Jean Ure – författare

The fourth title in Jean Ure’s acclaimed series of humorous, delightful and poignant stories written in the form of diaries and letters which make them immediately accessible to children.Jean Ure perfectly captures the lives of ordinary children – but no child is ever ordinary, and certainly not Salvatore d’Amato – or Sally Tomato, as he’s sometimes called. He’s out to get a girl and he has a plan: he’s going to write some Disgusting Ditties – one for each letter of the alphabet, and start some secret body-building, too. That way he’s bound to attract someone. (But he doesn’t want his sister to know his plans…)Whether it’s Sal Tomato here, Mandy Small in FRUIT AND NUTCASE, Cherry in SKINNY MELON AND ME, or Becky in BECKY BANANAS, their lives, with all their ups and downs, is presented with courage, humour and tenacity. These are special children who any child can relate to and will draw inspiration and hope from their stories of their lives.

Four stray dogs all with a story to tell of their rescue and how they came to live at Munchy Flats Cottage with their people Flossie and Jo. Buster is the boss dog, and he tells the stories…The first of four titles, each one told through the voice of a rescued dog.Buster the Bitsa is the star of this first book. He’s a mongrel – a bit of this and a bit of that. He’s the boss dog, the one who arrived at Munchy Flats cottage first. When Buster was a puppy he had a lovely warm and loving home. Being an adventurous little soul, he got out of the garden one day and was dognapped by a rogue. He was taken to live with a family who didn’t care for him but he managed to escape. Roaming the woods and fields he rescues a dear little lapdog and becomes a hero – with his picture in all the papers. His People recognise him and there’s a joyful reunion.

Four stray dogs all with a story to tell of their rescue and how they came to live at Munchy Flats Cottage with their people, Flossie and Jo.The second title in this new series. Bella is a pedigree – her real name being Princess Isadora of Bude! She’s a lapdog and spoilt rotten by her elderly owner. When her owner is taken into hospital, Bella has to go and live with another family and is bullied and teased by the other dogs. Bella’s hair gets matted, her ribbon torn and she’s very unhappy. She runs back to the hospital where she thinks her owner is, but sadly her owner has died. Bella has to learn to live with her new bullying siblings. One day, out in the park Bella is bullied by a pack of dogs and is left cowering in the bushes. Her new owners decide that they must find Bella a new home and they take her to Munchy Flats Cottage where she settles in nicely with Buster… A heartwarming ending to a story about bullying dogs.

Four stray dogs, all with a story to tell of their rescue and how they came to live at Munchy Flats Cottage, with their people Flossie and Joe.The Third Chums title in which Bouncer comes to live at Munchy Flats with Buster and Bella. Bouncer is a very lively little Jack Russell terrier. He’s a cheeky young whipper snapper and Buster doesn’t like it when he starts digging up his garden! Bouncer is just a nuisance to the other dogs and Buster decides he needs taking down a peg or two. However, he doesn’t need to because a farmer – with a gun – does it for him. Bouncer has the shock of his young life when the gun goes off but he is still too lively for his owner. Bouncer turns up again at Munchy Flats Cottage with a label round his neck ‘My name is Bouncer and I have been a naughty boy. But I am not a bad boy at heart. Please give me a second chance.’! So Bouncer joins Bella and Buster at Munchy Flats Cottage – where he is a good boy, at heart!

A woolly dog and a fluffy cat live together in perfect harmony – until the arrival of a tiny kitten. Heartwarming story from a renowned author.Woffles is a dog. Very big and woolly.Stretch is a cat. Very smooth and slinky.But one day, this contented pair have a new addition to their family. A big ball of black fluff in the form of a very naughty kitten – Muffy – who holds up her claws with her nails sticking out so they look like pins on a pin cushion. And Muffy decides to play tricks on Woffles and mayhem ensues. It’s up to Stretch to restore harmony to the household . He does so by introducing Muffy to a monster – her own reflection in a long mirror in the upstairs bedroom. Muffy is tamed. Meanwhile Woffles, thinking there is a monster in the upstairs bedroom refuses to go anywhere near it, until persuaded to by Stretch to be brave. What confronts Woffles is a big and woolly dog. So Muffy the kitten seeks protection from the monster in the mirror from Woffles; And Woffles knows that he will be protected by the big woolly dog in the mirror!

Cresta's diary starts: "My mum! She has boys on the brain!" This is a fun, pacey diary-based story told through the eyes of a typical contemporary girl of 14 in an 'AB FAB' kind of family.Cresta and Charlie are seriously embarrassed by their parents who insist on behaving like teenagers… Cresta's mother and her boyfriend play loud music when she's trying to work, and keep her awake at night with their noisy parties.Charlie, who's a bit plump, complains that her mum keeps nagging her to go on a diet. "Hasn't she ever heard of anorexia?" she complains.Cresta and Charlie are serious about their schoolwork and their careers and they are not going to waste their time thinking about boys… at least until they've taken their A levels… But then they meet some seriously cool guys.

The second title in Jean Ure’s acclaimed series of humorous, delightful and poignant stories written in the form of diaries and letters which make them immediately accessible to children.Becky Bananas is eleven years, nine months, three days and fourteen hours old and her great ambitions are: To visit the world-famous Wonderland theme parkTo star on the TV programme This Is Your LifeTo become a famous dancerAnd to be twelveA poignant and heartwarming story of Becky Bananas, who has leukaemia.“It’s always sad having to say goodbye to someone you love. But I wouldn’t have missed knowing someone like Becky for the world!” Jean Ure

The third title in Jean Ure’s acclaimed series of humorous, delightful and poignant stories written in the form of diaries and letters which make them immediately accessible to children.This is the story of how Mandy learns to cope with her untidy life and finally emerges triumphant.Mandy Small has trouble writing so Cat, her teacher, suggests that she tells her life story into a tape recorder. So begins Mandy’s funny and sometimes sad story of life with her loving but chaotic parents – Dad, the Elvis look-alike, and Mum, whose idea of a special meal is burnt toast!Then there’s school, where the horrible Tracey Bigg picks on Mandy and her timid friend, Oliver, not to mention Old Misery Guts, the landlady and Nan, who thinks that Mandy’s parents aren’t fit to look after her. With so many things to worry about, Mandy begins to think that she’s in danger of turning into a real Fruit and Nutcase!Mandy’s story, told in the form of diary into a tape recorder, is a funny and often moving account of a child’s everyday life, with all its difficulties. Hilariously illustrated by Mick Brownfield.

Rags to riches story of a young orphan who becomes a famous actress. A Roaring Good Read launch title.Daisy is brought up in a foundling's hospital in Victorian times. At ten she is sent into service as a skivvy at the Dobell Academy.There she watches all the pupils learning how to be young ladies, wearing fine clothes and learning how to read, write and… dance. Daisy dreams of being like them one day and painstakingly teaches herself to read with the help of one kind teacher. She is caught dancing in one of the piano rooms and is and reproved for having 'ideas above her station', but undaunted she perseveres with her dream to be a 'beautiful lady on the stage.' Daisy even makes up a stage name – Marguerite Dobell. One night, in her attic bedroom, she sees a ghost – an old lady sitting in a rocking chair looking through a scrapbook of photos and theatre programmes. The woman is strangely familiar.When the young ladies of Dobell Academy put on their end of term dancing display, Daisy risks being caught again and does her own dance in the corridor -spotted by two late-comers who realise that Daisy is the perfect little dancer to play the part of Dolly in their production Little Dolly Daydream.That night, in her attic bedroom, Daisy is revisited by her ghost looking in old theatre programmes – she spots the name of the production, it is Little Dolly Daydream and there in the cast list is the name Marguerite Dobell. Daisy has seen into the future, the ghost is none other than herself as an elderly and once famous actress. Her dream will come true.A wonderful unashamedly sentimental rags- to-riches story which young readers from 7 and upwards will adore, and one which will be timeless and backlist well. My Fair Lady meets The Little Match Girl from a prize-winning author.

Danny loves dancing, but not the funky, popular variety that would have his friends green with envy; no, Danny loves Ballet. A ‘Billy Elliot’ for younger readers by this renowned ballet-loving author.Danny loves ballet, but he daren’t admit it to his mates. But one of his teacher’s knows, and she casts Danny in the starring ballet role in the end of term show at school. But Danny is also in the school football team and the rehearsals for the show clash with team nights. How can be maintain his cool with his peers and still star in the performance. Mixups and mayhen ensue as several fibs are told to parents, friends and siblings. But at the end of the day, is Danny sick as a parrot or over the moon? On performance night, Danny is simply DAZZLING!

The fifth gloriously funny and poignant book in Jean Ure’s series of ‘secret’ diary stories.Lily and Violet are twins – physically identical but quite opposite in character. Lily is brash, up-front and in your face. Lily Loudmouth, her dad calls her. Violet is timid and shy. She lives very much in Lily’s shadow – a shrinking violet.Finding it difficult to make friends, Violet finds the perfect solution in Katie, her new pen pal. Soon the two are writing at a fast and furious pace and become very attached to each other. That is, until Katie suggests that they meet…

The latest fabulous story by Jean Ure, a must for any girl’s collection! At Parkfield High no one would have thought nerdy Ruth and super-cool Shayanne would be friends – but maybe there’s more to Shayanne than meets the eye.Ruth is not enjoying her new school. Things were fine at her junior school, but here at Parkfield High, if you’re not in a gang you’re no one. Even her old mates don’t want to know her any more and the bullies are making her life a misery.Enter Shayanne, the new girl. Shayanne is cool, collected and doesn’t give a stuff about any silly gangs. Ruth is astonished and delighted when Shay pals up with her. The bullies leave her alone and it’s great to have a special friend again. But is the supercool Shay as together as she thinks, and why has she been excluded from two other schools?

Another brilliant story containing comedy, calamity and cool characters by acclaimed writer Jean Ure.Even though Tash and Emily go to a nunnery (well, an all girls' school, which amounts to the same thing!), they are into boys in a BIG WAY. They're also stepsisters and the hugest of best friends. So when their mum and dad have to go Peru for work for a couple of months, leaving the girls in their own flat in Aunty Jay's house, they are seriously excited.Of course they've got to take their weird elder sister, Ali, hundreds of her Star Trek videos and Fat Man the cat, but apart from that they are INDEPENDENT GIRLS. And when they find out that there's a dishy boy living in the flat downstairs, they just can't believe their luck…

A humorous, poignant and heartwarming story of four girls and their exasperating parents. Reissued in the Jean Ure branding.“People always fall out after they’re married. I’m going to stay single.”Jasmine, Laurel, Rose and Daisy. Four very different sisters, four very different attitudes! As if living with each other wasn’t bad enough, living with their parents is worse – particularly parents who are both actors. Please!But after the Great Row, the girls find themselves living with Mum, while Dad has gone to America to find work. How are the sisters going to achieve their own personal ambitions: become an actress, model, writer, vet… when they can’t even achieve their joint ambition – to reunite parents who are on different continents?

Three of Jean Ure’s best-loved stories in a bumper 3-in-1 edition – PASSION FLOWER, SHRINKING VIOLET and PUMPKIN PIE.In PASSION FLOWER, Stephanie, a hip fourteen year old, and Samantha, her ten-year-old sister, are stuck in the middle of their parents’ arguments. When Dad suggests going on a summer holiday, they jump at the chance.In SHRINKING VIOLET, twins Violet and Lily lead very different lives; Lily has friends and goes to parties and Violet stays at home, writing to her pen pal. But when Violet borrows bits of Lily’s life to make herself sound more interesting, it’s bound to lead to trouble…In PUMPKIN PIE, Polly is stuck in the middle of a beautiful, fashion-conscious older sister and a high-achieving younger brother grabbing all the attention. Polly never wanted to turn food into her enemy, but when Dad starts calling her Plumpkin she doesn’t have a choice…

Jean Ure returns with more warmth and wit in a brilliant book about what happens when two girls decide to run away from home.Fourteen-year-old Jade is fed up with fighting with her mum and step-dad, and her shy sixteen-year-old friend Honey is having a miserable time with her mum, but when Jade decides they should both run away, Honey isn't so sure.It's only when they get to London and things don't work out quite how they expected that Honey shows she has hidden depths, and Jade realises that home is not so bad after all…

A classic Jean Ure story for girls AND boys, about a boy who’s driving girls wild…Dorian Jones is an 11-year-old boy who is having ‘terrible trouble with girls’. They just won't leave him alone.Girls at school and his annoying younger sisters' friends have massive crushes on him, but Dory's passion is for dinosaurs and he is happiest excavating his back garden. His best friend at school is Aaron and his best friend out of school is a girl called the Herb. How will Dory stop girls throwing themselves at him? Why is Aaron holding hands with Sophy Timms? And why is the Herb acting so strange around Dory all of a sudden…

A fun and feisty new comedy drama from master storyteller Jean Ure – with a gorgeous new cover look to appeal to all girls who love real-life stories.When Daniella Cassidy and her best friend Lisa fall in love with the gorgeous puppy in the next door garden, they never imagine they’ll end up getting to keep him – that they’ll have to save his life – or that he’ll lead them into such big trouble…A crazy real-life adventure about friendship, family, pets – and a plan that spirals out of control.

A fun and feisty new novel from master storyteller Jean Ure – with a gorgeous new cover look to appeal to all girls who love real-life stories.Thirteen-year-old Tamsin has never had a boyfriend, and she's starting to feel left behind. Even her ten-year-old sister has a boyfriend, so surely it must be her turn soon! When Tamsin meets Alex, she just can't stop thinking about him, and she’s thrilled when he asks her out on a date. But he’s sixteen and has already left school. Before she knows it, Tamsin is lying about her age and going behind her parents back… but for how long can she keep up the pretence?A charming story about the innocence of first love – and learning to do the right thing.

Build your child’s reading confidence at home with books at the right levelStretch is a cat, long and slinky. Woffles is a dog, big and woolly. When the People bring home Muffy the new cat with sharp claws, Woffles' quiet life is shattered. But Stretch has an idea to put an end to Muffy's little games… Comically illustrated by Sholto Walker, this hilarious story was written by popular children's author Jean Ure. Copper/Band 12 books provide more complex plots and longer chapters that develop reading stamina.Text type: A humorous animal story.This book has been quizzed for Accelerated Reader.

The second fantastic book about ten-year-old FRANKIE FOSTER – the girl who wants to help, but ends up causing chaos!Frankie Foster loves fixing people's problems. Her help might not always be welcome – and she might cause the odd total disaster – but Frankie always fixes things. Eventually!When Frankie’s mum agrees to have a friend’s daughter to stay for a fortnight, it falls on Frankie’s shoulders to look after Amelia. Having another girl share her broom cupboard of a bedroom is one thing, but wherever Amelia goes, trouble seems to follow, however hard Frankie tries to keep her out of it!Frankie certainly gets more than she bargains for with Amelia, but in typical Frankie fashion, she soon realises how being different is no bad thing and learns some important lessons along the way… like the true meaning of friendship and how to keep life ‘sweet’!

Jacqueline Wilson calls Jean’s books “Funny, funky, feisty – and fantastic reads” and Pumpkin Pie is no exception, especially now it’s sporting a gorgeous new cover look!Who wants to be one of three? And who wants to be the middle one of three? Polly is stuck in the middle, with a beautiful, fashion-conscious older sister and a high-achieving younger brother grabbing all the attention. Polly wants to be the one to get noticed, the one to become a famous actress, the one who is thin. But when Polly decides to take drastic action to shed pounds, she loses more than just weight.

This is the first title in Jean Ure’s acclaimed series of humorous, delightful and poignant stories written in the form of diaries and letters which make them immediately accessible to children.Cherry's mother has just re-married, much to Cherry's disgust. The worst thing about her step-father is his name: Roland Butter. Can you imagine?Cherry's best friend, Skinny Melon, is a sounding board for all Cherry's angsts – Roland's allergies for one – who wants a wimpy step-father, all sniffly and red-eyed? All this and curried compost school dinners to contend with.But when Roland starts sending Cherry coded messages, her curiosity is aroused. Will she ever learn to live with, and even like, Roland Butter?

The beautifully repackaged eighth title in Jean Ure’s acclaimed series of humorous and poignant stories, about making wishes come true."I'm your fairy godmother!" Annie sprang off the bed and did a little twirl. "I'm the one who makes you dreams come true!"Annie's arranged an amazing birthday present for her best friend, Megan. She's surfed the Net, made the contacts, and it's all sorted! Now all they need to do is to escape from Annie's bossy older sister, because a secret meeting wouldn't be the same if it wasn't, well secret…

A humorous and heart-warming story about a little sister, a big sister, a cat, a dad and… a new girlfriend!Bitsy, or ‘Jelly Baby’ as she’s sometimes called, has been doing just fine living with Dad and big sister Em since Mum died. The housework may not always get done, and dinners might not always be at the table, but none of them ever minded!Until one day Dad brings home a girlfriend – and everything changes. Now it looks like it might be down to the Jelly Baby of the family to keep it from falling apart…

A brand new story of crushes, first love and friendship from the original Queen of Tween – Jean Ure!When Maya falls off her bike and into the arms of Jake Harper, her cousin Mattie thinks the crush that follows will be as short-lived as the rest – especially as Maya is a Year 8 nobody and Jake is a Year 12 god. Mattie’s pretty sure that Jake's taken, anyway.But if Jake’s got a girlfriend then why does he keep offering Maya lifts around town? And why does Maya accuse Mattie of being jealous of her? Perhaps there’s more to this crush than meets the eye…

The first in a brand-new series about dancing, friendship and following your dreams from best-loved author Jean Ure, whose books are described by Jacqueline Wilson as “funny, funky, feisty – and fantastic reads!”When new girl Caitlyn arrives at Coombe House School Maddy is sure she must be a fellow ballet dancer; she certainly has all the grace and poise of a ballerina. So when Caitlyn denies it, Maddy isn’t convinced. But it isn’t until she comes across Caitlyn practising ballet in the gym that she realises there must be more to her story… Just what can it be? Maddy is determined to find out!

Hi, I'm Josh, and I'm an alien! Well, that's what my sister Jodie says. To be serious, I'd always felt a bit, well, different. It's not just that I have 'two left feet', and I'm adopted - there was more to it than that. Then I met Taz and Maya, and things started to fall into place. Here's my story.

Part of the Bug Club reading series used in over 3500 schools Helps your child develop reading fluency and confidence Suitable for children age 9-10 (Year 5) Book band: Blue B Phonics phase: N/A

 

Abi grapples with a new school and new friendships in this warm and insightful story about prejudices and forgiveness. When her family's circumstances suddenly change, Abi finds herself moving to the large and intimidating local high school. She's pretty nervous on her first day but soon meets someone she thinks she could be friends with – even best friends. But as the two girls bond over Abi's treasured snow globe, prejudices and stereotypes might just tear them apart. There's a lot to learn about friendships and forgiveness. Particularly suitable for readers aged 7+ with a reading age of 8.