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[[Category:New Reviews|Confident Readers]] __NOTOC__<!-- Remove -->{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Matilda Woods1836285493|title=The Boy, the Bird and the Coffin MakerDouble Life of a Wheelchair User|author=Rob Keeley|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Alberto Will is a carpenterkeen player of video games, a conscientious student, the very best in the town of Alloraa slightly annoying brother and a supportive friend. But after the plague sweeps through the town, taking many most of the citizens and Alberto's wife and childrenall, he turns is an aspiring writer. English is his skills away from furniture favourite lesson at his school, Marlowe Park, and toys to making coffinsone at which he excels. Wrapped in sadnessThis hasn't gone unnoticed by his headteacher, Mrs Howarth, and waiting only for the plague she has suggested to come Will and claim his life too, Alberto lives alone, keeping company with the dead who are delivered to his house to await their coffin. One day, however, he realises mum that he must have spends a couple of afternoons a week at a living visitordifferent school, as food starts to go missing. He begins to leave scraps of foodStation Road, to try and discover who where his mystery thief is…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1407178695</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Gill Lewis and Jo Weaver|title= A Story Like the Wind|rating= 5|genre= Confident Readers|summary= A small group of people huddle together in a tiny boat in a large sea. Strangers to each other but united by a common experience. They have each lost everything and yet each has a dream of seeking and finding refuge. They each have hope. A small hopeability might be better extended.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0192758950</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Ryder Windham1836282028|title=Star Wars: Return of the Jedi Junior Novel (Star Wars Junior Novel 3)The Fighting Spirit|author=Rob Keeley
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=We open here ''Would you like to adopt a ghost?'' ''Young spirit, born 1887, seeks kind home to haunt. Gentleman by birth. Good company. Gets on well with the Rebellion in disarray, other children. Jokes and our heroes separatedshocks a speciality. Obviously they need to rescue the ones imprisoned'' ''If interested, place outside your home three twigs, liaise with in the ones acting as secret agentsshape of an arrow, and get back pointing to what they do bestyour front door.. For the Empire are doing the same – they are building another Death Star – .'' Hooray! Bookbag favourite Rob Keeley is celebrating a decade of his wonderfully entertaining [[Rob Keeley's ''Spirits'' series in Chronological Order|Spirits]] series with a new, bigger, quicker one without adventure that is both a reboot and a piddly little hole in it that just happens to allow the goodies the chance to destroy it at the first attemptcontinuation. OhJust like Doctor Who, Edward Fitzberranger, and our main heroincorrigible Victorian ghost boy, Lukehas some new companions. Ruby and Jayden respond to this intriguing advertisement and Edward, still who has broken the matter of who he should count rules as a family member to settle… Yesusual and absconded from his manor house home, this is the third film made in the ''Star Wars'' universe, adopted by them and takes up residence in .... a handy form for the eager junior novelisation reader.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1405285443</amazonuk>wardrobe!
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Julia GoldingRob Keeley|title= The Diamond of Drury LaneChildish Spirits: 10th anniversary special edition|rating= 4|genre= Confident Readers|summary= Set in 18th Century London, this historical thriller captures all the rawness of life in the grimy city. A young girl, Cat, who was orphaned at birth, is taken under the wing of a kind benefactor, Mr Sheridan, who found her abandoned on the steps of his theatre. The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, is an exciting place to grow up, and Cat becomes a well-loved member of the staff behind the scenes. While running errands in the theatre, she dreams of being a famous writer herself one day. Before her dream is realised though, Cat has an important role to play in solving a mystery - the mystery of a diamond hidden in the Theatre Royal itself.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1405285303</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Ryder Windham|title=Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back Junior Novel (Star Wars Junior Novel 2)|rating=3.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=IAround here, we've never actually held by the theory that re big fans of children's author Rob Keeley. He'The Empire Strikes Back'' is the best film in the series. To me, as s a youngsterball of happy positivity, I got the willies suitably with what happens to one characterhe understands children, and it was great to meet the Emperor at last, but beyond the assault on Hoth there was too much that didn't work he writes for me. I certainly wasn't impressed by the kissy-kissy nonsense interrupting the great space-faring action. But I have always been eager enough to revisit it, as the film I've seen the least of the seven, their pleasure and these YA variants of the films – adaptations of the canonical 2004 DVD editionsenjoyment, and first published at that time – are about the best way not to do thatlecture or hector.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1405285435</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Bobbie Peers|title= William Wenton and the Luridium Thief|rating= 4|genre= Confident Readers|summary= Bobbie Peers is a pretty talented guy. Not only did he win a The ''Palme dChildish Spirits'Or'series is one of his greatest achievements. It' award for s a film he wrote and directed in 2006sequence of ghost stories centring on Ellie, but a stalwart young girl who can cope with thisanything the spirit world throws at her, his first bookand Edward, he's turned his hand to writing for young people. And a spoiled lordling and the list of awards he's collecting in his native Norway are testament to his vivid and entertaining imagination. first spirit Ellie encounters|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>140637170X</amazonuk>1783064617
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Amanda Wood, Mike Jolley and Frances CastleMax Boucherat|title=Spot the Mistake: Lands The Last Life of Long AgoLori Mills
|rating=4.5
|genre=Children's Non-FictionConfident Readers|summary=You'll like as not have seen a childrenWe meet Lori on the first evening she's book before and harangued it for containing errorsgot 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. This book What could possibly go wrong? Snuggled in a blanket fort, she has at least two hundredone main intention, and thatis to log on to Voxminer, the world-building, critter-collecting game that is a hit in Lori's not a problemworld. Yes, in personifying the idea of learning through your mistakes, we get ten large dioramas of historical activity, all containing twenty things But first Lori has a tiny inkling that shouldnthis stormy night doesn't be therefind herself entirely on her own, and then she finds something even more spooky. Your task, For the server she and her bestie and nobody else should you choose be able to accept it, is to try and find them allenter shows signs of tampering. And the learning is also hereWhen malevolent eyes spark up on her phone screen, as we get text to tell us what and her safe place in the goofs were designed to show us. Make no mistakegame has been doctored – well, this where is a clever and absorbing read…girl to turn?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847809634</amazonuk>0008666482
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Ryder WindhamKieran Larwood and Joe Todd-Stanton|title=Star WarsDungeon Runners: A New Hope Junior Novel (Star Wars Junior Novel 1)Hero Trial
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=It takes a greater mind than mine to keep track Meet Kit. Like most of all the different versions people in his world, it seems, he is an avid fan of ''Star Wars Dungeon Running A New Hope'' that there have been. That was never the name it was known under at the startsport where a team of warrior, mage and healer enter specially prepared, century-old, for one thingmagical mazes, but beyond and race to the exuberant cinema classic known to so manyexit, you get perhaps bothering with the digitally retouched version, then treasure or the DVD version, which both added to big bad and took away some of those changesthe points they grant you along the way. And as it is with the filmUnfortunately for Kit, so it is with the novels. This new presentation only thing he's seen of the YA trilogy, while bearing latest race on the 2017 Copyright mark, inn TV equivalent is the 2004 children's novelisationsthat one team has been retired, as far as I can make outeaten, minus the picturesand a new trio of questors is needed. You do getPossibly very unfortunately indeed for Kit, on this first one, a '40 years he has taken to the goading from the token bully of Star Warshis world and stumbled into declaring he' sticker, which is proof ll enter as a team. What chance does this is a classic we're looking atfriendless, but more than muscle-free-zone have in actually managing that, just goes and how could he possibly hope to make me feel old…succeed?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1405285427</amazonuk>1839945184
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Matthew Clark Smith and Matt TavaresJames Sherwood Metts|title=Lighter than Air: Sophie Blanchard, the First Woman PilotPlanet Storyland
|rating=4.5
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction Confident Readers|summary=WeThings have been a bit sticky for the Earthlings. AI and automation have been proceeding apace, often replacing jobs they're in Paris, paid to do and – not other tasks that took time to be too rude about things – we seem surrounded by idiotsaccomplish. For one, it seems Just as they think the perfect place were beginning to get used to experiment with manned hot air balloon flights is in the middle of the biggest city in the world. For another, they think only men could suffer the slightly colder all this technological change and slightly thinner air experienced on such an adventure – women would never be able starting to cope. Meanwhile, a young girl is dreaming think of flightother, as so many are wont new ways to dospend time, completely unaware that she will soon marry one of the most famed balloonistsalong came an awful pandemic. They will have joint journeys skywardLife was pretty much shut down and, before his early demise – leaving the young woman, Sophie Blanchardalong with it, to go it alone and become all the first female pilotmany daily social interactions on which they depend so heavily.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0763677329</amazonuk>1736128426
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Lorraine Gregory Tom Percival|title=Mold and the Poison Plot The Wrong Shoes
|rating=5
|genre=Confident Readers |summary=MoldWill's mum abandoned him life is difficult, in a dustbin when multitude of ways. He is bullied because he has 'the wrong shoes', he was a baby but has the binmen didnwrong shoes because his dad can't want him. Luckily old Aggy gave him a home work and doesn't have enough money for even the most basic of things like food, andhis dad can't work because he lost his job at the college, with was working a crusty onecash-legged sailor as in-hand job on a friend, Mold is happybuilding site and had an accident. Happy until Aggy is accused of poisoning Throw into that mix the Kingfact that his mum and dad are separated, and Will's life seems bleak in every direction. Suddenly Mold finds himself alone and thrust into the unlikely role And yet, he still has a tiny amount of herohope. He sets off to rescue Aggy is good at art, and along the way finds himself trying clings to save the King and prevent moments of joy when he is drawing, that feel like a war with light at the Boggers. It's end of a lot for one small boy with an enormous nose but luckily he finds he's uniquely fashioned to sniff out dangerlong, dark tunnel. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0192745824</amazonuk>1398527122
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Danny Wallace1805141872|title= Hamish and the Gravity BurpThe Teacher Who Knew Too Much|author=Rob Keeley|rating= 4.5|genre= Confident Readers|summary=BUUUUUURRRRRRRRPPPPP''Seventeen banks and a jeweller’s have been raided. The police are baffled, but only Ben knows the truth – his Maths teacher, Miss Judson, is really a safecracker!With police and her gangster boyfriend Al on their trail, Miss Judson and Ben go on the run. But Al needs them for one last job...''
A terrifying noise Goodness me, that Miss Judson is rumbling through the sleepy town of Starkley (the fourth most boring town in Britain) and having a peculiar effect terror! How on the residents. Gravity has gone into reverse and the poor townsfolk are floating skyward, helplessly trying earth did a nice teacher like her manage to grab onto whatever they can in order to slow their ascent. Hamish Ellerby has just arrived home to find his family stuck to the ceiling, along get mixed up with a bowl of fruit, six batteries and a wind-up meerkat. What could be causing this strange phenomenon? Could it be leading up to something biggerbad 'un like Al? A ''gravity-belch'We'll find out. Luckily for Miss Judson, or heaven forbidthe pupil who discovers her terrible secret is Ben, the son of a ''gravity-FART''? It's up famous magician who has ambitions to Hamish and be as good as his gangfather some day, the PDF, to solve the mystery and restore order to Starkley in time for the official visit from the Public Office of Pride, or POP (shouldn't it be POOP?).|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1471147126</amazonuk>who thinks Miss Judson is worth saving
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Sarah CarrollChristopher Edge|title=The Girl In BetweenBlack Hole Cinema Club
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=After Lucas and his friends are all booked in for a family argumentmovie marathon at their local cinema, a girl and her mother are stuck out on place that has the streets nickname of Ireland, finding shelter finally in an old, abandoned mill'The Black Hole'. The mill becomes the girl's castleAll big movie fans, where she finally feels safe from the lurking threat of they'the authorities' and some re looking forward to lots of the strange men in her mother's life. Her motherexciting films, howeverand many, seems to be tumbling deeper into depressionmany snacks! However, keeping her daughter locked upas the movie starts, out of sight insidethey very quickly realise that something about this new film format is very different, and now there they are strange men in hard hats coming around the mill to measure and make notesswept up into an adventure they couldn't even imagine. Can But as they lurch from one film genre to the two of them move next, can they figure out what on earth is going on? Will they ever get back to the cinema, or will they be too late and to escapetheir real lives?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1471160629</amazonuk>1839942738
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jonathan Litton and Thomas HegbrookAdam Stower|title=The Earth Book: A World of Exploration Murray and WonderBun
|rating=4.5
|genre=Children's Non-FictionConfident Readers |summary=The Earth. I kind of quite like itMurray is supposed to be a humble, tidy and friendly cat, you know – it seems one who is able to serve my purposesleep and eat and eat and sleep and, well, whatever takes his fancy next of the two. I donBut he't think Is a bad magician've taken too much s cat, so his favourite bun has been turned into a hyperactive sticky rabbit called Bun, and the catflap they both use can chuck them out , not into the regular back garden, but into a world of frightening adventure and whiffs. This time round itdrops them into a Viking land, all toldwhere a troll hunter is expected – well, one much bigger than Murray was, to be honest, and if itbut he's divided turned up into 200 countries Iand he'm getting close ll have to having visited do…|isbn=0008561249}}{{Frontpage|author=Alex Bell and Tim McDonagh|title=The Glorious Race of Magical Beasts|rating=4|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Eli is a quarter of thembusy lad – by day an apprentice in the wondrous library we start by visiting with him, and in the evening a helper at the dessert cafe his gran owns and runs. But way back when I just didn't get on Eli lives with studying ithis lovely gran, too – for there is a generation missing in the family. I didnA few short years ago, Eli't like geography – what with having s parents were both lost to draw mapsthe titular race, oxbow lakes and whatnot I think it was one a globe-trotting adventure where all entrants have to navigate the world in the company of those subjects I was put off through a magical beast. This has made the race anathema to the pictorial element pair and dropped it as soon as I could. But thenbut when a bad incident at the eatery leads to a confession from gran, Eli knows his only hope is to dare to enter what he most hates, I didn't have with the sole aim the likes prize of this book magic at the end – the only thing to inspire me…possibly save his gran.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1848575246</amazonuk>0571382231
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Meg RosoffHelen Cooper|title=Good Dog McTavishThe Taming of the Cat|rating=3.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=McTavish did wonder whether he was making Once again, mice are pitched against cat. In this case, principally, we have Brie the mouse, up against Gorgonzola the cat – and in case you're seeing a mistake connection, they live in adopting the Peachey family: it was a decision which came from cheese shop and therefore all the heart rather than names used here seem to be the headnames of cheeses. You see the Peacheys were dysfunctional: Ma PeacheyAnyway, Brie is shunned, scorned and, an accountant by professionif you must, decided that she was fed up with chasing around after an ungrateful familymous-tracised, so she resigned and dedicated herself to her yoga for the way his habits don't match the other mice he lives with half a hint that she might also dedicate herself to her yoga teacher. She gave They nibble up cooking, cleaning, baking, washing paper wrapping from the cheese for bedding – he displays it as art and all makes stories based on the other things which kept the family goingvisuals on it. And that story-telling will come in handy one night, such as finding lost keys when he feels all alone and getting people cast out of bed so that they got . It's almost as if there were another character from fable who had had to tell stories to wherever they were going on timekeep themselves alive. And This makes Brie the top dog in the family? Wellmouse community, though, they as all the others had no idea of how the chance to cope, with one exceptionhalf-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>1781126836</amazonuk>0571376010
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Tom AnglebergerLauren St John|title=Marvel Rocket and Groot: Keep on Truckin'Finding Wonder
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Last time our favourite space-gun toting smallRoo's life has become almost impossibly difficult. Her mum died when she was young, furry woodland creature and his humanoid yet woody friend Groot, escaped a [[Marvel Rocket and Groot: Stranded on Planet Shopping Mall by Tom Angleberger|planet-sized shopping mall of death]], complete with their new companion now she finds herself awoken in the form 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 tape dispenserlottery ticket. When asked what other family she has, and an old friend (for Ishe can only name her aunt, Joni, who she knows her dad didn'm sure Rocket would t think very highly of any old space ship of his as a friend. But she has no one else, and so off she goes to live with her unreliable aunt. Things continue to get worse for Roo, much as Iwhen she and Joni leave London in Joni'm sure that if s old campervan, it breaks down in the reverse were technically possiblemiddle of nowhere and then bursts into flames! Poor Roo!|isbn=0571376169}}{{Frontpage|author=Adam Baron and Benji Davies|title=Oscar's Lion|rating=3|genre=Confident Readers|summary=We start incredibly bluntly, the ship would never do the same back)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 they run out of fuelhe enters his parents' bedroom, as we were led to expectall he sees is a mahoosive male lion on their bed, there is only one optionlooking sheepish, and admitting that is he won't be hungry for another two days. But there are benefits to land on the nightmarish world having a lion around nightmarish it can be shown as an unspoken threat to Rocketthe bully that ruined a birthday party for Oscar the other month. And it can shapeshift, at least – so he can take it to school and it can get him out of HappyHappyFunFuna problem. But whatAnd it's this? The whole world's inhabitants are now stuck hiding in caves for fear of wonderful to have around the dangers of house – not limiting his biscuit intake, being much more lax about the roadrules, as every vehicle is seemingly and so on a collision course with them, in a planet-wide instance of road rage. Surely even Rocket, who laughs in the face of danger, and GrootOK, who says it can''I am Groot'' in the face of danger, cannot hope to help?t work a dimmer switch but it can give Oscar a wonderful time.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1405285478</amazonuk>0008596751
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Tom AnglebergerJudith Eagle|title=Marvel Rocket and Groot: Stranded on Planet Shopping MallThe Stolen Songbird
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Caro''I am Groot''s mother, a world-famous whistler, has failed to return home from her recent work trip abroad and is now missing. I know what you're saying thereHer other mother, Ronnie, it ''is'' good having to go up North to see the japery take care of our favourite small woodland creature and tree-man-thing in book form, even if here it her sister who is a particularly unusual formunwell. Everything here So who is unusualgoing to look after Caro? Sent to stay with Gam, on Planet Shopping Mallsomeone Caro has heard her mother despises, where our heroes have arrived – she feels frustrated and not by choiceconfused and worried. Take the first place they go All her summer holiday plans of building herself some equipment to practise her gymnastics are brought toa halt whilst she is stuck inside this staid old Victorian lady's house, along with an orphan boy, a dry-cleanersAlbie, so that Rocket can clean his clothes of space piranha blood – the toilet in back just tries to eat himwho is living there too. The sickly-sweet sweet shop is manned by angry robot tooth fairiesBut she soon finds herself caught up in a mystery, with as she discovers a painting of a battle modebird hidden away inside her mum's old suitcase, and they too have all across London a fearsome gang called the consumption of peculiar life-forms in mindSnakes are thieving artworks and terrorising people. Can Is the stranded duo battle every evil thing around, and survive painting somehow linked to find a way off-worldthe gang? And can they cope with being forced what has happened to enter partnership with a purple tape dispenserCaro's mother? Is she somehow involved in the mystery too?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>140528546X</amazonuk>0571363148
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Philip Ardagh and Tom Morgan-JonesTania Unsworth|title=Norman the Norman from Normandy (Little Gems)Nowhere Island|rating=4.5|genre=Dyslexia FriendlyConfident Readers|summary=Meet NormanGil. Norman Just twelve, he is so determined to escape the care system – the Normansystem that constantly puts him in futureless places that are not homes – and find a home for himself. He is en route to yet another fosterer, when he jumps into an anonymous car, from Normandyand lets it ride him to his future. Not Big Bad Norman 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 Norman from Normandytwo directions of a motorway, a place inaccessible and definitely ignored enough to provide for their safety and seclusion. Them, and a mute girl also finding a home there, albeit so much more successfully. Over a few weeks we see if their oddball destinies can combine, or if this is one place where life as we would want it just would not Norma the Norman from Normandy – work…|isbn=1804540080}}{{Frontpage|author=Helen Peters|title=Friends and not even Nora Traitors|rating=3|genre=Confident Readers|summary=England, WW2. Two young girls are new at the Norman fromcountry pile called Stanbrook. One is Nancy, well destined to be in service all her life it doesn't sayseems, but my guess like the female generations before her. The other is NormandySidney, a girl from a hoity-toity Sussex boarding school that has been removed there away from bomber flight-paths. Norman isn't very big at all – he's just a little boyThe girls are chalk and cheese, and heif we hadn's not badt guessed that then their behaviour with each other over their first encounters would only prove it so. Or at least he doesnBut something is amiss, and first separately and then in combination they realise the Lord Evesham must be a rum 't think he isun. But because his father, Big Bad NormanMidnight deliveries are received under cover of secrecy, talk is buried in three parts (don't ask)made of meetings with Germans, and little baby Norman not only that, a local Spitfire factory has inherited Big Bad Norman's big bad Norman swordbeen attacked. But surely the girls are wrong, he's going to visit and the three parts – but only good will happen… Rightupper class could never be so underhand?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1781126976</amazonuk>1788004647
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Jane MitchellJamie Littler|title= A Dangerous CrossingArkspire|rating= 54|genre= Confident Readers|summary= Award winning author Jane Mitchell passionately believes in using literature as a conduit to highlight Human Rights' issues that children need Two sisters, Juniper and Elodie, born fifteen minutes apart, are growing to understand be chalk and talk aboutcheese. She explains Juniper is an eager hunter and trader in illicit magic, ''Children hear including relics from prior major wars left out in the political rhetoric Badlands. Elodie is intent on getting closer to power in one of the right side and religious districts of Arkspire, perhaps even to become the left side – that we should open our doors and let everybody child in, versus we should build barriers, we should build walls, we should ban people. And children are struggling line to make sense inherit the power of itthe Watcher, adults are struggling the closest to make sense of ita ruler the district has, we don't know what approach to take and what our views are because this is new, this is completely different to all one of usthe five major victors in said earlier war.'' 'A Dangerous Crossing' gets to Being trained in the magic that only five people can use would definitely change the heart status of the matterwhole family. But in finding something oddly magical, Juniper might just be able to gain some power of her own – for good, or for very, very bad…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1910411582</amazonuk>0241586143
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Jane Kerr024162343X|title=The Elephant ThiefStolen History|author=Sathnam Sanghera
|rating=5
|genre= Confident ReadersChildren's Non-Fiction|summary= In 1872 Maharajah I was the elephant bad company other people got into at school. I was sold at auction disruptive in Edinburgh to religious education classes because I disputed the existence of a zoo owner'god'. Shortly Where was the proof? In history lessons, it was probably worse still. Not too long after boarding the train end of WWII, I didn't so much want to his new home he destroyed learn about the train carriage British army's successes (and his new owner then decided that they would walk 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 his new home be there in Manchesterthe first place. The journey Looking back, I still believe I was right - but I regret that I lacked the maturity to take them ten daysapproach 'the problem' politely. Jane Kerr has used this event as the inspiration for her debut novel for children that tells a story that is exciting, compelling and ultimately very moving I wish I'd had Sathnam Sanghera's ''Stolen History''. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1910655759</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Joshua KhanThiago de Moraes|title= Dream MagicOld Gods New Tricks|rating= 4.5|genre= Confident Readers|summary= It's great to welcome our old friends back in thisMeet Trixie. Forever getting into scrapes, larks and adventures involving flooding the second of their adventuresschool aircon with fart powder, even though we know it means they'll she could almost be going through all sorts thought a young goddess of terrors and dangers once more as they battle not one but two enemies bent on destroying Gehennanuisance. Lady Lilith Shadow may be the sole heir to her country, but But just when she's still just a girl and therefore expected to do nothing more useful than marry some feeblebeing told that by her one-last-chance-witted prince to forge an alliance with a stronger kingdom. Her friend Thorngiving headteacher, on the other handworld changes. Suddenly, is practically everything electronic stops working – a peasant boy from a neighbouring country with a talent for getting into scrapes and an absolutely wonderful giant bat he uses to travel round on (when power-out, even of electric cars, hits not just the town the batschool's in but the mood to be helpfulentire planet (apart from mobile phones, and all that ispowers the Internet, just for our convenience's sake). Together they make a great team Trixie, luckily, realises what has happened – the ancient Gods have taken the power of power from us. And so she begins her epic quest, to gather all the people that can steal it back – namely the characters from myth that have past form in stealing from the Gods, ie the semi-deities, giants, half-gods and so on known as the tricksters. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1407172093</amazonuk>178845295X
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Elena Favilli Hannah Gold and Francesca CavalloLevi Pinfold|title=Good Night Stories for Rebel GirlsFinding Bear
|rating=4.5
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction Confident Readers|summary=It's [[The Last Bear by Hannah Gold|Last time]], April had been said very often 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 'history is told by the winners'she called Bear. Well, too often historyBack home, things on the news domestic and even destinies family front are written by mena bit advanced, but not perfect for her, and so can easily be ignored when word comes through from the proof is between these coversislands Bear was last left on. I didn't know anything about this before reading it, even if it For a bear doing very Bear-y things has become the most richly-backed crowd-funded book everbeen shot and wounded. IDesperate to make sure he'd never heard s OK, she and her father return to the Arctic and hope that in a world of the Hollow Flashlightvery white and very dangerous things, powered purely by body warmth she can find one specific white and dangerous thing which is rich if you're old enough to remember and that the brou-ha-ha when a maverick British bloke did a wind-up radiofriendship can continue.|isbn=0008582017}}{{Frontpage|author=Simon Fox|title=Deadlock|rating=4. I'd never read about 5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Late one night Graham Blake is late back from his shift on the Niger female who has successfully made a stand against forcedforce, arranged marriageand then suddenly rings Archie, rejecting demanding he fetch something from a cousin for a fate she wishes to write for herselfsecret place, and join him on the run. My ignorance mayThey get together, perhaps, show me up but barely begin to be a chauvinist smell the whiff of sorts, but I think it is further evidence that 'Southern trains when the gaze father is male' and that arrested, leaving Archie on the media are phallocentric. I hope too that this book doesn't turn any of its readers into late express to Brighton, toting a feminist, for that would be as bad as the chauvinist charge against me. If anything it is designed tin his father was determined to create equalskeep away from his colleagues, and that is as it should be, even if there is still the bearer of a long way to go…whole heap of questions.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>014198600X</amazonuk>1839944420
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Cath Howe|title=EvieMy Life on Fire|rating=5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Ren's family home is destroyed in a fire. She, her parents, and her little brother lose everything. She doesn't have any of her clothes, or any of her special little knick-knacks from her cupboard, and now she is living at her grandmother's Ghosthouse 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 class are doing a special art project, creating boxes of their lives, to display things that are important to them and show who they are as a person. But Ren has nothing to put in a box, and so she finds herself starting to steal things. Small things, things that people might not really miss, not when they have so much already. But what will happen to her if someone finds out what she is doing?|isbn=1839942835}}{{Frontpage|author= Rob Keeley|title= The Boy Who Disappeared and Other Stories|rating=4|genre=Confident Readers|summary= Hooray! Bookbag favourite Rob Keeley is back with a return to the short story format! The Boy Who Disappeared treats us to eleven new tales, each as fun to read as his previous offerings.|isbn= B0BVW69N1G}}{{Frontpage|author=Helen PetersLaura Noakes|title=Cosima Unfortunate Steals a Star
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Evie is not happyMeet Number One. Or rather, Cosima Unfortunate. Not only has Or rather, just Cos to her mother disrupted their hitherto happy duo friends. The practice in the home she lives in is for the girls to just be named by getting marriedthe number they correspond to in the ledger, and they're all Unfortunates – young people with disabilities, uncommon mentalities or suchlike that Victorian society frowns greatly upon. But Cosima bears the tag as a surname because nothing else seems to be known about where she has flown off on honeymoon with new husband Marcus came from, as the first ever inmate, and sent Evie off unique in having no known family in the outside world. During a daring escapade to stay with steal some posh cakes from the kitchen one afternoon, she discovers a plan involving said outside world – a godmother she hasn't seen devilish Lord Fitzroy seems to want to adopt all the girls for years his Institute. But why, and can barely rememberwhat does that body entail? And could it possibly bring Cos closer to the past she has so little link with?|isbn=0008579059}}{{Frontpage|author=Alice M Ross|title=The Nowhere Thief|rating=4. And if that weren't bad enough, godmother Anna lives 5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=At last there is new stock in the impoverished yet over-full antiques shop Elsbeth and her mother run in a creaky old mansion miles seaside town. Elsbeth knows this because she has stolen it. She also knows she should be free from anywhereworries about being found out, because she has the ability to leave this world, without such necessities as internet access and a mobile phone signal. Anna doesn't even own a televisionuse an unworldly portal of kaleidoscope colours to enter other worlds, where the sea levels are rising dramatically and the buildings are generally empty of humans and ripe for heavens sakeplunder. With eviction imminent, can Elsbeth nab anything to actually generate custom at the shop? Well yes, is the answer, but the fact a mysterious man knows exactly which items come from these different Somewheres only raises more questions…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0857638424</amazonuk>1839943769
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Sarah DriverNatasha Farrant|title= The Huntress: SeaRescue of Ravenwood|rating= 45|genre= Confident Readers|summary= Feisty heroines who refuse to accept This story is another excellent adventure from the limitations set on them by men abound in literature at author of ''Voyage of the moment – which Sparrowhawk''. Ravenwood is all to an old house, in the good – North of England, where Bea and thirteen-year-old Mouse is no exceptionRaffy have been living for most of their lives. She lives They are part of a precarious but happy life on the ''Huntress'' complex, extended family arrangement, as Bea is there with her one-eyed grandmaUncle Leo, who and Raffy is the ship's captainthere with his mum, and her little brother Sparrowthey are living together as a family. Their tribe worships They have grown up swimming in the cove, roaming through the whales as godstrees, protecting and working together completely at one with them to defeat all of the nature around the vicious house and bloodthirsty terrodylsloving every inch of the place. But now the house is under threat, and despite her young age Mouse as Leo is already under pressure from his other two brothers to sell the property to a gifted diver for the pearls which developer as it's becoming more and more expensive to maintain. The children find themselves worrying not only about where they're going to live, but if they trade for food'll even be together, and if Ravenwood itself will be torn down. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1405284676</amazonuk>0571348785
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{{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=Stargazing for BeginnersRobin Birch and Jobe Anderson|authortitle=Jenny McLachlanSecret Beast Club: The Unicorns of Silver Street
|rating=4
|genre=TeensConfident Readers|summary=Meg loves spaceJayden's nose is forever in a book, which means he knows a lot about mythological creatures – the phoenixes and unicorns of the world, for example. And when we say Meg loves space Aisha is addicted to her new tablet, where she can see videos of anything that might be out there. The problem, as their mothers see it, this doesnis that they are never 't quite explain how much Meg loves space. Meg loves all things space to out there' themselves, exploring the exclusion outside world of almost everything elseHackney, London. She has But when a space mural in her bedroom. She belongs to narrowboat turns up carrying a stargazing club science-minded, educational purpose, and with her grandfathera past involving Jayden's cousin, they find a magical world they never knew existed. She is determined to become an astronaut For many of those mythological creatures are real, including the one dayAisha thinks she's seen on a bit of local footage. And she dreams The crew of winning the boat, including a competition that will earn living gargoyle, are tasked with saving the rare critters – and the kids unknowingly have the magical sight needed to join in. Dare they side with Leila, the woman on board, and her relative who lives as a place on figure in a trip to NASA in Houston. painting, and become saviours of the unseen?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1408879751</amazonuk>0241573483
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Ryan Tubridy and P J LynchB09XWSXSKY|title=Patrick Maestro Orpheus and the PresidentWorld Clock|author=Robert Penee and Joanne Grodzinski
|rating=4
|genre=Emerging Confident Readers |summary=Meet PatrickFrederick (or Fred, but never Freddy, please) couldn't sleep. Such A tune, rather like the ticking of a direction is a little facetious hereclock was playing over and over in his mind. It happened every time he came to visit his grandfather. He hadn't really wanted to come; after all, because ithe's who ten now and all those old clocks don't appeal to him anymore. 'he'sWho needs old clocks anyway? All they do is tell the time. And time isn't good for anything...'' going to meet  And thatwas why he was looking at the clock beside the bed. It was nearly twelve o's clock but at midnight the keyclock chimed only six times. He lives in New Ross, County Wexford, and his school has been chosen to perform as a choir There was nothing for the much-anticipated arrival of President J F Kennedy, as the man traces the path of his Irish ancestry, in what (in addition it but to stopgo and find grandad -overs in England and Italy on the same trip) but where was to be his last state visit abroad. he? But surely just being one among three hundred on such an auspicious, yet brief, occasion is not enough for such an enterprising ladAnd why had all the clocks stopped at twelve o'clock? Well, no, for his connected parents have got another trick up their sleeve for him…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1406366927</amazonuk>
}}
 
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