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[[Category:Confident Readers|*]]
[[Category:New Reviews|Confident Readers]]==Confident readers==__NOTOC__<!-- Remove -->{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Anthony McGowanMax Boucherat|title=Einstein's Underpants - And How They Saved The WorldLast Life of Lori Mills
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=A delightfully silly school cum sciWe 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-fi romp for confident readersbreaking eleven year old, with plenty of pantson 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-based humourcollecting 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, but never at and then she finds something even more spooky. For the expense 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 game has been doctored – well, where is a rollicking good read.girl to turn?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0440869242</amazonuk>0008666482
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Alec SillifantKieran Larwood and Joe Todd-Stanton|title=Jake HighfieldDungeon Runners: Chaos UnleashedHero Trial
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=What's this that Jake Meet Kit. Like most of the people in his world, it seems, he is doing an avid fan of Dungeon Running – the sport where a team of warrior, mage and healer enter specially prepared, century- breaking into a building? Vandalising it old, magical mazes, and race to the exit, perhaps bothering with graffiti, having ruined someone's privacy the treasure or the big bad and infiltrated something he shouldn't have done? the points they grant you along the way. Three years ago he would have been doing this as a yobbish kickUnfortunately for Kit, but now the only thing he's a teenage agent seen of a shadowy organisation called the Academylatest race on the inn TV equivalent is that one team has been retired, eaten, and people want him a new trio of questors is needed. Possibly very unfortunately indeed for Kit, he has taken to succeed in the goading from the token bully of his missionworld and stumbled into declaring he'll enter as a team. But do they all want that? Who are his taskmasters after all? And what What chance does the Void this friendless, muscle-free-zone have in store for his futureactually managing that, and how could he possibly hope to succeed?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1845393481</amazonuk>1839945184
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Garth EdwardsJames Sherwood Metts|title=Shipwrecked (The Adventures of Titch and Mitch)Planet Storyland|rating=34.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Titch Things have been a bit sticky for the Earthlings. AI and Mitch are two little pixies who automation have run away from homebeen proceeding apace, often replacing jobs they're paid to do and other tasks that took time to accomplish. Through a series of misadventures Just as they find themselves shipwrecked on an island, were beginning to get used to all this technological change and the story revolves around them making new friends there. They come starting to the rescue think of a strange coloured seagullother, they save a trapped fairynew ways to spend time, they play dentist for a little dragon mouse along came an awful pandemic. Life was pretty much shut down and , along with it, all the many daily social interactions on which they aid and abet an intelligent turkey who is trying to escape from the turkey farmdepend so heavily.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0956231500</amazonuk>1736128426
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Steve VoakeTom Percival|title=FightbackThe Wrong Shoes|rating=3.5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Meet Kier. A smart, yet lonely, young teen, he's been farmed off to a private school by his dad since mother died. Among his achievements are several successes on the karate mat, but all this is about to change. When his father is rammed off a motorway and murdered, Kier finds he's even more alone, and duty-bound to fight even more, when he gets clues to just who his father might have been, and how to go about responding to his death.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0571230032</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=John Gordon|title=Fen Runners|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Years agoWill's life is difficult, in a boy fell through the ice under Cottle's Bridgemultitude of ways. He said afterwards that something pulled him, a sleek silvery creature dragging him down into is bullied because he has 'the blackness. Now, decades laterwrong shoes', two boys go swimming in he has the very same spot wrong shoes because his dad can't work and find one doesn't have enough money for even the most basic of things like food, and his dad can't work because he lost his ice skatesjob at the college, was working a socash-in-called fen runnerhand job on a building site and had an accident. Throw into that mix the fact that his mum and dad are separated, buried and Will's life seems bleak in the mud every direction. And yet, he still has a tiny amount of hope. He is good at art, and clings to the bottom moments of the channel. But joy when they take it homehe is drawing, dark secrets begin to resurface around them and they become aware that an ancient evil is stirring out in feel like a light at the fensend of a long, dark tunnel.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1842556843</amazonuk>1398527122
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Sarah McConnell and Lucy Courtenay 1805141872|title=Swashbuckle School (Scarlet Silver)The Teacher Who Knew Too Much|author=Rob Keeley
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Young Scarlet Silver had always wanted to be ''Seventeen banks and a pirate and eventually her wish came true when she and her family took to the high seas in their pirate ship, 55 Ocean Drivejeweller’s have been raided. The problem was though that neither Scarlet nor anyone else in police are baffled, but only Ben knows the family knew how to be truth – his Maths teacher, Miss Judson, is really a pirate safecracker! With police and they soon discovered that it was quite a tricky business. Scarlet became the self appointed captain and did her best but her parents, brother Cedricgangster boyfriend Al on their trail, grandfather Miss Judson and his mate One Eyed Jake formed a pretty inept crewBen go on the run. This resulted in But Al needs them all soon falling foul to hostile pirate ships and narrowly escaping death and disaster!|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340959673</amazonuk>}}for one last job...''
{{newreview|author=Liz Kessler|title=Philippa Fisher and the Dream MakerGoodness me, that Miss Judson is a terror! How on earth did a nice teacher like her manage to get mixed up with a bad 'un like Al? We's Daughter |rating=3ll find out.5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Since Luckily for Miss Judson, the pupil who discovers her fairy godsister Daisy went back to ATC - fairy high command - and moved on to other missionsterrible secret is Ben, Philippa Fisher the son of a famous magician who has felt rather lonely. Her parents are ambitions to be as oddball good as ever, wandering through life with the kind of benign muddleheadedness that makes them loveablehis father some day, but more than a tad inattentive. They haven't really picked up on the fact that Philippa's human best friend has moved away and lost touch, or that she hasn't yet found a group of friends at secondary school. She misses Daisy like mad. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1842557831</amazonuk>who thinks Miss Judson is worth saving
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Elise BroachChristopher Edge|title=MasterpieceBlack Hole Cinema Club
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Marvin Lucas and his family friends are all booked in for a kindly bunchmovie marathon at their local cinema, a place that has the nickname of 'The Black Hole'. They even get him All big movie fans, they're looking forward to go down inside lots of exciting films, and many, many snacks! However, as the bathroom sink drainpipe to retrieve a missing contact lens. This movie starts, they very quickly realise that something about this new film format is not so difficult when youvery different, and they are swept up into an adventure they couldn're a small kind of beetle like Marvint even imagine. But when as they worry about the standard of birthday presents given lurch from one film genre to James, the boy of the human family that have unwittingly fostered themnext, things can they figure out what on earth is going on? Will they ever get very unpredictable. Marvin sees James being given a pen and ink sketching set, and when trying back to deliver a special coin to James, falls into making a sketch himself of the view outside the window. A sketch James could never have created - an ink masterwork that makes far too many adult human eyes bulge with surprisecinema, delight - and possibly greed.to their real lives?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1406321834</amazonuk>1839942738
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Linda NewberyAdam Stower|title=LobMurray and Bun
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Lob Murray is supposed to be a Green Man – an ancient nature spirit humble, tidy and friendly cat, one who is able to sleep and eat and eat and sleep and garden helper. Can you spot him hiding on the front cover , well, whatever takes his fancy next of the book? two. Lucy believes in Lob, though her Mum and Dad tell her 'itBut he's just Grandpaa bad magician's story'. When Lucy finally manages to catch cat, so his favourite bun has been turned into a fleeting glimpse of Lobhyperactive sticky rabbit called Bun, she is entranced and delighted to share Grandpa's secret. But when Grandpa dies the catflap they both use can chuck them out, not into the regular back garden, but into a world of frightening adventure and his home is sold Lucy is heartbrokenwhiffs. She wonders if she will ever see Lob again. What follows This time round it drops them into a Viking land, where a troll hunter is a journey through the seasons tracing Lucy's life after Grandpaexpected – well, one much bigger than Murray was, to be honest, but he's death turned up and Lobhe's search ll have to find a new garden home.do…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0385610815</amazonuk>0008561249
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Scott WesterfeldAlex Bell and Tim McDonagh|title=Extras|rating=4.5|genre=Teens|summary=In the future city The Glorious Race of this book, many people live with what is called a reputation economy. With everybody practically a cyborg, they're online permanently, using optical and brain implants to see everybody's status, output and more. Many people have hovercam companions, to make their own documentaries and film their own lives. They rely on metablogs to interact and keep their popularity up. They continuously spread their opinions and interests in order to become more well-known. A girl called Aya is struggling to get any renown, but things change, when she meets other people doing incredibly notorious things, but in complete secrecy and anonymity.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847389228</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Emma Thompson|title=Nanny McPhee and the Big BangMagical Beasts|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Mr and Mrs Green are Eli is a happily married couple, living on a farm busy lad – by day an apprentice in the wondrous library we start by visiting with their three childrenhim, but with and in the start of evening a helper at the war, Mr Green goes off to fight leaving dessert cafe his wife, Isabel, gran owns and the children to fend for themselvesruns. They are struggling to manage Eli lives with his lovely gran, too – for there is a generation missing in the upkeep of the farm and it looks as if Isabel may have to sellfamily. To make matters worseA few short years ago, her estranged sister sends her two very rich, very spoilt children Eli's parents were both lost to live on the farm titular race, a globe-trotting adventure where all entrants have to escape navigate the bombs world in London, but they are immediately at loggerheads with their rather wild country cousinsthe company of a magical beast. They are fighting wildly, wreaking havoc and destruction and ignoring Isabel's pleas This has made the race anathema to stop the pair – but when there is a sudden knock bad incident at the door eatery leads to a confession fromgran, Eli knows his only hope is to dare to enter what he most hates, with the sole aim the prize of course, magic at the end – the terrifyingly ugly, magical Nanny McPheeonly thing to possibly save his gran.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1408805014</amazonuk>0571382231
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Kate SaundersHelen Cooper|title=BeswitchedThe Taming of the Cat|rating=43.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Flora is furious at being sent away to boarding schoolOnce again, mice are pitched against cat. In this case, principally, we have Brie the mouse, even one which is very progressive with luxurious facilities up against Gorgonzola the cat – and school rock bands. Her parents need to sell her grandmotherin case you's house re seeing a connection, they live in Italy a cheese shop and build a granny flat at hometherefore all the names used here seem to be the names of cheeses. Anyway, Brie is shunned, scorned and Flora is resentful at having her life turned upside down , if you must, mous-tracised, for a grumpy, unpleasant old womanthe way his habits don't match the other mice he lives with. On They nibble up paper wrapping from the train, she falls asleep cheese for bedding – he displays it as art and wakes up to find herself in another eramakes stories based on the visuals on it. Trendy 21st century Flora is horrified to find herself And that story-telling will come in a hideous pinafore dress with a childish haircut handy one night, when he feels all alone and no make upcast out. What has happened It's almost as if there were another character from fable who had had to her Ipodtell stories to keep themselves alive. This makes Brie the top dog in the mouse community, mobile phone and brand new laptopthough, as all the others had the chance to half-inch some cheese while the cat was distracted. But will the story have the successful sequel it needs when that cheese runs out?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1407108972</amazonuk>0571376010
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jo NesboLauren St John|title=Doctor Proctor's Fart PowderFinding Wonder
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=LisaRoo's best friend life has moved awaybecome almost impossibly difficult. The neighbourhood bullies Her mum died when she was young, Truls and Trym Tranenow she finds herself awoken in the middle of the night by the police banging on her door to tell her that her dad has dropped dead on his way to the corner shop to buy a lottery ticket. When asked what other family she has, are causing havoc. Her she can only name her aunt, Joni, who she knows her dad is getting ready for Norwaydidn's Independence Day celebrationst think very highly of. But she has no one else, and so off she goes to live with her unreliable aunt. Oh Things continue to get worse for Roo, as when she and thereJoni leave London in Joni's an anaconda on the loose old campervan, it breaks down in the sewers. Then Nilly moves into her street, and the two middle of them meet Doctor Proctor nowhere and discover his amazing fart powder.then bursts into flames! Poor Roo!|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847386539</amazonuk>0571376169
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=K A S QuinnAdam Baron and Benji Davies|title=The Queen Must Die (Chronicles of the Tempus) Oscar's Lion|rating=43
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=In this historical time-travelling extravaganzaWe start incredibly bluntly, Katie Berger-Jones-Burg (I know, it's a mouthfulwith Oscar hoping to have his mother – or father, but stay with me) mother is the daughter more likely – read him his very favourite book a couple of Mimitimes before he has to be ready for school. But when he enters his parents' bedroom, an ex-girl band member who has been married three timesall he sees is a mahoosive male lion on their bed, so farlooking sheepish, hence Katieand admitting that he won's hyphenated namet be hungry for another two days. Katie has come home from school But there are benefits to find that Mimi has gone off with another man, Dr Fishberg, and having a lion around – it can be shown as she begins an unspoken threat to stress about the potential new addition to her surname she crawls into her hidey-hole space beneath her bed to escape bully that ruined a birthday party for a little whileOscar the other month. Here she keeps her diary And it can shapeshift, so he can take it to school and her stash it can get him out of books, and she curls up to read her latest book, a compilation of letters from Princess Alice, Queen Victoriaproblem. And it's youngest daughter. She starts wonderful to feel a bit sleepyhave around the house – not limiting his biscuit intake, being much more lax about the rules, but is suddenly startled awake by a flash of lightand so on. She finds herself in Victorian EnglandOK, underneath it can't work a dimmer switch but it can give Oscar a sofa and staring into the eyes of Princess Alice, who is just as startled as she iswonderful time.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1848873700</amazonuk>0008596751
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Joanne OwenJudith Eagle|title=The Alchemist and the AngelStolen Songbird
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=When JanCaro's parents die of the plaguemother, a world-famous whistler, has failed to return home from her recent work trip abroad and is now missing. Her other mother, Ronnie, he is sent having to the great city go up North to take care of Vienna her sister who is unwell. So who is going to live look after Caro? Sent to stay with his aunt Gam, someone Caro has heard her mother despises, she feels frustrated and confused and uncleworried. His uncle All her summer holiday plans of building herself some equipment to practise her gymnastics are brought to a halt whilst she is a distinguished alchemiststuck inside this staid old Victorian lady's house, andalong with an orphan boy, hoping to take the boy's mind off his griefAlbie, hires him as his apprenticewho is living there too. Jan loves the work But she soon finds herself caught up in a mystery, learns quicklyas she discovers a painting of a bird hidden away inside her mum's old suitcase, and soon all across London a fearsome gang called the two of them Snakes are on thieving artworks and terrorising people. Is the verge of perfecting a serum said painting somehow linked to bring the dead back gang? And what has happened to life. But then his uncle is found dead, and Jan is being whisked off to Prague by his vain and calculating aunt. She has her own plans for Caro's mother? Is she somehow involved in the serum, and she will stop at nothing to accomplish them.mystery too?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1444001507</amazonuk>0571363148
}}
 {{newreview|author=Marie-Louise Fitzpatrick |title=Timecatcher|rating=4|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Jessie Minahan is a pretty average fictional twelve year old girl: she has a dog side-kick named Duff and she craves adventure. One day, when her scatty mother has an urgent need for buttons Jessie discovers the abandoned Dublin Button Factory in an old mill, now inhabited by two detectives, who have a big, big secret. She also meets G who is not your average fictional twelve year old boy - for one, he's dead. His worst enemy is Greenwood – a large ghost who lives in the mill and is full of rules. Greenwood is also involved in this big secret which Jessie and G soon discover is the Timecatcher. It opens every seven years for three days and reveals the past - 'shadow days' and 'shadow people'. It is about to open again and there is a ghostly villain named Sullivan Ellz'mede who would do anything to have the power source at its heart... |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1842556770</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Philip ArdaghTania Unsworth|title=The Wrong End of the Dog (Grubtown Tales)Nowhere Island
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=If you haven't been to Grubtown before, then feel welcomeMeet Gil. It's an auspicious day for Just twelve, he is so determined to escape the care system – the town of grubby system that constantly puts him in futureless places that are not homes – and inept people with names like Rambo Sanskrit, and Mango Claptrap, as wellfind a home for himself. For today He is the day of film star Tawdrey Hipbone's gala charity premiereen route to yet another fosterer, when he jumps into an anonymous car, and lets it ride him to his future. But there's That future seems to be no gala, and little charity either, in jeopardy when someone steals his one bag of belongings – but that someone lives with his brother in a pelican (and not camp on an island between the town mascot eithertwo directions of a motorway, but a different one) comes place inaccessible and definitely ignored enough to provide for their safety and seclusion. Them, and steals - yesa mute girl also finding a home there, steals - the beloved dog Snooks - yesalbeit so much more successfully. Over a few weeks we see if their oddball destinies can combine, Snooks - from or if this is one place where he was living the fine life in Tawdrey's hair - yes, hair.as we would want it just would not work…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>057124792X</amazonuk>1804540080
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=David GrimstoneHelen Peters|title=Gladiator Boy vs The Living DeadFriends and Traitors|rating=2.53
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=[[A Hero's Quest (Gladiator Boy) by David Grimstone|A Hero's Quest]] introduced us England, WW2. Two young girls are new at the country pile called Stanbrook. One is Nancy, destined to Decimus Rex. This seventh book be in service all her life it seems, like the overall ''Gladiator Boy'' series (and start of female generations before her. The other is Sidney, a girl from a new subhoity-toity Sussex boarding school that has been removed there away from bomber flight-series of 6) begins with our hero, Decimus Rexpaths. The girls are chalk and cheese, and his friends all having received messages from if we hadn't guessed that then their behaviour with each other over their former ally Teofirst encounters would only prove it so. I say former because But something is amiss, and first separately and then in combination they all thought Teo was deadrealise the Lord Evesham must be a rum 'un. They're all hoping against hope that Teo Midnight deliveries are received under cover of secrecy, talk is really alivemade of meetings with Germans, but there's a nagging doubt and not only that their nemesis Slavious Doom is setting , a trap for them..local Spitfire factory has been attacked. But surely the girls are wrong, and the upper class could never be so underhand?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0340989270</amazonuk>1788004647
}}
 {{newreview|author=Jenny Valentine|title=Iggy and Me and the Happy Birthday|rating=5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Ooh, hooray! Iggy and Flo are back! We loved their [[Iggy and Me by Jenny Valentine|first outing]], just as we love all Jenny Valentine's books for older readers. Flo's just your everyday run of the mill eight year old. Iggy's a normal five year old (going on six). Iggy's a funny little thing, Flo's sweet. They're sisters who do what sisters do, in a regular family. They learn to swim, they fall ill, they make cakes, they ride bikes. They toddle along with life and have a lovely time. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007283636</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Gene KempJamie Littler|title=No Way OutArkspire
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Alex Two sisters, Juniper and Adam are twinsElodie, and they're telepathic to boot. They're very closeborn fifteen minutes apart, but are also like growing to be chalk and cheese: Adam's looking forward to their holiday on Uncle Ben . Juniper is an eager hunter and Aunt Sadie's farmtrader in illicit magic, but Alex can't think of anything worseincluding relics from prior major wars left out in the Badlands. Adam Elodie is always happy intent on getting closer to read power in one of the religious districts of Arkspire, perhaps even to become the child in line to their little sister Emmyinherit the power of the Watcher, but Alex resents the attention she gets (she's disabledclosest to a ruler the district has, y'see). By and large, they're just ordinary kids, with ordinary grumblesone of the five major victors in said earlier war. When Being trained in the magic that only five people can use would definitely change the status of the car they're whole family. But in goes through thick fog and crashesfinding something oddly magical, they find themselves in a town from times pastJuniper might just be able to gain some power of her own – for good, with inhabitants who don't want to let them leaveor for very, and who have an eye on Emmy.very bad…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0571244556</amazonuk>0241586143
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Lindsey Leavitt024162343X|title=Princess for HireStolen History|author=Sathnam Sanghera|rating=3.5|genre=Confident ReadersChildren's Non-Fiction|summary=Desi is not I was the happiest of teenagers, although when are teenage girls ever actually happy? bad company other people got into at school. Anyway, her ex-best friend Celeste is doing everything possible to humiliate and alienate her from their friends, and to top it all off Celeste is also dating I was disruptive in religious education classes because I disputed the boy Desi has existence of a huge crush on, Hayden. (He is perhaps a dubious prospect for Desi since he can't even get her name right). Still, she has landed herself summer job working for a pet store and although it involves being dressed in a furry groundhog costume at least no-one can tell itgod's her in there. Well, not until Celeste comes along and unmasks her. Where was the proof? In front of Hayden. Desi finds herself feeling more and more like vapour every dayhistory lessons, that she doesn't matter or almost doesn't existit was probably worse still. Cue Not too long after the fairy-godmother style entrance end of MeredithWWII, an agent for Facade which is a magical company that offer jobs I didn't so much want to teens with magical potential to work as substitute princesses...|amazonuk=<amazonuk>140524612X</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Victoria Forester|title=The Girl Who Could Fly|rating=4|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Have you ever wondered what it would be like if you could fly? It would be such a wonderful sensation, soaring through learn about the airBritish army's successes (and occasional failures, looping the loop, swooping down over your house and garden. But have you also stopped to think but we didn't dwell on those) in what other people might think if they saw that you could fly whilst no one else could? Would children still want came to be your friend? What would your family think? The little girl in this story, Piper McCloud, can fly. She lives on her parents farm and was always a little, well, unusual, and after her mum found her floating in called 'the air one day when she was a baby she decided colonies' as want to home school Piper, rather than expose her dispute what right the army had to the gossips be there in the villagefirst place. But one dayLooking back, at I still believe I was right - but I regret that I lacked the village picnic, Piper flies during the baseball match as she tries maturity to catch approach 'the ball, and suddenly her whole life is turned upside down.problem' politely. I wish I'd had Sathnam Sanghera's ''Stolen History''.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0330512536</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Marcus SedgwickThiago de Moraes|title=Lunatics and Luck (Raven Mysteries)Old Gods New Tricks
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=ItMeet 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 obvious reallybeing told that by her one-last-chance-giving headteacher, the world changes. When an earthquake hits Castle OtherhandSuddenly, Valevinepractically everything electronic stops working – a power-out, the head even of electric cars, hits not just the household, decides what town the place needs is a machine to predict school's in but the futureentire planet (apart from mobile phones, and a new tutor all that powers the Internet, just for his two oldest childrenour convenience's sake). Trixie, luckily, realises what has happened – the ancient Gods have taken the power of power from us. And why not? There are only those childrenso 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 suicidal baby twinsGods, Valevine's dreadful failed inventions and experimentsie the semi-deities, Edgar the raven that narrates this series of booksgiants, half-gods and a monkey. With bells so on. Clearly there is not enough weirdness there already to go aroundknown as the tricksters.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1842556959</amazonuk>178845295X
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Adam Blade|title=Creta the Winged Terror (Beast Quest)|rating=4|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Our hero, Tom, is finding his fishing trip with his father bugged - literally - by a plague of sickening cockroach things. What's more, the whole land of Avantia is suffering some form of horrid heatwave. Can Tom, recognising yet another threat to his country from the evil Malvel, defeat his nemesis yet again - especially as said baddie has as a new weapon of darkness a massive host of the roaches, swarming as one giant monster?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408307359</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Lucy Coats Hannah Gold and Anthony LewisLevi Pinfold|title=The Beasts in the Jar (Greek Beasts and Heroes)Finding Bear
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Atticus the sandalmaker is heading to the great storytelling competition in Troy. On his way[[The Last Bear by Hannah Gold|Last time]], April had been on Bear Island, he meets a number of lot further north than many people would venture, andfinding a ridiculously unexpected but delightful friendship with a polar bear – that she called Bear. Back home, things on the domestic and family front are a bit advanced, always eager but not perfect for an opportunity her, and so can easily be ignored when word comes through from the islands Bear was last left on. For a bear doing very Bear-y things has been shot and wounded. Desperate to hone his skillsmake sure he's OK, relates she and her father return to them tales from Ancient Greek myths the Arctic and legends. The beasts hope that in the jar a world of very white and very dangerous things, she can find one specific white and dangerous thing – and that the title? Pandora released them from what we mistakenly call her boxfriendship can continue.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1444000659</amazonuk>0008582017
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Glenn DakinSimon Fox|title=Candle Man: The Society of Unrelenting Vigilance Deadlock
|rating=4.5
|genre=Teens
|summary=Birthdays for Theo are not exactly how we would recognise them. One bland, forgettable present from each of the three people who live in his household. Some pink cake at the best of times. A trip to the cemetery, with the butler making sure nobody else is in sight. But this one is different - some person unknown leaves something for him. And by the time burglars break in, and force Theo to leave the confines of his bedroom and find some of the secrets of the house, it is too late - Theo is set on a nightmarish trail between two warring forces, as the truths of his destiny, his origins, and his hands, come to the fore.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1405246766</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|author=Diana Wynne-Jones
|title=Enchanted Glass
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Andrew Hope, a rather woolly professor, learns that Late one night Graham Blake is late back from his magical grandfather has diedshift on the force, leaving him his house and his field-of-care. Andrew remembers some things then suddenly rings Archie, demanding he fetch something from when he was a little boysecret place, such as his grandfather leaving vegetables and join him on the roof of the shed for someone, or something, to eat each nightrun. He also remembers that there is something special about the beautiful, old coloured glass above the kitchen doorThey get together, but not exactly what that is. It seems he has forgotten a lot of what his grandfather taught him, including barely begin to smell the mystery whiff of Southern trains when the field-of-care he has inherited. But with father is arrested, leaving Archie on the entrance of Aidan Cainlate express to Brighton, an orphan, into toting a tin his house and father was determined to keep away from his life the mysteries deepen. The two are drawn to each other, howevercolleagues, and slowly start to unravel the truth that surrounds thembearer of a whole heap of questions.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0007320787</amazonuk>1839944420
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jean UreCath Howe|title=Ice LollyMy Life on Fire|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=ItRen's the funeral. Laurel - Lolly to those that love her - family home is concentrating very hard and trying desperately to turn into an ice lollydestroyed in a fire. Ice lollies are frozen She, you seeher parents, and they don't feel so muchher little brother lose everything. They can She doesn't miss people have any of her clothes, or any of her special little knick- mothers - who are gone knacks from her cupboard, and people who are still around can't hurt them. A frozen heart now she is a sad thing, but itliving at her grandmother's a safe thing. Auntie Ellen doesnhouse where they can't like touch anything, or do anything, or even eat the music at foods they normally eat. When she goes back to school she discovers that the serviceclass are doing a special art project, she thinks it's inappropriate. It isn't even a hymn. But it was one creating boxes of Laurel's mother's favouritestheir lives, to display things that are important to them and Laurel think it's just perfect. Special. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007281730</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Philip Womack|title=The Liberators|rating=4.5|genre=Teens|summary=Ivo's parents have gone off on show who they are as a South American expeditionperson. As it's the school holidays, Ivo is off But Ren has nothing to London to stay with some glamorous relatives. Aunt Lydia is put in a socialite box, and art expert who arranges exhibitions and parties for the great and the goodso she finds herself starting to steal things. Uncle Jago is in finance and there isn't much about wheeling and dealing Small things, things that he doesn't know. They're fond of Ivo and the kind of guardians who are likely to practise some benign neglectpeople might not really miss, not when they have so much already. But what Ivo is really looking forward will happen to about his stay her if someone finds out what she is freedom - he intends to explore London and enjoy everything it has to offer. doing?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0747595526</amazonuk>1839942835
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jaclyn DolamoreRob Keeley|title=Magic Under GlassThe Boy Who Disappeared and Other Stories
|rating=4
|genre=Teens
|summary=Namira is a trouser girl - a music hall performer. In Lorinar, she's regarded as a faintly risque curiosity but at home in Tiansher it wasn't like this. Performers like her mother were feted and respected and Namira grew up in a palace. In Lorianar, she lives in poverty, performing for drunken fools who don't understand her art. And then suddenly, she's freed from the seedy music hall by Hollin Parry, a wealthy man and a member of Lorinar's Sorcerer Council. Parry has an automaton, a curiosity that plays the piano, and he wants Namira's unique voice to accompany it.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408802120</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|author=Pseudonymous Bosch
|title=This Book is Not Good for You
|rating=3.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Cass Hooray! Bookbag favourite Rob Keeley is not having back with a return to the best of time when it comes short story format! The Boy Who Disappeared treats us to secrets. It's all very well being involved in a top-secret societyeleven new tales, designed each as fun to keep the secret of the most secretive secret ever, but those pesky people called adults are keeping things from her read as well - namely, her very originshis previous offerings. Can Max-Ernest and she wade through their junk store base and find the box she was delivered in? Can they survive the mysterious clown school they end up visiting? And can they keep a mystical tuning fork from falling into the wrong hands?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1409506312</amazonuk>B0BVW69N1G
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Betty G BirneyLaura Noakes|title=Holidays According to HumphreyCosima Unfortunate Steals a Star|rating=54
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Humphrey Meet Number One. Or rather, Cosima Unfortunate. Or rather, just Cos to her friends. The practice in the hamster home she lives in is worriedfor the girls to just be named by the number they correspond to in the ledger, and they're all Unfortunates – young people with disabilities, uncommon mentalities or suchlike that Victorian society frowns greatly upon. Everywhere he turns his little pink ears he hears noises But Cosima bears the tag as a surname because nothing else seems to be known about where she came from, as the school being closedfirst ever inmate, and unique in having no known family in the outside world. How can he survive without During a daring escapade to steal some posh cakes from the kitchen one afternoon, she discovers a plan involving said outside world – a devilish Lord Fitzroy seems to want to adopt all the girls for his adoring fans in room 26Institute. But why, and what is life like for a classroom pet without a classroomdoes that body entail? Luckily, this is only And could it possibly bring Cos closer to the summer holiday he is misunderstanding, and what do you know - he will soon be meeting familiar faces, not at school, but at summer camp.past she has so little link with?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0571250904</amazonuk>0008579059
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Keith MansfieldAlice M Ross|title=Johnny Mackintosh: Star BlazeThe Nowhere Thief|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Before I get into At last there is new stock in the review of impoverished yet over-full antiques shop Elsbeth and her mother run in a seaside town. Elsbeth knows this bookbecause she has stolen it. She also knows she should be free from worries about being found out, I'd like because she has the ability to suggest that if you haven't read Keith Mansfield's first Johnny Mackintosh bookleave this world, [[Johnny Mackintosh and the Spirit use an unworldly portal of London by Keith Mansfield|The Spirit of London]]kaleidoscope colours to enter other worlds, you go off where the sea levels are rising dramatically and read the review buildings are generally empty of that first humans and then go and read the book itselfripe for plunder. It's a fantastic read. But because this is a sequel With eviction imminent, there are obviously going can Elsbeth nab anything to be some SPOILERS ahead.  Soactually generate custom at the shop? Well yes, is the answer, done that have you?but the fact a mysterious man knows exactly which items come from these different Somewheres only raises more questions…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1849161267</amazonuk>1839943769
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Neal ShustermanNatasha Farrant|title=EverwildThe Rescue of Ravenwood
|rating=5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Neal Shusterman continues his part zany This story is another excellent adventurefrom the author of ''Voyage of the Sparrowhawk''. Ravenwood is an old house, part philosophical enquiryin the North of England, where Bea and Raffy have been living for most of their lives. They are part coming-of-age story that began a complex, extended family arrangement, as Bea is there with Everlost in this follow-up that her Uncle Leo, and Raffy is perhaps even better than its predecessorthere with his mum, and they are living together as a familyEverlost is a kind of limbo and home to children - Afterlights - who They have diedgrown up swimming in the cove, roaming through the trees, but somehow missed completely at one with all of the nature around the tunnel house and loving every inch of the light - wherever and whatever place. But now the light actually house is. Adults never make under threat, as Leo is under pressure from his other two brothers to sell the property to a developer as it there, but significant or much-loved objects 's becoming more and buildings sometimes domore expensive to maintain. Mary Hightower The children find themselves worrying not only about where they're going to live, for instancebut if they'll even be together, is so-called because she took up residence in New York in the Twin Towers. Mary thinks Everlost is a wonderful place and she "saves" the Afterlights she finds by giving them repetitive but addictive tasks to fill eternityif Ravenwood itself will be torn down. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847387322</amazonuk>0571348785
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Alex MilwayRobin Birch and Jobe Anderson|title=Mousebeard's Revenge (Mousehunter Trilogy)Secret Beast Club: The Unicorns of Silver Street
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=If you started this trilogy way back whenJayden's nose is forever in a book, you would probably never expect which means he knows a lot about mythological creatures – the pirate, Mousebeard, phoenixes and unicorns of the hero and heroineworld, Emiline and Scratcherfor example. Aisha is addicted to her new tablet, to where she can see videos of anything that might be working togetherout there. But The problem, as their mothers see it, is that they are - so deep is never 'out there' themselves, exploring the outside world of Old Town in intrigueHackney, London. But when a narrowboat turns up carrying a science-minded, subterfuge and wicked planseducational purpose, that they need to combine forces - and get other returning characters back on hand and on their side - to counter Mousebeardwith a past involving Jayden's enemies once and for allcousin, they find a magical world they never knew existed. OnlyFor many of those mythological creatures are real, including the one great thing has changedAisha thinks she's seen on a bit of local footage. YesThe crew of the boat, including a living gargoyle, that's rightare tasked with saving the rare critters – and the kids unknowingly have the magical sight needed to join in. Mousebeard has had Dare they side with Leila, the woman on board, and her relative who lives as a figure in a shave...painting, and become saviours of the unseen?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0571245102</amazonuk>0241573483
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Valerie Thomas and Korky PaulB09XWSXSKY|title=Winnie's Jokes|rating=2.5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Who turns off Maestro Orpheus and the lights at Halloween? The lights witch. What does an Australian witch ride on? A broomerang. Yep, it's a joke book.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0192729063</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewWorld Clock|author=A G Taylor|title=Meteorite StrikeRobert Penee and Joanne Grodzinski
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Sarah is not readyFrederick (or Fred, but never Freddy, please) couldn't sleep. She's not ready to forgive A tune, rather like the man who is her father, for abandoning her ticking of a clock was playing over and her young brother Robert eight years agoover in his mind. She cannot yet forgive the circumstances of her mother dying, and of the promise they were forced to make, It happened every time he came to go to Australia with the man, and start a new lifevisit his grandfather. She is certainly not prepared for the meteor strike He hadn't really wanted to smash into Australia just as they fly above it, which downs the plane in a horrid crashcome; after all, he's ten now and seems to carry with it an alien virus which forces many people all those old clocks don't appeal to drop permanently asleephim anymore.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1409508579</amazonuk>}}
{{newreview|author=Cynthia Kadohata|title=A Million Shades of Grey|rating=3.5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=At just twelve, Tin ''Who needs old clocks anyway? All they do is tell the youngest elephant handler in his villagetime. Ever since he can remember, Tin has dreamed of working with elephants and he loves his own elephant, Lady, to distraction, even spending most of his nights sleeping by her side And time isn't good for anything. Tin is much less keen on school, but his parents insist that he goes. Tin really can't see the point, as his sole ambition is to become a fully-fledged elephant trainer. His parents may talk about opportunities in the world outside his village but if they don't involve elephants, he's not interested. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>184738823X</amazonuk>}}
{{newreview|author=Gigi Amateau|title=Chancey|rating=4|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Chancey's dam was Starry Night and her owner loved that horse so much And that she wanted a foal who was exactly like her, but when Chancey why he was born she was bitterly disappointed for instead of looking at the clock beside the black Appaloosa with white marking Chancey was born albinobed. It was nearly twelve o'clock but at midnight the clock chimed only his striped hooves which proved his breedingsix times. The owner There was not big enough nothing for it but to overcome her feelings go and when she fell on hard times it was Chancey who find grandad - but where was left out in the field to suffer despite the fact that he was no longer a young horse.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>140632258X</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Dean Hale, Shannon Hale and Nathan Hale |title=Calamity Jack|rating=3.5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=''I was born to scheme'', declares our hero Jack. ? With flashbacks we see And why had all the young lad and a pixie friend, larking about for revenge or small profit. But when his motherclocks stopped at twelve o's bakery gets more and more into the red, the size of the profit has to increase. And when you add in revenge against the local crime lord - a giant of a man - so does the size of the target of the jape.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0747587426</amazonuk>clock?
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Laurie Halse AndersonNigel Baines|title=ChainsA Tricky Kind of Magic
|rating=4.5
|genre=TeensEmerging Readers|summary=Isabel and her sister Ruth are slaves. But they should be free - Miss Mary Finch left a will that said so. But Miss Mary Finch is dead and her greedy nephew and heir denies all knowledge of the will. So Isabel and Ruth are sold Cooper loves to the Locktons and taken to New Yorkperform magic tricks. The Revolutionary War is underway and New York is His father was a dangerous place. The Locktons are loyalistsmagician, but the patriots are in control of and named Cooper after the citygreat Tommy Cooper. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0747598061</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Michelle Harrison|title=The Thirteen Curses|rating=4|genre=Teens|summary=Red is back, but she But sadly Cooper's trapped in the fairy realm. Having swapped places with Tanyafather died suddenly, she is bound thereand now Cooper doesn't quite know who to be, but is still desperate or how to get both her and her brother back into the human world. She must seek an audience with the fairy court, but the realm is full of deception and cruelty – it will be a challenge just to get there. And guess what happens when she gets there? She is set another challenge, twisted with the cruelty of the Unseelie (Boo! Hiss!) court. Whilst the journey goes on, she reflects on her past: the car crash that killed her parents and her time at the childrenhis dad's home. Meanwhileprop rabbit starts talking to him, Tanya has returned to Elvesden Manor for half term and lethe ''really'' doesn't know what's just say that her ability to see fairies comes back into use when the new housekeeper and her pesky parrot land her and Fabian and the whole Manor crew into trouble with the little people.going on anymore!|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847384501</amazonuk>1444960261
}}
{{newreview|author=Nancy Farmer|title=The Islands of the Blessed (Sea of Trolls Trilogy) |rating=4|genre=Confident Readers|summary=In this third adventure, Jack, a fourteen year old Saxon apprentice bard, and Thorgil, a bad-tempered shield maiden, follow the Bard Dragon Tongue Move on a quest to quell the draugr - the malevolent spirit of a drowned mermaid mistakenly summoned to Jack's village and who seeks revenge for her earlier ill treatment at human hands.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184738630X</amazonuk>}}[[Newest Cookery Reviews]]