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[[Category:New Reviews|Confident Readers]] __NOTOC__<!-- Remove -->{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn= 1836285493|title=The Double Life of a Wheelchair User|author= StrefRob Keeley|titlerating=5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=JWill is a keen player of video games, a conscientious student, a slightly annoying brother and a supportive friend. But most of all, he is an aspiring writer.MEnglish is his favourite lesson at his school, Marlowe Park, and one at which he excels. BarrieThis hasn's Peter Pan: t gone unnoticed by his headteacher, Mrs Howarth, and she has suggested to Will and his mum that he spends a couple of afternoons a week at a different school, Station Road, where his ability might be better extended.}}{{Frontpage|isbn= 1836282028|title=The Graphic NovelFighting Spirit|author=Rob Keeley
|rating=4
|genre=Graphic NovelsConfident Readers|summary=Here's 'Would you like to adopt a ghost?'' ''Young spirit, born 1887, seeks kind home to haunt. Gentleman by birth. Good company. Gets on well with other children. Jokes and shocks a quiz question for you – despite the uniform seventy year copyright rulespeciality.'' ''If interested, place outside your home three twigs, which work has been in the sole recipient shape of an endless extension of itarrow, courtesy of an ex-Prime Minister? The answer is obvious now at least, as this is one such volumepointing to your front door... It's ' Hooray! Bookbag favourite Rob Keeley is celebrating a very readable and pleasant variant on J M Barriedecade of his wonderfully entertaining [[Rob Keeley's original stage version ''Spirits'' series in Chronological Order|Spirits]] series with a new adventure that is both a reboot and novel regarding Peter Pana continuation. Just like Doctor Who, Edward Fitzberranger, our incorrigible Victorian ghost boy, which of course helps has some new companions. Ruby and Jayden respond to this intriguing advertisement and always will now help Edward, who has broken the Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital. And for a boy who never grows rules as usual and absconded from his manor house home, is adopted by them and takes up, at 111 years old he's residence in spritely good health.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780272901</amazonuk>... a wardrobe!
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Helen MossRob Keeley|title= Secrets of the Tombs 2Childish Spirits: The Dragon Path10th anniversary special edition|rating= 5|genre= Confident Readers|summary= They don't actually intend to have an adventure: quite the opposite, in fact. As far as fifteen-year-old Ryan and his friend Cleo are concerned, being chased by bad guys and falling down deep holes is seriously over-rated. But they're on their way to China with their parents anyway, so they can hardly refuse when Cleo's grandmother asks them to put a jade bracelet she's had for eighty years back where it belongs. Where's the harm?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444010417</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Kjartan Poskitt and Philip Reeve|title=Borgon the Axeboy and the Whispering Temple (Borgon the Axeboy 3)|rating=3.54
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Around here, we're big fans of children'The middles author Rob Keeley. He's nice a ball of happy positivity, he understands children, and crunchy but the squishy bits are horriblehe writes for their pleasure and enjoyment, not to lecture or hectorThe '' No, thatChildish Spirits''s not a predator in prehistoric times discussing the eating series is one of us humanshis greatest achievements. Instead, itIt's Borgon the Axeboy's mother, discussing peaches. Yes, even in a world where a lot of nasty animals are still around to potentially eat the likes sequence of Borgonghost stories centring on Ellie, there are still things for people to learn. Borgon for one, in this third adventure in a stalwart young girl who can cope with anything the seriesspirit world throws at her, has a lot to learn about religion – he scoffs at the idea there's a god resident in a temple he and his friends have discoveredEdward, even if his friend Hunjah insists otherwise. The lesson is forced a spoiled lordling and the truth comes out, however, when some thieves turn up, having pegged the site as a location of many earthly riches…first spirit Ellie encounters|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>057130737X</amazonuk>1783064617
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=Dead End Kids: Heroes of the Blitz Max Boucherat|authortitle=Bernard AshleyThe Last Life of Lori Mills
|rating=4.5
|genre=Teens
|summary=It's London in 1940. Most of the men have been conscripted and the East End is populated mainly by women and children. Josie and her friends are carrying on much as usual, though, grouping into little gangs and arguing over turf via mud fights along the Thames. But then comes a terrible night of bombing. It's the start of the Blitz and 57 consecutive nights of bombing for the East End. The fire service is stretched way beyond its capacity and the lucky ones make it out of the shelters in the morning, while the unlucky ones don't see another sunrise.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408338955</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Emma Carroll
|title=In Darkling Wood
|rating=5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary= In We meet Lori on the early hours of first evening she's got the morning Alice’s mum receives the phone call they have been waiting forhouse to herself – no neighbour to pop in, babysitter poorly, mother at work, just an avidly rule-breaking eleven year old, on her lonesome. The long awaited heart transplant What could possibly go wrong? Snuggled in a blanket fort, she has one main intention, and that may save her sick brotheris to log on to Voxminer, Theo’sthe world-building, life critter-collecting game that is now possiblea hit in Lori's world. Alice finds But first Lori has a tiny inkling that this stormy night doesn't find herself sent to stay with a grandmother she doesn’t knowentirely on her own, miles away from her friends and then she finds something even more spooky. For the life server she knows. There is no TV, no phone signal and no internet but Alice feels drawn to the mysterious Darkling Wood surrounding the house despite her grandmother’s wish bestie and nobody else should be able to have it chopped downenter shows signs of tampering. Meanwhile back in 1918 a young girl desperately waits for news of When malevolent eyes spark up on her phone screen, and her brother’s safe return from the front. Her mother doesn’t like her playing place in the nearby wood but it game has been doctored – well, where is there that she discovers secrets and magic that give her hope for the future. a girl to turn?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>057131757X</amazonuk>0008666482
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=The Potion DiariesKieran Larwood and Joe Todd-Stanton|authortitle=Amy AlwardDungeon Runners: Hero Trial
|rating=4
|genre=TeensConfident Readers|summary=Samantha Meet Kit. Like most of the people in his world, it seems, he is an avid fan of Dungeon Running – the sport where a mixer team of potions extraordinaire. Which is just as wellwarrior, because someone has to save a princess who has fallen in love with herself. Yesmage and healer enter specially prepared, you heard right! You might not think this is the most enormous problem century- princesses are so spoiled old, magical mazes, and pamperedrace to the exit, is it any wonder they fall in love perhaps bothering with themselves? But this isn't what's happened. Princess Evelyn has taken a love potion meant to make someone else fall in love with ''her''. And the resulting havoc caused by treasure or the wrong person taking big bad and the right potion leads to some very unstable magic that could threaten points they grant you along the very kingdom itselfwayHence Unfortunately for Kit, the only thing he''Wilde Hunt''s seen of the latest race on the inn TV equivalent is that one team has been retired, eaten, and a national quest new trio of questors is needed. Possibly very unfortunately indeed for Kit, he has taken to find the ingredients for goading from the token bully of his world and stumbled into declaring he'll enter as a cureteam. What chance does this friendless, muscle-free-zone have in actually managing that, and how could he possibly hope to succeed?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1471143562</amazonuk>1839945184
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=Thirteen Days of MidnightJames Sherwood Metts|authortitle=Leo HuntPlanet Storyland
|rating=4.5
|genre=TeensConfident Readers|summary=Luke Manchett really isnThings have been a bit sticky for the Earthlings. AI and automation have been proceeding apace, often replacing jobs they't re paid to do and other tasks that upset when he gets the news that his father has diedtook time to accomplish. You might Just as they were beginning to get used to all this technological change and starting to think that's a tad harshof other, but Luke has been estranged from his father for years. His primary concern is his mothernew ways to spend time, who is disabled by crushing cluster headachesalong came an awful pandemic. SoLife was pretty much shut down and, rather than worry heralong with it, Luke heads off to a lawyer's office to deal with all the reading of his father's will by himself. And he gets a shock. Luke's inheritance adds up to six million dollarsmany daily social interactions on which they depend so heavily. SIX MILLION!|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1408337460</amazonuk>1736128426
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=John Dougherty and David Tazzyman (illustrator)Tom Percival|title=Stinkbomb and Ketchup-Face and the Bees of StupidityThe Wrong Shoes
|rating=5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=WeWill've been here befores life is difficult, in a multitude of ways. The lovely children whose name He is in 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 title most basic of all these books – handy when they make time to try things like food, and check if theyhis dad can're in this one or not – are woken up t work because he lost his job at the college, was working a cash-in -hand job on a ridiculous way by a blackbird making his usual cameo. The Army of Great Kerfuffle is asleep – all single cat of itbuilding site and had an accident. The King is wearing a badge Throw into that allows him to pretend to not be mix the King – this time hefact that his mum and dad are separated, and Will's thinking of keeping beeslife seems bleak in every direction. And yet, although he still has four animals that go 'quack' in a hive insteadtiny amount of hope. Oh yeahHe is good at art, and clings to the evil badgers are in prison having been naughty. But they will never follow moments of joy when he is drawing, that feel like a light at the pattern and be evil and naughty and break out in order to be eviller and more naughtyend of a long, will they?dark tunnel.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0192742736</amazonuk>1398527122
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1805141872|title=The Teacher Who Knew Too Much|author=Rob Keeley|rating=4.5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=''Seventeen banks and a jeweller’s have been raided. The police are baffled, but only Ben knows the truth – his Maths teacher, Miss 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 job...'' Goodness me, that Miss Judson is a terror! How on earth did a nice teacher like her manage to get mixed up with a bad 'un like Al? We'll find out. Luckily for Miss Judson, the pupil who discovers her terrible secret is Ben, the son of a famous magician who has ambitions to be as good as his father some day, and who thinks Miss Judson is worth saving}}{{Frontpage|author=Julian SedgwickChristopher Edge|title=Ghosts of ShanghaiBlack Hole Cinema Club
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=ShanghaiLucas and his friends are all booked in for a movie marathon at their local cinema, 1926a place that has the nickname of 'The Black Hole'. The city is heavily divided between the naturalAll big movie fans, national areasthey're looking forward to lots of exciting films, and the enclaves of the foreigners – Russian, French, Americanmany, British. many snacks! Several of the younger international youths have formed the Ghost Society gangHowever, after as the principal charactermovie starts, Rubythey very quickly realise that something about this new film format is very different, found another divide cleaving Shanghai in two – that between the living and the dead, the they are swept up into an adventure they couldn'real world' and the Otherworldt even imagine. Her brother dead, she seemed But as they lurch from one film genre to become the conduit for a poltergeist in her apartmentnext, and recently the gang have even managed to lock a spirit into a bottle and cast it down a well. But the gang can they figure out what on earth is immediately falling apart – the lad she loves, Charlie, and his sister are diverting themselves from, or have been warned off, any further such activity. going on? Rose knows she has Will they ever get back to find the source of the problem – cinema, and cross any untold divides in her city to find the truth…their real lives?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1444923900</amazonuk>1839942738
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Guillermo del Toro, Daniel Kraus and Sean MurrayAdam Stower|title=TrollhuntersMurray and Bun
|rating=4.5
|genre=Teens
|summary=West Coast USA in the 1960s, and the city is wracked and wrecked by a slew of missing children reports. The parents with their new anguishes, and new rules against playing out after dark, have no idea of the horrors in their vicinity – literally under their feet lies a city of trolls, guilty of snatching the children. Last to go, Jack Sturgess. Cue the modern era and Jack's younger, now grown-up brother Jim, and Jim Jr live a sheltered life in the most barricaded and secure home imaginable, and Jim Jr's life is as exciting as you'd expect. Unfortunately, however, the trolls are about to make a return to their nastiest of ways – and their intentions are a lot more surprising than Jim Jr could ever predict…
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1471405192</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author= Caroline Lawrence
|title= The Case of the Bogus Detective
|rating= 5
|genre= Confident Readers
|summary= Howdy folks! Welcome to Virginia City, bustling and busy home to prospectors, dancing girls, lawyers, gamblers and newspapermen. It's 1862, and our twelve-year-old pal Pinky is continuing the quest to become a successful detective and eventually join Uncle Allan in the famous Pinkerton Detective Agency in Chicago. But for the moment there's so much crime right here in Nevada, thanks to the untold wealth being found daily in the nearby silver mines, that Pinky and financial partner Ping are soon busy day and night, chasing desperados, solving crimes and righting all manner of wrongs.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444010336</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Ali Sparkes
|title=Car-Jacked
|rating=5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=A boy genius Murray is supposed to be a humble, tidy and friendly cat, one who speaks Mandarin is able to sleep and Latin eat and eat and sleep and, well, whatever takes his fancy next of the two. But he's a criminal who’s just robbed bad magician's cat, so his favourite bun has been turned into a bank hyperactive sticky rabbit called Bun, and stolen a car: it’s an unusual pairing butthe catflap they both use can chuck them out, it turns outnot into the regular back garden, but into a perfect team. ‘‘Car-Jacked’’ leads us through the twists and turns world of 12-year old Jack’s frightening adventure when his parents’ car and whiffs. This time round it drops them into a Viking land, where a troll hunter is hi-jacked with Jack still inside.expected – well, one much bigger than Murray was, to be honest, but he's turned up and he'll have to do…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>019273346X</amazonuk>0008561249
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Joan Aiken Alex Bell and Quentin BlakeTim McDonagh|title=Arabel’s RavenThe Glorious Race of Magical Beasts|rating=4.5|genre=For SharingConfident Readers|summary=It’s been manyEli is a busy lad – by day an apprentice in the wondrous library we start by visiting with him, many years since I first met Arabel and her pet ravenin the evening a helper at the dessert cafe his gran owns and runs. Eli lives with his lovely gran, Mortimer, whilst watching Jackanory on children’s televisiontoo – for there is a generation missing in the family. Bernard Cribbins used A few short years ago, Eli's parents were both lost to read the storiestitular race, and they became firm favourites a globe-trotting adventure where all entrants have to navigate the world in the company of minea magical beast. Here I am returning This has made the race anathema to the first book in pair – but when a bad incident at the serieseatery leads to a confession from gran, wellEli knows his only hope is to dare to enter what he most hates, just a handful with the sole aim the prize of years later, and magic at the end – the story has lost none of its charmonly thing to possibly save his gran.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847806910</amazonuk>0571382231
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Philip CaveneyHelen Cooper|title= One For SorrowThe Taming of the Cat|rating= 3.5|genre= Confident Readers|summary= You'd thinkOnce again, mice are pitched against cat. In this case, principally, we have Brie the mouse, wouldnup against Gorgonzola the cat – and in case you't youre seeing a connection, that Tom Afflick would move heaven they live in a cheese shop and earth therefore all the names used here seem to avoid leaving Manchester to go to Edinburgh: on his last two visits there he ended up tumbling into be the past, where he met all manner names of scary folkcheeses. But parents tend to be pretty determined to get their own way about such things Anyway, Brie is shunned, scorned and no , if you must, mous-tracised, for the way are they going to swallow some mad tale about him being chased by plague doctors and his habits don't match the other assorted murderersmice he lives with. So, off They nibble up paper wrapping from the cheese for bedding – he has to go, displays it as art and yes – he's barely set foot makes stories based on the visuals on it. And that story-telling will come in ''Auld Reekie'' handy one night, when hefeels all alone and cast out. It's time travelling againalmost 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, in a wondrous mix of dramathough, real live people and deadly perilas all the others had the chance to half-inch some cheese while the cat was distracted. But will the story have the successful sequel it needs when that cheese runs out?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1905916957</amazonuk>0571376010
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Dave CousinsLauren St John|title=Charlie Merrick's Misfits in I'm a Nobody, Get Me Out of Here!Finding Wonder
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=What is that sayingRoo's life has become almost impossibly difficult. Her mum died when she was young, about and now she finds herself awoken in the best laid plans middle of mice and misfits gang aft agley? Charlie and his fondly thought of friends in the soccer squad we met [[Charlie Merrick's Misfits in Fouls, Friends, and Football night by Dave Cousins|last time]] are hoping for a simple trip the police banging on her door to a summer camp for a week's educative training. But no, their dopey manager tell her that her dad has booked them in dropped dead on his way to the corner shop to buy a survival camp by mistakelottery ticket. Instead of hitting the back 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 the net they're building tarpaulin shelters. They can't set any watching footie-heads ablazeBut she has no one else, for they have and so off she goes to spark their own fires at nightlive with her unreliable aunt. They can still score, howeverThings continue to get worse for Roo, as therewhen she and Joni leave London in Joni's a points-based competition to handold campervan, but now that Charlie has dropped his team it breaks down in the proverbial, they're once more really up against it…middle of nowhere and then bursts into flames! Poor Roo!|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0192738232</amazonuk>0571376169
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=John McNallyAdam Baron and Benji Davies|title=The Forbidden City (Infinity Drake, Book 2)Oscar's Lion|rating=43|genre=TeensConfident Readers|summary=Finn may be only 9mm tall and still a teenagerWe 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's already saved the world oncehas to be ready for school. Accidentally shrunk by But when he enters his mad scientist Uncle Alparents' bedroom, all he joined sees is a crack military team mahoosive male lion on their bed, looking sheepish, and helped foil the threat of a lethal bio-weapon, the Scarlatti waspadmitting that he won't be hungry for another two days. But there's no let-up are benefits to having a lion around – it can be shown as an unspoken threat to the bully that ruined a birthday party for FinnOscar the other month. Before Al And it can shapeshift, so he can restore take it to school and it can get him to normal size, out of a new threat emergesproblem.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007521650</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Tom Palmer|title=Rugby Academy: Deadlocked|rating=5|genre=Dyslexia Friendly|summary=It And it's wonderful to have around the third story in house – not limiting his biscuit intake, being much more lax about the ''Rugby Academy'' series rules, and so far we've heard from Woody in [[Rugby Academy: Combat Zone by Tom Palmer|Combat Zone]] and Rory in [[Rugby Academy: Surface to Air by Tom Palmer|Surface to Air]]on. In thisOK, the final book in this brilliant series, we hear from Owen. We left the team at the end of ''Surface to Air'' when Borderlands had got through to the World Championship in New Zealand. Despite the elation of doing so Owen isnit can't entirely comfortable with Jesse, the team captain. He has no doubts that he was work a brilliant player - the best on the team - dimmer switch but he it can't respect him as give Oscar a personwonderful time.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1781123993</amazonuk>0008596751
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=E L KonigsburgJudith Eagle|title=From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs Basil E FrankweilerThe Stolen Songbird
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=ElevenCaro's mother, a world-year-old Claudia Kincaid famous whistler, has failed to return home from her recent work trip abroad and is now missing. Her other mother, Ronnie, is tired having to go up North to take care of being taken for grantedher sister who is unwell. As the oldest of four children So who is going to look after Caro? Sent to stay with Gam, someone Caro has heard her mother despises, she suffers many an injustice, feels frustrated and the interplay of school confused and home life is becoming monotonousworried. She decides All her summer holiday plans of building herself some equipment to run away from practise her home in Greenwichgymnastics are brought to a halt whilst she is stuck inside this staid old Victorian lady's house, Connecticut to live in the New York City Metropolitan Museum of Art. Middle brother Jamiealong with an orphan boy, 9Albie, 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 chosen companionmum's old suitcase, not least because he can fund their ventureand all across London a fearsome gang called the Snakes are thieving artworks and terrorising people. By cheating his friend Bruce at card games, Jamie Is the painting somehow linked to the gang? And what has accumulated more than $24 – which, in 1967 when this classic childrenhappened to Caro's novel first appeared, was not an insignificant amount.mother? Is she somehow involved in the mystery too?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1782690719</amazonuk>0571363148
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Rachel Renee RussellTania Unsworth|title=Dork Diaries: Drama Queen (Dork Diaries 9)Nowhere Island|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Meet Mackenzie HollisterGil. She's a typical American tweenager Just twelve, he is so determined to escape the care system concerned the system that constantly puts him in popularity, looks, the hot guys like Brandon, futureless places that are not homes – and getting one over on all those around her. That's made find a lot more easy by her parents being spoilingly rich – if Mackenzie, say, wants a new cover home for her diary she will just rip up a new $220 leopard print designer blouse and use thathimself. But the problem He isen route to yet another fosterer, what she's reading back overwhen he jumps into an anonymous car, and what she's writing lets it ride him to his future. That future seems to be in, isn't ''exactly'' her diary jeopardy when someone steals his one bag of belongings it's but that someone lives with his brother in a camp on an island between the diary belonging to our beloved heroine, Nikkitwo directions of a motorway, a place inaccessible and Mackenzie has managed definitely ignored enough to purloin it provide for evil deedstheir safety and seclusion. Can Nikki get it back – or live at all without her beloved journal? And could Them, and a mute girl also finding a home there actually be something worse than her biggest enemy of, likealbeit so much more successfully. Over a few weeks we see if their oddball destinies can combine, all time, being the person reading or if this is one place where life as we would want it?just would not work…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1471117707</amazonuk>1804540080
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Lewis Carroll and Sir John TennielHelen Peters|title=Alice's Adventures in Wonderland Friends and Traitors|rating=53
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=It can hardly have escaped anyoneEngland, 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's attention t guessed that 2015 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 150th anniversary Lord Evesham must be a rum 'un. Midnight deliveries are received under cover of the publication secrecy, talk is made of Lewis Carroll's ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' meetings with Germans, and we've seen numerous anniversary editionsnot only that, a local Spitfire factory has been attacked. But surely the girls are wrong, and the upper class could never be so underhand?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1447287118</amazonuk>1788004647
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Guy Bass and Pete WilliamsonJamie Littler|title=The Beast of Grubbers Nubbin (Stitch Head)Arkspire
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=It's all wrong in Castle GrotteskewTwo sisters, Juniper and Elodie, born fifteen minutes apart, are growing to be chalk and cheese. The very walls should be terrified by the monsters the Mad Professor Juniper is an eager hunter and trader in the basement is creatingillicit magic, including relics from prior major wars left out of various body parts and different animalsin the Badlands. But noElodie is intent on getting closer to power in one of the religious districts of Arkspire, perhaps even to become the clamour child in line to inherit the power of noisethe Watcher, the unlikely activities closest to a ruler the district has, and horrendous appetite for food come from something else entirely – a hundred rescued human orphansone of the five major victors in said earlier war. That appetite needs feeding – so it’s perfect timing for Being trained in the village below magic that only five people can use would definitely change the castle, Grubbers Nubbin, to have their annual podge-a-thon feaststatus of the whole family. But when Stitch Head and his human friend Arabella go in finding something oddly magical, Juniper might just be able to purloin gain some human food power of her own there being no decent alternative – they're horrified to find something even worse than the monsters trapped in the castle above…for good, or for very, very bad…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847156096</amazonuk>0241586143
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Cassie Beasley024162343X|title=Circus MirandusStolen 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=Micah is an orphan who has been raised Meet Trixie. Forever getting into scrapes, larks and 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 his grandfatherher one-last-chance-giving headteacher, but now Micah’s grandfather is dyingthe world changes. And if that wasn’t bad enough Suddenly, practically everything electronic stops working – a power-out, his horrible great aunt has arrived to take care even of himelectric cars, cutting their limited time together further. But don’t worry all hope is hits not lost. When grandpa Ephraim was a child he visited just the town the school's in but the mysterious Circus Mirandusentire planet (apart from mobile phones, where he was promised a miracle by and all that powers the miraculous Man Who Bends LightInternet, just for our convenience's sake). All Micah Trixie, luckily, realises what has to do is get a message to happened – the Light Bender and his grandfather can ancient Gods have his miracletaken the power of power from us. With And so she begins her epic quest, to gather all the help of Jenny Mendoza (people that can steal it back – namely the smartest girl characters from myth that have past form in stealing from the class)Gods, Micah sets his sights on ie the circussemi-deities, giants, a task that requires unconditional love half-gods and faith. Aunt Gertrudis is wrong, Ephraim’s stories aren’t just stories ..so on known as the tricksters. are they?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1101892315</amazonuk>178845295X
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Owen DaveyHannah Gold and Levi Pinfold|title=Mad About MonkeysFinding Bear|rating= 4.5|genre=Children's Non-FictionConfident Readers|summary=Of all the many millions of animals [[The Last Bear by Hannah Gold|Last time]], April had been on our planet that deserve Bear Island, a large format hardback non-fiction booklot further north than many people would venture, I guess monkeys are one of the ideal places to startand finding a ridiculously unexpected but delightful friendship with a polar bear – that she called Bear. They Back home, things on the domestic and family front area bit advanced, of course, our distant cousinsbut not perfect for her, with and so can easily be ignored when word comes through from the ancestor we have in common with them walking around our world within the past thirty million yearsislands Bear was last left on. They have For a large range across 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 planet, they have over 250 variant species, Arctic and they have hope that in a lot world of interesting facts very white and details regarding their social lifevery dangerous things, their diet, their diversity she can find one specific white and their potential future dangerous thing all of which makes this an interesting read whatever your species bias may beand that the friendship can continue.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1909263575</amazonuk>0008582017
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Josh LaceySimon Fox|title=Dragonsitter TroubleDeadlock|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=You don't need me to tell you what it's like when your uncle owns two dragons. He's Late one night Graham Blake is late back from his shift on the pig-headed type who has a mummy force, and baby dragon living with himthen suddenly rings Archie, and demanding he must live on fetch something from a remote island off Scotlandsecret place, and he must spend half the time hunting the world of dragons in Outer Mongolia, or searching for the yeti, so that trouble starts from the very moment you arrive with your mother and sister to housesit for join him – there's no food, on the dragons are pooing everywhere and you can't even use the front door properly because he didn't leave the key in an obvious placerun. StillThey get together, that's nothing compared but barely begin to when the neighbouring farmer gets his guns trained on smell the dragons when he accuses them whiff of stealing his sheep… Or how about Southern trains when your big birthday party the father is herearrested, and leaving Archie on the magician is booked – and the two dragons come late express to stayBrighton, because somebody else with the talent toting a tin his father was determined to care for them has keep away from his colleagues, and the hots for your mother…bearer of a whole heap of questions.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1783442972</amazonuk>1839944420
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jo SimmonsCath Howe|title=Super-Loud SamMy Life on Fire
|rating=5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Sam Ren's family home is louddestroyed in a fire. Not just loud as in the loudest lad in classShe, her parents, and not just loud as in loudest fire alarm in schoolher little brother lose everything. NoShe doesn't have any of her clothes, or any of her special little knick-knacks from her cupboard, Sam and now she is living at her grandmother's house where they can''LOUD''' loud. Stop traffic in t touch anything, or do anything, or even eat the streets loudfoods they normally eat. Scary loud. Loud enough When she goes back to make passing birds forget how to fly loud. There's little rhyme or reason for thisschool she discovers that the class are doing a special art project, just as there is no real reason why his best friend Nina does nothing but knit all the livelong daycreating boxes of their lives, even when walking to school. It's just something you have display things that are important to acceptthem and show who they are as a person. But what's this? Their favourite teacher Ren has vanishednothing to put in a box, and a new one has taken his place – Mrs Mannso she finds herself starting to steal things. She's ridiculous with her weirdly large handsSmall things, things that people might not really miss, her huge cardigan and even huger beehive hairdonot when they have so much already. The biggest thing about But what will happen to her though is the threat if someone finds out what she poses – that of eternal silence in her lessons. How can Sam possibly continue at school, when even him clearing his throat is like a plane crash in your earsdoing?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1407152300</amazonuk>1839942835
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Christopher MyersRob Keeley|title=My PenThe Boy Who Disappeared and Other Stories
|rating=4
|genre=Emerging Confident Readers|summary=How long does it take you to read Hooray! Bookbag favourite Rob Keeley is back with a picture book? Don't worry counting the number of words, forget totalling the pages, and ignore how many times you may return to bring it off the shelf. What matters so much more than how long it takes short story format! The Boy Who Disappeared treats us to scan a page can be how long it lies in the memoryeleven new tales, and what it can lead each as fun to. This example, for instance, can be perused in seconds, but creates a vivid and long-standing mental image, and will if it hits the right buttons lead to untold future activities. You can't judge something like this on the value of timeread as his previous offerings.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1423103718</amazonuk>B0BVW69N1G
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Cath Senker and Melvyn EvansLaura Noakes|title=Ancient Egypt in 30 Seconds: 30 Awesome Topics for Pharaoh Fanatics Explained in Half Cosima Unfortunate Steals a Minute (Children's 30 Second)Star
|rating=4
|genre=Children's Non-FictionConfident Readers|summary=EgyptMeet Number One. ItOr 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's up there re all Unfortunates – young people with dinosaursdisabilities, space travel and not much else uncommon mentalities or suchlike that can hold Victorian society frowns greatly upon. But Cosima bears the tag as a young child throughout 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 length of their school careeroutside world. Considering During a lot of them will grow up declaring they have no interest indaring escapade to steal some posh cakes from the kitchen one afternoon, or even she discovers a plan involving said outside world – a hatred devilish Lord Fitzroy seems to want to adopt all the girls forhis Institute. But why, history, and what does that body entail? And could it all was relevant 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 longseaside 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, long time ago – where the sea levels are rising dramatically and the buildings are generally empty of humans and with Carterripe 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|rating=5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=This story is another excellent adventure from the author of ''s finding Voyage of King Tutthe Sparrowhawk''s tomb closing . Ravenwood is an old house, in on its centenary it won't go away yetthe North of England, where Bea and Raffy have been living for most of their lives. There They are indeed books that solely concern themselves part of a complex, extended family arrangement, as Bea is there with her Uncle Leo, and Raffy is there with his mum, and they are living together as a family. They have grown up swimming in the cove, roaming through the trees, completely at one with all of the nature around the history house and loving every inch of our love affair with Egyptthe place. But I guess 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 does boil down 's becoming more and more expensive to it being introduced by a fine teachermaintain. Whether this latest book The children find themselves worrying not only about where they're going to live, but if they'll even be together, and if Ravenwood itself will supplant the human in giving us all the lessons we need remains to be seentorn down.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1782402373</amazonuk>0571348785
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jonathan MeresRobin Birch and Jobe Anderson|title=Secret Beast Club: The World Unicorns of Norm: 8: May Contain ButsSilver Street
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Why is it the only person in NormJayden's world able to think straight nose is Norm? His best mate Mikey is clamming up on certain subjectsforever in a book, which means he knows a lot about mythological creatures – the phoenixes and blaming mood swings on his hormones (well, he is all unicorns of thirteenthe world, after all)for example. His dad seems Aisha is addicted to her new tablet, where she can see videos of anything that might be mourning out there. The problem, as their mothers see it, is that they are never 'out there' themselves, exploring the loss outside world of an antique bottle of aftershaveHackney, his mother thinks sorting the recycling is London. But when a narrowboat turns up carrying a cure for boredomscience-minded, educational purpose, and his grandfather is all full of weird expressions and euphemism thingieswith a past involving Jayden's cousin, they find a magical world they never knew existed. That's not to mention his younger brothersFor many of those mythological creatures are real, who have it in mind to use mumincluding the one Aisha thinks she's hair straightener seen on the doga bit of local footage. And that's certainly not to mention The crew of the girl next doorboat, who evidently has been incapable of thinking straight since birthincluding a living gargoyle, but at least is doing are tasked with saving the rare critters – and the kids unknowingly have the good thing by moving housemagical sight needed to join in. It's Dare they side with Leila, the woman on board, and her relative who lives as a flipping miracle that Norm can get through figure in a weekend like this without anything disastrous happening. Or can hepainting, and become saviours of the unseen?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1408334062</amazonuk>0241573483
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Piers TordayB09XWSXSKY|title= The Wild Beyond|rating= 5|genre= Confident Readers |summary= Stories for younger readers about the effects of climate change, known as cli-fi, are growing massively in popularity right now, as environmental disasters and the disappearance of many of the planet's animals Maestro Orpheus and plants hit the news on a depressingly regular basis. Shrinking glaciers mean rising water levels and the slow extinction of polar bears, and in many cities pollution and smog are so dire at times that governments are forced to ban cars and urge their citizens to stay indoors. But far from frightening children with tales of ever-increasing destruction and death, Piers Torday offers them a way to hope. No matter how bad things are, this trilogy tells us, all it takes is determination, and together we'll save our beautiful world.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848668481</amazonuk>}}{{newreviewWorld Clock|author=Caleb Krisp Robert Penee and John Kelly|title=Anyone But Ivy PocketJoanne Grodzinski|rating=54
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=12-year-old maid Ivy Pocket is at Frederick (or Fred, but never Freddy, please) couldn't sleep. A tune, rather like the ticking of a loose end after her employer the Countess Carbunkle leaves her for South America "for no other reason than it is far enough away from Paris clock was playing over and over in his mind. It happened every time he came to ensure that I never see you againvisit his grandfather." Charitably deciding that the He hadn't really wanted to come; after all, he's ten now and all those old woman is clocks don'bonkerst appeal to him anymore. ' on the basis that anyone who doesn't see how wonderful she Who needs old clocks anyway? All they do is couldntell the time. And time isn't possibly be in their right mind, Ivy thinks shegood for anything...'ll stroll into another job but finds it more difficult than she'd expect - until  And that was why he was looking at the clock beside the Duchess of Trinity gives her an important mission; to deliver a priceless diamond necklace to bed. It was nearly twelve o'clock but at midnight the granddaughter of an estranged friendclock chimed only six times. But what should be a simple task becomes fraught with danger as Ivy faces obnoxious aristocrats, strange creatures, There was nothing for it but to go and betrayal.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408858630</amazonuk>find grandad - but where was he? And why had all the clocks stopped at twelve o'clock?
}}
 
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