wants to make music and you might think that having a pop diva for a mother is a good start, but Hudson's style is different and her mother canall those old clocks don't accept that.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1407121200</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Helen Grant|title=Wish Me Dead|rating=4.5|genre=Teens|summary=Rural Germany, in modern times. Steffi and her five friends lark about in a deserted building appeal to summon a witch and get her to kill a local celebrity - who does indeed diehim anymore. When a repeat attempt gifts a decent amount of cash to Steffi it becomes clear she is alone in having her wishes granted. So what will happen when she wishes for the town hunk - hasn't Steffi heard to be careful what you wish for? But how on earth can things get so bad she feels her story deserves *that* title?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141337702</amazonuk>}}
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Kate CostelloeNigel Baines|title=The Breakfast ClubA Tricky Kind of Magic
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Emerging Readers|summary=Billie and her three best friends have grown Cooper loves to love the breakfast club they've formedperform magic tricks. His father was a magician, meeting every Saturday morning to pass the time and discuss named Cooper after the week they've hadgreat Tommy Cooper. Mario But sadly Cooper's is the perfect venue for it - so itfather died suddenly, and now Cooper doesn's a huge shock t quite know who to be, or how to be. And when they find ithis dad's closing down! In additionprop rabbit starts talking to him, Billiehe ''really's mother is adamant that she shouldn't pursue the career in music she wants more than anything, and Billie candoesn't understand why. Can the girls find somewhere else to spend Saturday mornings, and can they persuade Billieknow what's mum that music is what really matters to her?going on anymore!|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1444902857</amazonuk>1444960261
}}
