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[[Category:New Reviews|Confident Readers]]__NOTOC__ <!-- Remove -->{{Frontpage|author=Max Boucherat|title=The Last Life of Lori Mills|rating=4.5|genre=Confident readersReaders|summary=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 avidly rule-breaking eleven year old, on 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-collecting 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, and then she finds something even more spooky. For the 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 girl to turn?|isbn=0008666482__NOTOC__}}{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Elyne MitchellKieran Larwood and Joe Todd-Stanton|title=The Silver BrumbyDungeon Runners: Hero Trial

|summary=When Bel Bel's foal was born she called him Thowra, which meant 'wind'Meet Kit. Like her most of the people in his world, it seems, he was is an avid fan of Dungeon Running – the sport where a creamyteam of warrior, silver brumbymage 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 they grant you along the way. They Unfortunately for Kit, the only thing he're s seen of the wild horses latest race on the inn TV equivalent is that one team has been retired, eaten, and a new trio of Southern Australia and Bel Bel knew that her foal would not have an easy lifequestors is needed. As a stallion Possibly very unfortunately indeed for Kit, he would have has taken to fight to keep his own herd the goading from the token bully of mares and foals but his main enemy would be man. The brumbies were regularly captured world and herded away but the creamy, silver brumbies were the biggest prizes of all. stumbled into declaring he'The Silver Brumby' is Thowra's story ll enter as a team. What chance does this friendless, muscle-free-zone have in actually managing that, and how could he matures from young foal possibly hope to adult stallion.succeed?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0007425201</amazonuk>1839945184

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Sally GardnerJames Sherwood Metts|title=CinderellaPlanet Storyland

|summary=India is fourteen Things have been a bit sticky for the Earthlings. AI andautomation have been proceeding apace, like many teenagers, doesnoften replacing jobs they't see much outside her own narrow sphere of interest. She's spiky and defensive re paid to do and reacts other tasks that took time to any setbacks with anger and aggression, usually turned against her familyaccomplish. But inside, like many teenagers, she's rather lonely and lost. Finn is twelve and not Just as good at basketball as he'd like. He's not as popular as he'd like either. But he is honest they were beginning to get used to all this technological change and loyalstarting to think of other, and he longs for a chance new ways to prove it. Mouse is six and a bit of spend time, along came an oddityawful pandemic. She has an imaginary friend Life was pretty much shut down and a brain the size of a planet. This doesn't always make her easy to get , along withit, all the many daily social interactions on which they depend so heavily. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1408815729</amazonuk>1736128426

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jackie French and Bruce WhatleyTom Percival|title=Queen Victoria's Knickers|rating=4|genre=For Sharing|summary=A message from the palace has arrived! It's from Queen Victoria, and as mum reads it she cries out 'The Queen wants my knickers!' Queen Victoria, ruler of the British Empire, has riches galore, but she has no knickers, so the dressmaker's family set about making her some.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007418310</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Philip Caveney|title=Night on Terror IslandWrong Shoes

|summary=Kip Will's life is difficult, in a real film buffmultitude of ways. He is bullied because he has 'the wrong shoes', and he has the wrong shoes because his dad runs can't work and doesn't have enough money for even the local independent cinema most basic of things like food, and his dad can't work because he gets to see all lost his job at the latest films as college, was working a reward for making the popcorn cash-in-hand job on a building site and generally helping out each eveninghad an accident. But this happy state cannot continue for much longer: Throw into that mix the big multiplexes on the edge of town fact that his mum and dad are taking all their clientsseparated, and the Paramount Picture Palace may soon have to close for goodWill's life seems bleak in every direction. Things start to look up when the eccentric Mr Lazarus arrives And yet, but Kip he still has a tiny amount of hope. He is suspicious: good at art, and clings to the new projectionist may have a gift for raising the quality moments of the films joy when he shows to enviable standardsis drawing, but he knows far more than he should about everyone who works that feel like a light at the cinema. And he talks about starsend of a long, films and cinemas of the past as if he had actually been theredark tunnel.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1849392706</amazonuk>1398527122

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Ellie Irving1805141872|title=For the RecordThe Teacher Who Knew Too Much|author=Rob Keeley

|summary=Luke is obsessed with records. He's so busy planning on breaking world records when he grows up, 'Seventeen banks and playing world records DVD games, that he doesn't take much of an interest in what's going on around hima jeweller’s have been raided. But that's about to changeThe police are baffled, because when but only Ben knows the village of Port Bren is chosen to host a waste-incinerator plant his house will be demolished and the graveyard where his dad's buried will be destroyed truth – unless the village is too historically important for this to happen. How can they put themselves on the map in one week? Luke comes up with the idea to break 50 world records… but why won't his mum let him take part?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0370331982</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Wolfren Riverstick|title=While We Sleep... the Dream Snatchers Cometh!|rating=4|genre=Confident Readers|summary=You could be forgiven for thinking that the Jackson family was unimaginative. Jack JacksonMaths teacher, the head of the household was generally known as PaMiss Judson, even before he had any children to call him by that name. His wife, Jacqueline, was known as Ma. You could put all this down to accident but naming their first child Jackie (after is really a comic which Ma had enjoyed in safecracker! With police and her youth) and gangster boyfriend Al on their second child Jacques might confirm your fears. It was a few years before they acquired a pettrail, but the cat was to be called Jackson Miss Judson and Ben go on the Dutch Hamster Sjaakrun. But Al needs them for one last job.. Guess what their house was called? Yup – it was Jacksonville.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0955431433</amazonuk>}}''

{{newreview|author=Sabbithry Persad|title=Garbology Kids: Where Do Recyclable Materials Go?|rating=3.5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=I was once told that a lot of children think Goodness me, that milk comes out of Miss Judson is a bottle or terror! How on earth did a carton and are disconcerted nice teacher like her manage to find that it actually comes out of get mixed up with a cow. The thinking has been reversed in Sabbithry Persad's book bad 'Where Do Recyclable Materials Goun like Al?We' It's all very well dividing up your waste but it doesn't make a lot of sense unless you actually know what happens to it after you put it ll find out at the kerb. And it all started when Tiana and Peter went looking Luckily for their dog Bubbles Miss Judson, the pupil who ''loved'' discovers her terrible secret is Ben, the son of a famous magician who has ambitions to go running after the recycle truck.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0981243908</amazonuk>be as good as his father some day, and who thinks Miss Judson is worth saving

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Mark WaldenChristopher Edge|title=H.I.V.E.: Higher Institute of Villanous EducationBlack Hole Cinema Club

|summary=Otto Malpense is one of the newest students Lucas and his friends are all booked in for a movie marathon at their local cinema, a place that has the Higher Institute nickname of Villainous Education'The Black Hole'. All big movie fans, they're looking forward to lots of exciting films, and many, many snacks! However, better known as HIVE. So the movie starts, they very quickly realise that something about this new film format is his new friend Wing. As you'd expectvery different, neither of them and they are keen swept up into an adventure they couldn't even imagine. But as they lurch from one film genre to stay there – although this the next, can they figure out what on earth is less going on? Will they ever get back to do with moral scruples than with the thought of wasting six years studying how to be evil when they consider they're rather good at it alreadycinema, thank you very much. A plot and to escape is hatched…their real lives?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0747597219</amazonuk>1839942738

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Lauren St JohnAdam Stower|title=Laura Marlin Mysteries: Kidnap in the CaribbeanMurray and Bun

|genre=Confident Readers|summary=ideal guardian for the crime-Murray is supposed to be a humble, tidy and-detection-obsessed young girlfriendly cat, because his job one who is swathed in secrecy able to sleep and involves a great deal of creeping out of the house late at night to meet mysterious strangers. But for now they can both relax: Laura has won a holiday for two in the Caribbean, eat and all she eat and Calvin have to do is sunbathe sleep and swim. Needless to say, that isn't how things turn out.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444000217</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Lissa Evans|title=Small Change for Stuart|rating=4.5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Poor Stuart Horten is rather small for his age. Unfortunately for himwell, if you put whatever takes his initial with his surname it becomes 'shorten', which is just asking for troublefancy next of the two. Still, But he's happy and a bad magician's cat, so his favourite bun has lots of friends. Or, at leastbeen turned into a hyperactive sticky rabbit called Bun, he does until his parents move house and he finds himself living in a strange town (his father's hometown) in the school holidayscatflap they both use can chuck them out, looking at not into the prospect regular back garden, but into a world of a long, boring frightening adventure and lonely summer ahead of himwhiffs. He soon discoversThis time round it drops them into a Viking land, howeverwhere a troll hunter is expected – well, one much bigger than Murray was, that there is a mystery surrounding his familyto be honest, but he's history in the town, turned up and it looks as though Stuart might just be the one he'll have to uncover what really happened...do…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>038561800X</amazonuk>0008561249

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Ruth EasthamAlex Bell and Tim McDonagh|title=The Memory CageGlorious Race of Magical Beasts

|summary=Alex is worried about Grandad. So Eli is a busy lad – by day an apprentice in the rest of the family. It started wondrous library we start by visiting with a lot of small things, things that Alex can help him with, like lost keys and glassesin the evening a helper at the dessert cafe his gran owns and runs. Last night though, Grandad set fire to Eli lives with his pillow. Alex has hidden itlovely gran, but knows that this too – for there is dangerous, and it can't stay a secret for longgeneration missing in the family. Grandad has Alzheimers A few short years ago, and Mum and Dad are thinking of putting him in an old peopleEli's home. He is also worried that 'big brother' Leonard knows what has happened and will give them parents were both away.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1407120522</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Philip Ardagh|title=Grubtown Tales: When Bunnies Turn Bad|rating=4.5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=This book is a lesson in never assuming anything you shouldn't. Just because Jilly Cheeter and Mango Claptrap are on lost to the covertitular race, don't assume it isn't about a lad called Failing Toucan instead globe- because if you did, you'd be wrong. While on trotting adventure where all entrants have to navigate the subject of world in the noteworthy names used throughout Grubtown, never assume to know the gender company of someone called Asphalt Nosegaya magical beast. And just because it's called When Bunnies Turn Bad, and This has lots of rabbits on made the cover and throughout, don't assume it isn't about race anathema to the dangerous and tangled task of taking pair – but when a chimp back bad incident at the eatery leads to the old folks' home where he lives.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0571272363</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Moira Young|title=Blood Red Road|rating=5|genre=Teens|summary=Saba has lived in the desolation surrounding the dried-up Silverlake for all of her eighteen years. The family has just one neighbour - a chaal addictconfession from gran, so not exactly sociable - so Saba's Eli knows his only companions are her father, her twin brother Lugh, and younger sister Emmi. Saba worships Lugh, resents Emmi for their mother's death in childbirth, and hope is confused by her father, who believes he can read the future in the stars. But it's all she knows and as long as Lugh is close, she's happy enough. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1407124250</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Gill Lewis|title=Sky Hawk|rating=4.5|genre=Teens|summary=Rob and Euan want to chase Iona McNair off Callum's farm. She's newly returned dare to the villageenter what he most hates, staying with her grandfather, her mother nowhere to be seen. It's a close community and rumours abound - and Iona is a bit of a pariah amongst the children. But something about her draws Callum in and Iona returns sole aim the favour by trusting him with her deepest secret: she's found an osprey's nest high above prize of magic at the loch and she's desperate to protect end – the endangered birds. And so the two of them forge a friendship as they try only thing to keep Iris and her mate out of harm's waypossibly save his gran. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0192756230</amazonuk>0571382231

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Sarah Brennan and Harry HarrisonHelen Cooper|title=Chinese Calendar Tales: The Tale Taming of Rhonda Rabbitthe Cat

|summary=Here in Once again, mice are pitched against cat. In this tale case, principally, we find ourselves back have Brie the mouse, up against Gorgonzola the cat – and in the year 221BCcase you're seeing a connection, they live in a cheese shop and therefore all the names used here seem to be the Emperor Qin Shi Huang is having some rodent issuesnames of cheeses. As this Anyway, Brie is from a series of books called shunned, scorned and, if you must, mous-tracised, for the way his habits don''The Chinese Calendar Tales'' I think I was expecting t match the story to relate more to other mice he lives with. They nibble up paper wrapping from the Chinese zodiac cheese for bedding – he displays it as art and makes stories based on the rabbit's place within visuals on it. HoweverAnd that story-telling will come in handy one night, this is really just a story about a very naughty rabbit when he feels all alone and cast out. It's almost as if there were another character from fable who keeps eating had had to tell stories to keep themselves alive. This makes Brie the top dog in the Emperor's vegetablesmouse community, his mission to capture and kill herthough, and as all the others had the unfortunate conclusion chance to this romp of a tale..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>9881888255</amazonuk>0571376010

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Kevin Crossley-HollandLauren St John|title=Bracelet of Bones (Viking Sagas)Finding Wonder

|summary=ItRoo's 1036 life has become almost impossibly difficult. Her mum died when she was young, and now she finds herself awoken in Trondheimthe 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, Norway. Solveig lives with she can only name her fatheraunt, Joni, stepmother and stepbrotherswho she knows her dad didn't think very highly of. Her mother died many years ago But she has no one else, and neither Solveig nor so off she goes to live with her father Halfdan have ever truly recoveredunreliable aunt. Before his injury Things continue to get worse for Roo, Halfdan was a Viking mercenary as when she and his dearest wish is to rejoin his Joni leave London in Joni's old commandercampervan, Harald Hardrada it breaks down in Miklagard (Constantinople). He promises Solveig that, should the call ever come, he will take her with him... middle of nowhere and then bursts into flames! Poor Roo!|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847249396</amazonuk>0571376169

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Kaye UmanskyAdam Baron and Benji Davies|title=Tales From Witchway Wood: Crash 'nOscar' Bangs Lion|rating=43

|summary=The Whichway Rhythm Boys 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 band made up couple of Filth (who is Witch Sludgegooeytimes before he has to be ready for school. But when he enters his parents's fiend) on drumsbedroom, Arthur the Dragon on piano (all he lives with his mum and likes sees is a nice hot curry) mahoosive male lion on their bed, looking sheepish, and Oadmitting that he won'Brian 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 Leprechaun on penny whistle who is often mistaken bully that ruined a birthday party for a PixieOscar the other month. And it can shapeshift, much so he can take it to his disgustschool and it can get him out of a problem. Together they play gigs in And it's wonderful to have around the woodshouse – not limiting his biscuit intake, being much more lax about the rules, for Zombie balls and suchlikeso on. OK, it can't work a dimmer switch but the music they really love to play is Crash 'n' Bang!it can give Oscar a wonderful time.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1408801884</amazonuk>0008596751

 {{newreview|author=Wolfren Riverstick|title=A Cat Called Ian|rating=3.5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=The lad was trouble. He was a bully, a thief and a liar. We've all known someone like him – the company into which you hope that your own child doesn't fall. He's cocky with it too, convinced that he can do whatever he likes and get away with it – and that's when we meet him on his way to climb the great white oak at the top of Sunrise Hill, despite the fact that his mother has told him he's not to. It was a difficult climb and it wasn't long before he remembered the old story that some people climbed so far up the tree and then were never seen again.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0955431409</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Patricia LeitchJudith Eagle|title=Jinny at Finmory: The Summer RidersStolen Songbird

|summary=On the first day of the summer holidays Jinny was looking forward Caro's mother, a world-famous whistler, has failed to riding return home from her horserecent work trip abroad and is now missing. Her other mother, a beautiful Arab mare called ShantihRonnie, over the moors for the summer and life seems just about perfect when she meets a girl is having to go up North to take care of her own age sister who's camping on the beach is unwell. So who is going to look after Caro? Sent to stay with Gam, someone Caro has heard her family mother despises, she feels frustrated and confused and worried. All her summer holiday plans of building herself some equipment to practise her ponygymnastics 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. What could spoil that? WellBut she soon finds herself caught up in a mystery, Jinny's father used to be as she discovers a painting of a probation officer and hebird hidden away inside her mum's agreed to take a boy old suitcase, and all across London a girl from fearsome gang called the city to give them a holiday for a couple of weeksSnakes are thieving artworks and terrorising people. The boy has been in trouble with Is the police for stealing and painting somehow linked to the girl walks with a limp. gang? Just having them around is going And what has happened to be bad enough, but thereCaro's worse to come.mother? Is she somehow involved in the mystery too?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1846471125</amazonuk>0571363148

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Ali SparkesTania Unsworth|title=Unleashed : A Life and Death JobNowhere Island|rating=3.5|genre=Teens|summary=A new series about what happens when Britain's most important and secret assets - teenagers with paranormal abilities - get a week's holiday4. In book one, Lisa gets involved with kidnapping and assassination attempts. And she only wanted to go shopping at Harvey Nicks!|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0192756060</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Michelle Magorian|title=Goodnight Mister Tom|rating=5

|summary=It's been a long time since I read 'Goodnight Mister Tom' at school. Picking it up again twenty five years later I wondered how good I would find itMeet Gil. I needn't have worried. This wonderful story captured my attention from Just twelve, he is so determined to escape the care system – the very beginning and I became so caught up system that constantly puts him in Tom futureless places that are not homes – and Will's lives that I didn't want it to endfind a home for himself. Set during World War TwoHe is en route to yet another fosterer, when he jumps into an anonymous car, William Beech has been evacuated from London and is placed with Tom Oakley, thanks mainly lets it ride him to his proximity future. That future seems to be in jeopardy when someone steals his one bag of belongings – but that someone lives with his brother in a camp on an island between the local churchtwo directions of a motorway, as Willie's God-fearing mother requested he be close a place inaccessible and definitely ignored enough to a churchprovide for their safety and seclusion. They seem an unlikely matchThem, the gruff old man who keeps himself to himself and the thin, timid young boy, but a mute girl also finding a home there lies the joy of the story, in watching albeit so much more successfully. Over a few weeks we see if their relationship grow.oddball destinies can combine, or if this is one place where life as we would want it just would not work…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0141332255</amazonuk>1804540080

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Barbara MitchelhillHelen Peters|title=Run Rabbit RunFriends and Traitors|rating=4.53

|summary=dad in RochdaleEngland, LancashireWW2. Two months ago their mum was killed by a bomb which fell on her shopyoung girls are new at the country pile called Stanbrook. Lizzie One is being bullied and taunted at school and on the way homeNancy, because destined to be in service all her dad won't join life it seems, like the armyfemale generations before her. He The other is Sidney, a conscientious objector who doesn't believe it's right to kill people. As conscription girl from a hoity-toity Sussex boarding school that has been introduced making nearly all men aged 18removed there away from bomber flight-51 liable to be called up for military service (paths. The girls are chalk and therefore required to fight)cheese, this means he and if we hadn't guessed that then their behaviour with each other over their first encounters would only prove it so. But something is breaking amiss, and first separately and then in combination they realise the law and may well Lord Evesham must be treated as a criminalrum 'un. Dad has decided they Midnight deliveries are going to move to Whitewayreceived under cover of secrecy, a Colony (a sort talk is made of alternative community)meetings with Germans, for people who don't believe in warand not only that, in Gloucestershirea local Spitfire factory has been attacked. But surely the girls are wrong, and the upper class could never be so underhand?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1849392498</amazonuk>1788004647

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Annette HartJamie Littler|title=Blood and AllegianceArkspire

|summary=Bryony was orphaned when she was very young Two sisters, Juniper and since then has lived in the Abbey at AmbletonElodie, but once she reached her fourteenth birthday her cousinborn fifteen minutes apart, are growing to be chalk and cheese. UnwinJuniper is an eager hunter and trader in illicit magic, King 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 AthlandiaArkspire, required that she join him at court. She lost perhaps even to become the child in line to inherit the power of the only friends she had knownWatcher, her clothes were replaced with much grander garments and she became the closest to a part of ruler the inner circle district has, and one of the courtfive major victors in said earlier war. It wasn't long before she realised Being trained in the magic that her cousin was far from benevolent – but he was fighting an uprising and perhaps what he was doing was necessaryonly five people can use would definitely change the status of the whole family. Then MillyBut in finding something oddly magical, Juniper might just be able to gain some power of her maidown – for good, is punished or for stepping slightly out of line and Bryony realises how little she knows of very, very bad…|isbn=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 Kynbury and even 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 her own familyWWII, 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''.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1903491797</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jenny NimmoThiago de Moraes|title=The Secret KingdomOld Gods New Tricks

|summary=Protected Meet 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 being told that by a moon cloakher one-last-chance-giving headteacher, the world changes. Suddenly, practically everything electronic stops working – a ringpower-out, and three mysteriously powerful leopardseven of electric cars, Timoken hits not just the town the school's in but the magician entire planet (apart from mobile phones, and his camel Gabar seek a new home after all that powers the Internet, just for our convenience's sake). Trixie, luckily, realises what has happened – the boy is forced to flee ancient Gods have taken the secret kingdompower of power from us. But will they ever find peace with And so she begins her epic quest, to gather all the vicious viradees on their trail? This prequel to people that can steal it back – namely the Charlie Bone series contains new and old charactersfrom myth that have past form in stealing from the Gods, ie the semi-deities, including a couple of brief cameos from Charlie himselfgiants, but is well worth reading half-gods and so on known as a stand-alone or introduction to the series if you've never heard of ittricksters.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1405257326</amazonuk>178845295X

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Caroline LawrenceHannah Gold and Levi Pinfold|title=The Western Mysteries: The Case of the Deadly DesperadosFinding Bear

|summary=It is always a little worrying when an author finishes a popular and well-loved series to start something new. Will the new characters be as interesting as the old, familiar ones? Will the books just be a pale retelling of the plots in a new context? But fans of Ms Lawrence's [[The Prophet from Ephesus (The Roman Mysteries) Last Bear by Caroline LawrenceHannah Gold|Roman MysteriesLast time]] need not worry. What we have here is , April had been on Bear Island, a rip-roaring tale of the Wild Westlot further north than many people would venture, and finding a ridiculously unexpected but delightful friendship with tons of credible local coloura polar bear – that she called Bear. Back home, things on the domestic and family front are a bunch of villains every bit as wicked as those advanced, but not perfect for 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 make sure he's OK, she and her father return to be found the Arctic and hope that in Ancient Romea world of very white and very dangerous things, she can find one specific white and dangerous thing – and a likeable lead characterthat the friendship can continue.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1444001698</amazonuk>0008582017

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Marcus SedgwickSimon Fox|title=Raven Mysteries: Magic and MayhemDeadlock

|summary=Life Late one night Graham Blake is never completely dull at Castle Otherhand. Edgar late back from his shift on the resident raven may get bored a littleforce, and end up pecking and plucking at things he shouldn'tthen suddenly rings Archie, but that at least keeps the humans there on their toes. And even Edgar must admit to being rushed off his talons when demanding he has to save the day yet again, this time fetch something from death by cabbagea secret place, and things that go quack in join him on the nightrun.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1842556975</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=John Stephens|title=The Emerald Atlas: The Books of Beginning|rating=4|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Whisked away from their parents in the dead of night ten years ago They get together, Kate, Michael and Emma have seen more than their fair share of orphanages. Nobody wants but barely begin to adopt three children together - least smell the whiff of all Southern trains when the youngest has a strong penchant for using her fists whenever she can - and so when we meet themfather is arrested, they're leaving Archie on their way the late express to yet another. But the orphanage at Cambridge Falls is unlike any other. They're the only children in residenceBrighton, the housekeeper seems toting a tin his father was determined to think they are members of the French royal familykeep away from his colleagues, and the town is in the middle bearer of a barren wasteland and is bereft whole heap of childrenquestions. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0857530186</amazonuk>1839944420

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Eva Ibbotson and Sharon RenttaCath Howe|title=One Dog And His BoyMy Life on Fire

|summary=All Hal had ever wanted was Ren's family home is destroyed in a dogfire. Other presents never matteredShe, expensive though they were: he wanted a dogher parents, and her little brother lose everything. But – his mother wouldnShe doesn't entertain the idea. She was far too busy (shopping) and neurotic about the possibility have any of dirther clothes, puddles or any of her special little knick-knacks from her cupboard, and now she is living at her grandmother's house where they can'hairs''t touch anything, or do anything, or even eat the foods they normally eat. His father was busy too. He worked hard When she goes back to fund school she discovers that the class are doing a special art project, creating boxes of their lavish lifestyle lives, to display things that are important to them and was away so much that he spent more time in the air than he did at home. It wasn't show who they are as though Hal had many friends eithera person. He'd just been moved from But Ren has nothing to put in a school where he had friends (because he wasn't doing well enough) box, and so she finds herself starting to another where he'd made no friendssteal things. All he wanted was a dogSmall 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>1407124234</amazonuk>1839942835

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Joan LennonRob Keeley|title=Slightly Jones Mystery: The Case of the Glasgow GhoulBoy Who Disappeared and Other Stories|rating=4.5

|summary=There are spooks and ghouls aplenty in this story: readers avid for a delicious shiver or two will be pleased to know they appear right from the very first chapter. And in keeping Hooray! Bookbag favourite Rob Keeley is back with the wonderfully Victorian flavour of the book, it is body-snatchers, digging up a corpse return to sell to a local doctor, who encounter the terrifying spectres. This is not a horror short storyformat! The Boy Who Disappeared treats us to eleven new tales, however, despite the scary setting of its opening pages: the haunted cemetery is simply one element in the complicated case of the disappearing treasureseach as fun to read as his previous offerings.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1846471141</amazonuk>B0BVW69N1G

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Chris Van AllsburgLaura Noakes|title=The Mysteries of Harris BurdickCosima Unfortunate Steals a Star

|summary=Thirty years agoMeet Number One. Or rather, Harris Burdick walked into a book publisher's office with samples of his workCosima Unfortunate. He had fourteen stories ready for publication Or rather, but just brought one picture and caption from each. Burdick was never heard of againCos to her friends. The publisher spent many years trying practice in the home she lives in is for the girls to track down Burdick, showing just be named by the pictures number they correspond to in the ledger, and they're all Unfortunates – young people - many of whom were inspired to write their own storieswith disabilities, uncommon mentalities or suchlike that Victorian society frowns greatly upon. (Shh about ''The rights of Chris Van Allsburg But Cosima bears the tag as a surname because nothing else seems to be identified known about where she came from, asthe first ever inmate, and unique in having no known family in the outside world. 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 Institute..''). But why, and what does that body entail? And could it possibly bring Cos closer to the past she has so little link with?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>184939279X</amazonuk>0008579059

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Diana Wynne JonesAlice M Ross|title=Power of ThreeThe Nowhere Thief

|summary=Gair's father At last there is new stock in the chief of their mount. Gair's impoverished yet over-full antiques shop Elsbeth and her mother is famous for being incredibly wiserun in a seaside town. His brother and sister, Ceri and Ayna, both have special gifts, and so Elsbeth knows this because she has stolen it is just Gair who is left feeling ordinary and out of place. However, when a powerful curse begins to affect the livelihoods not just of his people but She also their enemiesknows she should be free from worries about being found out, because she has the Dorigability to leave this world, and the Giants, it is up to Gair to find a way for them all to survive...|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007113706</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Elena Pasquali and Sophie Windham|title=The Three Trees: A Traditional Folktale|rating=4|genre=For Sharing|summary=There are three trees standing side by side on a hill. They dream together use an unworldly portal of what they hope kaleidoscope colours to become in enter other worlds, where the future; one wishes to become a chest for the finest treasures, one wishes to be a ship carrying a mighty King, sea levels are rising dramatically and the last wants to stay on the hillside quietly pointing up to heaven. The first is cut down buildings are generally empty of humans and made into a trough, but then it turns out it is a trough in the stable where Mary gives birth to Jesus, so it becomes the manger ripe for himplunder. The second is made into a simple fishing boatWith eviction imminent, but then it is the boat which Jesus goes in when there is a big storm and he calms can Elsbeth nab anything to actually generate custom at the waves. shop? The third tree is cut down and forgotten in a yard until one day it is made into a cross. It isWell yes, of course, the cross Jesus is crucified on and becomes the symbol of hopeanswer, forever pointing to heaven.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0745961703</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Nick Butterworth|title=Tales From Percy's Park: After but the Storm|rating=5|genre=For Sharing|summary=One day, after fact a particularly wild and windy evening, Percy the Park Keeper discovers on his check around the park that an old oak tree has fallen down in the storm. All of the animals who lived in the tree ask Percy to help them find a new home. He loads them up in his wheelbarrow and, after a bit of an adventure, they finally find a new place for Percy to rebuild their homes.mysterious man knows exactly which items come from these different Somewheres only raises more questions…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0007155158</amazonuk>1839943769

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Alex T SmithNatasha Farrant|title=Claude in the CityThe Rescue of Ravenwood

|summary=Claude This story is a sweet little dog who wears a beret another excellent adventure from the author of ''Voyage of the Sparrowhawk''. Ravenwood is an old house, in the North of England, where Bea and whose best friend is a sock called Sir BobblysockRaffy have been living for most of their lives. They live are part of a complex, extended family arrangement, as Bea is there with Mr and Mrs Shinyshoesher Uncle Leo, and when Mr and Mrs Shinyshoes go outRaffy is there with his mum, Claude and Sir Bobblysock go out and they are living together as a family. They have their own adventures whichgrown up swimming in the cove, in this bookroaming through the trees, involve capturing a thief in an art gallery completely at one with all of the nature around the house and solving a medical mystery in loving every inch of the local hospitalplace. ClaudeBut now the house is under threat, who reminds me as Leo is under pressure from his other two brothers to sell the property to a little bit of Snoopy, is very endearing and developer as it's amazing how much personality an old sock can have!becoming more and more expensive to maintain. The children find themselves worrying not only about where they're going to live, but if they'll even be together, and if Ravenwood itself will be torn down.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0340998997</amazonuk>0571348785

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Pippa FunnellRobin Birch and Jobe Anderson|title=Tilly's Pony TailsSecret Beast Club: Moonshadow the Derby WinnerThe Unicorns of Silver Street

|summary=We've met Tilly Redbrow before. SheJayden's nose is forever in a book, which means he knows a lot about mythological creatures – the phoenixes and unicorns of native American Indian descent but living with her adoptive family in the UKworld, for example. To say Aisha is addicted to her new tablet, where she can see videos of anything that she might be out there. The problem, as their mothers see it, is mad on horses is something that they are never 'out there' themselves, exploring the outside world of an understatement – just about everything she does revolves around themHackney, London. This time she But when a narrowboat turns up carrying a science-minded, educational purpose, and her friends with a past involving Jayden's cousin, they find a magical world they never knew existed. For many of those mythological creatures are having real, including the one Aisha thinks she's seen on a sleepover at bit of local footage. The crew of the Silver Shoe Stablesboat, where including a living gargoyle, are tasked with saving the rare critters – although no one is supposed and the kids unknowingly have the magical sight needed to know about it – join in. Dare they side with Leila, the woman on board, and her relative who lives as a famous racehorse is staying incognito because his history as figure in a Derby winner means that horse thieves are after him.painting, and become saviours of the unseen?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1444000918</amazonuk>0241573483

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Ali SparkesB09XWSXSKY|title=S.W.I.T.C.H: Ant AttackMaestro Orpheus and the World Clock|author=Robert Penee and Joanne Grodzinski

|summary=It seems that Josh and Danny are about to meet their matchFrederick (or Fred, but never Freddy, please) couldn't sleep. Despite being almost eaten by catsA tune, birds, spiders rather like the ticking of a clock was playing over and more when they've turned into creepy crawlies before over in this series, they have a far worse foe this his mind. It happened every time - Tarquin, the snooty posh brat from up the roadhe came to visit his grandfather. How they survive him turning them into ants, and his misguided attempts He hadn't really wanted to kill themcome; after all, while all the time the next door neighbourhe's scientific research which is allowing ten now and all this transformation has those old clocks don't appeal to be kept a top secret, are all elements of this fourth book in the serieshim anymore.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0192729357</amazonuk>}}''Who needs old clocks anyway? All they do is tell the time. And time isn't good for anything...''

{{newreview|author=Charlotte Haptie|title=Ice Angel|rating=5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Rockscar City is controlled by And that was why he was looking at the Scarspring family – or at least, its water supply is, which comes to clock beside the same thingbed. And the water which the citizens receive is stale and unpleasant, especially in It was nearly twelve o'clock but at midnight the summer monthsclock chimed only six times. City authorities are obliged to spend vast amounts of money looking There was nothing for new wells, it 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 go and sell delicious ices, they run into find grandad - but where was he? And why had all kinds of danger. Unless theythe clocks stopped at twelve o're very careful, they will be made to disappear, just as their father did twelve years before.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340894180</amazonuk>clock?

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Ali SparkesNigel Baines|title=S.W.I.T.C.H: Grasshopper GlitchA Tricky Kind of Magic

|genre=Confident Emerging Readers|summary=One minute Mrs Potts is an innocent old biddy living next door Cooper loves to Josh perform magic tricks. His father was a magician, and Danny, named Cooper after the next shegreat Tommy Cooper. But sadly Cooper's horrifying them by turning them into spidersfather died suddenly, then bluebottle flies. But and now theyCooper doesn're working for hert quite know who to be, trying or how to complete her bizarre body-swapping researchbe. SheAnd when his dad's paying them back by driving them prop rabbit starts talking to school. Luckily therehim, he ''really's not a chance that they might SWITCH while at school, or have to suffer a bully while in the shape and form of a grasshopper. Oops...|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0192729349</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Ali Sparkes|title=S.W.I.T.C.H: Fly Frenzy|rating=4|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Josh and Danny have only recently recovered from being turned into spiders by the peculiar scientist woman next door. But however adamant they are it'll never happen again, they dondoesn't foresee a time when theyknow what're willingly taking a repeat dose of the SWITCH serum, becoming tiny flying detectives, and almost drinking up spills from the toilet rim...s going on anymore!|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0192729330</amazonuk>1444960261

{{newreview|author=Peter Millett|title=The Curse of the Catastrophic Cupcakes (Boy Zero Wannabe Hero)|rating=3.5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Boy Zero Wannabe Hero has defeated General Pandemonium twice before, but as with all supervillains, he's relentless. This time, the General has come up with a wicked plan Move on to conquer the world by making everyone float off into space by feeding them catastrophic cupcakes. Will Boy Zero be able to save the world yet again?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0571253261</amazonuk>}}[[Newest Cookery Reviews]]