Author & Illustrators

M.G. Leonard Books

Attack of the Sea Dogs

Chapter book

Swashbuckling action adventure meets time travel in the fourth title in this epic series by bestselling award-winner M. G. Leonard. Perfect for 8- to 12-year-old fans of Adventures on Trains. Illustrated throughout in black and white by Manuel Šumberac.

Sim, Jeopardy, and Nelson are supposed to be in Tudor London. Thanks to Uncle Emmett, however, they’re in the right time, but the wrong place: aboard the ship of infamous privateer and explorer Sir Francis Drake, setting sail to raid Cádiz. Trapped, Sim and his friends must navigate explosive sea battles and a mysterious masked mercenary before they can attempt to return to London and their mission to save Sim’s father.

The Attack of the Sea Dogs can be read as a stand-alone novel, or enjoyed as part of the thrilling Time Keys series written by M. G. Leonard. Follow Sim, Jeopardy and Nelson’s adventures in Ancient Egypt, Hunt for the Golden Scarab, Viking Norway in The Legend of Viking Thunder and Ancient Rome in The Impossible Gladiator. All titles support the key stage 2 curriculum.

The Adventures of Portly the Otter: Untold Tales From the Wind in the Willows

M.G. Leonard & Polly Dunbar

Chapter book

Follow the thrilling animal adventures of young otter Portly – including all your favourite characters such as Mole, Ratty and Toad, from the countryside classic, The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame. The perfect Spring gift!

From bestselling author of Adventures on Trains, M.G.Leonard, and beautifully illustrated in full colour by award-winning illustrator of The Hug, Polly Dunbar, this gorgeous hardback gift book is inspired by and celebrates the 95th anniversary of EH Shepard’s iconic artwork for The Wind in the Willows.

There is a time in a young otter’s life when they must be introduced to their river. For Portly, today was that day … Told across four seasons in one year, little Portly has the greatest of adventures. Among other fur-raising encounters, the youngest of Mrs Otter’s pups learns to swim, battles a large trout, rescues a human girl, outwits the weasels and stoats of the Wild Wood and sleeps in the care of the god Pan – a scene familiar to readers of the original book. Full of all the charm, nostalgia and sounds of splashing in the river that fans of The Wind in the Willows have fallen in love with over the years, M.G.Leonard’s faithful spin-off will enchant an entirely new generation.

The perfect Easter gift for both new readers and existing fans – young and old!

The Impossible Gladiator

M.G. Leonard & Manuel Sumberac

Chapter book

The action adventure of Gladiator meets the time travel of Doctor Who in the third title of this epic series by bestselling award-winner M. G. Leonard. Perfect for 8 to 12-year-old fans of Adventures on Trains. Supports the curriculum. Illustrated throughout in black and white by Manuel Šumberac.

Sim, Jeopardy and Nelson are enjoying an amazing holiday in Rome, until they they are swept up in the mysterious disappearance of world-famous illusionist Kinetic. He vanished during a live broadcast from the Colosseum, but he never reappeared. When Kinetic’s sister finds a strange description in a history book of a gladiator who sounds uncannily like her brother, the friends are determined to help.

They travel through secret time doors to the spectacular — and deadly — Colosseum in Ancient Rome, but can the brave trio survive long enough to find Kinetic and bring him home?

The Impossible Gladiator can be read as a stand-alone novel, or enjoyed as part of the thrilling Time Keys series written by M. G. Leonard. Follow Sim, Jeopardy and Nelson’s adventures in Ancient Egypt, Hunt for the Golden Scarab, and Viking Norway in The Legend of Viking Thunder.

The Legend of Viking Thunder

M.G. Leonard & Manuel Sumberac

Chapter book

Hot on the heels of Hunt for the Golden Scarab, the first in M.G.Leonard’s new Time Keys series, comes this epic Viking adventure.

Sim and his cousin Jeopardy have an ability to open doors in time when they tune in to the right frequency with their instruments. What follows is an immersive and seat-of-your-pants odyssey from Norway back to Viking England as the family try to keep the powerful Gjallarhorn out of the hands of the evil Council of Keys.

M.G. Leonard excels at bringing history to life in this series. Her writing is compelling and pacey, and her focus is always on carrying the reader along with the story, never getting bogged down too long in any one moment. For teachers looking for fiction to support and enthuse kids as they learn about history, this series is a winner!

The Tale of a Toothbrush

Daniel Rieley & M.G. Leonard

Picturebook

A brilliantly topical and delightfully funny picture book from internationally bestselling author M.G. Leonard, which shows children what happens to their plastic toothbrushes after they’re thrown away.

Children use their toothbrush each morning and evening, and get new ones every few months. That’s billions of toothbrushes! What happens to them all when they’re no longer needed? And if toothbrushes take thousands of years to break down, what does that mean for our planet?

With a fun cast of plastic characters, from pirate-ship bottles to dancing shampoos, and even an inquisitive albatross, The Tale of a Toothbrush is a positive and heart-warming story to help children explore the impact their choices have on our planet.

Hunt for the Golden Scarab

M.G. Leonard & Manuel Sumberac

Chapter book

Hot on the heels of their award-winning, multiple middle-grade book series spanning beetles, trains and birds, M.G. Leonard is back, launching a new action-packed, time-travelling adventure series with an initial foray into Egyptology.

Sim lives with his mother, Callidora, in a flat above the museum of Sir John Soane. One evening, while Sim and his mum are training in the museum, they hear voices approaching. Callidora pales and opens a door in the museum, rushing Sim inside, opening a world of questions that even she can’t avoid forever.

Underpinned by historical fact, a tale of adventure, lies, trust and time travel unfolds, sweeping you along with twists and turns that keep you gripped and wanting to read on.

A brilliant book to accompany any unit on Ancient Egypt, readers will look forward to discovering what, where and when Sim, Jeopardy and Nelson will get up to next in this promising series.

Sabotage on the Solar Express

Elisa Paganelli & M.G. Leonard & Sam Sedgman

Chapter book

A full-steam-ahead adventure series that had us hooked from the get-go. This series contains middle-grade mystery stories set on train journeys around the world.. With a high spirit of adventuring and a good-and-proper mystery that unfolds with clues and red herrings along the course, this is a brilliantly fun story that is sure to be on track to find itself set among the very best in the children’s mystery genre.

Sabotage on the Solar Express can be read as a stand-alone novel or enjoyed as part of the series. Join Hal and Uncle Nat alongside train enthusiast August Reza on the maiden voyage of the Solar Express, which hurtles passengers into a heart-stopping, action-packed, thrill ride across the Australian Outback. Themes explored include eco-friendly travel, environmentalism and traditional aboriginal values versus modern technology.

It’s a full-throttle mystery with likeable characters and a well-paced plot that is especially full of treasures for anyone who loves trains or adventures in different countries.

The Ice Children

M.G. Leonard

Chapter book

Found early one December morning in the rose garden of the local park, Finn is frozen solid and statue-like on a plinth with a mysterious rhyme carved into its base. Rushing to be by his side, his sister Bianca and their parents are at a loss to understand what has happened and, most importantly, how to rescue Finn from his icy imprisonment. As more children are found frozen, Bianca realises that there is something that links them: a mysterious, silver, shiny book. Bianca has to race against time and has to trust her instincts when all around her are dismissing her theories.

Bianca realises that Winter is in peril because of global warming and knows that she, and her generation, must act swiftly: ‘We may be young, but there are millions of us on this planet. We are the future, and we can make a difference.’ And so, Bianca saves the threatened Ice Queen and M.G. Leonard inspires her readers to become custodians of the Earth.

Like a modern-day fairy tale, with echoes of Hans Christian Anderson, this is a fantasy story with environmental themes that will touch the heart. Relationships are gloriously portrayed, settings are magically described, and the action is fast and furious. A compelling read for children and adults alike.

The Arctic Railway Assassin

M.G. Leonard & Sam Sedgman

Chapter book

We love this full-throttle mystery adventure series set on trains, with likeable characters and well-paced plots. This latest instalment invites readers onboard a journey through the never-ending night of the arctic winter towards the Arctic Circle and Northern Lights. The clues and red herrings unfold one by one and the high spirit of adventure and atmospheric setting are enough to set imaginations tingling just as much as detective senses. An absolute winner of a story – just like the rest of the series.

Beetle Boy

M.G. Leonard

Chapter book

Darkus can’t believe his eyes when a huge insect drops out of the trouser leg of his horrible new neighbour. It’s a giant beetle – and it seems to want to communicate.

But how can a boy be friends with a beetle? And what does a beetle have to do with the disappearance of his dad and the arrival of Lucretia Cutter, with her taste for creepy jewellery?

The first book in MG Leonard’s acclaimed trilogy features exotic beetles, a daring quest, a mixture of bold male and female characters and a truly venomous villain.