Lorna Vogelsang

If this book doesn’t inspire and encourage your teenager to become a writer, I don’t know what will!

Lizzy has dreams of being a famous inventor, but her pet hamster has escaped, and she has to invent something to find him. With help from her babysitter and fellow inventor Ruby, Lizzy learns all about the skills required to become an inventor, how to follow a checklist, and how to consider the audience, safety, and sustainability of anything you might invent.

Take a journey through a child’s typical day and discover fascinating facts about the elements all around us as you go. For instance, did you know that the iron in your cereal makes it magnetic? Or that the burnt bits on your toast are made of carbon, as are diamonds and all your clothes?

For children who are disabled and their families, or for anybody who wants to know what it’s like to be a disabled child, this book is the perfect fun and empowering guide.

This gripping and exciting book examines the aftermath of an apocalyptic event involving artificial intelligence and humans, called the Flood, in which the world as we know it has ended with not many survivors left. Humans and machines were connected to each other via a link called the Hive that short-circuited, and almost everything has been destroyed.

If, like most of us, the only thing you know about AI (Artificial Intelligence) is a somewhat scary movie where the robots become sentient and rise up against humans, then this book makes for a reassuring read that robots and AI are not going to take over in the near future.

Find adventure in a mysterious university, on the high seas and in a jungle in this book about a brave young girl, Tourmaline, her nervous best friend, George, and their new friend, Mai, all of whom are looking for someone who has gone missing under strange circumstances. Tourmaline is fearless and inventive and jumps into these escapades at every opportunity while not being afraid to stand up to adults and ask questions. As the story progresses, we see the children deal with the acceptance of friends who are not perfect but are loyal and help each other.

This action-packed sequel to Jennifer Bell’s Wonderscape jumps feet first into a swirling portal and straight into the action from the very first chapter. The heroes, three young friends and their shape-shifting robot dog, get sucked into a computer-game adventure that’s unfolding in the real-world future of 2493, where they find themselves in a race against time to get back home.

This book is a noble call to action for today’s children to protect the valuable oceans and the futures of the fascinating creatures living in them. It has bright and colourful illustrations that depict various sea creatures in their natural habitats, using a style that manages to convey movement and size while also giving personality to the animals.

One Million Insects is a hive of information about the various species of creepy crawlies that outnumber us humans 1.4 billion to one, with exciting little titbits about their sometimes-bizarre habits and life cycles. The chapters are organised into insect orders, introducing children to the scientific methods of classification. The book is full of colourful illustrations that give the insects charm and character, reminiscent of the style of Eric Carle’s classic The Very Hungry Caterpillar.