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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Jan Mark

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.

When Andrew's family moves house, he strikes up an unexpected friendship with his neighbour Victor. There isn't a thing Victor doesn't know about the RAF planes flying overhead and the two boys are soon busy tracking their movements. 
Then Andrew discovers that Victor's beloved Lightnings are due to be scrapped... 
 
Thunder and Lightnings won the Carnegie Medal in 1976.

Thunder And Lightnings

Accidentally transported from his remote Scottish castle to the bright, fast-moving, hi-tech city of Toronto, the highly mischievous Boggart simply can't resist the opportunity for pranks, and wreaks havoc for the Volnik family, inheritors of his distant castle home. But the Boggart doesn't mean any real harm, and when he begins to pine for the rolling Scottish mists and the sound of bagpipes, he turns to his two young friends, Emily and Jessup Volnik, for help. 
 
A delightfully funny and moving story for children.

The Boggart

James Vance Marshall

Mary and her young brother Peter are the only survivors of an aircrash in the middle of the Australian outback. Facing death from exhaustion and starvation, they meet an aboriginal boy who helps them to survive, and guides them along their long journey. But a terrible misunderstanding results in a tragedy that neither Mary nor Peter will ever forget . . .

Walkabout

Catherine Johnson

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

Anita Desai

A story of survival set in a small fishing villlage near Bombay. Lila and Hari, aged 13 and 12, struggle to keep the family, including two young sisters, going when their mother is ill and their father usually the worse for drink. When Hari goes to Bombay to find work, Lila seems to be responsible for everything. Although the book paints a picture of extreme poverty, it demonstrates the strength of the family even in the most extreme circumstances and offers a powerful picture of another culture.

The Village by the Sea

Geoffrey Trease

Fleeing from the evil Sir Philip Morton, Peter Brownrigg finds himself on the wrong side of the law. On the run to London he meets Kit and the two decide to stick together. But a chance discovery endangers their lives and soon Peter is deep in murderous plots, secrets and even treason. 
 
Set in the turbulent days of Elizabeth I, this classic story of danger and intrigue conjures up a world of mystery, twists and turns and thrilling action.

Cue for Treason

Mary Norton

The Borrowers live in the secret places of quiet old houses; behind the mantelpiece, inside the harpsichord, under the kitchen clock. They own nothing, borrow everything, and think that human beings were invented just to do the dirty work. Arrietty's father, Pod, was an expert Borrower. He could scale curtains using a hatpin, and bring back a doll's teacup without breaking it. Girls weren't supposed to go borrowing but as Arrietty was an only child her father broke the rule, and then something happened which changed their lives. She made friends with the human boy living in the house...

The Borrowers

Penelope Lively

No.40 Norham Gardens, Oxford, is the home of Clare Mayfield, her two aged aunts and two lodgers. The house is a huge Victorian monstrosity, with rooms all full of old furniture, old papers, old clothes, memorabilia - it is like a living museum. 
Clare discovers in a junk room the vividly painted shield which her great-grandfather, an eminent anthropologist, had brought back from New Guinea. She becomes obsessed with its past and determined to find out more about its strange tribal origins. 
Dreams begin to haunt her - dreams of another country, another clture, another time, and of shadowy people whom she feels are watching her. Who are they, and what do they want?

The House in Norham Gardens

Anne Fine

Kitty Killin is not just a brilliant story-teller, but also the World's Great Expert when it comes to mothers having new and unwelcome boyfriends. So it's no surprise that she's the one chosen to sort out classmate Helly, who's gone into meltdown. Kitty decides to share her story about old Goggle-eyes - possibly one of the worst episodes in her life...

Goggle-Eyes

Henry Williamson

Annabel Large

The classic story of an otter living in the Devonshire countryside which captures the feel of life in the wild as seen through the otter's own eyes.

Tarka the Otter

Dick King-Smith

Discovered as a foundling in a lambing pen, Spider Sparrow grows up surrounded by animals. From sheep and horses to wild otters and foxes, Spider loves them all, even the crows he must scare away from the newly sown wheat. Crowstarving is the ideal job for Spider - he is on his own, yet never alone for all around him are animals of one sort or another. Amazingly, every animal who meets Spider implicitly trusts the young boy. This magical rapport is Spider's unique gift, but nothing else in his tough life is so easy.

The Crowstarver

Leon Garfield

Kenny McKendry

London street urchin Smith is 12 years old, and an experienced pick-pocket. One day on Ludgate Hill, he robbed an old gentleman, and one minute later watched him silently murdered by two men, who chased him for the document he had stolen but could not understand. 
Smith artfully dodges the two men and winds up in the odd company of a wealthy blind man, who takes Smith into his home and provides him with an education. But this new comfort is lost when Smith himself is suspected of the very murder he witnessed.

Smith

Michelle Magorian

Penguin presents, the downloadable audiobook edition of Goodnight Mr Tom, read by Patrick Malahide. 
 
Young Willie Beech is evacuated to the country as Britain stands on the brink of WW2. A sad, deprived child, he slowly begins to flourish under the care of old Tom Oakley - but his new-found happiness is shattered by a summons from his mother back in London... 
 
Winner of the Guardian Children's Fiction Award.

Goodnight Mister Tom

Philippa Pearce

Ben Blewitt is desperate for a dog. He's picked out the biggest and best dogs from the books in the library - and he just knows he's going to get one for his birthday. Ben is excited when the big day arrives, but he receives a picture of a dog instead of a real one! But the imagination can be a powerful thing, and when Ben puts his to work, his adventures really begin!

A Dog So Small

Berna Paul

A bunch of scruffy urchin kids in the backstreets of Paris outwit thieves to uncover the whereabouts of millions of francs stolen from the Paris-Ventimiglia express. Gaby is the leader, but it is super-cool Marion with her collection of stray dogs who is the heart of the gang. 
It all begins when a local villain offers the children a fortune for their 'horse' - a headless rocking horse, given old tricycle wheels that they 'ride' down the steep cobbled street, but they don't want to part with it. Then, a few days later, the horse is stolen, and so begins an adventure that is full of twists and turns, leading to a satisfying conclusion when the villains receive their comeuppance.

A Hundred Million Francs

Ursula Le Guin

The first book of Earthsea is a tale of wizards, dragons and terrifying shadows. 
 
The island of Gont is a land famous for wizards. Of these, some say the greatest - and surely the greatest voyager - is the man called Sparrowhawk. As a reckless, awkward boy, he discovered the great power that was in him - with terrifying consequences. Tempted by pride to try spells beyond his means, Sparrowhawk lets loose an evil shadow-beast in his land. Only he can destroy it, and the quest leads him to the farthest corner of Earthsea. 
 
'One of the literary greats of the 20th century' Margaret Atwood

A Wizard of Earthsea

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