The Best Children's Book Picks UK - August 2022 - Picked by Mr Ripley's Enchanted Books

 

David Owen - Alex Neptune, Dragon Thief: Book 1 - Published by Usborne Publishing (4 Aug. 2022) - ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1474999236 - Paperback - Age: 8+ - You can buy Here

Meet Alex Neptune, the boy with the power of the ocean in his hands - a brand-new hero for fans of Percy Jackson and Dragon Realm!

For as long as Alex Neptune can remember, the ocean has been trying to kill him. So he's not too happy when a bunch of sea creatures drag him to the abandoned aquarium on the hill, where an imprisoned water dragon needs his help. But how can he say no to a magical creature? 

Recruiting his tech-genius best friend Zoe, legend-lover Anil, a sharp-shooting octopus, three acrobatic otters and a thieving seagull, Alex plots a heist to break the dragon out. And suddenly discovers the power of the ocean at his fingertips...

A. F. Harrold (Author), Levi Pinfold (Illustrator) - The Worlds We Leave Behind - Published by Bloomsbury Children's Books (4 Aug. 2022) - ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1526623881 - Hardback - Age: 11+ You can buy HERE

An extraordinary story about friendship and betrayal. Of revenge and retribution but also redemption. Perfect for 11+ readers who enjoy Stranger Things. 

Hex never meant for the girl to follow him and his friend Tommo into the woods. He never meant for her to fall off the rope swing and break her arm. When the finger of blame is pointed at him, Hex runs deep into the woods and his fierce sense of injustice leads him to a strange clearing in the woods - a clearing that has never been there before - where an old lady in a cottage offers him a deal. She'll rid the world of those who wronged him and Hex can carry on his life with them all forgotten and as if nothing ever happened. But what Hex doesn't know is someone else has been offered the same deal.

When Hex's best friend Tommo wakes up the next day, he is in a completely different world but he only has murmurs of memories of the world before. Moments of deja vu that feel like Tommo's lived this day before. 
Can Tommo put the world right again? Back to how it was? Or can he find a way to make a new world that could be better for them all?

Simon Fox - Running out of Time - Published by Nosy Crow Ltd (4 Aug. 2022) - ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1839944390 - Paperback - Age: 8+ - You can buy HERE

A thrilling, unputdownable debut, with extraordinary twists and incredible action, from an incredible new voice in children's fiction.

I can steal time.

The most I can take at the moment is fifteen seconds, which is not a lot. Grandmother took almost three minutes once and she told me she's done more, but I never saw it.

She says there are stories of someone who can take all the time in the world, but how can that be right?

When Alex and his father are forced to flee their home to escape a brutal government, they begin a life-threatening journey across Europe. But when they are separated before they can reach Britain, Alex finds himself alone, with only his extraordinary gift to keep him alive.

Perfect for fans of Alex Rider, Artemis Fowl, and Inception, <I>Running out of Time</I> is an ingenious, high-concept thriller with a twist that you won't believe.

Susie Bower - The Dangerous Life of Ophelia Bottom - Published by Pushkin Children's Books (4 Aug. 2022) - ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1782693604 - Paperback - Age: 10+ You can buy HERE

A refreshingly comic and fast-paced mystery about a girl learning the value of not fitting in, from the acclaimed author of School for Nobodies and The Three Impossibles

Ophelia Bottom longs for an ordinary life: to have normal, well-behaved parents rather than embarrassing actors, and to live in a house that stays still. Instead, she’s stuck living in a rickety converted van – and having to manage her parents’ often disastrous plays at Bottom’s Travelling Theatre.

When the family are forced to stay in the idyllic town of Stopford, Ophelia’s dream appears to be coming true. But someone is trying to drive the Bottoms out, and there’s the issue of the strange Stopford motto: PLASTIC IS FANTASTIC – DIFFERENT IS DANGEROUS. Can Ophelia discover what lurks behind Stopford’s perfect appearance, before she loses everything that makes her family so special?