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[[Category:New Reviews|Confident Readers]]==Confident readers==__NOTOC__<!-- Remove -->{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Emily BearnMax Boucherat|title=A Seaside Adventure (Tumtum and Nutmeg)The Last Life of Lori Mills

|summary=ThereWe meet Lori on the first evening she's something very comforting about returning got the house to herself – no neighbour to a story with familiar friends and this latest pop in the Tumtum and Nutmeg series does not disappoint, babysitter poorly, mother at work, just an avidly rule-breaking eleven year old, on her lonesome. Our brave little mousey friends are heading off for some new excitementWhat could possibly go wrong? Snuggled in a blanket fort, she has one main intention, this time travelling by train to the seaside and that is to keep an eye log on Arthur and Lucy who have been sent to stay with their UncleVoxminer, the world-building, critter-collecting game that is a hit in Lori's world. Nutmeg is sure it wonBut first Lori has a tiny inkling that this stormy night doesn't find herself entirely on her own, and then she finds something even more spooky. For the server she and her bestie and nobody else should be any botherable to enter shows signs of tampering. When malevolent eyes spark up on her phone screen, but Tumtum suspects they may and her safe place in the game has been doctored – well end up on another adventure!, where is a girl to turn?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1405248203</amazonuk>0008666482

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Kieran Larwood and Joe FriedmanTodd-Stanton|title=Boobela and Worm Ride the WavesDungeon Runners: Hero Trial|rating=3.54

|summary=Boobela Meet Kit. Like most of the people in his world, it seems, he is an avid fan of Dungeon Running – the sport where a girl who is just like any other little girlteam of warrior, mage and healer enter specially prepared, century-old, magical mazes, and race to the exit, except perhaps bothering with the treasure or the big bad and the points they grant you along the way. Unfortunately for Kit, the fact that she isn't little - sheonly thing he's seen of the latest race on the inn TV equivalent is that one team has been retired, eaten, and a giantnew trio of questors is needed. Worm is her best friend (Possibly very unfortunately indeed for Kit, he actually is a worm) has taken to the goading from the token bully of his world and stumbled into declaring he rides around in 'll enter as a box she straps to her shoulderteam. This outing sees them visiting some underground caves What chance does this friendless, muscle-free-zone have in actually managing that, and learning how could he possibly hope to surf, amongst other adventures.succeed?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1842556819</amazonuk>1839945184

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Sally GardnerJames Sherwood Metts|title=The Red NecklacePlanet Storyland

|summary=ParisThings have been a bit sticky for the Earthlings. AI and automation have been proceeding apace, often replacing jobs they's streets are already humming with talk re paid to do and other tasks that took time to accomplish. Just as they were beginning to get used to all this technological change and starting to think of revolutionother, when the young gypsy Yann Margoza is summoned new ways to perform his magic at the chateau of a selfishspend time, debt-ridden marquisealong came an awful pandemic. He is to tell the assembled aristocracy their future. But what he hoped would be the ticket to a better life turns into a nightmare when he has a vision of Life was pretty much shut down and, along with it, all the richly-dressed crowd drowning in a sea of bloodmany daily social interactions on which they depend so heavily.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1842556347</amazonuk>1736128426

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Kaye UmanskyTom Percival|title=Clover Twig and the Perilous PathThe Wrong Shoes|rating=4.5

|summary=ThereWill's non-stop fun and action life is difficult, in this storya multitude of ways. Granny Dismal comes to warn Mrs Eckles that He is bullied because he has 'the Perilous Path wrong shoes', he has been spotted in the forestwrong shoes because his dad can't work and doesn't have enough money for even the most basic of things like food, and this kicks off his dad can't work because he lost his job at the college, was working a cash-in-hand job on a funny story involving witches (both good building site and bad), trolls, missing little boys, clowns, imps and magic sweetieshad an accident. It's Throw into that mix the sequel to Clover Twig fact that his mum and the Incredible Flying Cottagedad are separated, but I donand Will't think I lost out too much for not having read that firsts life seems bleak in every direction. Everyone is generally so well describedAnd yet, and previous story arcs are quickly filled in if requiredhe still has a tiny amount of hope. This He is good at art, and clings to the sort moments of book I would have stayed up late reading under the covers with a torch joy when I was he is drawing, that feel like a little girl myself, and is now light at the sort end of book I would steal from my daughter's room late at night so I can keep reading it without waiting for a chapter a night!long, dark tunnel.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1408801876</amazonuk>1398527122

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=R J Anderson1805141872|title=Rebel (Knife)The Teacher Who Knew Too Much|author=Rob Keeley

|summary=Fifteen years after ''Seventeen banks and a jeweller’s have been raided. The police are baffled, but only Ben knows the events of Knifetruth – his Maths teacher, Miss Judson, is really a safecracker! With police and her gangster boyfriend Al on their trail, Miss Judson and Ben go on the Queen of the Oakenwyld is dying of old agerun. But Al needs them for one last job... She charges Knife's daughter, Linden' Goodness me, that Miss Judson is a terror! How on earth did a nice teacher like her manage to get mixed up with the task of finding other faeries a bad 'un like Al? We'll find out in the world. Knife is now living in Luckily for Miss Judson, the human world with pupil who discovers her husband Paulterrible secret is Ben, and her mission to protect the Oak is put in jeopardy by the arrival son of Paul's teenage cousina famous magician who has ambitions to be as good as his father some day, Timothy.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408307375</amazonuk>and who thinks Miss Judson is worth saving

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Justin RichardsChristopher Edge|title=The Chamber of ShadowsBlack Hole Cinema Club

|summary=It's LondonLucas and his friends are all booked in for a movie marathon at their local cinema, 1886. A company building those new underground train tunnels finds a hidden vault at impossible depth - and seems to release into place that has the world nickname of 'The Lord of FliesBlack Hole'. A mysterious masked stage magician does the obviously impossible. A robotic killer stalks the streetsAll big movie fans, they're looking forward to lots of exciting films, and a street gang of ruffians-on-the-up decides to solve the mystery. many, many snacks! A man in charge of Fortean artefacts at However, as the British Museum has a new employermovie starts, asking they very quickly realise that something much more evil from him. Surely all of that cannot be connected in some way? Surely one book can not have all those dark and mysterious elements we can probably all recogniseabout this new film format is very different, and put them they are swept up into one period thriller without coming over as a horrendous porridge of parody?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0571237991</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=David Yelland|title=The Truth About Leo|rating=4|genre=Teens|summary=Leo lives inside his own head for much of the time. You canan adventure they couldn't really blame himeven imagine. He's always tired for a start. That's because he's often up early, tidying up But as they lurch from one film genre to the house after one of his father's rampages. His father drinks too muchnext, you see, and sometimes he smashes up the house. Leo can't risk this being discovered because his father's they figure out what on earth is going on? Will they ever get back to the only person he's got since his mother died of cancer. He misses her like crazycinema, and he's afraid he'll be taken into care if anyone finds out about his dad's drinking. to their real lives?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0141330031</amazonuk>1839942738

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Richard DenningAdam Stower|title=Tomorrow's GuardianMurray and Bun

|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Eleven year old Tom Oakley thinks he's going mad when he seems Murray is supposed to relive short periods of his lifebe a humble, tidy and dreams about other people from different timesfriendly cat, one who is able to sleep and eat and eat and sleep and, well, whatever takes his fancy next of the two. The reality is far stranger – But he's a Walkerbad magician's cat, with so his favourite bun has been turned into a hyperactive sticky rabbit called Bun, and the power to rescue those he dreamed about. Travelling to the battle of Isandlwanacatflap they both use can chuck them out, not into the Great Fire of Londonregular back garden, and but into a German U-Boat, guided by the mysterious Professor, Tom saves the lives world of soldier Edward, servant Mary, frightening adventure and Able Seaman Charliewhiffs. This time round it drops them into a Viking land, who also have powers. There are otherswhere a troll hunter is expected – well, howeverone much bigger than Murray was, with similar powersto be honest, who aren't as pleasant as Tombut he's new friends – turned up and the four of them, allied with the Professor and his roguish helper Septimus, are pitched into a battle he'll have to save the worlds. That's intentionally plural – there are two parallel universes at stake here.do…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1445251388</amazonuk>0008561249

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Steve VoakeAlex Bell and Tim McDonagh|title=Hooey Higgins and the SharkThe Glorious Race of Magical Beasts

|summary=A shark has been spotted Eli is a busy lad – by day an apprentice in the wondrous library we start by visiting with him, and in Shrimpton-on-Sea's bay. The local chocolate shop has the evening a mahousive egg for sale for £65. Hooey Higgins decides to capture helper at the former so he can charge admission dessert cafe his gran owns and buy runs. Eli lives with his lovely gran, too – for there is a generation missing in the latterfamily. He A few short years ago, Eli's helped out on his adventures by Twig and Willparents were both lost to the titular race, whilst they a globe-trotting adventure where all entrants have to navigate the world in the company of a magical beast. This has made the race anathema to the pair – but when a bad incident at the eatery leads to a confession from gran, Eli knows his only hope they won't fall foul is to dare to enter what he most hates, with the sole aim the prize of magic at the end – the big bully Basboonly thing to possibly save his gran.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1406322342</amazonuk>0571382231

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Kate MaryonHelen Cooper|title=ShineThe Taming of the Cat|rating=43.5

|summary=''You and meOnce again, mice are pitched against cat. In this case, principally, Mumwe have Brie the mouse, up against Gorgonzola the cat – and in case you and me.'' Twelve-year-old Tiff and her mother are re seeing a double act. They're so close that connection, they're almost more like sisters than mother live in a cheese shop and daughtertherefore all the names used here seem to be the names of cheeses. They both like shiny Anyway, Brie is shunned, scorned and, girlyif you must, thingsmous-tracised, and Tifffor the way his habits don's mum seemingly has an endless supply of new, ever more glamorous baubles t match the other mice he lives with. They nibble up paper wrapping from the cheese for them to sharebedding – he displays it as art and makes stories based on the visuals on it. There's only And that story-telling will come in handy one problem: how she comes by themnight, when he feels all alone and cast out. Because Tiff It's mum has rather sticky fingersalmost as if there were another character from fable who had had to tell stories to keep themselves alive. She shoplifts. She defrauds credit cards This makes Brie the top dog in the mouse community, though, as all the others had the chance to half-inch some cheese while the cat was distracted. She's very naughty and sometimes But will the story have the successful sequel it makes Tiff feel rather uncomfortable. She knows deep down needs when that it can't last. cheese runs out?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0007326270</amazonuk>0571376010

 {{newreview|author=Anthony McGowan|title=Einstein's Underpants - And How They Saved The World|rating=4.5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=A delightfully silly school cum sci-fi romp for confident readers, with plenty of pants-based humour, but never at the expense of a rollicking good read.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0440869242</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Alec SillifantLauren St John|title=Jake Highfield: Chaos UnleashedFinding Wonder

|summary=WhatRoo's this 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 Jake is doing - breaking into her dad has dropped dead on his way to the corner shop to buy a building? lottery ticket. Vandalising it with graffitiWhen asked what other family she has, she can only name her aunt, Joni, having ruined someonewho she knows her dad didn's privacy t think very highly of. But she has no one else, and infiltrated something he shouldn't have done? so off she goes to live with her unreliable aunt. Three years ago he would have been doing this Things continue to get worse for Roo, as a yobbish kick, but now hewhen she and Joni leave London in Joni's a teenage agent old campervan, it breaks down in the middle of a shadowy organisation called the Academy, nowhere and people want him to succeed in his mission. But do they all want that? Who are his taskmasters after all? then bursts into flames! And what does the Void have in store for his future?Poor Roo!|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1845393481</amazonuk>0571376169

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Garth EdwardsAdam Baron and Benji Davies|title=Shipwrecked (The Adventures of Titch and Mitch)Oscar's Lion|rating=3.5

|summary=Titch and Mitch are two little pixies who We start incredibly bluntly, with Oscar hoping to have run away from homehis mother – or father, but mother is more likely – read him his very favourite book a couple of times before he has to be ready for school. Through But when he enters his parents' bedroom, all he sees is a series of misadventures they find themselves shipwrecked mahoosive male lion on an islandtheir bed, looking sheepish, and admitting that he won't be hungry for another two days. 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 story revolves around them making new friends thereother month. They come And it can shapeshift, so he can take it to the rescue school and it can get him out of a strange coloured seagullproblem. And it's wonderful to have around the house – not limiting his biscuit intake, being much more lax about the rules, they save and so on. OK, it can't work a trapped fairy, they play dentist for dimmer switch but it can give Oscar a little dragon mouse and they aid and abet an intelligent turkey who is trying to escape from the turkey farmwonderful time.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0956231500</amazonuk>0008596751

 {{newreview|author=Steve Voake|title=Fightback|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>}} {{newreviewFrontpage|author=John GordonJudith Eagle|title=Fen RunnersThe Stolen Songbird

|summary=Years ago, a boy fell through the ice under CottleCaro's Bridge. He said afterwards that something pulled himmother, a sleek silvery creature dragging him down into the blacknessworld-famous whistler, has failed to return home from her recent work trip abroad and is now missing. Now Her other mother, decades laterRonnie, two boys is having to go swimming 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's house, along with an orphan boy, Albie, who is living there too. But she soon finds herself caught up in the very same spot and find one a mystery, as she discovers a painting of his ice skatesa bird hidden away inside her mum's old suitcase, and all across London a so-fearsome gang called fen runner, buried in the mud at Snakes are thieving artworks and terrorising people. Is the bottom of painting somehow linked to the channel. But when they take it home, dark secrets begin gang? And what has happened to resurface around them and they become aware that an ancient evil is stirring out Caro's mother? Is she somehow involved in the fens.mystery too?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1842556843</amazonuk>0571363148

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Sarah McConnell and Lucy Courtenay Tania Unsworth|title=Swashbuckle School (Scarlet Silver)Nowhere Island

|summary=Young Scarlet Silver had always wanted Meet Gil. Just twelve, he is so determined to be escape the care system – the system that constantly puts him in futureless places that are not homes – and find a pirate and eventually her wish came true home for himself. He is en route to yet another fosterer, when she he jumps into an anonymous car, and her family took lets it ride him to his future. That future seems to the high seas be in their pirate ship, 55 Ocean Drive. The problem was though jeopardy when someone steals his one bag of belongings – but that neither Scarlet nor anyone else someone lives with his brother in a camp on an island between the family knew how two directions of a motorway, a place inaccessible and definitely ignored enough to be a pirate provide for their safety and they soon discovered that it was quite a tricky businessseclusion. Scarlet became the self appointed captain and did her best but her parents Them, brother Cedric, grandfather and his mate One Eyed Jake formed a pretty inept crewmute girl also finding a home there, albeit so much more successfully. This resulted in them all soon falling foul to hostile pirate ships and narrowly escaping death and disaster! 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…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0340959673</amazonuk>1804540080

  {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Liz KesslerHelen Peters|title=Philippa Fisher Friends and the Dream Maker's Daughter Traitors|rating=3.5

|summary=Since her fairy godsister Daisy went back to ATC - fairy high command - and moved on to other missionsEngland, Philippa Fisher has felt rather lonelyWW2. Her parents Two young girls are as oddball as evernew at the country pile called Stanbrook. One is Nancy, wandering through destined to be in service all her life with it seems, like the kind of benign muddleheadedness that makes them loveablefemale generations before her. The other is Sidney, but more than a tad inattentive. They haven't really picked up on the fact girl from a hoity-toity Sussex boarding school that Philippa's human best friend has moved been removed there away from bomber flight-paths. The girls are chalk and lost touchcheese, or that she hasnand if we hadn't yet found guessed that then their behaviour with each other over their first encounters would only prove it so. But something is amiss, and first separately and then in combination they realise the Lord Evesham must be a group rum 'un. Midnight deliveries are received under cover of secrecy, talk is made of friends at secondary school. She misses Daisy like madmeetings with Germans, and 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>1842557831</amazonuk>1788004647

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Elise BroachJamie Littler|title=MasterpieceArkspire

|summary=Marvin Two sisters, Juniper and his family Elodie, born fifteen minutes apart, are a kindly bunchgrowing to be chalk and cheese. They even get him to go down inside Juniper is an eager hunter and trader in illicit magic, including relics from prior major wars left out in the bathroom sink drainpipe to retrieve a missing contact lensBadlands. This Elodie is not so difficult when you're a small kind intent on getting closer to power in one of beetle like Marvin. But when they worry about the standard religious districts of birthday presents given Arkspire, perhaps even to become the child in line to James, inherit the boy power of the human family that have unwittingly fostered themWatcher, things get very unpredictable. Marvin sees James being given the closest to a pen and ink sketching setruler the district has, and when trying to deliver a special coin to James, falls into making a sketch himself one of the view outside five major victors in said earlier war. Being trained in the magic that only five people can use would definitely change the status of the windowwhole family. A sketch James could never have created - an ink masterwork that makes far too many adult human eyes bulge with surpriseBut in finding something oddly magical, Juniper might just be able to gain some power of her own – for good, or for very, delight - and possibly greed.very bad…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1406321834</amazonuk>0241586143

{{Frontpage|isbn=024162343X|title=Stolen History|author=Sathnam Sanghera|rating=5|genre=Children's Non-Fiction|summary=I was the bad company other people got into at school. I was disruptive in religious education classes because I disputed the existence of a 'god'. Where was the proof? In history lessons, it was probably worse still. Not too long after the end of WWII, I didn't so much want to learn about the British army's successes (and occasional failures, but we didn't dwell on those) in what came to be called 'the colonies' as want to dispute what right the army had to be there in the first place. Looking back, I still believe I was right - but I regret that I lacked the maturity to approach 'the problem' politely. I wish I'd had Sathnam Sanghera's ''Stolen History''.}}{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Linda NewberyThiago de Moraes|title=LobOld Gods New Tricks

|summary=Lob is a Green Man – an ancient nature spirit and garden helperMeet Trixie. Can you spot him hiding on the front cover of the book? Lucy believes in LobForever getting into scrapes, though her Mum larks and Dad tell her 'it's just Grandpa's story'. When Lucy finally manages to catch adventures involving flooding the school aircon with fart powder, she could almost be thought a fleeting glimpse young goddess of Lob, she is entranced and delighted to share Grandpa's secretnuisance. But just when Grandpa dies and his home is sold Lucy is heartbroken. She wonders if she will ever see Lob again. What follows is a journey through the seasons tracing Lucy's life after Grandpa's death and Lob's search to find a new garden home.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0385610815</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Scott Westerfeld|title=Extras|rating=4.5|genre=Teens|summary=In being told that by her one-last-chance-giving headteacher, the future city of this book, many people live with what is called a reputation economyworld changes. With everybody Suddenly, practically everything electronic stops working – a cyborgpower-out, theyeven of electric cars, hits not just the town the school're online permanentlys in but the entire planet (apart from mobile phones, using optical and brain implants to see everybodyall that powers the Internet, just for our convenience's status, output and moresake). Many people Trixie, luckily, realises what has happened – the ancient Gods have hovercam companions, to make their own documentaries and film their own livestaken the power of power from us. They rely on metablogs And so she begins her epic quest, to interact and keep their popularity up. They continuously spread their opinions and interests gather all the people that can steal it back – namely the characters from myth that have past form in order to become more wellstealing from the Gods, ie the semi-known. A girl called Aya is struggling to get any renowndeities, but things changegiants, when she meets other people doing incredibly notorious things, but in complete secrecy half-gods and anonymityso on known as the tricksters.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847389228</amazonuk>178845295X

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Emma ThompsonHannah Gold and Levi Pinfold|title=Nanny McPhee and the Big BangFinding Bear

|summary=Mr and Mrs Green are a happily married couple[[The Last Bear by Hannah Gold|Last time]], living April had been on Bear Island, a farm with their three childrenlot further north than many people would venture, and finding a ridiculously unexpected but delightful friendship with a polar bear – that she called Bear. Back home, things on the start of the wardomestic and family front are a bit advanced, Mr Green goes off to fight leaving his wife, Isabelbut not perfect for her, and so can easily be ignored when word comes through from the children to fend for themselvesislands Bear was last left on. They are struggling to manage the upkeep of the farm For a bear doing very Bear-y things has been shot and it looks as if Isabel may have to sellwounded. To Desperate to make matters worsesure he's OK, she and her estranged sister sends her two very rich, very spoilt children to live on the farm father return to escape the bombs Arctic and hope that in Londona world of very white and very dangerous things, but they are immediately at loggerheads with their rather wild country cousins. They are fighting wildly, wreaking havoc she can find one specific white and destruction dangerous thing – and ignoring Isabel's pleas to stop when there is a sudden knock at the door from, of course, that the terrifyingly ugly, magical Nanny McPheefriendship can continue.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1408805014</amazonuk>0008582017

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Kate SaundersSimon Fox|title=BeswitchedDeadlock

|summary=Flora Late one night Graham Blake is furious at being sent away to boarding schoollate back from his shift on the force, even one which is very progressive with luxurious facilities and school rock bands. Her parents need to sell her grandmother's house in Italy and build then suddenly rings Archie, demanding he fetch something from a granny flat at homesecret place, and Flora is resentful at having her life turned upside down for a grumpy, unpleasant old womanjoin him on the run. On the train They get together, she falls asleep and wakes up but barely begin to find herself in another era. Trendy 21st century Flora smell the whiff of Southern trains when the father is horrified arrested, leaving Archie on the late express to find herself in a hideous pinafore dress with Brighton, toting a childish haircut and no make up. What has happened tin his father was determined to her Ipodkeep away from his colleagues, mobile phone and brand new laptop?the bearer of a whole heap of questions.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1407108972</amazonuk>1839944420

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jo NesboCath Howe|title=Doctor Proctor's Fart PowderMy Life on Fire|rating=45

|summary=LisaRen's best friend has moved awayfamily home is destroyed in a fire. The neighbourhood bullies She, her parents, Truls and Trym Trane, are causing havocher little brother lose everything. Her dad is getting ready for Norway She doesn's Independence Day celebrations. Oht have any of her clothes, or any of her special little knick-knacks from her cupboard, and therenow she is living at her grandmother's an anaconda on house where they can't touch anything, or do anything, or even eat the loose in foods they normally eat. When she goes back to school she discovers that the sewers. Then Nilly moves into her streetclass are doing a special art project, and the two creating boxes of their lives, to display things that are important to them meet Doctor Proctor and discover his amazing fart powdershow who they are as a person. But Ren has nothing to put in a box, and so she finds herself starting to steal things. Small things, things that people might not really miss, not when they have so much already. But what will happen to her if someone finds out what she is doing?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847386539</amazonuk>1839942835

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=K A S QuinnRob Keeley|title=The Queen Must Die (Chronicles of the Tempus) Boy Who Disappeared and Other Stories

|summary=In this historical time-travelling extravaganza, Katie Berger-Jones-Burg (I know, it's a mouthful, but stay with me) Hooray! Bookbag favourite Rob Keeley is the daughter of Mimi, an ex-girl band member who has been married three times, so far, hence Katie's hyphenated name. Katie has come home from school to find that Mimi has gone off back with another man, Dr Fishberg, and as she begins a return to stress about the potential short story format! The Boy Who Disappeared treats us to eleven new addition to her surname she crawls into her hidey-hole space beneath her bed to escape for a little while. Here she keeps her diary and her stash of bookstales, and she curls up each as fun to read her latest book, a compilation of letters from Princess Alice, Queen Victoria's youngest daughter. She starts to feel a bit sleepy, but is suddenly startled awake by a flash of light. She finds herself in Victorian England, underneath a sofa and staring into the eyes of Princess Alice, who is just as startled as she ishis previous offerings.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1848873700</amazonuk>B0BVW69N1G

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Joanne OwenLaura Noakes|title=The Alchemist and the AngelCosima Unfortunate Steals a Star

|summary=When Jan's parents die of Meet Number One. Or rather, Cosima Unfortunate. Or rather, just Cos to her friends. The practice in the plague, he home she lives in is sent for the girls to just be named by the great city of Vienna number they correspond to live in the ledger, and they're all Unfortunates – young people with his aunt and uncledisabilities, uncommon mentalities or suchlike that Victorian society frowns greatly upon. His uncle is But Cosima bears the tag as a distinguished alchemist, and, hoping surname because nothing else seems to take the boy's mind off his griefbe known about where she came from, hires him as his apprentice. Jan loves the work, learns quicklyfirst ever inmate, and soon unique in having no known family in the two of them are on outside world. During a daring escapade to steal some posh cakes from the verge of perfecting kitchen one afternoon, she discovers a serum plan involving said outside world – a devilish Lord Fitzroy seems to want to bring adopt all the dead back to lifegirls for his Institute. But then his uncle is found deadwhy, and Jan is being whisked off what does that body entail? And could it possibly bring Cos closer to Prague by his vain and calculating aunt. She has her own plans for the serum, and past she will stop at nothing to accomplish them.has so little link with?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1444001507</amazonuk>0008579059

 {{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 ArdaghAlice M Ross|title=The Wrong End of the Dog (Grubtown Tales)Nowhere Thief

|summary=If you haven't been to Grubtown before, then feel welcome. It's an auspicious day for At last there is new stock in the impoverished yet over-full antiques shop Elsbeth and her mother run in a seaside town of grubby and inept people with names like Rambo Sanskrit, and Mango Claptrap, as well. For today is the day of film star Tawdrey Hipbone's gala charity premiereElsbeth knows this because she has stolen it. But there's She also knows she should be free from worries about being found out, because she has the ability to be no galaleave this world, and little charity eitheruse an unworldly portal of kaleidoscope colours to enter other worlds, when a pelican (where the sea levels are rising dramatically and not the town mascot either, but a different one) comes buildings are generally empty of humans and steals - yesripe for plunder. With eviction imminent, steals - can Elsbeth nab anything to actually generate custom at the beloved dog Snooks - shop? Well yes, Snooks - from where he was living is the fine life in Tawdrey's hair - yesanswer, hair.but the fact a mysterious man knows exactly which items come from these different Somewheres only raises more questions…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>057124792X</amazonuk>1839943769

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=David GrimstoneNatasha Farrant|title=Gladiator Boy vs The Living Dead|rating=2.5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=[[A Hero's Quest (Gladiator Boy) by David Grimstone|A Hero's Quest]] introduced us to Decimus Rex. This seventh book in the overall ''Gladiator Boy'' series (and start Rescue of a new sub-series of 6) begins with our hero, Decimus Rex, and his friends all having received messages from their former ally Teo. I say former because they all thought Teo was dead. They're all hoping against hope that Teo is really alive, but there's a nagging doubt that their nemesis Slavious Doom is setting a trap for them...|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340989270</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Jenny Valentine|title=Iggy and Me and the Happy BirthdayRavenwood

|summary=OohThis story is another excellent adventure from the author of ''Voyage of the Sparrowhawk''. Ravenwood is an old house, hooray! Iggy in the North of England, where Bea and Flo Raffy have been living for most of their lives. They are back! We loved their [[Iggy part of a complex, extended family arrangement, as Bea is there with her Uncle Leo, and Me by Jenny Valentine|first outing]]Raffy is there with his mum, just and they are living together as we love a family. They have grown up swimming in the cove, roaming through the trees, completely at one with all Jenny Valentine's books for older readers. Flo's just your everyday run of the mill eight year oldnature around the house and loving every inch of the place. Iggy's But now the house is under threat, as Leo is under pressure from his other two brothers to sell the property to a normal five year old (going on six). Iggydeveloper as it's a funny little thing, Flo's sweetbecoming more and more expensive to maintain. They The children find themselves worrying not only about where they're sisters who do what sisters do, in a regular family. They learn going to swimlive, but if they fall ill, they make cakes'll even be together, they ride bikes. They toddle along with life and have a lovely timeif Ravenwood itself will be torn down. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0007283636</amazonuk>0571348785

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Gene KempRobin Birch and Jobe Anderson|title=No Way OutSecret Beast Club: The Unicorns of Silver Street

|summary=Alex Jayden's nose is forever in a book, which means he knows a lot about mythological creatures – the phoenixes and Adam are twinsunicorns of the world, and they're telepathic to bootfor example. They're very close, but are also like chalk and cheese: Adam's looking forward Aisha is addicted to their holiday on Uncle Ben and Aunt Sadie's farmher new tablet, but Alex where she can't think see videos of anything worsethat might be out there. Adam is always happy to read to The problem, as their little sister Emmy, but Alex resents the attention she gets (she's disabled, y'mothers see). By and largeit, is that theyare never 're just ordinary kids, with ordinary grumbles. When the car theyout there're in goes through thick fog and crashes, they find themselves in a town from times past, with inhabitants who don't want to let them leave, and who have an eye on Emmy.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0571244556</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Lindsey Leavitt|title=Princess for Hire|rating=3.5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Desi is not exploring the happiest outside world of teenagersHackney, although London. But when are teenage girls ever actually happy? Anyway, her exa narrowboat turns up carrying a science-best friend Celeste is doing everything possible to humiliate and alienate her from their friendsminded, and to top it all off Celeste is also dating the boy Desi has a huge crush on, Hayden. (He is perhaps a dubious prospect for Desi since he can't even get her name right). Stilleducational purpose, she has landed herself summer job working for a pet store and although it involves being dressed in with a furry groundhog costume at least no-one can tell itpast involving Jayden's her in there. Wellcousin, not until Celeste comes along and unmasks herthey find a magical world they never knew existed. In front For many of Hayden. Desi finds herself feeling more and more like vapour every daythose mythological creatures are real, that including the one Aisha thinks she doesn't matter or almost doesn't exists seen on a bit of local footage. Cue The crew of the fairy-godmother style entrance of Meredithboat, an agent for Facade which is including a living gargoyle, are tasked with saving the rare critters – and the kids unknowingly have the magical company that offer jobs sight needed to teens join in. Dare they side with magical potential to work Leila, the woman on board, and her relative who lives as substitute princesses...a figure in a painting, and become saviours of the unseen?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>140524612X</amazonuk>0241573483

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Victoria ForesterB09XWSXSKY|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 the air, looping the loop, swooping down over your house and garden. But have you also stopped to think what other people might think if they saw that you could fly whilst no one else could? Would children still want 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, Maestro Orpheus and after her mum found her floating in the air one day when she was a baby she decided to home school Piper, rather than expose her to the gossips in the village. But one day, at the village picnic, Piper flies during the baseball match as she tries to catch the ball, and suddenly her whole life is turned upside down...|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0330512536</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewWorld Clock|author=Marcus Sedgwick|title=Lunatics and Luck (Raven Mysteries)|rating=4.5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=It's obvious really. When an earthquake hits Castle Otherhand, Valevine, the head of the household, decides what the place needs is a machine to predict the future, and a new tutor for his two oldest children. And why not? There are only those children, the suicidal baby twins, Valevine's dreadful failed inventions and experiments, Edgar the raven that narrates this series of books, Robert Penee and a monkey. With bells on. Clearly there is not enough weirdness there already to go around.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1842556959</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Adam Blade|title=Creta the Winged Terror (Beast Quest)Joanne Grodzinski

|summary=Our heroFrederick (or Fred, Tombut never Freddy, is finding his fishing trip with his father bugged - literally - by a plague of sickening cockroach things. Whatplease) couldn's more, the whole land of Avantia is suffering some form of horrid heatwavet sleep. Can TomA tune, recognising yet another threat to his country from rather like the evil Malvel, defeat his nemesis yet again - especially as said baddie has as a new weapon ticking of darkness a massive host of the roaches, swarming as one giant monster?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408307359</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Lucy Coats clock was playing over and Anthony Lewis|title=The Beasts over in the Jar (Greek Beasts and Heroes)|rating=4his mind.5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Atticus the sandalmaker is heading It happened every time he came to the great storytelling competition in Troyvisit his grandfather. On his way He hadn't really wanted to come; after all, he meets a number of people 's ten now and, always eager for an opportunity to hone his skills, relates all those old clocks don't appeal to them tales from Ancient Greek myths and legends. The beasts in the jar of the title? Pandora released them from what we mistakenly call her boxhim anymore.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444000659</amazonuk>}}

{{newreview|author=Glenn Dakin|title=Candle Man: The Society of Unrelenting Vigilance |rating=4.5|genre=Teens|summary=Birthdays for Theo are not exactly how we would recognise them. ''Who needs old clocks anyway? One bland, forgettable present from each of All they do is tell the three people who live in his householdtime. Some pink cake at the best of times. A trip to the cemetery, with the butler making sure nobody else is in sightAnd time isn't good for anything. 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 And that his magical grandfather has died, leaving him his house and his field-of-care. Andrew remembers some things from when was why he was a little boy, such as his grandfather leaving vegetables on looking at the roof of clock beside the shed for someone, or something, to eat each nightbed. He also remembers that there is something special about It was nearly twelve o'clock but at midnight the beautiful, old coloured glass above the kitchen door, but not exactly what that isclock chimed only six times. It seems he has forgotten a lot of what his grandfather taught him, including the mystery of the fieldThere was nothing for it but to go and find grandad -of-care but where was he has inherited. ? But with And why had all the entrance of Aidan Cain, an orphan, into his house and his life the mysteries deepen. The two are drawn to each other, however, and slowly start to unravel the truth that surrounds them.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007320787</amazonuk>clocks stopped at twelve o'clock?

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jean UreNigel Baines|title=Ice LollyA Tricky Kind of Magic

|genre=Confident Emerging Readers|summary=It's the funeral. Laurel - Lolly Cooper loves to those that love her - is concentrating very hard and trying desperately to turn into an ice lollyperform magic tricks. Ice lollies are frozen, you see His father was a magician, and they don't feel so muchnamed Cooper after the great Tommy Cooper. They can But sadly Cooper't miss people - mothers - who are gone s father died suddenly, and people who are still around cannow Cooper doesn't hurt themquite know who to be, or how to be. A frozen heart is a sad thing, but it And when his dad's a safe thing. Auntie Ellen doesnprop rabbit starts talking to him, he 't like the music at the service, she thinks it's inappropriate. It isnreally't even a hymn. But it was one of Laurel's motherdoesn's favourites, and Laurel think itt know what's just perfect. Special. going on anymore!|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0007281730</amazonuk>1444960261

{{newreview|author=Philip Womack|title=The Liberators|rating=4.5|genre=Teens|summary=Ivo's parents have gone off Move on a South American expedition. As it's the school holidays, Ivo is off to London to stay with some glamorous relatives. Aunt Lydia is a socialite and art expert who arranges exhibitions and parties for the great and the good. Uncle Jago is in finance and there isn't much about wheeling and dealing that he doesn't know. They're fond of Ivo and the kind of guardians who are likely to practise some benign neglect, so what Ivo is really looking forward to about his stay is freedom - he intends to explore London and enjoy everything it has to offer. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0747595526</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Jaclyn Dolamore|title=Magic Under Glass|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 is not having the best of time when it comes to secrets. It's all very well being involved in a top-secret society, designed to keep the secret of the most secretive secret ever, but those pesky people called adults are keeping things from her as well - namely, her very origins. 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?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1409506312</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Betty G Birney|title=Holidays According to Humphrey|rating=5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Humphrey the hamster is worried. Everywhere he turns his little pink ears he hears noises about the school being closed. How can he survive without all his adoring fans in room 26, and what is life like for a classroom pet without a classroom? Luckily, this is only 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.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0571250904</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Keith Mansfield|title=Johnny Mackintosh: Star Blaze|rating=5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Before I get into the review of this book, I'd like to suggest that if you haven't read Keith Mansfield's first Johnny Mackintosh book, [[Johnny Mackintosh and the Spirit of London by Keith Mansfield|The Spirit of LondonNewest Cookery Reviews]], you go off and read the review of that first and then go and read the book itself. It's a fantastic read. But because this is a sequel, there are obviously going to be some SPOILERS ahead.  So, done that have you?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849161267</amazonuk>}}