Resources
The Wonderling by Mira Bartók - A3 poster (digital)
The Wonderling In this extraordinary debut novel with its deft nod to Dickensian heroes and rogues, Mira Bartók tells the story of Arthur, a shy, fox-like foundling with only one ear and a desperate desire to belong, as he seeks his destiny. To help you celebrate this great story in your libraries, Walker have provided this beautiful poster for you to use.
The Wonderling by Mira Bartók - Discussion guide
The Wonderling In this extraordinary debut novel with its deft nod to Dickensian heroes and rogues, Mira Bartók tells the story of Arthur, a shy, fox-like foundling with only one ear and a desperate desire to belong, as he seeks his destiny. Welcome to the Home for Wayward and Misbegotten Creatures, an institution run by evil Miss Carbunkle, a cunning villainess who believes her terrified young charges exist only to serve and suffer. Part animal and part human, the groundlings toil in...
Maria and Me by Miguel Gallardo - A guide and extract
Monday 26 March kicks off Autism Awareness Week. We are thrilled to have the brilliant Maria and Me by Miguel Gallardo as one of our Mischief Makers Summer Reading Challenge selected books. It’s a father’s first-hand account of what life is like with his daughter Maria who has autism. On a trip to the Canary Islands in Spain, some challenges arise as a result. This comic shows how the two work around these issues, and gives insight into how Maria sees and experiences the world. The comic is a...
Scythe by Neal Shusterman - a book trailer
In a perfect world, what is there left to fear? A chilling and thought-provoking sci-fi novel from New York Times bestselling author Neal Shusterman. A dark, gripping and witty thriller in which the only thing humanity has control over is death. In a world where disease, war and crime have been eliminated, the only way to die is to be randomly killed (“gleaned”) by professional scythes. Citra and Rowan are teenagers who have been selected to be scythes’ apprentices, and despite wanting...
Begone the Reaggedy Witches by Celine Kiernan
Begone the Raggedy Witches (The Wild Magic Trilogy, Book One) From multi-award-winning Irish author Celine Kiernan comes a fantasy adventure about witches and forbidden magic. When witches kidnap Mup’s dad, she must journey to their home to save him, and so begins a fantastical adventure of rhyming crows, talking cats and outlawed magic. For Witches Borough is a dangerous place, ruled by a tyrannical queen and her band of raggedy witches. We hope that you enjoy watching the book trailer.
We're Going on a Bear Hunt: Let's Discover Birds and Bugs: A book trailer
We’re Going on a Bear Hunt: Let’s Discover Birds and Bugs If you loved the film of We’re Going on a Bear Hunt you can explore your natural world with two brand new We’re Going on a Bear Hunt activity books! If your children love using their imagination, going on a bear hunt and bugs or birds – than this book trailer is for you.
The Wanderers Reading Guide
About the book: Two teenagers, bound by love yet divided by fate, forge separate paths in pre-First World War Devon and Cornwall. 1912. Leo is on a journey. Aged thirteen and banished from the secluded farm of his childhood, he travels through Devon, grazing on berries and sleeping in copses. Behind him lies the past, and before him the West Country, spread out like a tapestry. But a wanderer is never alone for long, try as he might – and soon Leo is taken in by gypsies, with their waggons,...
The Hoarder by Jess Kidd - Readers' Guide
Maud Drennan – underpaid carer and unintentional psychic – is the latest in a long line of dogsbodies for the ancient, belligerent Cathal Flood. Yet despite her best efforts, Maud is drawn into the mysteries concealed in his filthy, once-grand home. She realises that something is changing: Cathal, and the junk-filled rooms, are opening up to her. With only her agoraphobic landlady and a troop of sarcastic ghostly saints to help, Maud must uncover what lies beneath Cathal’s decades-old...
The Hoarder by Jess Kidd - exclusive extract
Maud Drennan – underpaid carer and unintentional psychic – is the latest in a long line of dogsbodies for the ancient, belligerent Cathal Flood. Yet despite her best efforts, Maud is drawn into the mysteries concealed in his filthy, once-grand home. She realises that something is changing: Cathal, and the junk-filled rooms, are opening up to her. With only her agoraphobic landlady and a troop of sarcastic ghostly saints to help, Maud must uncover what lies beneath Cathal’s decades-old...
Inspirational Women
To mark 100 years of female suffrage, we collected together our favourite books about girls, women and feminism.
Little Leaders by Vashti Harrison - Library resources pack
Little Leaders: Bold Women in Black History Featuring 40 trailblazing black women in the world’s history, this book educates and inspires as it relates true stories of women who broke boundaries and exceeded all expectations. Debut author/illustrator Vashti Harrison pairs captivating text with stunning illustrations as she tells the stories of both iconic and lesser-known female figures of black history – from nurse Mary Seacole, to politician Diane Abbott, mathematician Katherine Johnson and...
Shifty McGifty and Slippery Sam by Tracey Corderoy - Activity packs
Shifty McGifty and Slippery Sam by Tracey Corderoy and Steven Lenton Shifty McGifty and Slippery Sam are two hapless robber dogs who decide on a career change after one bungled burglary too many. Their adventures are full of japes, scrapes and mysteries to solve, and prove just what fun a life of baking can be! There are two Shifty McGifty and Slippery Sam picture books and three hilarious young readers. This download contains four paw-some puzzle pages: - A step-by-step guide to drawing...
Man Booker Prize - list of winners
The Golden Man Booker Prize will mark the 50th anniversary of the Man Booker Prize. This special one-off award will crown the best work of fiction from the last five decades of the prize, as chosen by five judges and then voted for by the public. Take a look at every one of the winners by downloading our list, and see how many you have read. Remember you can leave a review for any book you have read on our Book Reviews page.
Piggy Hero by Pip Jones - Activity pack and competition
Piggy Hero ‘Jeffry, I’m no mere guinea pig! I’m a Handsome. And Handsomes have always been famous. I simply cannot be the only Handsome in history to not be famous.’ Piggy Handsome is a very confident guinea pig with a hugely inflated ego – he hails from a long line of very famous guinea pigs. But sadly Handsome STILL hasn’t achieved world renown. Well, now he has a new plan to get his name on the telly – he’ll be someone’s hero! Faber Children’s have created a brilliant activity pack which...
Marvel Avengers The Greatest Heroes - activity pack and competition
DK are celebrating their first World Book Day title by offering libraries a wonderful Marvel Super Hero themed pack with activities for children aged 3 to 10 years old. Focusing on DK’s World Book Day title, Marvel Avengers The Greatest Heroes, it also includes backlist titles such as Marvel Absolutely Everything You Need to Know and Marvel Avengers The Ultimate Character Guide. These packs are ideal to be used on World Book Day (1 March) onwards! The Reading Agency and DK would love to see...
Romance reads without the cheese
If you think books with a love story at their heart are full of soppy characters and unrealistic swooning, think again. This quirky selection is full of real relationships and funny takes on love and sex. Download the full list and find out more about the books by clicking the link below.
The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness - A Chaos Walking book trailer
Walker have a special anniversary edition, with a striking new cover design, to celebrate 10 years of the Chaos Walking trilogy. Prentisstown isn’t like other towns. Everyone can hear everyone else’s thoughts in a constant, overwhelming Noise. There is no privacy. There are no secrets. Then Todd Hewitt unexpectedly stumbles on a spot of complete silence. Which is impossible. And now he’s going to have to run… This new edition marks the 10th anniversary of the award-winning modern classic,...
Fantastically Great Women activity pack by Kate Pankhurst
Fantastically Great Women activity pack: celebrate 100 years of votes for women The Fantastically Great Women books by Kate Pankhurst celebrate some of the world’s most brilliant women, from Rosa Parks to Jane Austen, Ada Lovelace to Pocahontas. Each book shares fascinating facts through highly-visual illustrated spreads, and is ideal to get children learning about inspirational women, as well as how they might change the world. Bloomsbury have created a fantastic activity pack based around...
Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes by Mem Fox and Helen Oxenbury - A3 digital poster
Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes Celebrating 10 years of Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes Walker Books have provided this digital version of the Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes anniversary poster.
Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes by Mem Fox and Helen Oxenbury - A special Storytime kit
Celebrating 10 years of Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes All over the world, babies are different. Yet in some ways they are very much the same: each one has ten little fingers and ten little toes – to play with, to tickle, to wave. And each child is very, very special to its parents… For over a decade Mem Fox’s Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes, brought to life by Helen Oxenbury’s diverse cast of delicious babies, has been shared by parents and their little ones the world over. To...
How to Stop Time by Matt Haig - read a sample
Tom Hazard has a dangerous secret. He may look like an ordinary 41-year-old, but owing to a rare condition, he’s been alive for centuries. From Elizabethan England to Jazz Age Paris, from New York to the South Seas, Tom has seen a lot, and now craves an ordinary life. Always changing his identity to stay alive, Tom has the perfect cover – working as a history teacher at a London comprehensive. Here he can teach the kids about wars and witch hunts as if he’d never witnessed them first-hand. He...
Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine - discussion questions
Eleanor Oliphant leads a simple life. She wears the same clothes to work every day, eats the same meal deal for lunch every day and buys the same two bottles of vodka to drink every weekend. Eleanor Oliphant is happy. Nothing is missing from her carefully timetabled life. Except, sometimes, everything. One simple act of kindness is about to shatter the walls Eleanor has built around herself. Now she must learn how to navigate the world that everyone else seems to take for granted – while...
Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine - read a sample
Eleanor Oliphant leads a simple life. She wears the same clothes to work every day, eats the same meal deal for lunch every day and buys the same two bottles of vodka to drink every weekend. Eleanor Oliphant is happy. Nothing is missing from her carefully timetabled life. Except, sometimes, everything. One simple act of kindness is about to shatter the walls Eleanor has built around herself. Now she must learn how to navigate the world that everyone else seems to take for granted – while...
Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes by Mem Fox and Helen Oxenbury - A Book Trailer
Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes Celebrating 10 years of Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes All over the world, babies are different. Yet in some ways they are very much the same: each one has ten little fingers and ten little toes – to play with, to tickle, to wave. And each child is very, very special to its parents… For over a decade Mem Fox’s Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes, brought to life by Helen Oxenbury’s diverse cast of delicious babies, has been shared by parents...
Artemis by Andy Weir - read the first chapter
Life in the lunar city of Artemis is tough if you’re not a rich tourist or an eccentric billionaire. So smuggling in the occasional harmless bit of contraband barely counts, right? Not when you’ve got debts to pay and your job as a porter barely covers the rent. Everything changes when Jazz is offered a score too lucrative to turn down – if she can plan the perfect crime – and survive it… And in a city on the moon, there’s only one rule for criminals: don’t get caught. Read an exclusive...
A splash of colour for a grey day
In January we put together a list of our favourite colourful books to brighten up a dull, grey day.
Science fiction novels from the last twenty years
To celebrate 100 years of the Arthur C. Clarke Award for science fiction, we chose a selection of science fiction novels from the last two decades of the award.
Seven Days of Us - read the first chapter
It’s Christmas, and the Birch family are coming together at their second home in Norfolk. Emma and Andrew’s daughter, Olivia, is back for the first time in years, and while Emma is elated, her younger, more frivolous daughter Phoebe is braced for inevitable clashes. But aid worker Olivia is only home because she has nowhere else to go. Having recently returned from Africa, where she’s been treating a life-threatening virus, she has been instructed to stay in quarantine for a week, and so,...
Books of the Year 2017
2017 was another fantastic year for books. We’ve picked out some of our top choices that were published over the year.
Debuts of 2017
There were some brilliant authors publishing their first books in 2017, and we’ve chosen our favourites for you to discover.
