Titanic: The Search for the Lost Fugitives

Readers become investigators in this interactive mystery about one of history’s most ill-fated voyages. While looking through documents connected with the Titanic’s maiden trip, a journalist discovers that he might be related to a pair of fugitives who disappeared from his hometown and perished in the disaster. Readers follow the trail of evidence in clues hidden in codes and symbols in order to discover the identities of the runaways and the reasons for their flight. Along the way, they will build critical problem-solving skills and encounter many different levels of clues and information in the atmospheric artwork and narrative text. Foldout panels help translate the symbols, and kids will love the specially created code wheel which will allow them to create and decode their own secret messages.

Charles Dickens

The extraordinary life and genius of Charles Dickens is brought alive for primary-age children by the author-illustrator team behind the bestselling What Mr Darwin Saw.Published to celebrate the bi-centenary of Dickens’ birth, this picture book vividly dramatises his life, beginning with his birth in Portsmouth and early childhood near the docks in Chatham, and follows the young Charles through the hardship of working in a blacking factory at the age of 10 to his years at school and his early career as a reporter. Key incidents that inspired the later novels are described, and his marriage, family life, dramatic readings and tours of the USA are included. What emerges is touching portrait of a writer with amazing observational skills, a social conscience and a strong sense of drama.Mick Manning and Brita Granstrom specialise in fun, lively non-fiction picture books. They share the illustrations between them and mix up words and pictures in inventive and delightful ways. They have won many awards, including the Smarties Silver Award and the English Association Award. As well as What Mr Darwin Saw, their recent successes include Tail-End Charlie and Taff in the WAAF.

Nur Jahan of India

From the deepest heart of the Moghul palace, her face hidden by veils, Nur Jahan came to rule all of Mogul India. This book tells the story of how she introduced efficiencies, encouraged trade, and made possible a great flowering of the arts. She hunted tigers, rode elephants to war, commanded a nation from behind a curtain, and did many other things that girls were not expected to do. Sections on the clothes Nur Jahan wore, the foods she ate, and why she is remembered today are included.

The Rumor

In the village of Baddbaddpur, the people like to tell tales, “so tall that if you put them one on top of the other, they would reach the stars.” Pandurang is so dour that he can make milk turn sour. One day he coughs up a feather. As the story of Pandurang’s feather is passed from one person to another it grows and grows and grows until it can hardly be recognized. And that’s when the story weaves its magic on the ill-tempered Pandurang. An international version of “broken telephone” this is a funny cautionary tale about the nature of rumors.