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Age Group: KS2

Chapter book

My Story: A Picture of Freedom is a tale based on the real-life memoirs of Clotee Henley, a young slave who helped over 150 slaves escape to freedom via the Underground Railroad.

It’s 1859 and Clotee is a slave in a Virginia plantation. It’s illegal for slaves to read and write, but Clotee is teaching herself in secret. ‘Freedom’ is just another word she’s learned to write. Then she finds out about the Underground Railroad, a network of people who help runaway slaves, and discovers that freedom is more than just a word…

Experience history first-hand with My Story in this all-new look!

Chapter book

A WINNING TICKET
A STOLEN HORSE
THE ADVENTURE OF A LIFETIME

Orphaned Roo Thorn feels like the unluckiest girl in the world. Until she discovers a letter. A letter which urges her to ‘Grab life by the wings and fly.’

With the help of her aunt, Joni, Roo sets out to buy her dream horse – a fiery showjumper named Wonder Boy.

Then Wonder vanishes without a trace.

Determined to save him, Roo and Joni investigate his disappearance. But as the mystery deepens and more prize horses are stolen, the pair find themselves drawn into a thrilling – but dangerous – adventure . . .

How far will they go, and what will they risk, to find Wonder?

Chapter book

A spellbinding and poignant new adventure from Susanna Bailey, the critically acclaimed author of Snow Foal.

Jonah is Rio’s big brother. It’s his job. It always has been. Especially when Mam does one of her disappearing acts, like now. Her name’s Marina, which means ‘from the sea’. And just like the sea: she changes with the wind. She comes, she goes.
The sea was there the last time Jonah and Rio saw her. The Whitby Sea. And it wasn’t in a good mood. No-one has seen Mam since that day and the social workers say . . . she’s not coming back this time.

Graphic Novel

Brand new adventures for Barry Loser in this new series of full colour graphic novels – perfect for fans of DogMan, Bunny vs Monkey and Kitty Quest.

Celebrating Barry Loser’s 10th birthday with a new series of graphic novel adventures!

The bestselling, award-winning Barry Loser series is ten years old and Barry, Bunky, Nancy and the gang are off on a series of new adventures – in full colour graphic novel format and with ‘how to draw’ sections to help you make your own comic books!

Three amazekeel stories, including one where Barry’s dad turns into a vending machine, and all Barry has to do is ‘press his buttons’ to get exactly what he wants, and another where hearing the most boring story in the world has a disastrous effect of Barry’s mind and body…

Chapter book

Welcome to Elbow Alley, home of the most monstrous mystery…
Pip was not expecting his new neighbours to be vampires, banshees and ghosts. Worst of all is the mysterious spirit snatcher, which appears out of nowhere and sucks away people’s personalities. When it attacks Pip’s parents, the only way to save them is to find and destroy it. But no one knows who it is…

Along with his new friend Fliss and her dog Splodge, Pip sets out to investigate, facing murderous ghouls, werewolf attacks and a dangerously mouldy cheese. Because if he and Fliss can’t stop the creature by their thirteenth birthdays, they’ll be spirit-snatched too.

Short story collection

Stories and poems from a galaxy of authors and poets, highlighting a range of children’s rights from the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, including:

The right to life, survival and development
The right to protection from violence, abuse and neglect
The right to education, to reach full potential
The right to be raised by or have a relationship with parents
The right to express opinions and be listened to
Jake Hope, a leading authority on contemporary children’s literature, has chosen stories from Cathy Cassidy, Maisie Chan, Joseph Coelho, AM Dassu, Anne Fine, Paul Jennings, Chitra Soundar and Elizabeth Laird; and poems from Valerie Bloom, Sita Brahmachari, Dom Conlon, Nicola Davies, Jamila Gavin, Maurice Gleitzman, CG Moore, Jackie Morris, Beverley Naidoo, RR O’Neill, Rashmi Sirdeshpande, Jordan Stephens and Benjamin Zephaniah.

The illustrators are Ruthine Burton, Chih-An Chen and Habiba Nabisubi, who have just graduated from the Pop-Up Pathways project, a national initiative sponsored by the Arts Council, that develops emerging illustrators from under-represented groups.

Chapter book

When ordinary boy Marvin wears his super-suit, he becomes MARV. A superhero with infinite powers . . .

In this story, Marvin and his school friends are tending to the school garden when supervillain Violet Vine appears and uses her powers to make the plants grow out of control. Before long, the garden and school are covered in snaking vines, and kid-eating Venus flytraps!

It’s time for Marvin to swap his gardening gloves for his superhero suit and become MARV-unstoppable, invincible, and totally MARVellous! Only then can Marv get the garden, and Violet Vine, under control.

Chapter book

Life in the Swamplands is tough for twelve-year-old orphan Adia. Her aunt and uncle believe she is an ogbanje, a demon-possessed child thought to bring misfortune. And when Adia manifests mysterious powers, accidentally destroying her village, she starts to think they might be right.

Adia flees to the faraway Academy of Shamans, hoping someone at the school can figure out what is wrong with her and fix it. But she doesn’t expect to stumble across a bunch of squabbling deities with a secret…

Joining forces with a snarky Goddess, a 500 year old warrior girl and a status-obsessed soldier boy, Adia goes on a mission through hidden realms to save her kingdom. But if she is to succeed, she must learn to wield her mysterious powers and figure out who she really is.

Discover an action-packed new series from a brilliantly exciting debut author, perfect for fans of SCHOOL FOR GOOD AND EVIL and NEVERMOOR.

Picturebook

Start Small, Think Big is a series that sets young readers on a journey of discovery, beginning from the small and familiar to new areas of knowledge where they really have to think big!

Little Brown Nut starts small, with a large, weighty fruit falling from the tallest tree in the Amazon rainforest. Inside is a little brown Brazil nut, surrounded by 19 others. It sits and waits for an agouti, a rodent with teeth so strong that it can free the nut from its hard casing. The story of the Brazil nut tree and the agouti is told clearly and carefully, with facts about germination, photosynthesis, seed dispersal. The narrative progresses in a way that builds understanding and the gorgeous illustrations bring the story and the science to life.

Thinking BIG, the book shows why the rainforest is important to local people and the wider world. A big fold-out has a world map, an at-a-glance lifecycle, and a Rainforest I-Spy of the animals to take children back into the book.

Non-fiction

The Atlas of Great Journeys allows readers to follow in the footsteps of the most daring adventurers as they set out to explore the unknown. Fascinating original map illustrations show the world’s greatest journeys, and lavishly illustrated fact pages tell the stories of each expedition – what dangers they faced, how long they travelled, and much more.

As well as amazing illustrated maps and stories, this book has a unique Augmented Reality component that magically brings these journeys to life. Use your tablet or phone on each map spread to trace the routes they took and read about every stage of their journeys.

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Stone Girl Bone Girl

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