Simon & Schuster Children's Books

Trust no one is the rule to remember when reading this fast-paced adventure story. Rosalyn Quest wants to have mundane teenage experiences, like attending a gymnastics summer camp, and making friends. However, coming from a famous family of thieves, being normal is next to impossible. After her mother, a fellow famous thief, is kidnapped, Rosalyn is forced to do whatever it takes to get her back safely. Rosalyn enters into the Thieves' Gambit - a high stakes competition for young criminals - where the winner is granted one wish.

Darnton’s picture book is told from the perspective of a big sister anxiously awaiting the birth of her new sibling. Her excitement is infectious and at each stage of the pregnancy, she imagines all the fun she can have with her baby brother. However, she’s unsure how she feels about having an avocado for a brother, or an onion! This delightful picture book playfully explores the long wait for the much-anticipated birth of a sibling—with an unexpected twist.

With the global pandemic initiating discussions about adult mental health, Percival draws attention to the growing need to focus on children’s mental health. Children feel a sea of emotion which can often go undetected. Rowan realises that the river was just like him; it could be light and playful, wild and angry, and even slow and sad.

This humorous book tells the story of the hunt for the perfect name for a cat who has turned up on a little girl’s doorstep. It should be an easy task … but each page proves that there is much more to a name than just a sound. This book is a delight to read and had me going back through the pages to see what clues I may have missed along the way.

Norton is a very lovable collector who spends his days gathering bits and pieces that he uses to create new and wonderful inventions. Early in the story he creates a companion, Alpha, who goes with him on his collecting trips. After many successful excursions, Norton and Alpha collect a thing they can find no use for. They try it out in many situations and put it through a number of tests; eventually, though, they give up on finding a purpose for the thing and discard it. But is it useless? Time will show that what is untestable is not necessarily without value.

Grimwood is a beautifully touching yet brilliantly silly comedy about family, friendship and home. Nancy and her little brother Ted are fox cubs who live in the Big City. When they find themselves in a spot of bother with the local cat gang leader Princess Buttons, they need to find somewhere safe to escape to. Luckily for them a super-duper rat with a map helps them out and they find themselves in a forest called Grimwood. It is an unusual but wonderful place and the inhabitants are ones you won’t easily forget!

Sixteen-year-old Grace is reeling: she’s just given up her baby for adoption and she’s desperately trying to get her life back to normal. But that’s proving way harder than she expected.

In the land of Byd, a sinister nursery rhyme foretells of a terrible Beast. Within the village of Gwenith, suspicion mounts surrounding uncanny twins. Forced into the forest, the sisters gradually morph into soul eaters, consumed by vengeance. After the twins descend upon their former village, the local children are left parentless. Although the youth find refuge in a nearby village, they soon discover that darkness continues to lurk both without and within.

When you lose someone you love it can feel like everything around you is being sucked into a black hole. But in Stella’s case, it actually is. Stella is crazy about space, and after a visit to NASA she is followed home by a black hole which seems to want her to adopt it as a pet. The trouble is, a black hole from outer space which swallows everything it touches is not exactly an ideal creature to share your home with.

‘”It’s a good day for sailing,” his grandfather would have said.’

Finn wakes early on the morning of his late Grandfather’s ninetieth birthday. He decides to build a boat to honour his memory. He recalls the sound of his grandfather’s voice and the stories he told of ‘a place far away where ocean meets sky’. In his hand-made boat, Finn sets sail on a long, magical journey encountering incredible places and amazing creatures along the way, including the Library Islands, filled with roosting bookish birds and a sea of dancing moon jellies.