John and Gerry have always been friends, brought together by their passion for football. Then Gerry's dad loses his job and everything turns sour. The boys had always steered clear of the gangs at school, but Gerry gets drawn in and now he and John find themselves standing on opposite sides. Set in a tough inner city Liverpool estate, this story is...

This is the story of Aman, a boy from Afghanistan fleeing the horror of the Afghan war. When a western dog shows up outside the caves where Aman lives with his mother, Aman is initially repulsed - people don't keep dogs as pets in his part of the world. But when Aman and his mother decide to make a bid for freedom, the dog Aman has called Shadow wi...

Yaroooo! Tallulah's triumphant Heathcliff in `Wuthering Heights' the comedy musical was enough to secure her place at Dother Hall performing arts college for another term. She can't wait to see her pals again, Charlie and the boys from Woolfe Academy and maybe even bad boy Cain. Could the bright lights of Broadway be calling? And for who? Find out...

Jim and his best friend Charlie weren't looking for adventure, when they decided to bug the staffroom . . . But then they overhear their teachers speaking in a secret language and it's too late to turn back. And now they have to explain to the police, the headmistress and their parents where they've been for a whole week - without mentioning the al...

Tom is finding it hard to come to terms with the death of his father and life just gets worse as Mum meets a new man and a bully joins his class at school. Unkind people say that his firefighter father ought not to have risked his life in a blaze when he had a family to support, but Tom knows that his father was a true hero. Will he find the same c...

When his guardian dies in suspicious circumstances, fourteen-year-old Alex Rider finds his world turned upside down. Within days he's gone from schoolboy to superspy. Forcibly recruited into MI6, Alex has to take part in gruelling SAS training exercises. Then, armed with his own special set of secret gadgets, he's off on his first mission. His dest...

Raphael is a dumpsite boy. He spends his days wading through mountains of steaming trash, sifting it, sorting it, breathing it, sleeping next to it. Then one unlucky-lucky day, Raphael's world turns upside down. A small leather bag falls into his hands. It's a bag of clues. It's a bag of hope. It's a bag that will change everything. Soon Raphael an...

Things are not looking good for Zoe. Her stepmother Sheila is so lazy she gets Zoe to pick her nose for her. The school bully Tina Trotts makes her life a misery - mainly by flobbing on her head. And now the evil Burt from Burt's Burgers is after her pet rat! And guess what he wants to do with it? The clue is in the title.

Michael Rosen keeps bumping into a chatty old lady who tells him wildly unlikely stories - like there being man eating fleas on the London tube. In addition there are grizzly bears roaming the streets of London, killer wasps and all sorts of tall tales.

A hilarious, touching and extraordinary new fable from David Walliams, number one bestseller and fastest growing children's author in the country. Joe has a lot of reasons to be happy. About a billion of them, in fact. You see, Joe's rich. Really, really rich. Joe's got his own bowling alley, his own cinema, even his own butler who is also an orang...

Delilah Darling - Queen Delilah from the Land of Far, Far Away to you - is desperate to play the part of the gingerbread man in the school play. So when Horrible Charlotte Griggs gets the part instead, Delilah is cross. But she soon discovers that there's lots of fun to be had playing the big, bad fox. And besides, in the Land of Far, Far Away, thi...

Young Lucius's life is suddenly turned upside down, leading him to seek answers amongst the slaves and warriors who work and train at Rome's gladiator school. When his father is accused of being a ruthless government informer, the `Spectre', and disappears, Quintus takes the dreaded Blood Oath and vows to become a gladiator. But while Quintus risks...

When her mother dies from a snakebite, Comity's life in the Australian outback changes forever. As her father retreats into his work, Comity turns to Fred, the Aboriginal yard boy, who becomes her only friend. But then a new assistant arrives who delights in playing cruel games. As Fred becomes his target, events spiral dangerously out of control.

A riotous journey through the dangerous and dastardly antics of the adventurers who discovered chocolate, tobacco and other useful plant products!

George's grandma is ill, so he and his mum and dad have moved into her house to look after her. George is bored, lonely and resentful towards his family. But then he discovers the Goffins - Lofty and Eave - two most unusual people who live secretly in grandma's attic. They have used all the family's old junk to create a home for themselves, but Geo...

Rowan knows he is strange. But dangerous? He didn't mean to scare his sister. In his right mind, he wouldn't hurt a fly. But there's a place he can go where they say they can fix his mind... As the second World War begins, Rowan is diagnosed as schizophrenic and sent away to a hospital where the latest treatments are available. But the treatments a...

Jack, standing among the war graves, sees a face he recognizes. Suddenly, it's 1914 again and he's a young lad back in the trenches. Visions of killing and misery come to him with horrible clarity. But then Jack remembers too the incredible moment when the guns fell silent for a short time, and fighting gave way to football on the frozen ground of...

How do you begin to tell your story when you can't speak? Ethan lives on the canal. He likes it there. He can go to the pond and catch newts and minnows. He can learn everything he needs to know from books and from his mum. No one there laughs at him because he doesn't talk. Ethan can't remember exactly when he stopped talking or why. It is only wh...

Dragons have invaded Crumbling Castle, and all of King Arthur's knights are either on holiday or visiting their grannies. It's a disaster! Luckily, there's a spare suit of armour and a very small boy called Ralph who's willing to fill it. Together with Fortnight the Friday knight and Fossfiddle the wizard, Ralph sets out to defeat the fearsome fire...

"A bear on Paddington Station?" said Mrs Brown in amazement. "Don't be silly - there can't be." The original story of Paddington, the classic bear from Darkest Peru, read by Stephen Fry. The Browns first meet Paddington on a railway station - Paddington station, in fact. He has travelled all the way from Darkest Peru with only a jar of marmalade, a...

Dirty Bertie - the boy with nose-pickingly disgusting habits - is back for another helping of comic chaos! Join Bertie as he takes Angela Nicely on a dinosaur hunt, bites off more than he can chew at a chocolate factory, and gets into an alarming situation pet-sitting next door's cat! Then he finds himself on the run from a zombified Eugene, discov...