Danny the Champion of the World by Roald Dahl

"My father, without the slightest doubt, was the most marvellous and exciting father any boy ever had."

Danny feels very lucky.

He adores his life with his father, living in a gypsy caravan, listening to his stories, tending their gas station, puttering around the workshop, and occasionally taking off to fly home-built gas balloons and kites.

His father has raised him on his own, ever since Danny's mother died when he was four months old. Life is peaceful and wonderful ... until he turns 9 and discovers his father's one vice.

Soon Danny finds himself the mastermind behind the most incredible plot ever attempted against nasty Victor Hazell, a wealthy landowner with a bad attitude.

Can they pull it off? If so, Danny will truly be the champion of the world. Danny is right up to Roald Dahl's impishly brilliant standards. An intense and beautiful father-son relationship is balanced with subtle escapades that will have even the most rigid law-abider rooting them on. Dahl's inimitable way with words leaves the reader simultaneously satisfied and itching for more.

Don't know much about the author? Where have you been for most of your childhood? Click the link to find out more...

Touching the Void by Joe Simpson

'A truly astounding account of suffering and fortitude.' The Times

'Simpson touches a nerve of the mountaineering community and the hearts of others.' Los Angeles Times

Joe Simpson and his climbing partner, Simon Yates, had just reached the top of a 21,000-foot peak in the Andes when disaster struck.

Simpson plunged off the vertical face of an ice ledge, breaking his leg.

In the hours that followed, darkness fell and a blizzard raged as Yates tried to lower his friend to safety.

Finally, Yates was forced to cut the rope, moments before he would have been pulled to his own death.

The next three days were an impossibly gruelling ordeal for both men. Yates, certain that Simpson was dead, returned to base camp consumed with grief and guilt over abandoning him.

Miraculously, Simpson had survived the fall, but crippled, starving, and severely frostbitten was trapped in a deep crevasse. Summoning vast reserves of physical and spiritual strength, Simpson crawled over the cliffs and canyons of the Andes, reaching base camp hours before Yates had planned to leave.

How both men overcame the torments of those harrowing days is an epic tale of fear, suffering, and survival, and a poignant testament to unshakable courage and friendship.

About the Author

Want to find out more about the author? Click here to access his website No Ordinary Joe.

Watch the trailer to the BAFTA Award winning 2007 film.

Frozen in Time by Ali Sparkes

Two cryonically frozen children are brought back to life after fifty years - and find themselves caught up in a thrilling contemporary adventure.

1956 Freddy and Polly have always known their father is a genius so they've never minded helping him with his experiments. Even when that means being put into cryonic suspension-having their hearts frozen until their father wakes them up again. They know it will only be for an hour or two, so there's nothing to worry about...
2009 Ben and Rachel have resigned themselves to a long, boring summer. Then they find the hidden underground vault in the garden and inside it two frozen figures, a boy and a girl. And as if that isn't spooky enough, when Rachel accidentally presses a button, something unbelievable happens...

Ali Sparkes has written other books including the brilliant Shapeshifter series.
To find out more about her, click the link below

http://http//www.alisparkes.co.uk/

Young Samurai the Way of the Warrior by Chris Bradford

A fantastic adventure that floors the reader on page one and keeps them there until the end. The pace is furious and the martial arts detail authentic -Eoin Colfer

August 1611. Jack Fletcher is shipwrecked off the coast of Japan. His beloved father and the crew lie slaughtered by ninja pirates. Rescued by the legendary sword master Masamoto Takeshi, Jack's only hope is to become a samurai warrior. And so his training begins. But life at the samurai school is a constant fight for survival. Even with his friend Akiko by his side, Jack is singled out by bullies and treated as an outcast. With courage in his heart and his sword held high, can Jack prove himself and face his deadliest rival yet?


To read reviews and to find out more about Japanese martial arts click the link below
http://http//www.youngsamurai.com/site/YOUN/Templates/General.aspx?pageid=45&cc=GB

To see Chris Bradford's website click here
http://http//www.chrisbradford.co.uk/Chris_Bradford/Home.html

Noughts And Crosses by Malorie Blackman

'Against a background of prejudice and distrust, intensely highlighted by violent terrorist activity by Noughts, a romance builds between Sephy and Callum – a romance that is to lead both of them into terrible danger…'

Callum is a nought – a second-class citizen in a world run by the ruling Crosses…

Sephy is a Cross, daughter of one of the most powerful men in the country…

In their world, noughts and Crosses simply don’t mix. And as hostility turns to violence, can Callum and Sephy possibly find a way to be together? They are determined to try.
And then the bomb explodes…
A gripping, stimulating and totally absorbing novel set in a world where black and white are right and wrong.

Malorie Blackman is a fine, award-winning author whose work is always inclined to provoke debate amongst her readers, and indeed her peers. With Noughts and Crosses she surpasses expectation not only with her subject matter, but with the execution of a stimulating and provocative plot line that often leaves the reader chilled to the bone.

Sephy and Callum have been best friends since childhood, and now they are older and they realise they want more from each other. But the harsh realities of lives lived in a segregated society are beginning to take their toll: Callum is a nought--a second-class citizen in a world dominated by the Crosses--and Sephy is a Cross, and the daughter of one of the most powerful men in the country. The barriers they would have to cross to be together at first seem little more than minor obstacles to the two idealistic teenagers, but soon those barriers threaten not only their friendship but their lives.
 
Noughts and Crosses is written with the passion of an author who has a personal message about the perception of the past, present and future, and Blackman has used the clever device of turning preconceived ideas of racial prejudice upside down to make sure that her point is well and truly made. Deeply disturbing and totally absorbing this novel is intriguing from the outset, with a shocking climax that packs an unforgettable punch. Susan Harrison

Malorie Blackman: Developing negatives - Click here to read the novelist talk to Alison Flood about turning racism upside down in her Noughts and Crosses novels...

About the Author

Malorie Blackman was born in 1962. She qualified in Computer Science and followed a successful career in computing, before becoming a writer at the age of 28. Her first published book was Not So Stupid! (1990), a book of short stories.

Since then she has written many books and scripts, and her popularity has steadily grown. Her scripts for television include several episodes of Byker Grove, Whizziwig and Pig-Heart Boy, and she has also written original dramas for CITV and BBC Education. Her stage play, The Amazing Birthday, was performed in 2002.

She writes for all ages of children. Her picture books include I Want a Cuddle! (2001) and Jessica Strange (2002) and she has written many reader books for early and more confident readers. Her novels include: Hacker (1992); the story of Vicky, who saves her father from being wrongly convicted of stealing from the bank after hacking into the bank’s computer to solve the crime herself; Thief! (1995), about a child who is transported into the future after being accused of a crime she did not commit; and Pig-Heart Boy (1997), the diary of 13-year-old Cameron, who needs a heart transplant. The latter book and its subsequent adaptation as a series for television won several awards, including a BAFTA for best children’s drama in 2000.

Malorie Blackman's most well-known books for young adults are: Noughts & Crosses (2001); Knife Edge (2004); and Checkmate (2005) – which form the Noughts & Crosses Trilogy, the tale of two teenagers, Callum and Sephy.  In 2004, she also wrote a novel entirely in verse, Cloud Busting (2004), which won a Nestlé Smarties Book Prize (Silver Award) the same year.

Malorie Blackman lives in Kent. In 2007 she collected stories and poems for the book Unheard Voices, commemorating the bicentenary anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade. Her latest books are The Stuff of Nightmares (2007) and Double Cross (2008). She was awarded an OBE in 2008.

She has recently contributed to Free? (2009), a book of stories celebrating Human Rights.

Find out more about the Author by visiting her website here...

Skeleton Key by Anthony Horowitz

Winner of the Red House Children's Book Award

"Horowitz has become a writer who converts boys to reading." The Sunday Times

"Done with enormous style, fun and suspense. Wannabe James Bonds will be completely hooked and eager for more."

The Guardian

'Night came quickly to Skeleton Key. The sun hovered brifly on the horizon,then dipped below. At once the clouds rolled in - First red, then mauve, silver, green and black as if all the colours in the world were being sucked into a vast melting pot. A single frigate bird soared over the mangroves, its own colours lost in the chaos behind it. The air hung close. Rain hung waiting. There was going to be a storm...'

Teenage superspy Alex Rider is enlisted by the national security services again - this time for a routine reconnaissance mission at the Wimbledon Tennis Championships.

But before long, Alex finds himself caught up in a terrifying chain of events that leads from the Chinese Triad gangs in London to an undercover assignment in Cuba.

Alex begins to make chilling links between suspicious deaths, an illegal nuclear weapons deal and the plans of his host, Russian General Sarov, for the future of the world...

Find out more about the book at the Alex Rider website by clicking here...

About the Author

I had always wanted to write a modern 'teenager saves the world' story. It was a recurring fantasy when I was at school that I wasn't a bored thirteen year old stuck in a gruesome north London prep school, but that I was, in reality, an MI6 agent.

At he same time, I wanted to make my story seem very credible. So I've researched everything from the rudiments of SAS training to remaing in a car until the very last moment before it's crushed in a breaker's yard, and I get my thirteen year old son Nicholas to try out things like diving and snowboarding!

Anthony Horowitz is a popular and prolific children's writer, whose books now sell in more than a dozen countries around the world. He has won numerous prizes for his books which include Stormbreaker, Point Blanc (shortlisted for the 2001 Children's Book Award) and both reviewed on this site as well as Eagle Strike and Scorpia. Anthony also writes extensively for TV. He lives in north London.

Watch Anthony Horowitz interviewed for readingzone.com

Point Blanc by Anthony Horowitz

'For first class thrills, spills and adventure,

look no further than Alex Rider...'

'Horowitz will grip you with suspense, daring and cheek - and that's just the first page!... Prepare for action scenes as fast as a movie.' The Times

Fourteen-year-old super spy Alex Rider swings back into action in Point Blanc.

Investigations into the 'accidental' deaths of two of the world's most powerful men have revealed just one link: both had a son attending Point Blanc Academy - an exclusive school for rebellious rich kids, run by the sinister Dr Grief and set high on an isolated mountain peak in the French Alps.

Armed only with a false ID and a new collection of brilliantly disguised gadgets, Alex must infiltrate the academy as a pupil and establish the truth about what is really happening there.

Point Blanc is the thrilling sequel to Storm Breaker!

Read more about the book here at the Alex Rider website...

About the Author

Anthony Horowitz is a popular and prolific children's writer, whose books now sell in more than a dozen countries around the world.

He has won numerous prizes for his books which include this one, Skeleton Key (Winner of the Red House Children's Book Award) and also reviewed on this site as well as Stormbreaker the first in the Alex Rider series.

Anthony also writes extensively for TV. He lives in north London.

Here's a trailer for the Alex Rider website...

The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness

Winner of The Guardian Children's Fiction Prize

An unflinching novel about the impossible choices

of growing up...

You only have to read the first sentence to see how fantastic this novel promises to be:

 "The first thing you find out when your dog learns to talk is that dogs don't got nothing much to say."

It's hard to review The Knife of Never Letting Go without spoiling the story. It's so cunningly written that I was 100 pages in before I even realised what genre it was. I will say this, though: it lives up to the thrill of that first sentence.

It's not only his dog's thoughts that the hero, Todd Hewitt, can hear.

As the result of a virus, all the men in Prentisstown can hear each others' thoughts all the time. The resulting ongoing background jabber is called The Noise. It's a brilliant invention and, like a lot of brilliant inventions - Pullman's daemons, Philip Reeve's traction cities - it's an illuminating transformation of something very familiar.

The Noise made me more sharply aware of the static of MP3s, mobile phones, announcements, adverts, surveillance and traffic that interferes when we try to tune into our own thoughts, of the way our minds have been colonised by the market.

When Todd finds a pool of silence moving through the marshes at the edge of Prentisstown, it's not just a good plot point, it's also a stab of unexpected beauty. The source of that silence is a girl. There are no girls in Prentisstown, and finding her means that Todd has to escape. The book - which is the first part of a trilogy - is mostly the story of their flight. Frank Cottrell Boyce

Watch the author interviewed about his Chaos Walking Trilogy



About the Author

Patrick Ness is the author of The Knife of Never Letting Go and The Ask and the Answer – books one and two in the award-winning Chaos Walking trilogy. Patrick has written two other books for adults and is a literary critic for the Guardian. He lives in London.

The silent bark - The Knife of Never Letting Go is a deftly told tale of a boy's flight, says Frank Cottrell Boyce in The Guardian

The Silver Blade by Sally Gardner

"There is magic, romance, a hint of gothic coupled with vivid vignettes of Parisian life in all its post revolutionary squalor. The writing is beautiful, never forced and everything is cleverly woven together like an intricate tapestry...read The Silver Blade and succumb to the seduction of this master storyteller."

The French Revolution lives on in children's imaginations, if at all, largely thanks to The Scarlet Pimpernel. The tale of how a seemingly foppish aristocrat leads a double life, rescuing other aristocrats from the guillotine, has been a perennial favourite. Yet what about all the other innocents, who, in the days of the Terror, could be executed simply for showing pity for the condemned?

This, Sally Gardner's sequel to The Red Necklace, plunges us into that very question. At the end of the first book, Yann saved his beloved Sido and discovered that she loved him, but returned to Paris to rescue his friends while she sailed to England.

Now known as the Silver Blade, he performs in the theatre by night and by day rescues others from the guillotine, at enormous risk. A Romany, Yann can read people's thoughts, make them forget things and cause objects to move by force of concentration. The trouble is that his old enemy and Sidonie's, Count Kalliovski, has returned from the dead after making a pact with the Devil. The only man who can walk the streets during the Terror wearing the “decadent symbols of aristocracy”, he is living in a palace of bones in Paris's catacombs, with a monstrous black dog with human eyes.

Why does Kalliovski keep waxwork heads, how does he make them talk and what does he want of the master key-maker Quint? All will be revealed.

Set against a vivid historical background, prize winning author Sally Gardner brings to life the horrors of the French Revolution in this breath-taking adventure, complete with intrepid heroism and a touching love story.

Perfect for readers and fans of The Red Necklace and I, Coriander.

About the Author

Sally Gardner trained at art college and went on to work in the theatre, winning awards for her costume designs for some notable productions. After her twin daughters and her son were born she started to illustrate children's books, and then turned to writing. She lives in north London.  

Watch the author discuss growing up in Dickensian London, dyslexia and her new novel, THE SILVER BLADE.

The Enemy by Charlie Higson

The Enemy is a thrilling book - scary, moving, dramatic, action-packed, everything you want in a teen novel. 

They’ll chase you.

They’ll rip you open.

They’ll feed on you . . .

When the sickness came, every parent, police officer, politician – every adult – fell ill. The lucky ones died.

The others are crazed, confused and hungry. Only children under fourteen remain, and they’re fighting to survive. Now there are rumours of a safe place to hide.

And so a gang of children begin their quest across London, where all through the city – down alleyways, in deserted houses, underground – the grown-ups lie in wait.

But can they make it there – alive?

About the Author

Charlie Higson is a well-known writer of screenplays and novels, and is the author of the phenomenally successful Young Bond series. He is also a performer and co-creator of The Fast Show and Radio Four’s award-winning Down the Line series. Charlie is a big fan of horror films and is now hoping to give a great many children sleepless nights with this series.

Click here to read more about the first in this new series of books...

Here's an interview with Charlie Higson from The Times explaining why he wrote the book...

CHERUB 1: The Recruit by Robert Muchamore

Winner of the Red House Children's Book Award

'An excellent start to a promising series. It is every boy's wish to be a spy, and this book will enthrall every single one of them.' The Bookseller

'Punchy, exciting, glamorous and, what's more, you'll completely wish it was true.' The Sunday Express

WHAT IS CHERUB?

During World War Two, French civilians set up a resistance movement to fight against the German forces occupying their country. Many of their most useful operatives were children and teenagers. Some worked as scouts and messengers. Others befriended homesick German soldiers, gathering information that enabled the resistance to sabotage German military operations.
A British spy named Charles Henderson worked among these French children for nearly three years. After returning to Britain, he used what he’d learned in France to train twenty British boys for work on undercover operations. The codename for his unit was CHERUB.

Henderson died in 1946, but the organisation he created has thrived. CHERUB now has more than two hundred and fifty agents, all aged seventeen or under. Although there have been many technical advances in intelligence operations since CHERUB was founded, the reason for its existence remains the same: adults never suspect that children are spying on them.

A terrorist doesn’t let strangers in her flat because they might be undercover police or intelligence agents, but her children bring their mates home and they run all over the place.

The terrorist doesn’t know that a kid has bugged every room in her house, cloned the hard drive on her PC, and copied all the numbers in her phone book. The kid works for CHERUB.

CHERUB is not James Bond. There are no master criminals or high-tech gadgets. CHERUB kids live in the real world. They slip under adult radar and get information that sends criminals and terrorists to jail.

For official purposes, these children do not exist.

There's an extensive CHERUB website, start by reading about The Recruit here...

About the Author

Robert Muchamore was born in Islington in 1972 and spent thirteen years working as a private investigator. He loves Arsenal and watching people fall down holes. He hates swimming and getting chased by cows. He was inspired to create the CHERUB series by his nephews' complaints about the lack of anything for them to read! The CHERUB series (all 12 of them!) has now become a number one bestseller in several countries.

Click here to go to the author's own website

Unhooking the Moon by Gregory Hughes

Winner of the Booktrust Teenage Fiction Prize 2010

'A brave, zany and warm-hearted road story' The Guardian.

'It's funny, it's wise, it's beautifully written. It's not afraid of a bittersweet ending, and it came at me completely from left field.' Jill Murphy, The Bookbag.

"Where are you going?' asked border patrol.

'We're going to New York to see our grandma and the Empire State Building and the Statue of Libery and everything. And our granny's going to bake us her very own apple pie.' She sounded so convincing. Some days I wondered who the Rat really was.

'What's your granny's name?' asked the officer. That's it! The Rat's Little Red Riding Hood performance had ruined us.

'Grandma, of course.'

I was relieved when I heard laughter. 'Would you like to see our birth certificates?' said the Rat. She always had to overdo it! She wouldn't be satisfied until we were locked up!"

Meet the Rat: A dancing, football-playing gangster-baiting ten-year-old. When she foresaw her father's death, she picked up her football and decided to head for New York. Meet her older brother Bob: Protector of the Rat, but more often her follower, he is determined to find their uncle in America and discover a new life for them both. On their adventures across the flatlands of Winnipeg and through the exciting streets of New York, Bob and the Rat make friends with a hilarious con man and a famous rap star, and escape numerous dangers. But is their Uncle a rich business man, or is the word on the street, that he something more sinister, true? And will they ever find him?

Hughes has created a funny, warm, unique world that lives and breathes. Like I Capture the Castle, Breakfast at Tiffany's, The Curious Incident, Hughes' story and characters will resonate for many and for years to come.

Read an interview with the Booktrust Teenage Award winner here...

About the Author

Gregory Hughes was born and lives in Liverpool. After being expelled from Jesuit school, he went to a home for wayward boys, where he spent some very happy times. After some madcap years in his youth, he went to University to study computers. He has worked as everything from a dishwasher to a deep sea diver, and has worked in many countries including Norway, Canada and America.

A traveller's tale: read how the author came to write Unhooking the Moon

The Falconer's Knot by Mary Hoffman

'Mary Hoffman's medieval murder mystery has all the ingredients needed to weave a satisfying web of intrigue ... This is a pacy and highly enjoyable read ... there is a freshness of perspective and intricacy of plot that lifts the story above the obvious or crass. The female characters and their struggles to find some autonomy beyond the confines of the roles allotted to them provide a particularly vivid thread beneath the mystery narrative ... I defy anyone to read this book and not want to visit Assisi.' The Guardian

Silvano and Chiara are two teenagers with a difference. Silvano has been accused of a murder he did not commit. Chiara has been ousted from her family as a young woman with no marriage prospects.

For these two very different reasons they are forced to seek refuge in a neighbouring convent and friary. And when they meet they are instantly aware that they are both outsiders, ill at ease with monastic life. Then a grisly murder - followed by another, and then another - strikes fear into the close-knit community. Chiara and Silvano cling together within the terrifying spiral of murder as they, and the friends they have made, attempt to solve the deadly mystery.

This remarkably rich mystery thriller, with all the pace and action of a 'whodunnit', is set in the incredibly atmospheric environs of a friary in 14th-century Italy.

Amidst all the action of the murder mystery, the author depicts in fascinating and intricate detail the lives and tasks of the friars and nuns, whether it be crushing pigments to create paints for the fresco artists in nearby Assisi, or the daily and nightly ritual of the religious services. All the historical detail is carefully researched. A huge cast of characters with romantic teen heroes, combined with the thriller-murder element, ensure a pacy, richly enjoyable read.

About the Author

Mary Hoffman is an acclaimed children's author and critic. She is the author of the internationally bestselling picture book Amazing Grace. Her Stravaganza sequence for Bloomsbury has its own fan forum and the latest, Stravaganza - City of Secrets, was longlisted for the Carnegie Medal and The Falconer's Knot was shortlisted for the Guardian Fiction Award. She currently runs her own blog (you can read it here) and is working on her next historical novel. Mary has three grown-up daughters and lives with her husband in West Oxfordshire.

She also runs a website that you can access here...

Read The Guardian review of The Falconer's Knot by clicking on this link...

The Owl Service by Alan Garner

Winner of both the Guardian Award and the Carnegie Medal.

"A rare imaginative feat and the taste that it leaves is haunting." The Observer

"One of the first and best novels for and about teenagers; it remains one of the most original and gripping ghost stories. Timeless!" The Times

"Something was stirring in the valley, something powerful and old. Something which had no place in the rational modern world..."

Winner of both the Guardian Award and the Carnegie Medal, this is an all-time classic, combining mystery, adventure, history and a complex set of human relationships.

It all begins with the scratching in the ceiling. From the moment Alison discovers the dinner service in the attic, with its curious pattern of floral owls, a chain of events is set in progress that is to effect everybody's lives.

Relentlessly, Alison, her step-brother Roger and Welsh boy Gwyn are drawn into the replay of a tragic Welsh legend - a modern drama played out against a background of ancient jealousies. As the tension mounts, it becomes apparent that only by accepting and facing the situation can it be resolved.
In The Owl Service, Alan Garner takes this old, old story from the Welsh legends which make up the Mabinogion and blends it into the present. It's a fascinating book. There aren't any facile tricks of plot - no time travel, no spirits from the past inhabiting the pages of today.

The Owl Service is about a summer in a Welsh valley not thousands of years ago, but in the twentieth century. Alison and Gwyn find an old dinner service in the attic of the house where Gwyn's mother is housekeeper and which Alison has inherited from her father.

As Alison begins feverishly to trace and make paper owls from the flowered pattern on the plates, Gwyn and Roger join her in reliving the roles of that past drama. And yet, they are not possessed, they remain entirely themselves, with their own qualities, opinions, talents and problems. In the old time there were gods and goddesses, curses, heirs and fiefdoms. In the present time there are step-families and the class struggle. So different and yet somehow, so very much the same. The Bookbag

About the Author

Alan Garner was born and still lives in Cheshire, an area which has had a profound effect on his writing and provided the seed of many ideas worked out in his books.

His fourth book, 'The Owl Service' brought Alan Garner to everyone's attention.

It won two important literary prizes - The Guardian Award and the Carnegie Medal - and was made into a serial by Granada Television.

It has established itself as a classic and Alan Garner as a writer of great distinction.

Despite an OBE for services to children's literature, and the fact that books like The Weirdstone of Brisingamen and Elidor are the kind of absorbing childhood fantasy that reverberates into adulthood, to view Garner as a children's writer is reductive. He puts it best when he says: "I do not write for children, but for myself. Adolescents read my books. By adolescence, I mean an arbitrary age somewhere between 10 and 18." It's an in-between group, and Garner's books are likewise poised between passion and detachment, intensity and alienation, blunt modernity and ancient myth.

His style is stripped-down, yet shares dialect and linguistic relish with much older works. "The language of my childhood and of my native culture is, technically, North-west Mercian Middle English," he has said - the language of the Gawain poet. The layers of local history and a precise sense of place are paramount in his work.

He has been writing for over 40 years; each book is a lengthy project as he pours so much research into it (learning Welsh for The Owl Service, for example). Eventually, "I feel a jolt within me and I hear quite without any understanding; I hear words, which I put down". Not all his work is fantasy - the Stone Quartet follows four generations of Garner's family from the mid-19th century to the second world war. Strandloper, his first novel for adults, was a difficult, almost experimental, evocation of Aboriginal culture. In his 2003 adult book, Thursbitch, which grew out of his fascination with a mysterious tombstone on a Pennine track, he is back on home ground and all the better for it.
Want to know why Alan Garner writes? Click here to find out...

The Red Necklace by Sally Gardner

'Exquisitely constructed...sophisticated, unpatronising...this book is a challenging read but also extremely rewarding. With vivid descriptions and fluid prose, this tale of magic, murder and madness brings 18th-century Europe to life on the page' WATERSTONE'S BOOKS QUARTERLY

'Gardner has woven a tense and believable fantasy into a setting of great danger and social termoil. Suspenseful throughout, The Red Necklace builds a thrilling climax. Highly recommended' HISTORICAL NOVELS REVIEW


The story of a remarkable boy called Yann Margoza; Tetu the dwarf, his friend and mentor; Sido, unloved daughter of a foolish Marquis; and Count Kalliovski, Grand Master of a secret society, who has half the aristocracy in thrall to him, and wants Yann dead.

Yann is spirited away to London but three years later, when Paris is gripped by the bloody horrors of the Revolution, he returns, charged with two missions: to find out Kalliovski's darkest deeds and to save Sido from the guillotine.

With a tangle of secrets, a thread of magic and a touch of humour, the follies of the aristocracy and the sufferings of ordinary people are unfolded as their lives move relentlessly towards the tragic and horrific days of the Terror.

THE RED NECKLACE is not only a tremendous adventure story but a vibrant and passionate picture of Paris in turmoil and of a large cast of memorable characters.

About the Author

Sally Gardner trained at art college and went on to work in the theatre, winning awards for her costume designs for some notable productions. After her twin daughters and her son were born she started to illustrate children's books, and then turned to writing. She lives in North London.

Click here to find out more about the Author...

Love in the time of the Terror - Adèle Geras applauds a sprightly tale set during the French revolution

This Thing of Darkness by Harry Thompson

Longlisted for the Man Booker Prize

'Perhaps the best historical novel I have read…A stunning achievement of imagination and story-telling. A masterpiece.' Bernard Cornwell

'It's an excellent read, in the traditions of Patrick O'Brian, and fully deserves its position on the Booker list.'

The Daily Telegraph

In 1831 Charles Darwin set off in HMS Beagle under the command of Captain Robert Fitzroy on a voyage that would change the world. 

In novels by Kurt Vonnegut, we find the concept of a "karass": a small group of people whom fate brings together to accomplish great things.

The suicide of a British captain in 1828 and the need to replace him in charting the icy complexities of Tierra Del Fuego led to the appointment of Fitzroy as commander of the Beagle. His manic-depressive state led him to advertise for a ship's naturalist, a companion to jolly him from dark moods - and to appoint Charles Darwin. Of such contingencies are revolutions made, whether or not they might have happened otherwise.

This is an epic novel of sea-faring adventure set in the 19th century charting the life of Fitzroy, the captain of 'The Beagle' and his passenger Charles Darwin.

It combines adventure, emotion, ideas, humour and tragedy as well as illuminating the history of the 19th century. Fitzroy, the Christian Tory aristocrat believed in the sanctity of the individual, but his beliefs destroyed his career and he committed suicide. Darwin, the liberal minor cleric doubts the truth of the Bible and develops his theory of evolution which is brutal and unforgiving in human terms. The two friends became bitter enemies as Darwin destroyed everything Fitzroy stood for.

This Thing of Darkness is two sorts of book: a superior adventure story and a polemic. One can enjoy the former considerably while noting that the manners of the latter are wanting. The Independent

About the Author

Harry Thompson was a highly successful television producer 'Have I Got News for You, They Think It's All Over, Never Mind the Buzzcocks' and the author of a number of non-fiction bestsellers 'Peter Cook, The Biography'. He wrote for most of the national newspapers, especially on travel, and was nominated for Travel Journalist of the Year. He died in November 2005.

Click here to read an interview with the author from The Guardian conducted a few months before he died...

Revolver by Marcus Sedgwick

'One of the finest and best-constructed page turners of the year Tense, succinct, evocative and ingenious, and one to haunt you long after the novel is over.'

Nicolette Jones, THE SUNDAY TIMES

'An outstanding psychological thriller about the Arctic gold rush.' THE BOOKSELLER

1910. A cabin north of the Arctic Circle.

Fifteen-year-old Sig Andersson is alone.

Alone, except for the corpse of his father, who died earlier that day after falling through a weak spot on the ice-covered lake.

His sister, Anna, and step-mother, Nadya, have gone to the local town for help.

Then comes a knock at the door. It's a man, the flash of a revolver's butt at his hip, and a mean glare in his eyes.

Sig has never seen him before but Wolff claims to have unfinished business with his father.

As Sig gradually learns the awful truth about Wolff's connection to his father, his thoughts are drawn to a certain box hidden on a shelf in the storeroom, in which lies his father's prized possession - a revolver.

When Anna returns alone, and Wolff begins to close in, Sig's choice is pulled into sharp focus.

Should he use the gun, or not?

Read The Guardian's review of Marcus Sedgwick's 'thought-provoking revenge tale' here...

About the Author

Marcus Sedgwick was born in 1968 in Kent, and has worked as a bookseller and inside children's publishing, becoming a writer for children in 1994, and well-known for the dark themes in his young adult fantasy books. He has illustrated some of his own books, and also produces woodcuts and stone carvings.

His first novel, Floodland (2000), winner of the 2000 Branford Boase Book Award, tells the tale of Zoe, who lives on her own on an island once part of England, and his second book, Witch Hill (2001), is about Jamie, a boy whose house is destroyed by fire. The Dark Horse (2002), borrows its tone from Norse myth, and Cowards (2003) is about two men who refuse to fight in the first World War. The Book of Dead Days (2003) and its sequel, Dark Flight Down (2004), tell of the search of Boy, Willow and Valerian, and their capture by Emperor Frederick.

My Swordhand is Singing (2006), was shortlisted for several book awards and was winner of the 2007 Booktrust Teenage Prize. Blood Red, Snow White (2007), was shortlisted for the 2007 Costa Children's Book Award.

His latest book is White Crow (2010), shortlisted for the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize. He has also recently published several books in The Raven Mysteries series, featuring Edgar the Raven and the Otherhand family.

Click here to visit Marcus Sedgwick's own website...

Interview with Marcus Sedgwick: 'There is almost nothing you can't tackle in a teenage novel'

Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer

‘This is a fantastic, exciting and completely original novel. From fairies with machine guns to trolls on the rampage, this book will capture the imagination of every child who reads it. It will be a massive hit. I for one cannot wait for the sequel...’ Jo Edwards, Children’s Fiction Buyer, W.H. Smith

Twelve-year-old villain, Artemis Fowl, is the most ingenious criminal mastermind in history. His bold and daring plan is to hold a leprechaun to ransom. But he's taking on more than he bargained for when he kidnaps Captain Holly Short of the LEPrecon (Lower Elements Police Reconnaissance Unit). For a start, leprechaun technology is more advanced than our own. Add to that the fact that Holly is a true heroine and that her senior officer Commander Root will stop at nothing to get her back and you've got the mother of all sieges brewing!


Eoin Colfer describes his creation as "Die Hard with fairies". He's not far wrong. Artemis Fowl hatches a cunning plot to divest the fairyfolk of their pot of gold. Of course, he isn't foolish enough to believe in all that "gold at the end of the rainbow" nonsense. Rather, he knows that the only way to separate the little people from their stash is to kidnap one of their number and wait for the ransom to arrive. But when the time comes to put his plan into action he reckons without Captain Holly Short of the LEPrecon (Lower Elements Police Reconnaisance) Unit--a sort of extra small Clarice Starling with pointy ears and wings--and her senior officer Commander Root, a man (sorry, elf) who will stop at nothing to get her back.

Fantastic stuff from beginning to end, Artemis Fowl is a rip-roaring, 21st-century romp of the highest order. The author has let his imagination run riot by combining folklore, fantasy and a fistful of high-tech funk in an outrageously devilish book that could well do for fairies what Harry Potter has done for wizardry. But be warned: this is no gentle frolic so don't be fooled by the fairy subject matter. Instead what we have here is well written, sophisticated, rough and tumble storytelling with enough high-octane attitude to make it a seriously cool read for anyone over the age of 10.
Susan Harrison

Want to explore the world of Artemis Fowl further? Click here...

Stormbreaker by Anthony Horowitz

New York Times #1 Children's Bestseller

When his guardian dies in suspicious circumstances, fourteen-year-old Alex Rider finds his world turned upside down. Forcibly recruited into MI6, Alex has to take part in gruelling SAS training exercises. Then, armed with his own special set of secret gadgets, he's off on his first mission to Cornwall, where Middle-Eastern multi-billionaire Herod Sayle is producing his state-of-the-art Stormbreaker computers. Sayle has offered to give one free to every school in the country - but there's more to the gift than meets the eye...

Spies are great currency for exciting storylines, but few authors manage to successfully concoct realistic scenarios for a willing readership expecting chases, gunshots and thrills aplenty. In the first of what could easily become his most memorable series of novels to date, Anthony Horowitz has added a tongue-in-cheek quality to Stormbreaker that lifts it above several others in the same genre.

Horowitz knows that his main character, 14-year-old Alex Rider, is a normal teenager and he never forgets this when he thrusts his young hero into the thick of several truly edge-of-seat scenarios. There is humour alongside the action too--some great characters and cutting one-liners--that helps to ensure that entertainment is high on the agenda throughout.
Orphan Alex thought he knew his Uncle Ian Rider - until the elusive banker is killed in a tragic car accident.
 
Immediately, Alex's life starts to get stranger by the day as his guardian's friends and colleagues start showing up and contradicting everything Alex thought he knew about the man he'd called Dad for so long. Maybe Ian Rider was not a banker after all? Surely the bullet holes in his Uncle's totalled car reveal that he had not died in an accident, but was murdered? Everything is explained when Alex decides to track down Ian Rider's real employers, but Alex is in for a surprise when they decide to contact him. The truth is hard to take, but maybe by following in his uncle's secret footsteps he might get the chance for revenge.
 
Stormbreaker is a refreshingly energetic yarn that is required reading for fans of the contemporary thriller.
John McLay

Watch the trailer for the recent Stormbreaker film here...

Want to explore the world of Alex Rider? Click here...

SilverFin by Charlie Higson

'Charlie Higson shakes up the familiar elements to produce a most satisfying cocktail in his story of the young 007.' Philip Ardagh, The Guardian

Meet Bond...James Bond...

James Bond is, without doubt, the daddy of all literary spies. His name is synonymous with intrigue and adventure, action and old-fashioned derring-do. So Silverfin, the first in a series of Charlie Higson’s fully authorised prequels to the most famous of all British Secret Service agents, has mightily big boots to fill.

Fortunately, Higson is a genuine Bond aficionado who has remained true to the style of Ian Fleming’s creation, and his legend, to create an authentic story featuring a teenage Bond that should not disappoint other equally appreciative fans.

After a supremely scary opening sequence featuring some terrifying mutated eels and a gruesome death, Bond’s early days at Eton in the 30’s as a thirteen-year-old are the focus for the first third of the book. Since the death of his parents in a climbing accident, James had previously been educated at home by his aunt. The alien world of this infamous public school is a new world for him and he makes enemies immediately. But young James is not without a backbone of his own, and he soon begins to win small victories against those who choose to bully him.
 
It is, however, when James is in Scotland for the rest of book, at the remote home of his Aunt Charmian and Uncle Max, that his first great adventure, and mystery to solve, truly takes shape. A local Laird, in his ominous castle nearby, is conducting horrific scientific experiments that prove he is very mad indeed and a threat to society who must be defeated. Before this excitement is over, James has a date with some killer eels...

Want to read Philip Ardagh's Guardian review in full? Click here...

Find out more about the Young Bond series of books at their website by clicking here...

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