Mr Ripley's Enchanted Books - Children's Book Picks Feb 2023 - UK Post One
Thomas Leeds - Jayben and the Golden Torch - Published by Hodder Children's Books (2 Feb. 2023) - ISBN-13 : 978-1444968637 - Paperback
Can one boy with no memories save the world?
In the Earth world, a boy dreams of faraway lands to escape life with his horrible aunt.
In the Elf world, he wakes up with a mysterious golden torch but without any clue who he is ...
except for the compass he pulls from his pocket, engraved with one name: JAYBEN
Jayben discovers that many moons ago, a giant put a dark spell on the golden torch, and the elves forgot everything that had come before. Now they hang precious memories in jars on trees, just to try to remember.
But a new darkness grows among them.
An evil villain called Null is burning down the forests, hellbent on finding the torch and becoming the most powerful being ever to live.
If Jayben can find his own magic and ignite the torch with its fierce violet flame, his power will be unstoppable ... Can Jayben save the world before the lights go out forever?
A story of courage, hope and friendship. Whatever pages are missing in your story, you can be the hero on the next page.
On the day they are born, each Swift is brought before the sacred Family Dictionary. They are given a name and a definition, and it is assumed they will grow up to match. Unfortunately, Shenanigan Swift has other ideas.
So what if her relatives all think she's destined to turn out as a troublemaker, just because of her name? Shenanigan knows she can be whatever she wants - pirate, explorer or even detective.
Which is lucky, really, because when one of the Family tries to murder Arch-Aunt Schadenfreude, someone has to work out whodunit.
With the help of her sisters and cousin, Shenanigan grudgingly takes on the case, but more murders, a hidden treasure and an awful lot of suspects make things seriously complicated.
Can Shenanigan catch the killer before the whole household is picked off? And in a Family where definitions are so important, can she learn to define herself?
IT'S DOWN TO BOB TO SAVE THE WORLD . . . ALL HE NEEDS IS TIME!
Bob doesn't know why he can time travel. He does know that it always happens at the worst possible moments. Like when he's in the bath. Awkward! But when Bob comes face to face with his future self in the middle of a disastrous alternative reality, he has to do something!
In this terrifying version of the future, an evil genius has created a smile-operated selfie camera that turns people into zombies. The world as Bob knows it has completely collapsed. There's not even anywhere to get a decent pizza! It's up to Bob to fix the present, change the course of time and save the whole world!
A hair-raising race into the future and back again . . . and again.
The child - if child it was - came out of the wild-ness. It came out of the sparse bleak marsh where few dared go and none came back. And though the village grew accustomed to the creature they did not forget from whence it came. And they whispered that there was no knowing whether she was sent as a blessing or a bane.'
When the child emerges from the wilderness, no one in the village knows what to do with her. She is odd - half-wild, without speech and seems to have an unnatural bond with animals - especially the falcon, who is always circling above her. The Wise-Woman takes her in, and names her Rhodd, but the rest of the villagers remain suspicious.
Over the years, as Rhodd grows, the village realises that the river, which is their connection to the wider world, is beginning to die, and eventually a dark sickness begins to spread. Soon, too soon, the villagers turn their suspicion on Rhodd and her falcon.
And so, Rhodd sets out to discover what - or who - is causing the river to dry up . . . to protect her mother, her falcon and herself...
A beautiful and enthralling adventure about love, belonging, the delicate balance of nature - and the wildness within us all, for fans of The Last Wild and Where the Crawdads Sing, for 9+ readers.
Comments