When Becky and her mum move to the tiny village of Oakbridge, Mum is hoping for a new beginning. But when Becky discovers an old photo of her mum in hospital clutching a baby, twelve years before Becky was born, Becky becomes haunted by the thought that her mum is keeping something from her.

Stifled by her mum’s over-protectiveness and depressive moods, Becky feels more alone than ever. The only place she finds comfort is at the beautiful local Butterfly Garden with her new friend, the wild-spirited and impulsive Rosa May. But Becky can’t shake off the unanswered questions. Why can’t she swim? Where is her dad? Who is the baby in the photo? And why is her mum lying to her?

As the two girls spend more time together however, Rosa May’s unpredictable temper and possessive streak suggests that she is hiding something as well...and in the heat of the sun-drenched summer, it seems that Becky is the only one in the dark.

Category: Ages 8 - 12

Time to stop running. Time to start fighting back. 

After the earthquakes came the infectious rage, turning friends into deadly enemies.

For survivors Michael, Aries, Mason and Clementine the battle to stay alive is about to get even tougher. The new world is organising itself, with camps that promise protection for the uninfected. But the reality of the sites is far more sinister. Besides, nobody is safe from the rage within their own soul . . .

Category: Young Adult

Nearly Boswell’s name is an adverb with glass-half-empty connotations. Appropriate, given she’s almost certain to win the scholarship that’s her route out of Sunny View trailer park, almost pretty under her second-hand clothes, and she almost likes her best friend as much as he likes her.

But Nearly has a deep, dark secret. She’s hopelessly addicted to the personal classified ads, which give her a hotline into the emotions of the writers. It’s an addictive rush – until a girl turns up drugged and naked under the bleachers, and a cryptic series of ads reveal clues to increasingly terrible crimes. Girls start turning up dead, and all the evidence points back to the one person capable of solving the clues – Nearly herself.

Reformed bad boy Reece Whelan is a narc. Working for the cops as a confidential informant is the only thing keeping him out of juvie. Helping police solve the chain of crimes could be his ticket to redemption, but shadowing Nearly is a challenge. The more Reece gets to know her, the harder it is to keep his distance, and as the evidence mounts against Nearly, Reece is sure not only that she’s being set up – but that he’s falling for the girl the cops think is the perp.

Drawn into a forbidden partnership, Reece fights to protect Nearly from the cops who suspect her and a calculating predator who has her second-guessing the people she loves. Somehow Nearly must work out the meaning of the mysterious numbers blue-inked on the victims and their connection to the puzzling ads But time is running out, and who can Nearly trust with her secrets, her heart, and her life?

Category: Young Adult

Fifteen-year-old Jake Knight is an explorer and adventurer at heart but this often gets him into trouble. When a stuffy English boarding school suspends him for rule-breaking, Jake flies out to Burkina Faso where his parents are living.

He is expecting a long, adventure-filled vacation under a smiling African sun. But what awaits him there is kidnapping, terrorism and Yakuuba Sor – the most wanted outlaw in the Sahara desert.

Category:

Hilary Westfield has always dreamed of being a pirate. She wants nothing more than to sail the High Seas of Augusta in search of magical treasure—and to earn a smidgen of respect from her seafaring father. But the Very Nearly Honorable League of Pirates rejects Hilary’s application because she’s a girl, and her father ships her off to Miss Pimm’s Finishing School for Delicate Ladies instead.

Expected to wear woollen dresses (petticoats not provided) and enthusiastically throw herself into activities such as Viennese Waltzing for the Eager Novice, Miss Pimm’s is every bit as horrid as Hilary feared. However, a true pirate never lets dire circumstances stand in her way, and after a mostly dreadful first week, Hilary escapes and applies for a job with a freelance pirate known as the Terror of the Southlands. He offers her a place on his crew, on one condition: She must find the famous treasure that’s rumored to contain most of the kingdom’s lost magic. But how in the world is a pirate supposed to find treasure when her treasure map is useless and her crew consists of a governess, a spy, a budgerigar – and a gargoyle who enjoys being tickled behind the ears?  How should a pirate respond when Miss Pimm pursues her across the High Seas in a ship packed with schoolgirls? Most importantly, what does a pirate do when the nefarious scoundrel who’s also searching for the treasure turns out to be her father?

Hilary is certain of one thing. If she fails to find the treasure, she’ll be sent back to finishing school for good, and she’ll never get to be a pirate. Which means that high adventure lies ahead for Hilary!

Category: Ages 8 - 12

How DO you disappear when your life’s in danger? The suits’ rules are simple and extensive. Like, never use the internet. Don’t start conversations with random strangers. Don’t make friends. And never, ever fall in love.

She’s been so many people in so many places. Madeline in Ohio, Isabelle in Missouri, Olivia in Kentucky . . . . But now she’s Megan Rose Jones, newly arrived in Natchitoches, Louisiana with her family. Witness Protection has taken nearly everything from Meg, but this placement is the final straw. This time they’ve even cut and colored her beautiful blonde hair and turned her blue eyes brown. Meg’s family’s on the verge of implosion too. Pulled from their beds one too many times, her little sister’s traumatized, her mom’s drowning in booze, and her dad . . . Well, he’s fast becoming a silent, defensive stranger. What on earth did he do – or see - that landed them in this god-awful mess?

As she runs the gauntlet as a newbie (yet again) at Madison High School, Meg makes a few more rules - for herself this time.  1) Find out what the heck her father did.  2) Get them out of Witness Protection forever. And 3) Refuse to get close to anyone – it only ends in tears.

But Meg is about to discover that the truth of her family’s life on the run is very different to what she’d thought.  And she’d never reckoned on cute, floppy-haired farm boy Ethan Landry, whose determination to know the real Meg not only threatens to break her disguise wide open but also to penetrate her guarded heart.  On a crazy, perilous journey to free her family once and for all, Meg discovers that there’s only one rule that really matters – survival.

Category: Young Adult

With her rare magical powers and a gift for getting herself out of trouble, Desi Bascomb has become the darling of the Façade Agency. She’s the youngest girl ever to advance to level three as a full-time royal sub.

Now all eyes are on Desi, but she just wants a moment alone to talk to her crush Reed, who she’s discovered is actually a sub for princes! Except spending time with him might be Desi’s worst idea yet—Façade is spying on their every move, and her best friend Kylie has a crush on Reed, too.

But Desi also has deeper problems than lying to her BFF—Façade is hiding something big. Behind the glitz and glam of the agency is a dark secret: the misuse of magic. Desi knows it’s up to her to fix Façade’s suspicious practices, but if she gets caught, her magic and memories will be erased. Is she willing to sacrifice her time with Reed and job as a princess sub to do what’s right?

Desi’s last stand is her most triumphant, hilarious and unexpected adventure yet. Don’t underestimate this damsel in distress in the charming finale of the Princess for Hire series.

Category: Ages 8 - 12

Last night, Valley White celebrated her own funeral. This morning, she strapped on a vest full of explosives and set out to kill and be killed. But her plan has gone explosively wrong, and now Valley needs a driver to salvage her mission. That’s how Eric, age 16, and his little brother, Corbin, become pawns in Valley’s game. They are expendable and completely unprepared to disarm a girl who has been raised to be a weapon and knows exactly why she wants to die. 

Category: Young Adult

‘I know where Tilla-Beri is,’ says Penda. ‘I can take Daddy his milk.’

‘All right,’ says Mum. ‘Try not to spill any on the way.’

The magical story of a little girl who travels across rivers and deserts to take her Daddy his supper.

Category: Picturebooks

For eight years, Loa Sollilja’s world ran like one of those mechanical models of the solar system, with her baby sister, Asta, as the sun. Asta suffered from a genetic disorder that left her a permanent infant, and caring for her was Loa’s life. Everything spun neatly and regularly as the whole family orbited around Asta.

But now Asta’s dead, and 16-year-old Loa’s clockwork galaxy has collapsed. As Loa spins off on her own, her mind ambushes her with vivid nightmares and sadistic flashbacks - a textbook case of PTSD. But there are no textbook fixes for Loa’s short-circuiting brain. She must find her own way to pry her world from the clutches of death.

THE FREAK OBSERVER is a startling story of death, life, astrophysics, and finding beauty in chaos.

Category: Young Adult

2012 – A star-gazing teenager discovers the planet Eden, only visible from Earth every 700 years.
2053 – The first colonists inhabit this second world.
2085 – Life on Earth is decimated by an alien parasite brought from Eden.

2012. Cornwall. Eden Anfield loves puzzles, so when mysterious new boy Ryan Westland shows up at her school, she’s hooked. On the face of it, he’s a typical American teenager. So why doesn’t he recognize pizza? And how come he hasn’t heard of Hitler? What puzzles Eden the most, however, is the interest he’s taking in her.

As Eden falls in love with Ryan, she begins to uncover his secrets. Her breakthrough comes one rainy afternoon when she stumbles across a book in Ryan’s library – a biography of Connor Penrose, her oldest friend, written over 50 years in the future.

Confronting Ryan, she discovers that he is a boy from the future whose mission is to prevent Connor from discovering a planet he names Eden, in honour of the girl he loves. A planet with a deadly virus that is destined to destroy the earth in a hundred years time.

Is it really possible to change the future?

Category: Young Adult

Old Al Haji Amadu had three wives, seven children - and five extremely naughty goggle-eyed goats that munched and gobbled and chewed whatever they could find. One day, enough was enough, they had to go! But getting rid of these troublesome goats proved to be harder than Al Haji could ever have imagined…

Category: Picturebooks

Ever – named, somewhat ironically, after Cinderella’s ‘happily ever after’ – started putting on weight when her mom died. Now she is fifteen years old, weighs 302 pounds, and hears voices.

The voice that whispers in Ever’s ear is the voice of self-doubt and mockery, and it has a name—Skinny.  Skinny’s nasty little whispers tell Ever constantly that she’s ugly, a loser, friendless, and undeserving of love.  Especially the love of Jackson Barnett, who once kissed her in the snow all those years ago and whom she’s adored ever since.

But Ever hears another voice too – her own amazing singing voice that no one knows about even though she’s memorized the lyrics of every musical ever written.  If Ever is willing to take the chance to radically change her body, maybe she might also find the courage to share that voice with the rest of the world.

With the help of her long-suffering science-geek friend Rat, Ever embarks on the risky, terrifying journey of weight loss ulminating in gastric bypass surgery. But while Ever’s body will gradually change on the outside, she soon finds that changing the fat girl on the inside will prove much harder.

Ever dreams of a simple Happy Ever After. But on the long, confusing road to self-reinvention (or self-discovery?), she soon finds that nothing and no one is quite what she thought – least of all herself. Will Ever’s dreams be a case of Never Ever – as she always feared?

Category: Young Adult

‘My name is Cally Louise Fisher and I haven’t spoken for thirty-one days.’

When Cally Fisher sees her dead mother, bright and vivid and real as anything, no-one believes her.  Not her dad who hasn’t been able to say her name since the day she died, not her brother who’s shut in his bedroom aiming for the highest score on Test Drive, and not the rest of her disappointed relatives. Disruptive at school, she’s losing all her friends and if no-one is listening what’s the point in talking?

The only other living soul that sees Cally’s mum is a homeless wolfhound who always seems to be there when her mum appears. But without a voice how will Cally convince anyone that her mum is still with them, and how will she ever persuade her Dad that the huge silver-grey dog is their last link with her? 

Category: Ages 8 - 12

Anna remembers a time before boys, when she was little and everything made sense. When she and her mom were a family, just the two of them against the world. But now her mom’s gone most of the time, chasing the next marriage, the next stepfather. And Anna has learned a new way to make sense of the world. A way to fill her empty afternoons, her empty house. Anna discovers that boys – from Desmond to Joey, from Todd to Sam - can make you feel less alone. 

Everyone at school has heard about Anna and the boys; everyone calls her a slut. Anna’s only friend, Toy, is a girl like her. Toy is a master at using boys, who seems to get everything she wants from them. Anna longs to be Toy, to have Toy’s romantic life, because even when Anna gives boys what they want, she still fails to get what she needs.

When Anna loses Sam, a boy who is more than just useful, a boy so perfect that even Toy could be jealous, she discovers the truth about Toy’s stories – and a truth about herself. That no matter what she barters or gives away, she still has to confront herself – the child inside that’s spent her life yearning for family, belonging and affection. Now, with so much of what she thought true proven to be a lie, Anna finally takes a new look at herself and her life. Could there be a different way of seeing boys? And could she, for the first time, find the strength to take her destiny in her own hands?

Category: Young Adult

In a barren land once known as England, a glimmering, glass pod homes the survivors of the Switch, the period when oxygen levels plunged and the green world withered. A state lottery meant the lucky few won safety inside the pod, while the rest suffocated in the thin air.

Life has moved on and the pod is home. The poor, auxiliary class live their lives quietly. With no money to pay the oxygen tax they aren’t able to run, dance or get out of breath, while the rich Premiums are healthy and strong and govern with a sense of birthright.

The Ministry rule with an iron cosh: those who challenge their order are labeled terrorists and get thrown out the back door and left to smother.
In the outlands a few mysterious drifters live in the ruins dragging along fridge-sized oxygen generators. And there are whispers of a resistance who worship trees and survive god-knows-how.

Sixteen year old Alina fights for freedom. But when a routine mission goes wrong and Alina must flee the pod, she finds herself at the mercy of two seemingly ordinary teenage friends on a weekend trip to the outlands.

ALINA, 16 – tough, heartbroken, and committed to the struggle - she will do anything at all to save the trees.

QUINN, 16 – a privileged Premium with Ministry connections - his closest friend is an auxiliary, but where will his loyalties lie when he’s tested?

BEA, 15 – kind, intuitive, and smart - Quinn holds her heart in his hands but he’s too clueless to see what’s right in front of him.

They have two days of oxygen in their tanks. What happens on the third day?

Category: Young Adult

Twelve-year-old Bogdana is being groomed in the family tradition to take over as Count Voronstov’s next kennel steward, breeding borzoi dogs worthy of the Tsar.

But then Bogdana’s baby brother is born and she finds herself supplanted as her father decides to make the boy the next kennel steward. Going against her father’s wishes and becoming increasingly sure of her special gift of understanding these incredible dogs, Bogdana risks everything when she reveals the truth about her visions. Now she must save Zar, her favorite borzoi and the one she raised from birth, from a hungry pack of wolves. Only then can she find her own, extraordinary destiny . . .

Category: Ages 8 - 12

Introducing one of the most delightful characters you’ll find in young fiction!

Cody is always ready to help.  She hypnotizes her best friend Spencer’s cat.  She leads the battle against the neighborhood Mean Kids.  She makes sure her teenage big brother Wyatt has the summer of his dreams (sort of.)

In this life there are many mysteries, but brave, tender-hearted Cody is a match for them all.

Category: Ages 5 - 8

Britney Taylor is queen bee at Penford High School. She dates who she likes, rules over her inner circle of friends like Genghis Khan, and can ruin anyone’s life as easily as snapping her perfectly manicured fingers. Just ask the unfortunate few who have crossed her.

For April Bowers, Britney is also the answer to her prayers. With zero friends and nothing close to a boyfriend, April is so absolutely unremarkable no one has even spotted she exists. That is, until Britney notices her. One lunch spent at Britney’s table, and April is basking in the glow of popularity.

But Britney’s friendship comes with a price tag. If April will put her name (or rather, her lipstick) to Britney’s totally unreasonable set of ‘laws’, popularity will be hers for ever more.

What could be simpler? Except that April is about to become a slave to the Lipstick Laws, which deny pretty much all independent or intelligent thought.  Just how much is April willing to pay - and what could happen at payback time?

Category: Young Adult

Ashoka Mistry – better known as Ash – is a 14-year-old Londoner. And he hates India. Which is a problem since his parents have sent him (with little sister Lucky) to spend the summer with family in Varanasi. It seems like a dream come true when mysterious Lord Savage offers Ash’s uncle the job opportunity of a lifetime, deciphering some ancient scrolls – and hands over a cheque for £2 million in advance. But Ash already knows something is very wrong at Savage Palace and that the aristocrat’s sinister henchmen are not quite what they seem. After all, do bodyguards generally sprout claws and fangs - or have a nasty habit of transforming into massive crocodiles? These guys are rakshashas – aka demons – and the Mistry family is in deep trouble.

Ash wants to believe all will be fine - the imagination can play strange tricks, right? But when he falls into an unexcavated hole in the desert, hurting his hand on a ancient, golden arrowhead, Ash begins to realize the stakes are even higher than he thought. Touched now by Kali, the goddess of death (whose arrow it is), and with his relatives murdered, Ash finds himself in a desperate battle to stop Savage’s masterplan – the opening of the legendary Iron Gates that have kept Ravanna, the demon king, at bay for four millennia. With Parvati – a beautiful demon cobra-girl who just happens to be Ravanna’s daughter (she never did get on with her dad) – by his side, Ash’s journey will not only take him into the heart of darkness, but also on a quest to understand his own identity and the hero within himself. 

Category: Ages 8 - 12

Necessity Bonehill is arrogant, a bully and trapped in Rookery Heights Academy for Young Ladies. Bored and aimless, she spends her time training with the retired, and slightly insane, Sergeant Major Morris or fighting with the local peasant boys.  So when her Uncle Carlos sends her a seemingly empty bottle with the instructions, “Never open it,” she can’t resist the temptation and pulls the cork.

But Necessity unleashes an evil genie, a demon of pestilence and a creature that bears her parents a terrible grudge. With only seven days to rescue them, Ness has to find out how to kill the genie. She begins a desperate quest that takes her through the dark streets of London and to the Oasis of the Amarant in uncharted Africa. If she fails, her parents die and the world will fall prey to the genie’s hideous plague. Her nightmare magic-carpet ride brings her face to face with the Pestilents, the genie’s living dead servants, a vampire army and worst of all…herself.

The Arabian Nights viewed through a murky gothic lens with a fist-fighting girl for company!

Category: Ages 8 - 12

A story about first love, bullying and inner strength.

Armed with one suitcase and an old laundry bag filled with clothes, Kasienka and her mother leave Poland and head for the UK to find her missing father.

Life is lonely for Kasienka. At home, her mother’s heart is breaking and at school she finds it impossible to make new friends.

While the search continues, Kasienka is kept afloat by William, a boy she meets at the pool, who understands what it means to lose someone and who swims with Kasienka towards her new life.

Category: Ages 8 - 12

Miss Stunkel’s third-grade art class is Penelope Crumb’s All-Time Favorite subject. She loves drawing pictures, especially when they’re of her best friend, Patsy Cline Roberta Watson.  But Penelope gets a horrible shock when Patsy draws a picture of HER – with a great big nose.  Good gravy, that thing is enormous!

It wouldn’t be so bad if Penelope wasn’t the last person in the universe to notice the size of her nose. But an even greater shock is in store when her mom tells Penelope that she has the famous Crumb protuberance – not the nose of her father, who’s been Graveyard Dead since Penelope was a baby (leaving her with nothing except a red metal toolbox, a shoe horn and a few old photos), but the nose of Grandpa Felix – who Penelope had never even known was still alive.

With some help from Littie Maple across the way, and a lot of hindrance from her brother Terrible the Alien, Penelope resolves to sniff out the truth about that enormous thing in the middle of her face – and also the mystery surrounding her missing grandpa. Could it be that the Crumb nose has special powers – super powers? And is it possible that her nose is big enough to bring a family back together?

Category: Ages 8 - 12

2059.  The snow begins to fall. Only the few are prepared. A new ice-age has begun.

Born after the snows, fifteen-year-old straggler kid Willo Blake has never known a life outside hunting and trapping in the hills.  When his family mysteriously disappears, leaving him alone on a freezing mountain, Willo sets off into the unknown to find them.

Meanwhile, across Britain, outlawed followers of survivalist John Blovyn are planning an escape to the fabled Islands talked of in a revolutionary book.

When Willo meets an abandoned girl on his trek across the hills, his world collides with outlaws and halfmen on an epic journey that leads him to the new world of the city - a place where the dog spirit inside his head cannot help him.

It is a journey of betrayal and violence. A journey of awakening love and humanity. A journey that changes everything he ever thought he knew.

Category: Young Adult

4 SALE BY OWNER.  Mo knows how much it means to her father to sell their house, but deep inside she hopes they’ll stay on Fox Street 4 EVER. But that changes on New Year’s Day, when a young couple with a baby girl see the Wrens’ house and know it’s the perfect place to raise their family.

MO WREN LOST AND FOUND follows Mo, Dottie and their father across the river to a new neighborhood where the streets are crowded and confusing.  “Where Fox Street began and ended was perfectly clear.  Once upon a time and The End.  But East 213th was more like To be continued...with those three dots that meant anything might happen.” While Dottie immediately makes friends, and acquires a pet lizard named Handsome, things are much tougher for Mo.  The one friend she does make informs her that the place they’ve bought has a curse on it.  No business ever succeeds there.  No matter how hard Mr. Wren works, The Wren House refuses to shape up, and their money is running out at an alarming rate.

In WHAT HAPPENED ON FOX STREET, Mo was on the cusp of change; now she’s in the very middle of it. But the safety and security she longs for elude her again and again, until the night of a freak spring snowstorm, when Mo makes a decision that helps the Wrens to find a true nest at last.

Category: Ages 8 - 12

Sylvia Bell, better known as Vee, hates that she has narcolepsy, just like her mother did. But collapsing at school – however embarrassingly – is nowhere near as bad as the real truth. That when Vee passes out she actually slides randomly into other’s people’s heads and ends up seeing things she really doesn’t want to. That’s how she knew Ms Gomez, the Spanish teacher, came on to her Psych teacher Mr Goldsmith in the paper closet. And how Vee witnessed her younger sister, Mattie, plotting to torture her friend Sophie by text message. But when Vee finds herself in the head of a killer, standing over Sophie’s slashed and murdered body, she’s beyond freaked.

Only Vee knows that Sophie didn’t kill herself. And when another cheerleader turns up dead, Vee realizes that someone is picking off Mattie’s friends and making it look like suicide. Suddenly everyone is a suspect, and Sylvia is terrified that Mattie might be next. Struggling to understand and control her bizarre and lonely illness (or gift?), Vee finds herself enmeshed in a terrifying web of secrets, lies and danger. Now the past has come back to haunt the present, and as Vee deals once more with her mother’s death so many years before, and tries to work out the real meaning of love and courage, she must face up to the fact that she can trust no one – not even the family and friends she thought she knew.

Category: Young Adult

Being the youngest daughter of the Devil has never been easy. Daphne’s father has no time for her, her mother, no interest, and her status in the upper echelon separates her from the working-class demons that populate Lucifer’s metropolis.

When her brother and only confidante goes missing, life in the restrictive city of Pandemonium becomes intolerable. Now, in an attempt to find him, Daphne sets out for Earth—and finds it larger and more chaotic than she imagined, a dazzling expanse of noise, dirt, and random violence.  Despite her bewilderment, she navigates the mortal world with growing fascination, gaining an ally when she saves a dying boy from her father’s minions. 

For Truman Flynn, the last year has been one long downward spiral, but when Daphne arrives just in time to save his life, he finds himself unexpectedly glad to have another chance. Together, Daphne and Truman go in search of her brother, braving the hazards of Las Vegas and the perils of first love, even as it becomes increasingly clear that her brother might have had a secret and compelling reason for leaving.

Lucifer’s agents aren’t the only creatures on the prowl, and Daphne soon finds herself the target of a plan to rid the world of demons for good. Now she must evade a demon-eating monster, rescue her brother from an angelic zealot, and save the boy she loves from his greatest enemy—himself.

“It takes moxie to set the first act of your novel in Hell, but Yovanoff does just that, and with a confidence that suggests she might have taken a vacation there at some point . . . this is a breath of fresh (or fetid?) air for the genre.” --BOOKLIST review, October 2011

Category: Young Adult

When Brianna was in eighth grade she did something so dreadful she was suspended and home-schooled. No one could ever explain exactly what happened that night – or why it happened. Except Brie’s Irish grandmother, who afterwards gave her a silver charm bracelet, ancient and beautiful, telling her she must always wear it until she turns seventeen. Ever since then, it’s like Brie’s been invisible. Guys – and most girls too – stare right past her as if she hardly exists. And that includes Blake, the one boy she can’t take her eyes off despite the fifty-seven times he’s ignored her.

But then there’s a night that changes everything – the night when Blake suddenly notices Brianna and time stops in one frozen, silver moment. What is Brie’s connection to Blake and his dangerously hot family? As Brie discovers her wild Irish heritage, the invisibility she’s spent her life resenting becomes her one place of safety.  Because now she will learn the truth about the mysterious bracelet and the nickname her grandmother gave her so many years ago . . . . Bandia.

For Brianna, the Seventh Daughter, the Irish Bandia of myth, is about to turn seventeen . . . .

Category: Young Adult

At sixteen, Berry Fields knows everything she needs to know about love. It sucks. As an employee for her dad’s private investigation business, she’s seen it firsthand. Men lie, cheat, leave. Even Berry’s dad is love’s victim, having never fully recovered from the death of his wife ten years earlier.

When Xander Halston and his brother Christian transfer to McHenry High, Berry is not impressed. She knows the type - good looking and conceited. And it doesn’t help that Xander always seems to catch her at her worst moments. But when Berry’s best friend hits it off with Christian, it becomes impossible to avoid Xander. At the same time, Berry’s surveillance of a college professor takes an unexpected turn. Berry is not the only one watching him. That fact alone might be explained easily enough, since the guy is a major creep who probably has more than a few enemies, but there’s no explanation for the document in his briefcase written on her dead mother’s letterhead.

Berry embarks on her own investigation into her mother’s death, posing as an economics student to get closer to the professor. As she gets drawn deeper into a web of lies, she finds herself fighting against everything she thought she knew, about her mother, herself, and her growing attraction to Xander Halston.

Category: Young Adult

From flesh-eating faeries and demons in love to unearthly magicians and alternate histories, a collection of mesmerizing stories from three extraordinarily imaginative authors - Maggie Stiefvater, Brenna Yovanoff and Tessa Gratton.

Maggie Stiefvater is the New York Times best-selling author of SHIVER, Brenna Yovanoff’s THE REPLACEMENT published in Fall 2010 (Razorbill) and was one of Booklist’s Top 10 picks of ‘the best debut novels for youth published in the last year’ and picked up two starred reviews pre-publication. THE SPACE BETWEEN followed in Fall 2011 to rave reviews. Tessa Gratton’s BLOOD MAGIC published as a major lead title in Fall 2011 (Random House).

The stories are taken from the Sisters’ popular blog, The Merry Sisters of Fate (http://community.livejournal.com/merry_fates) but also includes one original story from each author as well as doodles and conversations (whether email, Twitter, or IM) about the process of writing and where the stories come from. 

Category: Young Adult

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: Ages 8 - 12

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?

“An enormously engaging, exquisitely written, laugh-out-loud funny, original story that transcends coming out to finding yourself and the true meaning of love. Read this novel, recommend it to your friends. . .”
-- Julie Ann Peters, author of LUNA

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 “Anonymous” 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’s job as a princess substitute has gotten a whole lot more glamorous now that she’s advanced to Level 2 within the Facade Agency. Magical make-up, roller-skating celebrities, and the chance to see Prince Karl again are just some of the major perks. Not to mention, she’s landed the role of Fairy Queen in her school’s production of Midsummer’s Night Dream (opposite her best friend’s crush. Which is a little weird, but at least he wears a donkey head during their kissing scene). Life should be perfect, but Desi can’t seem to shake the feeling that there is more going on with the agency’s magic than she’s told. Like why is this mind-bending power exclusive to royals? Is it possible that there could be a bigger way to make an impact in both parts of her life? 

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.

GRAVENHUNGER is an extraordinary novel. It has an unrelenting fast pace that is maintained throughout, yet skilfully balances that alongside real insight into loss, bereavement and repressed feelings and emotions.

A deliciously dark, yet thought-provoking read. - Jake Hope, Lancashire Libraries

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

Meet Sam. One big secret. One BIG drama!

Why has Sam’s sister fallen out with their mum? Will Dad ever reveal his secret from the past? How can Sam get her family back on track? And, most importantly, will she hold it all together on the night of Star Makers’ fab new musical?

A sun-shiny story about the thrills and spills at the Star Makers Drama Club - a special place where everyone has their moment to shine.

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 snarky 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

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