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Publisher: Hodder Children's Books

When Lydia Marmalade makes a wish on the most magical night of the year, little does she know the chaos she’s about to unleash. Could one simple wish start a . . . wish-tastrophe?

‘Christmas magic – a book only Cariad could write with such beauty and relatability!’ Giovanna Fletcher

One winter evening, Lydia Marmalade arrives at Lady Partridge’s mansion. She has nothing to her name except her sausage dog, Colin, but she’s determined to make this her new home.

Lady Partridge isn’t at all keen to make Lydia part of the family. If Lydia doesn’t behave herself until the end of the winter season, she’ll cast her off entirely. And now her mother’s gone, Lydia doesn’t have anywhere else to live.

Helped (and often hindered) by a mischievous winter sprite, a grumpy butler and a hungry Colin, Lydia makes a wish on the most magical night of the year. Sometimes you just need magic to light the way forward . . .

The hilarious new Christmas story to read with all the family, from comedian and writer Cariad Lloyd with gorgeous illustrations by Ma Pe. Perfect for fans of A Boy Called Christmas and The Christmasaurus.

This is a fun superhero-themed story book that helps to get younger children counting. When Pasta Man’s supply of Pasta Power runs out, he needs all of the help he can get to outsmart the spicy supervillainess Madame Chilli.

We love Caryl Hart’s tongue-twisting rhymes and Nick East’s lively illustrations, capturing the cast of imaginative superhero characters in this unique counting book.

Part of the popular Kipper series, this story is a big hit in EYFS and one with plenty of parts that children love to join in with. When Kipper finds that something has nibbled a hole in his toy box, he sets about to solve the mystery and find out what has been happening with his overcrowded toy collection.

Mylan is from the planet Empathia, a place where everyone feels so much empathy that if one person is upset, the whole population dissolves into tears. To avoid this universal pain, the inhabitants of the planet ensure that no one is ever unhappy and Empathia has evolved into a utopian society. Upon discovering that the rest of the universe does not live in the same harmony and happiness, Mylan sets out to collect stories of the bad days of other species: aiming to cheer them up along the way. This is when he meets Chloe…

Chloe is an ordinary Earth-girl having an extraordinarily bad day. Unfortunately, when Mylan intercedes and tries to improve it by ordering her an ice cream from an intergalactic delivery company, he accidently orders the recycling of the Earth instead. Now it’s an apocalyptically bad day!

With a rapidly reducing amount of time, Mylan and Chloe set off across the galaxy to try to find technology advanced enough to stop the recycling and rescue the doomed planet from the belly of the recyclers’ ship. Things begin to look up when they meet the incredibly powerful Queen of the Universe. But, can they actually come up with a solution and make it back in time to stop the process?

This humorous and imaginative book features a host of alien characters and an action-packed plot that will keep children gripped. This laugh-out-loud space adventure will appeal to fans of Tom McLaughlin, Sam Copeland and Pamela Butchart.

Reviewer: Louise Buisson

For something a little bit different from the usual WW1 stories, try this picture book that explores the topic of remembrance over time. Best suited to KS2, the story depicts a fig tree planted in 1918 as a war memorial in Australia. Generations later a local council threatens to cut down the tree when its roots cause problems with the developments in the town. The story leaves plenty of space to discuss what remembrance means and the importance of stories and conversations in keeping memories of the past alive.

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