Judith Eagle is well established as a writer of middle grade adventures with a classic feel, and fans will be delighted with her excellent fourth novel, The Stolen Songbird. The songbird of the title is a painting, one of a series of three whose theft is at the centre of this lively tale. Part heist, part family mystery, The Stolen Songbird bounds along with great verve, plenty of twists, but also a lot of heart and compassion.
How do you come of age in a body that is old before its time? After a sudden onset and long adjustment period, Ven is answering that question day by day, living with the dynamic complications of chronic illness, and reckoning with the loss of her ability to dance. Luckily, she has other passions. Bossing her A level music group into peak performance, finding gorgeous second hand boots (all the better for bossing in), and the way the new boy’s hair falls just so …
The punny title reflects this cookery book’s gamebook influenced format. From the starting point of flour as the base ingredient, the reader is presented with a series of choices, firstly between savoury and sweet, and more options afterwards. Each of the ingredients is introduced with a rhyming riddle and food facts sidebar. All of the choices conclude with the key ingredients needed for a different dish. There is an array of delicious options, including fairlings, jalebi, trofie, and a boxty inspired potato bread.
Kofi is full of energy, he’s always talking, and he has loads of plans for making money. Quiet Kelvin is a great listener, and he has a superpower, an amazing memory. When they team up, Kofi devises his greatest money-making scheme yet.
Harry Heape and Rebecca Bagely offer readers another gripping and tremendously exciting story of Indiana Bones and his friends on their third adventure together. Beginning with a mini recap of ‘slimportant’ pieces of ‘funformation’ in bullet point format, this book ensures all readers, new and returning, can dive into the first chapter in the know.
Dismissed as too young to steal, twelve-year-old Judiper Ripon is determined to prove herself to her family, the top dogs in the criminal underworld of Farrowfell. With the help of a moody house and ghost magic that tastes of feet, Jude is well on the way to becoming a true Ripon. But when she nicks a lump of decision-making magic, she sets off a curse that threatens the heart of her home and exposes the truth about her relatives – a truth that is harder to swallow than the foul-tasting magic she must eat to stay on the wrong side of the law.
Mia lives in Nubis, a city plunged into a forever night by the menacing Reaper King. After a scary encounter with a wild umbra, a shadow creature, in the Nightmare Plains, Mia decides she no longer wants to follow her dream of being an umbra tamer.
Tiger is sleepy. Crocodile is sleepy. Both animals just need their bedtime kiss and then they can rest. However, the animals they meet seem afraid of their sharp teeth and aren’t forthcoming with bedtime kisses. Just when both animals are about to cry at their predicament, a sharp-toothed shadow comes towards them.
The Faber Book of Bedtime Stories is a wonderful collection of seventeen stories written by a mixture of bestselling, and up-and-coming authors. It is wholesome and nostalgic in its style of writing. It rekindles memories of hearing classic fairytales at bedtime. However, the stories are contemporary with the characters encountering modern challenges. In the classic fairytale fashion, the heroes of the stories are presented with problems that they must overcome with a mixture of compassion, love and friendship. Each story has a positive and hopeful message for bedtime.
Tortoise is busy - places to go and rocks to climb - but after getting stuck upside-down, Tortoise’s frustration reaches boiling point and all Tortoise can do is shout in sheer exasperation. Not even a hug from Hedgehog will solve this problem. Luckily Owl is on hand with some wise words; “…to cheer someone up, you must try to understand what they are feeling”.
