Timid Mary-Kate Martin is off with her renowned archaeologist mother to a quaint English village to investigate some strange bones found in an old well. This was not her idea. But in sparkly red shoes and carrying her strawberry-scented notebook and collection of lucky things, she hopes she is ready …
Fayson has always wanted to be a detective. Yet when her wealthy cousins recruit her to their top-secret gang on Lighthouse Island, her feelings about the gang are as mixed as her feelings about the cousins themselves. Cousins, Aaron and Omar feel Fayson is the only one who can discover the identity of the mysterious figure they have seen visiting the local lighthouse every evening. Fayson’s first real investigation sheds light not only on the mystery in question but also on a host of relationships and realities around her too.
Since Jack’s dad died, he has been feeling lost. His mum, an environmental anthropologist, is rarely home and when she is, all she wants to do is have ‘serious chats’. To quench the heavy feeling that has been following him, Jack looks for danger and excitement by getting involved with a gang of boys that want to cause trouble. But suddenly, Jack’s mum suggests a trip abroad together and he finds himself in the depths of the rainforest, dealing with dangers far worse than the ones at home.
A throbbing red tonsil, vivid green waterfalls of snot and a dramatically expelled sneeze make it very apparent from the outset that when Devolle says germs, he means germs!
This is a fantasy mystery with strong environmental themes. There are two very likeable main characters – a brave young boy called Alfred, who has always felt like an outsider, and his new-found friend Saga, who is determined to stop the construction of a tunnel through faerie ground. Alfred is staying with his Granny and desperately trying to figure out who he is – a faerie, or a changeling? And what exactly happened to his mother all those years ago and why will no one talk about her?
Nobody knows what mysterious powers the Shadow King has, but having control over six kingdoms is power enough. Alessandra wants this power for herself, and she has a plan to get it. She’s not the only one trying to kill the king, though, and she needs to keep him alive long enough to marry him first …
A beautifully illustrated and engaging story about a dog who wants to have friends and to feel like he belongs. He tries very hard to understand how to make friends and to play with others but he isn’t sure. He is looking for others who are just like him but then discovers a friend who is fun and warm but different.
The author of When Life Gives You Mangoes evokes her homeland of Jamaica beautifully once more in her second novel, which begins when Brie turns twelve. It’s been three years since her beloved mother died, a woman who was ‘like fire’ and ‘lit up the room in all her colours’, and since then nothing has been quite right. ‘One day everything was perfect, and then it wasn’t.’
When Jake wakes up nine days before Christmas and discovers his mum has disappeared, he makes a list of where she could be – Tesco, the Bahamas, the hospital – and sets out to find out what’s going on. His older sister, Rosie, is annoying (her screaming is like a deranged werewolf), Grandma always seems to be having a nap, and there’s something strange going on with his best friend, Lukas.
Ophelia Bottom wants nothing more than to have an ordinary life – one that involves ‘normal’ parents and a house without wheels. Instead, she travels around the country with her parents in a converted furniture van as part of Bottom’s Travelling Theatre. When a performance of Macbeth goes wrong, forcing the Bottoms to stay in the perfect town of Stopford (whose motto is ‘PLASTIC IS FANTASTIC – DIFFERENT IS DANGEROUS’), it seems likely that Ophelia might get her wish.
