8–10

Aoife Dooley’s latest graphic novel is another headfirst dive into bountiful colour and expressive, playful illustration. A marvellous follow-up to the first Squid Squad story, Nothing to Sea Here, readers rejoin Ollie and Zing and their underwater crew for more deep-sea adventures.

Eleven-year-old Alex’s whole world turns upside down when his untimely death means that he is now a vampire. You’d think that being a vampire would mean lots of cool superpowers and a whole new way of life, but not for Alex. His parents insist that he carries on with his (after)life as though everything is perfectly normal. This means school, swim trials, and secrets as he can’t reveal the truth to anyone, not even his best friends Archie and Mia.

Wanzu lives in Sealand with his grandmother, the wise and gentle Jjajja. In Sealand, every person shares a unique bond with one of the four elements – air, fire, water, or earth. When disaster strikes their homeland, Wanzu and his friends must harness these elemental connections, embarking on a journey through the natural world. Guided by the wisdom of those they encounter, they uncover their inner strengths and ultimately strive to restore balance to Sealand.

If you don’t know your vloggers from your infographics but were too embarrassed to ask, then this book is the perfect tonic for you. The title is not misleading – this guide truly covers everything, from fake news to online safety. It is an essential resource for readers of all ages, and everyone will learn something from it. However, with its clear, accessible, and child friendly language, it is bound to become a necessity in every home and classroom.

Like her namesake, Amelia Cheeseheart is an intrepid adventurer who loves to fly. Unlike the real Amelia Earheart, she is a mouse who lives inside the gift shop of a museum with her best friend; a timid banana loving spider called Webster.

The fourth book in the series First Cat, our heroes, First Cat, LOZ 4000, and Moon Queen return for a sailing to adventure across the seas and skies of the Moon. In this newest instalment we follow the plight of Captain Babybeard (a baby pirate with a beard) when his first mate, the Martian pirate James Plantain (a literal banana pirate) in an act of betrayal, leaves Captain Babybeard alone on a desert Island.

An excitable Cosmo gets to test out a prototype of a new rocket jet pack. However, when the jet pack malfunctions and communication breaks down with his team back at base, Cosmo has to find his own way home. But of course, the journey is not that straightforward; Cosmo is helped along the way by an entertaining and certainly interesting cast of characters. Think magicians, sewer mutants, aliens, each wackier than the next whilst travelling from cities to spaceships to jungles on this epic, immersive and humorous adventure.

Based on a true story, we learn about the two lives of Ema. When you flip through the pages, Alex tells readers about Ema’s life now. When you don the super-cool 3D glasses that accompany the book, we get a glimpse of Ema’s life before.

A little yellow sponge’s job is to keep the kitchen clean. She is hard working ‘lean, mean, and ready to clean!’ wiping up milk, vegetable scraps and crumbs but when the blender loses her cap messing up the entire kitchen, the little sponge loses her cool. She is now a dirty yellow sponge – and deeply upset! The Rubber Glove Twins come to her aid and help her to become clean again. After their care, she resumes her work, but she has learned the important task of relaxing between cleaning jobs.

This wildly colourful anthology digs deep and spreads wide to celebrate different forms of courage and empowerment, from the more familiar – being true to yourself, fighting injustice – to fresh expressions of bravery, such as swirling in a sari and letting Afro hair ‘grow/the way it wants to grow:/ confident again.’