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[[Category:New Reviews|Confident Readers]] __NOTOC__<!-- Remove -->{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Clare HibbertMax Boucherat|title=Around the World in 80 MapsThe Last Life of Lori Mills|rating=34.5|genre=Children's Non-FictionConfident Readers|summary=Maps We meet Lori on the first evening she's got the house to herself – they're there no neighbour to make sure you don't pop in, babysitter poorly, mother at work, just an avidly rule-breaking eleven year old, on her lonesome. What could possibly go wrong. ? They might portray Snuggled in a blanket fort, she has one townmain intention, and the streets or the canals that feature in itis to log on to Voxminer, with proud city walls surrounding the place; they may convey the complex coast of world-building, critter-collecting game that is a newly discovered island, or even hit in the case of Australia a whole continent; or they may just be coloured pink to show off what you consider to be your landLori's world. Either way, they have certainly progressed from the early days, getting more and more accurate But first Lori has a tiny inkling that this stormy night doesn't find herself entirely on the wholeher own, and portraying a then she finds something even more honest look at our worldspooky. But what can we learn from scanning back to when they were less informative For the server she and her bestie and allowed you nobody else should be able to go very wrongenter shows signs of tampering. When malevolent eyes spark up on her phone screen, when they had sea monsters and 'here be dragons'her safe place in the game has been doctored – well, and just plain looked daft? This book where is one of the more informative ways a girl to find out the answer to that question.turn?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0712356932</amazonuk>0008666482

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Clare HibbertKieran Larwood and Joe Todd-Stanton|title=Around the World in 80 MapsDungeon Runners: Hero Trial|rating=3.54|genre=Children's Non-FictionConfident Readers|summary=Maps – they're there to make sure you don't go wrongMeet Kit. They might portray one town, and Like most of the streets or the canals that feature people in his world, itseems, with proud city walls surrounding he is an avid fan of Dungeon Running – the place; they may convey sport where a team of warrior, mage and healer enter specially prepared, century-old, magical mazes, and race to the complex coast of a newly discovered islandexit, perhaps bothering with the treasure or even in the case of Australia a whole continent; or big bad and the points they may just be coloured pink to show off what grant you consider to be your landalong the way. Either wayUnfortunately for Kit, they have certainly progressed from the early days, getting more and more accurate only thing he's seen of the latest race on the wholeinn TV equivalent is that one team has been retired, eaten, and portraying a more honest look at our worldnew trio of questors is needed. But what can we learn from scanning back to when they were less informative and allowed you to go Possibly very wrongunfortunately indeed for Kit, when they had sea monsters he has taken to the goading from the token bully of his world and stumbled into declaring he'here be dragons'll enter as a team. What chance does this friendless, muscle-free-zone have in actually managing that, and just plain looked dafthow could he possibly hope to succeed? This book is one of the more informative ways to find out the answer to that question.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0712356932</amazonuk>1839945184

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Pam SmyJames Sherwood Metts|title= ThornhillPlanet Storyland|rating= 4.5|genre= Confident Readers|summary= Perfect Things have been a bit sticky for fans of Neil Gaimanthe Earthlings. AI and automation have been proceeding apace, often replacing jobs they's Coraline, this story is haunting, mysterious re paid to do and touchingother tasks that took time to accomplish. Mary is a unique child; she's introverted Just as they were beginning to get used to all this technological change and very talentedstarting to think of other, spending most of her new ways to spend time by herself creating her fantasies through making puppets. She is being severely bullied, but her bully has gone further than mostalong came an awful pandemic. She torments her, haunts her steps Life was pretty much shut down and takes every opportunity to make Mary's life a living hell. Too scared to sleep, too uncomfortable to eat along with othersit, Mary has become an isolated mute stuck in her room at Thornhillall the many daily social interactions on which they depend so heavily.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1910200611</amazonuk>1736128426

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Cornelia FunkeTom Percival|title= Dragon Rider: The Griffin's FeatherWrong Shoes|rating= 5|genre= Confident Readers|summary= The last Pegasus on Earth has three eggs but unfortunately Pegasus eggs need their motherWill's saliva to allow them to magically grow and their mother died recentlylife is difficult, in a multitude of ways. Despite growing increasingly transparent He is bullied because he has 'the eggs are harder than diamond wrong shoes', he has the wrong shoes because his dad can't work and before too long they will become a tomb doesn't have enough money for even the most basic of things like food, and his dad can't work because he lost his job at the winged horses inside. Our plucky adventurers have to seek out college, was working a special feather from potentially the most dangerous creature cash-in-hand job on a building site and had an accident. Throw into that mix the planetfact that his mum and dad are separated, and Will's life seems bleak in every direction. And yet, he still has a griffintiny amount of hope. That He is if griffins even exist! A gorgeous good at art, and loving book that just oozes empathy and care for all clings to the moments of nature. This joy when he is an utterly brilliant adventure drawing, that gripped me from feel like a light at the start and if I was 10 years old this would be one end of the most wonderful adventures I could go ona long, dark tunnel. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1911077880</amazonuk>1398527122

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Robert Hegarty and Marcelo Badari|title=Time Atlas: An Interactive Timeline of History|rating=3.5|genre=Children's Non-Fiction|summary=While it's always useful for a child to have access to an atlas, so they know where they are and what there is in every other location, it's equally important that they know ''when'' they are, and what has happened at any other place in time. That's the ethos behind this ''Time Atlas'', which only has a few spreads, but takes us right back to prehistory, through the birth of civilisation, and up to today – as well as asking a few questions of what might happen in the future. It is, after all, vital we know not only where we are, but where we may be going…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848575920</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|authorisbn=Ian Livingstone1805141872|title=Fighting Fantasy: The Port of Peril|rating=4.5|genre=Fantasy |summary=As I promised I would when I looked back at the beginning of the 35 year history of ''Fighting Fantasy'' gamebooks [[Fighting Fantasy: The Warlock of Firetop Mountain by Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone|(here)]], I took to the brand-new-for-2017 volume with my pen, mapping paper, and most importantly, dice. For the first time in a long, long time, I would not read a book for review. I would play it. And so, armed with healthy stamina, reasonable luck but frankly embarrassing skill, I set off. This is the report of that journey – as well as hopefully being the usual useful book review.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1407181297</amazonuk>}}{{newreviewTeacher Who Knew Too Much|author=Sharon Cohen|title=The Starman and MeRob Keeley

|summary=''He wasn't an alienSeventeen 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, I was sure of that. It was more like he'd walked in through an ancient door from Miss Judson and Ben go on the pastrun.But Al needs them for one last job.. except he was here, in my bedroom and his misty forest was somewhere real on Planet Earth.''

Twelve-year-old Kofi thought he was seeing things when he spied Goodness me, that Miss Judson is a tiny human terror! How on earth did a roundabout near nice teacher like her manage to his house. But he wasnget mixed up with a bad 'un like Al? We'tll find out. Rorty Thrutch Luckily for Miss Judson, the pupil who discovers her terrible secret is as real as you or me. But how did Rorty come to be hiding out in Ben, the middle son of a roundabout in Bradborough? And why famous magician who has ambitions to be as good as his father some day, and who thinks Miss Judson is he so insistent that he'll soon be ''bad dead''? |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1786540088</amazonuk>worth saving

{{newreview <!-- remove 5/8 -->Frontpage|titleauthor=Eye Spy IIChristopher Edge|authortitle=Tessa BuckleyBlack Hole Cinema Club

|summary=Fresh from Lucas and his friends are all booked in for a movie marathon at their local cinema, a place that has the success nickname of solving its first case'The Black Hole'. All big movie fans, Eye Spy Investigations 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 certainly very different, and they are swept up for anotherinto an adventure they couldn't even imagine. So twins Alex and Donna jump at But as they lurch from one film genre to the chance next, can they figure out what on earth is going on? Will they ever get back to investigate the strange things happening at the Priorycinema, home to school friend Jimmy Devlin. Alex doesn't believe in ghosts and he is very keen to persuade Donna that they don't exist.their real lives?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1788032667</amazonuk>1839942738

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Gareth P Jones and Steve MayAdam Stower|title=Escape from Planet Bogey (Pet Defenders)Murray and Bun|rating=34.5|genre=Confident Readers |summary=Murray is supposed to be a humble, tidy and friendly cat, one who is able to sleep and eat and eat and sleep and, well, whatever takes his fancy next of the two. But he's a bad magician's cat, so his favourite bun has been turned into a hyperactive sticky rabbit called Bun, and the catflap they both use can chuck them out, not into the regular back garden, but into a world of frightening adventure and whiffs. This time round it drops them into a Viking land, where a troll hunter is expected – well, one much bigger than Murray was, to be honest, but he's turned up and he'll have to do…|isbn=0008561249}}{{Frontpage|author=Alex Bell and Tim McDonagh|title=The Glorious Race of Magical Beasts|rating=4

|summary=Mitzy Eli is a busy lad – by day an apprentice in the cat wondrous library we start by visiting with him, and Biskit in the dog are Pet Defenders evening a helper at the dessert cafe his gran owns and runs. Eli lives with his lovely gran, too – perhaps some of for there is a generation missing in the creatures best suited family. A few short years ago, Eli's parents were both lost to defend the planet from alien invasiontitular race, seeing as they a globe-trotting adventure where all entrants have inbuilt animal instincts, and live alongside some of to navigate the strangest critters out there, world in mankindthe company of a magical beast. But This has made the race anathema to the pair – but when they're thinking life is too quiet, only for a rat bad incident at the eatery leads to come along with a tale of being enveloped in snot and taken to a different corner of the universe entirelyconfession from gran, they're Eli knows his only too keen hope is to dare to investigate. That's especially true of Biskitenter what he most hates, when he learns that with the adventure may allow him clues to solve sole aim the disappearance prize of magic at the end – the only thing to possibly save his previous partner…gran.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847157874</amazonuk>0571382231

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Marian Orlon, Jerzy Flisak and Eliza Marciniak (translator)Helen Cooper|title=Detective Nosegoode and The Taming of the Music Box Mystery (Detective Nosegoode 1)Cat

|summary=The lovely village of Lower Limewood is coming awake as it usually doesOnce again, and people mice are happily going about their businesspitched against cat. Business for In this case, principally, we have Brie the statelymouse, well-known but happily retired Detective Nosegoode is merely idling his time on a park bench reading up against Gorgonzola the newspapers to his dog cat – and in case you're seeing a connection, they live in a dog that can talk cheese shop and therefore all the names used here seem to him in human languagebe the names of cheeses. Anyway, Brie is shunned, scorned and, if not readyou must, mous-tracised, for the way his habits don't match the other mice he lives with. But not all people welcome They nibble up paper wrapping from the new day with joy cheese for bedding – a clockmaker, who had been working for a week now at repairing a music box with a porcelain dancer he displays it as art and makes stories based on the visuals on top and a clockwork mechanismit. And that story-telling will come in handy one night, finds it – when he feels all alone and only it – has been stolen from his businesscast out. It's only a step almost as if there were another character from fable who had had to tell stories to find keep themselves alive. This makes Brie the top dog in the mouse community, though, as all the owner was under others had the illusion it was a clue chance to half-inch some long-lost treasure, but who could have burgled cheese while the workshop and taken it? cat was distracted. And what place to play in But will the mystery does a strange man story have, what with his avidly watching the Detective from behind a giant and clearly fake beardsuccessful sequel it needs when that cheese runs out?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1782691553</amazonuk>0571376010

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jo CotterillLauren St John|title=A Storm of StrawberriesFinding Wonder|rating=4.5

|summary=Darby lives 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 strawberry farm with lottery ticket. When asked what other family she has, she can only name her mumaunt, big sisterJoni, step who she knows her dad and step brotherdidn't think very highly of. She loves music, dancingBut she has no one else, chocolate egg hunts and so off she goes to live with her big sister Kaydeeunreliable aunt. She is warm and funnyThings continue to get worse for Roo, as when she and she has Down's syndrome. The story looks at the events of one weekend Joni leave London in DarbyJoni's life when the farm is threatened by a tornadoold campervan, and her family is threatened by it breaks down in the revelation middle of a closely-guarded secret.nowhere and then bursts into flames! Poor Roo!|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1848126166</amazonuk>0571376169

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Pip Jones Adam Baron and Adam StowerBenji Davies|title=Piggy Handsome: Guinea Pig Destined for Stardom!Oscar's Lion|rating=3.5|genre=Emerging Confident Readers |summary=Meet Piggy Handsome. He is a very bequiffed guinea pigWe start incredibly bluntly, with Oscar hoping to have his mother – or father, and he but mother is frustrated that everyone in more likely – read him his long line very favourite book a couple of Handsome guinea pigs times before he has become famous to be ready for something, except himschool. Annoyed that But when he has not even got enters his face in the local newspaperparents' bedroom, all he has complained to his friend Jeffry the Budgie more than oncesees is a mahoosive male lion on their bed, looking sheepish, and admitting that he won't be hungry for another two days. But on this day, Jeff has there are benefits to having a chance lion around – it can be shown as an unspoken threat to solve the issue and get some peace and quiet bully that ruined a birthday party for himself – there is a chip eating contest in townOscar the other month. But And it can Piggy get there in timeshapeshift, so he can take it to school and it can he down get him out of a bowl of chips quickly enough problem. And it's wonderful to winhave around the house – not limiting his biscuit intake, and what being much more lax about the pair of idiot thieves that also have something rules, and so on their mind?. OK, it can't work a dimmer switch but it can give Oscar a wonderful time.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0571327540</amazonuk>0008596751

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Chae Strathie and Anna ChernyshovaJudith Eagle|title=Captain Firebeard's School for Pirates: The Sneaky Sweet StealerStolen Songbird

|summary=The 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'Rusty Barnacles 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|rating=4.5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=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 find a home for himself. He is set en route to sail againyet another fosterer, when he jumps into an anonymous car, and lets it ride him to his future. That future seems to be in jeopardy when someone steals his one bag of belongings – but that someone lives with his brother in a second term for camp on an island between the wannabe pirates two directions of a motorway, a place inaccessible and definitely ignored enough to provide for their teachers safety and crewseclusion. TommyThem, despite being lateand a mute girl also finding a home there, albeit 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=1804540080}}{{Frontpage|author=Helen Peters|title=Friends and Traitors|rating=3|genre=Confident Readers|summary=England, WW2. Two young girls are new at the keenest pupil there – after country pile called Stanbrook. One is Nancy, destined to be in service allher life it seems, like the female generations before her. The other is Sidney, he a girl from a hoity-toity Sussex boarding school that has great friends, enemies he can easily vanquishbeen removed there away from bomber flight-paths. The girls are chalk and cheese, and a very good novice parrot for companyif we hadn't guessed that then their behaviour with each other over their first encounters would only prove it so. But everyone on board has reason for concern when something is amiss, and first separately and then in combination they set sail – realise the prize sweets from the tuck shop Lord Evesham must be a rum 'un. Midnight deliveries are going missing in great quantitiesreceived under cover of secrecy, talk is made of meetings with Germans, and not only that, a local Spitfire factory has been attacked. Who But surely the girls are wrong, and the upper class could possibly never be behind this mysteryso underhand?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>140716340X</amazonuk>1788004647

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Cathy HopkinsJamie Littler|title=The Valentine's Day KittenArkspire

|genre=Dyslexia FriendlyConfident Readers|summary=Marcie is distraughtTwo sisters, Juniper and Elodie, born fifteen minutes apart, are growing to be chalk and cheese. On Valentine's Day last year she'd didn't receive a single card Juniper is an eager hunter and her parents could see that she was upsettrader in illicit magic, so when she came home including relics from school there was a box 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 kitchen table and child in it was line to inherit the most gorgeous fluffy silver kitten. Misty and Marcie were soon inseparable until power of the Watcher, the day that Misty went out without closest to a collar on - ruler the district has, and didn't come home. Marcie blamed herself: Misty's collar had broken and she'd never got round to buying a new oneof the five major victors in said earlier war. Mum has put notices up everywhere she Being trained in the magic that only five people can think use would definitely change the status of and rung the local vets and animal rescue centres, but there's no sign of Mistywhole family. Then Marcie starts having dreamsBut in finding something oddly magical, about a boyJuniper might just be able to gain some power of her own – for good, a hotelor for very, a painting - and Misty. Will there be a happy ending?very bad…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>178112678X</amazonuk>0241586143

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Shane Hegarty024162343X|title= Darkmouth: Hero RisingStolen History|author=Sathnam Sanghera|rating= 4.5|genre= Confident ReadersChildren's Non-Fiction|summary= Things seem as I was the bad as they can get for Finn, trainee Hunter of all those nasty things that keep trying to get through to our world from the Infested Sidecompany other people got into at school. His dad has been sacked, leaving him practically alone to face I was disruptive in religious education classes because I disputed the baddies, both monstrous and human, he has no weapons or back-up apart from his friend Emmie, and the family has even been kicked out existence of the house theya 'god've lived in for generations. Of course Where was the proof? In history lessons, in it was probably worse still. Not too long after the way end of WWII, I didn't so much want to learn about the best storiesBritish army's successes (and occasional failures, you only have to hint that things couldnbut we didn't get worse for them dwell on those) in what came to do exactly that. And any beastie thatbe called 's got all the monsters from colonies' as want to dispute what right the other dimension scared is not going army had to be a doddle there in the first place. Looking back, I still believe I was right - but I regret that I lacked the maturity to fightapproach 'the problem' politely. Far, far from it I wish I'd had Sathnam Sanghera's ''Stolen History''. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007545622</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Tamsin CookeThiago de Moraes|title=Stunt DoubleOld Gods New Tricks

|summary= Finn wants to Meet Trixie. Forever getting into scrapes, larks and adventures involving flooding the school aircon with fart powder, she could almost be actor butthought a young goddess of nuisance. But just when she's being told that by her one-last-chance-giving headteacher, the world changes. Suddenly, when his first ever lines in practically everything electronic stops working – a film are cutpower-out, even of electric cars, hehits not just the town the school's happy to settle for stunt-double. He has in but the entire planet (apart from mobile phones, and all that powers the skills Internet, just for this demanding role: heour convenience's a natural dare devil with a karate black-belt (almostsake). The only downside is Trixie, luckily, realises what has happened – the person Finn has to double for: Finn and teen-star Blake ancient Gods have history and a relationship of mutual hatred. Pretty soon, however, this is taken the least power of Finn's worriespower from us. The eccentric film director And so she begins her epic quest, Novak, pushes him to gather all the limits with increasingly dangerous stunts, manipulating Finn into doing people that can steal it back – namely the stunts without safety gear. But characters from myth that seems tame when they transfer to film on location have past form in a remote part of Papua New Guinea stealing from the Gods, ie the semi-deities, giants, half-gods and Finn discovers what Novak really has planned for himso on known as the tricksters.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>019274982X</amazonuk>178845295X

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=David Roberts Hannah Gold and Alan MacDonaldLevi Pinfold|title=My Burptastic Body Book (Dirty Bertie)Finding Bear

|genre=Children's Non-FictionConfident Readers|summary=Oh[[The Last Bear by Hannah Gold|Last time]], April had been on Bear Island, to be young and innocenta lot further north than many people would venture, and to be full of questionsfinding a ridiculously unexpected but delightful friendship with a polar bear – that she called Bear. Questions like 'is eating my bogies good Back home, things on the domestic and family front are a bit advanced, but not perfect for me'her, or 'why is poo brown', or 'what makes sweat smell'and so can easily be ignored when word comes through from the islands Bear was last left on. You don't have to be For a kid like Dirty Bertie to want to know the answers – respectively, no; it's down to dead bacteria; bear doing very Bear-y things has been shot and it doesn't – it's other bacteria againwounded. If you think you have a lad (or, letDesperate to make sure he's face itOK, she and her father return to the Arctic and hope that in a lass) interested in learning such stuffworld of very white and very dangerous things, this book could well be she can find one specific white and dangerous thing – and that the place to turnfriendship can continue.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847156754</amazonuk>0008582017

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Matt StantonSimon Fox|title= Funny Kid for PresidentDeadlock|rating= 4.5|genre= Confident Readers|summary=Max Walburt has 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 real problem with secret place, and join him on the run. They get together, but barely begin to smell the whiff of Southern trains when the father is arrested, leaving Archie on the late express to Brighton, toting a tin his teacher father was determined to keep away from his colleagues, and nothing seems to make it better. Running for class president seems like the bearer of a good way out whole heap of his problems but inevitably it doesn't run smoothlyquestions.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0008220166</amazonuk>1839944420

{{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=Kid NormalCath Howe|authortitle=Greg James and Chris SmithMy Life on Fire|rating=45

|summary=Murph Cooper Ren's family home is fed updestroyed in a fire. He She, her parents, and his mum have moved house. Again. This means another new home to get used to. This means another new school to get used toher little brother lose everything. This means another set of friends left behind. And if that weren't enough, this time he She doesn't even have a new school to go to. Everywhere is full. Eventuallyany of her clothes, or any of her special little knick-knacks from her cupboard, a place and now she is found - living at her grandmother's house where they can'The School''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 strange place hidden away in special art project, creating boxes of their lives, to display things that are important to them and show who they are as a back streetperson. ''The School'' is But Ren has nothing to put in a school unlike any other. It caters for children with superpowers. But Murph doesn't have any superpowers box, and is soon consigned so she finds herself starting to the socially undesirable super zeroes gangsteal things. The kids with superpowers are Small things, things that people might not really miss, not kind when they have so much already. But what will happen to the super zeroes...her if someone finds out what she is doing?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1408884534</amazonuk>1839942835

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Max BrooksRob Keeley|title= Minecraft: The Island|rating= 5|genre= Confident Readers|summary= Max Brooks perfectly captures the experience of playing Minecraft without instructions or assistance from the random punching stage through to building towers that touch the sky. Just as schools around the world are using Minecraft to teach computer science Boy Who Disappeared and other skills Brooks uses his novel to demonstrate how valuable life lessons can be learned from this online phenomena.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>178089774X</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Gillian Cross |title=The Demon Headmaster: Total Control Other Stories

|genre=Confident Readers |summary= Lizzie and her younger brother Tyler aren't looking forward to returning to Hazelbrook Academy. However, when they arrive, they find everything has changed. And it's not for the better. Every pupil Hooray! Bookbag favourite Rob Keeley is now perfectly behaved and suddenly everyone seems to have back with a special talent. Even the teachers are acting strangely. And, if that isn't enough, Lizzie inexplicably finds herself throwing food around the canteen and being accused of vandalising the school. Lizzie is determined return to find out what has caused the sudden change in everyone's behaviour but it's hard because no one seems short story format! The Boy Who Disappeared treats us to be able eleven new tales, each as fun to talk about what's going on. It's almost read as if the Hazelbrook students are no longer able to think and act for themselveshis previous offerings. Could it, perhaps, be something to do with the mysterious new headmaster? |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0192745743</amazonuk>B0BVW69N1G

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Laura PowellNoakes|title= The Last Duchess: Cosima Unfortunate Steals a Silver Service Mystery|rating= 4.5|genre= Confident Readers|summary= Being a Lady's maid doesn't sound like a whole lot of fun. Don't read novels, which will make you dissatisfied with your condition. Be observant and cheerful at all times, and grateful for the benefits you receive from your employment - however difficult it may seem, it is, after all, far better than living in poverty on the streets. And never express your own opinion, even if your mistress asks for it. These are the rules (among many, many others) used to train girls at Mrs Minchin's Academy of Domestic Servitude. There are no rules for what goes on in the privacy of your own head, however, and Pattern, generally considered the Academy's most gifted student, has plenty of opinions which, if she said them aloud, would cause her teachers to faint in genteel horror.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1509808906</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Robyn Swift and Sara Lynn Cramb|title=National Trust: Complete Night Explorer's KitStar

|genre=Children's Non-FictionConfident Readers|summary=There is a misfortune to the modern worldMeet Number One. Or rather, in that we have killed off a common hobby from when I was a ladCosima Unfortunate. Nowadays Or rather, just Cos to her friends. light pollution The practice in the home she lives in is so awful it's certainly not uncommon for people the girls to hardly see any of just be named by the stars and number they correspond to get to learn in the constellationsledger, and while I only went out to go 'meteor huntingthey're all Unfortunates – young people with disabilities, it's patently obvious uncommon mentalities or suchlike that Victorian society frowns greatly upon. But Cosima bears the chance tag as a surname because nothing else seems to lie down be known about where she came from, as the first ever inmate, and stargaze is a dying oneunique in having no known family in the outside world. Elsewhere During a daring escapade to steal some posh cakes from the nocturnal youth can struggle kitchen one afternoon, she discovers a plan involving said outside world – a devilish Lord Fitzroy seems to have much opportunity want to explore adopt all the night-time nature as this book suggests – it begins with setting up a tent in your back garden, and too many don't even get that chance, girls for want of possession of onehis Institute. YesBut why, if this book is only read once in the daytime and never referred what does that body entail? And could it possibly bring Cos closer to again, due to lack of opportunity, it really will be a crying shame.the past she has so little link with?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0857638777</amazonuk>0008579059

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=David Walliams and Tony Alice M Ross|title=The World's Worst Children 2Nowhere Thief

|summary=I sometimes wonder if David Walliams gets sick of At last there is new stock in the comparisons with Roald Dahl that he getsimpoverished yet over-full antiques shop Elsbeth and her mother run in a seaside town. It's such an easy comparison to make, however, Elsbeth knows this because both wrote very funny, and yet really very dark stories for childrenshe has stolen it. They don't shy away She also knows she should be free from worries about being found out, because she has the nastinessability to leave this world, and ugliness in life and instead face it head onuse an unworldly portal of kaleidoscope colours to enter other worlds, where the sea levels are rising dramatically and flip it around, the buildings are generally empty of humans and make you laugh along the wayripe for plunder. This is a rollercoaster ride through a wide range of truly dreadful children who range from being a fussy eaterWith eviction imminent, can Elsbeth nab anything to a spoiled brat, to Harry, who never, ever did his homework! actually generate custom at the shop? YesWell yes, their dark deeds vary in despicablenessis the answer, and along with dreadfulness galore there are fabulous illustrations, a large variety of fonts, unusual page layouts and but the fact a Royal introduction mysterious man knows exactly which items come from the Queen...these different Somewheres only raises more questions…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0008259623</amazonuk>1839943769

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jeff Brown and Rob BiddulphNatasha Farrant|title=Stanley and the Magic Lamp (Flat Stanley)The Rescue of Ravenwood|rating=3.5|genre=Emerging Confident Readers|summary=It was far too recently that I picked up [[Flat Stanley by Jeff Brown This story is another excellent adventure from the author of ''Voyage of the Sparrowhawk''. Ravenwood is an old house, in the North of England, where Bea and Rob Biddulph|Flat Stanley]] Raffy have been living for most of their lives. They are part of a complex, extended family arrangement, as Bea is there with her Uncle Leo, and met Raffy is there with a character now fifty years old for the first timehis mum, and found out how he got to be flat and what happened they are living together as a resultfamily. BizarrelyThey have grown up swimming in the cove, howeverroaming through the trees, despite completely at one with all of the success nature around the house and loving every inch of that first book it was twenty full years before the author picked up place. But now the house is under threat, as Leo is under pressure from his other two brothers to sell the pen property to give Stanley this sequel. Or perhaps a developer as it's not such a surprise – without giving too much away, the character had met with a certain change at the end of book one, becoming more and therefore wasn't exactly ready for more of the sameexpensive to maintain. WellThe children find themselves worrying not only about where they're going to live, over the decades there have been six official books by Jeff Brownbut if they'll even be together, and this was the first instance where I could find out for myself if '''I''' was ready for more of the same…Ravenwood itself will be torn down.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>140528806X</amazonuk>0571348785

{{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=The Ethan I Was BeforeRobin Birch and Jobe Anderson|authortitle=Ali StandishSecret Beast Club: The Unicorns of Silver Street

|summary=Ethan and his family are moving to Jayden's nose is forever in a book, which means he knows a little town in Georgia from lot about mythological creatures – the big city phoenixes and unicorns of Boston in a last ditch attempt to help Ethan get over the loss of best friend Kaceyworld, for example. And the move does give Ethan a great deal else Aisha is addicted to think abouther new tablet, where she can see videos of anything that might be out there. There The problem, as their mothers see it, is that they are never 's living in Grandpa Ikeout there's dilapidated old house and themselves, exploring the uncommunicative Grandpa Ike himselfoutside world of Hackney, London. There But when a narrowboat turns up carrying a science-minded, educational purpose, and with a past involving Jayden's cousin, they find a new school with a new pecking order to navigatemagical world they never knew existed. There For many of those mythological creatures are real, including the one Aisha thinks she's seen on a new friend in Coraleebit of local footage. The crew of the boat, who has including a great line living gargoyle, are tasked with saving the rare critters – and the kids unknowingly have the magical sight needed to join in tall stories . Dare they side with Leila, the woman on board, and her relative who likes adventures almost lives as much as Kacey did. But it's hard to leave grief behinda figure in a painting, especially when you feel as guilty as Ethan does...and become saviours of the unseen?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1408342928</amazonuk>0241573483

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Goldie Hawk and Rachael SaundersB09XWSXSKY|title=National Trust: Go Wild in Maestro Orpheus and the WoodsWorld Clock|author=Robert Penee and Joanne Grodzinski

|genre=Children's Non-FictionConfident Readers|summary=I am Frederick (or Fred, but never Freddy, please) couldn't sleep. A tune, rather like the ticking of a man who likes clock was playing over and over in his mind. It happened every time he came to visit his creature comfortsgrandfather. Always have beenHe hadn't really wanted to come; after all, always will – he's ten now and creature comforts all those old clocks don't involve snuggling down in a sleeping bag, however comfortable, appeal to watch creatures, as far as Ihim anymore. ''Who needs old clocks anyway? All they do is tell the time. And time isn't good for anything...'' And that was why he was looking at the clock beside the bed. It was nearly twelve o'm concernedclock but at midnight the clock chimed only six times. Luckily, however, many people are of another bent entirely – they There was nothing for it but to go and find no problem in getting out and about, taking whatever weather and wildlife can throw grandad - but where was he? And why had all the clocks stopped at themtwelve o'clock?}}{{Frontpage|author=Nigel Baines|title=A Tricky Kind of Magic|rating=4.5|genre=Emerging Readers|summary=Cooper loves to perform magic tricks. His father was a magician, and spending time out of doors for named Cooper after the hell of itgreat Tommy Cooper. This book is the first stage But sadly Cooper's father died suddenly, and now Cooper doesn't quite know who to thatbe, and needs or how to be read in full before you step out your front door. And even if itwhen his dad's your prop rabbit starts talking to him, he ''onlyreally'' doesn't know what' stage, it will still be pleasantly educational…s going on anymore!|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>085763917X</amazonuk>1444960261