Changes

|author= M G Leonard and Sam SedgmanMax Boucherat|title= The Highland Falcon ThiefLast Life of Lori Mills|rating= 4.5|genre= Confident Readers|summary= Harrison BeckWe meet Lori on the first evening she's got the house to herself – no neighbour to pop in, babysitter poorly, or Hal as he prefers to be calledmother at work, isn't exactly pleased when his parents send him off with his uncle Natjust an avidly rule-breaking eleven year old, on her lonesome. What could possibly go wrong? Snuggled in a travel writerblanket fort, she has one main intention, and that is to log on to Voxminer, the world-building, critter-collecting game that is a long train journeyhit in Lori's world. Although, But first Lori has a tiny inkling that this isnstormy night doesn't any old train; this is find herself entirely on her own, and then she finds something even more spooky. For the Highland Falconserver 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 royal traingame has been doctored – well, where is a girl to turn?|isbn=0008666482}}{{Frontpage|author=Kieran Larwood and this Joe Todd-Stanton|title=Dungeon Runners: Hero Trial|rating=4|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Meet Kit. Like most of the people in his world, it seems, he is its last ever journey before it gets sent to an avid fan of Dungeon Running – the sport where a museum. A number team of highwarrior, mage and healer enter specially prepared, century-society figuresold, including film starsmagical mazes, millionaires and aristocratsrace to the exit, will be on this trainperhaps bothering with the treasure or the big bad and the points they grant you along the way. Unfortunately for Kit, so it is quite the event only thing he's seen of the latest race on the social calendar. Howeverinn TV equivalent is that one team has been retired, eaten, when an expensive brooch and a new trio of questors is stolenneeded. Possibly very unfortunately indeed for Kit, Hal realises that maybe this trip wonhe has taken to the goading from the token bully of his world and stumbled into declaring he't be as boring ll enter as a team. What chance does this friendless, muscle-free-zone have in actually managing that, and how could he previously thoughtpossibly hope to succeed?|isbn=1839945184}}{{Frontpage|author=James Sherwood Metts|title=Planet Storyland|rating=4. As 5|genre=Confident Readers|summary= Things have been a bit sticky for the passengers begin Earthlings. AI and automation have been proceeding apace, often replacing jobs they're paid to turn on each do and other, Hal vows tasks that took time to accomplish. Just as they were beginning to get used to all this technological change and starting to the bottom think of the mystery…before the train gets other, new ways to spend time, along came an awful pandemic. Life was pretty much shut down and, along with it, all the end of the linemany daily social interactions on which they depend so heavily.|isbn=15290130621736128426

|isbnauthor=1781129312Tom Percival|title=Sequin and Stitch|author=Laura Dockrill and Sara Ogilvie (illustrator)The Wrong Shoes

|genre=Dyslexia FriendlyConfident Readers|summary=Sequin loved her mum to bitsWill's life is difficult, but sometimes she got very cross with herin a multitude of ways. It wasnHe is bullied because he has 'the wrong shoes', he has the wrong shoes because his dad can't that mum wouldnwork and doesn't have enough money for even the most basic of things like food, and his dad can't go outside their flat work because he lost his job at the college, was working a cash- Sequin coped with that in- it was because she never pushed to get credit for what she didhand job on a building site and had an accident. Mum is a seamstress and she makes Throw into that mix the sort of clothes fact that you see on red carpets or at important weddingshis mum and dad are separated, and Will's life seems bleak in every direction. She's not the designer - they're the people who make And yet, he still has a lot tiny amount of money from the clotheshope. Mum He is good at art, and clings to the person who actually ''makes'' the garments and she's really talentedmoments of joy when he is drawing, but when people talk about that feel like a light at the dress or the suitend of a long, they talk about the designer. The seamstress is never mentioneddark tunnel.|isbn=1398527122

|authorisbn= Hana Tooke1805141872|title= The UnadoptablesTeacher Who Knew Too Much|author=Rob Keeley|rating= 4.5|genre= Confident Readers|summary= In the winter of 1880, five babies ''Seventeen banks and a jeweller’s have been raided. The police are abandoned at the Little Tulip orphanage in Amsterdambaffled, much to but only Ben knows the annoyance of matron Gasbeek. Twelve years latertruth – his Maths teacher, MilouMiss Judson, is really a safecracker! With police and her gangster boyfriend Al on their trail, Miss Judson and Ben go on the run. But Al needs them for one last of the five babies to be abandoned back in job...'' Goodness me, that winter, struggles to work out the identity of her parents from the clues she was abandoned with: Miss Judson is a small coffin with claw-marks terror! How on the outside, earth did a cat doll made by someone called Bram Poppenmaker and nice teacher like her manage to get mixed up with a velvet blanketbad 'un like Al? We'll find out. SheLuckily for Miss Judson, along with the other four, patiently wait for Milou's parents to come back and take pupil who discovers her home. Howeverterrible secret is Ben, when the five children are sold to the dodgy merchant Meneer Rotman, they know they have to escape. And so begins the adventure son of a lifetime famous magician who has ambitions to be as good as the Unadoptables join forces to reunite Milou with her parentshis father some day, all the time being pursued by the Kinderbureau and Rotman…|isbn=0241417465who thinks Miss Judson is worth saving

|author=Rob HarrellChristopher Edge|title=WinkBlack Hole Cinema Club|rating=4|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Lucas and his friends are all booked in for a movie marathon at their local cinema, a place that has the nickname of 'The Black Hole'. All big movie fans, they're looking forward to lots of exciting films, and many, many snacks! However, as the 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't even imagine. But as they lurch from one film genre to the next, can they figure out what on earth is going on? Will they ever get back to the cinema, and to their real lives?|isbn=1839942738}}{{Frontpage|author=Adam Stower|title=Murray and Bun

|summary=When Ross Eli is diagnosed with a rare form of cancer, aged 12, his desperate attempts at school to just be 'normal' become impossible. Suddenly he is busy lad – by day an apprentice in the cancer kidwondrous library we start by visiting with him, and everything he does, how he looks, and how he behaves falls under in the scrutiny of evening a helper at the other kids in schooldessert cafe his gran owns and runs. Ross isEli lives with his lovely gran, understandably, angry. He too – for there is facing potential blindness, whilst dealing with an eye sealed a generation missing in a permanent winkthe family. He has gloopy eye medicine A few short years ago, Eli's parents were both lost to try to help with the paintitular race, plus the need to wear a hat at globe-trotting adventure where all times to protect his face due entrants have to navigate the world in the ongoing treatmentcompany of a magical beast. With This has made the race anathema to the sudden ghosting by one of his best friends, and pair – but when a series of horrible memes that someone bad incident at school creates about Rossthe eatery leads to a confession from gran, nothing about Eli knows his life only hope is normal any more, and he has to find new ways dare to deal enter what he most hates, with the sole aim the prize of magic at the end – the only thing to possibly save his feelings, and survivegran.|isbn=14714091470571382231

|author=Alastair ChisholmHelen Cooper|title=Orion LostThe Taming of the Cat|rating=3.5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Once again, mice are pitched against cat. In this case, principally, we have Brie the mouse, up against Gorgonzola the cat – and in case you're seeing a connection, they live in a cheese shop and therefore all the names used here seem to be the names of cheeses. Anyway, Brie is shunned, scorned and, if you must, mous-tracised, for the way his habits don'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 visuals on it. And that story-telling will come in handy one night, when he feels all alone and cast out. It's almost as if there were another character from fable who had had to tell stories to keep themselves alive. This makes Brie the top dog in the mouse community, though, 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?|isbn=0571376010}}{{Frontpage|author=Lauren St John|title=Finding Wonder|rating=4|genre=Confident Readers|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't 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's old campervan, it breaks down in the middle of 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 – read 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, and admitting that he won'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 other month. And it can shapeshift, so he can take it to school and it can get him out of a problem. And it's wonderful to have around the house – not limiting his biscuit intake, being much more lax about the rules, and so on. OK, it can't work a dimmer switch but it can give Oscar a wonderful time.|isbn=0008596751}}{{Frontpage|author=Judith Eagle|title=The Stolen Songbird|rating=4|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Caro's mother, a 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 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 a mystery, as she discovers a painting of a 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 mystery too?|isbn=0571363148}}{{Frontpage|author=Tania Unsworth|title=Nowhere Island

|summary= Thirteen-year-old Beth Meet Gil. Just twelve, he is so determined to escape the care system – the system that constantly puts him in futureless places that are not homes – and her parents board the transport ship Orion ready find a home for a new life on Eos Fivehimself. Their new home He is still being terra-formed and life there isn't going en route to be easyyet another fosterer, when he jumps into an anonymous car, but and lets it ''is'' going 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 fresh start. As Beth's mum puts itcamp on an island between the two directions of a motorway, ''There's a future waiting place inaccessible and definitely ignored enough to provide for ustheir safety and seclusion. A chance to make our own decisions Them, and a mute girl also finding a home there, create our own livesalbeit so much more successfully.'' Over a few weeks we see if their oddball destinies can combine, or if this is one place where life as we would want it just would not work…|isbn= 17880059291804540080

|author=Struan Murray 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 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 hadn'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. Midnight deliveries are received under cover of secrecy, talk is made of meetings with Germans, and not only that, a local Spitfire factory has been attacked. But surely the girls are wrong, and the upper class could never be so underhand?|isbn=1788004647}}{{Frontpage|author=Jamie Littler|title=Arkspire|rating=4|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Two sisters, Juniper and Elodie, born fifteen minutes apart, are growing to be chalk and cheese. Juniper is an eager hunter and trader in illicit magic, including relics from prior major wars left out in the Badlands. Elodie is intent on getting closer to power in one of the religious districts of Arkspire, perhaps even to become the child in line to inherit the power of the Watcher, the closest to a ruler the district has, and one of the five major victors in said earlier war. Being trained in the magic that only five people can use would definitely change the status of the whole family. But in finding something oddly magical, Juniper might just be able to gain some power of her own – for good, or for very, very bad…|isbn=0241586143}}{{Frontpage|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=Thiago de Moraes|title=Old Gods New Tricks|rating=4.5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Meet Trixie. Forever getting into scrapes, larks and Manuel Sumberac adventures involving flooding the school aircon with fart powder, she could almost be thought a young goddess of nuisance. But just when she's being told that by her one-last-chance-giving headteacher, the world changes. Suddenly, practically everything electronic stops working – a power-out, even of electric cars, hits not just the town the school's in but the entire planet (illustratorapart from mobile phones, and all that powers the Internet, just for our convenience's 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 gather all the people that can steal it back – namely the characters from myth that have past form in stealing from the Gods, ie the semi-deities, giants, half-gods and so on known as the tricksters.|isbn=178845295X}}{{Frontpage|author=Hannah Gold and Levi Pinfold|title=Finding Bear|rating=4.5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=[[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 ridiculously unexpected but delightful friendship with a polar bear – that she called Bear. Back home, things on the domestic and family front are a bit advanced, but not perfect for her, and so can easily be ignored when word comes through from the islands Bear was last left on. For a bear doing very Bear-y things has been shot and wounded. Desperate to make sure he's OK, she and her father return to the Arctic and hope that in a world of very white and very dangerous things, she can find one specific white and dangerous thing – and that the friendship can continue.|isbn=0008582017}}{{Frontpage|author=Simon Fox|title=Orphans Deadlock|rating=4.5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Late one night Graham Blake is late back from his shift on the force, and then suddenly rings Archie, demanding he fetch something from a secret place, and join him on the run. They get together, but barely begin to smell the whiff of Southern trains when the Tidefather is arrested, leaving Archie on the late express to Brighton, toting a tin his father was determined to keep away from his colleagues, and the bearer of a whole heap of questions.|isbn=1839944420}}{{Frontpage|author=Cath Howe|title=My Life on Fire

|summary= In the last city on EarthRen's family home is destroyed in a fire. She, her parents, and her little brother lose everything. She doesn't have any of her clothes, anyone can be the vessel or any of The Enemy 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 god who drowned the world - who has come foods they normally eat. When she goes back to wreak havoc on school she discovers that the last of humanity. When class are doing a mysterious boy is pulled from the corpse special art project, creating boxes of a whaletheir lives, the citizens immediately believe him to be the Vessel - all except for young Ellie Lancaster, display things that are important to them and show who they are as a girl inventorperson. As the ruthless Inquisition prepares But Ren has nothing to put in a box, and so she finds herself starting to execute the boysteal things. Small things, Ellie must prove things that he is innocent - even if it means revealing her deepestpeople might not really miss, darkest secrets..not when they have so much already. But what will happen to her if someone finds out what she is doing?|isbn=02413844351839942835

|author= Holly RiversRob Keeley|title= Demelza The Boy Who Disappeared and the Spectre DetectorsOther Stories|rating= 54|genre= Confident Readers|summary= Demelza Clock Hooray! Bookbag favourite Rob Keeley is back with a scientist, often staying up late to work on her various gadgets, much return to her Grandma Maeve's irritation. However, she has also inherited a certain set of skills that are not especially scientific: Spectre Detecting, the ability to summon the ghosts of the recently deceased. Under the guidance of her Grandma Maeve, Demelza begins short story format! The Boy Who Disappeared treats us to master her newfound skills. Howevereleven new tales, there is a mysterious individual on the prowl, kidnapping young Spectre Detectors. It's up each as fun to Demelza and her best friend Percy to get to the bottom of this..read as his previous offerings.|isbn=1912626039B0BVW69N1G

|author=Tanya LandmanLaura Noakes|title=Jane Eyre: Cosima Unfortunate Steals a RetellingStar|rating=4|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Meet Number One. Or rather, Cosima Unfortunate. Or rather, just Cos to her friends. The practice in the home she lives in is for the girls to just be named by the number they correspond to in the ledger, and they're all Unfortunates – young people with disabilities, uncommon mentalities or suchlike 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 the 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 impoverished yet over-full antiques shop Elsbeth and her 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, because she has the ability to leave this world, and use an unworldly portal of kaleidoscope colours to enter other worlds, where the sea levels are rising dramatically and the buildings are generally empty of humans and ripe for plunder. With eviction imminent, can Elsbeth nab anything to actually generate custom at the shop? Well yes, is the answer, but the fact a mysterious 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

|summary=A young womanThis story is another excellent adventure from the author of ''Voyage of the Sparrowhawk''. Ravenwood is an old house, fresh from living with horrid relatives who could care less about herin the North of England, where Bea and years in Raffy have been living for most of their lives. They are part of a dreary schoolcomplex, moves into Thornfield Hall extended family arrangement, as Bea is there with only one intent – to have something like the life she wants – her Uncle Leo, and Raffy is there with only one jobhis mum, to tutor and they are living together as a young half-French girl, whose father is almost always absentfamily. When he does turn They have grown up he seems to be darkswimming in the cove, roaming through the trees, brooding completely at one with all of the nature around the house and troubled – but thatloving 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 nothing compared to the darker, becoming more broody and even more troubling secret in the houseexpensive to maintain. YesThe children find themselves worrying not only about where they're going to live, if you know Jane Eyre then you know the rest – but if you donthey'tll even be together, for whatever reason, this is a wonderful book to turn toand if Ravenwood itself will be torn down.|isbn=17811291260571348785

|author=Innosanto NagaraRobin Birch and Jobe Anderson|title=M is for MovementSecret Beast Club: The Unicorns of Silver Street

|genre=Emerging Confident Readers|summary=Set Jayden's nose is forever in Indonesiaa book, in which means he knows a lot about mythological creatures – the phoenixes and unicorns of the not too distant pastworld, this for example. Aisha is a story about social changeaddicted to her new tablet, where she can see videos of anything that might be out there. Dealing with some difficult issuesThe problem, such as political corruption and nepotismtheir mothers see it, is that they are never 'out there' themselves, exploring the book is neither boring nor preachyoutside world of Hackney, London. It educates gentlyBut when a narrowboat turns up carrying a science-minded, with vibrant, challenging illustrationseducational purpose, and it portrays how social movements need people who will trywith a past involving Jayden's cousin, even when it seems that they will failfind a magical world they never knew existed. For many of those mythological creatures are real, including the one Aisha thinks she's seen on a bit of local footage. The message is crew of the boat, including a positive one; that in an increasingly uncertain worldliving gargoyle, we do still are tasked with saving the rare critters – and the kids unknowingly have the power magical sight needed to instigate changejoin 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?|isbn=16098093510241573483

{|class-"wikitable" cellpadding="15" ''Who needs old clocks anyway? <!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE--><!-- Meg Cabot and Cara McGee -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1401286208All they do is tell the time.jpg|link=http://www And time isn't good for anything.amazon.co.uk/dp/1401286208/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]''

| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Black Canary: Ignite by Meg Cabot and Cara McGee]]=== [[image:3.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Confident Readers|Confident Readers]], [[:Category:Graphic Novels|Graphic Novels]] Meet Dinah Lance. Frustrated that her policeman father will not allow her to try and follow in his footsteps, and seemingly lumbered with being a cheerleader at school, she is desperate to find her voice. But it's actually more a case of her voice finding her, as when she gets frustrated or plain dissed at school her vocal outcry can shatter glass better than any opera singer. You could almost call it a weapon, or a power. But in order for her to call herself a superhero, there has to be a whole path of steps for her to take – one of which will be into her past… [[Black Canary: Ignite by Meg Cabot and Cara McGee|Full Review]] <!-- Ariel Dorfman and Chris Riddell -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1609809378.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1609809378/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Rabbits' Rebellion by Ariel Dorfman and Chris Riddell]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Confident Readers|Confident Readers]] We're in the realm of the rabbits, only the foxes and wolves have taken over. King Wolf, His Wolfiness, has declared the rabbits don't exist, but the pesky birds have spread rumours from awing that the bunnies are in fact still around. Demanding a propaganda spree, King Wolf orders a humble monkey to be his official portrait photographer, but whatever the poor innocent monkey prints out in his darkroom there is a distinct leporine hint. Can King Wolf succeed in proving himself victorious, can the rabbits show their continued existence to all who need to know of it – and what can the poor monkey caught in between do? [[The Rabbits' Rebellion by Ariel Dorfman and Chris Riddell|Full Review]] <!-- Aimee Lucido -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1406389331.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1406389331/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[In the Key of Code by Aimee Lucido]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Confident Readers|Confident Readers]] Emmy is moving with her parents halfway across America, to follow her father's dreams of a big break in his music career. She leaves behind her friends and her school in Wisconsin, and moves to California, knowing only what she has heard in songs. Her struggle to settle into her new life, make friends and feel happy and confident again, is agonisingly told in a way we can all relate to. There are many new opportunities and setbacks, taking the reader on a rollercoaster of emotions, but it isn't until Emmy joins a coding class using computer language that she begins to feel she might have a chance to feel like she truly belongs. [[In the Key of Code by Aimee Lucido|Full Review]] <!-- Maxwell N Andrews -->|-| style=''width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;''|[[image:1983376353.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1983376353/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style=''vertical-align: top; text-align: left;''| ===[[Lighthouse of the Netherworlds by Maxwell N Andrews]]=== [[image:3.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Teens|Teens]], [[:Category:Fantasy|Fantasy]], [[:Category:Confident Readers|Confident Readers]] The phrase about never trusting a book by its cover is something I put on a par with comments about Marmite. You're supposed to love it or hate it and I'm halfway between, and likewise, the old adage is halfway true. From the cover of this I had a child-friendly fantasy, what with that name and that attractive artwork of an attractive girl reaching for an attractive water plant. That was only built on by the initial fictionalised quotes, with their non-standard spelling, as if texts of scripture in this book's world predated our standardised literacy. But why was I two chapters in and just finding more and more characters, both human and animal, and more and more flashbacks, and no proof that this was what I'd bought in for? [[Lighthouse of the Netherworlds by Maxwell N Andrews|Full Review]] <!-- Day -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:0241351391.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0241351391/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Max Kowalski Didn't Mean It by Susie Day]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Confident Readers|Confident Readers]] When Max’s dad finds himself in a spot of hot water, he disappears for a few days, leaving Max in charge of his three younger sisters, Thelma, Louise and Ripley. Max has no problem with stepping up to fill his dad’s shoes and be the man in charge, but when his dad still doesn’t come home, he starts to panic that interfering grown-ups will realise that the children are home alone and that they will step in and separate the family. So Max takes his sisters to Wales, to hide out in a friend’s cottage. It won’t be for long, surely? Because his dad wouldn’t miss Christmas, would he? [[Max Kowalski Didn't Mean It by Susie Day|Full Review]] <!-- Eoin Colfer -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:0008324859.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0008324859/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Fowl Twins by Eoin Colfer]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Confident Readers|Confident Readers]] Relax, everyone – our old friend Artemis may be off-planet, but the baddies aren't getting away with skulduggery any time soon because they now have not one but two members of the Fowl family to contend with. Those cute little twins are now eleven (and, frankly, cute no longer) and in this, their first independent adventure, they meet a troll and without even trying to manage to make two deadly enemies: a nobleman obsessed with immortality whatever the cost (to other people), and an unusual interrogator-nun. The boys are chased, kidnapped, arrested and even killed (though not for long), all with the help of one trainee fairy. [[Fowl Twins by Eoin Colfer|Full Review]] <!-- Pike -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:0192771604.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0192771604/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"| ===[[The Last Spell Breather by Julie Pike]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Confident Readers|Confident Readers]] Rayne lives in the small, hidden village of Penderin where she is a somewhat unwilling apprentice to her mother, the spell breather. Not everyone can spell breathe, you have to born with a magic spark and Rayne wishes she hadn't been born with one. She's a terrible spell breather, her attempts are always followed by disaster and she positively hates Mam's spell book with its sharp teeth that suck your blood. When a stranger finds their village one day, Mam must set off Move on a journey to the great library, leaving Rayne in the village as their chief spell breather, but an unfortunate mistake sees Rayne breaking her mother's book and turning everyone into monsters. She must face her fear travel across the monster-ridden country to find Mam and restore the book to save their village. [[The Last Spell Breather by Julie Pike|Full Review]]  <!-- Jamie Smart -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:bookreviewercentre.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1910989460/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Flember: The Secret Book by Jamie Smart]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Newest Cookery Reviews]] [[:Category:Confident Readers|Confident Readers]] On the mysterious island of Flember, a young inventor named Dev finds an ancient book hidden in an old antiques shop. This book contains information about Flember, the energy of life. In true Frankenstein fashion, Dev uses it to create an enormous robot bear to help him clean up after himself. Hilarious chaos ensues. [[Flember: The Secret Book by Jamie Smart|Full Review]] <!-- Gardner -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1786695227.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1786695227/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"| ===[[Invisible in a Bright Light by Sally Gardner]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Confident Readers|Confident Readers]] The beginning of this excellent story will leave the reader more than a little confused: who is the man in the green suit, what is the Reckoning, and why are rows of people in a cave? But stick with it – Ms Gardner is very cleverly letting us experience the same disorientation as our heroine. We watch in dismay as the strange man, who seems to have no eyes, does his best to persuade her to answer his questions. But for some reason, Celeste, despite her bewilderment, remains wary and gives nothing away. [[Invisible in a Bright Light by Sally Gardner|Full Review]] <!-- Sorosiak -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:178800387X.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/178800387X/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"| ===[[I, Cosmo by Carlie Sorosiak]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Confident Readers|Confident Readers]]  Cosmo's family is in crisis. Mom and Dad argue all the time. Emmaline doesn't quite understand it because she's too little but she feels it. And Max, who is bigger, does understand it and is terrified by it. Long ago, when Max was just a baby, Cosmo made a promise to protect Max forever and so he sets about his mission of repairing the family with everything he's got... [[I, Cosmo by Carlie Sorosiak|Full Review]]<!-- Keret -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1609809319.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1609809319/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Long-Haired Cat-Boy Cub by Etgar Keret, Aviel Basil and Sondra Silverston (translator)]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Confident Readers|Confident Readers]] One day a boy is in the zoo with his father when the man gets called away on urgent business. The boy isn't hustled into a cab and taken home first, though, no – he's given hot dog money, and taxi money, and told to just stick around on his own and enjoy himself. Well, it's no surprise that the orphan-for-an-afternoon sensation the lad feels doesn't make him happy, and so he thinks of a species name for himself and curls himself up into an empty cage as if he were a new exhibit. And it's then the drama begins… [[Long-Haired Cat-Boy Cub by Etgar Keret, Aviel Basil and Sondra Silverston (translator)|Full Review]] <!-- Saramago -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1609809335.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1609809335/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Lizard by Jose Saramago, J Borges, Nick Caistor (translator) and Lucia Caistor (translator)]]=== [[image:2star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Emerging Readers|Emerging Readers]], [[:Category:Confident Readers|Confident Readers]] One day a giant lizard appears in the city. We don't even get told how it arrived, but it certainly appeared. People took against it, and if they weren't shrugging it off as a hallucination brought on by tiredness just as they fled it, they wanted something done about it. Can something be done about it, though? [[The Lizard by Jose Saramago, J Borges, Nick Caistor (translator) and Lucia Caistor (translator)|Full Review]] <!-- Linda Jones -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1999324803.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1999324803/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Deadwood Hall by Linda Jones]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Confident Readers|Confident Readers]] In late December Dylan Beaumont and his sister, Emily were on their way to spend the week before Christmas at their grandfather's house. It was snowing heavily and you could sense that their parents were becoming annoyed at the bickering in the back of the car. Emily was rather brusque with her nine-year-old brother's behaviour, but then that's your prerogative when you're a grown-up eleven-year-old. The snow was getting heavier and the journey longer when Emily opened the car window just a couple of inches. There was a dreadful smell and Dylan saw a horrible, snake-like figure clawing at the car window. [[Deadwood Hall by Linda Jones|Full Review]] <!-- DO NOT REMOVE ANYTHING BELOW THIS LINE -->|}