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[[Category:New Reviews|Confident Readers]] __NOTOC__<!-- Remove -->{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Hilda OffenMax Boucherat|title=Message from The Last Life of Lori Mills|rating=4.5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=We meet Lori on the first evening she's got the house to herself – no neighbour to pop in, babysitter poorly, mother at work, just an avidly rule-breaking eleven year old, on her lonesome. What could possibly go wrong? Snuggled in a blanket fort, she has one main intention, and that is to log on to Voxminer, the world-building, critter-collecting game that is a hit in Lori's world. But first Lori has a tiny inkling that this stormy night doesn't find herself entirely on her own, and then she finds something even more spooky. For the server 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 Moongame has been doctored – well, where is a girl to turn?|isbn=0008666482}}{{Frontpage|author=Kieran Larwood and Joe Todd-Stanton|title=Dungeon Runners: Hero Trial

|genre=Children's Rhymes and VerseConfident Readers|summary=YesMeet Kit. Like most of the people in his world, that it seems, he is really an avid fan of Dungeon Running – the sport where a 'Message from team of warrior, mage and healer enter specially prepared, century-old, magical mazes, and race to the exit, perhaps bothering with the treasure or the big bad and the Moon' points they grant you receive courtesy of this bookalong the way. You also get Unfortunately for Kit, the point of view only thing he's seen of the sea itselflatest race on the inn TV equivalent is that one team has been retired, as well as children seeing the city night from their bedroom window and other people witnessing geese flying overeaten, and you even get a message new trio of questors is needed. Possibly very unfortunately indeed for Kit, he has taken to the goading from the token bully of his world and stumbled into declaring he'll enter as a snailteam. The range of verses What chance does this friendless, muscle-free-zone have in this book is however but one of its many qualities…actually managing that, and how could he possibly hope to succeed?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1909991430</amazonuk>1839945184

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=M G Leonard James Sherwood Metts|title=Beetle Queen Planet Storyland

|genre=Confident Readers |summary=A modern Cruella De Vil – only with beetles rather than Dalmatians – Lucretia Cutter has a plan: Things have been a plan that will dramatically (and theatrically) unleash her latest batch of genetically modified and highly intelligent beetles. The consequences will be devastating bit sticky for mankind but few realise the dangerEarthlings. Luckily firm friends DarkusAI and automation have been proceeding apace, Virginia often replacing jobs they're paid to do and Bertolt have figured out other tasks that Lucretia Cutter is up took time to something accomplish. Just as they were beginning to get used to all this technological change and are determined starting to do whatever think of other, new ways to spend time, along came an awful pandemic. Life was pretty much shut down and, along with it takes to stop , all the evil beetle divamany daily social interactions on which they depend so heavily.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1910002771</amazonuk>1736128426

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=W S Markendale|title=Owen Pendragon|rating=3.5|genre=Teens|summary=Monsters are slipping through somehow from somewhere to kidnap children in Cornwall and the army seems powerless to do anything about it. 12-year-olds Owen and Mary assume they too are therefore powerless as they watch friends and neighbours disappear. Imagine their surprise when they realise that thanks to an ancient relative, they have more influence on what happens than they think and not just on what happens on Earth. And their distant relative? The former monarch and head of the round table, no less: King Arthur.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1524667579</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Charlotte Guillain and Yuval ZommerTom Percival|title=The Street Beneath My FeetWrong Shoes

|genre=Children's Non-FictionConfident Readers|summary=ItWill's one thing for life is difficult, in a non-fiction book for multitude of ways. He is bullied because he has 'the wrong shoes', he has the young to show them something they themselves wrong shoes because his dad can explore – 't work and doesn't have enough money for even the pattern most basic of things like food, and his dad can't work because he lost his job at the starscollege, perhaps, or the life was working a cash-in their back yard-hand job on a building site and had an accident. But when it gets to things Throw into that mix the fact that his mum and dad are equally important to know about but are impossible to see separated, and Will's life seems bleak in real life, why, then the game is changedevery direction. The artistic imagination And yet, he still has to be key, in portraying the invisible, and presenting what can only come from the pages a tiny amount of a bookhope. And this example does it He is good at its best, as it delves into the layers of the soil below said back yardart, down and down, through all clings to the different kinds moments of rockjoy when he is drawing, until we reach that feel like a light at the unattainable centre end of the planet. And there's only one way to go from there – back out the other side, with yet more for us to be shown. It's a fantastic journeylong, then – and a quite fantastic volumedark tunnel.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1784937312</amazonuk>1398527122

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Matilda Woods1805141872|title=The Boy, the Bird and the Coffin MakerTeacher Who Knew Too Much|author=Rob Keeley

|summary=Alberto ''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 carpentersafecracker! With police and her gangster boyfriend Al on their trail, Miss Judson and Ben go on the very best in the town of Allorarun. But after the plague sweeps through the town, taking many of the citizens and AlbertoAl needs them for one last job...''s wife and children Goodness me, he turns his skills away from furniture and toys that Miss Judson is a terror! How on earth did a nice teacher like her manage to making coffinsget mixed up with a bad 'un like Al? We'll find out. Wrapped in sadnessLuckily for Miss Judson, and waiting only for the plague to come and claim his life toopupil who discovers her terrible secret is Ben, Alberto lives alone, keeping company with the dead son of a famous magician who are delivered has ambitions to be as good as his house to await their coffin. One father some day, however, he realises that he must have a living visitor, as food starts to go missing. He begins to leave scraps of food, to try and discover who his mystery thief is…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1407178695</amazonuk>thinks Miss Judson is worth saving

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Brian MosesChristopher Edge|title=Lost Magic: The Very Best of Brian MosesBlack Hole Cinema Club

|genre=Children's Rhymes and VerseConfident Readers|summary=For Lucas and his friends are all booked in for a movie marathon at their local cinema, a poet with place that has the very memorable name nickname of [[:Category:Brian Moses|Moses]]'The Black Hole'. All big movie fans, I have they're looking forward to admit never having come across it beforelots of exciting films, and many, nor having knowingly read any of his works. many snacks! This collection was the perfect place for me to come late to the partyHowever, as it takes the author's own favourites from several previous anthologies of hismovie starts, and adds they very quickly realise that something about this new verses. I read them with film format is very little clue as to which was which – different, and certainly they are swept up into an adventure they couldn't tell having finished the bookeven imagine. There is a lot here that will grab But as they lurch from one film genre to the young schoolchildnext, but can they figure out what on earth is going on? Will they ever get back to the topics cover so much there really will be a universal appealcinema, meaning that a lot of people will have a definite favourite from these pages, even if the author himself cannot decide…and to their real lives?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1509838767</amazonuk>1839942738

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Bill Nye and Gregory MoneAdam Stower|title= Jack and the Geniuses 1: At the Bottom of the World|rating= 4.5|genre= Confident Readers|summary=It's tough being a genius. There are few, if any, people you can talk about your interests to, Murray and words like ''nerd'', ''geek'' and ''boffin'' get bandied around by folk who somehow think it's your fault your cleverness makes them feel a bit dim. But how does it feel to be the one surrounded by such geniuses all day every day? Fortunately, Jack is a resilient sort, and his common sense approach to life is going to be essential if he, Ava and Matt are going to survive their trip to Antarctica. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1419723030</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Yuval Zommer|title=The Big Book of Beasts (Big Books)Bun

|genre=Children's Non-FictionConfident Readers |summary=One of the many issues people have with the TV nature programmeMurray is supposed to be a humble, such as [[Planet Earth II by Stephen Moss|Planet Earth II]]tidy and friendly cat, one who is the obvious one of all the blood able to sleep and eat and eat and sleep and guts it features – yes, in amongst all the cutesywell, comical animal life are creatures eating other creatures (normally whatever takes his fancy next of the cutesy, comical ones, whattwo. But he's worse). Youa bad magician'll be pleased to knows cat, howeverso his favourite bun has been turned into a hyperactive sticky rabbit called Bun, that this book is very light on death and destruction. Yesthe catflap they both use can chuck them out, not into the regular back garden, here are lions sharing some chunks but into a world of meat (while the females that caught frightening adventure and killed whiffs. This time round it sit and wait their turn)drops them into a Viking land, where a troll hunter is expected – well, here are salmon seemingly willingly flying towards brown bearsone much bigger than Murray was, and here is a red fox stashing a dead mouse while in a time of plentyto be honest, but there is so little he's turned up and he'll have to make this even a PG book – it will be perfect for the home shelf or that in a primary school.do…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>050065106X</amazonuk>0008561249

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Ulf Nilsson Alex Bell and Gitte SpeeTim McDonagh|title=A Case in Any CaseThe Glorious Race of Magical Beasts

|summary=The [[Detective Gordon: The First Case Eli is a busy lad – by day an apprentice in the wondrous library we start by Ulf Nilsson visiting with him, and Gitte Spee|last time]] we saw in the toad called Detective Gordon evening a helper at work he had a mouse colleague in the forest police dessert cafe his gran owns and runs. Eli lives with himhis lovely gran, and too – for there is a generation missing in fact the two family. A few short years ago, Eli's parents were so close they often shared both lost to the titular race, a bed globe-trotting adventure where all entrants have to navigate the world in the old prison cells togethercompany of a magical beast. But now Gordon This has practically retiredmade the race anathema to the pair – but when a bad incident at the eatery leads to a confession from gran, Eli knows his only hope is to dare to enter what he most hates, with the sole aim the prize of magic at the end – the only thing to possibly save his gran.|isbn=0571382231}}{{Frontpage|author=Helen Cooper|title=The Taming of the Cat|rating=3.5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Once again, mice are pitched against cat. In this case, principally, and we have Brie the mouse, Police Chief Buffyup against Gorgonzola the cat – and in case you're seeing a connection, is doing they live in a cheese shop and therefore all the work herselfnames used here seem to be the names of cheeses. It's quite scary workAnyway, Brie is shunned, scorned and, tooif you must, when something horridmous-tracised, nasty 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 slightly smelling of toad is rootling around makes stories based on the police station at visuals on it. And that story-telling will come in handy one night, when he feels all alone and cast out. But when the two are together thereIt's no stopping themalmost 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, and any crime can be solved – which is probably a very good thing 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 not one but two of the forest babies go missing…that cheese runs out?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1776571096</amazonuk>0571376010

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Kenneth Oppel and Jon KlassenLauren St John|title=The NestFinding Wonder|rating=54

|summary=Steven can narrate this book to us, but he can hardly ever mention the name of his newborn baby brother. ThatRoo's not down to a fault with Steven, although there are many of those – obsessive hand-washing, nightmares, anxiety attackslife has become almost impossibly difficult. It's because there's something wrong with the new addition to the family. His parents mutter behind closed bedroom doors of regretting trying for a new child so late Her mum died when she was young, and now she finds herself awoken in life, but whatever the reason there is something demanding a lot middle of medical care and attention, even if the child can more or less live in night by the family home. But hope seems police banging on her door to tell her that her dad has dropped dead on his way to be shining a light into Steven from the most unlikely source – angels that come corner shop to visit him in his dreamsbuy a lottery ticket. When asked what other family she has, from within a pleasantshe can only name her aunt, light-filled havenJoni, with full knowledge of the familywho she knows her dad didn's troubles and an offer t think very highly of a way out. ObviouslyBut she has no one else, worried and so off she goes to live with her unreliable aunt. Things continue to get worse for the happiness of his familyRoo, as when she and knowing this is just a dreamJoni leave London in Joni's old campervan, Steven will only say yes to it breaks down in the offer middle of help…nowhere and then bursts into flames! Poor Roo!|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1910200875</amazonuk>0571376169

{{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=Women in Science: 50 Fearless Pioneers Who Changed the WorldAdam Baron and Benji Davies|authortitle=Rachel IgnotofskyOscar's Lion|rating=53|genre=Children's Non-FictionConfident 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'Women in Science'' takes fifty prominent women in STEM fields and celebrates their achievementst be hungry for another two days. There But there are women from benefits to having a lion around – it can be shown as an unspoken threat to the ancient world bully that ruined a birthday party for Oscar the other month. And it can shapeshift, so he can take it to school and women working today. Each it can get him out of them is given a double page spread including a stylised portrait problem. And it's wonderful to have around the house – not limiting his biscuit intake, being much more lax about the rules, and infoboxes with factoids so on one side and a page of text with a brief biography and outline of her achievements. These intrepid women are inspirational for their OK, it can't work and their discoveries a dimmer switch but also for the barriers they overcame - barred from classes or employment because they were women or even barred from employment because they were black in racially segregated Americait can give Oscar a wonderful time.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1526360519</amazonuk>0008596751

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Heather Alexander and Andres LozanoJudith Eagle|title=Life on Earth: Farm: With 100 Questions and 70 Lift-flaps!The Stolen Songbird

|genre=Children's Non-FictionConfident Readers|summary=ICaro'm sure I was full of questions when I was s mother, a nipper – which means I was too full 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 questionsher sister who is unwell. Parents just don't need So who is going to look after Caro? Sent to be deflecting questions all the timestay with Gam, someone Caro has heard her mother despises, do they? she feels frustrated and confused and worried. Living on the edge All her summer holiday plans of building herself some equipment to practise her gymnastics are brought to a village in the middle of nowhere as I didhalt whilst she is stuck inside this staid old Victorian lady's house, along with an orphan boy, I knew quite a lot about farms and farming – that different animals gave different resultsAlbie, that different vehicles meant different things and that the crops behind our house changedwho is living there too. But for the inner city childshe soon finds herself caught up in a mystery, there is as she discovers a chance they have never met painting of a cow or seen bird hidden away inside her mum's old suitcase, and all across London a silofearsome gang called the Snakes are thieving artworks and terrorising people. This colourful book, bright in both senses of Is the word, will allow painting somehow linked to the very young reader the opportunity of their own fantasy trip gang? And what has happened to Caro's mother? Is she somehow involved in the working countryside.mystery too?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847808999</amazonuk>0571363148

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Heather Alexander and Andres LozanoTania Unsworth|title=Life on Earth: Human Body: With 100 Questions and 70 Lift-flaps!Nowhere Island|rating=4.5|genre=Children's Non-Fiction Confident Readers|summary=I wonder how much time I've saved 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 being a parent homes – and therefore not having had find a home for himself. He is en route to answer such pesky questions as why is the sky blueyet another fosterer, where did I come from, where does my wee come from, what is earwaxwhen he jumps into an anonymous car, and why do I have 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 spleen? Still, apart from camp on an island between the first twodirections of a motorway, those questions a place inaccessible and the answers definitely ignored enough to them provide for their safety and more are in this bookseclusion. Them, which is and a mute girl also finding a lovely primer for biologyhome there, and albeit so much more successfully. Over a great source of quick facts for the very youngfew weeks we see if their oddball destinies can combine, all presented with an addictive lift-the-flap approach.or if this is one place where life as we would want it just would not work…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847809006</amazonuk>1804540080

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Siobhan Dowd and Emma ShoardHelen Peters|title= The Pavee Friends and the Buffer GirlTraitors|rating= 53|genre= Graphic NovelsConfident Readers|summary=When Jim's family halt at DundrayEngland, his heart grows heavyWW2. A Two young girls are new Buffer school for this Pavee boy at the country pile called Stanbrook. One is Nancy, destined to attendbe in service all her life it seems, like the female generations before her. Jim doesn't like The other is Sidney, a girl from a hoity-toity Sussex boarding schoolthat has been removed there away from bomber flight-paths. He doesn't like Buffers. And you know The girls are chalk and cheese, you couldnand if we hadn't really blame him because the distrust and suspicion is mutualguessed that then their behaviour with each other over their first encounters would only prove it so. Prejudice against the Traveller community But something is strong amiss, and when Jim and his cousins turn up on their first day, it's to stares separately and muttered insults from then in combination they realise the pupils and condescension from the teachersLord Evesham must be a rum 'un. Within days Midnight deliveries are received under cover of secrecy, Moss Cunningham and his gang have accused Jim talk is made of stealing a CD - he did no such thing - meetings with Germans, and have begun not only that, a campaign of threatslocal Spitfire factory has been attacked. But surely the girls are wrong, bullying and worse.the upper class could never be so underhand?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1911370049</amazonuk>1788004647

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Clare HibbertJamie Littler|title=Moments in History that Changed the WorldArkspire

|summary=One of I was the problems with presenting humankind's history as a timeline is that not a lot happened bad company other people got into at perfectly identified timesschool. Of course we can pinpoint when I was disruptive in religious education classes because I disputed the US Declaration existence of Independence a 'god'. Where was signedthe proof? In history lessons, or when Poland it was invaded in September 1939probably worse still. Not too long after the end of WWII, but when I didn't so much want to learn about the British army's successes (and even whyoccasional failures, but we didn't dwell on those) in what came to be called 'the Maya cities died out? We doncolonies't know. How do you pin a date as want to dispute what right the Renaissance, or the invention of the modern city? This book may aim army had to be a portrayal of key moments there in timethe first place. Looking back, I still believe I was right - but even it admits you have I regret that I lacked the maturity to be vague in itemising approach 'the specific days and datesproblem' politely. Get over that, and the pages are packed with informationI wish I'd had Sathnam Sanghera's ''Stolen History''.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0712356703</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Ali Sparkes Thiago de Moraes|title=Thunderstruck Old Gods New Tricks|rating=4.5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=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 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 (apart 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

|summary=Alisha and new boy[[The Last Bear by Hannah Gold|Last time]], April had been on Bear Island, Theoa lot further north than many people would venture, are both struggling to fit in at Beechwood Juniorand finding a ridiculously unexpected but delightful friendship with a polar bear – that she called Bear. However Back home, they soon become celebrities when they're struck by lightning things on sports day. Now everyone wants to the domestic and family front are a bit advanced, but not perfect for her, and so can easily be their friend – including all ignored when word comes through from the ghosts who haunt Easthamptonislands Bear was last left on. Having several thousands of volts skipped through their nervous systems For a bear doing very Bear-y things has made both Alisha been shot and Theo unusually sensitive to the spirit worldwounded. The pair are happy Desperate to make friends with two teenage ghosts from sure he's OK, she and her father return to the 1970s (Doug Arctic and hope that in a world of very white and Lizzie) but Alisha very dangerous things, she can find one specific white and dangerous thing – and Theo are much less keen on the faceless grey entities that start following them around. It's almost like the ghosts are trying to tell them something – trying to warn them about something that's going to happenfriendship can continue. Will Alisha and Theo be able to figure out what before it's too late?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0192739360</amazonuk>0008582017

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Abi ElphinstoneSimon Fox|title= The Night SpinnerDeadlock|rating= 4.5|genre= Confident Readers|summary= The finalLate one night Graham Blake is late back from his shift on the force, and in my opinion the bestthen suddenly rings Archie, demanding he fetch something from a secret place, book in the Dream Snatcher trilogy opens with Moll and Gryff back in Tanglefern Forest about to embark join him on their quest to find the last Amulet of Truth and defeat the terrible Shadowmasks run. and their dark magic once and for all. Their adventure begins with a night time journey by train They get together, but barely begin to smell the far north where Moll and her friends must brave whiff of Southern trains when the barren northern wildernessfather is arrested, scale mountainous peaksleaving Archie on the late express to Brighton, defeat goblins, bog-monsterstoting a tin his father was determined to keep away from his colleagues, witches and giants while the sinister and evil Shadowmasks lurk unseen but always present. All the time Moll clings to the faint hope that her friend Alfie is not lost to them for everbearer of a whole heap of questions. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1471146057</amazonuk>1839944420

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=E K JohnstonCath Howe|title=Star Wars: AhsokaMy Life on Fire|rating=5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Ren'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, 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 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 display things that are important to them and show who they are as a person. But Ren has nothing to put in a box, and so she finds herself starting to steal things. Small things, things that people might not really miss, not when they have so much already. But what will happen to her if someone finds out what she is doing?|isbn=1839942835}}{{Frontpage|author= Rob Keeley|title= The Boy Who Disappeared and Other Stories

|summary=The problem Hooray! Bookbag favourite Rob Keeley is back with having a past is the worry it causes in the present, and the risk of it turning into your future. Ahsoka has certainly had a past – she was with Obi-Wan Kenobi, and was Padawan return to Anakin Skywalker. While able to experience the Force, she was not a full Jedi, but still suffers survivor's guilt after Order 66 wiped her kind out. She is forced short story format! The Boy Who Disappeared treats us to hide deep in the Outer Rim of the galaxy, under an assumed nameeleven new tales, on a tiny farming moon. But lo and behold the Imperial nasties still seem each as fun to find her, even if by accident..read as his previous offerings.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>140528790X</amazonuk>B0BVW69N1G

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Abby Hanlon Laura Noakes|title=Dory Fantasmagory Cosima Unfortunate Steals a Star|rating=4.5|genre=Confident Readers |summary=Dory – known as 'Rascal' – is the little one in her familyMeet Number One. She'd love to play with her older sister Or rather, VioletCosima Unfortunate. Or rather, and just Cos to her brother, Luke, but they both think Dory is too much of a babyfriends. They find her very irritating, from The practice in the way home she sees monsters everywhere lives in is for the girls to her constant stream of questions. That's why just be named by the number they decide correspond to in the ledger, and they've got to think of something re all Unfortunates – young people with disabilities, uncommon mentalities or suchlike that will force Dory Victorian society frowns greatly upon. But Cosima bears the tag as a surname because nothing else seems to grow upbe known about where she came from, as the first ever inmate, and unique in having no known family in the outside world. Violet comes up with During a daring escapade to steal some posh cakes from the perfect idea kitchen one afternoon, she discovers a plan involving said outside world – they tell Dory about Mrs Gobble Cracker (a five hundred year old robber who steels baby girls.) They tell Dory that the only way devilish Lord Fitzroy seems to escape Mrs Gobble Cracker is want to stop acting like such a babyadopt all the girls for his Institute. Their scheme But why, however, quickly backfires and they get much more than they bargained for. what does that body entail? And could it possibly bring Cos closer to the past she has so little link with?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0571325580</amazonuk>0008579059

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Chloe DaykinAlice M Ross|title=Fish BoyThe Nowhere Thief

|summary=Billy At last there is struggling at school. He's being picked on by new stock in the school bully impoverished yet over-full antiques shop Elsbeth and he's starting to feel very aloneher mother run in a seaside town. His mum is sick, although nobody seems to know what's wrong with herElsbeth knows this because she has stolen it. She has been sick for a long time meaning that also knows she can't workshould be free from worries about being found out, so Billy's dad is working extra hours because she has the ability to try leave this world, and use an unworldly portal of kaleidoscope colours to keep enter other worlds, where the family afloat sea levels are rising dramatically and Billy is frequently left to fend the buildings are generally empty of humans and ripe for himselfplunder. His only escape is in watching his favouriteWith eviction imminent, David Attenborough, or in swimming in can Elsbeth nab anything to actually generate custom at the sea. shop? One dayWell yes, however, things take a magical turn as whilst swimming Billy meets a mackerel who speaks to him! Thisis the answer, combined with but the entrance of fact a new boy at school, starts to change Billy's life in some rather unexpected ways.mysterious man knows exactly which items come from these different Somewheres only raises more questions…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0571328229</amazonuk>1839943769

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jack ChengNatasha Farrant|title=See You in the CosmosThe Rescue of Ravenwood

|genre=Teens Confident Readers|summary=Meet Alex. He's just eleven, but This story is sure he has another excellent adventure from the responsibility age author of a thirteen year old. He'll prove this by taking his rocket 'Voyage of the Sparrowhawk'Voyager 3'' and his dog Carl Sagan on . Ravenwood is an Amtrak train to old house, in the desert to North of England, where Bea and Raffy have been living for most of their lives. They are part of a launch festival for hobbyist rocket-makers – 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 without of the help nature around the house and loving every inch of the adult brother he only knows place. But now the house is under threat, as Leo is under pressure from phone calls, his seemingly comatose couch potato mother, and other two brothers to sell the father he was told died when Alex was three years old. This book is property to a transcript of verbal essays developer as it's becoming more and conversations he has made more expensive to put in his rocket to send to the stars, so aliens can learn about life on earth in 2017maintain. The fact that wechildren find themselves worrying not only about where they're able going to find out what's on it does seem to suggest a failure with ''Voyager 3'live, but if they'll even be together, but as for finding out about life – we can only suppose the lad is a bit more successful…and if Ravenwood itself will be torn down.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0141365609</amazonuk>0571348785

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Garth NixRobin Birch and Jobe Anderson|title=Frogkisser!Secret Beast Club: The Unicorns of Silver Street|rating=2.54|genre=Confident Readers |summary=Trallonia Jayden's nose is forever in trouble. It's a kingdom book, which means he knows a lot about mythological creatures – a very small onethe phoenixes and unicorns of the world, mind – with no real leadershipfor example. Three months away from becoming queen in Aisha is addicted to her own right is the older princessnew tablet, where she can see videos of anything that might be out there. The problem, Morvenas their mothers see it, but sheis that they are never 'out there's besotted with each and every prince that comes a-wooingthemselves, and would probably only want exploring the pretty frocks side outside world of reigningHackney, London. Ruler regent at the moment is the second husband to the girlsBut when a narrowboat turns up carrying a science-minded, educational purpose, and with a past involving Jayden' stepmother (ie stepstepfather) and all round Bad Eggs cousin, Rikardthey find a magical world they never knew existed. HeFor many of those mythological creatures are real, including the one Aisha thinks she's building his influence seen on the land, and increasing his magical power, turning all kinds of people into all kinds a bit of animalslocal footage. All The crew of which means younger princessthe boat, Anyaincluding a living gargoyle, will are tasked with saving the rare critters – and the kids unknowingly have the magical sight needed to go join in. Dare they side with Leila, the woman on one of those capital letter-deserving Questsboard, to find and her relative who lives as a figure in a remedy for such species-swappingpainting, and muster an army to keep Rikard from the throne. But even that hugely important demand might be swamped by what is really troubling become saviours of the world…unseen?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1848126018</amazonuk>0241573483

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=B09XWSXSKY|title=Holly Webb Maestro Orpheus and Jason Cockcroftthe World Clock|titleauthor=The Moonlight Statue (The Hounds of Penhallow Hall)Robert Penee and Joanne Grodzinski

|summary=When Polly and her mum move to Penhallow Hall Polly hopes that it will be an escape from the continual reminders that her dadFrederick (or Fred, who diedbut never Freddy, is no longer with themplease) couldn't sleep. With her mum's new job at A tune, rather like the hall comes ticking of a fresh start for both of themclock was playing over and over in his mind. It happened every time he came to visit his grandfather. Polly, however, is left He hadn't really wanted to her own devices a lot of the timecome; after all, feeling lonely as shehe's wandering around the hall ten now and grounds during all those old clocks don't appeal to him anymore. ''Who needs old clocks anyway? All they do is tell the summer holidaystime. She had previously been sleepwalking in her old house, so sheAnd time isn't good for anything...''s worried when she finds herself wandering  And that was why he was looking at the grounds during clock beside the night, and when she sees one of bed. It was nearly twelve o'clock but at midnight the stone statues of a dog come to life, she is unsure if she is awake or dreaming! clock chimed only six times. How does this mysterious dog come There was nothing for it but to lifego and find grandad - but where was he? And why are there canine guardians for had all the children of Penhallow Hallclocks stopped at twelve o'clock?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847156606</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Nathan HaleNigel Baines|title=One Trick PonyA Tricky Kind of Magic

|genre=Graphic Novels Emerging Readers|summary=Forget the moon being made of cheese, here the Earth looks like it's a huge dollop of the finest Swiss stuffCooper loves to perform magic tricks. Horrid, giant insectoid alien things have taken over, and they have zapped anything technological they can find – pumping His father was a blob of something over itmagician, and turning whatever turns up in named Cooper after the resulting spheres into sand, or carting it off to larger shipsgreat Tommy Cooper. Our heroes belong to a travelling caravan of a village, keeping intact as much human knowledge as they can (think a digital version of those readers in But sadly Cooper''Fahrenheit 451''), but they've left their compatriots behind to go exploring. They'll never expect to find a magical, wondrous, robotic horses father died suddenly, though – which is where their problems begin…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1419721283</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Martin Jenkins and Stephen Biesty|title=Exploring Space: From Galileo to the Mars Rover and Beyond|rating=5|genre=Children's Non-Fiction |summary=I take it as read that you know some of the history of space exploration, even if the young person you buy books for now Cooper doesn't quite know it all. So I won't go into the extremes reached by the ''Voyager'' space craftwho to be, and the processes we needed or how to be expert in before we could launch anything. You probably have some inkling of how we learnt that weAnd when his dad're not the centre of everything – the gradual discovery of how curved the planet was, and how other things orbited other things in turn proving we are not that around which everything revolves. What you might not be so genned up on is the history of books conveying all this s prop rabbit starts talking to a young audience. When I was a nipper they were stately textshim, with a few accurate diagrams – if you were lucky. For a long time now, however, theyhe ''really''ve been anything but stately, and often arendoesn't worried about accuracy as such in their visual design. They certainly long ago shod the boring, plain white page. Until now…know what's going on anymore!|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1406360082</amazonuk>1444960261