Reading for pleasure at Key Stage 3 and beyond

Fifteen-year-old Fig decides to defy her controlling mother and defeat her biggest fears by learning to swim and then complete an organised swim on each continent

Alice's mother finaly takes her and her younger siblings away from her violent step-father, to the town where she grew up, where Alice discovers a new side to herself and her family.

18-year-old Muslims Adam and Zayneb meet in Doha, Qatar, during spring break and fall in love as both struggle to find a way to live their own truths.

Imagine having the perfect friend, one who never steals, lies or bullies. Now you can, with the TrooFriend 560, the latest in artificial intelligence! What can go wrong with a robot buddy? Especially one that's developing human characteristics and feelings, and who has just run away with her human?

A boy struggling with OCD, starts at a new at school and learns to cope with the help of friendship and understanding.

A teenager falls in love with a ghost and together they work out who it was that murdered him

A Mami Wata mermaid must embark on a treacherous journey to make amends for saving the life of a boy at sea and endangering her people.

A young slave embarks upon an adventure when a female slave arrives at his master's house with a mysterious note written on a wax tablet.

A young girl discovers that she is being chased across time by soul hunters and can only trust Phoenix, a young man who rescues her twice in quick succession.

Two children must risk everything to escape their fate and find the impossible...

When her mum falls into a coma, a young teenager uses key objects from her mother's childhood in Kuwait to magically experience key moments from her past that help strengthen their fragile relationship.

Thirteen-year-old Jo tries to juggle life in a family that is half Chinese, half English, running a takeaway in Coventry

A robot locked away for two hundred years has the power to end a civil war - but must decide who and what he is.

When 14-year-old Jennifer moves to a new town for a fresh start, her mum insists she behaves like a girl and ditch her tomboy style and skateboarding friends

A story told in poems about a young girl deeply affected by her father's death, who finds herself in a strange library and a dark forest as she grapples with her loss.

An Indonesian boy wonders if he has special powers like his hero, Spider-Man, after he survives an undersea mining accident similar to that which killed his dad.

Follows two young people on different continents whose lives are catastrophically changed by global warming.

Two young magicians set out to retrieve the vanished Blackpool Tower and wind up in Las Vegas with the help of magic.

A teen girl's life is turned upside down when her estranged mother returns from America after 11 years

Two girls strike up an unlikely friendship when they start to collaborate on empowering street art projects

Ponders upon mysteries and phenomena throughout history that have defied explanation.

An exploration of the story of slavery: from Africa to the tall ships, from back-breaking work in a strange land to resilience and eventual emancipation

An illustrated journey through the countries of Africa.

Gives information about over 40 dinosaurs, focusing on where they lived around the world.

A history of post-war Black Britain told through the lens of these groundbreaking songs.

A history of the LGBTQ+ rights movement across the world, from ancient times to the present day.

Presents reasons behind global inequality, impacts of climate change, and suggests some practical solutions to the issues.

Choose Love is a cycle of poems that highlights the experience of those forced to become refugees.

Guide to 52 core problems faced by teen girls today including online safety, career choices, and relationship issues

A guide to masculinity with questions covering physical changes, managing emotions, friends and family, and how to have healthy relationships.

This collection of illustrated portraits celebrates the lives of influential figures who have achieved amazing things in recent times.

Discover everything you need to know about biology, with the simplest most visual guide to the science of life.

Discover how the migration of peoples throughout human history has shaped the modern world.

An anthology of poems written by women on the themes of freedom, escape and the need to wander.

A collection of poems inspired by the Natural History Museum in London and its collection.

Follow that Word is a celebration of imagination and demonstrates the true diversity of language.

Amazing Rivers takes readers on a tour of the world's waterways, revealing the animals that call them home, the societies that rely on them and the environmental issues threatening them along the way.

A toolkit for teenage boys on respect and consent, helping them call out bad behaviour and giving them the confidence to be their best selves.

A soundtrack to pivotal historical moments from around the world.

Explores how scientists identify and study bacteria

#My name is Peter Grant and until January I was just probationary constable in that mighty army for justice known to all right-thinking people as the Metropolitan Police Service (as the Filth to everybody else). My only concerns in life were how to avoid a transfer to the Case Progression Unit - we do paperwork so real coppers don't have to - and finding a way to climb into the panties of the outrageously perky WPC Leslie May.

A magnetic novel about two families, strangers to each other, who are forced together on a long weekend gone terribly wrong

All over the world women are discovering they have the power.

Still a teenager Nazneen finds herself in an arranged marriage to a man twenty years older. Moved away from her childhood village, Nazneen is moved to London, not knowing a word of english and confined to her flat. This title exlpores the role of fate in our lives and traces the transformation of an Asian girl.

When Leah finally returns after a deep sea mission that ended in catastrophe, her wife Miri knows that something is wrong. Whatever happened in that vessel stranded on the ocean floor, Leah has carried part of it with her, onto dry land and into their home.

1926, and in a country still recovering from the Great War, London has become the focus for a delirious new nightlife. In the clubs of Soho, peers of the realm rub shoulders with starlets, foreign dignitaries with gangsters, and girls sell dances for a shilling a time.

A day like any other for security chief Tracy Waterhouse, until she makes a shocking impulse purchase. That one moment of madness is all it takes for Tracy's humdrum world to be turned upside down, the tedium of everyday life replaced by fear and danger at every turn.

The Booker prize-winning sequel to The Handmaid's Tale

Soon to be a major film starring Tom Hanks. Theb international phenomenon/b quirky and bittersweet, heartbreaking yet outrageously funny. Perfect for fans of Rachel Joyces ibThe Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry/b /iand Jonas Jonassons ibThe 100 Year Old Man Who Climbed Out of a Window and Disappeared/b/i.

Troy has fallen. The Greeks have won their bitter war. They can return home as victors - all they need is a good wind to lift their sails. But the wind has vanished, the seas becalmed by vengeful gods, and so the warriors remain in limbo - camped in the shadow of the city they destroyed, kept company by the women they stole from it.

April 19th, 1831. In two or three hours I'll be dead. So begins the chilling last testament of Gus Landor, a retired New York City police constable, whose numerous talents include code-breaking, riot control and the 'gloveless interrogation'. A young cadet has been found hanged at a military academy on the shores of the Hudson River. Before his body could be buried, however, it was stolen and his heart brutally carved out.

Welcome to the Winter Garden. Open only at 13 o'clock. You are invited to enter an unusual competition. I am looking for the most magical, spectacular, remarkable pleasure garden this world has to offer.

Secrets. Betrayal. Seduction. Welcome to the Alexandrian Society.

Ninety-one-year-old Gretel Fernsby has lived in the same mansion block in London for decades. She leads a comfortable, quiet life, despite her dark and disturbing past. She doesn't talk about her escape from Germany over seventy years before. She doesn't talk about the post-war years in France with her mother. Most of all, she doesn't talk about her father, the commandant of one of the most notorious Nazi concentration camps.

A mysterious old house with dark secrets, a dead sister, a

Come of age in the credit crunch. Be civil in a hostile environment. Step out into a world of Go Home vans. Go to Oxbridge, get an education, start a career. Do all the right things. Buy a flat. Buy art. Buy a sort of happiness. But above all, keep your head down. Keep quiet. And keep going.

There are dark forces at work in our world (and in Manchester in particular), so thank God The Stranger Times is on hand to report them . . .

The Book of Koli begins a breathtakingly original new trilogy set in a strange and deadly world of our own making.

The journey through M. R. Carey's 'immersive, impeccably rendered world' (Kirkus) continues in The Trials of Koli - the second book of the Rampart trilogy.

M. R. Carey's Rampart Trilogy is 'an epic post-apocalyptic fable' (Kirkus), set in a future where nature has turned against us. Now, in the breathtaking final chapter, the world that was lost comes back to haunt those who survived - as Koli's journey comes to its astonishing close.

Obi Okonkwo is an idealistic young man who, thanks to the privileges of an education in Britain, has now returned to Nigeria for a job in the civil service. However in his new role he finds that the way of government seems to be backhanders and corruption. Obi manages to resist the bribes that are offered to him, but when he falls in love with an unsuitable girl - to the disapproval of his parents - he sinks further into emotional and financial turmoil. The lure of easy money becomes harder to refuse, and Obi becomes caught in a trap he cannot escape.

Ezeulu, headstrong chief priest of the god Ulu, is worshipped by the six villages of Umuaro. But he is beginning to find his authority increasingly under threat - from his rivals in the tribe, from those in the white government and even from his own family. Yet he still feels he must be untouchable - surely he is an arrow in the bow of his God? Armed with this belief, he is prepared to lead his people, even if it means destruction and annihilation. Yet the people will not be so easily dominated.

The Salmon of Doubt is Douglas Adams's indispensable guide to life, the universe and everything. It includes short stories and eleven chapters of a Dirk Gently novel that Douglas Adams was working on at the time of his death, and features an introduction by Stephen Fry.

Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams, author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, is a much-loved cult classic, that has spawned radio dramas, television, theatre and comic book adaptations across the globe.

The second Dirk Gently book by Douglas Adams, The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul is a witty detective story perfect for fans of his phenomenally successful The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature

The short stories of Kingsley Amis - the great master of post-war comic prose - are dark, playful, moving, surprising and extremely funny. This definitive collection gathers all Amis's short fiction in a single volume for the first time and encompasses five decades of storytelling. In 'The 2003 Claret', written in 1958, a time machine is invented for the weighty task of sending a man to 2010 to discover what the booze will taste like. In 'Boris and the Colonel' a Cambridge spy is unearthed in the sleepy English countryside with the help of a plucky horse, while In 'Mason's Life' two men meet inside their respective dreams. The collection spans many genres, offering ingenious alternative histories, mystery and horror, satirical reflections and a devilishly funny attacks. Amis's stories reveal the scope of his imagination and the warmth beneath his acerbic humour, and they all share the unmistakable style and wit of one of Britain's best loved writers.

Life After Life" follows Ursula Todd as she lives through the turbulent events of the last century again and again.

Penelope. Immortalised in legend and myth as the devoted wife of the glorious Odysseus, silently weaving and unpicking and weaving again as she waits for her husband's return.

A clever and addictive thriller from the bestselling author of The Handmaid's Tale and The Testaments

Life Before Man is a tragicomic tale of love seeking to find its way in the wake of death from the bestselling author of The Handmaid's Tale and The Testaments

Presents a semi-autobiographical exploration of the troubled life of the Grimes family in Harlem during the Depression.

'Like everything else since the war, the sky was in a state of change'

The tenth Culture book from the awesome imagination of Iain M. Banks, a modern master of science fiction.

Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize Arthur and George grow up worlds apart in late nineteenth-century Britain: Arthur in shabby-genteel Edinburgh, George in the vicarage of a small Staffordshire village. Arthur is to become one of the most famous men of his age, while George remains in hard-working obscurity. But as the new century begins, they are brought together by a sequence of events that made sensational headlines at the time as The Great Wyrley Outrages. This is a novel about low crime and high spirituality, guilt and innocence, identity, nationality and race. Most of all it is a profound and moving meditation on the fateful differences between what we believe, what we know and what we can prove.

When John Franklin crash lands his Wellington bomber in Occupied France at the height of the Second World War, there are two things on his mind - the safety of his crew and his own badly injured arm. The family of a mill-owner risk their own lives to hide Franklin in their home until he regains his health. But during the balmy summer months that follow, the pilot's situation becomes increasingly complicated by his feelings for Françoise, the daughter of the house. And as German patrols close in on the area, his only chance of survival is to escape from France.

The lost novel from the author of The Second Sex

#It was just another day in the life of a small Atlantic resort until the terror from the deep came to prey on unwary holiday makers. The first sign of trouble a warning of what was to come took the form of a young woman's body, or what was left of it, washed up on the long, white stretch of beach... A summer of terror has begun.

Discover the lesser-known but brilliant novel by the hugely under-appreciated Anne Brontë.

In Burgess's infamous nightmare vision of youth culture in revolt, 15-year-old Alex and his friends set out on a diabolical orgy of robbery, rape, torture and murder.

Afrobeats is a fast growing genre, one that has carved out a distinct and powerful Black identity rooted within the African continent.

A powerful, comprehensive guide for digital self-care and allyship from one of our leading activists for online equality, Seyi Akiwowo.

A new, fully updated narrative edition of David Attenborough's seminal biography of our world, The Living Planet. Nowhere on our planet is devoid of life. Plants and animals thrive or survive within every extreme of climate and habitat that it offers. Single species, and often whole communities adapt to make the most of ice cap and tundra, forest and plain, desert, ocean and volcano.

I am 94. I've had an extraordinary life. It's only now that I appreciate how extraordinary. As a young man, I felt I was out there in the wild, experiencing the untouched natural world - but it was an illusion. The tragedy of our time has been happening all around us, barely noticeable from day to day - the loss of our planet's wild places, its biodiversity. I have been witness to this decline. 'A Life on Our Planet' is my witness statement, and my vision for the future. It is the story of how we came to make this, our greatest mistake - and how, if we act now, we can yet put it right. We have one final chance to create the perfect home for ourselves and restore the wonderful world we inherited.

David Baddiel examines the -ism that woke culture and identity politics leave behind: antisemitism.

Autism in women and girls is still not widely understood, and is often misrepresented or even overlooked. This graphic novel offers an engaging and accessible insight into the lives and minds of autistic women, using real-life case studies.

A brilliant narrative investigation into the 1920s case that inspired Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers and Margery Allingham.

Fern Brady was told she couldn't be autistic because she's had loads of boyfriends and is good at eye contact. This is a story of how being female can get in the way of being autistic and how being autistic gets in the way of being the 'right kind' of woman.

John Updike compared them to 'the sun coming out on an Easter morning'. Bob Dylan introduced them to drugs. The Duchess of Windsor adored them. Noel Coward despised them. JRR Tolkien snubbed them. The Rolling Stones copied them. Leonard Bernstein admired them. Muhammad Ali called them 'little sissies'. Successive Prime Ministers sucked up to them. No one has remained unaffected by the music of The Beatles. As Queen Elizabeth II observed on her golden wedding anniversary, 'Think what we would have missed if we had never heard The Beatles.'

Battling an overfilled inbox? Your ever-lengthening to-do lists? Struggling against distraction? What if you tried to stop doing everything, so you could finally get round to what counts?

Tim Clare has suffered from anxiety and panic attacks for over a decade. At their worst, his attacks would see him curled on the floor, screaming to his wife for help. When they became more than he and his family could manage, Tim made a promise to himself - he would try everything he could to get better, every method and medicine.

Welcome to Clarkson's farm. It's an idyllic spot, offering picturesque views across the Cotswolds, bustling hedgerows, woodlands and natural springs. Jeremy always liked the idea being a farmer. But, while he was barrelling around the world having more fun with cars than was entirely reasonable, it seemed obvious that the actual, you know, farming was much better left to someone else

What if the things we keep hidden say more about us than those we put on display?

Life hasn't always been straightforward for Daisy May Cooper: growing up in rural poverty in Gloucestershire with her brother Chaz, she had to work a myriad of low-paid and unrewarding jobs just to make ends meet. Don't Laugh, It'll Only Encourage Her is the endearingly honest and hilarious memoir from the creator and star of award-winning BBC comedy This Country.

A Brief History of Time for the 21st Century

Take charge of your feelings by mastering the monk mindset.

A STUNNING COLLECTION OF POEMS CURATED BY THE NEW POET LAUREATE AND THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF FOUR FIELDS

Join Susie Dent, lexicographer extraordinaire and Queen of Countdown's Dictionary Corner, on a curious and exceedingly interesting adventure through all the very best RED HERRINGS, COCK AND BULL STORIES and NINE-DAY WONDERS in the English language.

Welcome to a year of wonder with Susie Dent, lexicographer, logophile, and longtime queen of Countdown's Dictionary Corner.

Korea is a global phenomenon. K-pop tops the charts, kimchi spices up meals and K-drama dominates TV screens. Now, it's time to discover more of the country and culture that's captivated the world.

An eleven-year-old girl's world is turned upside-down when she has to go and live with her mother in the city after her father, with whom she lives in the woods, is seriously injured in an accident.

When Tom's mum and Zofia's dad announce they are having a baby and moving in together, the polar opposite children struggle to cope with the situation.

A girl travels across the Himalaya Mountains guided by a bird she believes to be the spirit of her grandmother as she ventures from her rural home to the city to find her missing father.

A girl finds comfort in ballet lessons as she adjusts to life in Britain after fleeing Syria with her family.

Thirteen-year-old Jo tries to juggle life in a family that is half Chinese, half English, running a takeaway in Coventry

A Wizard boy and a Warrior girl meant to be enemies join together to defeat the new threat from Witches

Conjoined twins start at a normal school after being previously homeschooled, and one of them develops a chronic heart disease endangering both of their lives.

Boy, Everywhere chronicles the harrowing journey taken by Sami and his family from privilege to poverty, across countries and continents, from a comfortable life in Damascus, via a smuggler's den in Turkey, to a prison in Manchester.

Archie discovers that his dad is gay and tries to mend the awkwardness this causes between them by attending the London Pride Parade.

An evacuated boy builds a relationship with the gorilla at the zoo owned by the woman with whom he's been billeted.

In the aftermath of World War One, two children and their dogs set out to find lost family in France, by crossing the Channel in the barge that is their home

Two young teens - same donor father, different mothers who are in a relationship - strive to understand themselves and their relationships with friends and family.

A girl joins a secret guild of scientists who have discovered how to harness the souls of dead people into mechanical animals in the hope that she can bring her dead brother back to life.

A young girl and her family move to a remote island in search of an elusive shark, but her mum's mental health begins to deteriorate.

A young refugee from Afghanistan searches to find his grandfather's precious musical instrument which was stolen from their new home in Boston.

Two sisters take it upon themselves to investigate the murder of one of the fellow residents of their housing estate

Max, Leo and Elsa are three friends in Vienna in 1936, whose lives are transformed by the course of events over the next nine years.

Eleven-year-old Harrison, helped by his new friend Lenny Singh, solves the mystery of a jewel thief on while on a steam train trip with his uncle.

A young boy with a love of birds foils an escaped prisoner's plans by using the skills he's learned bird watching.

Nicky and Kenny find themselves in danger when they get lost on the Yorkshire Moors in a snowstorm.