England (UK)

Daisy Dawson on the Farm

Everyday adventures with a girl who can talk to animals! The weather is hot, hot, hot, and the farm animals are getting grumpy. The pigs are arguing with the chickens, and the ducks and newts are sad because their pond has dried up. Where will the water animals live? Luckily, they have the help of Daisy Dawson, but it may take the elegant and snooty cat Trixie to make the rain fall at last. Warm up to the fifth adventure featuring Daisy Dawson, the ordinary girl with an extraordinary gift: she can talk to and understand animals!

The Last Dragonslayer

In the good old days, magic was indispensable—it could both save a kingdom and clear a clogged drain. But now magic is fading: drain cleaner is cheaper than a spell, and magic carpets are used for pizza delivery. Fifteen-year-old foundling Jennifer Strange runs Kazam, an employment agency for magicians—but it’s hard to stay in business when magic is drying up. And then the visions start, predicting the death of the world’s last dragon at the hands of an unnamed Dragonslayer. If the visions are true, everything will change for Kazam—and for Jennifer. Because something is coming. Something known as . . . Big Magic.

A Book of Tormod: A Templar’s Destiny

The Chosen, Tormod, aided by Aine and Bertrand, returns to France seeking other Gifted members of the Templar Order and striving to recover the relics he is bound to protect, while also hoping to find and rescue his brother, Torquil.

Diary of a Parent Trainer

Thirteen-year-old Katie Sutton, a self-proclaimed expert on grown-up behavior, begins writing a user’s manual to help other teens train and operate their parents, but when her own mother starts dating Yellow Tie Man, Katie needs all of her expertise to get rid of him.

Castle of Shadows

Ever since the Queen mysteriously disappeared and the King went mad five years ago, eleven-year-old Princess Charlie has lived a wild and mostly unsupervised life in the country of Quale, running amok through the castle instead of following affairs of state. Now revolution whispers through the air, and Charlie is powerless to stop it. Then she discovers a clue: a desperate, unfinished letter scribbled years before by the missing Queen. Charlie doesn’t understand the danger her mother writes of, but she does know that the Queen absolutely must be found-together, they can surely save the King and the kingdom. So plucky Charlie embarks on a quest to track down her mother, armed with the precious scrap of paper and with Tobias, the gardener’s boy, as an unlikely ally. Putting away her tattered old clothes, she must deal with games of political intrigue, the rebels’ rough-laid schemes, and the prime minister’s sudden interest in the forgotten princess’s well-being. And every step closer to the Queen pulls Charlie deeper into an entangling web of lies and secrets, where nothing is as it seems and people are not who they say . . .

Baby’s in Black

Baby’s In Black is based on a true story. Meet the Beatles… during their stint in Hamburg right at the beginning of the band’s career. This gorgeous, accessible book is an intimate peek into the early years of the world’s greatest rock band. The story follows a small group of German artists, led by photographer Astrid Kirchherr, who fall in love with the Beatles’ music and soon become good friends with the original five band members. The heart of Baby’s In Black is a love story. The “fifth Beatle,” Stuart Sutcliffe, fell in love with the beautiful Astrid Kirchherr when she recruited the Beatles for a sensational (and famous) photography session. When the band returned to the UK, Sutcliffe quit, became engaged to Kirchherr, and stayed in Hamburg to study painting at a prestigious art school. His meteoric career as a modern artist was cut short when he died unexpectedly a year later. The book ends as it begins, with Astrid, alone and adrift; but with a note of hope: her life is incomparably richer and more directed thanks to her friendship with the Beatles and her love affair with Sutcliffe.