This is a gentle book in which a fat agreeable feline unites two former enemies - Alfie (owner) and Grace (arriviste) - in their quest to find him. Author Holly Webb delicately threads in a minor dementia subplot. But more pertinently, Penguin gets to disembowel a pigeon in the bathroom, albeit off-screen - something which never happened with Mog. Kitty Empire
Photograph: Scholastic Photograph: Action images
Francesca Simon has written scads of books since the Horrid Henries. Pre-teen Simon, though, is so much better than simple Simon. The Sleeping Army finds a bewildered 21st-century every-girl, Freya, forced into an impossible quest. But this is a present in which the old pagan gods were never superseded by Christianity. There are shades of Philip Pullman as Freya finds Odin, Thor et al moribund and senile. She sulkily sets off on a quest to restore their power in the company of warring siblings Alfi and Roskva, and a foul-smelling berserker named Snot. As they journey – literally to Hel(sic) and back - the yuck goes exponential. KE
Photograph: Profile Photograph: Action images
Jacqueline Wilson's 654th novel (or thereabouts) packs in plenty of bloody tubercular coughs and end-of-the-pier freaks (kindly drawn). This is the next book along in the Hetty Feather series, in which Wilson’s care home heroine Tracy Beaker is basically reincarnated as a foundling hospital girl 135 years previously. Plucky Sapphire (formerly Hetty) goes out to earn her keep, fuelled by Wilson’s class rage and carnivorous sense of yearning. KE Photograph: Doubleday
Anyone who enjoyed the works of Joan Aiken and Jan Pieńkowski at an impressionable age will coo fondly over the reissue of 1971’s The Kingdom Under the Sea, Aiken’s retelling of a series of Eastern European folk-tales. It too, is chock-full of ghastliness, as vintage children’s tales used to be. Pieńkowski’s illustrations are whimsically macabre. KE
Photograph: Jonathan Cape Photograph: Action images
Michael Morpurgo’s slim sequel to War Horse riskily abandons the horse’s eye view. What happened next to the half-thoroughbred war veteran Joey and his master Albert is told as a story within a story, two generations on. If you are fond of Morpurgo, the loss of Joey’s stoical musings won’t matter. The warm horsey glow as steadfastness triumphs over adversity is enough, but there are no suppurating wounds, no stench of trench. KE
Photograph: Harper Collins Photograph: Action images
There’s a temptation to set the bar low when reading the debut children’s book from an actor. But Mackenzie (Pirates Of The Office) Crook’s Windvale Sprites is fantastic. Ostensibly, it’s a book about fairies. But these aren’t girly sprites, these are diffident, humanoid dragonflies that protagonist Asa Brown sets out to capture, before slowly realising the full horror of that Victorian urge to pin and mount. Yuck factor? Asa realises too late that leaving a dead sprite in a shoebox next to a hot water pipe for a few days isn’t a good idea...KE
Photograph: Faber Photograph: Action images
Look Into My Eyes features Ruby Redfort, a Clarice Bean bit-parter now enjoying her own spin-off series. Mathematician Marcus de Sautoy lends a hand with the puzzles thrown in the path of this rich, pampered but razor-sharp American teen sleuth. The villains are cartoonishly bad, in the most enjoyable way. And if it lacks any actual ooze, Ruby Redfort makes up for it in being witty and stylish. Having pretty much abandoned the little ones for the tween market, the writer really ought to change her name to Lauren Older Child by deed poll. KE
Photograph: Harper Collins Photograph: Action images
Shot through with mystery, this is a deliciously old-fashioned story of how one lonely little girl unravels the obscurity of her past. Charity has no mother, a father whose remoteness keeps him at a distance and the burden of an unnamed "condition" which prevents her doing the things she wants to. But behind a demure and obedient exterior, Charity is a curious child: one snowy day she sets out, determined to find out what lies behind her recurring dream … It's a touching journey of discovery filled with atmosphere and surprise. Julia Eccleshare
Photograph: Bodley Head Photograph: Action images
Sprinkled with wonder and a bit of magic, this is a hard-hitting story about the cruelty of the immigration system. Julie tells the story of the unexpected arrival at school, back in year six, of Chingis and Nergui, two brothers from Mongolia. When they ask her to become their 'Good Guide' Julie gets completely caught up in their stories of the imaginary and all-too-real dangers they face. Funny, well-observed, kind and warm-hearted, it's a story that will influence thinking. JE
Photograph: Walker Photograph: Action images
Followers of boy spy Alex Rider will be scrambling to get their hands on Scorpia Rising, the ninth and final adventure in Anthony Horowitz's bestselling series. And why not? There's the familiar enjoyable hokum of the genre – impregnable citadels, inescapable jails, fetishistic descriptions of luxury weaponry, vehicles and consumer goods. And those whose idea of a proper villain is a heavily accented cloned albino sadist carrying a deceptively ordinary-looking walking stick and saying things like "My dear Mr Kurst…" (I may have clumped two or three of them together here) will be purring with happiness. Phil Hogan
Photograph: Walker Photograph: Action images
This action-filled comic book is set in the multiple layers of fascinating Triptych City, and it is hugely absorbing visually. To save his job, Randall, a worker in the lost property office, must track down the owner of the oldest abandoned item in his charge. Randall tries to discharge this apparently simple job by following a series of clues, but somehow nothing is straightforward and he has to find ways of scrambling out of disasters as best he can. With its strong sense of pace and drama, Baggage shows the Etherington Brothers' reputation as creators of great comic stories, told equally skilfully in words and pictures, going from strength to strength. JE
Photograph: David Fickling Photograph: Action images
Martha, and Tug her brother, have a problem. Their problem is Dad, who isn't behaving like he used to. Martha can't understand it – it's been two years since Mum died, and he was just the same to start with; he told Martha and Tug he had enough love for both of them, and they'd just have to get on with life. But when, months later, they moved house, and then he stopped working, it seemed Dad started acting strangely. The characters are real and wonderfully done. Although Mason is brave enough to address alcoholism, he has chosen to avoid using the word depression anywhere in the novel, even though that is clearly what Dad is battling with. Marcus Sedgwick
Photograph: David Fickling Books Photograph: Action images
Mina McKee is a young girl whose father has died and who lives alone with her mother. A "misfit" to her teachers, a "disgrace" to the head, "crazy" and "bonkers" to her peers, Mina has left school and, after a brief visit to a Pupil Referral Unit, is being home-schooled by her mum, a thing that they find entirely excellent. Almond covers many subjects: big stuff such as death and loss; mundane stuff like the appropriate nature of schooling. Everyone has met a child like Mina at least once, (metaphorically) sitting in a tree, looking down at the world, and wondering and whispering to themselves at the beauty of it all. Marcus Sedgwick
Photograph: Hodder Photograph: Action images
When I read this book I felt as though I was living in it, because the author describes everything so vividly and well. It is set in a school with a very bad reputation – the school has some orphans in it and it is built on some kind of historical ground. The school is very eccentric, with ghosts and monks and animals. I thoroughly enjoyed it – it's thrilling, unusual and the author keeps you interested by introducing new ideas. There are many genres in this book: horror, mystery, fantasy and a bit of history. Paula, reader review
Photograph: Simon & Schuster Photograph: Action images
There's something surprisingly homely about Robot City. Although it's a metal metropolis inhabited by robots, it doesn't eschew human life or work. In fact, robots and humans co-exist happily; in the annual Automated Cup the unlikely combos of robo-horses and human jockeys compete on equal terms against robo-jockeys and real horses. The same mixed approach works brilliantly for the emergency services. A mass of information is wittily revealed in wonderful spreads of great imagination, while those with a thirst for further delights can lift flaps and open envelopes to find out more. JE
Photograph: Templar Photograph: Action images
Sky Hawk is set in a small farming village in the mountains of Scotland. It starts with a meeting between three boys who seem, at first, to be quite irritating and childish, especially Rob who is a bit of a show-off, and Iona, a girl who has returned to the village to live with her grandfather who is almost an outcast in the village. Callum has the strength of mind to stand up to his friend to defend Iona and she then shares an amazing secret with him about a wild creature that is living on his father's farm... The characters develop and change throughout the book and the boys are so much more grown up by the end. lottielongshanks, reader review
Photograph: OUP Photograph: Action images
"I do not want to shoot you. But I will if I have to. Now give me that letter". These are the threats of many people pursuing PK Pinkerton. This is the story of a brave boy who risks his life to keep a letter safe. What can this letter be and why is everyone after it? As PK embarks on the most exciting journey of his life he realises his strengths and learns important lessons. His foster ma's dying wish was for him not to avenge their death but can PK keep his promise...? I love this book and I couldn't stop reading it – it was gripping and exciting. The characters seem to jump out of the page. It shows the hardships of people living in Virginia City in the 19th century. kung fu kitty, reader review
Photograph: Orion Photograph: Action images
