We weren't even meant to be outside, not in a blackout, and definitely not when German bombs had been falling on London all month like pennies from a jar.*WINNER* BOOKS ARE MY BAG MIDDLE GRADE BOOK OF THE YEAR 2017*WINNER* LEEDS BOOK AWARDS 2018WATERSTONES CHILDREN'S BOOK OF THE MONTH MAY 2017THE BOOKSELLER EDITOR'S 9-12 PICK OF THE MONTHTHE TIMES CHILDREN'S BOOK OF THE WEEKFebruary, 1941. After months of bombing raids in London, twelve-year-old Olive Bradshaw and her little brother Cliff are evacuated to the Devon coast. The only person with two spare beds is Mr Ephraim, the local lighthouse keeper. But he's not used to company and he certainly doesn't want any evacuees.Desperate to be helpful, Olive becomes his post-girl, carrying secret messages (as she likes to think of the letters) to the villagers. But Olive has a secret of her own. Her older sister Sukie went missing in an air raid, and she's desperate to discover what happened to her. And then she finds a strange coded note which seems to link Sukie to Devon, and to something dark and impossibly dangerous.

    Joey's parents love rescuing things and making them beautiful – their house is full of things made from driftwood, old glass and shells from the beach. Which is why the scraggy kittens the girls find in a bin at school end up living there. And when Paul moves in as Joey's foster brother, everyone thinks that maybe he needs rescuing too. But nobody knows quite how badly. At first, it's great – Hannah's brother befriends Paul, and the four of them hang out together. But then things start to go wrong. Paul is being bullied. Subtly at first – but quickly it gets dangerous. People aren't like driftwood or abandoned kittens and Hannah doesn't know how to rescue him. Paul doesn't want to be rescued – but with help, he can find a way to save himself.

    All you have to do is step inside . . .When 12-year-old Flick Hudson accidentally ends up in the Strangeworlds Travel Agency, she uncovers a fantastic secret: there are hundreds of other worlds just steps away from ours. All you have to do to visit them is jump into the right suitcase. Then Flick gets the invitation of a lifetime: join Strangeworlds' magical travel society and explore other worlds.But, unknown to Flick, the world at the very centre of it all, a city called Five Lights, is in danger. Buildings and even streets are mysteriously disappearing. Once Flick realizes what's happening she must race against time, travelling through unchartered worlds, seeking a way to fix Five Lights before it collapses into nothingness -- and takes our world with it.

    His parents are both scientists and they usually have all the answers. Dad mutters something about Albie's mum being alive and with them in a parallel universe. So Albie finds a box, his mum's computer and a rotting banana, and sends himself through time and space to find her...

    The laird has had enough with raids by the Macleods and Maccauleys. The remnants of the clan is trapped on the island with no possibility of further retreat, and the clan has nowhere to go but on the offensive—if they are to survive. A medieval dagger belonging to the Morrisons holds the power to transport people back in time to the sixteenth century. Time and again, the dagger has brought a woman to ease a lonely warrior’s heart. Can the dagger work its magic one more time? Books in the Searching for a Highlander series of time travel romances Book 1-The Highlander’s Stronghold Book 2-The Highlander’s Keep Book 3-The Highlander’s Home

    Her feelings don't make it any easier for her to cope with Molly's strange illness and eventual death.

    . . ."Once, in a house on Egypt Street, there lived a china rabbit named Edward Tulane. The rabbit was very pleased with himself, and for good reason: he was owned by a girl named Abilene, who treated him with the utmost care and adored him completely. And then, one day, he was lost. Kate DiCamillo takes us on an extraordinary journey, from the depths of the ocean to the net of a fisherman, from the top of a garbage heap to the fireside of a hoboes' camp, from the bedside of an ailing child to the bustling streets of Memphis. And along the way, we are shown a true miracle — that even a heart of the most breakable kind can learn to love, to lose, and to love again.

    But when he mysteriously goes missing, Belle learns that he is being held prisoner by a far-away kingdom under a spell of their own. Now it's up to her to rescue him. With the help of Lumiere, Cogsworth, and several new friends, Belle sets out on a quest that takes her farther than she's ever gone before. This original hardcover middle grade novel based on the beloved Disney classic Beauty and the Beast is perfect for fans of The Descendents and other older Disney books.

    But the diary for her is also an important step towards becoming 'Mayilwriter', to make up for all the stories she hasn't completed and the novel that didn't know where it was going. So she begins. What she gives is a spontaneous, sensitive, honest, intimate and often hilarious peek into the life and mind of an insightful young girl. The Mayil that emerges is as lovable and recognisable as the delightful sketches she presents of her Amma, Appa, brother, grandfather and friends. Mayil has all the confusion and confidence of adolescence as she faces the everyday dilemma of young people, as well as questions of gender stereotyping all around – from Ramayana stories to Rajnikanth movies. With enough to keep head, heart and funny bone tickled and happy, this is a must-read coming of age book by two highly talented young writers that will strike a chord with all who read it – pre-teen, teen and older.

    Once when he was thirty nine and again four years later when he was twelve.The first time had nothing to do with me. The second time definitely did, but I would never even have been there if it hadn’t been for his ‘time machine’…”When Al Chaudhury discovers his late dad’s time machine, he finds that going back to the 1980s requires daring and imagination. It also requires lies, theft, burglary, and setting his school on fire. All without losing his pet hamster, Alan Shearer…

    He has a family, a home, and even Marley, his beloved dog. But there is something very special about Bobby.He is going to save the world.And not just Earth as we know it. Bobby is slowly starting to realize that life in the cosmos isn't quite what he thought it was. And before he can object, he is swept off to an alternate dimension known as Denduron, a territory inhabited by strange beings, ruled by a magical tyrant, and plagued by dangerous revolution.If Bobby wants to see his family again, he's going to have to accept his role as savior, and accept it wholeheartedly. Because, as he is about to discover, Denduron is only the beginning....Cover illustration by Victor Lee