Ajay Chowdhury, the inaugural winner of the Harvill Secker-Bloody Scotland prize, is a tech entrepreneur and theatre director. His children’s book – Ayesha and the Firefish, was published in 2016 and adapted into a musical which premiered in San Francisco. 
 
 
The Waiter (Sunday Times Crime Book of the Month), was published in 2021, and is the first in his critically-acclaimed crime series about Detective Kamil Rahman, an ex-policeman from Kolkata who has moved to Brick Lane in London. It is being adapted for television by Moonage Pictures.The Cook (Guardian Top Crime Books of the Year) was published in May 2022 to excellent reviews and deals with the issue of homelessness. The third book in the series – The Detective (Sunday Times Top Crime Books of the Year) – is about government surveillance and AI. The Spy (Longlisted Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing), the fourth book, sees Kamil infiltrate a terrorist cell. The Shadow (A Sunday Times Crime Book of the Month) is the latest book in the series.

Ajay Chowdhury

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Bali Rai

JIT can’t be bothered with school. His mum’s new boyfriend is doing his head in, and the last thing on his mind is dealing with lessons and homework. He needs the gang’s help, and fast . . . 
 
SUKY and Imi have been going out for ages. But there’s trouble in paradise – namely, Suky’s strict parents. A whole load of drama is about to kick off . . . 
 
Two great stories from the Devana High gang.

Secrets

Candy Gourlay

Be careful what you wish for . . . 
Andi is short. And she has lots of wishes. She wishes she could play on the school basketball team, she wishes for her own bedroom, but most of all she wishes that her long lost half brother, Bernardo, could come and live in London, where he belongs. 
Then Andi's biggest wish comes true and she's minutes away from becoming someone's little sister. As she waits anxiously for Bernardo to arrive from the Philippines, she hopes he'll turn out to be tall and just as mad as she is about basketball. When he finally arrives, he's tall all right. But he's not just tall ... he's a GIANT. 
In a novel packed with humour and quirkiness, Gourlay explores a touching sibling relationship and the clash of two very different cultures.

Tall Story

GRACE and her mates hate late lunches and being last in the canteen queue. They always get stuck with the rank leftovers. But then they think of a wicked plan . . . 
 
DEAN is always up for making some extra cash. When he gets his hands on a sweet stash of mobile phones and games, he knows he’s going to make millions. Unless school bully Jason makes trouble instead . . . 
 
Two hilarious stories from the Devana High gang.

Trouble

Monsters are in the eye of the beholder. 
 
Rosa suffers from a rare condition that renders her mute. She lives on the strange island of Mirasol where the rain never seems to stop. 
 
In the gloom of the island, its superstitious population are haunted by all sorts of fears . . . they shun people who suffer from Rosa's condition, believing them to be monsters. So Rosa must live hidden away in an isolated house with its back to the rest of the world, with only the internet for a social life. 
 
But Rosa has no desire to leave Mirasol. This is where her mother died and every night she lights a candle on the windowsill. The islanders believe this is the way to summon ghosts, and Rosa wants her mother back. 
 
One day she is befriended by a boy online who calls himself Ansel95 – and she quickly realizes that this is one friendship that can take place in the real world. Can she really trust him? What does he want from her? 
 
And then Mother turns up at the front door. 
 
From the author of the critically-acclaimed Tall Story comes a haunting, intense and moving novel which weaves myths and ghosts into a modern setting. As Rosa's social life blossoms, how will she seize the freedom to be who she really is?

Shine

Malaika Rose Stanley

Big ambitions, big bullies and big problems 
 
When 13-year-old Brummie babe, Destiny enters the Bright Sparks beauty contest behind her (ex-model) mum's back, she is determined to prove she has talent and brains - and that she is not just a pretty face. 
 
Together with her cousin, Keisha and best friends, Ebyan and Bee, Destiny deals with every challenge life throws at her - including scary eyeball-to-eyeball confrontations with bully-girl Bella and secret winks from heart-throb, Joel. 
 
And then real disaster strikes...

Skin Deep

When she receives a call-back from the amazing Birchwood School for Dance, thirteen-year-old Keisha is over the moon. She’s one pirouette closer to becoming a superstar ballerina! 
 
But getting a place at Birchwood would mean moving schools and leaving behind her BFFs – and the swoon-worthy Joel Daley-Clarke. Until she knows the outcome, Keisha must keep the biggest news of her life a secret from her best friends. 
 
Can she hold it together, or will her dance dreams turn into a nightmare?

Dance Dreams

Ruth Redford

What does an Olympic champion eat for breakfast? How can you become the fastest runner in the world? At what age can you start training to be a boxer? 
 
Interesting facts, super secrets and never before seen photos of some of the best-known sporting heroes including boxer Amir Khan, runners Mo Farah and Christine Ohuruogu, basketball sensation Luol Deng and the gymnast Louis Smith. 
 
Look inside for tips on how to get into sports, where you can train, and how you too can become a sporting hero.

Tamarind Stars: Sporting Heroes

Christine Ohuruogu

Maxine is crazy about sports! She's thrilled to be going to Camp Gold, an elite sports summer camp. She's nervous too - will she be good enough? 
 
At the camp she meets good friends, cute boys and, best of all, she discovers her hidden talent - running. 
 
Soon she's training for the Nationals, which will be watched by Olympic champions. It's tough but it'll be worth it if she wins. Then the pranks start and her things go missing. . . Someone is out to sabotage her chance of winning. Can she stop them before it's too late?

Camp Gold: Running Stars

Verna Allette Wilkins

Stephen Lawrence was a bright, athletic, young man with high hopes for the future. He lived in south-east London with his parents, younger brother and younger sister. On 22 April 1993, he was brutally murdered while he was waiting for the bus. He was eighteen years old. 
 
He didn't know his killers; his killers didn't know him. 
 
This is his story. He will be remembered. 
 
This paperback edition revised with added material about the trial, the legacy of Stephen Lawrence and a final note from Doreen Lawrence.

The Life of Stephen Lawrence

Maxine can't wait to start at Camp Gold International! 
 
But the minute she arrives, things start going wrong - her training isn't going well and, worse, someone has been vandalising the plush building. Now fingers are pointing at Maxine and her friends. 
 
When it happens a second time, the principal makes it clear that if the vandals don't stop, the camp may have to be closed. 
 
For Maxine, Camp Gold means everything. Can she solve the mystery and focus on training . . . and win?

Camp Gold: Going for Gold

Jamila Gavin

Richard Collingridge

Prepare to enter a world of magicians, enchanted forests, talking animals and wicked witches . . . 
 
Here are six magical stories to thrill and enchant you. Watch Blackberry Blue rise from the bramble patch; follow Emeka the pathfinder on his mission to save a lost king; join Princess Desire as she gallops across the Milky Way on her jet-black horse. 
 
These beautifully written and original stories will delight readers of all ages, and the stunning illustrations by Richard Collingridge will take your breath away.

Blackberry Blue

And Other Fairy Tales

David Grant and his wife Carrie are the best known pop vocal coaches in the UK. Their client list includes Take That, Spice Girl Melanie C., Lemar, Will Young and numerous others. David also had a music career of his own, and has won a MOBO Award and been nominated for a Brit Award. This book follows the life of the young David, a boy who loves music and reading. He overcomes a daunting move from Jamaica to post-war Britain, a near-fatal car crash, dull jobs and unsuccessful auditions with hard work and determination.

David Grant

Susan Gates

Something strange is going on by the slimy river Oozeburn. But Jin is the only one who knows. The ancient predator Zilombo is loose and has snatched Jin's baby brother. When Mizz Z, a secret agent, arrives to investigate, the race is on to save him. But the beast's mysterious powers are evolving. She's getting stronger. As Jin, his sister Frankie and Mizz Z make their plans, Zilombo grows hungrier...

Zilombo

No-one the Croc King curses ever escapes Avenger . . . Avenger never gives up. It always tracks you down. 
 
Frankie Sparks and her brother Jin are going about their lives as normal, when Mizz Z, the formidable secret agent, arrives in town on a mission. She's on the hunt for some ancient relics, relics that everybody thinks have lost their powers completely. Everybody is wrong . . . 
 
The spirit of the tyrant Crocodile King has been lurking for years, waiting for his chance to return and release Avenger, his killing-machine tracker, once more . . . 
 
Frankie and Jin find themselves caught up in a centuries-old curse. Can they help Mizz Z to break it, or will the evil Avenger claim another victim . . . ?

The Curse of the Crocodile King

Dawne Allette

"I was not born into money or status. I was born to a teenage mom in Hawaii, and my dad left us when I was two. But my family gave me love, they gave me education, and most of all they gave me hope..." 
 
Punctuated with his own words, this biography traces the people, places and experiences that made Barack Obama the powerful man he is today. His story takes us from Kenya to Hawaii and Indonesia to Chicago, embracing many cultures. It also reaches from the past to the present, with photographs of Obama growing up and a timeline of significant events in black history. 
 
Barack Obama's story of hope and determination culminates with an account of his historic Inauguration Day and his first 100 days in office.

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