The Machine Gunners by Robert Westall

'.... not just the best book so far written for children about the Second World War, but also a metaphor for now.' Aidan Chambers, Times Literary Supplement

'Some bright kid's got a gun and 2000 rounds of live ammo. And that gun's no peashooter. It'll go through a brick wall at a quarter of a mile.'

Chas McGill has the second-best collection of war souvenirs in Garmouth, and he desperately wants it to be the best. When he stumbles across the remains of a German bomber crashed in the woods - its shiny, black machine-gun still intact - he grabs his chance. Soon he's masterminding his own war effort with dangerous and unexpected results....

About the Author
 
Robert Westall made a sensational debut with THE MACHINE GUNNERS in 1975. It won the Carnegie Medal and Westall established an international reputation. His books have been translated into ten languages and dramatised for television. He won The Smarties Prize, the Guardian Award and was twice awarded The Carnegie Medal.

"Westall was a writer of rare talent. We shall miss him but he has left us such a wonderful legacy." Michael Morpurgo

Skellig by David Almond

'A story of love and faith, written with exquisite, heart-fluttering tenderness. It is an extraordinarily profound book, no matter what the age of the reader' - THE CHAIR OF THE WHITBREAD JUDGES' PANEL

When a move to a new house coincides with his baby sister's illness, Michael's world seems suddenly lonely and uncertain.

Then, one Sunday afternoon, he stumbles into the old, ramshackle garage of his new home, and finds something magical. A strange creature - part owl, part angel, a being who needs Michael's help if he is to survive. With his new friend Mina, Michael nourishes Skellig back to health, while his baby sister languishes in the hospital.

But Skellig is far more than he at first appears, and as he helps Michael breathe life into his tiny sister, Michael's world changes forever . . .

Skellig won the Carnegie Medal and the Whitbread Children's Book Award and is now a major Sky1 feature film, starring Tim Roth and John Simm. David Almond is also winner of the 2010 Hans Christian Andersen award.

About the Author

David Almond is twice winner of the Whitbread Children's Book Award. His first novel, SKELLIG, won the Whitbread Children's Award and the Carnegie Medal. His second, KIT'S WILDERNESS, won the Smarties Award Silver Medal, was Highly Commended for the Carnegie Medal, and shortlisted for the Guardian Award. THE FIRE-EATERS won the Whitbread, the Smarties Gold Award and was shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal. He is widely regarded as one of the most exciting and innovative children's authors writing today, and his books are bestsellers all over the world.

Find out more about the Sky1 adaptation here...

Find out more about the author David Almond and his other books here...

Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney

Greg Heffley finds himself thrust into a new year and a new school where undersize weaklings share the corridors with kids who are taller, meaner and already shaving.

Desperate to prove his new found maturity, which only going up a grade can bring, Greg is happy to have his not-quite-so-cool sidekick, Rowley, along for the ride. But when Rowley's star starts to rise, Greg tries to use his best friend's popularity to his own advantage.

Recorded in his diary with comic pictures and his very own words, this test of Greg and Rowley's friendship unfolds with hilarious results.

Find out more about the series of books and the film here...

Find out more about the film here...

Here's a short trailer for the books

Mondays Are Murder by Tanya Landman

Shortlisted for the 2010 Red House Children's Book Award. First in a brand-new series of murder mysteries.

When Poppy Fields goes on an activity holiday to a remote Scottish island, she is looking forward to a week of climbing, hill-walking and horse riding. But things take a bad turn when their instructor has what appears to be a fatal abseiling accident.

When Poppy discovers that his rope was cut, and more of the instructors start to have "accidents", she and best friend Graham suspect foul play and decide to investigate.

"Filled with action and suspense this murder mystery hooked our testers who were desperate to solve the case before the young detective." Red House Children's Book Award Panel

"A gripping murder mystery with a fast moving plot that twists and turns as one gruesome event follows another. Poppy is off to a remote Scottish island to take part in a free action-packed adventure holiday. But right from the first there are some odd and scary things going on.

Can Poppy keep her nerve and can she uncover the mysteries that are going on behind the scenes? Tanya is the author of a number of novels for slightly older readers and this title is the first in a proposed mystery series. It’s spot on." Julia Eccleshare - Children's Book Editor, The Guardian

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

'I read this wonderful story of four 19th century American sisters over and over again, particularly identifying with Jo, the tomboy sister who is desperate to be a writer.' Jacqueline Wilson

Little Women has remained enduringly popular since its publication in 1868, becoming the inspiration for a whole genre of family stories. Set in a small New England community, it tells of the March family: Marmee looks after daughters in the absence of her husband, who is serving as an army chaplain in the Civil War, and Meg, Jo,Beth, and Amy experience domestic trials and triumphs as they attempt to supplement the family's small income.


In the second part of the novel (sometimes known as Good Wives) the girls grow up and fall in love. The novel is highly autobiographical, and in Jo's character Alcott portrays a strong-minded and independent woman, determined to control her own destiny.

Times are hard for the March sisters - but these girls don't dwell on such matters and always look on the bright side. Whether it's performing a play or getting on with day-to-day chores, the sisters can find the fun in any situation - but what fate holds in store for the girls, only time will tell.

About The Author

Louisa May Alcott was born in Philadelphia in 1832. Educated mainly by H. D. Thoreau and her father, Miss Alcott served as a hospital nurse during the Civil War. Her first book, Flower Fables, appeared in 1854, and her next work, Hospital Sketches (1863), consisted of her letters home from the Union Hospital during the war. She first gained a wide reputation with Little Women (1868-69), and her best subsequent work was done in the same genre. Alcott died in 1888.

The 1994 film version starring Winona Ryder, a very young Kirsten Dunst and 'Dark Knight' Christian Bale is also a well adapted, if slightly syrupy, way in...

The Book Thief by Markus Zuzak

Unsettling, thought-provoking, life-affirming, triumphant and tragic, this is a novel of breath-taking scope, masterfully told...A wonderful page-turner.

The Guardian

The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak was the best-selling debut literary novel of the year 2007, selling over 400,000 copies.

The book is extraordinary on many levels: moving, yet restrained, angry yet balanced -- and written with the kind of elegance found all too rarely in fiction these days. The book's narrator is nothing less than Death itself, regaling us with a remarkable tale of book burnings, treachery and theft. The book never forgets the primary purpose of compelling the reader's attention, yet which nevertheless is able to impart a cogent message about the importance of words, particularly in those societies which regard the word as dangerous (the book is set during the Nazi regime, but this message is all too relevant in many places in the world today).

Nine-year-old Liesel lives with her foster family on Himmel Street during the dark days of the Third Reich. Her Communist parents have been transported to a concentration camp, and during the funeral for her brother, she manages to steal a macabre book: it is, in fact, a gravediggers’ instruction manual. This is the first of many books which will pass through her hands as the carnage of the Second World War begins to hungrily claim lives. Both Liesel and her fellow inhabitants of Himmel Street will find themselves changed by both words on the printed page and the horrendous events happening around them.

Despite its grim narrator, The Book Thief is, in fact, a life-affirming book, celebrating the power of words and their ability to provide sustenance to the soul. Interestingly, the Second World War setting of the novel does not limit its relevance: in the 20th century, totalitarian censorship throughout the world is as keen as ever at suppressing books (notably in countries where the suppression of human beings is also par for the course) and that other assault on words represented by the increasing dumbing-down of Western society as cheap celebrity replaces the appeal of books for many people, ensures that the message of Marcus Zusak’s book could not be more timely. It is, in fact, required reading -- or should be in any civilised country. Barry Forshaw.

Find out more about the book here...

Or here...

Here's a fan-made trailer for the book that gives you a real feel for the story:

Markus Zusak explains why failure is his best friend (hmmm, sounds like a teacher I know) and why all writers tend to be loners here...

The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation: Volume One by M.T. Anderson

"A book which arrives from America groaning with rewards and reputation. It deserves to do just as well here." The Guardian

Boston, 1775. Raised by a society of rational philosophers, who call each other by a number, Octavian and his mother - a princess in exile from a faraway land - are the only people in their household assigned names. The boy is dressed in silks and white wigs and given the finest classical education but as his regal mother, Cassiopeia, entertains the scholars with her beauty and wit, young Octavian begins to question the purpose behind his guardians' fanatical studies. Only after he dares to open a forbidden door does he learn the hideous nature of their experiments - and his own chilling role in them.

An extract from early in the story might give you a taste of this extraordinary book:

A man in a topiary maze cannot judge of the twistings and turnings, and which avenue might lead him to the heart; while one who stands above, on some pleasant prospect, looking down upon the labyrinth, is reduced to watching the bewildered circumnavigations of the tiny victim through obvious coils -- as the gods, perhaps, looked down on besieged and blood-sprayed Troy from the safety of their couches, and thought mortals weak and foolish while they themselves reclined in comfort, and had only to snap to call Ganymede to their side with nectar decanted.

So I, now, with the vantage of years, am sensible of my foolishness, my blindness, as a child. I cannot think of my blunders without shriveling of the inward parts -- not merely the desiccation attendant on shame, but also the aggravation of remorse that I did not demand more explanation, that I did not sooner take my mother by the hand and--

I do not know what I regret. I sit with my pen, and cannot find an end to that sentence.

I do not know what we may do, to know another better.

Octavian Nothing is on Facebook...

'The hallmarks of Anderson’s style are a sharp ear for adolescent voices, a sometimes perverse sense of humor and an interest in the corrosive effects of groupthink on the average human’s ability to behave ethically. His new book has all those qualities, but represents a striking advance in terms of both technique and literary ambition.'  New York Times

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

Winner of the Carnegie Medal in 2010, shortlisted for the Kate Greenaway Medal in 2010, winner of Best Novel at the Hugo Awards 2009 and of the prestigious Newbery Medal.

Nobody Owens, known to his friends as Bod, would be a completely normal boy if he didn't live in a graveyard, being raised and educated by ghosts. For it is in the land of the living that real danger lurks, a danger that has already killed Bod's family.

The black and white illustrations, reminiscent of old-fashioned book plates, really add to the story, enabling the reader to visualise its weird and wonderful cast of characters. The portraits of Eliza, and the four Jacks are particularly memorable. The CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal Shortlist for 2010; Judges’ comments.

Find out more by clicking here...

About the Author

Neil Gaiman is the multi-award-winning and bestselling author of Coraline and Stardust, both of which are major motion films. He also writes screenplays for other people's films including Beowulf starring Anthony Hopkins and Angeline Jolie, as well as books for adults. He is the creator/writer of the award-winning Sandman comic series and has written several books for young children.Though British, he now lives in the USA where he travels extensively promoting his books.

Find out more about the author by going to his blog here...

BBC News Site - Neil Gaiman wins children's book prize

The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham

'When a day that you happen to know is Wednesday starts off by sounding like Sunday, there is something seriously wrong somewhere...'

When Bill Masen wakes up blindfolded in hospital there is a bitter irony in his situation.

Carefully removing his bandages, he realizes that he is the only person who can see: everyone else, doctors and patients alike, have been blinded by a meteor shower. Now, with civilization in chaos, the triffids - huge, venomous, large-rooted plants able to 'walk', feeding on human flesh - can have their day.

The Day of the Triffids, published in 1951, expresses many of the political concerns of its time: the Cold War, the fear of biological experimentation and the man-made apocalypse.

However, with its terrifyingly believable insights into the genetic modification of plants, the book is more relevant today than ever before.

About the Author

John Wyndham was born in 1903. After a wide experience of the English preparatory school he was at Bedales from 1918 to 1921. Careers which he tried included farming, law, commercial art, and advertising, and he first started writing short stories, intended for sale, in 1925. During the war he was in the Civil Service and afterwards in the Army. In 1946 he began writing his major science fiction novels including "The Kraken Wakes", "The Chrysalids" and "The Midwich Cuckoos".