Year 5 and 6

When the coronavirus hits Hong Kong, ten-year-old Knox Wei-Evans’s mom makes the last-minute decision to move him and his siblings back to California, where they think they will be safe. Suddenly, Knox has two days to prepare for an international move—and for leaving his dad, who has to stay for work.

At his new school in California, Knox struggles with being the new kid. His classmates think that because he’s from Asia, he must have brought over the virus. At home, Mom just got fired and is panicking over the loss of health insurance, and Dad doesn’t even know when he’ll see them again, since the flights have been cancelled. And everyone struggles with Knox’s blurting-things-out problem.

As racism skyrockets during COVID-19, Knox tries to stand up to hate, while finding his place in his new country. Can you belong if you’re feared; can you protect if you’re new? And how do you keep a family together when you’re oceans apart? Sometimes when the world is spinning out of control, the best way to get through it is to embrace our own lovable uniqueness.

Pepper Stark could not be more thrilled to return to New York City with her father, the Captain. Not only will she be back in the place where her late mother once lived but also she'll reunite with her friends Norah and Sol.

But Pepper's excitement for her trip fades when the Captain invites along his new friend Emmaline and her son, Elliott. Still, Pepper is determined to make the most of her time with her friends in the Big Apple, revelling in the energy of the city that never sleeps.

But when dinner at the swanky restaurant where Sol is working ends in the suspicious illness of notorious food critic Anthony 'the Shark' Sharkey, Pepper finds herself entangled in yet another crime.

With only a week before she has to return home, Pepper, Sol, Norah and a reluctantly recruited Elliott are facing an even bigger challenge than the Saffron Diamond mystery, and the stakes have never been so high. If they don't find the culprit, Sol's chef career could be over ... or worse. And New York City might become the place where all of their dreams turn to dust.

From the bright lights of Broadway to back-alley speakeasies, Nicki Greenberg has brought 1920s New York City to life in this delightfully thrilling mystery set in the same world as The Detective's Guide to Ocean Travel.

12-year-old Ben has a bully in his brain who tells him what to do. It makes dealing with a new school, new town and parents who are falling apart seem impossible. This heartfelt story about a boy with OCD celebrates how friendship can make you brave and find the strength to overcome anything ...

New town, new school, but the bully is in Ben's head ...

There are 4 things you should know about Ben:
1. He's 12 years old
2. He's the new kid at school
3. His special number is 4
4. He has a bully in his brain

Sometimes Ben's brain makes him count to 4 to prevent bad things happening. Sometimes it makes him tap or blink in 4s. Mostly it makes the smallest things feel impossible. And with a new school, a moody big brother, an absent dad and a mum battling her own demons, Ben feels more out of control than ever. But then he meets April, and with his new friend, Ben might finally figure out how to stand up to the bully in his brain, once and for all.

An authentic and affecting #ownvoices story about living life with OCD, from the inspiring author and mental health activist, Lily Bailey. Perfect for readers of A Kind of Spark and The Goldfish Boy.

Black Panther meets Percy Jackson in this action-packed and empowering middle-grade superhero series about a British-Nigerian girl who learns that her Afro hair has psychokinetic powers. Soon to be a feature film with a major streamer!

I close my eyes, trying to push the power bubbling in me back down . . . Hairbands snap as my hair shoots out like superfine arrows, tearing through everything in its path.

Onyeka has a lot of hair – the kind that makes strangers stop in the street. She’s always felt insecure about her vibrant curls, until she makes an important discovery: she can control her hair with her mind!

Her mother quickly whisks her off to the Academy of the Sun, a school in Nigeria where Solari – children with superpowers – are trained. But Onyeka and her new friends at the Academy soon have to put their powers to the test as they find themselves caught up in an epic battle . . . one that puts the future of all Solari at risk.

The Island of Morovia is shaped like a broken heart. The humans live on one side of the island, and the alkonosts - the bird-people - live on the other. But it wasn't always this way...

Linnet wishes she could sing magic, like her father, Nightingale - and bring the two sides of her island together again. For her land has been divided by a terrible tragedy, and Linnet has been banished with her father to the deepest swamps, leaving behind her best friends, Hero and Silver.

So when her father is captured, Linnet must be brave and embark on a treacherous journey. Through alligator pools and sinking sands, she finds new friends. Yet without her singing magic, Linnet discovers something even more powerful. Something that could save her father, and heal the broken heart of her island once more...

With themes of grief, trust, love, and that we have more in common than that which divides us, this is a heartfelt book filled with adventure and stunning storytelling from bestselling Sophie Anderson.

Solomon Macaroni is the sweetest vampire you've ever met. Can he survive one hundred years staying with his naughty prankster cousins?

You've never met a vampire like Solomon Macaroni before - he's friendly, polite and makes a mean tofu Bolognese. Understandably, when his parents go on a one-hundred-year cruise without him, Solomon is not impressed. Especially because it means having to stay in creepy Transylvania with his six cousins, who are the rudest and naughtiest vampires in existence. (Well, apart from Lucy. He likes her.) Not even his uncle, Count Dracula, the oldest vampire in the world, can stop their pranks. Solomon wishes he could spend the next hundred years alone at his own house with his spider friend, Fred, instead.

But when his cousins venture into the spooky Wildwood on a dangerous mission, Solomon - against his better judgement - agrees to help Lucy rescue them. At least, that's what he thinks he's doing. In the forest, Solomon must draw on all he knows - about old magic, wet wipes and the importance of a well-timed entrance - to save his catastrophic cousins and possibly the world.

A missing friend, a gothic city, a secret society full of wonder, invention and maybe a hint of magic . . . welcome to the world of the Midnighters!

Find the courage to be extraordinary . . .
Ema Vasková has always felt different. In a family of famous scientists, there's not much room for superstition or omens - but they seem to follow Ema wherever she goes. It doesn't help that she appears to predict events before they happen, and has a peculiar fear of shadows . . .

When Ema is sent to stay with her eccentric uncle in Prague, she fears she'll lose the chance to ever fit in. But then she meets Silvie - a girl who finally sees Ema for the extraordinary person that she is. Soon the girls are meeting for secret midnight adventures, and facing Ema's fears together.

But then disaster strikes. Silvie goes missing - and it's up to Ema to find her. Now she must gather the courage to hunt the city, find her friend, and uncover the secrets of the one clue Silvie left as to where she might be - inside the mysterious Midnight Guild . . .

The second book in Belinda Murrell’s Tuscian series, set in an Italian Renaissance inspired world filled with magic, mystery, mischievous creatures, and danger at every turn!

‘You don’t understand how dangerous this is. Anyone you see could be a spy. You cannot trust anyone.’

Sophie returns to the magical land of Tuscia and is instantly thrown into danger – Nanna and Caterina Rossellana have been kidnapped.

To save them, Sophie and Nicco must team up with a theatre troupe who are performing for the Mago, in the city across the Silver Sea.

Can Sophie unravel the political intrigues of Venetto and save the grandmothers? Or will she fall foul of the evil Mago and be thrown into the dungeons to be eaten by the Mostro of the Dark Waters?

Eddie Woo Super Sleuth is ready for action and mystery. With a mind for maths and a nose for adventure, he is about to skateboard into ... danger.

When Eddie receives a cryptic message from Mr Appleby, a Woo family friend and resident of Sunny Side Aged Care, he is soon on a mission to thwart the evil plans of smugglers.

It's up to Eddie to crack the clues and improve his skateboarding so that he can enter the annual school Triple Threat Quest with his best friends Rusty and DT.

Wolf Girl and her pack are in a truckload of trouble this time!

As the train Wolf Girl is driving hurtles towards the locked gates of an enemy city, the last thing Gwen expects to see out the window is her long lost sister!

Soon the pack are on an epic chase, encountering deadly enemies and plenty of prehistoric surprises.

But just when things seem most dire, help arrives in an unexpected form!