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Age Group: KS2

Chapter book

ADVENTURE LIES BEYOND THE CAT FLAP!

Meet your favourite new duo: MURRAY AND BUN!
Murray is a cat. Murray loves snoozing, fluffy blankets, and peace and quiet.
Bun is a bun. Bun loves… EVERYTHING!
And together they are unstoppable!

SOMETIMES Murray’s enchanted cat flap leads to the garden… but mostly it leads to ADVENTURE!

And when Murray and Bun travel through the cat flap and find themselves in a land of VIKINGS, they are given a VERY IMPORTANT MISSION: to travel to TROLL ISLAND and rescue Eggrik the Viking… if he hasn’t already been gobbled up by the trolls, that is.

Perfect for newly independent readers and fans of Bunny vs Monkey, Dog Man, Adventure Mice and Claude, this funny, exciting, and hugely loveable story – brilliantly illustrated throughout – will delight adventure-lovers young and old. After all, heroes come in all shapes and sizes!

Chapter bookShort story collection

Ten stunning Shakespeare retellings from the master storyteller, with an introduction by Benedict Cumberbatch

Featuring re-tellings of ten of Shakespeare’s plays, and beautifully written with Michael Morpurgo’s warm, accessible and inimitable style, this wonderful collection offers a new generation of readers the chance to discover the magic of Shakespeare – the perfect introduction to the Bard and an unmissable book for children.

Stunningly illustrated throughout with contributions from ten different artists, each with a special connection to the author, and published in a beautiful hardback edition, Tales from Shakespeare is a glorious tribute to both Shakespeare and Michael Morpurgo, making this the perfect gift.

A contemporary Lamb’s Tales for a new generation.

Featuring:

Macbeth, illustrated by Dapo Adeola
The Taming of the Shrew, illustrated by Joelle Avelino
Romeo and Juliet, illustrated by Peter Bailey
The Tempest, illustrated by Barroux
Twelfth Night, illustrated by Ian Beck
Henry V, illustrated by Christian Birmingham
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, illustrated by Alona Millgram
Hamlet, illustrated by Tom Clohosy Cole
King Lear, illustrated by Michael Foreman
The Winter’s Tale, illustrated by Sam Usher

Non-fiction

We spend our whole lives in one body and yet most of us have practically no idea how it works and what goes on inside it.

Want to know why the skin is the biggest organ?

Why our brains can see into the future?

Or why your eyes are back to front?

Packed full of facts, big numbers (such as the amount of microbes that make you) and small numbers (the size of those very tiny microbes) all in full-colour.

This non-fiction book, packed with wonder from the globally bestselling Bill Bryson is a head-to-toe tour of the most amazing thing about you – YOUR BODY!

Picturebook

As we delve into the magical realm that is our universe at night we discover what makes it so extraordinary…from moonbows to shooting stars and from the polar night to the northern lights. Experience how different habitats from the city to the ocean, come alive when the sun sets. Meet animals that make their own elaborate beds and others that sleep while swimming or flying. Explore the history of human sleep across the globe and dive into a world of dreams…

Non-fiction

A fun, quirky science series that tackles the questions other books are afraid to ask!

Can you hear sounds in space? Which animal has the best hearing? And just how fast is a supersonic plane? A Question of Science: Sound answers all these questions and much more.

With an engaging question and answer format, these books draw kids into science in a fun way. Each book features one question per spread with a clear explanation to follow, diagrams and fun and humorous illustrations. The quirky questions are designed to range from those that children will often ask to things they may never have thought of, but will still be keen to know the answer to.

Perfect reading for curious young scientists aged 8 and up.

Non-fiction

Step up your science knowledge with Step Into Science and discover the science of sound!

Step Into Science: Sound looks at how sound moves; how fast sound travels; and what happens when sound waves reach our ears. With the help of a cast of funny blobby characters, you’ll discover how sounds can be high, low, loud or quiet.

Colourful and quirky illustrations make these core science topics exciting and fresh and encourage interaction with the subject.

Written to support the National Curriculum at Key Stage 2, each title explores key scientific topics through a combination of concise information and fun experiments.

Non-fiction

Step up your science knowledge with Step Into Science and discover the science of light!

In Step Into Science: Light, find out about how light comes to Earth from the Sun; when shadows form and how light moves. With the help of a cast of funny blobby characters, you’ll explore why certain materials reflect light and discover how to make a shadow puppet theatre.

Colourful and quirky illustrations make these core science topics exciting and fresh and encourage interaction with the subject.

Written to support the National Curriculum at Key Stage 2, each title explores key scientific topics through a combination of concise information and fun experiments.

Non-fiction

Learn how NOT to believe what you see with this book of eye-popping pop-up visual tricks.

From the classic “which dot is bigger?” or “is this line straight?” illusions to the first-ever 3D trick to appear in a book, Optical Illusions is packed with picture puzzles. Every illusion is set up to challenge what you think you see. There are hints and tips of how to approach the illusion, and then an explanation of how it works and why you were fooled (and you will be!). There are also flaps, tabs, and a decoder to test the answers, so you can check whether different-looking colours are actually the same, or if those lines really are wonky.

All kinds of visual tricks are featured, including distortion, motion, colour and brightness, ambiguous illusions, impossible objects, hidden images… but the stars of the show are two large interactive illusions – the “thaumatrope” spinner that puts a bird in a cage, and a 3D perspective sculpture. Even though you will build it yourself and know which bits pop out and which parts are flat, you can’t help but see them the other way around.

Optical Illusions will get you lifting flaps and turning tabs in your quest to see the truth behind the illusion – and the more you discover, the more impressive the illusion becomes.

Graphic Novel

Science principles come to life through quirky and humorous explanations in comic book format.

What if you could be invisible or have super vision and hearing? You’d be a superhero BUT are these superpowers feasible in the real world? Superpower Science: Heroes of Light and Sound tells you all about the reality of these superpowers when looked at through a scientific lens.

The comic book format and vintage-looking colourful illustrations paired with quirky and humorous explanations turn what would be considered by many as dry physics principles into high interest exciting books.

By pointing out the physical limitations of superpowers, the series aims to fix them, not crush children’s dreams but inspire them to be interested in science.

Chapter book

The brilliantly funny third SAM WU book – the bravest scaredy-cat in the world! Perfect for reluctant readers and fans of Pamela Butchart.

Sam Wu is NOT afraid of anything. Except for quite a lot of things. Like ghosts. Sharks too. And also THE DARK! And so when Sam goes camping in the woods with his friends and cousin Stanley, who knows what scary kind of things they’ll face …?

Sam Wu is NOT Afraid of the Dark is the third book in this brilliantly funny and accessible new series – perfect for newly confident readers, fans of Pamela Butchart and Julian Gough’s Rabbit and Bear.

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