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Find out moreIf you're looking for suitable books for your 11, 12 or 13 year old, our extensive list of expert recommendations is sure to put you in the right direction.
April 2019 Book of the Month | Blimey, but can Anthony Horowitz pack huge amounts of tension, excitement and humour into his short stories! He shows off a breath-taking ability to conjure adventure out of the most unlikely beginnings, and in his hands even a trip to the dentist turns into a full-on, peril-laden caper. There’s everything in this collection that makes the Alex Rider novels so addictive: dangerous situations, daring escapes, gadgets galore. And of course, there’s Alex himself – super-smart, super-resourceful, super-cool. Irresistible, unbeatable reading. LoveReading4Kids Loves Alex Rider! Find out more about Alex Rider in our Series of the Month feature.
April 2019 Book of the Month | A Julia Eccleshare Pick of the Month April 2019 | The inspiring story of Mary Anning who, born at the end of the eighteenth century, fought against all the odds to become a pioneering scientist and fossil hunter. Inspired by her father who took her out on fossil hunting expeditions on the cliffs and beaches around Lyme Regis, Mary was fascinated by the beauty of the finds and by what they said about the past. Her exceptional curiosity was matched by incredible courage which led her to take dare-devil risks as she searched for rare examples. She also knew their worth and was never shy in selling them well to the many visitors to the area who came to wonder. Anthea Simmons tells Mary’s story as an exciting adventure and also as a rousing story of what an intelligent and brave woman can do.
April 2019 Book of the Month | Lauren St John knows just how to create the perfect children’s adventure stories. Her junior detectives Kat Wolfe and Harper Lamb return for a second outing in this new book, another enthralling adventure that combines crumbling cliff edges, dinosaur bones, an A list celebrity who isn’t what she seems and, of course, lots of glorious animals. As they investigate a suspicious death, Kat and Harper face real dangers, but quick-thinking and teamwork, not to mention a bit of luck, see them through. There’s an important eco-message contained in the adventure too and this is exactly the kind of book to encourage children’s interest in the environment and their world as the pages keep turning. Thoroughly recommended.
Following the four March sisters for a year, and narrated by candid, clumsy Jo, the story begins at a time of great upheaval for the March family. Dad is working away as a humanist minister in war-torn Syria, Mum has recently lost her job as a social worker and, consequently, they’ve had to move house. Sensitive, shy Beth just wants “Daddy to come home”. Fashion mad Meg is frustrated by not being able to buy new clothes, while trying to figure out what to do with her future. Sharp-tongued, artistic Amy constantly bickers with Jo, who’s doggedly determined to become a novelist. Despite their own troubles, the family volunteer at a centre for Middle Eastern refugees on Christmas Day. It’s here Jo meets Lateef, a refugee who’s been adopted by a wealthy lawyer, and she immediately senses that he’s “going to be my best friend in the whole world”. In fact, he becomes close to the entire family as they ride a rollercoaster of worries and coming-of-age revelations alongside a whole lot of love and friendship. Written in a highly accessible style, this affectionate update re-maps the personalities, aspirations and uncertainties of the original March sisters to create a new landscape of their lives, one that’s suffused in the spirit of the original and a contemporary freshness as it explores the timeless themes of sibling strains and solidarity, and feeling a sense of home.
Pog is the highly-anticipated new novel from the author of Tin, chosen as Waterstones Book of the Month and published to widespread critical acclaim in 2018. In Pádraig Kenny’s second story, readers are introduced to an unforgettable, magical creature – Pog! – in a lyrical middle-grade fantasy which explores grief in a highly original way.
UKLA Shortlist Book Awards - 2019 | Sally Jones is not only a loyal friend, she's an extraordinary individual.
Jacqueline Wilson is as at home writing about the past as she is writing about contemporary times and this story of Mona growing up in the 1920s is full of her trademarks: a booky little heroine, an unconventional family, creativity rewarded, and the importance of love and honesty. Mona lives with her aunty who works her fingers to the bone as a seamstress to support her niece. Their home is the gamekeeper’s cottage in the grounds of the local landowners’ estate and as the story unfolds Mona’s life becomes intertwined with the aristocratic Somersets, for all her lowly birth. The post-war period with its new sense of freedom and expression is brilliantly evoked, and Mona’s journey of self-discovery perfectly matches the new era. With a special guest appearance by Hetty Feather this is classic Wilson and will thoroughly enchant her legions of fans.
A must read for aspiring entrepreneurs and technocrats who want to save the world ( and a refreshing change from pop biographies).
Shortlisted for the Children's Book Awards 2019, Books for Older Readers Category | Interest Age 8-10 Reading Age 8 | World War One remains a subject of fascination for readers of all ages, but Tom Palmer finds an original way in to the topic in this poignant new story. Lily is a keen fell runner, though she’s fed up of coming in as runner up in races. A visit to her grandparents reveals a surprise: her great-grandfather ran on the fells too. His experiences are recounted vividly in his diary, both his runs in his beloved Cumbria and his experiences as a soldier, recruited to run between positions on the front line, carrying crucial information to the allies. Their shared experiences form a powerful connection, and help Lily to understand herself better, and also to help her grandma when she needs it most. Today and yesterday are seamlessly woven together in a story that will move readers in lots of different ways.
A beautifully written, incredibly original and wickedly funny novel for readers of 10 and older - Bloom is for everyone who has ever felt like they didn't fit in, and for anyone who has ever wanted a little more colour and wildness in their lives... Sorrel Fallowfield is growing up - in a REALLY surprising way . . .
Shortlisted for the Children's Book Awards 2019, Books for Older Readers Category | The brand new read-in-one-sitting mystery from the bestselling author of The Goldfish Boy, 2017's breakout children's book hit.
April 2019 Debut of the Month | Marcia Williams is best known for her beautifully illustrated retellings of classic stories. For her first novel she has found inspiration in a true story. Cloud Boy takes the form of a diary written by a girl called Angie throughout a year in which her best friend Harry becomes seriously ill. Interspersed with her entries are readings of her grandmother’s letters - very like diary entries - which were written though never sent when she was a child prisoner in the notorious Changi WW2 camp in Singapore. As things get very difficult for Harry, Angie is by turns sad, scared, frightened and angry. Her grandmother’s letters provide distraction and comfort, especially the descriptions of a quilt the girls in the camp made in secret. The two stories are told with great sensitivity and despite the suffering being described the overwhelming sense is one of resilience and hope.
Following hot on the heels of Resurrection, this eleventh instalment of Skulduggery Pleasant’s incomparable exploits offers everything devoted fans have come to expect - all-out action, astonishing twists, riotously witty repartee – and more, for this latest epic ramps up the stakes on the emotional front. Intrepid, intelligent, endlessly entertaining Valkyrie Cain is no stranger to fighting to keep her friends and family from harm, but this gripping story sees her having to face her biggest battle yet when a cruel killer captures her little sister, Alice. Worse still, she has just twelve hours to track her down. The sense of urgency and anxiety is heart-poundingly evoked, and I thoroughly enjoyed discovering more about Omen.
An unforgettabl, inspiring and powerful memoir of surviving apartheid that is fast paced, accessible and funny too!
Shortlisted for the Blue Peter Book Award 2011 | Philip Reeve’s epic Mortal Engines series has set the imagination of many a child completely wild since it first began. This is the 6th novel to be set in the awesome world of Mortal Engines and the sequel to Fever Crumb. Every one of his Mortal Engines titles stands out as a truly special read. With Web of Air you will be taken on an emotional journey as well as an enthralling one that’s full of surprises. Above all it will make you think about life as you know it and what could happen to it if it were ruined.
A fabulous new adventure to add to his best-selling Mortal Engines fantasy sequence. Fever Crumb, heroine of previous adventures, comes back to London and finds much has changed. Casting off its old image, London has been rebuilt ready to fight the mammoth-riders who are set to attack. The battle will be bloody; to prevent the worst, Fever Crumb must move quickly on her mission to find an ancient technology hidden in the wastelands of the Scriven mutants.
Shortlisted for the CILIP Carnegie Medal 2010 | Reeves' post-apocalyptic world where mobile cities fight for survival has brought many a child into the world of reading for fun. Now Fever Crumb, the stand-alone prequel to the quartet and set many generations before the events of Mortal Engines comes alive for an expectant audience. A dazzling world where a terrifying new enemy is on the attack and buried in London's past is a secret that may save it from destruction. And the key to unlock it is an orphan called Fever Crumb. It's a secret so explosive that you struggle to breathe as you read this utterly compelling adventure thriller.
Shortlisted for the CILIP Carnegie Medal 2018 | One of Our Books of the Year 2017 | November 2017 Book of the Month | A Julia Eccleshare Pick of the Month October 2017 Award-winning Kate Saunders takes readers on a wondrous fantasy adventure in the best tradition of children’s stories in which there is another world to ours in which strange and silly things can and do happen. The story is tinged with sadness as the adventures stem from beautifully conveyed feelings of grief that it is often hard to express. Mourning the death of her much-loved sister, Emily finds herself having the most curious dreams in which soft toys came alive and do the most extraordinary things. When Ruth, a neighbour whose son died as a child, dreams the same things, the pair begin an adventure in which the worlds of reality and storytelling and make-believe seem to flow together effortlessly and the absurd becomes the everyday. For both Emily and Ruth, learning to laugh again at the happenings in the imaginary world of Smokeroon provides them with exactly the comfort and imaginary release they so badly need.
March 2019 Book of the Month | Fleur Hitchcock’s exciting other-world thriller oozes atmosphere. Athan Wilde lives with his mother and sisters, the youngest of whom is unable to walk. The family are poor and his job working for inventor Mr Chen is important, though his mother is suspicious of Mr Chen especially when one of his experiments backfires accidentally destroying her hen house. But someone else is really out to get him and when Mr Chen is murdered Athan is in danger too, the murderer ready to use violence and kidnap to discover his employer’s secrets. It’s a gripping, fast-paced story with an air of Dickensian gothic and some of the supporting characters – Athan’s nasty, narrow-minded granny for example – are particularly shuddersome. Enjoyable adventure for robust readers.
Prize-winning Berlie Doherty brings the excitement and danger of life at the court of King Henry V111 vividly to life. Young William Montague is plucked from a life of obscurity to become a page boy to the King’s son and heir, Prince Edward. William soon becomes a favourite of the King’s but he also makes dangerous enemies who know enough about his family to bring about his downfall. Soon William is fleeing from charges of treason and the threat of death itself. These are dangerous times and William needs courage, luck and loyalty to balance love for his family and his father with saving his life and supporting the King.
Illuminating, compassionate and beautifully written, this remarkable fact-based debut tells the story of eleven-year-old Ella, who lives in small town South Carolina with her cousin Henry and orphan Myrna, all three of them cared for by Granny and Poppy while Ella’s jazz singing mama works in Boston. In South Carolina, “bad things can happen to colored folks”, as Myrna describes it, including lynching, and Ella sees Boston as something of a promised land, a place where “coloured folks could go anywhere they wanted”, where “fancy was just life” and people “were sophisticated". When a telegram arrives inviting her to stay with Mama, Ella is over the moon but, while non-segregation is an eye-opening wonder, Boston life isn’t everything she’d hoped for. With Mama either working at a ship-fitters, working singing in a club, or tired from working, she’s lonely, and also unhappy about having to share her Mama with roommate Helen, with whom Mama shares a bed, and she’s also frustrated by her mother’s evasion of questions about her daddy. Throughout, the novel is subtly brilliant at capturing children’s uncomfortable glimpses into unfathomable aspects of adulthood. Then, when Mama gets a singing opportunity, Ella returns to the family who’ve been missing her like mad and the shocking news that her classmate has been arrested for murdering two white girls. This authentically-voiced, unforgettable tale of identity, injustice, friendship and resilience is as harrowing on the horrifying realities of racism and segregation as it is suffused in love and hope, with Ella, Henry and Myrna’s alternating narratives providing powerfully captivating insights into how it might have felt to be a black child growing up in the segregation-era Southern States.
Viv French is a wonderful storyteller and her new tale of a family theatre company struggling to put on a show in the provinces is a delight from start to finish. Times are hard for the Pringles, but Pa Pringle, Mr Micawber style, is certain ‘something will come up’ and decides to take the family via train to Uncaster to dazzle its residents with his Lear. Meanwhile, in Uncaster the recently widowed Lady Poskett has money troubles too, a mountain of debts to pay off. When indefatigable scullery maid Edie suggests they take in lodgers the two storylines combine. Both sets of protagonists face more challenges in the shape of unscrupulous fellow theatricals Little Baby Bubbles and his manager mother, and Olio Sleevery crooked landlord, but when the curtains come down the good have ended happily. It’s a bravura performance – irresistible characters, a plot full of drama and a wonderful sense of community and companionship. Encore, encore!
Colour in some very special rabbits in this gorgeous colouring book inspired by the animation of Richard Adams' Watership Down. First published in 1972, the classic animal adventure story has been made into an animated television mini series by the BBC and Netflix. This charming colouring book version of the story, illustrated with black line images and decorations drawn from the animation, and with captions from the script, will provide hours of delight for fans of the story, as well as for those who enjoy beautiful colouring books. Published in Macmillan's hugely successful colouring book format, this epic tale of a band of intrepid rabbits led by Hazel and Fiver, has a firm place in the hearts of millions of people, and this book, with its engaging images and delightful designs, Watership Down: The Colouring Book makes a wonderful keepsake for all fans of the programme.
Pia lives in a very unusual zoo, which houses all kinds of weird and wonderful creatures, from unicorns to genies and angels. But one day the angels go missing, and it's up to Pia to find them before the world ends.
In this fifth instalment in Soman Chainani's New York Times bestselling fantasy series, The School for Good and Evil, Sophie, Agatha, and their friends must find a way to overthrow the sinister evil that twists lies into the truth and seeks to rewrite their story. A false king has claimed the throne of Camelot, sentenced Tedros to death, and forced Sophie to be his queen. Only Agatha manages to escape. Now Agatha and the students at the School for Good and Evil must find a way to restore Tedros to his throne and save Camelot . . . before all of their fairy tales come to a lethal end.
A second mystery for thirteen-year-old Agatha Oddly - a bold, determined heroine, and the star of this stylish new detective series. Agatha Oddlow's set to become the youngest member of the Gatekeepers' Guild, but before that, she's got a mystery to solve! There's been a murder at the British Museum and, although the police are investigating, Agatha suspects that they're missing a wider plot going on below London - a plot involving a disused Tube station, a huge fireworks display, and five thousand tonnes of gold bullion...
Framed was shortlisted for the Blue Peter Prize 2007 'The Book I Couldn't Put Down.' and shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal | Framed has been chosen as a favourite book by our Guest Editors Philip Ardargh and Joanna Nadin. Philip Ardagh: Reviewing children's books for a national newspaper on a fairly regular basis means that I have to read a goodly number of books I might never otherwise have made the time to do. Stumbling upon books such as Framed is one of the perks of the job. I could tell you that it's about the redemptive power of art but I'm not absolutely sure how to spell 'redemptive' and, anyway, what it's really about is a boy and his dad... and families, and what makes them tick, stop ticking and then tick again. Frank Cottrell Boyce is a craftsman. I can't recommend this book highly enough. Joanna Nadin: Frank Cottrell Boyce writes boys with humour, irony and compassion. Although best known for Millions, it is his second novel, Framed, that I go back to time and time again: the laugh-out-loud funny and try-not-to-cry story of nine-year-old Dylan Hughes, man of the house, boss of the failing family business, and the only boy left in Manod.
Shortlisted for the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize 2008 and the Carnegie Medal 2008 | Comic and cosmic, this is a roller coaster adventure that takes Liam Digby up into space with a handful of other children and their parents. It’s an hilarious journey of discovery as Liam hurtles around the world finding out exactly what makes children and adults different.
Winner of the 2004 CILIP Carnegie Medal | A Julia Eccleshare Pick of the Month March 2019 | When a bag stuffed full of money falls out of a train and into their camp, Damian and Anthony are suddenly rich. Very, very rich, to be precise. But, there is a problem. They only have a few days in which to spend the money. When the Euro arrives, it’ll be worthless. A thrilling story about the real value of money but Millions is more than an adventure as the boys have recently lost their mother and their search for happiness is tinged with the sadness that, however much money they have, they’ll never be able bring her back
Shortlisted for the CILIP Carnegie Medal 2017 | Longlisted for the UKLA 2017 Book Award | With all the invention, originality and insight that is typical of his writing for children, Frank Cottrell Boyce takes the sad story of Laika, the first living creature to orbit Earth, and uses it as inspiration for a story about the importance of home. As ever, it’s both brilliantly funny and extraordinarily moving. Prez is living with a temporary foster family when he opens the door to Sputnik. Prez sees an alien – in a kilt – everyone else sees a dog. Over the course of the summer Prez and Sputnik have some amazing adventures and break a lot of laws, including some of the laws of physics, but in the process they save the world, and reunite Prez with his grandfather. As wild as a cartoon strip, this wonderful story pinpoints all the best things about life on Earth. No-one writes like Frank Cottrell Boyce, and readers who enjoy this will also love his books Cosmic and The Astounding Broccoli Boy. Jamie Thomson’s Dark Lord books are also very funny, and just as good on human nature as is My Brother is a Superhero by David Solomons.
'If you can imagine it, it exists ... somewhere.' The new spellbinding fantasy adventure from the bestselling, award-winning author of The Last Wild trilogy. 1945. They have survived the Blitz, but when Simon, Patricia, Evelyn and Larry step through a mysterious library door, it is the beginning of their most dangerous adventure yet. They discover the magical world of Folio, where an enchanted kingdom of fairy knights, bears and tree gods is under threat from a sinister robot army. The many stories of the Library are locked in eternal war, and the children's only hope is to find their creator - a magician who has been lost for centuries. What they find will change not just their own lives, but the fate of the world, for ever ... An ode to the world of Narnia, The Lost Magician is a classic in the making from one of the UK's most talented children's authors.
UKLA Shortlist Book Awards - 2019 | Winner of the Branford Boase Award 2018 | Like lots of kids in this country, Budi lives for football, training with his friends whenever he can, following his team with a passion and dreaming about playing at the top level. But Budi lives in Jakarta and works ten hours a day making the football boots his sporting heroes wear, and earning just pennies for doing it. The descriptions of his working conditions will shock readers, but Budi’s acceptance of them as inevitable is almost more upsetting. Lively, funny, always optimistic, Budi will win readers’ hearts and his positivity ensures the book remains an accessible page-turner even as his life gets very bleak indeed. A vividly told story that has lots to say about the world, and the importance of hope and fate, represented here by Real Madrid.
We all want our kids to be happy, but media stories about rising levels of anxiety amongst young people are everywhere; it’s worrying. This book therefore should prove really useful to many. It looks and is very accessible, and is full of practical tips and activities that will help young people feel more content, confident and in control. The authors explain that happiness comes from making yourself happy, and teaches you how to achieve that, through exercises and simple challenges. It also emphasises the positive effects of making others happy, or of contributing to a better world. The tone is friendly throughout and there are lots of charts to complete, plus frequent notes explaining why the activities work. Easy and fun to use, it places the happiness ball firmly in readers’ hands.
Anthony Horowitz’s announcement that he was writing a new Alex Rider book was one of the best bits of literary news of the last year. Now the book is here, and Never Say Die sees Alex Rider at his daring best. After the shocking climax to Scorpia Rising Alex is living in San Francisco with his friend Sabina’s family. When he receives a cryptic email implying his guardian Jack Starbright may still be alive Alex is on a plane to Cairo in no time following up the lead. The adventure brings him back up against his enemies the Grimaldis, and Mrs Jones of MI6 reappears too. To describe the action as fast-paced is an understatement but there’s always time for sardonic humour. The fight scenes of course are superb. For adrenaline-filled, addictive adventure, Alex Rider is unbeatable, and it’s great to have him back. There are nine other Alex Rider books, all excellent, and readers should also look at Steve Cole’s Young Bond books.
February 2019 Book of the Month | A Julia Eccleshare Pick of the Month February 2019 | With a fabulous heroine at its heart and propelled by a fast-paced adventure in not just one world but others too, The Star-Spun Web is a spell-binding fantasy adventure. As a little baby, Tess de Sousa is left on a doorstep by her father in an effort to keep her safe. To be safe, he knows he has to get her out of one world and into another. Apparently orphaned, Tess, with her pet tarantula for company, grows up in Ackerbee’s Home for Lost and Foundlings where she is encouraged to use her brain to do difficult scientific research and is very much loved by all. But her life changes suddenly when a stranger, claiming to be family, arrives at Ackerbee’s Home, and takes her away with him to Roedeer Lodge. Mr Cleat is not family and Tess needs all her intelligence and persistence to keep safe and, above all, to find out why he is interested in her and what his terrible plan for the future might be. The plot hurtles along and Tess remains a resourceful and delightful character throughout.
Pitch perfect characterisation in a powerful story that shows how talent and support can turn a life around. This first book in the four part Run series is a world class middle grade story with all the witty tenderness of Louis Sachar and a whole lot of heart, humour and edge-of-your-seat action. Castle Cranshaw (better known as Ghost) discovered his talent for running the night he and his mom fled his violent dad. “Running isn’t anything I ever had to practice. It’s just something I knew how to do”, he explains. Hassled at school for his Mom-made haircuts, and constantly trying to avoid “altercations” that wind up making his school file bulge, Ghost’s life takes an upward turn when he spontaneously races a budding elite sprinter at a training session and wins. The coach, a former Olympic gold medalist, immediately invites him to join the team and they form a heart-melting bond fuelled by friendly sparring. Coach is exactly the mentor Ghost and his diverse bunch of talented teammates need. Ghost’s voice is endearingly authentic, honest and funny - pitch-perfect for his age and the novel’s readership. His “No! Don’t do it!” decisions and ensuing scrapes are evoked with intensity and humour (just wait for the “silver bullet” incident). Truly I cannot wait to spend more time in the company of Coach, Ghost and his teammates, each of whom will feature in future books in the series.
Readers who like spooky, atmospheric stories of the supernatural will lap up The Darkdeep. Everyone in the area knows there’s something sinister about Still Cove, and local legend has it that there’s a monster lurking in its permanently fog-covered waters. Nico plunges into the mystery – literally – while trying to retrieve a lost drone, and what he and his friends find there is stranger than they ever imagined, and as dangerous as the stories say. It seems the water has the power to bring imagined monsters to life, but what starts out as fun quickly becomes threatening. The claustrophobic sense of small town life adds to the tension, especially as each of the main characters has their own problems to deal with, and this well-constructed, fast-paced thriller will absorb readers. More episodes will follow.
UKLA Longlist Book Awards - 2019 | Shortlisted for the Costa Children's Book Award 2018 | “The day is long, the world is wide, you’re young and free,” Davie’s mam announces at the start of a sweltering day. But Davie doesn’t feel that way. He recently lost his dad and “he hates this dead-end place, where nothing seems to happen, nothing seems to change. Sometimes he just wants to walk out of it and keep on walking and leave it all behind”. Then this morning, as Davie walks through his hometown, David discovers that something has happened - a local lad has been killed, and Davie thinks he knows who’s responsible. Amidst the speculation of his Tyneside neighbours, Davie embarks on a pilgrimage of sorts, encountering a cast of wisdom-imparting folk along the way. There’s wooden-legged Wilf who shares advice and fruit gums; the openhearted priest who makes a confession; the girls creating a “world of wonders” garden. While walking, Davie feels the flutter and ache of grief as “bleak, black memories” surface but, as a friend of his father says, “sometimes a memory or a dream is a fine place to be”. “What is lost might be discovered again, but in a different form”, counsels another character. And as he continues on his way, watching out for the murder suspect, Davie seems to find his father in another form. Wise and soulfully unexpected, this is truly a book for all ages, by an author who exudes the uncanny elegance of a master conjurer.
The large print, dyslexia-friendly edition of this essential companion to the Harry Potter stories includes the fully updated 2017 text and features a range of magical beasts from the wizarding world, from the harmless Puffskein to the terrifying Thunderbird, brought to life with interior line art by the amazingly talented Tomislav Tomic and a spectacular cover by Jonny Duddle.
February 2019 Debut of the Month | They must have come from under beds, out of mirrors, up from caves, and down from attics; all out of the darkness and into the moonlight. They were the Night Folk, and this was their world...
Are you addicted to your smartphone? Phones are fun and useful but online life can be overwhelming - often leaving us feeling anxious, sad or lacking in confidence. Brimming with clever activities, puzzles, life hacks and relaxation techniques, this interactive journal is the ultimate remedy!
Elliot faces his darkest period yet. As well as facing up to his fears, he realises that the future of mankind - and the survival of everything he holds dear - is at stake. But can a bunch of misfit gods, a lost constellation and a mortal boy stand up to the daemon hordes?
A body washed up on the beach... Evacuation to an old house with forbidden rooms and dark secrets... An animal rescue service...
40 Icons is great series introducing role models across different themes with attractively illustrated very readable vignettes.
The brilliant follow-up to David Walliams' bestseller The World's Worst Children! Ten more stories about a brand new gang of hilariously horrible kids from everyone's favourite children's author, illustrated in glorious full colour by Tony Ross.
Max Einstein is a genius; aged 12 she’s already enrolled herself at university, where she’s careful to score perfect Cs in every test (she doesn’t want to stand out). She’s also an orphan who lives in a squat. Two very different groups of people have plans for Max though – the CMI (Change Makers Institute) and the equally mysterious but far more sinister Corp. Whisked away to study with other super-brainy kids, she’s challenged to bring about real change for good. The spirit of Einstein runs through this – it’s endorsed by the Einstein Archives – and in particular his belief that the imagination is more important than knowledge. Max uses her imagination and compassion together to dream up ways to improve the world. If anyone’s going to save the planet it will have to be the next generation, and this book could be the inspiration they need. As with lots of Patterson’s children’s books, this is smart, funny and fast moving, with real heart beneath the slick packaging.
Shortlisted for the Blue Peter Book Award 2016 Best Story | This is Frank Cottrell Boyce’s first standalone novel since Cosmic in 2008 and it’s been well worth the wait. The smallest and weakest boy in his class, Rory Rooney makes an unlikely superhero. But all that seems set to change when he suddenly and inexplicably turns green, surely the markings of a superhero. Stuck in a hospital isolation ward with two other remarkably green children – including his nemesis, school bully Grim Kommissky – Rory discover his superpowers and becomes Astounding. The adventure that follows is by turns hilarious and heart-warming, further proof if it were needed that Cottrell Boyce is one of the wittiest, warmest and most inventive children’s authors of today.
This is a special large print edition of J.K. Rowling's gloriously inventive The Tales of Beedle the Bard, an essential classic for all Harry Potter fans. Full of magic and trickery, these classic tales both entertain and instruct, and remain as captivating to young wizards today as they were when Beedle first put quill to parchment in the fifteenth century.
Introducing The Valentines. Fame - It Runs in the Family! Sisters Hope, Faith and Mercy have everything: fame, success, money and beauty. But what Hope wants most of all is love, and it doesn't matter how far she has to go to find it. Except real-life isn't like the movies. Even if you're a Valentine . . . Happy Girl Lucky is the first hilarious, heart-warming book in The Valentines series. From the internationally bestselling author of Geek Girl, Holly Smale.
This large print, dyslexia-friendly edition of the most famous sports book in the wizarding world pairs J.K. Rowling's original text with gorgeous jacket art by Jonny Duddle and line illustrations throughout by Tomislav Tomic.
This high-octane, high-stakes London-set thriller is a fast-paced read with contemporary resonance about kids who get caught up in gang culture as a result of being forgotten by government and overlooked by adults. Orphan Ollie’s life is turned upside-down when his guardian is captured and attacked in front of him and he discovers The Haven, a secret subterranean organisation of kids and teenagers who look after and educate each other with no adult intervention. “We’ve come to realise that grown-ups don’t always have kids’ interests at heart,” explains one of The Haven’s leaders. This stimulating set-up is propelled by a gripping race against time to find a missing kid, the murderous menace of a woman bent on destroying the city, and the threat that The Haven itself might be dying as a result of diminishing incomers and depleting donations from former members. The compellingly thought-provoking concept is deftly delivered through accessibly snappy writing and, as such, I’d recommend it to reluctant readers and those with shorter attention spans as well as devoted fans of teen thrillers, providing as it does an instant hit of action, intrigue and narrative energy. What’s more, this is the first in a series, and readers will no doubt be left eagerly awaiting the second instalment.
The reading world now lies wide open.
Individual choices of genre become more significant as readers become more discriminating. Readers develop their critical faculties as they weave their way towards the kind of readers they are growing into.
You could also check out our latest highlights such as 'new voices', which showcases some of the brightest new talent from Walker Books, or our 'prizewinners' section where we can help you and your child discover authors currently in contention for and/or winners of the most prestigious awards.
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