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[[Category:New Reviews|Confident Readers]] __NOTOC__<!-- Remove -->{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jean UreMax Boucherat|title=Star Quality (Dance Trilogy 2)The Last Life of Lori Mills|rating=4.5

|summary=MaddyWe meet Lori on the first evening she's got the house to herself – no neighbour to pop in, Caitlynbabysitter poorly, mother at work, Roz and Alex have all just been tested to an avidly rule-breaking eleven year old, on her lonesome. What could possibly go to the prestigious City Ballet School full time. wrong? CaitlynSnuggled in a blanket fort, she has one main intention, Roz and Alex all get their acceptance about a week laterthat is to log on to Voxminer, the world-building, but Maddy's critter-collecting game that is a little slower hit in comingLori's world. It was obviously delayed in the post. She was never actually worried But first Lori has a tiny inkling that she wouldnthis stormy night doesn't be accepted: wellfind herself entirely on her own, and then she finds something even more spooky. For the server she's an exceptional dancer and her family is ballet royalty. Where bestie and nobody else would she should be but City Ballet School? able to enter shows signs of tampering. Caitlyn still can't quite believe When malevolent eyes spark up on her phone screen, and her safe place in the opportunity she's game has been givendoctored – well, particularly as she's not been dancing anywhere near as long as the others. It means so much where is a girl to her.turn?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0008164533</amazonuk>0008666482

{{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=I Swapped My Brother On The InternetKieran Larwood and Joe Todd-Stanton|authortitle=Jo SimmonsDungeon Runners: Hero Trial

|summary=After Meet Kit. Like most of the people in his world, it seems, he is an avid fan of Dungeon Running – the sport where a terrible argument over team of warrior, mage and healer enter specially prepared, century-old, magical mazes, and race to the Hanging Pants of Doom (don't ask)exit, perhaps bothering with the sibling rivalry between Jonny treasure or the big bad and his older brother Ted comes to a headthe points they grant you along the way. Jonny fills out an application form at siblingswap.com Unfortunately for Kit, the only thing he's seen of the latest race on the inn TV equivalent is that one team has been retired, eaten, and sits back to wait for a new brother who trio of questors is bound, surelyneeded. Possibly very unfortunately indeed for Kit, he has taken to be infinitely better than patronisingthe goading from the token bully of his world and stumbled into declaring he'll enter as a team. What chance does this friendless, mockingmuscle-free-zone have in actually managing that, bullying, Ted. Right? Any brother would be better than Ted. Right? Of course! What on earth and how could go wronghe possibly hope to succeed? Well, plenty as it happens. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1408877759</amazonuk>1839945184

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Andrew ZurcherJames Sherwood Metts|title= Twelve NightsPlanet Storyland|rating= 34.5|genre= Confident Readers|summary= This story opens on a terrifying note. Kay and Eloise's father is working late at his college, as usual, but when the two girls and their mother arrive to pick him up, they are told he does not work there. In fact, everyone they meet insists they have never heard of him. It sounds like the beginning of a scary murder-mystery, or a cat-and-mouse chase in the style of James Bond or Dan Brown, but what actually lies behind this event is far stranger and more confusing. Later that night Kay hears voices at her window and embarks on a quest to rescue both her father and her younger sister from ruthless beings who are decidedly not human. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141385545</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Jnr Rademeyer|title=Hero From Another Planet|rating=3

|summary=Jason Bronkurts is Things have been a bit sticky for the kid the teachers like: heEarthlings. AI and automation have been proceeding apace, often replacing jobs they's always on re paid to do and other tasks that took time and puts his school work firstto accomplish. He isn't a great socialiser Just as they were beginning to get used to all this technological change and certainly not one starting to think of the cool kidsother, although he's had something of a crush on Rosienew ways to spend time, but he's known her since kindergarten and done nothing about italong came an awful pandemic. At the other end of the scale are Jack Radogerens Life was pretty much shut down and his friend Ryan, who bully Jason. It might be Wednesdayalong with it, but Jason will be glad when all the week's over. His home life is a bit strange too: when we meet thirteen-year-old Jason, his dad has just phoned to say that he's going to be away for three days. Jason's many daily social interactions on his own. Well, apart from the UFO and its occupants, that iswhich they depend so heavily.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1546284451</amazonuk>1736128426

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Rachel IgnotofskyTom Percival|title=Women in Sport: Fifty Fearless Athletes Who Played to WinThe Wrong Shoes

|summary=Will''Women s life is difficult, in Sporta multitude of ways. He is bullied because he has 'the wrong shoes' is coming to us just before , he has the Winter Olympics in South Korea in February 2018. It celebrates a century wrong shoes because his dad can't work and a half of doesn't have enough money for even the development most basic of womenthings like food, and his dad can's sport by looking t work because he lost his job at fifty of its highest achieversthe college, covering sports as diverse as swimmingwas working a cash-in-hand job on a building site and had an accident. Throw into that mix the fact that his mum and dad are separated, fencingand Will's life seems bleak in every direction. And yet, riding, skatinghe still has a tiny amount of hope. He is good at art, and much more. Think clings to the moments of joy when he is drawing, that feel like a sport and a pioneering women succeeding light at it is probably in this book somewhere. Each entry is the end of a double page spread with a brief biography and a striking portraitlong, dark tunnel.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1526360926</amazonuk>1398527122

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Abi Elphinstone1805141872|title=Sky SongThe Teacher Who Knew Too Much|author=Rob Keeley

|summary= ''Seventeen banks and a jeweller’s have been raided. The Ice Queen has cast police are baffled, but only Ben knows the truth – his Maths teacher, Miss Judson, is really a spell safecracker! With police and her gangster boyfriend Al on Erkenwaldtheir trail, separating the Fur Miss Judson and Feather Tribes and making Ben go on the third – the Tusk Tribe – the enemy of bothrun. But Al needs them for one last job. Eager to secure her position by gaining eternal life, the Ice Queen is consuming the voices of the Erkenwald people. There seems little anyone can do until three children – Eska, Flint and Blu – come together. With help from 'the wild' Goodness me, they set off that Miss Judson is a terror! How on earth did a quest nice teacher like her manage to find the legendary get mixed up with a bad 'Frost Hornun like Al? We' and ll find out. Luckily for Miss Judson, the magical 'Sky Song' that will free Erkenwald from pupil who discovers her terrible secret is Ben, the Ice Queen's control.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1471146073</amazonuk>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

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Dan SmithChristopher Edge|title=Below ZeroBlack Hole Cinema Club|rating=4.5

|summary=Twelve year old Zak Reeve is supposed to be enjoying a relaxing holiday Lucas and his friends are all booked in the sunshine with his family before he goes into hospital for surgery. Insteada movie marathon at their local cinema, the whole family are on a plane to the Antarctic because place that has the nickname of 'The Black Hole'spider drones. All big movie fans, they' his parents have designed re looking forward to support the Exodus mission to Mars have started to malfunction. His parents assure Zak lots of exciting films, and his older sistermany, many snacks! However, Mayas the movie starts, they very quickly realise that something about this will be a flying visit butnew film format is very different, and they are swept up into an adventure they couldn't even imagine. But as you'd expect with any action adventure story, things go wrong they lurch from one film genre to the moment their plane crashes into next, can they figure out what on earth is going on? Will they ever get back to the ice outside Outpost Zero. Zak cinema, and his family are about to find themselves in a chilling adventure that will leave them fighting for survival.their real lives?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1910655929</amazonuk>1839942738

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jose Mauro de Vasconcelos and Alison Entrekin (translator)Adam Stower|title=My Sweet Orange TreeMurray and Bun|rating=34.5

|summary=''It's just that sometimes, Zeze, you're too naughty.'' And that's almost the entire truth about our narrator, Zeze – he's Murray is supposed to be a young tykehumble, tidy and everyone in his largefriendly cat, half-Indian family – heck, everyone one who recognises his blonde is able to sleep and eat and eat and sleep and pale looks in the neighbourhood – knows he's skilled at being up to no good, that perhaps he was born with a little well, whatever takes his fancy next of the devil in him where Jesus should residetwo. Instantly adept at being able to read, even when But he's only fivea bad magician's cat, so his favourite bun has been turned into a hyperactive sticky rabbit called Bun, and the precocious brat is forced to face something that might be catflap they both use can chuck them out, not into the changing regular back garden, but into a world of him, once frightening adventure and for all – schoolwhiffs. This time of change round it drops them into a Viking land, where a troll hunter is also featuring a move of homeexpected – well, as the family cannot afford the rent arrears on their current placeone much bigger than Murray was, although having downsized the garden comes to feature the titular treebe honest, which almost works as a confessional cum best friend. Whether either the new home or the school will get but he's turned up and he'll have to change Zeze, or neither, is the plot of this vintage Brazilian junior read.do…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1782691537</amazonuk>0008561249

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=J S LandorAlex Bell and Tim McDonagh|title=The Mirror Glorious Race of PharosMagical Beasts

|summary=12 year-old Jack Tideswell Eli is not your typical adventurer. In facta busy lad – by day an apprentice in the wondrous library we start by visiting with him, he spends most of his time trying to prevent his Nan worrying and trying to avoid in the gang of school bullies. This, however, changes when a seagull delivers evening a strange package through helper at the cat flapdessert cafe his gran owns and runs. Suddenly everything Eli lives with his lovely gran, too – for there is different. Jack finds himself briefly catapulted into the future and then into a generation missing in the pastfamily. It takes him a long time to understand what A few short years ago, Eli's happening but luckily he has several friends parents were both lost to help him. There is his best friend from school, Charlie (occasionally known as Charlotte)the titular race, a globe-trotting adventure where all entrants have to navigate the people he meets world in the past and company of a magical beast. This has made the future (several of whom claim race anathema to have met him before), the stranger Jago Flyn, and pair – but when a bad incident at the magical wolfeatery leads to a confession from gran, Alpha. With their help, Jack learns that he's a fledging Magus (a true magician) and comes Eli knows his only hope is to dare to realise that enter what he alone can prevent a Titanic-like disaster in most hates, with the sole aim the future. Sadly one prize of magic at the end – the only thing to possibly save his friends isn't everything they claim to begran. Will Jack realise in time?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1788039203</amazonuk>0571382231

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Katie Haworth and Dinara MirtalipovaHelen Cooper|title= Beauty and The Taming of the BeastCat|rating= 43.5|genre= Confident Readers|summary= We Once again, mice are pitched against cat. In this case, principally, we have Brie the mouse, up against Gorgonzola the cat – and in case you're seeing a connection, they live in a cheese shop and therefore all know the story names used here seem to be the names of beauty and the beastcheeses. A prince Anyway, Brie is shunned, transformed in to a monster for his cruel scorned and malicious nature, trapped in his grotesque form seemingly if you must, mous-tracised, for the rest of way his dayshabits don't match the other mice he lives with. Then comes along a young woman, They nibble up paper wrapping from the beauty of cheese for bedding – he displays it as art and makes stories based on the visuals on it. And that story-telling will come in handy one night, who mellows the beast's harsh character and grows to love him for who when he is, feels all alone and not because of his appearancecast out. It's a fairy tale of old and a story of love crossing boundaries which has been adapted countless times both on screen and almost as if there were another character from fable who had had to tell stories to keep themselves alive. This makes Brie the top dog in literaturethe mouse community, though, as all the others had the chance to half-inch some cheese while the cat was distracted. So is this new retelling worth But will the story have the readsuccessful sequel it needs when that cheese runs out? I think so, because I loved it.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1783704578</amazonuk>0571376010

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Hilary Lee-CorbinLauren St John|title= Conkers and GrenadesFinding Wonder|rating= 4|genre= Confident Readers|summary=ItRoo's Bristol life has become almost impossibly difficult. Her mum died when she was young, and now she finds herself awoken in 1916. Britain is halfway through the Great War and everyone is expected middle of the night by the police banging on her door to put their shoulder tell her that her dad has dropped dead on his way to the wheel of the war effortcorner shop to buy a lottery ticket. Mar and Appy might be boys When asked what other family she has, she can only name her aunt, Joni, but theywho she knows her dad didn're t think very highly of. But she has no different. Both their fathers are away fighting one else, and the two young boys are expected so off she goes to help live with household choresher unreliable aunt. Things continue to get worse for Roo, look after younger siblingsas when she and Joni leave London in Joni's old campervan, earn a few extra pennies through casual jobs it breaks down in the middle of nowhere and concentrate on getting an education...then bursts into flames! Poor Roo!|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1788033515</amazonuk>0571376169

{{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=Under The Light of a Full MoonAdam Baron and Benji Davies|authortitle=Donna McGrathOscar's Lion|rating=3.5

|summary=When the bad dreams and the whispers at night first We startincredibly bluntly, with Oscar hoping to have his mother – or father, Clara but mother is more likely – read him his very favourite book a couple of times before he has no idea whatto be ready for school. But when he enters his parents's going bedroom, all he sees is a mahoosive male lion ontheir bed, looking sheepish, and admitting that he won't be hungry for another two days. All she knows is But there are benefits to having a lion around – it can be shown as an unspoken threat to the bully that ruined a birthday party for Oscar the lack other month. And it can shapeshift, so he can take it to school and it can get him out of sleep is making her feel ill. But a visit from her Great Aunt Selina supplies some answersproblem. Clara And it's family has a gift. One member of each generation has wonderful to have around the ability to shape-shift into house – not limiting his biscuit intake, being much more lax about the form of any species of animalrules, and so on. But the gift comes with an ancient curse - bearers of OK, it can't work a dimmer switch but it can only transform during the three days of the full moon each monthgive Oscar a wonderful time.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>B00D9V7QOA</amazonuk>0008596751

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Tony MittonJudith Eagle|title= Potter's BoyThe Stolen Songbird|rating= 4.5|genre= Confident Readers|summary= Life 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 unpredictable; it never goes exactly where we want it 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 despite how much effort we put in practise her gymnastics are brought to shape a direction for ourselveshalt whilst she is stuck inside this staid old Victorian lady's house, along with an orphan boy, Albie, who is living there too. It 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 hard lesson fearsome gang called the Snakes are thieving artworks and terrorising people. Is the painting somehow linked to learn, and one Tony Mitton captures with vivid simplicity for the pottergang? And what has happened to Caro's boy. mother? Is she somehow involved in the mystery too?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1910989347</amazonuk>0571363148

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Susan Wood and Ross MacDonaldTania Unsworth|title=American Gothic: The Life of Grant WoodNowhere Island

|genre=Children's Non-FictionConfident Readers|summary=Who won 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 national prize home for a crayon drawing of three oak leaves before himself. He is en route to yet another fosterer, when he was properly in his teens? Who sought acclaim as jumps into an artist anonymous car, and came lets it ride him to Europe his future. That future seems to study from be in jeopardy when someone steals his one bag of belongings – but that someone lives with his brother in a camp on an island between the greatstwo directions of a motorway, only a place inaccessible and definitely ignored enough to reject all they had to offer? provide for their safety and seclusion. Them, and a mute girl also finding a home there, albeit so much more successfully. Who instinctively knew Over a picture of his dentist (yesfew weeks we see if their oddball destinies can combine, his dentist) or if this is one place where life as we would want it just would be more appealing not work…|isbn=1804540080}}{{Frontpage|author=Helen Peters|title=Friends and say more Traitors|rating=3|genre=Confident Readers|summary=England, WW2. Two young girls are new at the country pile called Stanbrook. One is Nancy, destined to people than ''floating water lilies and frilly ballet dancers''? The answer be in service all cases was Grant Woodher life it seems, practically like the most wellfemale 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-known painter in America at one timepaths. The girls are chalk and cheese, and if we hadn't guessed that then their behaviour with each other over their first encounters would only prove it so. But something is amiss, and still first separately and then in combination they realise the bestLord Evesham must be a rum 'un. Midnight deliveries are received under cover of secrecy, alongside Edward Hoppertalk is made of meetings with Germans, at presenting his world minus any Modernist trappingsand not only that, a local Spitfire factory has been attacked. But surely the girls are wrong, and the upper class could never be so underhand?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1419725335</amazonuk>1788004647

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Stuart Hill and Sandra LawrenceJamie Littler|title=The Atlas of MonstersArkspire

|summary=There are monsters and mysterious characters, such as trolls, leprechauns, goblins and minotaursI was the bad company other people got into at school. TheyI was disruptive in religious education classes because I disputed the existence of a 're god'. Where was the stuff of far too many stories to remain mysteriousproof? In history lessons, and every schoolchild should know all about themit was probably worse still. There are monsters and mysterious charactersNot too long after the end of WWII, such as Gog I didn't so much want to learn about the British army's successes (and Magogoccasional failures, Scylla and Charybdis, and but we didn't dwell on those) in what came to be called 'the bunyip. They are colonies' as want to dispute what you find if you take an interest right the army had to be there in this kind of thing to the next level; even if you cannot first place them all on a map you should have come across them. But there are monsters and mysterious charactersLooking back, such as the dobharI still believe I was right -chu, but I regret that I lacked the llambigyn y dwr, and maturity to approach 'the girtabliliproblem' politely. To gain any knowledge of them you really need a book that knows its stuffI wish I'd had Sathnam Sanghera's ''Stolen History''. A book like this one…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1783706961</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Moira YoungThiago de Moraes|title= The Road to Ever AfterOld Gods New Tricks|rating= 4.5|genre= Confident Readers|summary= A grumpy old lady who can no longer drive requires a chauffeurMeet Trixie. Forever getting into scrapes, larks and we watch as adventures involving flooding the school aircon with fart powder, she gradually softens towards him and they become friendscould almost be thought a young goddess of nuisance. So far But just when she's being told that by her one-last-chance-giving headteacher, so ''Driving Miss Daisy''the world changes. Suddenly, an apt comparison in practically everything electronic stops working – a book which references several wellpower-loved classic filmsout, 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). But Trixie, luckily, realises what has happened – the ancient Gods have taken the obvious similarity ends therepower of power from us. Davy And so she begins her epic quest, hired to take Miss Flint on her final road tripgather 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, is thirteen years old half-gods and has not so on known as the foggiest idea how to drive a cartricksters. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1509832564</amazonuk>178845295X

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Benny Lindelauf, Ludwig Volbeda Hannah Gold and Laura Watkinson (translator)Levi Pinfold|title=Tortot, the Cold Fish Who Lost His World and Found His HeartFinding Bear

|genre=TeensConfident Readers|summary=Meet Tortot. He's [[The Last Bear by Hannah Gold|Last time]], April had been on Bear Island, a camp chef for an armylot further north than many people would venture, and finding a ridiculously unexpected but delightful friendship with a cold heart polar bear – he sheds no tearsthat she called Bear. Back home, or at least as much as does things on the domestic and family front are a fish – bit advanced, but not perfect for her, and a brilliant way of gauging so can easily be ignored when word comes through from the warfare going islands Bear was last left on around him. The book even starts with him crossing the battlefield to start work for the enemy the night before they turn the tables on his previous employers For a bear doing very Bear-y things has been shot and defeat them, leaving Tortot on the winning side once morewounded. But now Desperate to make sure he's not alone – for he has managed OK, she and her father return to also inherit an assistant, who lives the Arctic and hope that in a barrel world of very white and very dangerous things, she can find one specific white and dangerous thing – and that the Emperors' favourite and most important gherkins…friendship can continue.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1782691545</amazonuk>0008582017

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jessica TownsendSimon Fox|title=Nevermoor: The Trials of Morrigan CrowDeadlock

|summary=Morrigan Crow Late one night Graham Blake is a cursed child. Everyone in Jackalfax where she lives believes she is responsible for all late back from his shift on the things that go wrong in their life. Andforce, if that's not bad enoughand then suddenly rings Archie, the curse means she will die on her eleventh birthday. Morrigan believes there is no escape demanding he fetch something from her fate until a mysterious man appears secret place, and offers her a new life in join him on the run. They get together, but barely begin to smell the secret city whiff of Nevermoor. There Southern trains when the father is only one problem – arrested, leaving Archie on the late express to stay in Nevermoor she needs Brighton, toting a tin his father was determined to gain keep away from his colleagues, and the bearer of a coveted place in the Wunderous Society by competing against hundreds whole heap of other hopefuls to pass four seemingly impossible trialsquestions.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1510104119</amazonuk>1839944420

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Tony BradmanCath Howe|title=Secret of the StonesMy Life on Fire|rating=35|genre=Dyslexia FriendlyConfident Readers|summary= Twelve year old Maglos has Ren's family home is destroyed in a fulfilling fire. She, her parents, and happy life with his fatherher little brother lose everything. She doesn't have any of her clothes, the High Priest or any of Stonehenge. Howeverher special little knick-knacks from her cupboard, everything changes when his Uncle Tigran murders Maglosand now she is living at her grandmother's father at the mid-summer festival before turning to house where they can't touch anything, or do anything, or even eat the same to Maglosfoods they normally eat. As the axe is about When she goes back to fall, two strangers intervene warning Tigran school she discovers that the Gods will be angry if he spills the blood 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 childperson. Tigran allows the strangers But Ren has nothing to put in a box, and so she finds herself starting to take Maglos away as their slavesteal things. What Tigran doesn't realise is that these two men carry the secret of the stones – a secret Small things, things that people might not really miss, not when they pass onto Maglos and which he have so much already. But what will ultimately use against his uncle.happen to her if someone finds out what she is doing?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1781127549</amazonuk>1839942835

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Andy MulliganRob Keeley|title=DogThe Boy Who Disappeared and Other Stories

|summary=What life can you find for yourself, when it seems to be marked out at the start that this – the only one you get – begins at such a lowly place? That's the question the dog in ''Dog'' faces, especially when a snide spider tells him he Hooray! Bookbag favourite Rob Keeley is the runt of the litter, and instead of being bought has been selected by an adult only because he's free. He wasn't even really chosen, and they had thought to get back with a cat. Oddly enough the mutt gets return to be called Spider by Tom, the lad who gets to call him his, but he's fraught with self-doubt. short story format! The spider tells him he's only going Boy Who Disappeared treats us to cause harm – which he does. But the neighbourhood cat declares that Spider has something of the feline in his mongrel mixeleven new tales, and tempts him across to her way of living. Tom himself, meanwhile, is being nudged into thinking he's beginning at a lowly place – he ignores his absent mother, he has the privilege of a scholarship for him each as fun to get beaten up and bullied at school, and he can't see much future for himself, either. Can Spider work out his lot, and match his life with that of Tom, or will outside agencies get in the way?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782691715</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Amanda Foody|title= Daughter of the Burning City|rating= 4|genre= Confident Readers|summary=Gomorrah, a travelling circus read as big as a city, tours the land, entertaining the crowds with fantastic shows of magic, illusion and sleight of hand. But the proprietor of Gomorrah, Villiam, believes he has a far more important role than merely organising the acts in the circus. He has political ambition, which he keeps a secret from his adopted daughter. Growing up in the circus, Sorina knows that she will one day become the Proprietor and take over from her father. At sixteen, she is keen to start learning everything she can from Villiamprevious offerings.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1848455445</amazonuk>B0BVW69N1G

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=L Frank Baum, Michel Laporte, Olivier Latyk and Vanessa Mieville (translator)Laura Noakes|title=The Wizard of OzCosima Unfortunate Steals a Star

|summary=''TotoMeet Number One. Or rather, I've a feeling we're not in Hollywood any moreCosima Unfortunate.'' And noOr rather, indeed we are notjust Cos to her friends. We are The practice in the realm of L Frank Baum, and not home she lives in is for the cinema version of this fantasy quest story. So those slippers are silver and not ruby, girls to just be named by the companions do not get given solid things that may imply number they have achieved what correspond to in the ledger, and they seek're all Unfortunates – young people with disabilities, and uncommon mentalities or suchlike that Victorian society frowns greatly upon. But Cosima bears the flying monkeys played backwards do not work out tag as a surname because nothing else seems to be singing Pink Floyd recordsknown about where she came from, or whatever as the first ever inmate, and unique in having no known family in the urban myth wasoutside world. Otherwise, we're pretty much on During a daring escapade to steal some posh cakes from the samekitchen one afternoon, assured, solid ground, with the greyness of Kansas (in she discovers a plan involving said outside world – a scene that seemed devilish Lord Fitzroy seems to want to foretell of adopt all the Dust Bowl decades later) being swapped girls for the quartet of queerhis Institute. But why, questing characters, the yellow bricked road and everything else you would want of a young reader adaptation of what does that body entail? And could it possibly bring Cos closer to the novel.past she has so little link with?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>191027738X</amazonuk>0008579059

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=William SteigAlice M Ross|title=The Real Nowhere Thief

|summary=Meet GawainAt last there is new stock in the impoverished yet over-full antiques shop Elsbeth and her mother run in a seaside town. Elsbeth knows this because she has stolen it. He's a goose, with great plans to She also knows she should be a great architectfree from worries about being found out, who's fallen instead into being because she has the Chief Guard of the Royal Treasury belonging ability to King Basil the bear. Only the two leave this world, and use an unworldly portal of them have keys kaleidoscope colours to enter through other worlds, where the only door into sea levels are rising dramatically and the place, but lo buildings are generally empty of humans and behold, some of the gems have been stolenripe for plunder. Gawain promises With eviction imminent, can Elsbeth nab anything to be even more diligent than he already is – ''I check, I double-check and I re-double-check'', he insists. actually generate custom at the shop? But more and more things go missingWell yes, and soon Gawain is being accused of betraying King Basil's trust and helping himself. I would say he's out on his ear as a resultthe answer, but, you know – he's the fact a goose.mysterious man knows exactly which items come from these different Somewheres only raises more questions…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1782691456</amazonuk>1839943769

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Marian Orlon, Jerzy Flisak and Eliza Marciniak (translator)Natasha Farrant|title=Detective Nosegoode and the Museum Robbery (Detective Nosegood 3)The Rescue of Ravenwood|rating=3.5

|summary=[[Detective Nosegoode and This story is another excellent adventure from the author of ''Voyage of the Sparrowhawk''. Ravenwood is an old house, in the Music Box Mystery (Detective Nosegoode 1) by Marian OrlonNorth of England, Jerzy Flisak where Bea and Eliza Marciniak (translator)|Last time I met Raffy have been living for most of their lives. They are part of a complex, extended family arrangement, as Bea is there with]] the retired Detective Nosegoode her Uncle Leo, and Raffy is there with his loyal mum, and helpful dog Cody – they are living together as a family. They have grown up swimming in the dog that can speak human languagecove, what's more – there was a most intriguing case for roaming through the two to solve – that proceeded to go about in less than perfect ways. This third volume trees, completely at one with all of the pair's adventures contains prequels – a selection nature around the house and loving every inch of three shorter works that convey dramas from the latter stage of Nosegoode's careerplace. So a museum curator But now the house is convinced the town's masterpiece landscape under threat, as Leo is due under pressure from his other two brothers to be stolen, sell the chess club has property to a robber, developer as it's becoming more and Nosegoode gets a tip-off from his mentor about a pickpocket being in townmore expensive to maintain. ItThe children find themselves worrying not only about where they're going to live, but if they's almost too much for ll even a clever little old man be together, and his clever little houndif Ravenwood itself will be torn down.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1782691596</amazonuk>0571348785

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= A A Milne Robin Birch and E H ShepardJobe Anderson|title= Secret Beast Club: The Christopher Robin CollectionUnicorns of Silver Street|rating= 54|genre= Confident Readers|summary=Jayden's nose is forever in a book, which means he knows a lot about mythological creatures – the phoenixes and unicorns of the world, for example. Aisha is addicted to her new tablet, where she can see videos of anything that might be out there. The Christopher Robin Collectionproblem, as their mothers see it, is that they are never 'out there' is a compilation themselves, exploring the outside world of stories and poems and what notHackney, from ALondon. A. Milne But when a narrowboat turns up carrying a science-minded, educational purpose, and with a past involving Jayden's original workscousin, they find a magical world they never knew existed. For many of those mythological creatures are real, so itincluding the one Aisha thinks she's seen on a new book but bit of local footage. The crew of the boat, including a living gargoyle, are tasked with saving the rare critters – and the kids unknowingly have the magical sight needed to join in. Dare they side with existing contentLeila, the woman on board, perfect for re-remembering and her relative who lives as Owl might saya figure in a painting, but equally good for discovering for the very first time, just like Pooh and become saviours of the North Pole (''Discovered by Pooh…Pooh found it'').unseen?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1405288019</amazonuk>0241573483

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Paul Bright, Brian Sibley, Jeanne Willis, Kate Saunders and Mark BurgessB09XWSXSKY|title= The Best Bear in All Maestro Orpheus and the WorldClock|rating= 4|genre= Confident Readers|summaryauthor= Winnie the Pooh is a classic, and sometimes classics should be left untouched by the hands of time. After all, can you improve on perfection? With A.A. Milne no longer with us, there are limited options for continuing the stories of Pooh, Piglet, Rabbit Robert Penee and the gang, but in this authorised sequel the show must and indeed does go on, with four new tales about the bear with very little brain.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>140528661X</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Lauren St John|title=The Snow AngelJoanne Grodzinski

|summary=Makena was born and raised in the city of Nairobi Frederick (or Fred, but she dreams of mountainsnever Freddy, in particular Mount Kenyaplease) couldn't sleep. When her father takes her on her first real exploration of A tune, rather like the mountain, and she gets a brief glimpse ticking of a strange sparkling foxclock was playing over and over in his mind. It happened every time he came to visit his grandfather. He hadn't really wanted to come; after all, Makena thinks life canhe's ten now and all those old clocks don't get any betterappeal to him anymore. Within weeks, however, her perfect world  ''Who needs old clocks anyway? All they do is shatteredtell the time. Makena finds herself scratching out an existence in And time isn't good for anything...'' And that was why he was looking at the clock beside the city slumsbed. She contracts cholera and almost dies It was nearly twelve o'clock but at midnight the clock chimed only six times. Luckily a pair of young charity workers are led There was nothing for it but to her by a fleeting image of a fox go and offer her a new start and a trip to find grandad - but where was he? And why had all the Scottish Highlands. But will Makena be able to accept their kindnessclocks stopped at twelve o'clock?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1786695898</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Connie GlynnNigel Baines|title= Undercover Princess (The Rosewood Chronicles)A Tricky Kind of Magic|rating= 4.5|genre= Confident Emerging Readers|summary=Lottie Pumpkin is an ordinary girl who is obsessed with princessesCooper loves to perform magic tricks. His father was a magician, fairy tales and Disneynamed Cooper after the great Tommy Cooper. Her dream is to become a princess But sadly Cooper's father died suddenly, and she had no idea that she would be sharing a room with one at Rosewood Hall...Ellie Wolf is a princess now Cooper doesn't quite know who wishes to be ordinary, so she attends Rosewood or how to avoid her royal duties in the kingdom of Maradovabe. When destiny puts these girls in the same room And when his dad's prop rabbit starts talking to him, the only way to survive Rosewood is to swap identities...he ''really'' doesn't know what's going on anymore!|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0141379855</amazonuk>1444960261