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[[Category:Confident Readers|*]]
[[Category:New Reviews|Confident Readers]]==Confident readers==__NOTOC__{{newreview|author=Ali Sparkes|title=S.W.I.T.C.H: Ant Attack|rating=4|genre=Confident Readers|summary=It seems that Josh and Danny are about to meet their match. Despite being almost eaten by cats, birds, spiders and more when they've turned into creepy crawlies before in this series, they have a far worse foe this time <!-- Remove -- Tarquin, the snooty posh brat from up the road. How they survive him turning them into ants, and his misguided attempts to kill them, while all the time the next door neighbour's scientific research which is allowing all this transformation has to be kept a top secret, are all elements of this fourth book in the series.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0192729357</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Charlotte HaptieMax Boucherat|title=Ice Angel|rating=5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Rockscar City is controlled by the Scarspring family – or at least, its water supply is, which comes to the same thing. And the water which the citizens receive is stale and unpleasant, especially in the summer months. City authorities are obliged to spend vast amounts of money looking for new wells, but for some reason each excavation is sabotaged as soon as it is begun. So when Zack and Clovis decide to use the pure, sweet water from a secret spring high in the mountains to make and sell delicious ices, they run into all kinds The Last Life of danger. Unless they're very careful, they will be made to disappear, just as their father did twelve years before.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340894180</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Ali Sparkes|title=S.W.I.T.C.H: Grasshopper GlitchLori Mills
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=One minute Mrs Potts is We meet Lori on the first evening she's got the house to herself – no neighbour to pop in, babysitter poorly, mother at work, just an innocent avidly rule-breaking eleven year old biddy living next door , on her lonesome. What could possibly go wrong? Snuggled in a blanket fort, she has one main intention, and that is to Josh and Dannylog on to Voxminer, the next sheworld-building, critter-collecting game that is a hit in Lori's horrifying them by turning them into spiders, then bluebottle fliesworld. But now theyfirst Lori has a tiny inkling that this stormy night doesn're working for t find herself entirely on herown, trying to complete her bizarre body-swapping researchand then she finds something even more spooky. She's paying them back by driving them For the server she and her bestie and nobody else should be able to schoolenter shows signs of tampering. Luckily there's not a chance that they might SWITCH while at schoolWhen malevolent eyes spark up on her phone screen, or have to suffer a bully while and her safe place in the shape and form of game has been doctored – well, where is a grasshopper. Oops...girl to turn?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0192729349</amazonuk>0008666482
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Ali SparkesKieran Larwood and Joe Todd-Stanton|title=S.W.I.T.C.HDungeon Runners: Fly FrenzyHero Trial
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Josh and Danny have only recently recovered from being turned into spiders by the peculiar scientist woman next doorMeet Kit. But however adamant they are Like most of the people in his world, it'll never happen againseems, they don't foresee he is an avid fan of Dungeon Running – the sport where a time when team of warrior, mage and healer enter specially prepared, century-old, magical mazes, and race to the exit, perhaps bothering with the treasure or the big bad and the points theygrant you along the way. Unfortunately for Kit, the only thing he're willingly taking a repeat dose s seen of the SWITCH serumlatest race on the inn TV equivalent is that one team has been retired, becoming tiny flying detectiveseaten, and almost drinking up spills a new trio of questors is needed. Possibly very unfortunately indeed for Kit, he has taken to the goading from the toilet rim..token bully of his world and stumbled into declaring he'll enter as a team. What chance does this friendless, muscle-free-zone have in actually managing that, and how could he possibly hope to succeed?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0192729330</amazonuk>1839945184
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Peter MillettJames Sherwood Metts|title=The Curse of the Catastrophic Cupcakes (Boy Zero Wannabe Hero)Planet Storyland|rating=34.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Boy Zero Wannabe Hero has defeated General Pandemonium twice beforeThings have been a bit sticky for the Earthlings. AI and automation have been proceeding apace, but often replacing jobs they're paid to do and other tasks that took time to accomplish. Just as with they were beginning to get used to all supervillainsthis technological change and starting to think of other, new ways to spend time, he's relentlessalong came an awful pandemic. This timeLife was pretty much shut down and, the General has come up along with a wicked plan to conquer it, all the world by making everyone float off into space by feeding them catastrophic cupcakesmany daily social interactions on which they depend so heavily. Will Boy Zero be able to save the world yet again?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0571253261</amazonuk>1736128426
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Betty G BirneyTom Percival|title=My Pet Show Panic! (Humphrey's Tiny Tales)The Wrong Shoes|rating=3.5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Humphrey is the classroom hamster of room 26 of Longfellow School. He's good friends with Og the frog, as well as the pupils at the school. We've met Humphrey [[Holidays According to Humphrey by Betty G Birney|lots]] [[Humphrey's Great-Great-Great Book of Stories by Betty G Birney|of times]] [[School According to Humphrey by Betty G Birney|before]] and thoroughly enjoyed his adventures every time. This time round, we're treated to a new series of tiny tales, for newly confident readers. Our first small adventure with Humphrey sees him being entered into a pet show, and trying not to fall foul of Clem, the big, yappy dog.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>057124632X</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Ali Sparkes and Ross Collins|title=S.W.I.T.C.H: Spider Stampede|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Meet Josh and DannyWill's life is difficult, in a multitude of ways. Eight year old twinsHe is bullied because he has 'the wrong shoes', both think they are taller than their brotherhe has the wrong shoes because his dad can't work and doesn't have enough money for even the most basic of things like food, and both think his dad can't work because he lost his job at the other is weird college, was working a cash-in- Danny because Josh loves creepy crawlies, bugs hand job on a building site and had an accident. Throw into that mix the fact that his mum and insectsdad are separated, and Josh because Danny doesnWill'ts life seems bleak in every direction. And yet, he still has a tiny amount of hope. But they're about He is good at art, and clings to be joined in equal amounts the moments of terror joy when he is drawing, that feel like a mad scientific experiment turns them into spiderslight at the end of a long, dark tunnel.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0192729322</amazonuk>1398527122
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Christopher Russell and Christine Russell1805141872|title=The Warrior Sheep Go WestTeacher Who Knew Too Much|author=Rob Keeley
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=I like these Warrior Sheep, ''Seventeen banks and the scrapes they get in by following their ancient prophecies and in trying to save their worlda jeweller’s have been raided. [[The Quest of the Warrior Sheep by Christopher Russell and Christine Russell|Last time]] they thought a mobile phone was itself a call from the godspolice are baffled, but still did have to save only Ben knows the day. Here they misread truth – his Maths teacher, Miss Judson, is really a page safecracker! With police and her gangster boyfriend Al on the Internet - and if you can't accept Internet-using sheeptheir trail, your children surely will - Miss Judson and decide to Ben go to America to save their whole specieson the run. But Al needs them for one last job...|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1405243775</amazonuk>}}''
}}
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=This is the fourth volume Lucas and his friends are all booked in for a movie marathon at their local cinema, a place that has the nickname of 'The Black Hole'Rose. All big movie fans, they'' seriesre looking forward to lots of exciting films, and its blend of magicmany, peril and excitement has proved a winning formula. Rose herself is a delightful charactermany snacks! However, combining as the down-to-earthmovie starts, they very quickly realise that something about this new film format is very different, practical qualities one would hope for in a housemaid with growing magical powers and a mysterious pastthey are swept up into an adventure they couldn't even imagine. In this story But as they lurch from one film genre to the next, she discovers there may be a way to find can they figure out what happened on earth is going on? Will they ever get back to her mother a decade before, but her path is, as usualthe cinema, fraught with danger and thrills.to their real lives?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1408304503</amazonuk>1839942738
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Garth Nix and Sean WilliamsAdam Stower|title=TroubletwistersMurray and Bun
|rating=4.5
|genre=TeensConfident Readers |summary=Jack Murray is supposed to be a humble, tidy and friendly cat, one who is able to sleep and eat and eat and sleep and Jaide Shield, twinswell, are living perfectly normal lives until whatever takes his fancy next of the two. But he's a brief visit from their elusive father sparks an unexplainablebad magician's cat, chaoticso his favourite bun has been turned into a hyperactive sticky rabbit called Bun, reality-bending storm that destroys their home and introduces the catflap they both use can chuck them to out, not into the mysterious regular back garden, but into a world of the Wardens, frightening adventure and whiffs. This time round it drops them into a group gifted with diverse powersViking land, and their perpetual struggle against where a force known only as The Evil. As young Wardenstroll hunter is expected – well, or Troubletwistersone much bigger than Murray was, just growing into their Giftsto be honest, the pair struggle but he's turned up and he'll have to make sense of the chaos that surrounds them and discover the true nature of their heritage.do…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1405258578</amazonuk>0008561249
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Adam BladeAlex Bell and Tim McDonagh|title=The Chronicles Glorious Race of Avantia: Call to WarMagical Beasts
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Our three heroes Eli is a busy lad – by day an apprentice in the wondrous library we start by visiting with him, and their magical giant beasts are still trying to snatch in the quarters of an ancient, power-giving mask from evening a helper at the clutches of their realm's enemydessert cafe his gran owns and runs. They're not doing Eli lives with his lovely gran, too well – for there is a generation missing in the chasefamily. A few short years ago, for he has two of Eli's parents were both lost to the bitstitular race, and even his assistant they thought dead at a globe-trotting adventure where all entrants have to navigate the world in the end company of [[First Hero (The Chronicles Of Avantia) by Adam Blade|book one]] is still arounda magical beast. Can they have any luck this third time of askingThis has made the race anathema to the pair – but when a bad incident at the eatery leads to a confession from gran, even when their country Eli knows his only hope is being ravagedto dare to enter what he most hates, turning once-helpful villagers against their quest, and their enemies are getting stronger by with the sole aim the prize of magic at the end – the battle?only thing to possibly save his gran.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1408307499</amazonuk>0571382231
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Dan JerrisHelen Cooper|title=The Deathless Pirate King (Dragon Blood Pirates)Taming of the Cat
|rating=3.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=WellOnce again, after a six-book seriesmice are pitched against cat. In this case, principally, Al and Jack we have Brie the 21st-Century boys found an ancientmouse, treasured sword up against Gorgonzola the cat – and scabbardin case you're seeing a connection, but they live in a cheese shop and their magic are incompletetherefore all the names used here seem to be the names of cheeses. Four special diamonds are who-knows-whereAnyway, but the first just might be found when they try to reunite a lovelyBrie is shunned, kidnapped princess with her freedom scorned and her family jewels. Standing in the way, a nearif you must, mous-undead pirate with sharp blades at tracised, for the toes of way his shoeshabits don't match the other mice he lives with...|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408308231</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Katie Davies They nibble up paper wrapping from the cheese for bedding – he displays it as art and Hannah Shaw|title=The Great Cat Conspiracy|rating=5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Meet makes stories based on the new catvisuals on it. A vicious thingAnd that story-telling will come in handy one night, itwhen he feels all alone and cast out. It's fond of having a go at any passing human feet, and is even able almost as if there were another character from fable who had had to tell stories to stand its ground against the neighbourhood dogskeep themselves alive. It also has a great habit of making a mess with its killsThis makes Brie the top dog in the mouse community, though, which comes as all the others had the chance to a head (literally) when half-inch some cheese while the front end of what cat was the vicar's prize carp ends up on Tom's pillowdistracted. After that But will the story have the cat vanishes. Has successful sequel it finally met a match? Has it been catnapped - and if so, who is seeking revenge by doing soneeds when that cheese runs out?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847385974</amazonuk>0571376010
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Judith Viorst and Lane SmithLauren St John|title=Lulu and the BrontosaurusFinding Wonder
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Lulu is every parentRoo's worst nightmarelife has become almost impossibly difficult. She alwaysHer mum died when she was young, ''always'' gets what and now she wants, quite often finds herself awoken in the middle of the night by rolling around the police banging on her door to tell her that her dad has dropped dead on his way to the floor screaming until the light bulbs popcorner shop to buy a lottery ticket. She isWhen asked what other family she has, quite simplyshe can only name her aunt, a child in desperate need Joni, who she knows her dad didn't think very highly of Supernanny! . For her birthday Lulu decides But she would like a Brontosaurus. Her parents, for once, say has noone else, and no amount of screaming makes them change their mind. So Lulu sets so off into the forest she goes to find a brontosaurus by herselflive with her unreliable aunt. The trouble isThings continue to get worse for Roo, as when she finally does find one he isnand Joni leave London in Joni't too keen on s old campervan, it breaks down in the idea middle of being her pet nowhere and actually would much prefer that she became his petthen bursts into flames! Poor Roo!|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0857071475</amazonuk>0571376169
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Alan SilberbergAdam Baron and Benji Davies|title=Milo and the Restart ButtonOscar's Lion|rating=4.53
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=We start incredibly bluntly, with Oscar hoping to have his mother – or father, but mother is more likely – read him his very favourite book a couple of times before he has to be ready for school. But when he enters his parents'Starting over bedroom, all he sees is like pressing the reset button a mahoosive male lion on their bed, looking sheepish, and admitting that he won't be hungry for another two days. But there are benefits to having a game lion around – it can be shown as an unspoken threat to the bully that makes you lose all your points ruined a birthday party for Oscar the other month. And it can shapeshift, so he can take it to school and wipes it can get him out any of the good stuff you've spent hundreds of hours learning..a problem.' Milo And it's restart button was pressed by wonderful to have around the death of house – not limiting his mother. Since that awful daybiscuit intake, being much more lax about the rules, life has not been goodand so on. His father has retreated inwards OK, his sister is always angry, and theyit can've moved house several timest work a dimmer switch but it can give Oscar a wonderful time. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0857071904</amazonuk>0008596751
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Sharon King and Rose KingJudith Eagle|title=The Daily Journal of Arabella CrumblestoneStolen Songbird
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Arabella Crumblestone was making her way along Caro's mother, a dryworld-stone wall in Northumbriafamous whistler, has failed to return home from her recent work trip abroad and is now missing. Her other mother, Ronnie, courtesy is having to go up North to take care of a sheep named Leroyher sister who is unwell. So who is going to look after Caro? Sent to stay with Gam, someone Caro has heard her mother despises, when she met the two human children, Faith feels frustrated and confused and Georgeworried. George gave All her summer holiday plans of building herself some equipment to practise her gymnastics are brought to a piece of chocolate (although halt whilst she didn't know thatis stuck inside this staid old Victorian lady's what it was) and she was grateful. The house, along with an orphan boy had no words, but he hummed. The next day he returned to the wall with his sister Albie, who never seemed to stop talkingis living there too. Arabella was lonely – but could But she trust Faith and George? Hungersoon finds herself caught up in a mystery, cold and loneliness made her decision for as she discovers a painting of a bird hidden away inside her mum's old suitcase, and before long she had all across London a bed in Faithfearsome gang called the Snakes are thieving artworks and terrorising people. Is the painting somehow linked to the gang? And what has happened to Caro's warm pocket.mother? Is she somehow involved in the mystery too?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0956741304</amazonuk>0571363148
}}
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Pip doesn't want Meet Gil. Just twelve, he is so determined to be sold to Captain Snarks as escape the care system – the system that constantly puts him in futureless places that are not homes – and find a pirate's cabin boyhome for himself. He is sure en route to yet another fosterer, when he'll get sea-sickjumps into an anonymous car, and he would far rather continue to work at the stable yard. But the foul-breathed drunkard who runs the orphanage refuses to listen: he will receive more money for the lad if he sends lets it ride him to seahis future. On the way That future seems to the docks Pip manages to escape, and he stows away be in jeopardy when someone steals his one bag of belongings – but that someone lives with his brother in a camp on an island between the rear carriage two directions of the Stage Fright Theatre Companya motorway, charmingly described as 'dancing masters of the macabre'a place inaccessible and definitely ignored enough to provide for their safety and seclusion. Our hero remains there for many days Them, hidden from everyone and only occasionally sneaking out to find a bone to gnawmute girl also finding a home there, until the travelling troupe arrives at its destinationalbeit so much more successfully. Over a few weeks we see if their oddball destinies can combine, Hangman's Hollow. And then Pip's troubles begin in earnest.or if this is one place where life as we would want it just would not work…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0340970693</amazonuk>1804540080
}}
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary='In the beginning there was me and Mum and Dad and England, WW2. Two young girls are new at the twinscountry pile called Stanbrook. And talk about happy families One is Nancy, we were bountiful. But destined to be in service all her life it came to pass that I started doing sins. And loseems, that's when all our problems beganlike the female generations before her.' This The other is exactly how Grace talks because she lives with her family as part of Sidney, a separatist fundamental Christian sect. She goes to girl from a church hoity-toity Sussex boarding schoolthat has been removed there away from bomber flight-paths. The school bus driver is a church Elder because she mustn't talk to or touch an outsider as outsiders girls are unclean. She canchalk and cheese, and if we hadn't eat outsider food without purifying guessed that then their behaviour with each other over their first encounters would only prove it so. But something is amiss, and first - even ice cream separately and then in combination they realise the Lord Evesham must be microwaveda rum 'un. She wears her unruly Midnight deliveries are received under cover of secrecy, talk is made of meetings with Germans, and not only that, curly hair in a bun local Spitfire factory has been attacked. But surely the girls are wrong, and woe is upon her when wisps free themselves from her hairpins. the upper class could never be so underhand?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>014133603X</amazonuk>1788004647
}}
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=I'm sure most of us haveTwo sisters, Juniper and Elodie, at one time or anotherborn fifteen minutes apart, found ourselves being forced are growing to write a huge pile be chalk and cheese. Juniper is an eager hunter and trader in illicit magic, including relics from prior major wars left out in the Badlands. Elodie is intent on getting closer to power in one of the religious districts of thank you letters to distant relativesArkspire, perhaps even for gifts that we weren't all that excited to receive become the child in line to inherit the power of the Watcher, the closest to a ruler the first place! district has, and one of the five major victors in said earlier war. This is Being trained in the predicament magic that Henry finds himself only five people can use would definitely change the status of the whole family. But infinding something oddly magical, and rather than knuckle down Juniper might just be able to get them over and done with he, gain some power of courseher own – for good, procrastinates as much as possible before coming up with an ingeniousor for very, money-making scheme!very bad…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1444001051</amazonuk>0241586143
}}
|rating=5
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
|summary=Author Patrick Dillon has put together a clear, well-written and beautifully concise story of Britain, summing up I was the bad company other people got into at school. I was disruptive in religious education classes because I disputed the history existence of Britain and Ireland in a little over 320 pages'god'. Significant events Where was the proof? In history lessons, ranging from it was probably worse still. Not too long after the Norman Conquest end of WWII, I didn't so much want to learn about the South Sea BubbleBritish army's successes (and occasional failures, and groups of people ranging from highwaymen but we didn't dwell on those) in what came to be called 'the Romantic poets, are each dealt with in between 1 and 3 pages written in Dilloncolonies's chatty, easy as want to dispute what right the army had to read stylebe there in the first place. There are also maps Looking back, including those of I still believe I was right - but I regret that I lacked the D-Day landings and maturity to approach 'the Civil War battles, a timeline for each major period (Middle Ages, Tudors, Stuarts, Georgians, Victorians and Twentieth Century) and some gorgeous illustrations by former Kate Greenaway winner PJ Lynchproblem' politely. I wish I'd had Sathnam Sanghera's ''Stolen History''.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1406311928</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Lucy ChristopherThiago de Moraes|title=FlyawayOld Gods New Tricks|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Isla has a wonderful relationship with her fatherMeet Trixie. He is Forever getting into scrapes, larks and adventures involving flooding the kind school aircon with fart powder, she could almost be thought a young goddess of mannuisance. But just when she's being told that by her one-last-chance-giving headteacher, she saysthe world changes. Suddenly, who would never tell her to come in practically everything electronic stops working – a power-out , even of electric cars, hits not just the raintown the school's in but the entire planet (apart from mobile phones, because he would be out there tooand all that powers the Internet, just for our convenience's sake). Trixie, luckily, enjoying realises what has happened – the ancient Gods have taken the pleasure power of jumping in puddlespower from us. But his heart is weak And so she begins her epic quest, and when he collapses and has to be rushed into hospitalgather all the people that can steal it back – namely the characters from myth that have past form in stealing from the Gods, ie the semi-deities, giants, Isla is berefthalf-gods and so on known as the tricksters.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>190529476X</amazonuk>178845295X
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Katherine RundellHannah Gold and Levi Pinfold|title=The Girl SavageFinding Bear|rating=34.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=In Zimbabwe[[The Last Bear by Hannah Gold|Last time]], Nice Will Silver has lived all her life April had been on Bear Island, a lot 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 domestic and family front are a bit advanced, but not perfect for her father Nice William Silver, his employer Nice Captain Browne, and her friend Nice Simon. But so can easily be ignored when Nice Captain Browne falls in love with Nasty Cynthia Vincy, Nice Will is uprooted word comes through from her roots the islands Bear was last left on. For a bear doing very Bear-y things has been shot and sent wounded. Desperate to an English boarding schoolmake sure he's OK, run by Nice Miss Blake she and her assistant Nasty Mrs Robinsonfather return to the Arctic and hope that in a world of very white and very dangerous things, she can find one specific white and dangerous thing – and that the friendship can continue. How will she cope?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0571254314</amazonuk>0008582017
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Elizabeth BeresfordSimon Fox|title=The Wombles at WorkDeadlock
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Bloomsbury have re-issued another tranche of Late one night Graham Blake is late back from his shift on the force, and then suddenly rings Archie, demanding he fetch something from a secret place, and join him on the original Womble booksrun. They get together, following but barely begin to smell the release whiff of Southern trains when the father is arrested, leaving Archie on the first titles in late 2010. This brings the total express to six available titles for you to have Brighton, toting a Wombling good time with. And quite frankly, what's not tin his father was determined to love here? Any story featuring Elisabeth Beresford's environmentally-mindedkeep away from his colleagues, charming characters is and the bearer of a delight, for young and old alikewhole heap of questions.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1408808366</amazonuk>1839944420
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Simon ScarrowCath Howe|title=Gladiator: Fight for FreedomMy Life on Fire|rating=3.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=MarcusRen's father was family home is destroyed in a centurion in the Roman legionsfire. She, her parents, and her little brother lose everything. After the slave revolt led by Spartacus was finally put down She doesn't have any of her clothes, he retired or any of her special little knick-knacks from her cupboard, and now she is living at her grandmother's house where they can't touch anything, or do anything, or even eat the foods they normally eat. When she goes back to school she discovers that the army and bought class are doing a farm on a small Greek island. Marcus has spent most special art project, creating boxes of his boyhood on the farmtheir lives, learning to train dogs, shoot his sling accurately display things that are important to them and dreaming of one day becoming show who they are as a fighter like his fatherperson. But the farm is Ren has nothing to put in debt a box, and Marcus's life is about so she finds herself starting to crumble.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>0141333634</amazonuk>1839942835
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Hazel AllanRob Keeley|title=Bree McCready The Boy Who Disappeared and the Flame of IrenusOther Stories
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Bree Hooray! Bookbag favourite Rob Keeley is backwith a return to the short story format! She and her best friends, Sandy and Honey, are enjoying the summer holidays until one day Mimi, Honey's little sister, goes missing. The three friends find themselves once more having Boy Who Disappeared treats us to search out the oldeleven new tales, mysterious book that fits with the heart locket in order each as fun to try to find and save Mimiread as his previous offerings. Back in the mysterious land they went to during the [[Bree McCready and the Half-heart Locket by Hazel Allan|first of Bree's adventures]] the three friends face more challenges than ever before, and this time Mimi's life hangs in the balance so they must succeed!|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1905537174</amazonuk>B0BVW69N1G
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jonathan StroudLaura Noakes|title=The Amulet of SamarkandCosima Unfortunate Steals a Star|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=When you summon a demon Meet Number One. Or rather, Cosima Unfortunate. Or rather, just Cos to her friends. The practice in the last thing you want home she lives in is for you the girls to lose power over it - for just be named by the shoe number they correspond to end up on in the other footledger, and they're all Unfortunates – young people with disabilities, uncommon mentalities or suchlike that Victorian society frowns greatly upon. Especially when But Cosima bears the tag as a surname because nothing else seems to be known about where she came from, as the demon shifts shape first ever inmate, and is currently an eight-legged spiderunique in having no known family in the outside world. That's what's happened During a daring escapade to young Nathanielsteal some posh cakes from the kitchen one afternoon, having summoned Bartimaeus she discovers a plan involving said outside world – a devilish Lord Fitzroy seems to want to adopt all the girls for a task of vengeancehis Institute. But perhaps why, and what does that body entail? And could it's worst of all when you have possibly bring Cos closer to rely on the same demon's help to protect you from an even greater evil - the wicked intent of a fellow man.past she has so little link with?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0552563706</amazonuk>0008579059
}}
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=In 1940, Billy At last there is new stock in the impoverished yet over-full antiques shop Elsbeth and Sally Thomas are living her mother run in Sheffield, a city which is well aware that German bombs will almost surely find their way there sooner or laterseaside town. Elsbeth knows this because she has stolen it. As the air raid sirens blare She also knows she should be free from worries about being found out, they help friendly Warden Crane to make sure because she has the blackout is kept up - but when they find that people are having money stolen while they're in the shelters, they try ability to solve the crime. Meanwhileleave this world, in Germany, Manfred and Hansl are determined use an unworldly portal of kaleidoscope colours to do their bit for enter other worlds, where the war effort by getting into sea levels are rising dramatically and the bomb factory buildings are generally empty of humans and writing an English soldier's name on a bombripe for plunder. Then they meet Polish youngster Irena and become quickly embroiled in a frantic escape attempt. By December With eviction imminent, can Elsbeth nab anything to actually generate custom at the two sets of children will both have been thrust into shop? Well yes, is the thick of answer, but the action, and we get fact a finale that's truly explosive – in mysterious man knows exactly which items come from these different Somewheres only raises more ways than one!questions…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1408130548</amazonuk>1839943769
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Sally PrueNatasha Farrant|title=Ice MaidenThe Rescue of Ravenwood
|rating=5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Franz isnThis story is another excellent adventure from the author of 't popular in 'Voyage of the villageSparrowhawk''. It's 1939, and the German boy Ravenwood is on an extended holiday old house, in the North of England. Unsurprisingly, the local boys don't appreciate an enemy in where Bea and Raffy have been living for most of their midstlives. Franz isn't happy at home either - he mistrusts They are part of a complex, extended family arrangement, as Bea is there with her Uncle Leo, and Raffy is there with his Nazi parents mum, and he remembers they are living together as a family. They have grown up swimming in the rounding up of cove, roaming through the disabledtrees, completely at one with all of the gypsies and nature around the Jews, house and loving every inch of the smashing glass at nightplace. Lonely, Franz spends a lot of time on But now the commonhouse is under threat, observing as Leo is under pressure from his other two brothers to sell the natural world property to a developer as it's becoming more and the wildlifemore expensive to maintain. The children find themselves worrying not only about where they're going to live, but if they'll even be together, in all its beauty and crueltyif Ravenwood itself will be torn down. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0192729659</amazonuk>0571348785
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=M T McGuireRobin Birch and Jobe Anderson|title=K'Barthan TrilogySecret Beast Club: Few Are ChosenThe Unicorns of Silver Street
|rating=4
|genre=TeensConfident Readers|summary=The Pan of Hamgee Jayden's nose is forever in a relatively inconspicuous fellow living in the world of K'Barthbook, which means he knows a lot about mythological creatures – the setting phoenixes and unicorns of the battle between the overbearingworld, alien Grongolian settlers and the fanatic Resistancefor example. Aisha is addicted to her new tablet, described aptly by where she can see videos of anything that might be out there. The Pan problem, as being their mothers see it, is that they are never 'The lesserout there' themselves, but only very slightly lesser exploring the outside world of two evilsHackney, possiblyLondon. But when a narrowboat turns up carrying a science-minded, educational purpose, and with a past involving Jayden' Naturallys cousin, The Pan wants nothing to do with this political conflict but due to they find a magical world they never knew existed. For many of those mythological creatures are real, including the one Aisha thinks she's seen on a number bit of unfortunate cases local footage. The crew of wrong placethe boat, wrong time including a living gargoyle, are tasked with saving the rare critters – and disastrous luckthe kids unknowingly have the magical sight needed to join in. Dare they side with Leila, the woman on board, he has somehow been drafted and her relative who lives as a figure in as the getaway driver of a group of bank robberspainting, and somehow come into possession become saviours of a magical thimble with the power to allow teleportation, an object greatly desired by K'Barth's despot ruler Lord Vernon.unseen?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1907809007</amazonuk>0241573483
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Philip ThreadneedleB09XWSXSKY|title=The Astronaut's ApprenticeMaestro Orpheus and the World Clock|author=Robert Penee and Joanne Grodzinski
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Bradley is as normal as any boy could beFrederick (or Fred, but never Freddy, please) couldn't sleep. He lives on A tune, rather like the ticking of a farm with clock was playing over and over in his father and grandma and loves all sorts of boy thingsmind. It happened every time he came to visit his grandfather. But itHe hadn't really wanted to come; after all, he's at this point that things begin ten now and all those old clocks don't appeal to get a little bit, well, oddhim anymore. ''Who needs old clocks anyway? His grandpa All they do is an alien and his mother is in tell the attic, but she's deadtime. GrandmaAnd time isn's not your normal cuddly version, eithert good for anything... She's of the opinion that childbirth is much over-rated, both from the point of view of the mother and the child and she's not above calling her husband a love rat and a womaniser. Still, even the best of families have their little oddities…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1453843809</amazonuk>}}
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=P L TraversNigel Baines|title=Mary Poppins: The Complete CollectionA Tricky Kind of Magic|rating=4.5|genre=Confident Emerging Readers|summary=It is coming up for eighty years since ''Mary Poppins'' Cooper loves to perform magic tricks. His father was first published in Great Britaina magician, but it is still one of those childrenand named Cooper after the great Tommy Cooper. But sadly Cooper's books you will find in every library and bookshop. Almost everyone in the countryfather died suddenly, young and oldnow Cooper doesn't quite know who to be, can tell you the story and describe all the main characters, and the Poppins name, along with the carpet bag and the parrot-headed umbrella, has become a cultural referenceor how to be. But And when his dad's prop rabbit starts talking to be honesthim, he ''really'' doesn't know what most people actually know is the 1960s Disney film: the original nanny who blew into the life of the Banks children is a much darker, more mysterious being altogether.'s going on anymore!|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0007398557</amazonuk>1444960261
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