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[[Category:New Reviews|Confident Readers]] __NOTOC__<!-- Remove -->{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Jonathan Stroud1836285493|title= Lockwood and Co: The Hollow BoyDouble Life of a Wheelchair User|author=Rob Keeley|rating= 5|genre= Confident Readers|summary= The adults are baffled (as usual) Will is a keen player of video games, a conscientious student, a slightly annoying brother and only Lockwooda supportive friend. But most of all, he is an aspiring writer. English is his favourite lesson at his school, Marlowe Park, George and Lucy can save London from the murderous ghostsone at which he excels. But it wonThis hasn't gone unnoticed by his headteacher, Mrs Howarth, and she has suggested to Will and his mum that he spends a couple of afternoons a week at a different school, Station Road, where his ability might be easy: as better extended.}}{{Frontpage|isbn= 1836282028|title=The Fighting Spirit|author=Rob Keeley|rating=4|genre=Confident Readers|summary=''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, in the smallest agency shape of an arrow, pointing to your front door...'' Hooray! Bookbag favourite Rob Keeley is celebrating a decade of licenced psychic investigators his wonderfully entertaining [[Rob Keeley's ''Spirits'' series in Chronological Order|Spirits]] series with a new adventure that is both a reboot and a continuation. Just like Doctor Who, Edward Fitzberranger, our incorrigible Victorian ghost boy, has some new companions. Ruby and Jayden respond to this intriguing advertisement and Edward, who has broken the capital no one rules as usual and absconded from his manor house home, is willing to listen to adopted by themand takes up residence in.... a wardrobe!}}{{Frontpage|author=Rob Keeley|title=Childish Spirits: 10th anniversary special edition|rating=4|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Around here, we're big fans of children's author Rob Keeley. He's a ball of happy positivity, he understands children, and besideshe writes for their pleasure and enjoyment, they have their own problemsnot to lecture or hector.  The ''Childish Spirits'' series is one of his greatest achievements. A new member It's a sequence of ghost stories centring on Ellie, a stalwart young girl who can cope with anything the teamspirit world throws at her, secrets that threaten to destroy friendshipsand Edward, a spoiled lordling and the sheer exhaustion that comes from trying to deal with too many hauntings – it surely can't be long before something has to give?first spirit Ellie encounters|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0552573140</amazonuk>1783064617

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Geoff RodkeyMax Boucherat|title=The Tapper Twins Tear up New YorkLast Life of Lori Mills

|summary=If you didnWe meet Lori on the first evening she't [[The Tapper Twins Go s got the house to herself – no neighbour to War (With Each Other) by Geoff Rodkey|last time]]pop in, babysitter poorly, mother at work, meet the Tapper Twinsjust an avidly rule-breaking eleven year old, Claudia and Reeseon her lonesome. They're What could possibly go wrong? Snuggled in sixth grade at a posh New York City schoolblanket fort, she has one main intention, and are just trying that is to get on with things – while making no attempt whatsoever at getting log on with each other. This time round, Claudia was instantly sniffy at her brother's idea declared to her on a school busVoxminer, just because it was histhe world-building, but soon realised how great it could be – to host critter-collecting game that is a school charity treasure hunt for gangs of four fellow pupilshit in Lori's world. With But first Lori has a great prize tiny inkling that this stormy night doesn't find herself entirely on offer her own, and then she finds something even more spooky. For the server she bows down from organising it and takes part, against her brother bestie and everyone nobody else – and that's when the problems startshould be able to enter shows signs of tampering. It's not as frightening as When malevolent eyes spark up on her phone screen, and her safe place in the tabloids make out, she assures us – but let's face it, there's high drama, celebrity, greed, urgency game has been doctored – and those pesky adultswell, all making the smooth running of things most unlikely…where is a girl to turn?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>144401501X</amazonuk>0008666482

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=John BoyneKieran Larwood and Joe Todd-Stanton|title=The Boy at Dungeon Runners: Hero Trial|rating=4|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Meet Kit. Like most of the Top people in his world, it seems, he is an avid fan of Dungeon Running – the Mountainsport where a team of warrior, mage and healer enter specially prepared, century-old, magical mazes, and race to the exit, perhaps bothering with the treasure or the big bad and the points they grant you along the way. Unfortunately for Kit, the only thing he's seen of the latest race on the inn TV equivalent is that one team has been retired, eaten, and 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 stumbled into declaring he'll enter as a team. What chance does this friendless, muscle-free-zone have in actually managing that, and how could he possibly hope to succeed?|isbn=1839945184}}{{Frontpage|author=James Sherwood Metts|title=Planet Storyland

|genre=TeensConfident Readers|summary=Meet Pierrot. As a very young child in 1930s Paris he is going to Things have been a very awkward journey through his young lifebit sticky for the Earthlings. His father is a violent drunkAI and automation have been proceeding apace, reacting badly often replacing jobs they're paid to what he saw in WWI, do and although married other tasks that took time to a French woman, is still staunchly Germanaccomplish. That woman, EmilieJust as they were beginning to get used to all this technological change and starting to think of other, is going new ways to diespend time, along came an awful pandemic. Life was pretty much shut down and leave Pierrot an orphan, along with it, all the many daily social interactions on which will leave him they depend so heavily.|isbn=1736128426}}{{Frontpage|author=Tom Percival|title=The Wrong Shoes|rating=5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Will's life is difficult, in a home where he multitude of ways. He is bullied. But from because he has 'the wrong shoes', he has the reaches of Europe wrong shoes because his dad can't work and from doesn't have enough money for even the black corners most basic of things like food, and his dad can't work because he lost his family comes an auntjob at the college, Beatrix, who will give him was working a home, of cash-in-hand job on a kind, at a most unusual mountaintop buildingsite and had an accident. ItThrow into that mix the fact that his mum and dad are separated, and Will's not her home – she just works there and had to ask special permission from someone speciallife seems bleak in every direction. The place? And yet, he still has a tiny amount of hope. The BerghofHe is good at art, and clings to the moments of joy when he is drawing, that feel like a light at the end of a long, dark tunnel.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0857534521</amazonuk>1398527122

{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1805141872|title=The Spirit of LondonTeacher Who Knew Too Much

|summary=Ellie, Charlie and Mum have left Inchwood Manor Lucas and his friends are headed home to Londonall booked in for a movie marathon at their local cinema, where Muma place that has the nickname of 's latest The Black Hole'. All big movie fans, they'Journeyback'' project re 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 renovating very different, and they are swept up into an old 18th century house, 47 Foster Squareadventure they couldn't even imagine. But it's not quite ''home'' to London. They're not returning to their old house but as they lurch from one film genre to another tinythe next, cramped flat. When asked why, all Mum will say can they figure out what on earth isgoing on? Will they ever get back to the cinema, "Ask your father."and to their real lives?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1784624055</amazonuk>1839942738

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jonathan MeresAdam Stower|title=Murray and Bun|rating=4.5|genre=Confident Readers |summary=Murray is supposed to be a humble, tidy and friendly cat, one who is able to sleep and eat and eat and sleep and, well, whatever takes his fancy next of the two. But he's a bad magician'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 it drops them into a Viking land, where a troll hunter is expected – well, one much bigger than Murray was, to be honest, but he's turned up and he'll have to do…|isbn=0008561249}}{{Frontpage|author=Alex Bell and Tim McDonagh|title=The World Glorious Race of Norm: 9: May Still Be ChargedMagical Beasts

|summary=If you ever wondered what Harry Enfield's Kevin going ''UUHEli is a busy lad – by day an apprentice in the wondrous library we start by visiting with him, that's SO unFAIR!!'' but stretched to and in the length of evening a book sounds like then wonder no longer. Norm is only twelve but he already knows life is completely unfairhelper at the dessert cafe his gran owns and runs. He has a horrid girl next door who annoyingly wants to spend time talking Eli lives with himhis lovely gran, he has two awful younger brothers, he has school, and he has too – for there is a world of parents and adults around him all wittering on generation missing in the most weird, antique phrasingfamily. They donA few short years ago, Eli't help him understand s parents were both lost to the world at alltitular race, just lay a globe-trotting adventure where all entrants have to navigate the world's problems on his shoulders and move onin the company of a magical beast. This morning in concern, for instance, Norm has hardly moved at all made the race anathema to the pair – he's still in bed but 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's been grounded. His parents have looked up his phone bill onlinemost hates, and it's rather long. As long as Norm's entire list with the sole aim the prize of woes, perhaps magic at the end – and therefore is just one more thing that's a burden. And as life is so unfair, the only way out is thing to wait for possibly save his parents to decide between him paying them back or grounding him for a month – until something even worse, more unwelcome and more unfair gets mentioned…gran.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1408334119</amazonuk>0571382231

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Chris RiddellHelen Cooper|title=Goth Girl and The Taming of the Wuthering FrightCat|rating=23.5

|summary=Goth Girl and the rest of the Attic Club Once again, mice are not having the best of timespitched against cat. AdaIn this case, principally, we have Brie the mouse, up against Gorgonzola the cat – and in case you's best friend is at schoolre seeing a connection, while that girl's father Charles Cabbage tries they live in a cheese shop and therefore all the names used here seem to build a computer – with be the weird help names of three monkeys to fetch and carry his research volumescheeses. Ruby Anyway, Brie is so anxious it's left to Ada to care for shunned, scorned and cater , if you must, mous-tracised, for her and not the way his habits don't match the other way round, so frightened is she by mice he lives with. They nibble up paper wrapping from the hauntings in cheese for bedding – he displays it as art and makes stories based on the gothic pile they call homevisuals on it. And others are being bulliedthat story-telling will come in handy one night, when he feels all alone and cast out. It's almost as if there were another character from fable who had had to tell stories to keep themselves alive. So even This makes Brie the top dog in the mouse community, though there are newcomers of , as all the others had the same age chance to half-inch some cheese while the place, things need perking upcat was distracted. So what better time for Ada's father to hold a literary dog show – bringing But will the story have the country's finest authors and their pooches to parade in contest for a respected audiencesuccessful sequel it needs when that cheese runs out?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1447277899</amazonuk>0571376010

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=David Long and Nicholas StevensonLauren St John|title=Diary of a Time TravellerFinding Wonder|rating=3.54|genre=Children's Non-FictionConfident Readers|summary=With the usual complaint that Roo'History is Boring!', Augustus slumps over his school desk – until his teacher, a certain Professor Tempo, comes to his aids life has become almost impossibly difficult. She gives him a notebook Her mum died when she was young, and yellow pencil and says he should imagine himself in a place now she finds herself awoken in the past 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 see how interesting it actually could bebuy a lottery ticket. And lo and behold he's thereWhen asked what other family she has, she can only name her aunt, Joni, seeing the world of the pastwho she knows her dad didn's effect on the world t think very highly of the present for his very own eyes. He ends up doing this more than a couple dozen timesBut she has no one else, filling the notebook and so off she goes to live with amazing sights he's seen her unreliable aunt. Things continue to get worse for Roo, as when she and people heJoni leave London in Joni's stood alongsideold campervan, from Mozart to Einstein, from Chaucer to Lincoln, and what we read is what he comes up with it breaks down in this brisk the middle of nowhere and colourful volume.then bursts into flames! Poor Roo!|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847806368</amazonuk>0571376169

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Jeff NortonAdam Baron and Benji Davies|title= Memoirs of a Neurotic ZombieOscar's Lion|rating= 4.53|genre= Confident Readers|summary= Adam We start incredibly bluntly, with Oscar hoping to have his mother – or father, but mother is twelvemore likely – read him his very favourite book a couple of times before he has to be ready for school. He has But when he enters his parents' bedroom, all he sees is a crush mahoosive male lion on Corina who's in his class at schooltheir bed, he likes collecting thingslooking sheepish, and admitting that he has early onset Obsessive Compulsive Disorderwon't be hungry for another two days. But there are benefits to having a lion around – it can be shown as an unspoken threat to the bully that ruined a birthday party for Oscar the other month. And it can shapeshift, which means so he would rather wear purple spandex can take it to school and dance the Macarena right down Main Street than go within five miles it can get him out of a germproblem. He frets about a lot of things, actually: if worrying was an Olympic event, he And it'd get s wonderful to have around the goldhouse – not limiting his biscuit intake, every time. Other than that, things are pretty okay. He has normal, loving parents (apart from being much more lax about the fact they still insist on going to SMOOCH concerts)rules, a small group of friends who share his interest in comics and video gamesso on. OK, and it can't work a standard-issue irritating sister. Nothing weird there, then. Nothing dimmer switch but the fact that he's been dead for three monthsit can give Oscar a wonderful time.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0571327044</amazonuk>0008596751

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Ulrich Hub, Jorg Muhle and Helena Ragg-Kirkby (translator)Judith Eagle|title=Meet at the Ark at Eight!The Stolen Songbird

|genre= Confident Readers|summary=An educated penguinCaro's mother, an agnostic penguin and a violentworld-famous whistler, smaller, young penguin walk into a snowdrift… You might not be able has failed to make a full joke out of that opening line, but this book practically does continue on return home from thereher recent work trip abroad and is now missing. Three penguins – each a little different from the Her othermother, even if they generally Ronnie, is having to go up North to take care of her sister who is unwell. So who is going to look after Caro? Sent to stay with Gam, someone Caro has heard her mother despises, she feels frustrated and definitely smell the same, confused and God, a subject worried. All her summer holiday plans of their conversation when building herself some equipment to practise her gymnastics are brought to a butterfly comes halt whilst she is stuck inside this staid old Victorian lady's house, alongwith an orphan boy, of all thingsAlbie, who is living there too. The young, hot-headed one (well, But she soon finds herself caught up in the pictures he wears a woolly hatmystery, heas she discovers a painting of a bird hidden away inside her mum's bound to be hot-headed) leaves in umbrageold suitcase, leaving just two – which is perfectly timed if you're and all across London a dove, fearsome gang called the Snakes are thieving artworks and come along telling all terrorising people. Is the painting somehow linked to the animals gang? And what has happened to get into NoahCaro's Ark mother? Is she somehow involved in pairs, as an almighty flood is about to happen…the mystery too?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1782690875</amazonuk>0571363148

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Joe SuggTania Unsworth|title=Username: EvieNowhere Island

|genre=Graphic NovelsConfident Readers|summary=Meet EvieGil. She's surprisingly unwelcome and alienated at school – for a trendy and attractive girlJust twelve, nobody at all seems he is so determined to have any time for her, apart from escape the geeky card-collecting boy with care system – the milk-bottle glasses on the bussystem that constantly puts him in futureless places that are not homes – and find a home for himself. Perhaps He is en route to yet another fosterer, when he jumps into an anonymous car, and lets it has something ride him to his future. That future seems to do be in jeopardy when someone steals his one bag of belongings – but that someone lives with her father's thatched house – after allhis brother in a camp on an island between the two directions of a motorway, she must be a witch place inaccessible and definitely ignored enough to live thereprovide for their safety and seclusion. It's not that she would wish to live Them, and a mute girl also finding a home there, with nobody else aroundalbeit 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…|isbn=1804540080}}{{Frontpage|author=Helen Peters|title=Friends and Traitors|rating=3|genre=Confident Readers|summary=England, WW2. Two young girls are new at the memory of her deceased mothercountry pile called Stanbrook. But luckily someone One is choosing a place for her –her father is able Nancy, destined to put be in service all his work into a cyber-world for herlife it seems, like the Efemale generations before her. The other is Sidney, a girl from a hoity-Scapetoity Sussex boarding school that has been removed there away from bomber flight-paths. The girls are chalk and cheese, which is close to the perfect worldand if we hadn't guessed that then their behaviour with each other over their first encounters would only prove it so. All that remains But something is to programme the humans to be her friendsamiss, and make the connection Evie has with them first separately and them with her then in return to combination they realise the Lord Evesham must be a rum 'un. Midnight deliveries are received under cover of mutualsecrecy, confirmingtalk is made of meetings with Germans, and not only that, happy benefita local Spitfire factory has been attacked. But someone else has entered surely the E-Scapegirls are wrong, and their influence seems all that much more powerful than Evie's tentative happiness…the upper class could never be so underhand?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1473619130</amazonuk>1788004647

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Lewis Carroll, Mark Burstein (editor) and Salvador DaliJamie Littler|title=Alice's Adventures in WonderlandArkspire

|summary=If you don't know the story nowTwo sisters, then where have you been for a hundred Juniper and fifty years? A young girl sees a hurrying white rabbit, follows itElodie, falls down a holeborn fifteen minutes apart, fails are growing to recognise the 'stranger danger' in partaking of random foods be chalk and cheese. Juniper is an eager hunter and drinks just because of a label on them, nearly drowns a whole menagerie of animals trader in a lake of her own tearsillicit magic, takes advice including relics from someone on drugs, plays cards, or croquet, or both or neither, and wakes up to find it all a dreamprior major wars left out in the Badlands. Someone else tried out such gibberish Elodie is intent on a young girl, wrote it down getting closer to power in a flurryone of the religious districts of Arkspire, made a hugely successful name for himself, and woke up perhaps even to find even at this remove that most people (unlike me) adore become the thing. But it's not just for now, its 150th birthday, that child in line to inherit the work gets reprinted. In power of the 1960sWatcher, someone came up with the idea closest to put a ruler the esotericdistrict has, surreal and daft mind one of Salvador Dali the five major victors in said earlier war. Being trained in cahoots with the esoteric, surreal and daft world of Carroll's Alice, and magic that only five people can use would definitely change the result was a very rare and valuable edition – a box set status of illustrated booklets, perfectly suited to the very surrealistic 105th birthdaywhole family. Since getting sight of one is like seeing a flat clock But in Dali's picturesfinding something oddly magical, this decent hardback replication is the nearest you'll get Juniper might just be able to owning one gain some power of the most special of Alice editions.her own – for good, or for very, very bad…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0691170029</amazonuk>0241586143

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Cressida Cowell024162343X|title=How to Train Your Dragon 12: How to Fight a Dragon's FuryStolen History|author=Sathnam Sanghera

|summary=A relentless battleMeet Trixie. Human against dragon. On Forever getting into scrapes, larks and adventures involving flooding the Doomsday of Yuleschool aircon with fart powder, the battle will end and only one side can she could almost be victoriousthought a young goddess of nuisance. If the dragons win But just when she's being told that by her one-last-chance-giving headteacher, the human race will be annihilatedworld changes. If the humans win Suddenly, practically everything electronic stops working – a power-out, they will unlock the secret even of electric cars, hits not just the dragon jewel, with town the potential to destroy all of school's in but the dragons. The only hope is a human boy called Hiccupentire planet (apart from mobile phones, an unlikely hero who has a wish to unite human and dragon once more. Unfortunatelyall that powers the Internet, Hiccup is lying unconscious on a beach at Herojust for our convenience's Endsake). Trixie, lost and alone with no boat. What is moreluckily, Hiccup realises what has no memory; no idea who he is and why he is happened – the ancient Gods have taken the power of power from us. And so important. He also has two poisonous fangs embedded 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 his arm; stealing from the ticking teeth of a Vampire Spydragon which serve as a tracking device for Gods, ie the vicious beastsemi-deities, who is closing in as we speak. Suffice to saygiants, things aren't going well for Hiccup half-gods and they can only get worse..so on known as the tricksters.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1444916580</amazonuk>178845295X

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Darren ShanHannah Gold and Levi Pinfold|title=Zom-B Fugitive (Zom B 11)Finding Bear|rating= 4.5|genre=TeensConfident Readers|summary=REPEATING STANDARD WARNING! If you haven't read the [[Zom-B The Last Bear by Darren ShanHannah Gold|first bookLast 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 domestic and family front are a bit advanced, but not perfect for her, and so can easily be ignored when word comes through from the islands Bear was last left on. For a bear doing very Bear-y things has been shot and wounded. Desperate to make sure he's OK, she and her father return to the Arctic and hope that in this seriesa world of very white and very dangerous things, she can find one specific white and dangerous thing – and that the friendship can continue.|isbn=0008582017}}{{Frontpage|author=Simon Fox|title=Deadlock|rating=4.5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=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 secret place, and join him on the run. They get together, but barely begin to smell the whiff of Southern trains when the father is arrested, STOP READING NOW! NOW! Spoilers ahoy!leaving Archie on the late express to Brighton, toting a tin his father was determined to keep away from his colleagues, and the bearer of a whole heap of questions.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0857077929</amazonuk>1839944420

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jeffrey BrownCath Howe|title=The Phantom Bully (Star Wars Jedi Academy 3)My Life on Fire

|summary=DoesnRen't time fly? It only seems s family home is destroyed in a short time ago that Roan Novachez was starting his first term at Jedi Academy Middle Schoolfire. She, yet here he isher parents, all grown up and ready to start his final yearher little brother lose everything. As always She doesn't have any of her clothes, there are plenty or any of twists her special little knick-knacks from her cupboard, and turnsnow she is living at her grandmother's house where they can't touch anything, or do anything, teen troubles and relationship issues mixed in with or even eat the force-wielding, piloting and lightsaber battlesfoods they normally eat. Bullying is still When she goes back to school she discovers that the class are doing a real issue for Roan this termspecial art project, creating boxes of their lives, to display things that are important to them and show who they are as it seems that someone a person. But Ren has made nothing to put in a personal mission of setting him up box, and so she finds herself starting to failsteal things. Everything is riding on his performance this year Small things, things that people might not really miss, as flunking not when they have so much already. But what will happen to her if someone finds out will mean being held 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 year and return to the short story format! The Boy Who Disappeared treats us to eleven new tales, each as fun to read as his friends moving on without himprevious offerings.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0545621267</amazonuk>B0BVW69N1G

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Antony WoottenLaura Noakes|title=The Grubby Feather Gang (Bigshorts)Cosima Unfortunate Steals a Star

|summary=Life is confusing for George Sanders: his fatherMeet Number One. Or rather, the local vetCosima Unfortunate. Or rather, has refused to 'do his bit' and volunteer just Cos to fight in Franceher friends. There's bad feeling The practice in the village - with home she lives in is for the girls to just be named by the number they correspond to in the women giving Dad white feathers - ledger, and even Georgethey's mum believes re all Unfortunates – young people with disabilities, uncommon mentalities or suchlike that he should go and fightVictorian society frowns greatly upon. To top it all George is currently being suspendedBut Cosima bears the tag as a surname because nothing else seems to be known about where she came from, upside downas the first ever inmate, from the rafters and unique in having no known family in the hayloft by outside world. During a daring escapade to steal some posh cakes from the local bully who is determined that George is going kitchen one afternoon, she discovers a plan involving said outside world – a devilish Lord Fitzroy seems to want to do adopt all the girls for his maths homeworkInstitute. You'd think But why, and what does that body entail? And could it couldn't get much worse, but possibly bring Cos closer to the next day he's caned at school when he doesn't feel that he was in the wrong. There's no wonder George is confused, is therepast she has so little link with?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0953712389</amazonuk>0008579059

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Holly WebbAlice M Ross|title=The Truffle MouseNowhere Thief

|summary=Alice At last there is going through new stock in the impoverished yet over-full antiques shop Elsbeth and her mother run in a tough time right nowseaside town. Even though her mum and dad split up two years ago, Elsbeth knows this because she'd always hoped that they would eventually get back togetherhas stolen it. But when dad introduced his new girlfriend and her daughter and announced that they would She also knows she should be moving infree from worries about being found out, everything changed. School isn't any betterbecause she has the ability to leave this world, either. She's always getting told off in class and is jealous use an unworldly portal of her best friend Lucykaleidoscope colours to enter other worlds, who seems to have where the sea levels are rising dramatically and the perfect family, but doesn't appreciate itbuildings are generally empty of humans and ripe for plunder. When mum sees how withdrawn Alice has become With eviction imminent, she takes her can Elsbeth nab anything to actually generate custom at the pet shop to buy a hamster to take her mind off things. However? Well yes, it's not a hamster that catches Alice's eyeis the answer, but the fact a sweet little mouse, with fur like cocoa powder. The trouble is, mum is terrified of mice!mysterious man knows exactly which items come from these different Somewheres only raises more questions…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1407144863</amazonuk>1839943769

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Philip Reeve and Sarah McIntyreNatasha Farrant|title=Pugs The Rescue of the Frozen North Ravenwood|rating=45|genre=Confident Readers |summary= When Shen finds himself stranded This story is another excellent adventure from the author of ''Voyage of the Sparrowhawk''. Ravenwood is an old house, in the middle North of England, where Bea and Raffy have been living for most of their lives. They are part of a frozen seacomplex, extended family arrangement, as Bea is there with 66 shivering pugs for company her Uncle Leo, and no foodRaffy is there with his mum, he’s desperate to find helpand they are living together as a family. Little does he suspect that this is just the start of their adventure They have grown up swimming in the frozen north: with his new friend Sikacove, and roaming through the pugs pulling their sledtrees, he’s suddenly part completely at one with all of a race to the top nature around the house and loving every inch of the worldplace. Will they make it in time But now the house is under threat, as Leo is under pressure from his other two brothers to meet the Snowfather or will one of sell the other contestants beat them property to a 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'll even be together, and if Ravenwood itself will be torn down.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0192734571</amazonuk>0571348785

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Laura WoodRobin Birch and Jobe Anderson|title=Poppy Pym and the Pharaoh's Curse Secret Beast Club: The Unicorns of Silver Street

|summary= Poppy Pym is leaving the only home sheJayden's ever known (nose is forever in Madame Pym's Spectacular Travelling Circus) to become a boarding school student at Saint Smithen's School. Andbook, if starting school for which means he knows a lot about mythological creatures – the first time at age 11 isn't enough, Poppy phoenixes and her new friends – Kip and Ingrid – find themselves in unicorns of the middle of a mysteryworld, for example. Dangerous accidents start Aisha is addicted to occur at Saint Smithen's the moment a temporary exhibition her new tablet, where she can see videos of Egyptian artefacts enter the schoolanything that might be out there. While everyone else attributes these to the Pharaoh's curse The problem, as their mothers see it, Poppy and her friends is that they are determined to discover who is really causing the accidents. Thennever 'out there' themselves, when the priceless ruby at exploring the heart outside world of the collection is stolenHackney, their investigation broadens as they try to uncover the thiefLondon. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1407158546</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Kevin Sands|title= The Blackthorn Key|rating= 5|genre= Confident Readers|summary= Seventeenth century England isn't always But when a narrowboat turns up carrying a comfortable place to live. Apart from the obvious differences from the modern day – no National Health Servicescience-minded, no laws to protect orphans like Christopher from cruelty and exploitationeducational purpose, and with a constant foul smell from poor sanitation - fear and suspicion are past involving Jayden's cousin, they find a daily fact magical world they never knew existed. For many of life. In 1665 Charles II has been back on the throne for several years, but not everyone is happy about his extravagant and luxurious life-style, even among those who found the Puritan rules of Cromwell's time excessively strict. There mythological creatures are spies everywherereal, and rumours of conspiracies fill including the streets. Itone Aisha thinks she's seen on a time to keep your head down and avoid attention from bit of local footage. The crew of the authorities.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>014136064X</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Karen McCombie|title=Honey and Me|rating=4.5|genre=Dyslexia Friendly|summary=Most girls starting out Brook City School are hoping for something new and differentboat, but Kirsten just wants things to be ''normal''. Even good things seem to come with including a sting in the tail and worst of allliving gargoyle, Mum and Dad are really not getting on. In fact Kirsten is happiest at school tasked with saving the rare critters – and does all the after-school activities she can manage just kids unknowingly have the magical sight needed to keep away from home for as long as she canjoin in. Her elder brotherDare they side with Leila, Finnthe woman on board, and her relative who's at sixth form collegelives as a figure in a painting, is struggling too: what used to be thought and become saviours of as ''cheeky'' at school has turned into ''disruptive''. When things get really bad Kirsten is suddenly reminded of her old friend Honey and wonders if she can get in touch with her.the unseen?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1781124752</amazonuk>0241573483

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Philip K DickB09XWSXSKY|title=Nick Maestro Orpheus and the GlimmungWorld Clock|author=Robert Penee and Joanne Grodzinski

|summary=Meet Nick. He lives on a future EarthFrederick (or Fred, where multiple large classrooms are taught by just one holographic teacherbut never Freddy, which might sound impractical but can actually help with advice when you declare to the class that you are breaking the lawplease) couldn't sleep. NickA tune, you see, has rather like the ticking of a pet cat, clock was playing over and over in this massively over-populated and under-resourced world, pets are illegalhis mind. It happened every time he came to visit his grandfather. ThereHe hadn't really wanted to come; after all, he's a simple solution – wait for ten now and all those old clocks don't appeal to him anymore. ''Who needs old clocks anyway? All they do is tell the time. And time isn't good for anything...'anti-pet man' And that was why he was looking at the clock beside the bed. It was nearly twelve o' to turn up with his weaponry and armour and dispose of it, clock but at midnight the family have decided to take the other way out – emigrate to an entirely different worldclock chimed only six times. Hence they embark on the trip There was nothing for it but to be pioneer farmers on Plowman's Planet, even when they're forewarned of a host of different go and most unusual animals already resident there. find grandad - but where was he? That advice still doesnAnd why had all the clocks stopped at twelve o't really prepare them for the battle whose crossfire in which they immediately get caught…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>057513299X</amazonuk>clock?