England (UK)

Hooey Higgins and the Tremendous Trousers

Have you ever found yourself in a slightly risky situation and thought, What I really need is a pair of super-protective trousers to keep me safe from crocodiles, flying toffee apples, and log-flume malfunctions? Head for Shrimpton-on-Sea, where Hooey, Will, and Twig are working on an ingenious contraption sure to make the world a safer place: the all-new Tremendous Trousers, aka TremTrows! All you do is slip on a pair of yellow sweatpants, stuff them full of bubble wrap, add some soda bottles topped with balloons, and inflate them with gas from a bunch of mints dropped into the soda. What could possibly go wrong? It’s a brilliant invention guaranteed to win the class prize — tickets to the carnival! Shweet!

Half Bad

In modern-day England, witches live alongside humans: White witches, who are good; Black witches, who are evil; and sixteen-year-old Nathan, who is both. Nathan’s father is the world’s most powerful and cruel Black witch, and his mother is dead. He is hunted from all sides. Trapped in a cage, beaten and handcuffed, Nathan must escape before his seventeenth birthday, at which point he will receive three gifts from his father and come into his own as a witch—or else he will die. But how can Nathan find his father when his every action is tracked, when there is no one safe to trust—not even family, not even the girl he loves?

The Monster in the Mudball

When Jin’s little brother is kidnapped by the monster Zilombo, Jin teams up with Chief Inspector of Ancient Artifacts Mizz Z on the streets of London to find him and defeat the monster. But Zilombo gains new, frightening powers every time she reawakens. She’s cleverer than ever before and she likes to eat babies. When Jin’s older sister gets distracted along the Oozeburn and forgets to watch their baby brother, Smiler is easy pickings for Zilombo!

Slam!: A Tale of Consequences

A heedless little boy and his dog slam the door as they run out to complete an errand, unknowingly dislodging a red ball that bounces through the neighborhood and triggers an escalating series of mishaps.

In My Own Time

A critically acclaimed children’s novelist reveals the origins of her stories in her own childhood experiences in England during World War II, her years at Oxford, her family life, and her role in numerous literary organizations.

The Flea

“Once there was a little flea who thought that he was too little . . .” And so begins an innocent quest. The flea wants to be bigger. He scales a pea. Then scales an apple. He climbs atop a flower, a plant, a tree, a home . . . a telephone wire, a skyscraper . . . finally, the flea finds himself on a cloud! Down below, a bear notices him. So, is the flea now big? Or just high up? The Flea uses appealingly stylized art, simple text, humorous twists, and one very determined flea to give young readers a light lesson on the importance of perspective and the malleable meaning of words.