Joseph Delaney used to be an English teacher, before becoming the best-selling author of the Spook's series, which has been published in 30 countries and sold over 4.5 million copies worldwide. The first book, The Spook's Apprentice, was adapted into a major motion picture starring Jeff Bridges and Julianne Moore.

Joseph Delaney

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Paul Stewart

Joe and Kerry, sent to stay in the country with their great-aunt, find themselves whirled into the past when they investigate the mystery of an Elizabethan village that escaped destruction by simply vanishing overnight - more than four hundred years ago. But the spell that saved it then has now become a curse...

The Weather Witch

Ian Serraillier

A BBC radio full-cast dramatisation of Ian Serraillier’s classic wartime story. 
 
When the Germans march into Poland in 1941, the Balickis’ happy family life is shattered. With their parents taken away by Nazis, Ruth, Edek and Bronia are forced to fend for themselves in the dangerous, war-ravaged city of Warsaw. 
 
When Edek is captured too, the girls are desperate. Then they meet orphaned street urchin Jan, who carries with him a talisman of hope: a silver sword paperknife that they recognise as having belonged to their mother. 
 
Realising that their parents may still be alive, Ruth and Bronia set off on an epic journey to Switzerland to search for them. With Jan by their side, they are determined to reunite the family – and their first step is to find Edek. But the road ahead is full of danger and hardship, and they will facemany challenges along the way... 
 
This moving story of friendship, courage and solidarity brings to life the reality of a Europe laid waste by war. 
 
Cast: 
Ruth - Sarah McDonald Hughes 
Edek - Stephen Hoyle 
Bronia - Hester Cox 
Jan - Aqib Khan 
Margaret/Irka/Mrs Wolff - Maggie Fox 
Joseph/German 1/Mr Wolff - Malcolm Raeburn 
Ivan - David Fleeshman 
Soldier/American GI - Andrew Blake 
Doctor - Lloyd Peters 
Cook/Mrs Borowicz - Szilvi Naray Davey 
The Burgomaster/Captain Malinowski - Jonathan Keeble 
 
Adapted by Chris Wallis. 
Produced and directed by Charlotte Riches.

The Silver Sword

A BBC Radio full-cast dramatisation

James Patterson

Don’t miss this epic, hilarious story of time travel, trouble, and twins who never quit, from the world’s favourite storyteller, James Patterson. 
 
Twins Pew and Basket Church are this close to unravelling the final Church family mystery - if only the clues would stop slinging them through history like time-traveling yo-yos. 
 
Just like that, they’re in 16th-century London, where Shakespeare can’t write a single line, a potato-hoarding privateer needs help, two queens are on the brink of total royal chaos, and the evil Pirate Macaulay is back with his most unhinged, timeline-toppling plot yet.. Armed only with fast thinking, wild disguises, and heroic levels of questionable judgment, it’s up to Pew and Basket to crack the riddles, outmanoeuvre Macaulay, and finally find the answers they’ve chased across centuries. 
 
Explosive action, nonstop laughs, and big heart collide in the most outrageous, high-stakes time travel adventure of all time.

The Time Travel Twins: An Armada of Trouble

Mildred D Taylor

Paul-Edward is the son of a wealthy white plantation owner and a former slave mother. Though his heritage is not unusual, for it is the time of the American Civil War, his upbringing is quite different to other black children. His father makes sure that he and his sister enjoy many of the same privileges as their white half-brothers. Paul-Edward dreams of owning land every bit as good as his father's and, after a rash act of rebellion, leaves his family and vows to succeed on his own. Life is difficult for a young black person in 1880s Mississippi but Paul-Edward discovers his own strength, makes true friendships and even falls in love as he eventually fulfils his dream. Paul-Edward is the grandfather of Cassie Logan, the heroine of ROLL OF THUNDER, HEAR MY CRY and its sequels.

The Land

Dick King-Smith

When Mr and Mrs Bone go down with the Titanic, their six children are left on their own. Binnie, the eldest at 17, stands her ground against well-meaning relatives and says she will bring up the family. And for the next four years she runs the Edwardian household, looking after her brothers and sisters, and starting a gentle romance with the vicar. Then the First World War breaks out and Binnie's two elder brothers and her sweetheart all volunteer - but not all of them come home.

Just Binnie

Leon Garfield

In a cave on the wild side of St James's Park live two ragged children; young Nick and his nine-year-old sister Jubilee. Once they had a father, but now they are alone – and Nick knows it is his responsibility to find Jubilee a husband. But who would want to marry a girl who can neither cook nor sew, read nor write?

Blewcoat Boy

Rosemary Sutcliff

It had never seemed important during their boyhood that Simon Carey was for Parliament and his friend Amias Hannaford a royalist. But when Civil War breaks out, they find themselves fighting on different sides. 
 
Finally the day comes when the friends must put their friendship to the test.

Simon

Two boys, Lewis and Richard, travel to paris in 1789 for very different reasons, and find their ideals challenged in the events of the French Revolution and the September massacre.

The Prisoners of September

Mark Twain

Rediscover the Puffin Classics collection and bring the best-loved classics to a new generation - including this exciting, abridged edition of The Prince and the Pauper, designed for readers aged 9-12 years. 
 
Tom Canty and Edward Tudor could have been identical twins. Their birthdays and their faces match, but there the likeness stops. For Edward is prince, heir to King Henry VIII of England, whilst Tom is a miserable pauper. But fate intervenes, and their identities become confused. Soon the prince is thrown out of the palace in rags, leaving ignorant Tom to play the part of a royal prince. 
 
This is an abridged edition of the classic novel, designed for younger readers.

The Prince and the Pauper

Sandi Toksvig

Because of the potato me and my family left our home and travelled 6,000 miles to find a new life . . . 
 
Slim Hannigan and her family are poor but happy. Theirs is a life filled with love and laughter - and a pet pig called Hamlet. 
 
But things change overnight, and suddenly they find themselves facing hunger and danger like they have never known . . . So they leave their village in Ireland to journey to America where, they hope, family and fortune await them. 
 
Slim soon finds herself living a life that feels just like one of those far-fetched stories her Da has always told. Can one brave girl keep her family together no matter what is thrown at them . . . ?

A Slice of the Moon

Philip Pullman

Rose and Lily and their little brother Ned live in an orphanage - a terrible place, where the porridge is thin and cold, and nobody smiles. One dark and stormy night, they decide enough is enough, and they run away. But hiding in the shadows, as they make their way through the dangerous back streets of London, is Mack the Knife: the most villainous of villains . . . 
 
Hiding above the streets, leaping through the air, is Spring-Heeled Jack. He dresses like the devil and his name creates shivers in people, but he is ready for action against the evil-doers and scallywags of the city's dark streets - Mack the Knife included - and he might just be able to save the orphans.

Spring-Heeled Jack

Damian Dibben

When shocking news reaches the History Keepers’ headquarters, Jake Djones is sent head-first into a new adventure. The time-travelling agents voyage from Shakespeare’s England to Imperial China in pursuit of their most villainous foe yet, Xi Xiang, whose aim is to destroy trade links between east and west and throw the world into war. 
 
Jake, Nathan and Topaz must join forces with international agents in a race against the clock to stop him. And at the heart of the battle lies the key to a long-lost family member – will Jake find his brother after all this time? 
 
The past is in danger – only Jake Djones can save it!

The History Keepers: Nightship to China

Catherine Johnson

A series of children's modern classic novels by renowned 20th century children's writers. All the titles in this series have the A Puffin Book logo, contemporary-style covers, and child-friendly endnotes.

Cato Hopkins is the youngest member of Mother Hopkins's 'family' - a group of skilled fraudsters and pickpockets. There's Addy, who can become a very convincing boy when she needs to; the beautiful Bella, who can charm any rich young man out of his fortune; Sam, an escaped slave and Cato himself, a young boy, who Mother Hopkins has taught everything she knows. 
 
 But old age is slowing Mother Hopkins down, and she wants to carry out one last con, a con to outdo all the cons that have gone before. And so the gang set about bringing ruin upon Captain Walker, a proud and cruel slave captain, who deserves to be taught a lesson or two .

A Nest of Vipers

If only she'd been born a boy, Tamsyn would never have been sent away to Uncle Gideon's - the armourer's - house when her grandmother died. She could have stayed by the wild sea that she loved with her Uncle Martin, the ship merchant. 
 
But instead, she is bound for busy, bustling Tudor London, and the armourer's house, far from the coast and far from her beloved ships. Homesick and lonely in the loud family of cousins, it isn't until she meets the strange old Wise Woman that Tamsyn is finally promised her "heart's desire"...

The Armourer's House

Harris and Bostock are best friends, but they are as different from one another as night and day. Harris thinks up harebrained schemes and Bostock gets in trouble for them. 
 
When Harris puts his baby sister Adelaide in the words to see if she will be adopted by a fox, little do they realize that they are starting a chain of events that will be remembered in their little seaside town as the Strange Affair of Adelaide Harris.

The Strange Affair of Adelaide Harris

The boy who takes up the spear and shield of Manhood on this day will become the most renowned of all the warriors of Ireland, men will follow at his call to the world's end, and his enemies will shudder at the thunder of his chariot wheels. 
 
So the ancient prophecy went, and as the boy Cuchulain heard it, he went forward to claim the weapons of his manhood. This is the story of how he became the greatest of heroes - the Hound of Ulster.

The Hound Of Ulster

James Heneghan

SOMETHING IN THE BLACK PIT WAS CALLING AND REACHING OUT TO ME, PULLING ME... 
 
Tom stumbles into a pit in an excavated schoolyard and finds himself mysteriously transported back to rural Ireland in the grip of the potato famine of the 1840s. A foster child with no family in his 'real' life in 1970s Liverpool, in Ireland he finds himself taken in by a generous, though desperately poor, family whose eldest son is Tom's spitting image. 
 
Tom's intriguing life develops in parallel in both settings, creating an engrossing and affecting story for readers of 11+.

The Grave

Robert Swindells

It's the height of World War Two. Britain is being ravaged by bombs and most young men are off fighting. Gordon wishes he was too. Maybe then he wouldn't get bullied for having a cowardly family . . . Gordon's dad didn't serve in World War One, and now his older brother Raymond isn't serving in World War Two - he's gone missing. When Gordon finds a revolver hidden in his house, he tracks Raymond down, but ends up involved in more than he'd bargined for. Raymond enlists Gordon's help to deliver and collect some 'packages'. But is the work actually for the government? And will it have terrible consequences?

Shrapnel

Louisa May Alcott

Everyman's Children's Classics has more than 50 titles in print. It offers the finest editions currently available of the world's greatest children's books in handsome, full cloth hardcover bindings. 
 
The library brings back into print major illustrators such as Ivan Bilibin, Kate Greenaway, Arthur Rackham, Nicolas Bentley, Walter Crane, Aubrey Beardsley, Edward Ardizzone, W.Heath Robinson and Mervyn Peake.

Written in six weeks, and at first thought by its editor to be 'dull', this story of an American family - four sisters and their mother living through the months while father is away in the Civil War - has a universal and enduring appeal. The reason is clear. Louisa Alcott based her story on her own experience of family life. 'Not a bit sensational', she wrote, 'but simple and true, for we really lived most of it. ' When published in 1868, the book was illustrated by May Alcott, Louisa's mother. GOOD WIVES, a sequel to LITTLE WOMEN, was published in 1869, taking up the story of Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy three years on. In 1912 an English artist, Millicent Etheldreda Gray, with a reputation for closely-worked studies of domestic settings, was commissioned by Hodder and Stoughton to paint twelve watercolours for this most long-lasting of all family stories. A new feature film of LITTLE WOMEN written and directed by Greta Gerwig was released in December 2019, starring Saoirse Ronan as Jo, Florence Pugh as Amy, Emma Watson as Meg and Eliza Scanlen as Beth.

Little Women And Good Wives

Benny, Thunderbolt, Bridie, Sharky and the Peretti twins are a mixed bunch of vagabonds and urchins who come together to form the New Cut Gang in two comic tales of stolen silver and skulduggery. 
 
Fake coins are turning up all over Lambeth and the finger of suspicion is pointing at Thunderbolt's dad - could he really be the forger? The crime-busting New Cut Gang come to the rescue! 
 
And when just two clues - a blob of wax and a Swedish match - are discovered at the scene of a break-in, the children find themselves on the trail of an extremely cunning criminal. 
 
Set in late Victorian London, these gripping thrillers have now been put together in a single volume - with new illustrations throughout from Horrible Histories illustrator, Martin Brown.

The Adventures of the New Cut Gang

Rosemary's Sutcliff's absorbing collection of stories cover the fall of Londinium to the building of Hadrian's Wall, and the final departure of the Romans from Britain. Set at the time of the Roman occupation of Britain, they follow the fortunes of one family over three hundred years. All soldiers, they are linked by the Capricorn bracelet, first worn by the centurion Lucius for distinguished conduct, then handed down through the generations.

The Capricorn Bracelet

Jacqueline Wilson

Hetty Feather was left at a foundling hospital when she was a tiny baby. Having grown up in a loving foster family until she was five, and then finding herself returned to the hospital, she begins to question who her actual family are, and is determined to stop at nothing to find out where she came from. Jacqueline Wilson’s acclaimed series follows Hetty and her friend Diamond as they work their way up from their lowly backgrounds to become stars, overcoming loss, unkind bosses and flirtatious boys.

The mega-bestselling tale of fiery, spirited Victorian foundling, Hetty Feather. 
 
London, 1876. Hetty Feather is just a tiny baby when her mother leaves her at the Foundling Hospital. The Hospital cares for abandoned children - but Hetty must first live with a foster family until she is big enough to go to school. 
 
Life in the countryside is sometimes hard, but with her foster brothers, Jem and Gideon, Hetty helps in the fields and plays vivid imaginary games. Together they sneak off to visit the travelling circus, and Hetty is mesmerised by the show - especially the stunning Madame Adeline and her performing horses. 
 
But Hetty's happiness is threatened once more when she must return to the Foundling Hospital to begin her education. The new life of awful uniforms and terrible food is a struggle for her, and she desperately misses her beloved Jem. But now she has the chance to find her real mother. Could she really be the wonderful Madame Adeline? Or will Hetty find the truth is even more surprising? 
 
Jacqueline Wilson will surprise and delight old fans and new with this utterly original historical novel. 
 
The first book featuring feisty Victorian heroine, Hetty Feather, this is a compelling, moving, funny and totally fascinating tale that will thrill and captivate readers.

Hetty Feather

Nick Sharratt

A wonderful story starring old friends and new from the much-beloved Victorian world of Hetty Feather. 
 
 Rose Rivers lives in a beautiful house with her artist father, her difficult, fragile mother and her many siblings. 
 
 She has everything money can buy - but she feels as though life isn’t fair for girls and poor people. 
 
 Why can’t she be educated at school like her brother? 
 
 Why can’t she learn to become a famous artist like her father? 
 
 Why is life so unfair for people who were not born rich? 
 
 When a young girl, Clover Moon, joins the household as a nursemaid to Rose’s troubled sister Beth, and she meets her father’s bohemian protégé Paris Walker, she starts to learn more about the wider world. 
 
Will Paris help Rose finally achieve her dreams? And will she be able to help Clover find her own dream? 
 
 ---------------- 
 
 Beautifully illustrated by Nick Sharratt, Rose Rivers is a brilliant addition to Hetty Feather's world, by the beloved award-winning and bestselling Jacqueline Wilson.

Rose Rivers

Theresa Tomlinson

‘This little lass is strong. She will carry the ropes and walk forever.’ 
 
It is as well that these words, spoken by Minnie’s great grandmother at her birth, prove to be prophetic, for the ropemaker’s youngest daughter needs all the strength and courage she can muster in the subterranean cavern which is the family home. And not only there but even more so in Sheffield where she goes to support her ailing sister and finds an even harsher existence where squalor and injustice are rife.

The Rope Carrier

Morris Gleitzman

The much-anticipated final journey in the story of Felix, hero of Morris Gleitzman's multi-award-winning Once, Then, After, Soon, Maybe and Now. 
 It's fifteen years since readers were first introduced to Felix in Once and across six celebrated books, our brave young hero has survived many unforgettable and emotional journeys. Now comes the seventh and final part of Felix's story, bringing to a powerful climax a series that countless young readers around the world will remember - Always.

Always

R J Palacio

When Silas Bird wakes in the dead of night, he watches powerlessly as three strangers take his father away. Silas is left shaken, scared and alone, except for the presence of his companion, Mittenwool . . . who happens to be a ghost. But then a mysterious pony shows up at his door, and Silas knows what he has to do. So begins a perilous journey to find his father - a journey that will connect him with his past, his future, and the unknowable world around him. 
 
PONY is destined to become a future classic.

Pony

'As far as the eye can see, scarlet men are marching . . . A rich and splendid company, but none more so than the drummer boy.' 
 
But a moment later, the sound of Charlie Samson's drum was swallowed in a wild thunder. The glorious scarlet troops had been ambushed. Men were dead and dying all around, and all the beauty was gone. All that was left was himself and his drum, and a few shady nightwalkers - cowards who came crawling from the ditches and knaves who scoured the dead for wealth . . .

The Drummer Boy

Life in eighteenth-century London was hard and especially so for the city's apprentices. For seven long years they struggled for their livelihoods among the fetid houses and sinister quays of old London. But despite their hardships there was hope and even fun. 
 
This compelling story-cycle follows them round the year, through the dark, cold winter nights to midsummer in the city, The lamplighter, the pawnbroker, the midwife or the clockmaker, their stories interweave delightfully to paint a colourful picture of life in London 200 years ago.

The Apprentices

Sword Song is the swashbuckling story of Bjarni, a Viking swordsman. Banished from his home, as a boy, for a murder he didn't intend to commit, Bjarni takes up a new life as a mercenary. He journeys to the islands off the west coast of Scotland and there his life is shaped for years to come. A life that will see him fighting among the clan chiefs in feuds as bitter and bloody as can be imagined.This enthralling novel was the last thing Rosemary Sutcliff wrote and was discovered in a drawer after her death. It is published here in paperback for the first time.

The Sword Song Of Bjarni Sigurdson

Theresa Tomlinson has established herself as a talented writer of historical fiction, particularly when pinpointing her home territory on the NE coast of England. Here in one volume are three of her most gripping novels in which she describes the courage and humour with which the fishing families face up to the hard conditions of their lives. 
 
THE FLITHER PICKERS of Sandwick Bay spend their days gathering shellfish on the shore - limpets and mussels - and baiting the lines for the fishermen . The story centres on young Liza Welford whose mother is haunted by an accident in the past. 
 
In THE HERRING GIRLS, when tragedy strikes the Lythe family, 13-year-old Dory joins the tough world of the Scotch herring girls in Whitby in order to earn money and save her brothers and sisters from the workhouse. 
 
Family life is destroyed for Ann and Polly Lancroft in BENEATH BURNING MOUNTAIN when the violent and merciless press-gangs invade the cliffs where men and women create alum crystals for a livelihood - and their home is wiped out by a sudden landslide. 
 
Skilfully blending fiction with reality, Theresa Tomlinson has written three moving and absorbing stories of close-knit communities of fisher-folk a hundred years ago whose whole existence is governed by the sea.

Against The Tide

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