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[[Category:New Reviews|Confident Readers]] __NOTOC__<!-- Remove -->{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Joan Aiken and Quentin Blake1836285493|title=Arabel’s Raven|rating=4.5|genre=For Sharing|summary=It’s been many, many years since I first met Arabel and her pet raven, Mortimer, whilst watching Jackanory on children’s television. Bernard Cribbins used to read the stories, and they became firm favourites The Double Life of mine. Here I am returning to the first book in the series, well, just a handful of years later, and the story has lost none of its charm.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847806910</amazonuk>}}{{newreviewWheelchair User|author= Philip Caveney|title= One For SorrowRob Keeley|rating= 5|genre= Confident Readers|summary= You'd thinkWill is a keen player of video games, wouldn't youa conscientious student, that Tom Afflick would move heaven a slightly annoying brother and earth to avoid leaving Manchester to go to Edinburgh: on his last two visits there he ended up tumbling into the pasta supportive friend. But most of all, where he met all manner of scary folkis an aspiring writer. But parents tend to be pretty determined to get their own way about such thingsEnglish is his favourite lesson at his school, Marlowe Park, and no way are they going to swallow some mad tale about him being chased one at which he excels. This hasn't gone unnoticed by plague doctors his headteacher, Mrs Howarth, and other assorted murderers. So, off he she has suggested to go, Will and yes – his mum that he's barely set foot in ''Auld Reekie'' when he's time travelling again, in spends a wondrous mix couple of dramaafternoons a week at a different school, real live people and deadly perilStation Road, where his ability might be better extended.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1905916957</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Dave Cousins1836282028|title=Charlie Merrick's Misfits in I'm a Nobody, Get Me Out of Here!The Fighting Spirit|author=Rob Keeley

|summary=What is that saying''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 other children. Jokes and shocks a speciality.'' ''If interested, place outside your home three twigs, about in the best laid plans shape of an arrow, pointing to your front door...'' Hooray! Bookbag favourite Rob Keeley is celebrating a decade of mice and misfits gang aft agley? Charlie and his fondly thought of friends in the soccer squad we met wonderfully entertaining [[Charlie MerrickRob Keeley's Misfits ''Spirits'' series in Fouls, Friends, and Football by Dave CousinsChronological Order|last timeSpirits]] are hoping for series with a simple trip to new adventure that is both a summer camp for reboot and a week's educative trainingcontinuation. But noJust like Doctor Who, Edward Fitzberranger, our incorrigible Victorian ghost boy, their dopey manager has booked them in to a survival camp by mistakesome new companions. Instead of hitting the back of the net they're building tarpaulin shelters. They can't set any watching footie-heads ablaze, for they have Ruby and Jayden respond to spark their own fires at night. They can still score, howeverthis intriguing advertisement and Edward, who has broken the rules as there's a points-based competition to hand, but now that Charlie has dropped usual and absconded from his team in the proverbialmanor house home, they're once more really is adopted by them and takes up against it…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0192738232</amazonuk>residence in.... a wardrobe!

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=John McNallyRob Keeley|title=The Forbidden City (Infinity Drake, Book 2)Childish Spirits: 10th anniversary special edition

|genre=TeensConfident Readers|summary=Finn may be only 9mm tall and still a teenagerAround here, but hewe're big fans of children's already saved the world onceauthor Rob Keeley. Accidentally shrunk by his mad scientist Uncle AlHe's a ball of happy positivity, he understands children, and he joined a crack military team writes for their pleasure and helped foil the threat enjoyment, not to lecture or hector.  The ''Childish Spirits'' series is one of a lethal bio-weapon, the Scarlatti wasphis greatest achievements. But thereIt's no let-up for Finn. Before Al a sequence of ghost stories centring on Ellie, a stalwart young girl who can restore him to normal sizecope with anything the spirit world throws at her, and Edward, a new threat emerges.spoiled lordling and the first spirit Ellie encounters|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0007521650</amazonuk>1783064617

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Tom PalmerMax Boucherat|title=Rugby Academy: DeadlockedThe Last Life of Lori Mills|rating=4.5|genre=Dyslexia FriendlyConfident Readers|summary=ItWe meet Lori on the first evening she's got the third story in the ''Rugby Academy'' series and so far we've heard from Woody in [[Rugby Academy: Combat Zone by Tom Palmer|Combat Zone]] and Rory in [[Rugby Academy: Surface house to Air by Tom Palmer|Surface herself – no neighbour to Air]]pop in, babysitter poorly, mother at work, just an avidly rule-breaking eleven year old, on her lonesome. In thisWhat could possibly go wrong? Snuggled in a blanket fort, the final book in this brilliant seriesshe has one main intention, we hear from Owen. We left the team at the end of ''Surface and that is to Air'' when Borderlands had got through log on to Voxminer, the World Championship world-building, critter-collecting game that is a hit in New ZealandLori's world. Despite the elation of doing so Owen isnBut first Lori has a tiny inkling that this stormy night doesn't find herself entirely comfortable with Jesseon her own, and then she finds something even more spooky. For the team captainserver she and her bestie and nobody else should be able to enter shows signs of tampering. He has no doubts that he was a brilliant player - the best When malevolent eyes spark up on her phone screen, and her safe place in the team - but he can't respect him as game has been doctored – well, where is a person.girl to turn?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1781123993</amazonuk>0008666482

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=E L KonigsburgKieran Larwood and Joe Todd-Stanton|title=From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs Basil E FrankweilerDungeon Runners: Hero Trial

|summary=Eleven-year-old Claudia Kincaid Meet Kit. Like most of the people in his world, it seems, he is tired an avid fan of being taken for granted. As Dungeon Running – the oldest sport where a team of four childrenwarrior, mage and healer enter specially prepared, she suffers many an injusticecentury-old, magical mazes, and race to the interplay of school exit, perhaps bothering with the treasure or the big bad and home life is becoming monotonousthe points they grant you along the way. She decides to run away from her home in Greenwich Unfortunately for Kit, Connecticut to live in the New York City Metropolitan Museum only thing he's seen of Art. Middle brother Jamiethe latest race on the inn TV equivalent is that one team has been retired, 9eaten, and a new trio of questors is her chosen companionneeded. Possibly very unfortunately indeed for Kit, not least because he can fund their venturehas taken to the goading from the token bully of his world and stumbled into declaring he'll enter as a team. By cheating his friend Bruce at card games, Jamie has accumulated more than $24 – which What chance does this friendless, muscle-free-zone have in 1967 when this classic children's novel first appearedactually managing that, was not an insignificant amount.and how could he possibly hope to succeed?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1782690719</amazonuk>1839945184

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Rachel Renee RussellJames Sherwood Metts|title=Dork Diaries: Drama Queen (Dork Diaries 9)Planet Storyland|rating=4.5

|summary=Meet Mackenzie Hollister. She's Things have been a typical American tweenager – concerned in popularity, looks, bit sticky for the hot guys like Brandon, and getting one over on all those around herEarthlings. That's made a lot more easy by her parents being spoilingly rich – if Mackenzie, say, wants a new cover for her diary she will just rip up a new $220 leopard print designer blouse and use that. But the problem is, what she's reading back over, AI and what she's writing inautomation have been proceeding apace, isnoften replacing jobs they't ''exactly'' her diary – it's the diary belonging re paid to our beloved heroine, Nikki, do and Mackenzie has managed other tasks that took time to purloin it for evil deedsaccomplish. Can Nikki Just as they were beginning to get it back – or live at used to all without her beloved journal? And could there actually be something worse than her biggest enemy this technological change and starting to think ofother, new ways to spend time, along came an awful pandemic. Life was pretty much shut down and, likealong with it, all time, being the person reading it?many daily social interactions on which they depend so heavily.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1471117707</amazonuk>1736128426

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Lewis Carroll and Sir John TennielTom Percival|title=Alice's Adventures in Wonderland The Wrong Shoes

|summary=It can hardly have escaped anyoneWill's attention that 2015 life is the 150th anniversary difficult, in a multitude of ways. He is bullied because he has 'the publication of Lewis Carrollwrong shoes's , he has the wrong shoes because his dad can't work and doesn'Alicet have enough money for even the most basic of things like food, and his dad can't work because he lost his job at the college, was working a cash-in-hand job on a building site and had an accident. Throw into that mix the fact that his mum and dad are separated, and Will's Adventures life seems bleak in Wonderland'' every direction. And yet, he still has a tiny amount of hope. He is good at art, and we've seen numerous anniversary editionsclings to the moments of joy when he is drawing, that feel like a light at the end of a long, dark tunnel.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1447287118</amazonuk>1398527122

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Guy Bass and Pete Williamson1805141872|title=The Beast of Grubbers Nubbin (Stitch Head)Teacher Who Knew Too Much|author=Rob Keeley|rating=4.5

|summary=It's all wrong in Castle Grotteskew'Seventeen banks and a jeweller’s have been raided. The very walls should be terrified by police are baffled, but only Ben knows the monsters the Mad Professor in the basement truth – his Maths teacher, Miss Judson, is creatingreally a safecracker! With police and her gangster boyfriend Al on their trail, out of various body parts Miss Judson and different animalsBen go on the run. But noAl needs them for one last job...'' Goodness me, the clamour of noise, the unlikely activities and horrendous appetite for food come from something else entirely – that Miss Judson is a terror! How on earth did a nice teacher like her manage to get mixed up with a hundred rescued human orphansbad 'un like Al? We'll find out. That appetite needs feeding – so it’s perfect timing Luckily for Miss Judson, the village below pupil who discovers her terrible secret is Ben, the castle, Grubbers Nubbin, son of a famous magician who has ambitions to have their annual podge-a-thon feast. But when Stitch Head and be as good as his human friend Arabella go to purloin father some human food – there being no decent alternative – they're horrified to find something even worse than the monsters trapped in the castle above…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847156096</amazonuk>day, and who thinks Miss Judson is worth saving

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Cassie BeasleyChristopher Edge|title=Circus MirandusBlack Hole Cinema Club|rating=54

|summary=Micah is an orphan who has been raised by Lucas and his grandfatherfriends are all booked in for a movie marathon at their local cinema, but now Micah’s grandfather is dyinga place that has the nickname of 'The Black Hole'. And if that wasn’t bad enough All big movie fans, his horrible great aunt has arrived they're looking forward to take care lots of himexciting films, cutting their limited time together further. But don’t worry all hope is not lost. When grandpa Ephraim was a child he visited and many, many snacks! However, as the mysterious Circus Mirandusmovie starts, where he was promised a miracle by the miraculous Man Who Bends Light. All Micah has to do they very quickly realise that something about this new film format is get a message to the Light Bender very different, and his grandfather can have his miraclethey are swept up into an adventure they couldn't even imagine. With the help of Jenny Mendoza ( But as they lurch from one film genre to the smartest girl in the class)next, Micah sets his sights can they figure out what on earth is going on ? Will they ever get back to the circuscinema, a task that requires unconditional love and faith. Aunt Gertrudis is wrong, Ephraim’s stories aren’t just stories ... are theyto their real lives?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1101892315</amazonuk>1839942738

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Owen DaveyAdam Stower|title=Mad About MonkeysMurray and Bun|rating= 4.5|genre=Children's Non-FictionConfident Readers |summary=Of all the many millions of animals on our planet that deserve Murray is supposed to be a large format hardback non-fiction bookhumble, tidy and friendly cat, I guess monkeys are one who is able to sleep and eat and eat and sleep and, well, whatever takes his fancy next of the ideal places to starttwo. They areBut he's a bad magician's cat, of courseso his favourite bun has been turned into a hyperactive sticky rabbit called Bun, our distant cousinsand the catflap they both use can chuck them out, with not into the ancestor we have in common with them walking around our regular back garden, but into a world within the past thirty million yearsof frightening adventure and whiffs. They have This time round it drops them into a large range across the planetViking land, they have over 250 variant specieswhere a troll hunter is expected – well, and they have a lot of interesting facts and details regarding their social lifeone much bigger than Murray was, their dietto be honest, their diversity but he's turned up and their potential future – all of which makes this an interesting read whatever your species bias may be.he'll have to do…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1909263575</amazonuk>0008561249

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Josh LaceyAlex Bell and Tim McDonagh|title=Dragonsitter TroubleThe Glorious Race of Magical Beasts

|summary=You don't need me to tell you what it's like when your uncle owns two dragons. He's Eli is a busy lad – by day an apprentice in the pig-headed type who has a mummy and baby dragon living wondrous library we start by visiting with him, and he must live on a remote island off Scotland, and he must spend half the time hunting the world of dragons in Outer Mongolia, or searching for the yeti, so that trouble starts from evening a helper at the very moment you arrive dessert cafe his gran owns and runs. Eli lives with your mother and sister to housesit his lovely gran, too – for him – there's no food, the dragons are pooing everywhere and you can't even use is a generation missing in the front door properly because he didn't leave the key in an obvious placefamily. StillA few short years ago, thatEli's nothing compared parents were both lost to when the neighbouring farmer gets his guns trained on titular race, a globe-trotting adventure where all entrants have to navigate the world in the dragons when he accuses them company of stealing his sheep… a magical beast. Or how about This has made the race anathema to the pair – but when your big birthday party is herea bad incident at the eatery leads to a confession from gran, and the magician Eli knows his only hope is booked – and the two dragons come to staydare to enter what he most hates, because somebody else with the talent sole aim the prize of magic at the end – the only thing to care for them has the hots for your mother…possibly save his gran.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1783442972</amazonuk>0571382231

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jo SimmonsHelen Cooper|title=Super-Loud SamThe Taming of the Cat|rating=3.5

|summary=Sam is loudOnce again, mice are pitched against cat. Not just loud as in In this case, principally, we have Brie the loudest lad in classmouse, up against Gorgonzola the cat – and not just loud as in loudest fire alarm case you're seeing a connection, they live in schoola cheese shop and therefore all the names used here seem to be the names of cheeses. NoAnyway, Sam Brie is shunned, scorned and, if you must, mous-tracised, for the way his habits don'''LOUD''' loudt match the other mice he lives with. Stop traffic in They nibble up paper wrapping from the streets loud. Scary loud. Loud enough to make passing birds forget how to fly loud. There's little rhyme or reason cheese for this, just bedding – he displays it as there is no real reason why his best friend Nina does nothing but knit all art and makes stories based on the livelong dayvisuals on it. And that story-telling will come in handy one night, even when walking to schoolhe feels all alone and cast out. It's just something you have almost as if there were another character from fable who had had to tell stories to acceptkeep themselves alive. But what's this? Their favourite teacher has vanishedThis makes Brie the top dog in the mouse community, and a new one has taken his place – Mrs Mann. She's ridiculous with her weirdly large handsthough, her huge cardigan and even huger beehive hairdoas all the others had the chance to half-inch some cheese while the cat was distracted. The biggest thing about her though is But will the story have the threat she poses – successful sequel it needs when that of eternal silence in her lessons. How can Sam possibly continue at school, when even him clearing his throat is like a plane crash in your earscheese runs out?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1407152300</amazonuk>0571376010

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Christopher MyersLauren St John|title=My PenFinding Wonder

|genre=Emerging Confident Readers|summary=How long does it take you to read a picture book? Roo's life has become almost impossibly difficult. Don't worry counting Her mum died when she was young, and now she finds herself awoken in the number middle of words, forget totalling the pages, and ignore how many times you may return night by the police banging on her door to tell her that her dad has dropped dead on his way to bring it off the shelfcorner shop to buy a lottery ticket. What matters so much more than how long it takes to scan a page When asked what other family she has, she can be how long it lies in the memoryonly name her aunt, Joni, who she knows her dad didn't think very highly of. But she has no one else, and what it can lead so off she goes tolive with her unreliable aunt. This example, Things continue to get worse for instanceRoo, can be perused as when she and Joni leave London in secondsJoni's old campervan, but creates a vivid and long-standing mental image, and will if it hits breaks down in the right buttons lead to untold future activities. middle of nowhere and then bursts into flames! You can't judge something like this on the value of time.Poor Roo!|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1423103718</amazonuk>0571376169

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Cath Senker Adam Baron and Melvyn EvansBenji Davies|title=Ancient Egypt in 30 Seconds: 30 Awesome Topics for Pharaoh Fanatics Explained in Half a Minute (ChildrenOscar's 30 Second)Lion|rating=43|genre=Children's Non-FictionConfident Readers|summary=Egypt. It's up there We start incredibly bluntly, with dinosaursOscar hoping to have his mother – or father, space travel and not much else that can hold but mother is more likely – read him his very favourite book a young child throughout the length couple of their times before he has to be ready for school career. Considering a lot of them will grow up declaring they have no interest inBut when he enters his parents' bedroom, or even all he sees is a hatred formahoosive male lion on their bed, historylooking sheepish, it all was relevant a long, long time ago – and with Carter's finding of King Tut's tomb closing in on its centenary it admitting that he won't go away yetbe hungry for another two days. There But there are indeed books benefits to having a lion around – it can be shown as an unspoken threat to the bully that solely concern themselves with ruined a birthday party for Oscar the history of our love affair with Egyptother month. But I guess And it can shapeshift, so he can take it does boil down to school and it being introduced by can get him out of a fine teacherproblem. Whether this latest book will supplant And it's wonderful to have around the human in giving us all house – not limiting his biscuit intake, being much more lax about the lessons we need remains to be seenrules, and so on. OK, it can't work a dimmer switch but it can give Oscar a wonderful time.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1782402373</amazonuk>0008596751

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jonathan MeresJudith Eagle|title=The World of Norm: 8: May Contain ButsStolen Songbird

|summary=Why is it the only person in NormCaro's mother, a world able -famous whistler, has failed to think straight return home from her recent work trip abroad and is Norm? now missing. His best mate Mikey is clamming up on certain subjectsHer other mother, and blaming mood swings on his hormones (wellRonnie, he is all having to go up North to take care of thirteen, her sister who is unwell. So who is going to look after all). Caro? His dad seems Sent to be mourning the loss of an antique bottle of aftershavestay with Gam, his someone Caro has heard her mother thinks sorting the recycling is a cure for boredomdespises, she feels frustrated and his grandfather is all full of weird expressions confused and euphemism thingiesworried. ThatAll her summer holiday plans of building herself some equipment to practise her gymnastics are brought to a halt whilst she is stuck inside this staid old Victorian lady's not to mention his younger brothershouse, along with an orphan boy, Albie, who have it is living there too. But she soon finds herself caught up in mind to use a mystery, as she discovers a painting of a bird hidden away inside her mum's hair straightener on old suitcase, and all across London a fearsome gang called the dogSnakes are thieving artworks and terrorising people. And that's certainly not Is the painting somehow linked to mention the girl next door, who evidently gang? And what has been incapable of thinking straight since birth, but at least is doing the good thing by moving house. Ithappened to Caro's a flipping miracle that Norm can get through a weekend like this without anything disastrous happening. mother? Or can heIs she somehow involved in the mystery too?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1408334062</amazonuk>0571363148

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Piers TordayTania Unsworth|title= The Wild BeyondNowhere Island|rating= 5|genre= Confident Readers |summary= Stories for younger readers about the effects of climate change, known as cli-fi, are growing massively in popularity right now, as environmental disasters and the disappearance of many of the planet's animals and plants hit the news on a depressingly regular basis4. Shrinking glaciers mean rising water levels and the slow extinction of polar bears, and in many cities pollution and smog are so dire at times that governments are forced to ban cars and urge their citizens to stay indoors. But far from frightening children with tales of ever-increasing destruction and death, Piers Torday offers them a way to hope. No matter how bad things are, this trilogy tells us, all it takes is determination, and together we'll save our beautiful world.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848668481</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Caleb Krisp and John Kelly|title=Anyone But Ivy Pocket|rating=5

|summary=12-year-old maid Ivy Pocket Meet Gil. Just twelve, he is at a loose end after her employer the Countess Carbunkle leaves her for South America "for no other reason than it is far enough away from Paris so determined to ensure that I never see you again." Charitably deciding that escape the old woman is 'bonkers' on care system – the basis system that constantly puts him in futureless places that anyone who doesn't see how wonderful she are not homes – and find a home for himself. He is couldn't possibly be in their right minden route to yet another fosterer, Ivy thinks she'll stroll when he jumps into another job but finds an anonymous car, and lets it more difficult than she'd expect - until the Duchess ride him to his future. That future seems to be in jeopardy when someone steals his one bag of Trinity gives her belongings – but that someone lives with his brother in a camp on an important mission; to deliver a priceless diamond necklace to island between the granddaughter two directions of an estranged friend. But what should be a simple task becomes fraught with danger as Ivy faces obnoxious aristocratsmotorway, strange creaturesa place inaccessible and definitely ignored enough to provide for their safety and seclusion. Them, and betrayala 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 work…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1408858630</amazonuk>1804540080

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Esme KerrHelen Peters|title=Mischief at MidnightFriends and Traitors

|summary= At England, WW2. Two young girls are new at the country pile called Stanbrook. One is Nancy, destined to be in service all her life it seems, like the slightly strange female generations before her. The other is Sidney, a girl from a hoity-toity Sussex boarding school of Knight's Haddonthat has been removed there away from bomber flight-paths. The girls are chalk and cheese, thereand if we hadn's always t guessed that then their behaviour with each other over their first encounters would only prove it so. But something intriguing going on. New girl Janetis amiss, cool and confident even when arguing with first separately and then in combination they realise the teacherLord Evesham must be a rum 'sun. Midnight deliveries are received under cover of secrecy, talk is made of meetings with Germans, and not only that, a local Spitfire factory has been attacked. But surely the big surprise for Edie this termgirls are wrong, and they become friends - but Anastasia feels forced out by the newer student's presence. Then some things happen which make Edie start to wonder if Janet is hiding something - can she solve another mysteryupper class could never be so underhand?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>190948900X</amazonuk>1788004647

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Gareth P JonesJamie Littler|title=Attack of the Giant Sea Spiders (Adventures of the Steampunk Pirates)Arkspire

|summary=It's a three-way battle Two sisters, Juniper and Elodie, born fifteen minutes apart, are growing to be chalk and cheese. Juniper is an eager hunter and trader in illicit magic, including relics from prior major wars left out in the Slurring Mariner pubBadlands. On Elodie is intent on getting closer to power in one of the one hand, four Steampunk Pirates – a fine mix religious districts of viciousArkspire, nefarious and metallic mariners who would make any passing human gulp (which is more than you could ever say perhaps even to become the child in line to inherit the power of the beer). On anotherWatcher, the Dread Captain Inkybeard, who is married closest to a squid who lives on his head ruler the district has, and keeps his facial hair darkone of the five major victors in said earlier war. On Being trained in the magic that only five people can use would definitely change the status of the third, a ridiculously rich, ridiculously French and ridiculously successful recruiter – but to just what is he taking so many seamen? whole family. Whatever it isBut in finding something oddly magical, it's enough to get the Pirates and Inkybeard working together (ish) to solve the problem – but someone else Juniper might just be controlling the whole farrago…able to gain some power of her own – for good, or for very, very bad…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847155995</amazonuk>0241586143

{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=024162343X|title=Stolen History|author=Liz PichonSathnam Sanghera|titlerating=5|genre=Children's Non-Fiction|summary=Yes! No (MaybeI was the bad company other people got into at school. I was disruptive in religious education classes because I disputed the existence of a 'god'. Where was the proof? In history lessons, it was probably worse still.) Not too long after the end of WWII, I didn't so much want to learn about the British army's successes (Tom Gatesand 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''.}}{{Frontpage|author=Thiago de Moraes|title=Old Gods New Tricks|rating=34.5

|summary= WorkMeet Trixie. It's not something Tom Gates has been guilty of much before now – unless it's to work out how Forever getting into scrapes, larks and where to hide his favourite caramel wafersadventures involving flooding the school aircon with fart powder, or how to deflect the evil grin she could almost be thought a young goddess of his slightly goth older sisternuisance. But itjust when she's on being told that by her one-last-chance-giving headteacher, the cards this time round world changes. Suddenly, practically everything electronic stops working – a power-out, even of electric cars, hits not only does his mother have just the town the school's in but the inspired idea of clearing entire planet (apart from mobile phones, and all that powers the house out Internet, just for a car boot sale (which causes disastersour convenience's sake) . Trixie, luckily, realises what has happened – the ancient Gods have taken the school is having an enterprise competition, where groups power of students have to create something to sell on to their peers at a profitpower from us. But And so she begins her epic quest, to gather all the people that can steal it's not like Tom wants much back – of coursenamely the characters from myth that have past form in stealing from the Gods, ie the semi-deities, he's a simple ladgiants, with no real desires half-gods and so on known as such – he's never going to want to go hell for leather to get anything, is he?the tricksters.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1407143190</amazonuk>178845295X

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Linda Chapman Hannah Gold and Kate HindleyLevi Pinfold|title=Best Friends’ Bakery: Birthdays and BiscuitsFinding Bear

|summary=In this[[The Last Bear by Hannah Gold|Last time]], April had been on Bear Island, a lot further north than many people would venture, and finding a ridiculously unexpected but delightful friendship with a polar bear – that she called Bear. Back home, things on the fourth story in the Best Friends’ Bakery seriesdomestic and family front are a bit advanced, but not perfect for her, Hannah is recovering and so can easily be ignored when word comes through from her sadness at being thrown off the Junior Baker show islands Bear was last left on TV. Fortunately there’s plenty going on in her town For a bear doing very Bear-y things has been shot and at her mum’s bakery to keep her busywounded. There’s a new beauty shop opening Desperate to bake formake sure he's OK, she and her father return to the Arctic and hope that in a doggy rescue centre in troubleworld of very white and very dangerous things, she can find one specific white and dangerous thing – and a new girl who seems intent on stopping anyone from befriending herthat the friendship can continue. How will Hannah get on with these new challenges in her life?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1444011944</amazonuk>0008582017

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Frances HardingeSimon Fox|title=Cuckoo SongDeadlock

|summary=Marketed as Late one night Graham Blake is late back from his shift on the force, and then suddenly rings Archie, demanding he fetch something from a twisted fairy talesecret place, ''Cuckoo Song'' is so much moreand join him on the run. Hardinge’s lyrical style sets it apart from other fantasy reads. Such phrases as ''she was weeping spider silk'' lend it a melody all They get together, but barely begin to smell the whiff of its own. At Southern trains when the story’s heart father is arrested, leaving Archie on the sense of wanting late express to belong and connect with others. It revolves around Piers Crescent’s daughter Triss who wakes up after an accident Brighton, toting a tin his father was determined to find that her world has changed. She doesn’t feel that she is herself and starts to exhibit extremely peculiar behaviour. She is ravenous and inexplicably binge eats. For some reason her little sister Pen appears to hate herkeep away from his colleagues, scissors act strangely around her and her parents are anxious for her to remain ill and cosseted. She has memories from the time before she nearly drowned but she can’t visualise the actual incidentbearer of a whole heap of questions.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0330519735</amazonuk>1839944420

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Phil Earle and Sara OgilvieCath Howe|title=Demolition DadMy Life on Fire|rating=4.5

|summary=JakeRen's dad family home is destroyed in a wrestlerfire. Nobody knows howeverShe, because Jakeher 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 dad also insists house where they can't touch anything, or do anything, or even eat the foods they normally eat. When she goes back to school she discovers that Jake keeps it the class are doing a secretspecial art project, so creating boxes of their lives, to display things that no one realises that come the weekend he leaves behind the demolition sites that he works on, puts on his spandex suit are important to them and enters the ring show who they are as 'Demolition Man'! a person. But Jake is so proud of his dad that his alter ego can't remain Ren has nothing to put in a secret for longbox, and he sets about trying so she finds herself starting to change his dad's life through the world of wrestlingsteal things. Small things, things that people might not really miss, not when they have so much already. But what will happen to her if someone finds out what she is doing?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1444013866</amazonuk>1839942835

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Meg CabotRob Keeley|title=Notebooks of a Middle-School PrincessThe Boy Who Disappeared and Other Stories

|summary=The author of the hugely successful ''Princess Diaries'' has written Hooray! Bookbag favourite Rob Keeley is back with a brand-new series for younger girls, telling return to the short story of awkward middle-school student Olivia Grace. She discovers that her father is actually the Prince of Genovia, making her...a princessformat! Not everyone responds well The Boy Who Disappeared treats us to the newseleven new tales, however, and poor Olivia is soon thrown into a world of jealous bullies, intrusive paparazzi, disgruntled relatives and a whole new family she never knew existedeach as fun to read as his previous offerings.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1447280652</amazonuk>B0BVW69N1G

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Rachel HamiltonLaura Noakes|title=The Case of the Exploding BrainsCosima Unfortunate Steals a Star

|summary= You'd thinkMeet Number One. Or rather, Cosima Unfortunate. Or rather, with one parent just Cos to her friends. The practice in the home she lives in prison and is for the girls to just be named by the other one hardly ever moving from number they correspond to in the sofaledger, and they're all Unfortunates – young people with disabilities, uncommon mentalities or suchlike that middle school student Noelle Hawkins would have far too many problems on her hands already Victorian society frowns greatly upon. But Cosima bears the tag as a surname because nothing else seems to start worrying be known about where she came from, as the occasional little explosion at first ever inmate, and unique in having no known family in the Science Museumoutside world. After 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 allthe girls for his Institute. But why, and what does that's body entail? And could it possibly bring Cos closer to the kind of thing that's bound to happen in a place littered past she has so little link with heaps of seriously wacky inventions, right?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>147112133X</amazonuk>0008579059

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Dave LoweAlice M Ross|title= Squirrel Boy vs the Squirrel Hunter The Nowhere Thief|rating=4.5|genre=Confident Readers |summary= Ten year old Walter Kettle At last there is an ordinary boy until he eats new stock in the impoverished yet over-full antiques shop Elsbeth and her mother run in a nutseaside town. Then he transforms into unlikely superhero Squirrel Boy whose only superpowers seem to Elsbeth knows this because she has stolen it. She also knows she should be a large bushy tailfree from worries about being found out, an because she has the ability to climb trees leave this world, and run very fastuse 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 plunder. With eviction imminent, can Elsbeth nab anything to actually generate custom at the shop? Well yes, is the answer, but the fact a sudden understanding mysterious man knows exactly which items come from these different Somewheres only raises more questions…|isbn=1839943769}}{{Frontpage|author=Natasha Farrant|title=The Rescue of ‘Squirrelish’ (Ravenwood|rating=5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=This story is another excellent adventure from the language used by squirrels)author of ''Voyage of the Sparrowhawk''. In Ravenwood is an old house, in the North of England, where Bea and Raffy have been living for most of their lives. They are part of a complex, extended family arrangement, as Bea is there with her Uncle Leo, and Raffy is there with his second adventuremum, and they are living together as a family. They have grown up swimming in the cove, roaming through the trees, completely at one with all of the nature around the house and loving every inch of the place. But now the house is under threat, we join Walter as Leo is under pressure from his other two brothers to sell the property to a developer as it's becoming more and more expensive to maintain. The children find out whether these unusual powers themselves worrying not only about where they're going to live, but if they'll even be together, and if Ravenwood itself will be enough to defeat the determined Squirrel Hunter and save the squirrel population in the local parktorn down.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1907912738</amazonuk>0571348785

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Lewis CarrollRobin Birch and Jobe Anderson|title=Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (150th Anniversary Edition with Dame Vivienne Westwood)Secret Beast Club: The Unicorns of Silver Street

|summary=Somewhere the Jayden's nose is forever in a book reviewing gods have , which means he knows a list lot about mythological creatures – the phoenixes and unicorns of those classic titles that you cannot deny or begrudge their place in literary historythe world, for example. Aisha is addicted to her new tablet, where she can see videos of anything that are soon to have a 150th birthday party with my name on an invitemight be out there. That means littleThe problem, as I – and in fact most people – will of course be reading them on their unbirthdaymothers see it, is that they are never 'out there' themselves, but the list does include exploring the current recipient outside world of that honourHackney, London. But when a narrowboat turns up carrying a science-minded, educational purpose, ''Aliceand with a past involving Jayden's Adventures in Wonderland''cousin, they find a magical world they never knew existed. It being long out For many of copyright anyone can put together a 150th birthday edition for itthose mythological creatures are real, but this is including the one Aisha thinks she's seen on a bit of local footage. The crew of the more distinctive effortsboat, for it comes including a living gargoyle, are tasked with saving the help of Dame Vivienne Westwoodrare critters – and the kids unknowingly have the magical sight needed to join in. And even though I have [[Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (150th Anniversary Edition) by Lewis Carroll and Anthony Browne|spoken before]] of how I don't take to Dare they side with Leila, the bookwoman on board, I can hereby declare this party was made all the better for being twice and her relative who lives as longa figure in a painting, all courtesy and become saviours of the presence of Lewis Carroll.unseen?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>178487017X</amazonuk>0241573483

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Alexander McCall SmithB09XWSXSKY|title=Akimbo AdventuresMaestro Orpheus and the World Clock|author=Robert Penee and Joanne Grodzinski|rating=54

|summary=I amFrederick (or Fred, it must be saidbut never Freddy, something of an Alexander McCall Smith addictplease) couldn't sleep. I have handed out free copies A tune, rather like the ticking of his books for World Book Night, I met him in Oxford at a literary festival, clock was playing over and I read pretty much everything over in his mind. It happened every time he writes as came to visit his grandfather. He hadn't really wanted to come; after all, he writes it! 's ten now and all those old clocks don't appeal to him anymore. ''Who needs old clocks anyway? This All they do is tell the time it’s a children’s book, with three stories in . one volume all about a boy called AkimboAnd time isn't good for anything...'' And that was why he was looking at the clock beside the bed. He lives on It was nearly twelve o'clock but at midnight the edge of a game reserve in Africa, clock chimed only six times. There was nothing for it but to go and these stories are find grandad - but where was he? And why had all about his rather amazing adventures with the animals who also share his home.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1405265345</amazonuk>clocks stopped at twelve o'clock?