Our hero Ben is bored beyond belief after he is made to stay at his grandma's house. She's the boringest grandma ever: all she wants to do is to play Scrabble, and eat cabbage soup. But there are two things Ben doesn't know about his grandma. a) She was once an international jewel thief and b) All her life, she has been plotting to steal the crown...

Charlie Bucket loves chocolate. And Mr Willy Wonka, the most wondrous inventor in the world, is opening the gates of his amazing chocolate factory to five lucky children. It's the prize of a lifetime! Gobstoppers, wriggle sweets and a river of melted chocolate await - Charlie needs just one Golden Ticket and these delicious treats could all be his.

Harry Potter thinks he is an ordinary boy. He lives with his Uncle Vernon, Aunt Petunia and cousin Dudley, who make him sleep in a cupboard under the stairs. Then Harry starts receiving mysterious letters and his life is changed for ever. He is whisked away by a beetle-eyed giant of a man and enrolled in Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry....

Harry Potter is a wizard. He is in his second year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The three friends, Harry, Ron and Hermione, are soon immersed in the daily round of Potions, Herbology, Charms, Defence Against the Dark Arts and Quidditch. Then mysterious and scary things start happening. First Harry hears strange voices, and then Ro...

Harry Potter, along with his best friends, Ron and Hermione, is about to start his third year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Harry can't wait to get back to school after the summer holidays (who wouldn't if they lived with the horrible Dursleys?). But when Harry gets to Hogwarts, the atmosphere is tense. There's an escaped mass murd...

The summer holidays seem never-ending and Harry Potter can't wait for the start of the school term. It is his fourth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and there are spells to learn and (unluckily) Potions and Divination lessons to attend. But Harry needs to be on his guard at all times - his worst enemy is preparing a horrifying f...

Harry Potter is due to start his fifth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. He is desperate to find out why his friends, Ron and Hermione, have been secretive all summer. But before he even gets to school, Harry survives a terrifying encounter with two Dementors, attends a court hearing at the Ministry of Magic and is escorted on a n...

It is Harry Potter's sixth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. As Voldemort's sinister forces amass and a spirit of gloom and fear sweeps the land, it becomes clear to Harry that he will soon have no choice but to confront his destiny. Can Harry succeed in the death-defying tasks ahead?

Harry Potter is preparing to leave the Dursleys and Privet Drive for the last time. But the future that awaits him is full of danger, not only for him, but for anyone close to him - and Harry has already lost so much. Only by destroying Voldemort's remaining Horcruxes can Harry free himself and overcome the Dark Lord's forces of evil. In a final pe...

What do you buy someone for their 500th birthday? Araminta is desperately trying to think of the perfect gift for her favourite ghost, Sir Horace, but it's hard to buy gifts for someone with no specific hobbies, and no body. Then an inspired idea leads to trouble when all does not go as planned, and Araminta wonders whether she'll ever see Horace o...

Laugh your tights off at the (VERY) amateur dramatic antics of Talullah and her bonkers mates. Picture the scene: Dother Hall performing arts college somewhere Up North. On the whole, it's not quite the showbiz experience Tallulah was expecting! But once her mates turn up and they start their `FAME! I'm gonna liiiiive foreeeeeever, I'm gonna fill m...

"Mr Stink stank. He also stunk. And if it was correct English to say he stinked, then he stinked as well..." It all starts when Chloe makes friends with Mr Stink, the local tramp. Yes, he smells a bit. But when it looks like he might be driven out of town, Chloe decides to hide him in the garden shed. Now Chloe's got to make sure no one finds out h...

John and Gerry have always been friends, brought together by their passion for football. Then Gerry's dad loses his job and everything turns sour. The boys had always steered clear of the gangs at school, but Gerry gets drawn in and now he and John find themselves standing on opposite sides. Set in a tough inner city Liverpool estate, this story is...

This is the story of Aman, a boy from Afghanistan fleeing the horror of the Afghan war. When a western dog shows up outside the caves where Aman lives with his mother, Aman is initially repulsed - people don't keep dogs as pets in his part of the world. But when Aman and his mother decide to make a bid for freedom, the dog Aman has called Shadow wi...

Yaroooo! Tallulah's triumphant Heathcliff in `Wuthering Heights' the comedy musical was enough to secure her place at Dother Hall performing arts college for another term. She can't wait to see her pals again, Charlie and the boys from Woolfe Academy and maybe even bad boy Cain. Could the bright lights of Broadway be calling? And for who? Find out...

Jim and his best friend Charlie weren't looking for adventure, when they decided to bug the staffroom . . . But then they overhear their teachers speaking in a secret language and it's too late to turn back. And now they have to explain to the police, the headmistress and their parents where they've been for a whole week - without mentioning the al...

Tom is finding it hard to come to terms with the death of his father and life just gets worse as Mum meets a new man and a bully joins his class at school. Unkind people say that his firefighter father ought not to have risked his life in a blaze when he had a family to support, but Tom knows that his father was a true hero. Will he find the same c...

When his guardian dies in suspicious circumstances, fourteen-year-old Alex Rider finds his world turned upside down. Within days he's gone from schoolboy to superspy. Forcibly recruited into MI6, Alex has to take part in gruelling SAS training exercises. Then, armed with his own special set of secret gadgets, he's off on his first mission. His dest...

Raphael is a dumpsite boy. He spends his days wading through mountains of steaming trash, sifting it, sorting it, breathing it, sleeping next to it. Then one unlucky-lucky day, Raphael's world turns upside down. A small leather bag falls into his hands. It's a bag of clues. It's a bag of hope. It's a bag that will change everything. Soon Raphael an...

Things are not looking good for Zoe. Her stepmother Sheila is so lazy she gets Zoe to pick her nose for her. The school bully Tina Trotts makes her life a misery - mainly by flobbing on her head. And now the evil Burt from Burt's Burgers is after her pet rat! And guess what he wants to do with it? The clue is in the title.

Michael Rosen keeps bumping into a chatty old lady who tells him wildly unlikely stories - like there being man eating fleas on the London tube. In addition there are grizzly bears roaming the streets of London, killer wasps and all sorts of tall tales.