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Topic: Reading for Pleasure

Non-fiction

If Salah is your favourite football player then this is the book for you! Discover how he grew up in Gharbia, Egypt playing football for the youth team El Mokawloons to being named the African Footballer of the Year in 2019 by the BBC and CAF. Learn how he spearheaded Liverpool FC to the Champions League title in 2019.

Football Superstars: Salah Rules is written in an upbeat style that is ideal for emerging and reluctant readers. The simple narrative text is supplemented with cartoons and visual jokes. Sections and chapters make the book easy to navigate and fun to dip in and out of. A supporting cast of players, managers, TV pundits – and even the authors themselves – chip in with quotes, jokes and comments to add to the playful and informative fun.

Chapter book

This cat must learn to fight!

Varjak Paw is a Mesopotamian Blue kitten. He lives high up in an old house on a hill. He’s never left home, but then his grandfather tells him about the Way – a secret martial art for cats.

‘There are Seven Skills in the way of Jalal,’ whispered the Elder Paw. ‘We know only three of them. Their names are these. Slow-Time. Moving Circles. Shadow-walking.’

Now Varjak must use the Way to survive in a city full of dangerous dogs, cat gangs and, strangest of all, the mysterious Vanishings.

With stunning illustrations from acclaimed graphic artist Dave McKean, this much-loved story won the Smarties Prize Gold Award and has become a modern classic.

Poetry

A riotous celebration of words – silly words, funny words, words you only use in your own family, new words, old words, and the very best words in the right order.

Melon

Melon squashy, melon sloshy. My friend Helen’s eating melon. So far, so good with Helen and her melon. But here’s what I’m tellin’ Helen: ‘Don’t SIT on your melon, Helen!’

Filled with colour illustrations and packed with silly rhymes, witty wordplay and thought-provoking story poems, this collection will delight children of all ages. Michael Rosen is the bestselling author of We’re Going on a Bear Hunt, along with many other picture books and collections of poetry.

Picturebook

A beautifully illustrated picture book exploring the jobs that keep a city running all through the night, and make it ready for the new day.

The sky is getting dark. In a big city, a little girl is eating her dinner, brushing her teeth and getting ready for bed.

Meanwhile, her mother is putting on her coat and getting ready to go to work. But where will she go, and who will she see along the way?

As the night goes on, follow nurses, cleaners, delivery workers, doctors, police officers, journalists and many more. Meet the people doing the important jobs that help keep the city running all through the night, ready for the next day to come.

Every Nosy Crow paperback picture book comes with a free ‘Stories Aloud’ audio recording – just scan the QR code and listen along!

Picturebook

Are you a bear considering keeping your very own bees? Can’t get enough of delicious honey? Then this is the book for you! With invaluable tips such as how to make a tiny crown for your queen bee, you can become a master beekeeper in no time! Learn how to care for your new buzzy friends in easy-to-follow steps – but don’t forget to absolutely never hug the bees. A spoof beekeeping manual for bears from debut author Pip Cornell and rising star Alex G Griffiths.

Picturebook

Beegu is not supposed to be on Earth. She is lost. She is a friendly little creature, but the Earth People don’t seem very welcoming at all. However, so far she has only met the BIG ones. The little ones are a different matter…

Chapter book

WARNING: DO NOT try to make George’s Marvellous Medicine yourselves at home. It could be dangerous…

George Kranky’s Grandma is a miserable grouch. George really hates that horrid old witchy woman.

One Saturday morning, George is in charge of giving Grandma her medicine. So-ho! Ah-ha! Ho-hum! George knows exactly what to do.

A magic medicine it will be! One that will either cure her completely of her horrible grouchiness… or blow off the top of her head!

Chapter book

WARNING: EPIC INVENTIONS AND SECRET SOCIETIES AHEAD . . .

Leonora Bolt spends her days creating incredible inventions in her TOP SECRET laboratory, under the watchful eye of her terrifying uncle.

Everything changes one day when a strange boy washes up on an inflatable lobster and reveals that Uncle Luther has been stealing her inventions and selling them on the mainland. Leonora, armed with her most important inventions, must leave Crabby Island for the first time EVER to embark on an unforgettable journey that will test her brainpower to its limits.

With the help of an otter with a special skilll, a questionable cook and a singing sea captain, can Leonora dream up an invention that will defeat her evil uncle once and for all?

Violet Baudelaire meets Peanut Jones in this epic STEM-themed adventure about believing in your brainpower – and yourself!

Chapter book

Mystery-lover Libby is excited but nervous when she’s sent to live with her aunt while her mother is working abroad. Aunt Agatha is the headmistress of an extraordinary travelling school that moves from country to country. Libby joins it in Paris, where she is just starting to find her feet when her aunt is arrested, accused of a daring jewel robbery. Can Libby and her new best friend Connie find the real thief and save her aunt? Illustrated by Becka Moor.

Chapter book

Everyone feels worried sometimes. But what if your worries came to life and started following you around?

Sohal worries about a lot of things: the dark, mutant sheep, being alone – you name it, he worries about it! So one night he tries drawing his worries to make himself feel better – and somehow they look a lot less worrying once they’re scribbled down.

But then imagine Sohal’s surprise when he wakes up the next morning to find a set of funny, furry friends at the end of his bed!

His worries have come to life, and it’s not long before Hurt, Fail, Anger, Big and Alone have turned his world upside down. Now it’s up to Sohal to work out how to keep his worries under control – and have some serious fun while he’s at it!

The Truth Pixie meets Inside Out in this hilarious, highly illustrated new series, perfect for helping children gently work through their worries and concentrate on having fun.

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