Stuff is the nickname of our hero, Simon (because he knows a lot of weird stuff). Stuff's parents have split up, and his dad has brought back a new step-mum (the Sherry Trifle), a step-sister (the awful Natasha) and a radical feminist rabbit called Pankhurst (she only attacks men - spooky). In Stuff's own words, here is how he tries...

The first day at a new school is often tricky, and if the only person who befriends you claims to be a wizard you simply have to make the best of it! Joe is pretty certain that Billy has, as the teacher says, just got an over-active imagination but when he witnesses some pretty odd events at playtime, he's not...

Chicken Soup for the Kid's Soul is a place to turn for all those kids who want answers and encouragement and help to realise that dreams can really come true.Sometimes life is a total blast, from scoring a winning goal to hanging out with your friends. Yet other times, life is too complicated: You seem to see violence everywhere you...

When Mr and Mrs Bone go down with the Titanic, their six children are left on their own. Binnie, the eldest at 17, stands her ground against well-meaning relatives and says she will bring up the family. And for the next four years she runs the Edwardian household, looking after her brothers and sisters, and starting a gentle romance with...

It's 1990. Apartheid is crumbling, Nelson Mandela has just been released from prison and thirteen-year-old Spud Milton is about to start his first year at an elite boys-only boarding school. Cursed with embarrassingly dysfunctional parents, a nutty granny and a dormitory full of strange characters, Spud has his hands full trying to adapt to his new home. With only his...

The life story of Anne Frank set chronologically against the significant events of the Holocaust, e.g. Kristallnacht, the Kindertransports and D-Day. Spanning Anne's short life from 1929 to 1945, and the early rise of Hitler to the liberation of the concentration camps, this highly moving account examines both the fate of the Frank family and the wider picture of the...

It's the first day at PIRATE SCHOOL for Ziggy, Smudge, Carkella and Flo and they have lots of new things to contend with. Their headteacher is the scary Patagonia Clasterbotton and they have to take lessons include walking the plank and hand-to-hand fighting. When out on the pirate ship a storm blows up, resulting in the children having to rescue...

Dal, Chris, Abs and Jason have made the squad for the local youth club under-lls football team. And after their first match (not as successful as they'd have liked), they are determined to prove that they've got what it takes to be winners. The Rushton Reds have lost their first two matches. Missed chances, missed goals - even missed penalties!...

The Twelfth Day of July is first of Joan Lingard's influential Kevin and Sadie books, set in Belfast during the Troubles. It is one of The Originals from Penguin - iconic, outspoken, first. Sadie is Protestant, Kevin is Catholic - and on the tense streets of Belfast their lives collide. It starts with a dare - kids fooling around -...

Brilliantly observed as always, family, teachers, pupils and the dreaded school inspector all leap to life in this wonderfully warm and witty, brand new, poetry collection from bestseller Gervase Phinn. New kids, disobedient deputy heads, school reports and fireworks, daydreamers and embarrassing mums all make an appearance. And if read on you might even just discover the whereabouts of Colin's...

The life story of Anne Frank, from her early happy childhood in Frankfurt, growing up in Amsterdam, her two years in hiding and the last few months of her life in the concentration camps. Narrated in six clearly written chapters, this biography for children answers the many detailed questions about Anne that readers of the Diary often have, and includes...

A moving and powerful story about brother and sister, Joe and Annie, who flee from a pitiful existence as servants. They embark on a tough and perilous journey to Manchester in search of their mother who was forced to leave them at the workhouse when they were very young. Their future is tainted by the horrors of their past and...