Hotel for Cats by Marie Pavlenko

An absolute delight for all lovers of felines.  The story is set in Paris and specifically in a cat hotel, where pets go to be looked after when their humans go on holiday.  The main characters are the owner, Magda and the four permanent house cats, Bobine, Mulot, Carpette and Couscousse.  This story centres around…

Thinking Forwards: Collaboration | Challenge Labs – a new educational model

Chaired by Professor Jenny Richards Dr Philippa Page (Newcastle University) will introduce the Challenge Lab initiative, an integrated, one-community model for interdisciplinary co-research with students, and tell us about her work with students from subjects as diverse as bio-chemistry, engineering, neuroscience, modern languages and English literature. Then we will hear from Dr Jennifer Arnold, and…

Test Trouble by Serena Patel

Taking tests can be a very stressful thing and particularly when it is maths, and you really don’t like the subject.  Arun is really scared and is trying to find a way to miss the test, but nothing seems to be working.  He eventually gets some advice from Mr Patel, his neighbour, who says that…

Starspill by Catherine Fisher

Day and night, the town of Starspill lies cloaked in fog, bound in its grey, shadowy swathes. No one alive can recall a time before the fog, a time before the wolf swallowed the sun and cast the world into shadow. When a black kitten named Jinx arrives in his bedroom and tells Zac that…

A Ship in the Dark by Yarrow Townsend

Windrose Island is a wild and wonderful place filled with the calls of thousands of seabirds and the ever-changing songs of the sea. Remote though it is, Anna loves her island home which she shares with her stepfather Caleb. Anna does not know it, but everything is about to change, and the ominous arrival of…

Secrets of the Snakestone by Piu Dasgupta

This intriguing tale begins in the dark, seldom-trodden depths of a Parisian sewer beneath Rue Morgue. Here, a young sewer sweeper discovers a glittering gold object, a locket engraved with a strange spidery script. It appears to have a life of its own, twitching in his palm, throbbing with a strange energy . . .…

Roswell Johnson Saves the World by Chris Colfer

Are we alone in the universe? Is anyone out there? These iconic questions have been asked for generations and now eleven-year-old Roswell Johson from South Carolina finally has a definitive answer: we are not alone. For as long as he can remember, Roswell has been obsessed with space. After a disastrous school science fair presentation…

Nush and the Stolen Emerald by Jasbinder Bilan

This book is a riveting adventure from the author who is a master storyteller., She has won a series of children’s book awards since 2019. This is a book for children aged from 7 to 11 years old. It is a story of England, India, and the Empire. The story of a young Indian girl,…