Junior Book of the Month
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 . . .
January 2024
The Incredible Adventures of Gaston le Dog by Michael Rosen
Gaston le Dog longs to return to the beautiful beach he remembers from years ago. So he sets off on an adventure – but mystery and danger lurk at every turn, and Gaston will need all the help he can get from the friends he meets along the way. But can they all be trusted?
December 2023
The Best Sleepover in the World by Jacqueline Wilson
In the last sleepover book, we met Amy, Bella, Chloe, Daisy, Emily and Daisy’s big sister Lily. Lily has additional support needs and Chloe was really horrible to her at the last sleepover so nobody wanted to be friends with her anymore.
However, Chloe is determined to win back all of her friends and announces she is having the best sleepover in the world and everyone is invited, everyone except Daisy. Lily is non-verbal but has been learning Makaton at her new school and decides she wants to have a sleepover as well, a better sleepover than Chloe but will she have the best sleepover in the world?
November 2023
The boy who saved a bear by Nizrana Farook
A boy and a bear meet, become friends and have the adventure of their lives!
From the author of The Girl Who Stole an Elephant comes another brilliant escapade. The fourth thrilling adventure set in a fictional Sri Lanka is jam-packed with peril, thieves and a terrifying bear!
Nuwan works at the library, delivering books. One day, he accidentally takes away a very valuable key that's been hidden inside one of the books, and in the process thwarts the plans of some very dangerous thieves. On the run, he hides in a cave, only to discover in the middle of the night that he is sharing it with a big, hairy, terrifying bear! After some hair-raising moments, he and the bear reach an understanding and they travel on together, evading the bad guys and hoping the key will unlock the answers to the mystery so that they can stop running and return home...
October 2023
Into the Sideways World by Ross Welford
The moving, funny, thrilling and adventured-filled new novel for readers of 10 and up from bestselling author Ross Welford.
When twelve-year-olds Willa and Manny hear of a mysterious animal prowling their town, they are determined to prove it is real. Following the creature into a cave one full moon, they are swept into an alternate, ideal, world – one where pollution and conflict have been conquered decades ago and even their own families seem happier.
But when they return, no one believes them. So, with a global war looming in their my haithe a nail-biting race against time.
And Willa and Manny will have to make an impossible decision: because once you find a perfect world, can you ever leave it behind . . .?
June 2023
Glitter Boy by Ian Eagleton
James loves dancing, poetry, and Mariah Carey (not in that order, though, because Mariah would obviously be first!). His teacher, Mr Hamilton, is getting married to his boyfriend and it seems that James will be part of a surprise choir performance at the wedding.
But James's father seems uncomfortable about the plan, and a lot of other things - like any mention of Mr Hamilton, and James's dancing, and how James talks about his new friend Joel. Meanwhile, a different boy has been harassing James at school and calling him gay, and it's getting worse every day. James can find relief with his beloved Nan, she's been having worrying falls, and James can't tell anyone, or she might be sent to a faraway care home.
May 2023
Your Choice - the following title is recommended by Laura, aged 10.
“It is a lovely book and it is very uplifting and positive. The main character Joy, cares about everyone and is very nice and compassionate.”
A Girl Called Joy by Jenny Valentine
Meet ten-year-old Joy Applebloom, a girl with a knack for finding the silver lining in even the darkest of rainclouds.
After years of travelling the world with her parents and older sister, Claude (Claude rhymes with bored, which is just about right), Joy and her family move to suburbia - back to school, back to her grumpy, rule-obsessed grandad and back to normality.
Joy soon finds her usual irrepressible positivity and zest for life waning, but when the powers that be threaten to pull down a mighty oak tree, Joy decides to fight back, and realizes that not all magic requires wands and spells, and perhaps the most important sort of magic is the power, resilience and courage that was there all along…
The Day My Family Disappeared by Jo Simmons
Bob Bunyon is fed up. In a family full of artists and performers, he's the one with no talent, the one bypassed by the creativity gene - and his four siblings just won't let him forget it. Finally sick of being taunted for being so "normal", Bob wishes that his family would all just disappear, but he doesn't really expect his wish to come true!
When he wakes the next day to find everyone gone, Bob's initial delight quickly turns to worry. Does he have supernatural powers? Is he the only survivor of a zombie apocalypse or an alien invasion?
Gathering all his courage, and employing survival skills learned from TV endurance shows, Bob sets out to find his missing family.
April 2023
A Different Sort of Normal by Abigail Balfe
Hi! My name is Abigail, and I'm autistic. But I didn't know I was autistic until I was an adult-sort-of-person*.
This is my true story of growing up in the confusing 'normal' world, all the while missing some Very Important Information about myself.
There'll be scary moments involving toilets and crowded trains, heart-warming tales of cats and pianos, and funny memories including my dad and a mysterious tub of ice cream. Along the way you'll also find some Very Crucial Information about autism.
If you've ever felt different, out of place, like you don't fit in... this book is for you.
March 2023
Saving Neverland by Abi Elphinstone
Number 14 Darlington Road, looks like a perfectly ordinary townhouse - at first glance, anyway, but magic is good at hiding . . . when it's waiting for the right person to discover it.
Martha Pennydrop is ten, and desperate to grow up. But growing up is a tricky business. It means turning your back on imagination, fun and magic, because those were the things that led to the Terrible Day when something awful nearly happened to Martha's younger brother, Scruff, which would have been All Her Fault. But when Martha and Scruff discover a drawer full of mysterious gold dust in the bedroom of their new house - along with a window that's seemingly impossible to close - it's the start of an incredible adventure to a magical world: Neverland!
The Pennydrop's new house used to belong to another family - the Darlings - who once visited this world themselves. Now Peter Pan is back, and in need of their help. Neverland is in the icy grip of a terrible curse - cast long ago by Captain Hook. And only Martha and Scruff can save it…
A reluctant Martha and excited Scruff are swept off to Neverland and into the company of the Lost Kids. But when Scruff is kidnapped, Martha must rediscover all the imagination, magic and belief she has buried deep inside herself for so long, to save him - and Neverland itself.