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[[Category:New Reviews|Confident Readers]] __NOTOC__<!-- Remove -->{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=David O'Doherty and Chris Judge1836285493|title=Danger is Still Everywhere: Beware The Double Life of the Dog!a Wheelchair User|author=Rob Keeley|rating=4.5

|summary=Meet Gordon. He's Will is a very safe betkeen player of video games, now you have met hima conscientious student, as he's a source of highly intelligent slightly annoying brother and descriptive warnings about dangera supportive friend. He and he alone can voice warnings about the Puddle Shark you might get eaten by, the Parp Donkey that might evict you by farting through your letter box, and the Headphones Crab that – well, the illustration here says it But most of all. Now, I know what you're thinking. Advice this intelligent and salient could only really come from Docter Noel Zone, the world's only Level Five Dangerologisthe is an aspiring writer. And you'd be right. Gordon English is the name Noel gives to his wardrobe. And Noel is currently living in Gordon the wardrobe, as favourite lesson at his house has been taken over by a messyschool, noisyMarlowe Park, and incredibly dangerous puppyone at which he excels. Add into the mix a pet contest hosted This hasn't gone unnoticed by the world's most dangerous man his headteacher, Mrs Howarth, and she has suggested to Will and you have his mum that he spends a recipe for disaster (when all you wanted was couple of afternoons a week at a completely safe recipe for cabbage soupdifferent school, Station Road, as well…)|amazonuk=<amazonuk>014135920X</amazonuk>where his ability might be better extended.

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Gillian Cross1836282028|title= Shadow CatThe Fighting Spirit|author=Rob Keeley|rating=4.5|genre= Confident Readers|summary= When Nolan's effervescent mother suddenly takes him '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 surprise journey he is speciality.'' ''If interested, place outside your home three twigs, in as much fear and doubt as the reader about what will happen nextshape of an arrow, pointing to your front door... Meanwhile music sensation Midir'' Hooray! Bookbag favourite Rob Keeley is celebrating a decade of his wonderfully entertaining [[Rob Keeley's daughter Feather ''Spirits'' series in Chronological Order|Spirits]] series with a new adventure that is tired of being controlled both a reboot and dreading the next photo opportunity for the pressa continuation. Then, one nightJust like Doctor Who, as her father prepares for a shockingEdward Fitzberranger, spectacular eventour incorrigible Victorian ghost boy, everything changeshas some new companions. Cross keeps us guessing as Nolan's world is turned upside down Ruby and Jayden respond to this intriguing advertisement and he Edward, who has to make difficult choices. Why is his mother in broken the clouds on an exultant high one minute rules as usual and greyabsconded from his manor house home, stressed is adopted by them and takes up residence in the doldrums of despair the next? Does Feather really want to be his friend or do they just have the serval they have sworn to protect in common?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0192736736</amazonuk>.... a wardrobe!

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Julian Clary and David RobertsRob Keeley|title= The BoldsChildish Spirits: 10th anniversary special edition|rating= 54|genre= Confident Readers|summary= The BoldsAround here, we're big fans of children's author Rob Keeley. He's a ball of happy positivity, Mr and Mrs and their two small he understands children, live in an ordinary semi-detached house in suburban Teddington. They have jobs; Mrs Bold designs and sells flamboyant hats and Mr Bold he writes jokes for Christmas crackers. But they are most definitely their pleasure and enjoyment, not an ordinary familyto lecture or hector. Oh no! They are in fact hyenas The ''Childish Spirits'' series is one of his greatest achievements. So far they have managed to successfully pretend to be human beings. Although very hairy and prone to laughing It's a sequence of ghost stories centring on Ellie, a lot they have kept stalwart young girl who can cope with anything the truth (spirit world throws at her, and their tails!) Edward, a secret from everyone. But their grumpy next door neighbour, Mr McNumpty, is growing suspicious spoiled lordling and then a trip to the local safari park has repercussions. Will the Bolds' carefully long kept secret be revealed?first spirit Ellie encounters|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1783443057</amazonuk>1783064617

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Maudie SmithMax Boucherat|title= The Cake, the Wolf and the WitchLast Life of Lori Mills|rating= 4.5|genre= Confident Readers|summary= Max doesnWe meet Lori on the first evening she't believe s got the house to herself – no neighbour to pop in happy endings. How could he, when lovelybabysitter poorly, mother at work, bravejust an avidly rule-breaking eleven year old, caring Mum got killed climbing a mountainon her lonesome. What could possibly go wrong? He doesn't like heights or small dark spaces and he doesn't like silly fairy stories. He absolutely hates being dressed Snuggled in knickerbockersa blanket fort, silk slippers and a cape for Dad and Ilona's weddingshe has one main intention, and in fact, the only thing that's worse, in his opinion, is the fact that once it's over he'll have to share his home with a horrible new brother and sister. I meanlog on to Voxminer, come onthe world-building, people! Nettle critter-collecting game that is a total grouch who's clearly never cracked a smile hit in her whole life, and little Wild is just . . . well, to tell the truth, heLori's plain daftworld. He prances about the place like But first Lori has a demented butterflytiny inkling that this stormy night doesn't find herself entirely on her own, and he never takes his baseball cap off, then she finds something even to go to bedmore spooky. How's Max supposed to get along with that pair?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444015605</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Rose Lagercrantz For the server she and Eva Eriksson|title=When I Am Happiest|rating=5|genre=Emerging Readers|summary=If Dani leaves her school for the summer holidays with one souvenir, it will either be the memories of the fabulous friendship she formed with Ella, who struck a chord in [[My Happy Life by Rose Lagercrantz bestie and Eva Eriksson|book one]] then moved away, or it will nobody else should be a book she has written and compiled able to remind her enter shows signs of all the happiness she has encountered along the waytampering. That is not quite finished, for the following day is to be the great end of year partyWhen malevolent eyes spark up on her phone screen, and her classroom decorations are complete and her dress safe place in the game has been bought new specially. But not all of life is happiness and jollity doctored – and Dani well, where is removed from the classroom a girl to face very bad news. What ending is in store, for her book and for oursturn?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1927271894</amazonuk>0008666482

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Noel Streatfeild Kieran Larwood and Joe Todd-Stanton|title=Ballet Shoes Dungeon Runners: Hero Trial

|summary=''Ballet Shoes'' tells Meet Kit. Like most of the story people in his world, it seems, he is an avid fan of three adopted orphans Dungeon Running – Paulinethe sport where a team of warrior, Petrova mage and Posy Fossil. Brought healer enter specially prepared, century-old, magical mazes, and race to 1930s London as babies by an eccentric explorer (Great Uncle Matthew, otherwise known as Gum)the exit, perhaps bothering with the treasure or the big bad and the girls have a comfortable life until points they grant you along the family begin to run out of moneyway. Luckily they are all given places at Unfortunately for Kit, the Childrenonly thing he's Academy seen of Dancing the latest race on the inn TV equivalent is that one team has been retired, eaten, and Stage Training a new trio of questors is needed. Possibly very unfortunately indeed for Kit, he has taken to the goading from the token bully of his world and soon start to earn their own way stumbled into declaring he'll enter as child performers on the stagea team. What chance does this friendless, muscle-free-zone have in actually managing that, and how could he possibly hope to succeed?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0141359803</amazonuk>1839945184

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Gareth P JonesJames Sherwood Metts|title=Clash of the Rival Robots (Adventures of the Steampunk Pirates)Planet Storyland|rating=4.5

|summary=We learn Things have been a lot about the world of bit sticky for the Steampunk Pirates in this volume of their adventuresEarthlings. While having had references AI and automation have been proceeding apace, often replacing jobs they're paid to Britain fighting France before now, we find the location matters more than [[Attack of the Giant Sea Spiders (Adventures of the Steampunk Pirates) by Gareth P Jones|last do and other tasks that took time]], as we head back to Englandaccomplish. The Pirates have been told of a way Just as they were beginning to get into the Tower used to all this technological change and starting to think of London other, new ways to steal the Crown Jewelsspend time, along came an awful pandemic. We also learn a lot about their upbringingLife was pretty much shut down and, if you can call along with it that – certainly more than last time, as we see what made them piratical in all the first place, many daily social interactions on which was a surprise to their inventor when it happened. But you never know, they may be about to face a showdown against said scientist – and, worse, his next generation of robotsdepend so heavily. If only they perhaps had been programmed to avoid temptation…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847156061</amazonuk>1736128426

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Karen McCombieTom Percival|title= Catching Falling Stars|rating= 4.5|genre= Confident Readers|summary= It is 1940 and after a year of the ''phoney war'' London is suffering in the Blitz. Glory and her younger brother Rich have now been evacuated to a country village far from everything they know and love. When the arrangements made by their mother fall through the children are sent to live with Miss Saunders, a cold and unwelcoming woman who is not popular in the village and Glory wonders if they would have been better off remaining in London despite the danger of falling bombs. The local children appear unfriendly and even in the countryside they are not completely safe from the enemy. All Glory wants is to return home to her parents but she will soon discover that her life is to change in unexpected ways and she will learn that her first impressions should not always be trusted.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1407138898</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Alexander McCall Smith|title=Precious and the Zebra NecklaceWrong Shoes

|summary=There Will's life is difficult, in a new girl at Precious Ramotswe's schoolmultitude of ways. Her name He is Nancybullied because he has 'the wrong shoes', he has the wrong shoes because his dad can't work and Precious is asked to look after her doesn't 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 make sure she settles had an accident. Throw into schoolthat mix the fact that his mum and dad are separated, and Will's life seems bleak in every direction. PreciousAnd yet, already he still has a budding detective tiny amount of hope. He is good at such a young ageart, soon sniffs out that there is a little bit of a mystery surrounding Nancy and on discovering that all Nancy has left clings to the moments of her parents joy when he is drawing, that feel like a fading photograph and light at the end of a zebra necklace she decides that she must try to help Nancy discover the truth about what happened to themlong, dark tunnel.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1780273274</amazonuk>1398527122

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Hilary McKay1805141872|title=Binny in SecretThe Teacher Who Knew Too Much|author=Rob Keeley

|summary=Reading Binny in Secret was rather like that moment when''Seventeen banks and a jeweller’s have been raided. The police are baffled, as a childbut only Ben knows the truth – his Maths teacher, I discovered that Noel Streatfield had written a LOT of other shoe books orMiss Judson, just is really a few years ago, when I suddenly discovered Jeanne Birdsall safecracker! With police and her Penderwick storiesgangster boyfriend Al on their trail, Miss Judson and I gorged Ben go on the run. But Al needs themfor one last job...'' Goodness me, that Miss Judson is a terror! How on earth did a nice teacher like her manage to get mixed up with a bad 'un like Al? We'll find out. Luckily for Miss Judson, the pupil who discovers her terrible secret is Ben, the son of a famous magician who has ambitions to be as good as his father some day, utterly delighting and who thinks Miss Judson is worth saving}}{{Frontpage|author=Christopher Edge|title=Black Hole Cinema Club|rating=4|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Lucas and his friends are all booked in for a movie marathon at their humour and kindnesslocal cinema, a place that has the nickname of 'The Black Hole'. I donAll big movie fans, they't quite know how I havenre looking forward to lots of exciting films, and many, many snacks! However, as the movie starts, they very quickly realise that something about this new film format is very different, and they are swept up into an adventure they couldn't come across Hilary McKay beforeeven imagine. But as they lurch from one film genre to the next, but of course now a long list of her books have gone onto my 'can they figure out what on earth is going on? Will they ever get back to read' pile because I thoroughly enjoyed this story the cinema, and I immediately wanted more!to their real lives?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1444913409</amazonuk>1839942738

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Kate PankhurstAdam Stower|title= The Disappearing Dinner Lady (Mariella Mystery)Murray and Bun|rating= 4.5|genre= Confident Readers|summary=Mariella has Murray is supposed to be a humble, tidy and friendly cat, one who is able to admit it: the school dinners have been much better lately. When Big G was in chargesleep and eat and eat and sleep and, well, vegetable mush was the order whatever takes his fancy next of the day, but since the two. But he'Ladies Who Lunchs a bad magician' agency have s cat, so his favourite bun has been supplying turned into a hyperactive sticky rabbit called Bun, and the mealscatflap they both use can chuck them out, they have been serving up heavenly dishes like 'Monday Munchie Madness'not into the regular back garden, 'Princess Pie' but into a world of frightening adventure and 'Pirate Pasta Bake'whiffs. The mystery girls love the new menu This time round it drops them into a Viking land, where a troll hunter is expected – well, but even more one much bigger than thatMurray was, they love the new dinner ladyto be honest, Diana Dumpling. When Diana goes missing in mysterious circumstances, Mariella but he's turned up and her friends are on the case to discover what really happened he'll have to their favourite dinner lady.do…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1444012347</amazonuk>0008561249

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Tomiko Inui Alex Bell and Ginny Tapley Takemori (translator)Tim McDonagh|title=The Secret Glorious Race of the Blue GlassMagical Beasts

|summary=One problem with being four inches or so tall, as any [[The Borrowers: The Borrowers and The Borrowers Afield Eli is a busy lad – by Mary Norton|Borrower]]-type creature I'm sure will tell you, is getting around. There're day an apprentice in the impracticalities of being so small, encounters wondrous library we start by visiting with catshim, and in the evening a whole lot morehelper at the dessert cafe his gran owns and runs. But Eli lives with this modern world things can happen his lovely gran, too – such as an English governess-type taking for there is a married couple of Little People to Japan with hergeneration missing in the family. There they have kidsA few short years ago, and she leaves them with her favourite pupil – alongside Eli's parents were both lost to the most necessary equipmenttitular race, a small blue glass goblet, that helps globe-trotting adventure where all entrants have to navigate the human bond with world in the Little People by using it to donate milk to them on company of a daily basismagical beast. We're now into This has made the race anathema to the second generation of Japanese people looking after them, pair – but something much more threateningwhen a bad incident at the eatery leads to a confession from gran, all-enveloping and worrying than a cat Eli knows his only hope is around to dare to enter what he most hates, with the corner sole aim the prize of magic at the end – World War Twothe only thing to possibly save his gran.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1782690344</amazonuk>0571382231

{{newreviewplainFrontpage|author=Helen Cooper|title=In Their Shoes: Fairy Tales and FolktalesThe Taming of the Cat|rating=43.5

|summary=Lots of books haveOnce again, in their own way, shown fairy tales to have relied on certain tropesmice are pitched against cat. You certainly don't have to read them allIn this case, or indeed manyprincipally, to see we have Brie the wily child outsmart mouse, up against Gorgonzola the adult again cat – and again, people tricked into changing ownership of magical thingsin case you're seeing a connection, they live in a cheese shop and therefore all the power of being a stepmother, or names used here seem to be the power names of doing things in threescheeses. StillAnyway, Brie is shunned, scorned and, I think this if you must be one of a very rare few collections to look at footwear as a theme, mous-tracised, for the way his habits don't match the other mice he lives with a tidy. They nibble up paper wrapping from the cheese for bedding – he displays it as art and makes stories based on the visuals on it. And that story-telling will come in handy one night, small selection of fairy when he feels all alone and folk-tales cast out. It's almost as if there were another character from fable who had had to tell stories to entertainkeep themselves alive. This makes Brie the top dog in the mouse community, though, as all with the others had the chance to half-inch some cheese while the cat was distracted. But will the story have the successful sequel it needs when that subject.cheese runs out?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1782691014</amazonuk>0571376010

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Ulrich Hub, Jorg Muhle and Helena Ragg-Kirkby (translator)Lauren St John|title=Meet at the Ark at Eight!Finding Wonder

|genre= Confident Readers|summary=An educated penguinRoo's life has become almost impossibly difficult. Her mum died when she was young, an agnostic penguin and a violent, smaller, young penguin walk into a snowdrift… You might not be able now she finds herself awoken in the middle of the night by the police banging on her door to make a full joke out of tell her that opening line, but this book practically does continue her dad has dropped dead on from therehis way to the corner shop to buy a lottery ticket. Three penguins – each a little different from the When asked what otherfamily she has, even if they generally look and definitely smell the sameshe can only name her aunt, and GodJoni, a subject who she knows her dad didn't think very highly of their conversation when a butterfly comes along. But she has no one else, of all thingsand so off she goes to live with her unreliable aunt. The young, hot-headed one (wellThings continue to get worse for Roo, as when she and Joni leave London in the pictures he wears a woolly hat, heJoni's bound to be hot-headed) leaves old campervan, it breaks down in umbrage, leaving just two – which is perfectly timed if you're a dove, the middle of nowhere and come along telling all the animals to get then bursts into Noah's Ark in pairs, as an almighty flood is about to happen…flames! Poor Roo!|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1782690875</amazonuk>0571376169

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Steven ButlerAdam Baron and Benji Davies|title=The Diary of Dennis the Menace: Canine Carnage (book 5)Oscar's Lion|rating=43

|summary= I'm sure Dennis the Menace has a hate-hate relationship We start incredibly bluntly, with schoolOscar hoping to have his mother – or father, but the nature mother is more likely – read him his very favourite book a couple of it is relevant when considering these bookstimes before he has to be ready for school. The fact But when he goes at enters his parents' bedroom, all he sees is the cause for them in the first place – he [[The Diary of Dennis the Menace by Steven Butler|originally]] was tasked with writing a journal as homeworkmahoosive male lion on their bed, looking sheepish, and turned it into a menacing manual admitting that he won't be hungry for us, his readersanother two days. But if he paid attention there he might realise £1,000 is not quite enough are benefits to build his own, self-aggrandising theme park, even if he manages having a lion around – it can be shown as an unspoken threat to employ the bummy, booky, wimpy types behind bully that ruined a birthday party for Oscar the scenesother month. The grand sum is what Dennis intends And it can shapeshift, so he can take it to win when The Fame Factor TV talent show hits townschool and it can get him out of a problem. That, as we can easily foretell, is going to be very menacingly interesting, but thatAnd it's wonderful to have around the house – not limiting his biscuit intake, being much more lax about the site of the titular carnage – for that we have to rely rules, and so on an unusual sleep-over…. OK, it can't work a dimmer switch but it can give Oscar a wonderful time.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0141355840</amazonuk>0008596751

{{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=Cheeky CharlieJudith Eagle|authortitle=Mat WaughThe Stolen Songbird

|summary=Caro''My book is about all the naughty things that my brother Charlie has done. Some of it is funnys mother, some of it is a bit sadworld-famous whistler, has failed to return home from her recent work trip abroad and lots of it is disgustingnow missing. Her other mother, because that's what Charlie can be. It might even make you be sickRonnie, so get readyis having to go up North to take care of her sister who is unwell.'' You know what So who is going to look after Caro? That's about the size of it. After Harry Sent to stay with Gam, someone Caro has introduced herself - she's almost seven years oldheard her mother despises, she doesn't like feels frustrated and confused and worried. All her summer holiday plans of building herself some equipment to practise her freckles, gymnastics are brought to a halt whilst sheis stuck inside this staid old Victorian lady's used to people thinking that someone called Harry ought to be a house, along with an orphan boy, and she has a younger brotherAlbie, who is three and called Charlieliving there too. This is Harry But she soon finds herself caught up in a mystery, as she discovers a painting of a bird hidden away inside her mum's book about Charlie. Charlie is old suitcase, and all across London a cheeky chappiefearsome gang called the Snakes are thieving artworks and terrorising people. He never shuts up. He likes Is the painting somehow linked to push his luck. the gang? And, having pushed his luck once, he likes what has happened to push it again. And again. And again. This is much to HarryCaro's exasperation, as mother? Is she explains by dint of a book full of anecdotes... somehow involved in the mystery too?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1508910510</amazonuk>0571363148

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Rachel Renee RussellTania Unsworth|title=Dork Diaries: Once Upon a Dork (Book 8)Nowhere Island|rating=34.5

|summary=There Meet Gil. Just twelve, he is wishing you had a fairytale relationship, and/or having so determined to escape the care system – the chance to change your life drastically system that constantly puts him in futureless places that are not homes – and then there find a home for himself. He is being able en route to yet another fosterer, when he jumps into an anonymous car, and lets it ride him to see what would actually happen if either wish came truehis future. Nikki wakes up on a typical school day That future seems to be in jeopardy when someone steals his one bag of belongings – but that someone lives with his brother in a hellish start – no alarm clock, due to her younger sister, sandwich all over her jumper, again due to her younger sister, and so camp onan island between the two directions of a motorway, a place inaccessible and so she can only wish definitely ignored enough to provide for something to take her out of it their safety and give her a dollop of fantasyseclusion. That something is dodgeballThem, and a mute girl also finding a home there, which bangs her on the head albeit so much she wakes up in more successfully. Over a sheer fantasy worldfew weeks we see if their oddball destinies can combine, or if this is one place where her BFFs are Goldilocks and Red Riding Hood, the world is peopled by other folk from school, but her hunky friend Brandon is still Prince Charming, and her enemy Mackenzie Hollister is still able to make her life hell…as we would want it just would not work…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>147114383X</amazonuk>1804540080

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Lincoln PeirceHelen Peters|title=Big Nate Lives It Up (Big Nate, Book 7)Friends and Traitors|rating=4.53

|summary=Life at school might actually be interesting for Big NateEngland, for onceWW2. Even if Two young girls are new at the building country pile called Stanbrook. One is so old Nancy, destined to be in service all her life it's falling downseems, an ancient student's journal much like his has been discoveredthe female generations before her. The other is Sidney, peppered with a girl's cartoons from a long, long time ago – proving even he can have a connection with something a century oldhoity-toity Sussex boarding school that has been removed there away from bomber flight-paths. (And I donThe girls are chalk and cheese, and if we hadn't mean the connection made when bits of the place actually fall onto his headguessed that then their behaviour with each other over their first encounters would only prove it so.) Unfortunately for NateBut something is amiss, another connection has been forced on him – he has had to buddy up with and first separately and then in combination they realise the new boy in classLord Evesham must be a rum 'un. ''He's newMidnight deliveries are received under cover of secrecy, dorkytalk is made of meetings with Germans, and has a name not only that sounds like , a British boarding school'', we're toldlocal Spitfire factory has been attacked. But what exactly is it about Breckenridge Puffington III that gives Nate a strong sense of déjà vu…surely the girls are wrong, and the upper class could never be so underhand?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0007581270</amazonuk>1788004647

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= StrefJamie Littler|title=J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan: The Graphic NovelArkspire

|genre=Graphic NovelsConfident Readers|summary=Here's 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 Badlands. Elodie is intent on getting closer to power in one of the religious districts of Arkspire, perhaps even to become the child in line to inherit the power of the Watcher, the closest to a quiz question for you – despite ruler the uniform seventy year copyright ruledistrict has, which work has been and one of the five major victors in said earlier war. Being trained in the magic that only five people can use would definitely change the sole recipient status of an endless extension the whole family. But in finding something oddly magical, Juniper might just be able to gain some power of ither own – for good, or for very, courtesy very bad…|isbn=0241586143}}{{Frontpage|isbn=024162343X|title=Stolen History|author=Sathnam Sanghera|rating=5|genre=Children's Non-Fiction|summary=I was the bad company other people got into at school. I was disruptive in religious education classes because I disputed the existence of an ex-Prime Ministera 'god'. Where was the proof? The answer is obvious now at leastIn history lessons, as this is one such volumeit was probably worse still. ItNot too long after the end of WWII, I didn't so much want to learn about the British army's a very readable successes (and pleasant variant occasional failures, but we didn't dwell on J M Barriethose) in what came to be called 's original stage version and novel regarding Peter Panthe colonies' as want to dispute what right the army had to be there in the first place. Looking back, which of course helps and always will now help I still believe I was right - but I regret that I lacked the maturity to approach 'the Great Ormond Street Childrenproblem's Hospitalpolitely. And for a boy who never grows up, at 111 years old heI wish I'd had Sathnam Sanghera's in spritely good health''Stolen History''.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780272901</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Helen MossThiago de Moraes|title= Secrets of the Tombs 2: The Dragon PathOld Gods New Tricks|rating= 4.5|genre= Confident Readers|summary= They don't actually intend to have an adventure: quite Meet Trixie. Forever getting into scrapes, larks and adventures involving flooding the oppositeschool aircon with fart powder, in factshe could almost be thought a young goddess of nuisance. As far as fifteen But just when she's being told that by her one-last-yearchance-old Ryan and his friend Cleo are concernedgiving headteacher, being chased by bad guys and falling down deep holes is seriously over-ratedthe world changes. But they're on their way to China with their parents anyway Suddenly, so they can hardly refuse when Cleo's grandmother asks them to put practically everything electronic stops working – a jade bracelet shepower-out, even of electric cars, hits not just the town the school's had in but the entire planet (apart from mobile phones, and all that powers the Internet, just for eighty years back where it belongs. Whereour convenience's sake). Trixie, luckily, realises what has happened – the harm?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>1444010417</amazonuk>178845295X

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Kjartan Poskitt Hannah Gold and Philip ReeveLevi Pinfold|title=Borgon the Axeboy and the Whispering Temple (Borgon the Axeboy 3)Finding Bear|rating=34.5

|summary=''[[The middle's nice Last Bear by Hannah Gold|Last time]], April had been on Bear Island, a lot further north than many people would venture, and crunchy finding a ridiculously unexpected but delightful friendship with a polar bear – that she called Bear. Back home, things on the squishy bits domestic and family front are horrible.'' Noa bit advanced, that's but not a predator in prehistoric times discussing the eating of us humans. Insteadperfect for her, it's Borgon and so can easily be ignored when word comes through from the Axeboy's mother, discussing peachesislands Bear was last left on. Yes, even in a world where For a lot of nasty animals are still around to potentially eat the likes of Borgon, there are still bear doing very Bear-y things for people to learnhas been shot and wounded. Borgon for one, in this third adventure in the series, has a lot Desperate to learn about religion – make sure he scoffs at the idea there's a god resident OK, she and her father return to the Arctic and hope that in a temple he world of very white and his friends have discoveredvery dangerous things, even if his friend Hunjah insists otherwise. The lesson is forced she can find one specific white and dangerous thing – and that the truth comes out, however, when some thieves turn up, having pegged the site as a location of many earthly riches…friendship can continue.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>057130737X</amazonuk>0008582017

{{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=Dead End Kids: Heroes of the Blitz Simon Fox|authortitle=Bernard AshleyDeadlock

|genre=TeensConfident Readers|summary=It's London in 1940. Most of the men have been conscripted and the East End Late one night Graham Blake is populated mainly by women and children. Josie and her friends are carrying late back from his shift on much as usualthe force, though, grouping into little gangs and arguing over turf via mud fights along the Thames. But then comes suddenly rings Archie, demanding he fetch something from a terrible night of bombing. It's the start of the Blitz secret place, and 57 consecutive nights of bombing for join him on the East Endrun. The fire service is stretched way beyond its capacity and They get together, but barely begin to smell the lucky ones make it out whiff of Southern trains when the shelters in father is arrested, leaving Archie on the morninglate express to Brighton, toting a tin his father was determined to keep away from his colleagues, while and the unlucky ones don't see another sunrisebearer of a whole heap of questions.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1408338955</amazonuk>1839944420

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Emma CarrollCath Howe|title=In Darkling WoodMy Life on Fire

|summary= In the early hours of the morning Alice’s mum receives the phone call they have been waiting forRen's family home is destroyed in a fire. The long awaited heart transplant that may save She, her parents, and her sick little brother, Theo’s, life is now possiblelose everything. Alice finds herself sent to stay with a grandmother she doesn’t know She doesn't have any of her clothes, miles away or any of her special little knick-knacks from her friends cupboard, and the life now she knows. There is no TVliving at her grandmother's house where they can't touch anything, no phone signal and no internet but Alice feels drawn or do anything, or even eat the foods they normally eat. When she goes back to school she discovers that the mysterious Darkling Wood surrounding the house despite her grandmother’s wish class are doing a special art project, creating boxes of their lives, to display things that are important to have it chopped downthem and show who they are as a person. Meanwhile back But Ren has nothing to put in 1918 a young girl desperately waits for news of her brother’s safe return from the frontbox, 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. Her mother doesn’t like But what will happen to her playing in the nearby wood but it if someone finds out what she is there that she discovers secrets doing?|isbn=1839942835}}{{Frontpage|author= Rob Keeley|title= The Boy Who Disappeared and magic that give her hope for Other Stories|rating=4|genre=Confident Readers|summary= Hooray! Bookbag favourite Rob Keeley is back with a return to the futureshort story format! The Boy Who Disappeared treats us to eleven new tales, each as fun to read as his previous offerings. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>057131757X</amazonuk>B0BVW69N1G

{{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=The Potion DiariesLaura Noakes|authortitle=Amy AlwardCosima Unfortunate Steals a Star

|genre=TeensConfident Readers|summary=Samantha is a mixer of potions extraordinaireMeet Number One. Or rather, Cosima Unfortunate. Or rather, just Cos to her friends. Which The practice in the home she lives in is for the girls to just as well, because someone has be named by the number they correspond to save a princess who has fallen in love with herself. Yesthe ledger, you heard right! You might not think this is the most enormous problem - princesses are so spoiled and pampered, is it any wonder they fall in love 're all Unfortunates – young people with themselves? disabilities, uncommon mentalities or suchlike that Victorian society frowns greatly upon. But this isn't what's happened. Princess Evelyn has taken Cosima bears the tag as a love potion meant surname because nothing else seems to make someone else fall be known about where she came from, as the first ever inmate, and unique in having no known family in love with ''her''the outside world. And the resulting havoc caused by the wrong person taking the right potion leads During a daring escapade to steal some very unstable magic that could threaten the very kingdom itself. Hence posh cakes from the ''Wilde Hunt''kitchen one afternoon, she discovers a plan involving said outside world – a national quest devilish Lord Fitzroy seems to find want to adopt all the ingredients girls for a curehis Institute. But why, and what does that body entail? And could it possibly bring Cos closer to the past she has so little link with?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1471143562</amazonuk>0008579059

{{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=Thirteen Days of MidnightAlice M Ross|authortitle=Leo HuntThe Nowhere Thief

|genre=TeensConfident Readers|summary=Luke Manchett really isn't that upset when he gets At last there is new stock in the news that his father impoverished yet over-full antiques shop Elsbeth and her mother run in a seaside town. Elsbeth knows this because she has diedstolen it. You might think that's a tad harsh She also knows she should be free from worries about being found out, but Luke because she has been estranged from his father the ability to leave this world, and use 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 yearsplunder. His primary concern is his mother With eviction imminent, can Elsbeth nab anything to actually generate custom at the shop? Well yes, who is disabled by crushing cluster headaches. Sothe answer, rather than worry her, Luke heads off to a lawyer's office to deal with but the reading of his father's will by himself. And he gets fact a shock. Luke's inheritance adds up to six million dollars. SIX MILLION!mysterious man knows exactly which items come from these different Somewheres only raises more questions…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1408337460</amazonuk>1839943769

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=John Dougherty and David Tazzyman (illustrator)Natasha Farrant|title=Stinkbomb and Ketchup-Face and the Bees The Rescue of StupidityRavenwood

|summary=WeThis story is another excellent adventure from the author of ''Voyage of the Sparrowhawk''ve been here before. The lovely children whose name Ravenwood is an old house, in the title North of England, where Bea and Raffy have been living for most of all these books – handy when they make time to try 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 mum, and check if they're in this one or not – are woken up in living together as a ridiculous way by a blackbird making his usual cameofamily. The Army They have grown up swimming in the cove, roaming through the trees, completely at one with all of Great Kerfuffle is asleep – all single cat the nature around the house and loving every inch of itthe place. The King But now the house is under threat, as Leo is wearing a badge that allows him under pressure from his other two brothers to pretend sell the property to not be the King – this time hea developer as it's thinking of keeping bees, although he has four animals that go 'quack' in a hive instead. Oh yeah, becoming more and the evil badgers are in prison having been naughtymore expensive to maintain. But The children find themselves worrying not only about where they will never follow the pattern and be evil and naughty and break out in order 're going to live, but if they'll even be eviller together, and more naughty, if Ravenwood itself will they?be torn down.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0192742736</amazonuk>0571348785

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Julian SedgwickRobin Birch and Jobe Anderson|title=Ghosts Secret Beast Club: The Unicorns of ShanghaiSilver Street

|summary=ShanghaiJayden's nose is forever in a book, 1926. The city is heavily divided between which means he knows a lot about mythological creatures – the natural, national areas, phoenixes and the enclaves unicorns of the foreigners – Russianworld, Frenchfor example. Aisha is addicted to her new tablet, American, Britishwhere she can see videos of anything that might be out there. Several of the younger international youths have formed the Ghost Society gangThe problem, after the principal characteras their mothers see it, Ruby, found another divide cleaving Shanghai in two – is that between the living and the deadthey are never 'out there' themselves, exploring the 'real outside world' and the Otherworldof Hackney, London. Her brother deadBut when a narrowboat turns up carrying a science-minded, she seemed to become the conduit for a poltergeist in her apartmenteducational purpose, and recently the gang have even managed to lock with a spirit into past involving Jayden's cousin, they find a bottle and cast it down magical world they never knew existed. For many of those mythological creatures are real, including the one Aisha thinks she's seen on a wellbit of local footage. But The crew of the gang is immediately falling apart – the lad she lovesboat, Charlieincluding a living gargoyle, are tasked with saving the rare critters – and his sister are diverting themselves from, or the kids unknowingly have been warned off, any further such activitythe magical sight needed to join in. Rose knows she has to find Dare they side with Leila, the source of the problem – woman on board, and cross any untold divides her relative who lives as a figure in her city to find a painting, and become saviours of the truth…unseen?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1444923900</amazonuk>0241573483

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=B09XWSXSKY|title=Guillermo del Toro, Daniel Kraus Maestro Orpheus and Sean Murraythe World Clock|titleauthor=TrollhuntersRobert Penee and Joanne Grodzinski|rating=4.5|genre=TeensConfident Readers|summary=West Coast USA in the 1960sFrederick (or Fred, but never Freddy, and the city is wracked and wrecked by a slew of missing children reportsplease) couldn't sleep. The parents with their new anguishesA tune, rather like the ticking of a clock was playing over and new rules against playing out after dark, have no idea of the horrors over in their vicinity – literally under their feet lies a city of trolls, guilty of snatching the childrenhis mind. Last It happened every time he came to go, Jack Sturgessvisit his grandfather. Cue the modern era and JackHe hadn't really wanted to come; after all, he's younger, ten now grown-up brother Jim, and Jim Jr live a sheltered life in the most barricaded and secure home imaginable, and Jim Jrall those old clocks don't appeal to him anymore. ''s life Who needs old clocks anyway? All they do is as exciting as youtell the time. And time isn'd expectt good for anything. Unfortunately, however, the trolls are about to make a return to their nastiest of ways – and their intentions are a lot more surprising than Jim Jr could ever predict…..''|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1471405192</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Caroline Lawrence|title= The Case of And that was why he was looking at the clock beside the Bogus Detective|rating= 5|genre= Confident Readers|summary= Howdy folks! Welcome to Virginia City, bustling and busy home to prospectors, dancing girls, lawyers, gamblers and newspapermenbed. Itwas nearly twelve o's 1862, and our twelve-year-old pal Pinky is continuing clock but at midnight the quest to become a successful detective and eventually join Uncle Allan in the famous Pinkerton Detective Agency in Chicagoclock chimed only six times. But There was nothing for the moment there's so much crime right here in Nevada, thanks it but to the untold wealth being found daily in the nearby silver mines, that Pinky go and financial partner Ping are soon busy day and night, chasing desperados, solving crimes and righting all manner of wrongs.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444010336</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Ali Sparkes|title=Carfind grandad -Jacked|rating=5|genre=Confident Readers |summary=A boy genius who speaks Mandarin and Latin and a criminal who’s just robbed a bank and stolen a car: it’s an unusual pairing but, it turns out, a perfect team. ‘‘Car-Jacked’’ leads us through where was he? And why had all the twists and turns of 12-year old Jack’s adventure when his parents’ car is hi-jacked with Jack still inside.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>019273346X</amazonuk>clocks stopped at twelve o'clock?