Bella Pearson – författare

Brought up by a wonderful group of animals on a hidden island somewhere deep in the Caribbean, Jim knows no other life or who his real parents are. He washed up on the island as a baby in a barrel of rum and treasure, and has been helping run its special lighthouse with the animals ever since. But now, trouble is brewing ...Someone, or something, has stolen the lighthouse bulb filaments. If Jim, Oscar and the rest of the animals can't get the lighthouse beams working again, the hidden island will no longer be a secret. And with a pirate ship on the horizon, danger is about to smash their tranquil island apart ...

Will Jakeman is the inventor of the world-famous Marvellous Mechanimals – brilliant mechanical animals that defend people from all the dangerous creatures that inhabited their home. At the ripe old age of 99 and three quarters, Will decides he must try to discover the whereabouts of Ureker, the lost planet of his birth invaded by Reptoids, a gang of merciless Space Pirates, when he was still a little baby. Will builds a giant telescope that can see far out into the cosmos - but what he doesn't realise is that his fiddling with the fabric of the cosmos causes a massive space-quake, and a ten-year-old boy called Charlie Small is catapulted through the hole and lands near Will’s factory of inventions. The two embark on a series of adventures trying to get Charlie home - will they succeed or will they be left dangling in space forever?

Ailsa’s mum is ill, not the first time, so they spend the summer with her aunt and uncle. Aunt Bertha, Uncle Nod and their dog Moxie live on an island off the coast, by a beautiful fishing village surrounded by beaches and clifftops. Ailsa and Moxie spend their whole time there exploring these beaches and cliffs, until one day they find a hidden cave. Inside the cave, they find Hefring, a strange woman not keen on strangers. Ailsa slowly gets to know who Hefring is. She is a selkie, a mermaid, a billow maiden from ancient myth. However, she is stuck on land and slowly dying. It is up to Ailsa and her new friend Camilla to save her, but there are plenty of obstacles in the way – not least Ailsa’s own fears and her mum’s illness. The Billow Maiden is a beautifully told tale of friendship, family, healing and transformation from a stunning new writer for children.

When a heartbreaking testimony appears on an anonymous website, it's easier for Cassie's prestigious school to dismiss the accusations than to face the truth: that this is a place where the students aren't safe. As more survivors speak out, Cassie and her friends realise that they must take the situation into their own hands if they want anything to change, no matter the consequences. Cassie goes to a prestigious academic school where girls have only just been admitted after decades of it being single-sex. When a female student from the school anonymously posts about the sexual abuse she has suffered and the school does not act properly, Cassie knows that she needs to take matters into her own hands. She and her friends prepare for battle - with a strike, an assembly, as well as outside school spending their weekends protesting to save the woodland from development. But will her activism only make things worse, or will she succeed in righting the wrongs that so many choose to ignore? And could there be a more personal reason for her behaviour? A powerful, timely verse novel about the need to act and stand up for what's right.

Abducted by spirits from his village, lost boy Akira must make the long journey in north Japan to find his family and save his young sister, before time runs out. Voyaging deeper and deeper into a Japan ‘between the worlds’, Akira and his companions encounter a host of yokai monsters and famous ghosts, discovering a sometimes comical and sometimes terrifying world of interlinked and ghostly short stories along the way.

Ajay isn't too sure how he feels about going on the Year 7 trip to an activity centre - but he discovers that he's braver than he thinks...Board-game pro and science whizz Ajay is good at lots of things, but he knows that the Year Seven trip to the Merrywood Activity Centre will push him way out of his comfort zone. Sure enough, Ajay is soon wishing he was back home, and it doesn’t help that sporty, loud Ollie Marsden has got it in for him. When Ajay’s caught on camera acting like a pathetic scaredy cat, he feels like a total failure. Things go from bad to worse when a twilight orienteering challenge goes horribly wrong. Does Ajay have what it takes to face his fears and save the day?

'A spellbinding and chilling fable' Financial Times'One of the best YA books I have read this year' Just Imagine'Hugely thought-provoking' GuardianWhen Xavier wakes up on the first morning of an enforced family weekend away with his pregnant stepmum and dad, he doesn't recognise where they are - it's as if the house has inexplicably been transported to the set of a video game, inside an impenetrable dome where the family have been 'donated' chickens, goats, wheat to help them survive. There is no trace of their mysterious captors and no way to escape. Three years later, he's sixteen and resigned to life without the internet, other people, let alone a girlfriend... when suddenly another family appears, one with vastly contrasting political ideologies and priorities. In the confines of this strange world, Xavier and 17-year-old gorgeous Mackenzie are thrown together, Mackenzie's erratic father becomes obsessively fixated on escape, and tensions between the two families begin to rise with devastating and tragic consequences... Kenneth Oppel's most thrilling novel to date is challenging, provocative and unforgettable.

'A spellbinding and chilling fable' Financial Times'One of the best YA books I have read this year' Just Imagine'Hugely thought-provoking' GuardianWhen Xavier wakes up on the first morning of an enforced family weekend away with his pregnant stepmum and dad, he doesn't recognise where they are - it's as if the house has inexplicably been transported to the set of a video game, inside an impenetrable dome where the family have been 'donated' chickens, goats, wheat to help them survive. There is no trace of their mysterious captors and no way to escape. Three years later, he's sixteen and resigned to life without the internet, other people, let alone a girlfriend... when suddenly another family appears, one with vastly contrasting political ideologies and priorities. In the confines of this strange world, Xavier and 17-year-old gorgeous Mackenzie are thrown together, Mackenzie's erratic father becomes obsessively fixated on escape, and tensions between the two families begin to rise with devastating and tragic consequences... Kenneth Oppel's most thrilling novel to date is challenging, provocative and unforgettable.