8-11 years


The House Without Windows by Barbara Newhall Follett

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The House Without Windows

A beguiling and curious read

The House Without Windows by Barbara Newhall Follett tells the strange tale of a lonely little girl named Eepersip, who yearns to escape the confines of her family and roam free forever in the wilderness. Running away from home, Eepersip experiences transcendental joy in her communion with nature. She does not want to be suffocated by conventional home and hearth, but her parents, in their desperation to keep her ‘safe’ have other ideas. Can this wild spirit be tamed?

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Kids Fight Plastic by Martin Gorey

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Kids Fight Plastic

A timely and engaging manifesto for change

Picture your future grandchildren ‘…standing on a spotless beach, staring out at a vast ocean free of plastic, pulsing with life, surf and wonder.’ Is this a realistic prospect? Kids Fight Plastic by Martin Dorey tells us that it can be, if young eco-activists everywhere rise up and lend voice and action to the campaign to save our beautiful oceans. Abuzz with ideas, this practical how-to guide shows us how seemingly small actions can make a difference.

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Pay Attention Carter Jones by Gary D. Schmidt

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Pay Attention Carter Jones

What the butler saw

Pay Attention Carter Jones by Gary D. Schmidt is the very definition of offbeat. Our eponymous hero is the junior man of the house, his father a U.S Army captain on duty in Germany, his home life a chaotic jumble of siblings and stressed mother. Unexpectedly bequeathed a real-life English butler, their suburban American life is about to be turned on its head. Prepare for humour, pathos and a spot of cricket before lunch.

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The Good Thieves by Katherine Rundell

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The Good Thieves

Spirited Manhattan heist tale from an author at the top of her game

The opening chapter of The Good Thieves by Katherine Rundell gives us 1920’s New York, and Young Vita Marlowe, aboard an incoming ocean liner. Nodding ‘…at the city in greeting as a boxer greets an opponent before a fight,’ Vita signals that we’re in for a lively read, this combative vibe resurfacing after a traumatic reunion with her recently bereaved grandpa. He has been swindled out of house and home by a ruthless mafioso, and in search of vengeance, a determined Vita prepares to dive into the sordid world of gangsters, speakeasies and heists.

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Cloud Boy by Marcia Williams

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Cloud Boy

A bittersweet tale in honour of best friends everywhere

Inspired by the daily scud of clouds across the sky, best pals Angie Moon and Harry Christmas are experts on weather fronts and formations of cloud, be it candy floss wisp or rain-swollen knot. Born two days apart, Angie thinks of Harry as her almost-twin, but their easy, uncomplicated friendship is about to be tested beyond endurance when recurring headaches lead to a grave diagnosis for Harry. Cloud Boy by Marcia Williams is a touching and unusual story of love and resilience. Keep a tissue to hand.

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Cinderella Liberator by Rebecca Solnit

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Cinderella Liberator

A dusting of millennial glitter for an old favourite

Cinderella Liberator by Rebecca Solnit enticed me not only with its striking title and cover, but also the improbable pairing of author and illustrator. Rebecca Solnit, high-profile writer and spirited activist, and traditionalist Arthur Rackham, classic book illustrator from the Edwardian era. In this modern take on Cinderella, Solnit aspires to release the cast of characters from their seventeenth-century shackles. Does she succeed in bringing Cinders marching into the 21st-century, and is it possible to march in glass slippers anyway?

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The Lost Book of Adventure: From the Notebooks of the Unknown Adventurer edited by Teddy Keen

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The Lost Book of Adventure: From the Notebooks of the Unknown Adventurer

A unique and joyful call to the intrepid

‘Remember: Be good, be adventurous…and look after your parents.’

These are among the last words of the Unknown Adventurer, a globe-trotting explorer whose notes and sketches have been discovered in a remote part of the Amazon. Apparently intended for two young relatives, her (or his) work has been faithfully reproduced here, in The Lost Book of Adventure: From the Notebooks of the Unknown Adventurer edited by Teddy Keen. Contemplation of our beautiful planet is combined with practical instruction and field-notes. All that is required is one sensible adult, to assist young readers with the practicalities of becoming a fully-fledged adventurer.

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The House With Chicken Legs by Sophie Anderson

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The House with Chicken Legs

A dazzling and original contemplation of death

Does the name Baba Yaga provoke a frisson of unease in your mind? It did for me as I dredged up vague childhood reading memories of a forest-dwelling crone whose hut stands on the spindliest of chicken legs. An enduring character from Slavic folklore, Baba Yaga has been reimagined in The House with Chicken Legs by Sophie Anderson.

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The Boy at the Back of the Class by Onjali Q. Rauf

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The Boy at the Back of the Class

Waterstones Prize winner is brimful of warmth and humanity

‘There used to be an empty chair at the back of the classroom.’ But then one day Ahmet appeared. Scared, sad Ahmet with golden eyes like a lion. The Boy at the Back of the Class by Onjali Q. Raúf tells this young Syrian refugee’s story in her debut novel, the much-applauded recipient of Waterstones Children’s Book Prize 2019. Taking a child’s eye view of the refugee crisis, we follow a bunch of curious and big-hearted school kids as they eagerly pursue a friendship that leads to the hailing of ‘Ahmet: The most famous refugee boy in the world!’

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Happy Poems by Roger McGough

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Happy Poems

Big smiles for World Poetry Day this March

And so to March, a month that brings us the springing of spring, and World Poetry Day, a global celebration of the joys of poetry. Happy Poems by Roger McGough seems to me to be the ideal collection to share with you. Boldly introducing young readers to the likes of William Blake and Alfred Tennyson, through to Carol Ann Duffy and the ever fabulous Benjamin Zephaniah, the bright, smiley cover promises an array of poems designed to bring sunshine to your kids’ reading.

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