Mystery

This is a gripping historical murder mystery set during the time of British rule in India. Three young children inadvertently become witnesses to a murder while travelling on the mail ship Marianna from Calcutta to England. As they investigate this mystery, they also discover more about each other and themselves. This book has a strong message about friendship and, as the character Sam says, you don’t have to like people more or less but you can like each of them differently.

Do you fancy the sound of Extra Minty Grapefruit and Smoky Bacon Flavour Ice Cream? The Cow People of Pluto certainly can’t seem to get enough of it, as best friends Connor and Ethan find out when they agree to run Ethan’s Uncle Nick’s ice-cream stall on the mind-boggling space station Starville during the summer holidays.

It’s the summer of 1914 in England, and Fran’s digging in the potato patch when she unearths – and cracks – a white bone. Her feeling of uneasiness grows when, minutes later, Leo from nearby Longbarrow House breaks his leg. These strange coincidences mount up as Fran and Leo begin to search for a burial site hidden somewhere on the Longbarrow grounds.

Most children know their parents keep little secrets from them, but what if you found out that your mum was keeping huge, life-changing, amazing secrets from you? Everything changes for Valentine (Vi) Day the minute she hears that her mum and her nan were both top secret agents and that her dead hero dad wasn’t a hero or, well ... even dead. Suddenly everything begins to make a lot more sense. Determined to join the family business of top secret spying, Vi must use all her innate spy skills to save her family and the world from evil.

Beatrice (Bea) – a young Scottish orphan relocated to India – joins forces with a French acrobat, an Indian servant and a circus tiger to find safety during the Indian rebellion of 1857 and, by turn, find out what has happened to Bea’s younger brother, George.

Kip huddles on the ‘Midway Branch’ of the ‘Chess Nut Tree’ in self-seclusion from the daily horrors of school life and the dreaded Miss Gubbins, or ‘The Snibbug’. His reversal of her name is an attempt to ward off the continual damage done by her carping. An encoded message drops from the sky, forcing Kip to use his knowledge of chess to puzzle it out.

The Little Tulip Orphanage has three very simple rules when it comes to abandoning babies. And yet, in the autumn of 1886, Matron Elinora Gassbeek receives no less than five infants who have been incorrectly abandoned, left on the steps of the building in anything from a coal bucket to a picnic hamper. These five babies, Lotta, Egg, Fenna, Sem and Milou, become known collectively as the Unadoptables and the only thing they have is each other. Until the year they turn twelve and an unexpected arrival threatens to tear them all apart …

Ordinarily, Nell Magnificent is happy to avoid her parents at all costs. But when they announce they are on their way to Paris, Nell surprises them by begging to go along. She’s not planning on hanging around, though. Paris houses something very close to Nell’s heart … her old au pair, Perrine (Pear). Pear used to write to Nell every week, promising to rescue her from her life of misery, but the letters have stopped.

Colin Kingsley is a pizza delivery boy who longs to become a detective. But in his sleepy home town, Rufflington-On-Sea, there is a complete lack of cases to solve – until he crosses paths with the Golden Spatula League. The G.S.L. is a top secret agency for ‘caterer detectives’, run by children working in the fast-food world. They have spotted Colin’s potential and amazing photographic memory and think he is just the guy to join their investigative organisation.

When Elias turns twelve, he receives an unusual gift from his grandmother. She explains that the story he has been told about his father dying is untrue, and she hands him the key to his father’s attic full of books. Elias realises that his father has fallen into a parallel world and begins to read the many books in the attic as a means of finding his father amongst a universe of other literary worlds.