A hilarious, cringe-inducing, tender and warm debut in the tradition of Louise Rennison

Gwynnie knows all about boys, she’s been playing football with them all her life. But suddenly the game has changed: a smart, handsome Year 10 called Charlie Notts has arrived and Gwynnie has no idea how to go from friend to girlfriend.

Enlisting the help of Jennifer Gregson, the girliest girl in school, Gwynnie tries to make the transformation from tomboy to top model. But being a girl is more difficult that mastering the off-side rule.

Category: Young Adult

Edgy Taylor doesn’t have the best job in the world; he collects dog droppings from the streets of Victorian London to sell to the tanneries. But things are set to get even tougher for Edgy when a dying errand boy hands him a map carved into a sliver of skull.

Rescued by the mysterious Professor Envry Janus, Edgy is catapulted into the arcane world of the Royal Society of Daemonologie where demons are collected, catalogued and turned to stone. Intrigue and murder stalk the dusty corridors of the Society and satanic forces manipulate its members. With Spinorix the imp and Sally, a revenant girl who has been dead since 1735, Edgy discovers a race between Janus and the demon-queen Salome to find the body of arch-demon Moloch. Janus must stop Salome from returning Moloch’s heart to its rightful owner and awakening him.

But Janus is not all he seems, and neither, it would appear, is Edgy. Now it’s a race to save the world that will take them all to the caves of the frozen North – and the truth about where Moloch’s heart really lies, and who wants the demon lord to awaken.

Category: Ages 8 - 12

Since mankind began, civilizations have always fallen: the Romans, the Greeks, the Aztecs…. Now it’s our turn.

Huge earthquakes rock the world. Cities are destroyed. But something even worse is happening. An ancient evil has been unleashed, hooking on to weakness, turning the unwary into hunters, killers, crazies.

Mason:  His mother is dying after a terrible car accident. As he endures a last vigil at her hospital bed, his school is bombed and razed to the ground. Everyone he knows is killed.

Aries: A school bus, an aftershock and a crash. Pulled out of the wreckage by a mysterious stranger, she’s about to discover a world changed forever.

Clementine: An emergency meeting at the town hall that descends into murderous chaos. Outside the rest of their community encircle with weapons. How can those you trust turn into savage strangers?

Michael: A brutal road rage incident. When the police arrive on the scene they gun down the guilty and turn on the by-standing crowd. Where do you go for justice when even the lawmakers have turned bad?

Category: Young Adult

The summer after high-school graduation, a year after her mother’s tragic death, and Anna has no plans – beyond her need to put a lot of miles between herself and the past.  With forever friend Kat, a battered copy of Kerouac’s DHARMA BUMS, and a car with a dodgy oil filter, the girls set out on an epic road trip across the USA.  Maybe somewhere along the way they’ll prove or disprove the existence of God. Maybe they’ll even get laid . . .

It’s a journey both outward and inward. Through the Badlands and encounters with predatory men and buffalo. A crazy bus ride to Mexico with a bunch of hymn-singing missionaries. Facing death, naked in the forest with an enraged grizzly bear . . . Gradually, Anna realizes that this is a voyage of discovery into her own self, her own silent pain – and into the tangled history that she and Kat share. What is love? What is sexual identity? And how do you find a way forward into a new future – a way to declare openly and without fear all that lies within you?

Category: Young Adult

Gidaado the Fourth and his albino camel are working for a famous General in his campaign to win the state elections.

General Crepe-Sombo is everyone’s hero, but Sophie reckons there is something fishy about him. She must do some dangerous spying to find out the truth.

It turns out that the General is more crooked than Sophie and Gidaado could ever have imagined. They must expose him before he becomes President!

In a final breathtaking scene, the children are racing across the desert sands on camelback, pursued by General Crepe-Sombo in his jeep. Who will prevail? 

Category: Ages 5 - 8

Sophie and Gidaado are back and this time the enemy is more dangerous than camel thief Moussa ag Litni.

Locusts with their crop-devouring mandibles threaten the livelihood of the entire Oudalan Province. Gidaado is forced to become a crier announcing local news and the descriptions of missing cows.

With Sophie’s help, Gidaado’s announcements become great hits! Who could resist Gidaado’s crooning “Has anybody seen my Skinny Legs?”

Category: Ages 5 - 8

Sophie lives in Gorom-Gorom, with her carnivorous-plant obsessed dad.

Despite living there for two years and speaking the local language, Sophie finds it difficult to make friends. So when she meets Gidaado, a young griot (story-teller), she agrees to join him and his albino camel, Chobbal, on a journey to his village.

It is not until they have set off, that Sophie begins to realise just how dangerous the desert is - it’s full of djinnis that creep up behind you, and jump on your head and make you go mad. Not to mention the infamous Moussa ag Litni, a ruthless bandit who steals camels…

Category: Ages 5 - 8

Long ago in the ancient city of Timbuktu a student pulled off the most daring heist in African history, the theft of 100 million pounds worth of gold.

The stolen treasure has remained hidden until now, when teenage hacker Danny Temple discovers a cryptic Arabic manuscript. It’s a good job that Danny is a keen traceur (free runner) because he has to run across rooftops and leap from buildings to stay one step ahead of his pursuers.

His nightmarish and adrenalin-charged quest leads him all the way to sub-Saharan Africa, and the mysterious cliffs of Bandiagara. 

Category: Ages 8 - 12

‘Get back on the bus!’ One of the policemen was walking towards them holding his pistol. Haroun flicked on his helmet-lamp and peered in through the window of the car. Claude Gerard was dead! When the Director of the Saharan uranium mine where he works is mysteriously murdered, fourteen year-old Haroun embarks on a dangerous new role as a spy in the service of the French Government. A shocking conspiracy is unearthed - somebody is trafficking ‘yellowcake’, a key ingredient in the production of nuclear bombs. Faced with the threat of the yellowcake falling into the hands of a rogue state, time is running out…

Category: Ages 8 - 12

Spectacular. Bathsheba is back - and off to Dramarama Camp!

Bathsheba can’t wait to go to camp with her best friend Keisha. But when Keisha’s granny falls ill, Bathsheba has to go by herself.

Luckily, lovable Bath soon makes friends, and uses her budding talent to fight off stiff competition from an ambitious camp clique of returning pupils - landing a starring role in the final cabaret! But when Dramarama Camp’s director breaks her leg, the special guest-tutor, Hollywood starlet Avocado Dieppe (and Bath’s arch-nemesis!) turns directorial diva and steals Bath’s role in the show! It looks like Bath’s chances of fame are doomed - until a disaster of dramatic proportions gives our heroine a chance to truly shine…

Join Bathsheba for another deliciously funny and fantastic instalment of this addictive diary series. 

Category: Ages 8 - 12

Bathsheba’s back!

Bathsheba Clarice de Trop is going to school for the first time in her life. The daughter of a world-famous novelist, she has had a pampered, home-tutored - and pretty lonely - lifestyle, till now. But her larger-than-life personality means it’s not that easy for her to fit in. After all, she’s known as the heroine of all her mother’s exciting books - and she has to live up to her name.

And so she embarks on an investigation to catch the thief of the school computers - and hopefully win herself some friends into the bargain. Girls will love the hilarious world of Bathsheba, from her glamorous tall tales to those touching home truths. 

Category: Ages 8 - 12

Bathsheba Clarice de Trop thinks she’s a star. Well, her mum is a world-famous novelist whose books are all about the amazing adventures of her fabulous daughter, and of course the stories must be true.

But when Bathsheba is confronted by her down-and-out father, and discovers that her role in the fantastic new Bathsheba film will be played by hot US actress Avocado Dieppe, she has to face reality. She might not be as famous as she liked to think, but maybe she can still be a star in her own right.

Category: Ages 8 - 12

It’s the New Year, Woodbridge School is closed and the country is snowed in. While the blizzards rage and Nell’s mum works double shifts, their house is full of Gwen’s friends permanently crashing out on every bed and sofa.  The Elven world is frozen, too.  It’s deep in snow and ice storms are ravaging the forest.  Worst of all the massive Harps that keep the Elven land twisted out of sight are falling silent.  No music, no land. 

Can Nell and Evan cross the deadly frozen lake that surrounds their land, and fight through freezing blizzards?  And if they do reach the Harp will they be able to overcome the two enemies waiting for them - Loki and Laki Winter?  They are feared Ice Elven, a race so secretive that most young Elven think they’re myths used to scare them into being good.  The scheming Winter twins are all too real, though, and they’ll stop at nothing to make sure the Harps stay silent. 

Category: Ages 8 - 12

Midnight: a mist-haunted wood with a bad reputation. A sweet sixteen party, and 13 year old Nell is trying to keep her sister, spoilt birthday-girl Gwen, out of trouble.  No chance. Trouble finds Gwen and drags her through the mist. Only Nell guesses who’s behind the kidnap - the boy she hoped was her friend, the cute but mysterious Evan River.

All those fairy stories Nell’s grandmother told her about girls being stolen by fairy folk are true. The Elven are beautiful as starlight, fierce as wolves, and cold as ice. And they want their world back. The fight has been raging for centuries. Nell’s grandmother should know, she’s a Watcher, the ones responsible for imprisoning the Elven in isolated iron-bound camps in Siberia. Only Evan, his fanatical older brother Fen, and a handful of Elven children are still free. 

Fen, hellbent on revenge, keeps Gwen in their wolf-guarded stronghold deep in the mist. The price for her safe return? The release of all the Elven – but the Watchers will never agree. Only Nell can save Gwen.

Time is twisted through the mist: if Nell stops longer than a night and day, a hundred years will hit her as soon as she returns and she’ll be old and withered before she’s even lived. The clock is ticking.

Category: Ages 8 - 12

When Delaney Maxwell is pulled out of the icy waters of a Maine lake by her best friend Decker Tom, she is blue and her heart isn’t beating. Everyone know she’s dead. So how could she defy medical precedent and come back – well enough after a few days to look at scans of her own damaged brain. Is she a miracle, a freak of nature – or something much more frightening?

Everyone wants Delaney to be fine, but she knows she’s very far from normal. Pulled by sensations she can’t control, Delaney finds herself drawn to the dying. Is her crazy brain predicting death or causing it? Either way, she has knowledge that no normal human being should ever have, and that knowledge is going to kill her.

Then Delaney meets Troy Varga.  Older, assured and sympathetic, Troy lost his whole family in a car crash and emerged from a coma with the same intuitions as Delaney. At last she’s found a kindred spirit who’ll understand the hell she’s going through. But Delaney soon discovers that Troy’s motives aren’t quite what she thought. Who should decide when suffering is too much? Is taking the life of a dying person kind or evil?

Delaney Maxwell is alive, but death won’t be cheated for long. Can she escape that destiny – and can heaven possibly come from the hell that was Falcon Lake?  The answer can only lie in one place - love.

Category: Young Adult

After discovering her father’s big Multiple Sclerosis secret, Payton Gritas’s structured life crumbles. So begin her excruciating ‘chats’ with Ms Callahan, a school counselor aiming to save Payton from drowning in denial by encouraging her to write Focus Exercises on any random object. Payton chooses Sean Griswold, her alphabetical connection since kindergarten. More specifically, she chooses his somewhat over-sized head.

As Payton’s research grows into something a little less scientific and a little more crush-like, it spawns more and more questions about Sean and his dome. Like what’s with the scar?  And why is a fifteen year old training to be the next Lance Armstrong? Payton finds answers to these questions by getting inside Sean’s head, while Sean somehow finds a way into her guarded heart. But when Payton realizes her Sean obsession won’t ultimately mend her battered relationship with her dad, she must shift her focus to the one person who can find the way forward - herself.

Category: Young Adult

Fiona Finkelstein’s life is always a bit like a TV show. Everywhere she goes, there’s a lot of drama. That’s what being 9 years old in Ordinary, Maryland, is like when your dad is chief meteorologist for the local TV station, your mom lives in California and stars in a soap opera, and your little brother thinks he’s a superhero.

Fiona’s world is set to become even more dramatic when new boy Milo Bridgewater joins her fourth-grade class at Ordinary Elementary. Milo seems to be the very opposite of ordinary, and when his popularity and interest in starting a school meteorology club threaten to overshadow Fiona, she starts her own series of clubs - including one especially for matchmaking - in an attempt to outdo him. 

Category: Ages 8 - 12

Sometimes Fiona Finkelstein’s life seems to be a lot like a TV show - everywhere she goes, there’s a lot of drama. But that’s what being 9 years old in Ordinary, Maryland, is like when your dad is the chief meteorologist for the local TV station, your mom lives in California and stars in a soap opera, and your little brother thinks he’s a superhero.

Right now life is even better than TV, because Fiona has a chance to live her dream and become a big-time ballerina. There’s just one problem: In her last recital, Fiona starred as the unforgettable Fiona VOMETstein - all over the stage, and all over Benevolence Castle’s can-can costume.

Can Fiona overcome her fears and star in a production of The Nutcracker? Or she will remain the only one in her family who has the worst case of stage fright ever? 

Category: Ages 8 - 12

Frank Marder is a head, paralyzed from the neck down, and it’s his fault.  He was drinking.  He was driving.  Now Frank can’t walk, he can’t move, he can’t feel his skin.  He needs someone to feed him, to wash him, to move his body.

But if you ask most of the people who are posting on www.quadkingonthenet, he hasn’t been adequately punished.  Two people are dead because of him.  Frank should go to jail.  Only “Annonymous” disagrees.

Category: Young Adult

Xanthe Fox is hexed by the letter X. Ever since she can remember, the dreaded letter has caused her nothing but trouble. But when Xanthe arrives at her new school, things go from bad to worse.  Now it’s impossible even to read a book or eat alphabet spaghetti without chaotic results - and then she accidently hexes her best friend, Monday Jones, and makes her disappear!

When she finds a hidden copy of her family tree, Xanthe starts to uncover the truth - that she’s a descendant of the True Witches and must make a terrible decision.  If she accepts the ancient Turning Lock she will come fully into her powers and be able to rescue Monday. But if she refuses, and turns her back on her witchy heritage, then her best friend will be lost forever. And to make matters worse, a secret and terrifying enemy is on her trail . . . .

Category: Ages 8 - 12

Contemporary, and with a very special charm, this is the story of Phoebe’s trip to the park with her new digger toy. Mom and baby can be quite annoying at times, so Phoebe can’t wait to put just a little distance between herself and them. But then along comes a big mean girl - and suddenly Phoebe realizes that there’s nothing like the warmth and safety of family when you really need it.
Illustrator - to be confirmed.

Category: Picturebooks

Elinor Smith was born to soar. Plucky Elinor Smith was six years old when she first went for a ride in a rickety “flying machine.” At ten, she was taking flying lessons with blocks strapped to the rudder bar so her feet could reach it! By the time she was seventeen, she had become the youngest licensed pilot in the United States, male or female, and earned the respect of famous pilots like Charles Lindbergh.

When male pilots mocked her, Elinor decided to perform an aerial maneuver they thought was impossible. It would take training and preparation. But this aviation pioneer was determined to show that with talent, hard work, and plenty of grit a girl could climb to any heights.

Category: Picturebooks

Fifteen-year-old Angie didn’t used to think too much about God – until things started getting weird.  Like the statue of St Felix, her secret confidante, suddenly coming off his plinth and talking back at her. Like Angie’s mom, about to bust up her third marriage for no apparent reason. And weirdest of all, Jessie Francis, home from Afghanistan with his leg blown off and expected to fit back in at school. Does any of it make sense or is life always going to be as scrambled as the crazy peace sticker Angie sees from the ‘Untied Church of Dog’?

Against the advice of an increasingly vocal St Felix (who knows a thing or two about war), Angie finds herself falling for Jessie’s allure - a guy who’s been through so much more than regular high-school kids. But Jessie is battling some major demons, and as Angie starts losing control of the situation, she has to ask - can one person ever make things right for someone else?

Category: Young Adult

Based on actual events, this is the fascinating and uplifting story of two very different girls, whose lives briefly intersected in 1940’s California.

Sylvia was Hispanic. Aki was Japanese. Both families became caught up in the turmoil of war, and the changing nature of society. Sylvia was barred from a local school and a decent education - the victim of nothing more than her heritage and the colour of her skin. Aki’s family found itself in an internment camp, deprived of liberty in the country they thought was their home.

The two girls’ stories could hardly be more different - and yet they both faced injustice and hardship, sharing in the pain of their families.

When Sylvia’s father decided to take action and begin a fight for justice, he could not have anticipated the importance of the outcome: a landmark lawsuit that would help to shift attitudes about the education of children. And as events played out, the lives of these two young girls were destined to meet for just a few short moments . . .

Category: Ages 8 - 12

Desi Bascomb has every girl’s dream job—she’s a princess substitute.  Thanks to her rare magic potential, Desi was discovered by the super-secret Façade Agency. All she needs to do is apply Façade’s special formula Royal Rouge and Presto! she transforms into the look-alike of any princess who needs her subbing services.

Now that Desi has advanced to Level Two at Façade, her job is bigger and better than ever. What girl wouldn’t swoon over outrageous perks like free jewelry, designer clothes, the chance to hang out with crush-worthy Prince Karl, and best of all—one-on-one time with the head of Façade, Genevieve, who’s taken a special interest in Desi and her magic.

But between Desi’s BEST (Betterment of Elite Sub Training) program, starting the eighth grade, trying out for the school play, and dealing with the cute-but-bossy new boy Reed, she’s beginning to feel like she’s in over her head. 

Even worse, when Desi learns a secret about the magic that keeps Façade running, she realizes that not everything is as perfect as it seems.  Can she really trust Genevieve? And what is behind Façade’s power? Only Desi can uncover the truth—one princess at a time!

Category: Ages 8 - 12

Summer Jackson is six years old, and she’s tired of being treated like a little kid. Now it’s time to be all grown up, just like Mom and Dad.  With cell phone in hand, a long to-do list, and lots of urgent meetings to hold, Summer sets out to be a businesswoman – especially at recess.

But what happens when Mom and Dad agree that Summer’s ready to be an adult (eating her steak rare, doing the dishes, and taking just as much ice cream as she wants) – and that they’re the little kids? Suddenly, being the grown up doesn’t seem quite as much fun as Summer had imagined!

Category: Picturebooks

Phoenix Wainwright’s mother died when he was a baby. So it’s a big shock when, on his twelfth birthday, he’s handed a letter from her – with instructions that he’s to return to her childhood home and unearth the ancient mound across the river. The Gravenhunger Broom is a dark and mysterious old house, poisoned by a terrible history.  And as Phoenix carries out his dead mother’s final wishes, he not only unlocks his family’s long-hidden secrets – but also an ancient and malevolent curse.

Category: Ages 8 - 12

Mo Wren is a thoughtful girl with big things to think about. She’s lived all her eleven years on stumpy, dead-end Fox Street, and she loves everything about it, from her neighbours who look out for her and her little sister, The Wild Child, to the Green Kingdom at the end of the street, where she and best friend Mercedes have their secret Den.  Most importantly, though, Fox Street is where all Mo’s memories of her mother live.  Leaving that home is unimaginable.  Until it’s not.

When Mo’s father, restlessly trying to move on from a painful past, receives a lucrative offer on their house from a shady developer, Mo has to ask herself some wrenching questions. What do you do when you see your father making bad decisions? What if your best friend, whose own father remains a mystery, suddenly shows a side you never guessed at? Can ‘necessary’ and ‘evil’ really go in the same sentence?  Meanwhile, the Wild Child is running wilder than ever, and the spooky old lady next door begins enlisting Mo in some seriously bizarre errands.  Changes are coming at Mo one after the other, like yellow jackets run over by a lawn mower. 

With Fox Street’s down-on-its heels dignity, its working class setting, and a heroine whose worries go beyond her years, WHAT HAPPENED ON FOX STREET is a warm and sweet-hearted story about the complicated conflicts of growing up. 

Category: Ages 8 - 12

Sam’s always been a bit of a drama queen, but as the Starmakers work towards their production, Sam gets caught up in a real-life drama of her own - secret meetings, cryptic messages and buried photos. And she can’t tell anyone . . . 

Category: Ages 8 - 12

Eleven-year-old Parker loves creating things out of junk. So when he finds a hideous, talking green puppet named Drog in a trashcan, he’s fascinated. But Drog is sarcastic, rude and full of baloney (he claims to have helped steal the Ruby Yacht of Omar Khayyam and eaten gold-dust ice cream with emirs). Worst of all, Parker can’t get Drog off his hand!

Soon Drog is sharpening his sarky wit on the most fragile parts of Parker’s life - like his parents’ divorce. With his dad threatening to enrol Parker in Bradley Military Academy (The Big B.M.) if he doesn’t shape up, ditch the puppet and be a man, Parker signs up for the martial art of aikido. But it looks as if Parker’s only plan for freeing himself from Drog is doomed to fail. One small step away from The Big B.M., Parker at last finds the courage to tell his dad who he really is and what he really wants.  Drog is disarmed.

Category: Ages 8 - 12

Mackie Doyle seems like everyone else in the perfect little town of Gentry, but he is living with a fatal secret - he is a Replacement, left in the crib of a human baby sixteen years ago. Now the dark side wants him back, and Mackie must decide where he really belongs and what he really wants.

A month ago, Mackie might have told the creatures beneath the hill to buzz off.  But now, with a budding relationship with tough, wounded, beautiful Tait, Mackie has too much to lose. Will love finally make him worthy of the human world? 

Category: Young Adult

Fifteen-year-old Cyan was named after the colour blue by her artist mother.  And blue, in all its shades, is how it feels for Cyan to be back in the Caribbean one year after the loss of her father, drowned in an inexplicable sailing accident. Expected to play host to a potential new stepsister, Cyan’s past and future feel coloured by mystery. Did her mother drive her father away?  If he killed himself why didn’t he leave Cyan a note to help her understand? And most bafflingly, why did he sail to the horizon with an ice bucket and two champagne glasses on board?

Local rich-boy Mayur lures Cyan with promises that only he knows the truth. And now, with the anniversary of her father’s death approaching, and with a gulf as wide as the Caribbean between her mother and herself, Cyan must explore the depths of the colour blue - the blue of sadness, the ocean, the horizon, and ultimately herself - in this exquisitely told story of love, betrayal, and ultimately hope. 

Category: Young Adult

For orphan Josie, life is good with Cardamom, the great magician who took her in as a baby and with whom she now performs her astounding knife-throwing act. But then three mysterious ‘aunts’ turn up - taking over the house and transforming into vicious, giant crows, in thrall to evil Lord Corvis. With his dying breath, Cardamon tells Josie to ‘seek the Amarant - and Mortlock’.  So begins a terrifying quest for Josie and her newly discovered twin, Alfie, the undertaker’s mute, who soon realize that the legendary Amarant is a plant with power over life and death, which Cardamon, Corvis and Mortlock first discovered many years ago in Abyssinia.

But Cardamon had another secret. Mortlock was buried alive - with the Amarant - and now only the final destruction of the plant can quench Corvis’s growing powers and evil plans.  Braving a circus of the living dead, and a terrifying encounter with the Amarant in a graveyard where Mortlock certainly does not ‘rest in peace’, Josie and Alfie will need all their courage and skills to save themselves and the world.

Category: Ages 8 - 12

When a flawlessly dressed woman steps out of a giant bubble and wants to know NOW if you’d like to become a substitute princess, do you a) run b) faint c) say yes! For Desi, who’s been seeking some glamour in her life, the answer has to be c)!  As her new agent, Meredith, explains, Desi has a rare magical ability: when she applies some ancient Egyptian ‘royal rouge’ she can temporarily transform into the lookalike of any princess who needs a sub. Dream come true, right?

But Desi soon discovers that the job involves more than wearing a tiara and waving at cameras. Like, what do you do when tribal villagers turn up to watching you perform a ceremonial dance you don’t know? Or when a princess’s sweetheart turns up to break things off - and you’re sure she would want you to change his mind? Desi’s always dreamed of making an impact with her life and now she’s all set to do just that - one royal fiasco at a time!

To follow: Two more stories about Desi as she returns to life as a princess sub.  Boyfriends, beauty pageants and high school - easy.  An ex-best friend, an evil agent, and a kingdom in chaos - not so much! 

Category: Ages 8 - 12

Treasure Daniels longs for a home.  A home with a mom and dad, lilac walls, and the smell of food cooking.  But Treasure hasn’t had a home in years, not since her father left and her mother started running - from bill collectors, landlords, her past and her present.

Then Grandma Celeste steps in.  Enough is enough - Treasure and her little sister are going to live with Great-aunt Grace until their mom finally sorts herself out.  But life in stifling Black Lake, Virginia, is even worse than Treasure had imagined.  Segregation still lingers, and Great-aunt Grace is a nightmare, with her cigarettes, her four-hour church services, and her rundown candy store where the girls are expected to work every day after school.

It’s not long before Treasure’s had enough.  But then she witnesses Grace standing up for her in a way she’d never imagined, and begins to see Black Lake in a different light.  After being on the run for so many years, Treasure has found a home where she’d least expected - a home that will change her, and her idea of what family really means, forever. 

Category: Ages 8 - 12

Finn Oliver will never accept his father’s death, but he finds a few minutes of forgetting as he joy-rides over the moors in the beat-up family car.  Then the accident happens – and Finn hurtles through the wafer-thin divide between the living and the dead. 

The Underworld is threatened by storms on the Other Side, and the ghosts who live there know their only hope is an ancient prophecy: that a mortal child and a child of the Underworld will together unlock the Firepearl from its elemental enchantments and save the dead from disaster.

Now that moment has come, and Finn is about to embark on an extraordinary journey to the centre of the Earth!

Category: Ages 8 - 12

DARK GODDESS will take Billi to Russia to rescue Vasalisa, a young girl Billi’s promised to protect.  To save her, Billi must defeat the werewolves that serve the witch Baba Yaga – and the Dark Goddess herself.  Betrayed and alone, Billi faces a final mighty battle in the abandoned ruins of Chernobyl.

Category: Young Adult

The year is 1856, and orphan Abigail Tamper lives below stairs in Greave Hall, a crumbling manor house in London. Lord Greave is plagued by madness, and with his son Samuel away fighting in the Crimea, the running of Greave Hall is left to Mrs Cotton, the tyrannical housekeeper. The only solace for the beleaguered staff is to frighten Mrs Cotton by pretending the house is haunted.

So when a real ghost makes an appearance - that of her beloved mother - no one is more surprised than Abi. But the spirit has a revelation that threatens to destroy Abi’s already fragile existence: she was murdered, and by someone under their very own roof. With Samuel returned to England badly wounded, it’s up to Abi to nurse him back to health, while trying to discover the identity of the killer in their midst. As the chilling truth dawns, Abi’s world is turned upside down.

Category: Ages 8 - 12

It really was a stupid thing that Brent Staple did – doing it (so the rumour goes) with Chris Sanchez, one of the guy cheerleaders.  Who’d have thought that Brent, the school’s hottest jock, could be gay? But the doubt about Brent doesn’t just hurt Tara – it’s the beginning of the end for an inseparable trio of friends.  Tara’s training for the marathon, but also running from her father and her fear of ever being abandoned again. Beautiful Whitney Blaire’s got everything and nothing, because her parents have never had time for her.  And Pinkie has a compulsive need to mother everyone to make up for the mom she never stops missing.  The girls couldn’t be more different, but doesn’t that just prove the strength of their friendship?

Then new-girl Riley arrives in school, wafting her long black hair and a scent of lilacs. Suddenly, Tara starts to feel things she’s never felt before for a girl - and to reassess her feelings about Brent and what he may/may not have done. Is Tara gay – or does she just love Riley? And can the map of her deepest friendships ever be redrawn in a post-Riley world? 

Category: Young Adult

Polly discovers a fantasy game on her computer where she can create a brand-new identity and pretend she’s just fine. But the more involved she gets in her virtual world, the more she withdraws from real life – school, friends, and finally drama…

Category: Ages 8 - 12

Things are not going well for Phoebe Franks (Shyest Person in the Whole, Entire Universe). Her mum and dad can’t stop arguing. Her best friend in the world has found a new best friend. And her arch enemy, Polly Carter, is doing her level best to make Phoebe’s life a total misery. But when Phoebe plucks up the courage to join Starmakers, a new out-of-school drama club run by her class teacher, Phoebe wonders if her luck might be about to change.

Practically too shy to speak at the first session, Phoebe is sure she’ll never be brave enough to join in with everyone else, let alone sing and dance. But as the group works towards its first production, The Dream Factory, Phoebe’s confidence starts to grow.  Will she ever be able to sing her solo? Will she find a way to stop Polly Carter being such a bully? And most importantly of all, will she manage to get her parents talking again in time to see her perform on the biggest night of her life?

Category: Ages 8 - 12

Fifteen-year-old Billi hates that her father, the Grandmaster, forced her into the modern-day remnant of the Knights Templar – the first-ever girl to join the Order.  Billi would much rather be a regular high-school student than a secret warrior out to defeat the Unholy.  When she meets thrilling, seductive Mike, Billi is dazzled.  But Michael is not just a heart-breaker, he’s an archangel with a terrifying agenda…

Category: Young Adult

Kelly Quinn is thrilled to discover a collection of ancient recipes in the attic. Kelly’s loved to cook ever since she met celebrity chef Felice Foudini, and now it’s the perfect opportunity to form the secret cooking club she’s always dreamed of. But the strangely titled recipes contain some weird ingredients, and as Kelly and her BFFs get cooking, mysterious events ensue. There’s ‘Keep ‘Em Quiet Cobbler’ that silences Kelly’s annoying little brother, Hexberry Tart that knocks catty Charlotte out of the soccer team – and Love Bug Juice that has a very strange effect on the Rusamano brothers.

Is it possible the recipes are magic? And if so, what kind of trouble are the girls stirring up for themselves?  Things are about to get a little too hot in Kelly Quinn’s kitchen . . . 

Category: Ages 8 - 12

Margie is twelve and growing up in claustrophobic, small-town Kentucky.  With her mother losing herself in a bizarre passion for poultry (’collectible chickens winked and grinned from every surface.  Chicken potholders and pitchers and platters.  Rooster teaspoons and chick salt-shakers.  Every wall and countertop wallowed in Kentucky-fried ecstasy’), Margie struggles to find her own place in the world.  Not easy, when she’s outshone, outloved, outmanoeuvred at every turn by her prodigious little sister, Peep.

When Mom disappears - presumably to that mecca of chicken-lovers, the Rooster Romp - Margie knows she must act.  Grabbing her father’s car keys (and her sister), Margie sets off on a road trip worthy of Thelma and Louise to find her missing mom. Narrowly avoiding arrest, death and - worst of all - despair, Margie makes her bid for family and freedom, only to discover that the most important journey is the one that leads to discovering her own courage and self-belief. 

Category: Ages 8 - 12

It’s not exactly that Ari Fish is obsessive compulsive.  It’s just that he believes in luck. That’s why he recites American presidents (in order), always showers with his left hand, and talks to his poster of Wayne Timcoe (the greatest goalkeeper ever to graduate from Somerset Valley High) before he goes on to the soccer pitch.  Thomas Jefferson may have said that luck is all a matter of hard work, but Ari knows that sometimes luck is . . . luck. And to win at soccer you need it.

When Ari finds a rare Wayne Timcoe trading card, he knows his luck has changed.  Now he’s going to start in the net.  Mac MacDonald will learn to play nicely with Parker Llewellyn, the only girl on the team. And Ari’s fire-fighter brother will come home safely.  Right? But then Ari’s Timcoe card disappears. With his luck finally run out, what can Ari put in its place?

Category: Ages 8 - 12