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May 2022 Debut of the Month | Cassie Morgan has three wishes — to have more books, to go on an adventure, and to see her mother again. So begins the intriguing opening of Skye McKenna’s magical five-book series that’s pitch-perfect for readers who loved The Worst Witch and are ready for something a dash edgier. Seven years have passed since Cassie’s mother left. At her austere boarding school, she tries to make herself invisible while wondering about the key her mother left. It was “a treasure chest, a secret vault, the door to the home she and her mother would someday return to”. On the verge of being sent to an orphanage, Cassie seizes an opportunity to escape, determined to find her mother. Soon after her flight, readers are drawn into the realm of the fantastical when a talking cat by the name of Montague saves Cassie from the clutches of “goblin nabbers” who are “in the business of stealing babies to sell to the gentry of Faerie”. Montague takes her to the village of Hedgely, where she meets the family she never knew existed and learns she’s from an old line of important witches - her aunt is the current Hedgewitch and protects England from the dangers of the Faerie realm. Hedgely is conjured with chocolate-box English quaintness - think cooked breakfasts, sweet treats, village shops, opulent orchards, fragrant honeysuckle and roses. It’s a place lovers of timeless fairy tale worlds will be utterly entranced by, not least when Cassie is confronted by shapeshifters and the threat of the Erl King who wants her mother’s key. With a thrillingly twisting climax, this first book in a quest quintet will leave readers hungry for lashings more magic.
Interest Age 7-12 Reading Age 8 | Fair is foul and foul is fair ... bestseller Ross Montgomery returns with a laugh-out-loud, perfectly pitched introduction to Shakespeare's Macbeth. Beth has been looking forward to the Prize-giving Assembly all year. She's won best-behaved pupil two years in a row and is confident that she'll triumph again for a third time. But as preparations continue for the ceremony, which includes a performance of Macbeth by the drama club, Beth finds out that she's been pipped to the post by not one but two of her classmates, leaving her in third place. Beth cannot bear to lose, so she channels her inner Macbeth and will stop at nothing to tarnish the reputation of her competitors. But as she puts her dastardly plans into action, she realises that villainy comes at a high cost!
Haunted by her mother’s death, and now uprooted from Limerick to a rural village, 18-year-old Saoirse is desperate to leave school and start her life afresh. Her tremendously tough journey through guilt and anxiety - quite brilliantly related with raw compassion by Helena Close - makes for an engaging, thought-provoking, moving read that sheds light on the realities of depression while offering honest glimmers of hope. Just ahead of sitting her sitting the Leaving Certificate, Saoirse’s ex-boyfriend commits suicide. It’s no secret that she cheated on him with his best friend, and she’s cast out by her peers. Devastated by guilt, grief and feeling isolated, her counselling sessions do little to help. Yet even as she descends into the darkest clutches of depression, Saoirse shines as a wise and witty young woman. She sees people for who they are, beyond her years, with her narrative casting a glaring light on the reality of attitudes to depression: “You are not allowed to be sad. People have no tolerance to sad. You can be Insta sad – sad because you saw pictures of dying refugees or abandoned puppies. You can’t be ongoing sad.. You can’t be scared or anxious or upset”. As everything becomes too much for Saoirse, she’s taken to a psychiatric hospital. Though painful, her journey to regaining herself is powerfully raw and touched by hope, with the wider cast of true-to-life characters (from Saoirse’s siblings and peers, to her straight-talking, gin-swilling grandmother) adding to the enlivening authenticity.
May 2022 Debut of the Month | Navigating loss, love and family strains while standing out as a brown girl in a predominantly white school isn’t easy for Ellie, a budding songwriter and music aficionado. A beautiful, funny ode to finding the strength to sing up and stand out, Ellie Pillai is Brown is sure to chime with readers who also feel they don’t quite fit in, with QR codes peppered through the book bringing Ellie’s songs to life, and adding extra depth to the experience. Ellie Pillai is a girl who know what she loves — music. And, against her parents’ wishes, she’s set on making a go of her drama GCSE, determined to find a way to overcome feeling invisible. While her family are mourning the loss of her little brother, which has left Ellie and her mum terribly distant from each other, Ellie has the stable support of her best friend. But her life is well and truly shaken up when a new boy and his twin sister arrive at her school. While handsome Ash is the only person who gets all her music references and understands the power of a playlist and finding the right song for every situation, it looks like he’s hooked up with her best friend, so Ellie tries to put him out of her mind. At the same time, Ellie’s new drama teacher instils her with confidence: “I think you have presence, something special about you. Something different”. If only Ellie can stop putting herself in a box and making herself small. Exploring grief, consent, family expectations, self-confidence, first love, same sex love and mental health through its well-drawn cast of characters, Ellie Pillai is Brown strikes a smart balance between humour and emotion.
This is adventure number three for Joy Applebloom, her family and friends but, gloriously, things show now sign of calming down. Indeed, to Joy it seems exciting new things are ‘fizzing like just discovered comets through our sky.’ Her grandad and big sister have new relationships making them happy, her parents are enjoying their new jobs, but for Joy there is a new teacher – the dazzling Mr Suarez – and a new girl in class, Phoebe Dark. Joy is determined they’ll be friends, she just needs to find the key to Phoebe. Elegantly told, full of humour, insight and memorable characters, Planet Joy is heavenly reading. A series to recommend to fans of Lara Williamson and Lisa Thompson.
A Julia Eccleshare Pick of the Month April 2022 | Award-winning Sharon Creech has an exceptional gift that enables her to tell her stories lightly and with humour. Gina Filomena has always been different from her classmates. She sees things when others can’t, she wears amazing, vividly coloured clothes sent by her grandmother, she plays wildly inventive games with her father. Teachers have always told her that she has an overactive imagination but then Miss Lightstone, a teacher who encourages creative thinking and writing, arrives and, coincidentally Antonio a boy with an imagination that is equal to her own joins the class and Gina finds that imagination can be a wonderful, transformative new power. In a story that takes the same imaginative leaps in its telling as Gina, Antonio and their classmates take under Miss Lightstone’s inspirational teaching this is an inspirational novel that sings to its readers while also encouraging them to us their imaginations and to have the courage to be free.
Yikes! After causing a whole lot of chaos at his sister’s wedding in Mayhem Mission, Yusuf only goes and messes up again…This second book in Burhana Islam’s My Laugh-Out-Loud Life series is a treat for fans of fast-paced funny fiction, with Farah Khandaker’s illustrations further amplifying the fun factor. When an unfortunate food fight incident with Bashir the Basher (Enemy Number 1) gets Yusuf and his friends into big trouble with the Imam, he decides to restore his family’s honour by running for Form Captain. But the problem is (one of many, to be honest), he’s running against Bashir amidst rumours that he’s an “almost-murderer”. Given that Bashir has done a deal with notorious school prankster The Masked Trickster, Yusuf has his work cut out to deliver a vote-winning campaign, which means readers are in for a comic caper of colossal proportions. Infused with a strong sense of friendship and trying to do the right thing, The Dastardly Duo is driven by zany, page-turning humour and a whole lot of heart.
What a treat it is for a Rosemary Sutcliff treasure to be newly presented to the world, and in a beautiful package that befits the story’s historic charms and thrills, with charming chapter heading illustrations by Isabel Greenberg, and an introduction by Lara Maiklem, the acclaimed author of Mudlarking. This Manderley Press edition of The Armourer’s House will make a glorious gift for fans of historic fiction who relish intrigue and atmosphere, and comes highly recommended for readers who love Eva Ibbotson’s writing, and contemporary writers like Celia Rees and Katherine Rundell. First published in 1951, The Armourer’s House is set in London during the reign of Henry VIII, and rich in the engaging period detail Sutcliff is renowned for. When her grandmother dies, Tamsyn leaves her Devonshire seaside town and ship merchant Uncle Martin to live with Uncle Gideon in his armourer’s house on the Thames. Having a wife and large family, Gideon is deemed a more suitable guardian, but Tamsyn “did not want to be brought up properly, she only wanted to be happy”. She also longs to “have adventure and sail the seas of the world” — how on earth will she manage so far from the sea? Though something of a fish out of water in London’s chaos, Tamsyn’s imagination and heart are captured by the river traffic that passes Dolphin House, with her new excitement engagingly evoked alongside details of life in Tudor London — the Royal Dockyard, Billingsgate fish market, the autumnal “pink-flushed sky” behind Westminster, King Henry VIII himself travelling in the Royal Barge with Queen Anne Boleyn. Tellingly, Tamsyn “liked the Queen best, observing how her eyes were “terribly unhappy”. Then, on magic-charged Midsummer’s Eve, a Wise Woman presages that Tamsyn will find her “heart’s desire”, enhancing the novel’s aura of enchantment, and leading to a delightful denouement. Heartily satisfying for 9+ year-olds who love historic fiction, this also comes recommended as wonderful book to read together — no one is too old for the joys of reading aloud and being read to, and this ideal for exactly that.
This punk rocker poodle is having a bad day and refusing everything including food, drinks brushing of teeth and washing. What happens when a young rebel decides that everything is just not right on this particular day? Absolutely everything that can be refused is refused, our hero wants to be left alone to do what they want without sharing, without eating, without rules. We all have days like this and can sympathise with our hero until, at last, tiredness sets in. There is nothing nicer when going to bed then a cuddle, a kiss and some warm milk to settle down for sleep. This is a gloriously anarchic look at a bad day for a toddler and would make good reading at the end of a difficult day. Presented as a poetic rap the rhyme and rhythm carry you through the difficult day for our grumpy youngster. Told with humour and warmth, full of colour this book will be a favourite for many young people.
June 2022 Debut of the Month | Chester Chestnut is a happy little chap, but sometimes even the happiest of chaps get worried or nervous and when this happens Chester’s tummy starts to hurt. Follow the journey of Chester Chestnut as he learns about his anxious thoughts and feelings, where they come from and how to control them. A great tool to use at home and in classrooms to discuss feelings of worry and anxiety.
From Waterstones Children’s Book Prize shortlisted Robert Starling comes this new tale about the incredible places books can take us. Astrid’s family has just moved in to the mouse hole in the bookshop on Maple Street, and none of her new classmates believes the incredible adventures she has with her family. But when she invites each of them to the bookshop, they’ll see that there is a big, exciting world of possibilities there, just waiting to be discovered . . .
There’s another learning experience for little Sonny and his friends in this bright, appealing board book. Sonny finds a box, and though it’s labelled ‘For Honey’, that doesn’t stop him opening it up. Inside is a delicious cake… parents will know immediately what’s going to happen. Fortunately, Honey’s day is saved when Sonny and co bake a lovely new cake, together. There are messages about the importance of owning up and apologising, and around sharing and working together too. The littlest readers will identify with Sonny and there’s lots to hold their attention in this story.
A Robot Squashed My Teacher is the brilliantly illustrated, laugh-out-loud, wacky adventure by Pooja Puri, the sequel to the Marcus Rashford Bookclub Selected book A Dinosaur Ate My Sister.
Tilly and Shadow her dog have moved into a new house. They love playing by ‘the splash and curl of the sea’ and have lots of fun together on the beach. But Shadow can’t go to Tilly’s new school, he has to stay outside with Mum. At breaktime, Tilly has to play all on her own. Her teacher suggests she visits the Friendship Bench, ‘Children find new friends to play with there.’ But when Tilly gets to the bench, there’s already somebody on it. Her teacher encourages her to try again and soon the bench is working. The text is perfectly judged so that the very youngest will understand the magic of making friends, while the illustrations by Daniel Egnéus are full of light, sunshine and the sounds of children playing. Another beautiful, touching picture book from this award-winning team. You can find more books with this theme in our Collection of Brilliant Books about Friendship
From award-winning author Alex Gino comes a groundbreaking novel for children about how important the past can be those trying to create a different future.
This punk rocker poodle is having a bad day and refusing everything including food, drinks brushing of teeth and washing. What happens when a young rebel decides that everything is just not right on this particular day? Absolutely everything that can be refused is refused, our hero wants to be left alone to do what they want without sharing, without eating, without rules. We all have days like this and can sympathise with our hero until, at last, tiredness sets in. There is nothing nicer when going to bed then a cuddle, a kiss and some warm milk to settle down for sleep. This is a gloriously anarchic look at a bad day for a toddler and would make good reading at the end of a difficult day. Presented as a poetic rap the rhyme and rhythm carry you through the difficult day for our grumpy youngster. Told with humour and warmth, full of colour this book will be a favourite for many young people.
April 2022 Book of the Month | Four young people, who know but don’t like one another; a Saturday detention in their creepy old school; and the sudden, terrifying disappearance of their teacher… The stage is set for a fabulously scary horror story in which Jennifer Killick gleefully plays the genre for everything it’s got: shocks, surprises, black humour, and a growing understanding between our bunch of unlikely heroes that if they’re going to get out alive, they’ll need to work together. Killick knows just the right amount of gory detail to include and has a great line in teenage banter too. Readers, especially those new to this kind of story are in for a treat!
With stylish, characterful illustrations (and a very smart use of colour) by Koko Rattray, Gordon McIntyre’s Something Must Rhyme with Orange is an encouraging ode to the joys of the imagination. What’s more, this book might also help overcome anxieties about writing the “right way”, and resonate with less-confident kids who are worried about sharing their work. When Zoe’s teacher tasks her class with writing a rhyming poem for a competition based on a word picked randomly from a hat, she’s racked with worry when she picks out “orange”. That said, she’s also determined to come up with an idea: “Surely SOMETHING MUST RHYME WITH ORANGE!” While Zoe’s mum, dad and brother make a few suggestions, she’s still floundering, until she decides to “just write down anything that comes into my head, no matter how silly it sounds”. The resulting soaring flight of imagination sees her win the poetry competition to acclaims of her work being “brilliant” and “exceptional”. Though this a picture book, a format typically aimed at toddlers, the theme makes it perfect for older children who are starting to write their own poems and stories. It’s a great book to share at home and in the classroom to free-up creativity and impart the important lesson that we can all use our imaginations to make magic — let’s tear up the rulebook and write!
A Julia Eccleshare Pick of the Month March 2022 | Heading back to her boarding school, Esther, the middle of three sisters and the one without any special talents, is looking forward to meeting up with her friends and enjoying the everyday adventures of school. But this term, there is much about school that is different. Where are Esther’s best friends, for example? And why does Esther have a very strong feeling that their new teacher is an ogre? Nothing is quite as it should be and it seems as if Esther is the one who is going to have to find out what is going on. A frothily inventive school adventure full of likable characters and an endless supply of the unexpected.
Powerfully applying the horror genre to explore racism and homophobia in a high school setting, Ryan Douglass’ The Taking of Jake Livingston is an un-put-down-able, chilling tale for our times. Sixteen-year-old Jake isn’t exactly your average teenager. He’s a medium, he can see the dead. Ghouls and zombie-like beings appear to him, ectomist seeps into his vision, “snakelike and sinister”. Jake is also one of the few black students at his private high school: “I hate it here. Every time we run warm-ups it’s like there’s a BLACK KID sign blinking above my head like a firetruck light”. As a result, the arrival of a gorgeous new black student is especially welcome, and brings the promise of romance. But Jake’s visions are worsening, to say the least. While most of the ghouls he sees are harmless, Sawyer Doon’s spirit is vengeful. After killing six students in a high school shoot-out, Sawyer killed himself, and is now set on using Jake to exact revenge. As an intense and chilling story of survival unfolds at breakneck speed, The Taking of Jake Livingston balances edge-of-your-seat scares and action with emotionally engaging themes.
Isadora Moon is special because she's different. Her mum is a fairy, her dad is a vampire, and she's a bit of both. When Isadora's teacher announces the class are having a maths test on Monday, Isadora gets a nervous feeling in her tummy. She really doesn't like tests . . . or maths! Maybe, Isadora could pretend to be ill so she can stay at home instead? Isadora calls her naughty cousin Mirabelle for help and she gives her a spell that will help Isadora get out of the test. To Isadora's delight, it works! But between a potion mishap and magic pox fluffballs bouncing around all over the place, Isadora starts feeling a bit guilty. Luckily, her mum is on hand to help set things right and together they come up with a new, magical way to say goodbye to the magic pox and even make revising for the maths test fun! With irresistible pink and black artwork throughout by author/illustrator Harriet Muncaster, Isadora Moon is a unique heroine with an out-of-this-world family!
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