Caroline Pitcher

Emma Peek - M to her friends - tells the story of one summer at school. On the bus with her friends, Lizzie and Star, she contemplates the horrible week of exams ahead. But the bus has a cast of characters of its own - the Unspeakable Jono Watkins, the glossy Boss Woman (who the Ring Fairy has visited with a finger-full of blue flashers), and Tuba Boy (who flushes Szechuan red sauce colour, struggling with a tuba bigger than he has). And of course, at the Most Important Bus Stop at the Very Centre of the Universe, the Beautiful Stranger. Lizzie has to cope with broken heart when her dreamboat, Steve the bus driver, turns up married, while Star (coping with the prejudices of her dad's very white second family towards her mixed-race skin) endures being called a blue-stocking by their form teacher, Dodo Dollop. Weekends are spent in the Good Looking Cafe, gazing at the family of smouldery Good Lookings who run it, singing arias while they scoop ice cream and froth cappuccinos. And in the park there's Pram Gran, with her pram full of dog, daintily licking an ice-cream - not like M's dog Basil who gobbles garlic. parents to the utility room with sleeping bags and a video of The Sound of Music), M gets breathless after an e-mail from the Beautiful Stranger, Pram Gran gets together with Great Uncle Good Looking. But Star's so unhappy she tries to fly away to Greece, until M and Lizzie find her in the airport bookshop. Star's mum flies in to be with her, and, after the tears and lots of 11 O'clock Chocolate Cake, it looks as though after the summer, life might finally be about to start...

Eleven O'clock Chocolate Cake

The Shaman Boy

Ore 11, torta al cioccolato

After being told that she cannot leave her winter den until spring arrives, Una the bear cub goes out early, meets various animals, gets in trouble, and eventually finds out what spring is.

Are You Spring

Frog lives in a bucket, but suddenly, he has to find a new home! Can any of his friends in the garden take him in? Will he ever find somewhere else to live? Part of the QED Storytime series, this beautifully illustrated book introduces young children to the pleasures of reading and sharing stories, and includes supporting notes for parents and teachers.

Home Sweet Home

Moira Butterfield

Peter Bently

Katherine Sully

Hettie Bingham

David Bedford

Annie Baker

Jillian Harker

Snuggle Up and read together! A magical and enchanting collection of 40 beautifully illustrated original stories, fairy tales, and traditional rhymes, perfect for sharing.

A Treasury of Bedtime Stories

When Lenny suspects that the family's new piano is alive and sinister, he has to convince his family that a real threat exists before something happens to his sister who practices on it.

The Monster Piano

Home Sweet Home PB 10 Book Bag

Home, Sweet Home

Cliff Wright

After being told she cannot leave her winter den until spring arrives, a little bear cub goes out early and gets into trouble before finding out what spring is. DK Share-A-Story.

Are You Spring?

When Nico rescues an octopus caught in a fisherman's net, his parents think it's a strange choice of pet. Nico keeps it in a tank, feeds it crabs and small fish and soon discovers that his octopus is extremely clever - amazing, amusing and always surprising. It can pull a cork from a bottle and drill a hole in a shell with its beak. But the worst thing in the world happens: Nico's octopus gets ill, and when his friend the old fisherman tells him why, it's sad news, but wonderful too...

Nico's Octopus

Emma en haar twee vriendinnen praten heel wat af tijdens de rit in de schoolbus en zelfs tijdens de lessen. Emma is verliefd op een onbekende, knappe jongen die soms aan de bushalte staat. Ster heeft problemen thuis, ze voelt zich niet gelukkig in het nieuwe gezin van haar vader. Lizzie houdt van drama en tuimelt van de ene verliefdheid in de andere. Samen houden ze zich sterk en ondergaan het schoolleven om dan in het weekend volop te kunnen genieten.

Tijd voor chocola

Four, the last to hatch and smaller than his sibblings, cannot fly as soon as One, Two and Three can. Yet he never gives up trying, and in the end his efforts pay off.

The Littlest Owl

Jackie Morris

A magical tale of the special bond between father and son recounts how young Joseph, living in the African Savannah, comes to love a lion living nearby and how he learns to both love and trust his father. At night while his village sleeps, young Joseph hears a lion's roar thunderclap across the wide East African Savannah. Joseph's father tells him that it is not the right time to go and meet the lion, but when Joseph sees the lion racing towards him, his great head streaming with gold and his paws as big as drums, a special friendship begins. Every noontime Joseph visits the lion's den. He sleeps beside the lion, meets the lioness, and plays with the young cubs. Then one day, traders come looking for lion cubs and an anxious fear awakens in Joseph: he suspects that his father has betrayed the lions. This beautiful father/son tale explores an unusual friendship and a child's rite of passage. The Time of the Lion creates a metaphor for the magic of childhood, a time when fantasy is reality, and lions are our friends. The beautiful artwork is the perfect compliment to this tale, capturing the power and mystery of the African Savannah.

The Time of the Lion

Hearing stories from his mother about the Lord of the Forest, little Tiger keeps a watchful eye and an observant ear on all the sights and sounds around him in the hope of finally encountering the elusive animal that rules their land.

Lord of the Forest

'The Most Important Bus Stop at the Very Centre of The Universe' is where 'M's Beautiful Stranger waits to get on. Have you wondered yet what it feels like to be sixteen, with the world changing rapidly around you? How would you cope with your own changes? Where would you be without the strongest of friendships? Join 'M' and her circle of friends as they battle through Exams, Love and Chocolate Cake at full gallop on the school bus, and if they haven't found The Meaning of Life by the time they get there, it isn't for want of trying...

11 O'Clock Chocolate Cake

Nico rescues a small octopus and takes it home to keep as a pet, caring for it until one day, he learns some sad and wonderful news. Includes a factual section on octopuses.

Shelley hears voices from the Mine... They are ancient, troubled and forgotten... She can't help but listen as they use her to make sense of their own past, but can she use their wisdom and experience to make sense of her own present and future? Only Time will tell. Or does the Mine hold another, deeper, darker secret..? As Shelley tries to unravel the mystery of her own past, will she ever truly understand where she belongs? 'It's not mine. Nothing is!' Shelley's 17th winter will change her life forever... Award-winning author Caroline Pitcher expertly explores the changing bonds of relationship between mothers and daughters in this intriguing, centuries- spanning novel. 'An unusual and moving story of a girl unwillingly tuned into voices from the past... remarkable', The Times Top Three Teen Books On my 'I Wish I'd Written' list, Berlie Doherty 'Vivid, beautifully written, couldn't put it down', Nicola Ho

Caroline Pitcher

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