Brought up as female for 15 years Jon can remember feeling different from other girls since he was only 6 years old. Despite several efforts to fit in it soon becomes clear that its impossible to identify as female. But it will take years of depression incessant bullying self-harm & isolation before Jon discovers that he is transgender. When Jon eventually confides in his mother Luisa she commits herself unconditionally to helping her child & together they embark on a remarkable journey of transition. For Jon the changes that follow hormonal treatment are what hes always wanted. But for Luisa this means coming to terms with the enormous loss of her daughter. ...

' Inventive charming & very funny' The Observer Just as Blart is settling down to enjoy his teenage years on a fabulous pig farm with the proceeds from saving the world Capablanca returns
- with bad news. A terrible oversight in his original world-saving research has led to accusations of no less than collusion with evil Zoltab himself. & now he is a wanted man
- & so by assocation is Blart To prove their innocence or else be hounded to the four corners of the earth by a bloodthirsty army they must locate their comrades from the original quest. Together they may stand a chance of proving that Capablanca's was an innocent mistake by finding the answer to a great mystery
- what exactly did they do with Zoltab? & how could they be so careless as to forget... And so begins another hilarious & unforgettable adventure (with pigs) & a brilliant cast of characters including newcomers Uther Slywort the merchant & sociopathic Baron Killbride.


...

Meet classic comic-strip character Big Nate
- The Boy with the Biggest Head in the World
- as he stars in his own super-funny

...

Kathleen Fidlers classic story is set in the ancient Stone Age village of Skara Brae on Orkney now a major tourist attraction. This is a fascinating & vividly portrayed story of life nearly 3 000 years ago. Kali & Brockan are in trouble. They have been using their stone axes to chip limpets off the rocks but theyve gone too far out & find themselves trapped by the tides. Then an unexpected rescuer appears a strange boy in a strange boat carrying a strangely sharp axe of a type they have never seen before. Conflict arises as the village of Skara must decide what to do with the new ideas & practices that the boy brings. As a deadly storm threatens the very survival of the village is in doubt. The daily life landscape & rituals of Skara have been meticulously researched & are brought to life in striking compelling detail. ...

Edinburgh 1874. On the coldest night the world has ever seen Little Jack is born with a frozen heart & immediately undergoes a life-saving operation. But Dr Madeleine is no conventional medic & surgically implants a cuckoo-clock into his chest. Little Jack grows up different to other children: every day begins with a daily wind-up. At school he is bullied for his 'ticking' but Dr Madeleine reminds him he must resist strong emotion: anger is far too dangerous for his cuckoo-clock heart. So when the beautiful young street-singer Miss Acacia appears
- pursued by Joe the school bully
- Jack is in danger of more than just falling in love...he is putting his life on the line.

...

Its 1979 Im three years old & like all breakfast times during my youth it begins with Mum combing my hair a ritual for which I have to sit down on the second-hand floral-patterned settee & lean forward like Im presenting myself for execution. For Sathnam Sanghera growing up in Wolverhampton in the eighties was a confusing business. On the one hand these were the heady days of George Michael mix-tapes Dallas on TV & if he was lucky the occasional Bounty Bar. On the other there was his wardrobe of tartan smocks his 30p-an-hour job at the local sewing factory & the ongoing challenge of how to tie the perfect top-knot. & then there was his family whose strange & often difficult behaviour he took for granted until at the age of twenty-four Sathnam made a discovery that changed everything he ever thought he knew about them. Equipped with breathtaking courage & a glorious sense of humour he embarks on a journey into their extraordinary past
- from his fathers harsh life in rural Punjab to the steps of the Wolverhampton Tourist Office
- trying to make sense of a life lived among secrets. This book is published in hardback as If You Dont Know Me by Now"."

...

Growing up in rural Yorkshire in the 1940s & 50s Terry Wilson spent his school days hunting down Just William books cutting up apples to help with fractions & staring out the window dreaming up new schemes. But it was on the Dales themselves that Terry came into his own. Whether he was 'out-fishing' the adults with his homemade rod grouse-beating for the lady of the manor helping to bring in the farmers' hay in exchange for rabbit shooting rights or growing his own prize caulis his idiosyncratic & inventive mind is only matched by his love of nature. Told with affection dry humour & a respect for the landscape & its people through Terry's eyes we meet farmers mill owners & 'gentlemen of the road'. Beautifully illustrated with newly-commissioned line-drawn illustrations by Don Grant A Boy's Own Dale is a magical memoir of a long-lost world. ...

For Sir Baldwin Furnshill Keeper of the King's Peace & Bailiff Simon Puttock the Christmas of 1321 looks set to be one of great festivity. They are to receive the prestigious gloves of honour in a ceremony led by the specially elected Boy-Bishop. But they soon learn that Ralph
- the glovemaker
- has been stabbed to death. Then Peter a Secondary at the cathedral collapses from poisoning. Simon & Baldwin must solve the riddles surrounding the deaths but as they dig for the truth they find that many of Exeter's leading citizens are not what
- or who
- they seem to be...



...

Five cities. Five escorts. Five bullets in five heads. Catherine Hamilton was a high-class hooker. Now she is dead. Jack Till private detective has linked her murder to a string of other killings: the cities may be different but the girls all look uncomfortably alike. Now he knows the killer's type it's a race against time to find the next victim before it's too late... Who will the boyfriend seduce next? ...

Allan Ahlberg's The Boyhood of Burglar Bill" is a nostalgic autobiographical story about football schooldays & growing-up in the '50s. Allan Ahlberg is the internationally bestselling author of children's classics that include " Peepo!" & " Each Peach Pear Plum" illustrated by Janet Ahlberg. Archie was a wonder dog in all our eyes. Nearly a year ago he had got run over. They found his foot in the street but the rest of him ran off. Mr Purnell mourned for a while; Mrs Purnell offered to beat the motorcyclist up or at least wreck his bike. Then lo & behold a fortnight later back came Archie. Coronation year 1953. The boys from the bottom pitch
- a great soup of boys
- play football. When the ' Coronation Cup' is proposed they put their heads together pool their pocket money & get a team up. There's no chance they'll win of course. They're just the odds & sods in Mr Cork's opinion. Besides he'd go berserk if they did; menace them with his one good arm & pulverise their desks with his cricket stump. They'd be better off losing. " The Boyhood of Burglar Bill" is the second in a sequence of stories in which Allan Ahlberg explores his own childhood. " My Brother's Ghost" shortlisted for the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize was the first. Allan Ahlberg has published books for children of all ages from the picture books " Peepo!" " Each Peach Pear Plum" " The Jolly Postman" & the " Funnybones" series
- illustrated by Janet Ahlberg
- to his books for older readers including " Woof!" & his books of verse: " Please Mrs. Butler" & " Heard it in the Playground"."



...