Newest Confident Readers Reviews
Confident readers
Michael Rosen's Big Book of Bad Things by Michael Rosen
When he was little, Michael Rosen's dad remembered all the bad things he'd done and reminded him of them when appropriate, so Michael imagined he'd written them all down in a Big Book of Bad Things. Here he presents the eponymous poem, as well as many many other tales of childhood, from the horrors of being a second late to school, to making a raft, to going to a café. Some bad, some sad, some quirky, some funny, some touching, some light-hearted, all wonderful. Full review...
comin 2 gt u by Simon Packham
Sam Tennant is reasonably happy at school, generally gets on alright with people, and doesn't have much to worry about – until he's murdered in the first chapter of this novel. Oh, not really murdered – his character in a game he plays online is killed. But then, the two who kill him refer to him by his real name instead of his computer persona, and he realises that virtual life has just become very nasty indeed. Full review...
The Edge of Nowhere by John E Smelcer
Could you survive in the wilds of Alaska if you were washed overboard from a fishing boat during a storm and somehow, amazingly, managed to make it to dry land? This is the challenge facing Seth and his loyal dog, Tucker. They are out on Seth's father's fishing boat during a terrible storm and neither Seth's dad or his friend realise that the boy and dog have been washed overboard until they reach home and are found to be missing from the boat. A search party is sent out, but Seth is assumed drowned. Luckily, Seth and his dog manage to get to one of the tiny islands that run along the coast of Alaska, and after realising that no one is coming to help them they slowly make their way hundreds of miles over many months. Will they starve to death, or freeze, or be eaten by bears before they manage to make it home? Full review...
The Blackhope Enigma by Teresa Flavin
14-year old Sunni finds it bad enough that when she's trying to do some research on a famous Fausto Corvo painting in Blackhope Tower's Mariner's Chamber, she gets lumbered with her annoying stepbrother to look after. Add to that the presence of her classmate Blaise, a boy who's better at art than she is, and her day is looking depressing – and that's before Dean mysteriously vanishing when walking around the chamber's labyrinth. Full review...
Grk Down Under by Joshua Doder
If you'd ever wondered where speed and agility, and a huge appetite for going where he shouldn't and eating what he oughtn't can get a dog, you only have to turn to this book for evidence. I won't let on how a tiny dog manages to get himself to Australia unaided, but he does - leaving his human owners back in England, and young Tim Malt especially desperate for his return. But the dog called Grk is about to find out how dangerous and nasty Australians can be... Full review...
The Time-travelling Cat and the Great Victorian Stink by Julia Jarman
Consider cats. Normally they like to leave you things like poop, and dead animals, generally in the middle of the kitchen floor. Topher's cat leaves himself a stone statue version of himself when he decides to time travel to some past time of history. I know - odd. I can also introduce you to a very different Topher, one just escaped from the workhouse in Victorian London - if only he could escape the stench of the open sewers in London, and the hunger in his stomach just as easily. Well, I could - but actually they are the same person, just with a completely different mind. When our Topher travels through time as well - on the back of a bird - he finds himself in the person of the second, historical lad. Will that homework project about Victorian history be enough to help him out, and perhaps prevent a nasty crime or two? Full review...
Tall Story by Candy Gourlay
Andi is a young teenager in the UK. She's not very tall, but she is brilliant at basketball. And she has finally been chosen to play for her school team.
Bernardo is an extremely tall teenager in the Philippines. He lives with his aunt and uncle, and keeps on growing. He is surrounded by superstition, since his name is the same as that of a legendary giant who supposedly protected his village during a major earthquake. Oddly enough, there have not been any earthquakes for some years... ever since Bernardo had his first dramatic growth spurt. Full review...
Tilly's Pony Tails: Neptune the Heroic Horse by Pippa Funnell
Tilly has recently been reunited with her brother – they know nothing of their birth mother and were adopted by different families – and she's just been invited to go on holiday to Cornwall with him and his family. It will mean leaving the horses and ponies at the local stables but she's sure that they'll all manage without her for a week. Once in Cornwall she's delighted to find that there's a riding stable nearby and she soon makes friends, particularly with a horse called Neptune. She also meets a girl called Megan who loves swimming, but can't understand why Megan is frightened of horses and doesn't want to learn to ride, despite the encouragement she gets from her parents. Full review...
Doctor Doom: Oli and Skipjack's Tales of Trouble by Ceci Jenkinson
Eleven-year-old Skipjack is in serious trouble: his team lost a cricket match because he fell asleep, and now Slugger Stubbins is after him. Slugger has two things in mind: to bash Skipjack, and to squeeze out of him the ten pounds he lost betting on the match. Skipjack, therefore, spends a large part of this wonderfully silly book hiding from his nemesis using a variety of fancy dress costumes from his friend Doctor Hamish Levity's shop. Oli, on the other hand, has weightier matters to deal with: he has discovered an International Criminal Mastermind. And because he has always dreamed of being a secret agent, this promises to be the perfect opportunity to try out the practical tips on espionage contained in The Good Spy's Handbook, which he has recently been given. Full review...
A Most Improper Magick by Stephanie Burgis
The very first sentence of this charming and funny book sets the tone. Twelve-year-old Kat is setting off, dressed as a boy, to earn her fortune, pay back her brother's gambling debts, and save her two sisters from having to marry rich old men. Fortunately for Kat, she is stopped before she gets to the end of the front garden. All the trappings of Regency romance are here: fainting heroines, evil stepmothers, handsome young men with no prospects, and even a highwayman. But in this, the first book of a trilogy, there is something extra: Kat's late mother was a witch. Full review...
Artemis Fowl and the Atlantis Complex by Eoin Colfer
Artemis Fowl is trying to save the world. No wonder Holly Short and Foaly think he's not himself. He might stand to make another huge fortune, but he's thinking about global warming, and technological cures for it. But he's also thinking about a lot of other things - in particular, the patterns of the number five. His mind seems stuck making him tap things in multiples of five times, and use sentences with five words in. But when his demonstration in Iceland goes wrong with a four-engined fairy space probe crashing, he certainly becomes something other than himself. Full review...
First Hero (The Chronicles Of Avantia) by Adam Blade
There's a land under threat from an evil man leading a well-drilled, lethal army. And there's a boy, and his companion, and his destiny is to save the land from the evil man, who will only get more evil if he gets what he wants, which is currently in four pieces. If this sounds like a well-worn template, don't blame me. Adam Blade writes as if by committee, and that's because he is one - it's a pseudonym for a cabal of pre-teen fantasy churners. But enough of him - we should be talking of Tanner, the lad in this book. Full review...
Organ Music by Margaret Mahy
David and Harley are out later than they should be. David is getting anxious: he knows his mother will be worrying already, and he's not the type to break rules or get into trouble of any kind. But Harley's feeling rebellious; he's having a tough time at home at the moment, and he's up for pushing at some boundaries. So they wander along Forbes Street, in a down-at-heel area of town, looking for a bit of adventure. And surely enough, they find it in a car left with its keys temptingly in the ignition. Full review...
Dork Diaries: Party Time by Rachel Renee Russell
This is the second in the series of 'Wimpy Kid' for girls books, full as usual of comic cutaways to cartoon strips, illustrations, OMGs, BTWs, BFFs, smileys and over-used exclamation marks!!!!! It's October, and Nikki is stuck between a rock and a hard place. The place is the school's Halloween Ball, ideally with Brandon, the crush of her life for this term at middle school. The rock is as usual the evil Mackenzie, the Cruella de Vil of snobbish, bullyish school bitches. Can Nikki resolve her dilemma - just for the fortnight this diary spans, and get her beau to the ball - especially when she double-books herself? Full review...
Aunt Severe and the Dragons by Nick Garlick and Nick Maland
Daniel is a little boy whose parents have gone away exploring. They telephone him every day, but then one day the phone calls stop and so Daniel has to go to live with his Aunt Severe. She takes his toys away, feeds him spinach sandwiches, wakes him every day at four-thirty and gets him helping with her rather strange rubbish-collecting activities. Things get more interesting for Daniel when he discovers four little lost dragons hiding in Aunt Severe's garden. He tries to help them, but before he can do anything three of the dragons are captured and locked up in a zoo. Daniel is left to rescue them with only the fourth dragon, Dud's, help and, as you can imagine, he's called 'Dud' for a reason! Full review...
The Rainbow Orchid: Adventures of Julius Chancer 2 by Garen Ewing
Oh to be popular - and the rainbow orchid certainly is. If, in fact, it exists at all. A collecting challenge for rare plants might hinge on its recovery, imperial British explorers would like to know the truth about it - and its presence on some mysterious ancient carved tablets hints at some mystical part it may once have played in a superweapon. Hence, where this book starts, everyone - from a film starlet, to a dashing explorer's assistant, to a plucky aviator, to an evil henchwoman of an overweight industrialist - is after it. Full review...
Zelah Green: One More Little Problem by Vanessa Curtis
We first met Zelah when her OCD got so bad she was sent off to a live-in centre for treatment. She's at home now, with the OCD still around but not totally debilitating. She's still jumping on the stairs - but not so many jumps and not so often. She's still scrubbing her face, but it isn't quite red raw. You'd call her overly fastidious rather than ill. And her therapist is pleased with her progress. But then... Full review...
Laura Marlin Mysteries: Dead Man's Cove by Lauren St John
Laura has been in foster care since she was born, but Social Services have recently discovered that she has an uncle. So, at the beginning of this adventure mystery she finds herself moving to a house by the beach in Cornwall to live with Calvin Redfern, a man she has never met before. Laura's experiences have taught her to question everything, to be independent and to stand on her own two feet, so having an uncle who trusts her to be sensible, rather than lay down a list of rules, seems ideal. But Uncle Calvin and his house are shrouded in secrets. Why does he work such strange hours? Where does he go late at night? And why are there no signs of his past in the house? Full review...
Penguin Peril (The Secret Mermaid) by Sue Mongredien
Molly originally moved to the seaside so that her parents could live with her Gran who was getting old and needing help. There's a secret between Molly and her Gran though: Gran used to be a secret mermaid and now Molly is too. During the day Molly is an ordinary schoolgirl, but at night with the help of her magical shell necklace she becomes a mermaid and returns to the deeps to help the other mermaids when there's a problem. This tim it's the penguins who have mysteriously disappeared from the icy seas and the mermaids are concerned that the Dark Queen might be behind the troubles. Full review...
How Ali Ferguson Saved Houdini by Elen Caldecott
Elen Caldecott has done it again! Hard to believe she's managed another book as amusing and insightful as How Kirsty Jenkins Stole the Elephant, but here it is! Ali Ferguson has just moved into a new flat with his mum. He loves her very much, but he also misses his dad, who left them two years before. He desperately hopes his dad will come back to them one day from his travels in Asia: his mum is sure that will never happen. But Ali is a cheerful boy with a positive outlook on life, and he sees moving to their new home as an adventure. And it isn't long before he finds himself in a real-life mystery, every bit as engrossing and dangerous as the ones he loves to imagine. Full review...
Follyfoot by Monica Dickens
Follyfoot Farm is the home of the Colonel, his wife and her daughter Callie – along with the stable hands and rather a lot of unwanted, neglected or elderly horses. Some people paid for their horses to retire there but that was unusual and everyone lead a hand-to-mouth existence to give the horses the best life possible. Not everyone feels the same way about the horses though – or about the people who live and work at the farm – and along with looking after the horses the stable hands have to find out what's going on and why. Full review...
Magic Parcel: The Awakening by Frank English
Jimmy Scoggins is an ordinary boy of nine, who lives with his mother and his brother. He loves to visit his uncle Reuben, believing the old man must have special powers because he always knows exactly what type of ice cream Jimmy would like to eat that day. Reuben tells Jimmy thrilling tales, and at the beginning of this book actually sends his nephew into another world, called Omnia, for an adventure. Jimmy is not the first boy to go to there: his brother Tommy used to go too, but now he is thirteen he has stopped, feeling it is all rather babyish. But something has gone wrong this time: Jimmy does not return, and Tommy has to cross the barrier between worlds to find him. Full review...
Forest Born by Shannon Hale
Rinna is the youngest of seven children, and the only girl. As a child she lives an idyllic existence in the forest with her beloved Ma and a huge, loving family. But Rinna has gifts which she does not understand, and which frighten her because she senses in herself a terrible potential for evil. She loves her home deeply, but when the trees which once made her feel so peaceful appear to reject her, she is confused and unhappy to such a degree that she decides to leave the forest and join her favourite brother Razo at court in the city. This leads her into a cracking adventure full of magic, betrayal and terrifying peril. Full review...
The Cabinet of Curiosities by Paul Dowswell
When Lukas Declercq begins work as an apprentice to his uncle, a court physician to the Holy Roman Emperor in Prague, it's only after an absolutely hair-raising journey. Robbed at knifepoint and left naked and penniless, he fell in with a much more streetwise child, Etienne, who helped him blag his way across the country. Full review...
Bitter Chocolate by Sally Grindley
Pascal and Kojo are best friends in a place where friendship is scarce. The boys work on a cocoa plantation in West Africa, far from their families. It's brutal work overseen by brutal men and the boys labour from dawn 'til dusk, rewarded by beatings, a wooden pallet to sleep on, and a bowl of corn paste. They're always hungry and tired. Kojo tries to keep up his spirits, looking forward to the day he can take his wages home and make a difference to his family. But Pascal isn't so optimistic. He knows they'll never be paid, and he suspects they'll never be allowed to leave. He's probably right. Full review...
The Space Crime Conspiracy by Gareth P Jones
Thirteen-year-old Stanley Bound is an ordinary boy from south London who lives above a pub with his bad-tempered half-brother Doug. He is bullied at school, and the situation only gets worse when he discovers that the popular new boy Lance has been both lying and stealing. Lance gets his revenge by framing Stanley, and now no one trusts him, even his grumpy brother. Little wonder, then, that our sad and lonely hero dreams of travelling to distant places to escape his miserable life. But as we all know, that is a dangerous desire: Stanley should have remembered that people who get what they wish for often regret it. By the end of the book he has travelled the universe, been accused of murder, and met more bizarre characters than even his wildest dreams could have created. Full review...
The Hoozles: My Magical Teddy by Jessie Little
Willow and her brother Freddie have gone to stay in Summertown with their Aunt Suzy whilst their parents are away for the summer. Aunt Suzy owns a toy shop in town, and she makes her own special Hoozle soft toys. Willow and Freddie each have a Hoozle of their own that their Aunt made for them - Willow has Toby the teddy bear and Freddie has Wobbly the Lion. Willow loves Toby dearly, but it isn't until she is staying with her aunt that she discovers that Toby can come to life and talk to her and she can talk to him! And so begins a summer full of magical adventures for Willow and the Hoozles. Full review...
The Incredible Luck of Alfie Pluck by Jamie Rix
Poor Alfie Pluck. He lives with his two aunts who are grotesquely disgusting, and who call him their Household Drudge. They reminded me of some of Roald Dahl's most appalling creations. Compared to Alfie's aunts, Harry Potter's Dursley relatives are warm and friendly. Alfie is decidedly down on luck. Full review...
Magical Mischief by Anna Dale
Mr Hardbattle runs a dusty old bookshop where magic has moved in. Its smell puts customers off and it regularly causes chaos such as the books rearranging themselves of their own accord. But this bookseller is a nice man who doesn’t want to disturb the magic too much by getting out the vacuum cleaner, and on the whole they get used to each other. Now though, he is facing a huge rent increase. Enter two customers, young Arthur and Miss Quint, who agree to help him find a nice new home for the magic, and to help look after the shop while Mr Hardbattle travels to visit some people who have answered an advert offering the magic a new home. Full review...
Mistress of the Storm by Melanie Welsh
Verity Gallant is the oldest child in her family. She's rather plain and awkward, feels a bit like a social outcast at school, and stumbles along at home too where her beautiful, blonde, sweet little sister Poppy is obviously the favourite. One day Verity discovers a mysterious stranger in the library reading a strange book. He runs away when he sees her, taking the book with him, but Verity chases after him, following him down to the shore where he gets into a boat ready to row away. He gives the book to her when she challenges him, along with a mysterious round object. This seemingly innocuous event brings about huge changes in Verity's life. Having been ignorant about her family's history she begins to research about the gentry, with the help of her friends, and discovers skills and strengths that she never knew she had. Just in time too, for as the mysterious stranger tells her, the storm is coming... Full review...
Philippa Fisher and the Stone Fairy's Promise by Liz Kessler
In the third book of this enchanting series Liz Kessler manages to show both the delights and the sorrows of friendship: a topic which is eternally popular with young (and not so young) readers. Philippa has travelled with her father and mother to Ravenleigh to spend New Year with her new friend Robyn. But she has only just arrived when disaster strikes. Daisy, her other best friend and fairy godsister (like a fairy godmother but the same age as you), realises Philippa's mother is in danger, and tries to help. But in order to do so she has to break a lot of rules, and a series of catastrophes means Philippa ends up with Daisy in ATC (Above The Clouds), a sector of the fairy world. And the other fairies don't realise who she is ... Full review...
Nobody's Horse by Jane Smiley
Abby lives on her family's farm in California. They specialise in taking horses and ponies which are not at their peak and bringing them on so that they can be sold at a profit. Abby's father is determined that she won't get attached to any of the horses, because that only increases the pain when they inevitably go, but two are going to make an impact on her that she could not have expected. The first is a foal whose dam dies when he's a matter of weeks old and he takes Abby's heart. The second has the opposite effect because every time that Abby rides him he's determined to buck her off. She's frightened of him and it's a tribute to Abby that the worst she calls him is Grumpy George. Full review...
Instructions by Neil Gaiman
Go through the mysterious door, mind the imp, trust the wolves and answer the ferryman's question carefully. Neil Gaiman takes us on a tour of a fantasy land with a series of instructions for surviving the adventure. You'll discover wonders beyond your wildest dreams, and return home safely, a little older and a little wiser. Full review...
Damian Drooth, Supersleuth: Football Forgery by Barbara Mitchelhill
Getting to the end of a story, even one which really grips you, can be hard work if you have only just learned to read independently or are at the younger end of the confident readers range. But Damian Drooth, Supersleuth: Football Forgery is a slim book (60 pages), with lots of pictures, and a decent-sized font. And it is a proper book, too, with an engaging main character, lots of action and a fascinating mystery, so satisfaction is guaranteed. Full review...
Dewey: The True Story of a World-famous Library Cat by Vicki Myron and Brett Witter
This heart-warming book tells the wonderful true story of a cat called Dewey. His beginnings were very humble and his life could quite probably have been quite short if it had not been for a fortuitous event that occurred one cold winter morning. Vicki Myron, the chief librarian at Spencer Library in Iowa, heard some very strange noises coming from the book drop box that borrowers used in order to return their books when the library was closed. On opening the box she discovered a small, dirty, shivering kitten and her heart melted. As a consequence, the kitten, which was soon to be named Dewey, was adopted and became the official library cat. Full review...
Sudden Death (Striker) by Nick Hale
Jake Bastin, son of famous former footballer Steve, thought his life was difficult enough even before his father enters negotiations to join St Petersburg’s newest football team as manager. But when the agent his dad’s discussing the move with collapses of a suspected heart attack, things get far more complicated – because Jake is convinced he was actually poisoned, and can’t understand why his dad seems happy to go along with a cover up. As the pair move to St Petersburg, the bodies start piling up, and Jake goes from having to fight to control his temper, to fight to save his life. With no way of knowing if he can trust anyone, even his own father, can the youngster stand up to criminals who are happy to kill to get what they want? Full review...
