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If they like Elmer they'll love Rhinocorn
If they like Pip and Posy they'll love Treacle Street
If they like Pamela Butchart they'll love Serena Patel
If they like Alex Rider they'll love Jack Courtenay
If they like Mortal Engines they'll love The Light Hunters
If they like Harry Potter they'll love Keeper of the Lost Cities
If they like Jonathan Stroud they'll love Damien Love
If they like Asha and the Spirit Bird they'll love The Girl Who Stole an Elephant
Ron the Rhino reinvents himself in this delightful story, bringing joy to those around him too as he proves that being yourself, making lots of friends and having fun are the only life rules that matter. As the story opens, Ron is struggling with the rhino lifestyle and its rules, which are all about being alone, being grumpy and charging at anything that comes near you. Looking like a rhino understandably means making friends is very hard, but then Ron has a flash of inspiration and finds a way to show his true colours. Reborn as the fabulously flamboyant Rhinocorn, he’s happy for the first time ever. A funny and satisfying story that neatly delivers a message about tolerance, understanding and the importance of being happy in your own skin.Children who love Ron will of course love Elmer too, and vice versa.
Elmer the colourful patchwork elephant has been a nursery favourite since this first book was published in 1989. This is a special 25th Anniversary edition. Andersen Press invites YOU to join in with Elmer’s Anniversary Parade and ‘show your colours’. You can hold an Elmer parade in a library, a bookshop, a classroom, at home, outside – anywhere! Download an Elmer’s Parade Pack here which includes craft activities, games, colouring sheets, bunting and lots of ideas for holding your own Elmer parade!
Pre-schoolers will have lots of fun on Treacle Street, the setting for Kate Hindley’s new and very appealing lift-the-flap board book series. In this adventure, the residents are looking forward to a special show given by the little bunnies who attend Prima’s Dance School, but poor Prima Pavlova is worried: her star performers have all gone missing. Readers can help her find them by opening various flaps – there are bunnies under the cake cover, hiding in the dressing room wardrobe and – gloriously – inside the grand piano! Fortunately, they’re all in the right place when the curtain goes up. Kate Hindley’s characters are irresistible, and she creates a lovely sense of community for Treacle Street. These chunky board books and their sturdy flaps are perfect for little hands and there’s lots for little eyes to spot too.
A charming new title in this best-selling series from Axel Scheffler. Simple but incident-filled stories for two, three and four-year olds. A gently funny story about navigating friendship and being kind, even when every bone in your body is telling you to scream with frustration! The Editor at Nosy Crow says: “The dilemmas of this story are so human and so universal that everyone, young and old, can identify with Posy and the challenges she faces. It's a story about digging deep (emotionally, as well as literally, as it turns out) and learning to value what's important in life. All good lessons, whether you're three or 53.”
An award winning author with an infallible touch when it comes to humour and familiar settings that all children can relate to and told with a flair for zany and exciting plots like this one!
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.
From its enticing opening (“If there’s one thing I am absolutely and utterly sure about,” said Maya Murphy ducking under her desk on the classroom floor, “it’s that Mr Winter is a monster”), through its 300 pages of character-driven action, The Light Hunters is a stellar start to a new Middle Grade series. At school, twelve-year-old Lux and best friend Maya are drilled in the art of what to do in the event of a monster attack. At home, Lux lives with his sick granddad, a clock repairer, and Miss Hart, Grandpa’s carer. Oh, and he’s also the most accomplished Light Hunter of all time and manages to save Maya when she’s gravely injured in a monstrous attack. But this brave act of friendship brings trouble, for it draws a mysterious stranger to town, someone who’s set on misappropriating Lux’s powers. With Miss Hart’s guidance (for she harbours a secret…), Lux steps-up his training in the ways of Light Hunting as word comes of the impending attack of a monster to whom he’s painfully connected.Skillfully blending relatable real-life emotions with a vividly conjured fantastical world, and an overarching race against time, this comes recommended for nine+ year-olds who enjoy epic action delivered in a descriptive style, such as fans of Peter Bunzl’s Cogheart series and Philip Reeve’s Mortal Engines.
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.
Sophie is the odd one out at school and even in her family. Not only is she super-smart with a photographic memory, but she can read minds too. So when she discovers she’s not actually human, strange as that is, things suddenly start to make sense. With a new friend, Fitz, also not human, she travels to another world to discover more about who she really is. Meanwhile, in the human world, strange fires are causing terrible problems – can Sophie help? And even in her new home, she’s in danger, thanks to the mysterious secrets buried in her memories. A riveting story that will really appeal to fans of magic, adventure and mystery.
This new edition of the classic and internationally bestselling, multi-award-winning series feature instantly pick-up-able new jackets by Jonny Duddle, with huge child appeal, to bring Harry Potter to the next generation of readers. A world of magical adventure awaits! Visit Bloomsbury's Harry Potter website for magical downloads, games, videos, and more Harry Potter fun!
One of our Books of the Year 2015 - Andrea Reeces's Pick of the Year 2015 - October 2015 Book of the Month Publication of a new Lockwood and Co adventure must qualify as one of the literary events of the year. Jonathan Stroud not only writes like a dream, he creates some of the most inventive, most exciting storylines around. Each Lockwood adventure raises the levels of tension, as plots thicken dangerously, and our affection for his teenage ghost hunters grows. In this story, there’s a terrifying outbreak of paranormal activity in Chelsea that leaves all the Psychic Investigation Agencies baffled. Can Lockwood & Co find the source? The appointment of a new assistant, the charming Holly, has introduced strains that weren’t there before, and after a shattering climax Stroud leaves the reader on a massive emotional cliffhanger. Book four can’t come soon enough! ~ Andrea Reece
January 2020 Debut of the Month | Nizrana Farook sets her story on the island of Serendib, now known as Sri Lanka, and transports readers to a vivid, larger-than-life world where young people can be bold, true and have some extraordinary adventures. Twelve-year old Chaya is a thief with a heart of gold, stealing from the king’s palace to help those in her village. She makes a mistake when she takes jewels from the queen’s bedroom though, triggering a series of events that leads to Chaya and two friends, villager Neel and merchant’s daughter Nour, fleeing into the rainforest on the king’s elephant. There are brushes with death, but great camaraderie too and it all ends with a much-needed righting of wrongs. Great stuff! Readers swept up in Chaya’s story – and who couldn’t be? – will also enjoy Costa Book Award winner Asha and the Spirit Bird by Jasbinder Bilan.
Winner of the Costa Children's Book Award 2019 | Debut of the Month January 2020 | Winner of the 2017 Time/Chicken House Children's Fiction Competition | Longlisted for the Branford Boase Award 2020 | Rich in drama, and suffused in the spirituality and atmosphere of the author’s native Northern Punjab, Jasbinder Bilan’s debut is a delightful, hope-bathed treat for 9+ year-olds. With money tight, Asha’s father has gone to the big city to work in a factory, having promised to send money home, and to return to their village in the Himalayan foothills for Diwali. But when the money stops arriving and her mum runs into trouble with a lender, Asha makes a big, brave decision: she will cross the world’s highest mountains to find her father. Accompanied by best friend Jeevan, and with the magical, protective presence of her nanijee – her grandmother’s spirit bird – Asha sets out on a truly transformative journey of a lifetime. Along the way, the friends encounter dangerous beasts of the animal and human kind, but they never give up hope, with Asha’s infectious sense of justice, self-belief and spirituality keeping them firmly fixed on their goal. This is perfect for fans of the Himalayas-set Running on the Roof of the World and the adventure stories of Eva Ibbotson and Katherine Rundell.
Winner of the 'Best of the Best' children's category at the Independent Bookshop Week Awards 2016. Chosen by Stylist magazine as one of the Cult Books of 2012. Frank, powerful, warm and often heart-breaking, Wonder is a book you'll read in one sitting, pass on to others, and remember long after the final page. This is a wonderful debut from a storyteller with a great future if this book is anything to go by and her characters are intensely likeable. You can discuss what you think of this book on Twitter - #thewonderofwonder.
The bestselling author of Holes tells a cracking new story in Fuzzy Mud featuring some truly terrifying genetically modified mud. When Marshall takes a short cut home to avoid being beaten up by Chad, the school bully who has been ruining his life for the past few weeks, he makes the worst decision of his life. Marshall heads into the woods even though he knows it is forbidden. Tamaya has no choice but to follow. After all, they have walked to and from school together every day for the past three years and she is not allowed to walk home alone. But when Chad pursues them the three discover exactly why the woods are out of bounds. Hideously damaged by the peculiar mud that lies deep in the woods what hope do they have of survival? And will they always be enemies? ~ Julia Eccleshare
If They Like...They'll Love
It's great when our children find an author or genre they love reading - but what to do when they've exhausted the series? In this category we will carefully match a selection of books or authors every month - not by a computer as they are on other online bookshops but in the traditional way by human hand and thought!
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