Junior Book of the Month
February 2025
Troofriend written by Kirsty Applebaum
Imagine having the perfect friend, one who never steals, lies or bullies. Now you can, with the TrooFriend 560, the latest in artificial intelligence! What can go wrong with a robot buddy?
Especially one that's developing human characteristics and feelings, and who has just run away with her human?
January 2025
The History of Information, Written and illustrated by Chris Haughton
Chris Haughton takes readers on an illuminating journey through the evolution of knowledge and communication.
We are used to technology improving all the time. Next year we will have better phones, cars, and technology.
What is it that makes technology improve rather than stay static or even fall into decline? The answer is information.
If we are able to record knowledge we can collect and share it. We can continue adding to it and it grows and grows.
It hasn't always been like this. For a long time, human progress was very slow or static.
At some points it felt like our progress even ran backwards!
But the ability to record information in the form of writing and collecting data has caused an explosion of technological progress.
This book tells the story of how we came to collect information, and what it means for us.
December 2024
A Christmas Carol (Super readable) by Charles Dickens
Miserly Ebenezer Scrooge is visited on Christmas Eve by the three ghosts of Christmas. They show him the joy of Christmas, and wretchedness of his own legacy. Inspired and chastened by what he has seen, Scrooge resolves to change and from then on embraces and promotes the true spirit of Christmas.
November 2024
Anisha, Accidental Detective
Written by Serena Patel, illustrated by Emma McCann
Anisha Mistry is all set to be a bridesmaid at her Aunty Bindi's wedding tomorrow - until she finds a note in her family's letterbox.
Bindi's groom has been kidnapped and will only be released if the wedding is called off!
With best friend Milo, a mischievous granny, a runaway lobster, a giant chauffeur, and some super sleuthing skills, it's up to Anisha Mistry to find her uncle and save the big Indian wedding of the year.
October 2024
October, October by Katya Balen
October and her dad live in the woods. They know the trees and the rocks and the lake and stars like best friends. They live in the woods and they are wild. And that's the way it is.
Until the year October turns eleven.
That's the year October rescues a baby owl. It's the year Dad falls out of the biggest tree in their woods. The year the woman who calls herself October's mother comes back. The year everything changes.
Written in Katya Balen's heart-stoppingly beautiful style, this book is a feast for the senses, filled with the woodsmoke smell of crisp autumn mornings and the sound of wellies squelching in river mud. And, as October fights to find the space to be wild in the whirling chaos of the world beyond the woods, it is also a feast for the soul.
September 2024
Grimwood: Attack of the Stink Monster by Nadia Shireen
Bigfoot on the loose! A squirrel wedding! Silent disco party time! Our fox family embark on their greatest adventure yet to save Grimwood from a nasty, theiving stink monster in this laugh-out-loud tale.
August 2024
Over Sea, Under Stone - The Dark Is Rising Sequence by Susan Cooper
All through time, Light and Dark have battled for control of the world. Now, after centuries of balance, the Dark is summoning its terrifying forces to rise once more...and three children find themselves caught in the conflict.
The Drew siblings – Simon, Jane, and Barney – are on a family holiday in Cornwall when they discover an ancient map. But, they have no idea how special the map is.
Together, the three siblings have to take on a quest. They need to band together and discover the secret weapon that can end the war between Dark and Light. But, will they be able to do it in time?
And, will they be able to make it out alive?
July 2024
Fairy vs Wizard by Jenny McLachlan
Ridiculously funny and packed full of cartoons on every page!
Before you read my diary here is some stuff you need to know:
1 I’m 11 years old
2 I love drawing cartoons
3 I have two pet rats called Tony and Noah.
4 I also have a FAIRY called Stink . . .
Danny’s life hasn’t been the same since a REAL fairy flew out of a fairy door, attached herself to his hair and turned his life upside down.
In this book Stink tries to help Danny with his lead role in the school play, makes a Malteser adventure playground in the science cupboard and accidentally unleashes a giant all-powerful wizard into the world.
June 2024
Twice Upon A Time by Michelle Harrison
When the Morrow twins, Merry and Spike, arrive at dusty old Fox House, they think spending their holidays there is going to be dull. But they soon discover that there are secrets to the old house. A missing woman, a baby left on the doorstep, a locked study . . . As the mysteries pile up, the girls begin to investigate, using their own secret to help them: they can stop time!
What happened in this old house? And can their strange powers help them solve a decades-old crime?
May 2024
In the Key of Code by Aimee Lucido
When twelve-year-old Emmy’s musical family moves to California so her dad can take a job with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, Emmy has never felt more out of tune. But when she ends up in a school computer science club, she finds that she can understand code through a language she is familiar with: music. Slowly, Emmy makes friends with Abigail and the two girls start to discover their voices through the programming language of Java.
April 2024
Safiyyah's War by Hiba Noor Khan
War comes to the streets of Paris and Safiyyah’s life changes for ever.
Her best friend’s family have fled, and the bombing makes her afraid to leave the mosque where she lives. But when her father is arrested by the Nazis for his secret Resistance work, it falls to Safiyyah to run the dangerous errands around the city.
It’s not long before hundreds of persecuted Jews seek sanctuary at the mosque. Can Safiyyah find the courage to enter the treacherous catacombs under Paris and lead the Jews to safety?
March 2024
The Boy With Wings: Clash of the Superkids by Lenny Henry
Wings? Check.
A super-cool, super-secret past? Check.
An impossible mission to save the world from a super evil enemy? Check.
When Tunde’s parents take him to a top-secret testing facility called The Complex, he’s nervous about meeting others like him who have super powers. But trying to make new friends is the least of his worries. There’s something much scarier going on. And it’s going take more than just the boy with wings to stop it . . .
Now that flight isn’t an option, the only choice is to fight.
February 2024
The Secret Sunshine Project by Benjamin Dean
Bea’s family are happy. Like, really happy. Like, kind of gross but also cute happy. So when they visit London Pride together and have the ultimate day out, Bea doesn’t think her family could possibly get any happier. But a year later, a grey cloud is following Bea’s family around. Dad has passed away, and without him around they have no choice but to pack their bags and move to the countryside to live with Gran.
With Bea’s big sister, Riley, taking the news hard, Bea will do anything to cheer her up. So with the help of new friends, The Secret Sunshine Project is formed – Bea’s plan to bring Pride to the countryside and a smile back to Riley’s face. There’s just one teeny tiny problem – the village mayor. A grumpy old woman who’s on a mission to rain on Bea’s parade . . .