Edward VII is on the throne and it is ‘the time of gas lamps and candlelight.’ Motherless Clarry and Peter Penrose are being raised by an austere and indifferent father, freedom coming but once a year, in the form of idyllic summers spent roaming the Cornish coast with their beloved cousin Rupert. Little do they know that life is about to change irrevocably, as war looms on the horizon, poised to steal their youth and innocence. The Skylark’s War by Hilary McKay has just scooped the Costa Children’s Book Award 2018. A family saga of immense scope, it’s a worthy winner indeed.

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‘Is February, we ask ourselves, any better than January?’

Roald Dahl thinks maybe yes, because if you can battle through it then the worst of the winter is probably over, and this fierce and bitter month will yield to March and the approaching spring. My Year by Roald Dahl is a warmly conversational guide to the changing seasons of the English countryside. Inexplicably out of print for several years, this charming new edition is a must for Dahl fans and young nature enthusiasts alike.

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I often wish I could recapture the intensity of my childhood reading, that joyful and total immersion in a fictional world. Debut novel Pages & Co by Anna James reminds me of those exhilarating days. It tells the story of bookwanderer Tilly Pages, and her magical ability to travel into her favourite books and hang out with beloved characters. Some books are safer than others however, and when Tilly sets off on a quest to find her long-lost mother, it seems that danger may literally be lurking on the very next page.

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London, 1899. Meet Elsie, the 10-year-old heroine of our tale. Recently escaped from Wormly Hall Orphanage, she’s about to embark on a transition from barefoot urchin to world famous adventurer, in less time than it takes to say “another fizzingly fabulous book from David Walliams.”

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Imagine being able to watch the sun set forty-three times in one day, heating your breakfast over a volcano, and hitching an interplanetary ride with a flock of birds. Mere details in the life of the Little Prince, the questing innocent who drops to Earth from the stars, in Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s famous fable. Celebrating its 75th anniversary, this edition has been translated by the always excellent Michael Morpurgo.

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In the best tradition of scary stories, The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman begins with murder on a moonlit night. Three family members slain, while the fourth, a boy toddler, evades Jack the murderer’s blade and seeks refuge with the supernatural inhabitants of a nearby graveyard. Partly inspired by The Jungle Book, but with ghosts rather than animals bringing up the plucky orphan, Gaiman’s modern classic remains the only book to have won both the Carnegie and Newbery prize. This Halloween coincides with its 10th anniversary, prompting a suitably macabre review.

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If it’s true that science is magic that works, then this marvellous book is brimful of the stuff, a terrifying majestic force that looks like sorcery but proves to be mind-bending physics. The Infinite Lives of Maisie Day tells the tale of a young girl who wakes one day to an empty house, her family vanished and a terrifying, enveloping blackness outside the front door, that appears to stretch into infinity.

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The Little Rebels Book Prize was set up to reward kids fiction that challenges stereotypes and promotes equality, while still giving readers a cracking good story. Behold the 2018 winner, The Muslims. It’s the story of Omar, a 9-year-old Muslim Londoner, and his first encounter with bullying, prejudice, and the shock of feeling an outsider in his own country.

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Imagine if the ground beneath your feet was riddled with tunnels, home to a predatory and ‘voracious underground hurricane that thinks and feels’ its way to destruction. Heavy stuff. This scenario is visited upon 12-year-old Gran Flowerpetal in this new book from the brilliant Dave Eggers. His first foray into children’s fiction, The Lifters presents us with a spirited and magical adventure, and the ever-popular theme of kids having to take charge and save the day.

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