Holiday Reading 2005

Fiction for older readers

Clay: Davie and his best friend Geordie watch the arrival of a new boy, Stephen Ros, in their town. His history is a mystery, he seems to have come from nowhere, and when he arrives to live with his distant aunt, the local ‘loony’ ‘Crazy Mary’, no one envies him his new home.
Avi The book without words : a fable of medieval magic: In the ancient Northumbrian town of Fulwich, there is an old man whom nobody knows. This man, Thorston by name, has lived a secret life so that he may stay alive - forever.
Blacker, Terence Parentswap: Danny Bell is an ordinary twelve-year-old with an ordinarily messed-up life. His mum has left home and his has-been rock star dad sits in front of the TV all day. So when Danny hears of ParentSwap - an organization that helps kids with failing families to find new and better ones - he's willing to give it a go.
Bowler, Tim Apocalypse: Caught in a storm on their sailing boat, Kit and his parents are driven to the shores of a small island. Kit soon realises that he and his parents are in terrible danger.
Boyce, Frank Cottrell Framed: A story inspired by a press cutting describing how, during World War Two, the treasured contents of London's National Gallery were stored in Welsh slate mines.
Brugman, Alyssa For sale or swap: Shelby is convinced her reliable but ugly pony, Blue, is holding her back at Pony Club. If only she had a beautiful horse, everyone would see what a great rider she is.
Chandler, Pauline Warrior girl: a novel about Joan of Arc: France 1428. Mariane's parents have been murdered by the occupying English army. She has nothing left but the ring, insignia and gauntlet bequeathed to her by her father. Taken in by her aunt and uncle, Mariane is drawn to her strange and awkward cousin, Jehanne.
Colfer, Eoin Artemis Fowl: the opal deception: Opal Koboi, the most dangerous pixie who ever lived, has eluded capture and is out for revenge. She’s framed Holly and tried to kill Artemis and his trusty bodyguard Butler. Holly must try to bring Artemis up to speed quickly in order to foil Opal’s dastardly plan to expose the fairies down below to the humans on top
Conlon-Mckenna, Marita A girl called Blue: Larch Hill orphanage is the only home Blue knows. Placed in the strict care of nuns, she does have her friends. But that is not enough. Blue is desperate to find out who she really is. The closed file in stern Sister Regina's office holds the secret of her identity. And that is forbidden territory.
Cooper, Susan The magician's boy: A boy who works for a magician meets familiar fairy tale characters when he is transported to the Land of Story in search of a missing puppet.
Creech, Sharon Replay: When a young boy reluctantly becomes involved in his school play, he takes on not just the role of 'the old crone' but also a journey of discovery about his family.
Curry, Jane Louise The black canary: As the child of two musicians, twelve-year-old James has no interest in music until he discovers a portal to seventeenth-century London in his uncle's basement.
Ellis, Deborah The heaven shop: Binti was the child star of a popular radio program in Malawi. But now she is nothing special. Both parents dead, separated from her brother and sister, ostracised by the rest of the family and treated like a servant, Binti is just another AIDS orphan. Facing this challenge, Binti discovers she must look outside herself and find a new way to be special.
Fardell, John The 7 professors of the far north: Sam, Zara and Ben never expected their vacation to turn into a life-or-death rescue mission. But when Uncle Ampersand is kidnapped by the nefarious Professor Murdo, the three children must race to the Arctic to save him.
Fisher, Catherine The sphere of secrets: Book two of The Oracle Prophecies.
Fleischman, Sid The giant rat of Sumatra or Pirates Galore: A cabin boy on a pirate ship finds himself in San Diego in 1846 as war breaks out between the United States and Mexico.
Gardiner, Sally I, Coriander: In 17th century London, Coriander, a girl who has inherited magic from her mother, must find a way to use this magic in order to save both herself and an inhabitant of the fairy world where her mother was born.
Gebler, Carlo The bull raid: A new version of the Irish prose epic Tain Bo Cuailnge or Cattle Raid of Cooley.
Geratein, Mordicai The old country: A grandmother tells her story of being tricked into exchanging her young body with that of a fox and trying to get it back while a war tore apart her home and her country.
Gleitzman, Morris Aristotle’s nostril: A highly infectious tale of a brave microscopic hero unexpectedly propelled from his familiar nostril home into the big, wide, dangerous world.
Gleitzman, Morris Once: For three years and eight months, Felix has lived in a convent orphanage high in the mountains in Poland. But Felix is different from the other orphans. He is convinced his parents are still alive and will come back to get him. When a group of Nazi soldiers come and burn the nuns' books, Felix is terrified that his Jewish bookseller parents will also be in danger. After escaping from the orphanage, Felix embarks on a long and dangerous journey through Nazi occupied Poland.
Hamilton, Margaret H2O: stories of water: Australia is an island surrounded by ocean. Children grow up either near the sea, have holidays by the sea, or spend time on rivers, canals and dams. This collection of stories highlights the influence of water on children's lives.
Hart, Lenore The treasure of Savage Island: After Rafe, a runaway slave, stows away on a ship that is wrecked off an island near the Eastern Shore, he is helped by thirteen-year-old Molly, and the two of them share an adventure involving pirates, spies, and a lost treasure.
Herrick, Steven Naked bunyip dancing: With Carey the Hairy as their teacher, class 6C get into co-curricular activities like poetry and belly dancing, and they put on a concert that is the best night of their lives. A free verse story.
Hiaasen, Carl Flush: With their father jailed for sinking a river boat, Noah Underwood and his younger sister, Abbey, must gather evidence that the owner of this floating casino is emptying his bilge tanks into the protected waters around their Florida Keys home.
Hofman, Mary Stravaganza: city of flowers: The latest story in the Stravaganza series unravels amid ever-more-dangerous politics and intrigue. Sky, a new Stravagante, is whisked away from his dreary life in London to Giglia, the Talian version of Florence.
Hoobler, Dorothy The sword that cut the burning grass : a samurai mystery: In his latest adventure in eighteenth-century Japan, fourteen-year-old samurai apprentice Seikei, with the help of a servant girl and an imperious old man, sets out to rescue the young Emperor Yasuhito from his kidnappers.
Horowitz, Anthony Ark Angel: From Cornwall to Cuba, Venice to France, Alex Rider has travelled far and wide as a spy for MI6, facing danger and death at every turn. But in his last mission, fighting the criminal organization, Scorpia, Alex appeared to have finally met his match.
Horvath, Polly The vacation: When his parents go to Africa to work as missionaries, twelve-year-old Henry's eccentric aunts, Pigg and Mag, take him on a cross-country car trip, allowing him to gain insight into his family and himself.
Ibbotson, Eva The beasts of Clawstone Castle: Clawstone Castle is ancient and famous, but its elderly owners have no money. In its great park live a legendary herd of wild white cattle that have roamed there since the days of the Druids, and now their future is threatened. Rollo and Madlyn come to stay with their uncle and aunt and, with the help of a mysterious recluse in the castle library, they collect an impressive team of phantoms who agree to help them.
Johnson, Pete Trust me, I’m a troublemaker: Archie is a very mature child - some would say far too mature! Having grown up with his gran, he seems to have acquired some adult ways - and the kids at his new school find them unbearable. Especially Miranda - the class troublemaker. At first she absolutely can't stand Archie but then she starts to see him as a bit of a project - could she really make Archie into a Troublemaker Extraordinaire? Their unlikely friendship really gets going when Archie needs help to scare off his dad's new girlfriend
Kids’ night in 2 : a feast of stories: Follow up to the best selling Kid’s night in. includes a story by Margaret Mahy.
Kipling, Rudyard The jungle book: A new edition illustrated by Nicola Bayley.
Klise, Kate Deliver us from Normal: With a mother who buys Christmas cards in August and a younger brother who describes the Trinity as a toasted marshmallow on a graham cracker, life for eleven-year-old Charles Harrisong is anything but normal in Normal, Illinois.
McKay, Hilary Permanent Rose: As usual, things are a bit chaotic in the Casson family. Eldest daughter Caddy is now engaged to darling Michael, and she's not altogether sure she likes it. Saffy and Sarah are on a mission to find Saffy's biological father (while cultivating hearts of stone). Indigo is cautiously beginning a friendship with a reformed bully, who desperately wants to feel like part of the Casson family. Rose, while missing Tom dreadfully, enters into a life of petty crime, shoplifting small items until her misadventures nearly bring disaster.
Madden, Kerry Gentle’s Holler: In the early 1960s, twelve-year-old songwriter Livy Two Weems dreams of seeing the world beyond the Maggie Valley, North Carolina, Holler where she lives in poverty with her parents and eight brothers and sisters, but understands that she must put family first.
Mankell, Henning Playing with fire: Sofia has lost her legs and her sister in a landmine accident. But now she's growing up and ready to fall in love. Her older sister Rosa is strong and beautiful and loves dancing. Sofia will never be able to dance, so how will anyone ever notice her enough to love her? She imagines a boy who will love her for herself, and then she meets him - but is the Moonboy real, or just a dream of the African night? Then Rosa falls sick with a mysterious illness and Sofia fears the worst. When Rosa is diagnosed with HIV and turns to African magic for a cure, Sofia is the one who has to be practical and think of the future. Sequel to Secrets in the fire.
Mark, Jan The electric telepath: Elijah longs to be a scientist, to follow in the footsteps of his heroes. But as a member of the Horebite church such dreams will never be possible. Instructed by his father and his church to listen for The Still, Small Voice which will inform his life, Elijah finds himself trapped between a modern world and an ancient belief system; until the discovery of his hidden scientific apparatus brings these two worlds together with unexpected results.
Marston, Elsa Figs and fate: A collection of five stories portraying Arab life in Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, a Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon, and Iraq today.
Molloy, Michael Peter Raven under fire: Peter Raven is a bright, young midshipman in the Royal Navy of Great Britain. Raven, along with the swashbuckling secret agent Commodore Beaumont, uncovers a reckless scheme devised by none other than Napoleon Bonaparte. Eager to add America to his empire, Napoleon has made a wicked pact with a murderous pirate known as Count Vallon: In exchange for the pirate's gold, Napoleon will name Vallon "King of America"! Raven, Beaumont, and a beautiful young American heiress, Lucy, must do whatever it takes to put a stop to one of history's most audacious plots!
Morpurgo, Michael The amazing story of Adolphus Tips: A heartwarming tale of courage and warmth, set against the backdrop of the second world war, about a cat who survives against the odds.
Ogilve, Ian Measle and the Mallockee: Just when Measle thinks his life is getting back to normal, he, his baby sister and Tinker the dog are whisked off to a creepy castle.
Oppel, Kenneth Skybreaker: The sequel to Airborn, the first of an Indiana Jones-style adventure trilogy set in a world geographically like this one but dominated by airships. The irrepressible cabin boy Matt Cruse won enough treasure at the end of Airborn to afford a place as a trainee at the Airship Academy, but his troubles are by no means over.
Reeve, Philip Infernal devices: The sequel to Mortal Engines and Predator's Gold. Anchorage has become a static settlement on the shores of the Dead Continent, and its inhabitants have been living peacefully for sixteen years. But now trouble is approaching - in a limpet sub, and fast. The Lost Boys are back, and they'll do anything to get what they want.
Shearer, Alex The hunted: In a future world where people live to be 150, humans have paid the price for their longer lives - the cost being their fertility. Children have become a commodity: they are bought and sold, won and lost, and worst of all, are hunted by the 'kiddernappers' keen to make a quick buck on a big sale.
Shulevitz, Uri The travels of Benjamin of Tudela through three continents in the twelfth century: A fictionalized account of the travels of Benjamin, a Jewish man from Tudela, Spain, who, in 1159, set out on a fourteen-year-long journey that took him to Italy, Greece, Palestine, Persia, China, Egypt, and Sicily.
Singleton, Sarah Century: Mercy and her sister Charity have never questioned their daily routine, each day unfolding exactly as the next. They live at night, sleep during the day and see their widowed father only rarely - their house shrouded in perpetual winter. Then one day, Mercy is woken to find a snowdrop on her pillow. A sign of spring, a subtle hint at a possible different future. A chance meeting with the mysterious Claudius sets her to questioning everything she has ever known - not least the truth behind her mother's death.
Stone, Jeffrey S Tiger: Five young warrior-monk brothers survive an insurrection and must use the ancient arts to avenge their Grandmaster.
Stroud, Jonathan Ptolemy’s gate: The climax of the Bartimaeus trilogy in which a long-standing conspiracy comes to fruition and Bartimaeus, Nathaniel and Kitty face a final enemy which threatens them all.
Taylor, Theodore Ice drift: Two Inuit brothers must fend for themselves while stranded on an ice floe that is adrift in the Greenland Strait.
Toksvig, Sandi Hitler’s canary: Based on a true story, this is an account of a daring rescue in occupied Denmark.
Wallace, Karen The unrivalled Spangles: The dramatic and colourful tale of the Spangles, a nineteenth century circus family, and their lives, loves, romances and rivalries against the backdrop of London. The story follows Ellen, the ringmaster's daughter and one half of horse-riding duo The Incredible Scarletta Sisters, as she struggles to break with family tradition and get an education - and to hide her sister's secret romance with a rival circus owner's son.
Willis, Jeanne Rat heaven: Freddie is a pet rat. He belongs to a girl who's growing up - and growing away from the babyish things of childhood. She's already swapped her teddy bears and family days out for trendy gear and a brilliant new best friend. But what about Freddie? He used to be her best friend. How could she break her promise? And where will a little lonely rat fit into this cool new life?
Wilson, Jacqueline Clean break: Clean Break is told from the point of view of Em, or Emerald as she likes to be known, and is about what happens to her mum, gran and two half-siblings, Maxie and Vita, when the man of the house leaves them for another woman.
Winch, John Run, hare, run!: A fresh and original way of engaging with one of the world's great artworks.