A debut author with a brand new seaside mystery to solve. This is gripping stuff!! Entwined with legends of pirates and a diamond the size of a fist, this seaside stormy mystery showcases the ingenuity of young minds together with a blind determination for justice and selfless compassion for an unknown child and her story.

A brilliant debut from Townsend!! A lonely human soul, 12 year-old Orla lives in a simple wooden shed in her garden away from the rest of her water-side rural village of Thorn Creek. She's grumpy, stubborn, closed, hurt, conflicted...and she has a lot to live up to. I will never forget Orla's story and the underlying legacy and importance of female healers and wise-women.

Mini Grey's 'The Greatest Show on Earth' is a lively dive into 4.6 billion years of life our planet courtesy of a cast of crawly critters with charm and humour! Grey has squished an enormous amount of data (not bugs) and visuals depicting the birth of our planet, the first signs of life, the dinosaurs, humans and so much more in between into this colour-bursting gift-quality book!

An hilarious seaside caper for the sunshine season that will be enjoyed by both confident and reluctant readers. Wonderful 'guide' for empathy, and I'll try thinking of gerbils in egg cups next time I need a zen moment! Probably in 5 minutes...

More than ever, our children are aware of the plight of our endangered animals, the plastic pollution in our oceans, the state of our air quality and how important it is to recycle. What a wonderful way to wake up to the beauty of our planet, so in need of our love and care more than ever. Tick, tick, tick, tick…

Book Review by The Kids Books Curator: ‘The Lost Whale’ by Hannah Gold, illustrated by Levi Pinfold (HarperCollins) For ages 8+. From London to LA, an 11 year old boy goes on a journey to find belonging, himself, joy, love and the healing power of an endangered grey whale. A beautiful and bold story of second chances. You'll love it... ocean's promise!

Another inspirational and edge-of-the-seat adventure by Sri Lankan-born author, Nizrana Farook. As with all her books, readers are delighted by the stunning landscapes and nature of the island of 'Serendip'. In her latest story, a young girl has to do all she can to protect an endangered leopard from poachers... a dangerous mission indeed.

I have been waiting in anticipation for this beautiful-looking picture book to arrive... and what a treat...the pairing of Lily Murray with Jenny Løvlie too! A wonderful empowering story for girls who love fun in the outdoors and all the adventures life has to offer!

A gripping and intense story of two worlds, one where grief, bullying and neglect exist and another where beauty, someone loved (but lost) lives, and where there is peace, safety and control... ‘the best prisons…are the ones in which you think you’re free. How do you escape a trap you don’t realise you’re in?’

When teacher, Miss Clark, asks the children to hop onto the country that their parents come from, Georgie feels confused… which country should she stand on? Panicking and after some teasing from classmate, Ben, she then forces her way back to England and when there’s no more room, she heads over to stand on East Africa. Ben says “Why are YOU in Africa?” YIKES!! This is such an important book for classrooms to support awareness of diversity and heritage!!

Meet Charlie and his dads!! They're about to adopt a little sister for Charlie, but Charlie's not sure he's going to be the best big bro!! He had no idea how brave and awesome a kid he was until he met magical fox, Cadno, and had to go on adventure to save him from some rather otherworldly baddies!! Exciting adventure set in Wales.

I thought I'd had all the variants of 'The Three Little Pigs' and 'Little Red Riding Hood' I could take... I was so wrong! Discovering Lucy Rowland and Ben Mantle's brilliant rhyming 'fractured fairy tales' picture book series a couple of years ago was an absolute Godsend. Not only have I used them in my local primary school book clubs and bookshop storytimes, but they're read and re-read at home too whether I'm reading them to my children.

Do you think I could contain myself when I found out about another new debut author with Chicken House, Sabine Adeyinka published her new middle grade last month, set in a Nigerian girls boarding school ‘Jummy at the River School’?! It also made the Bookseller Association’s Independent Bookshops ‘book of the month’ too. Congratulations Sabine!

I am so thrilled to see that the hugely gifted children's author and illustrator Brendan Kearney is back with a sequel to 'Fish', as I completely adore Finn and Skip, and the adventures they go on together to help children understand ecological issues around the world.

A giggle of a story... Frank, the fox, and Bert, the bear, are two really good friends. However, Frank moans to the reader about how simply awful his friend Bert is at playing hide-and-seek. Bert hides with all the expertise of a toddler! As you can imagine the game is over fairly quickly and Frank wins every time. Until one day...

A great book for young minds to let their imagination wander as they put themselves in the shoes of some the less obvious cuddly and cute main characters you might find in books for children. I personally collect any books by The Fan Brothers as they are children's books that can be very much enjoyed by adults too.