Showing results by narrator "Charlie Sanderson" in All Categories

Who took Lucia Blix? Lucia went home from school with her new friend Josie for a playdate. Later that evening, Lucia's mother, Elisa, dropped her overnight things round and kissed her little girl goodnight. That was the last time she saw her daughter. The next morning, when Lucia's dad arrived to pick her up, the house was empty. No furniture, no family, no Lucia. Have you seen Lucia?

This is a must-listen for Christmas and animal lovers. A play on the Christmas classic 'A Christmas Carol', meet Ben, The Chatchits and Marley the cat on this festive adventure.

Young reporter-in-training Kate and her mouse-accomplice Rupert are on board a train, to visit Kate's mum in the Arctic. But as soon as the train departs, mysterious things start happening. A packet of ginger nuts goes missing. A collection of gymnastics trophies are stolen. And some ancient scrolls disappear. Fellow passenger Madame Maude seems the most likely culprit, until a surprising—and delicious—twist turns the whole investigation on its head.

From the Waterstones Book Prize shortlisted author of A Boy Called Hope and The Boy Who Sailed the Ocean in an Armchair. Mabel has a suitcase full of worries - it turned up just after her dad disappeared and before her mum started dating Gavin. She worries about big things and little things and shoves them into her suitcase until it’s so full it might explode....

Demelza loves science - she loves it so much that she stays up late to work on her inventions. But she soon discovers she’s also inherited a distinctly unscientific skill: spectre detecting. Like her grandmother, she can summon the ghosts of the dead. When Grandma Maeve is kidnapped, Demelza and her pasty-faced best friend, Percy, must leap into action to solve the deadly mystery.

Adam and Polly Fitch face a bleak future after being sold for just five shillings to Miss Reed's orphanage by their bullying father. But the orphanage does have one advantage - a merry band of children who soon form their own kind of family - and they're all determined to escape the clutches of the wicked Miss Reed. Can Adam, Polly and their band of friends survive life with only each other to rely on?

The sun is shining as Rachel and her gorgeous beau, Tom, prepare to tie the knot at Primrose Farm. It takes a village to pull off the perfect country wedding, and Rachel couldn’t be more grateful for her friends and family as they roll out the haybales and string up the bunting - all she needs to do is focus on her happy ever after. But no wedding is without drama. A face from the past is looking to stir up trouble in the village, and there’s a secret following Rachel all the way up the aisle.

Kate Hardy's world seems to be making some kind of sense at last. The Sardine's finally safe from her idiotic ex, things seem to be going well with Mike and she's looking forward to celebrating Christmas with the important people in her life. Mike's buying her beloved lighthouse and is due to get the keys any day now. Kate just wishes she could muster the courage to ask him what his plans are for the old place–instead of changing the subject every time he brings it up. And then there's Bernard–who's come all the way from Canada.

A chilling, compulsive debut about group mentality, superstition and betrayal - and a utopian commune gone badly wrong. We were the Family, and Foxlowe was our home. There was me - my name is Green - and my little sister, Blue. There was October, who we called Toby, and Ellensia, Dylan, Liberty, Pet and Egg. There was Richard, of course, who was one of the Founders. And there was Freya. We were the Family, but we weren't just an ordinary family. We were a new, better kind of family.

Life is tough for Ella Bancroft. After her father, Thomas, is wheelchair-bound by an accident at the tube works, the responsibility for keeping a roof over their head falls to Ella. Ella’s mother died when she was 10, and her sister, Sally, lives with her no-good, work-shy husband Eddy, so is no help at all. If she and her father are to keep the bailiffs from the door, then Ella must earn a living. But Ella is resourceful as well as creative and soon discovers she has a gift for millinery.

Clemmie absorbed all of her ancestor's ancient power from her coven's tapestry. But being the only witch full of stars is tough. As the only young hag of both the Merlyn and Morgan covens with any power, Clemmie decides to keep her magic a secret. She tries to dodge her clamouring family to focus on finding out what's really happening to her. After months of struggling, Clemmie is suddenly full of power. Just when she doesn't want it.

Sera is usually a good girl. (Except for one wild night in the back seat of a stranger's car!) But what happens when that bad boy turns out to be her new boss? And what happens when he wants more than one night...and he can be very persuasive...?

Bronte Mettlestone's parents ran away to have adventures when she was a baby, leaving her to be raised by her aunt Isabelle and the Butler. She's had a perfectly pleasant childhood of afternoon teas and riding lessons - and no adventures, thank you very much. But Bronte's parents have left extremely detailed (and bossy) instructions for Bronte in their will. The instructions must be followed to the letter, or disaster will befall Bronte's home. She is to travel the kingdoms and empires, perfectly alone, delivering special gifts to her 10 other aunts.

When 11-year-old Edie Winter finds a mysterious box on the London Underground, she's amazed to discover that it's home to a family of Flits—tiny winged people. But Impy, Speckle and Nid need Edie's help. Not only do they need supplies (rice crispies, sugar sprinkles, digestive biscuits and raisins) and someone to look after them, but their brother Jot has run away and they need Edie's help to find him.

Flick is a magician out of tricks. Every attempt to find her father has so far failed. Now the police have accused him of stealing the Crown Jewels—and they want Flick's help to work out how he did it. Flick and her best friend, Charlie, travel to Cornwall, where they believe her father may be hiding in an abandoned museum of magic. There they find master illusionist the Great Fox, also hot on the trail. But something else is hidden at the heart of the museum—the Bell System, the most dangerous magic trick the world has ever seen.

The First Breath is the first popular science book about the pioneering fetal and neonatal medicine bringing a new generation into the world - a generation of babies without precedent, who would not have lived if they had been born only a few decades ago. Olivia Gordon explores the female experience of medicine through her own personal story and sensitive, intimate case histories of other mothers’ high-risk births. She details the relationship mothers develop with doctors who hold not only life and death in their hands but also the very possibility of birth.

Maddy can't find her voice. With her grief over Nan's death, her struggle for Mum's attention, and the mystery of the strange woman Dad keeps meeting, it's easier to keep everything locked up inside. But as terrible, tangled secrets bring Maddie's whole world crashing down, it seems only bad boy Kieran Black can give her the confidence to speak up.

Fierce Fragile Hearts is the stunning companion novel to Sara Barnard's YA bestseller Beautiful Broken Things. It is about leaving the past behind, the friends who form your future and learning to find love in all its forms. Two years after a downward spiral took her as low as you can possibly go, Suzanne is starting again. Again. She's back in Brighton, the only place she felt she belonged, back with her best friends Caddy and Rosie. But they're about to leave for university.

A documentary crew have come to the zoo, to film every day life with the animals. The only thing is that the reality is a bit boring so they ship in some animal actors. Lin and her best friend Fu are less than impressed with the prancing lion that wants to take centre stage. And the smaller animals in the zoo, the mites, are fed up of being overlooked.

February, 1929. The Regent Hotel in Birmingham is a place of deception and glamour. Behind its six-storeyed façade, guests sip absinthe cocktails on velvet banquettes, while the hotel's red-jacketed staff scurry through its lavish corridors to ensure the finest service is always at hand. In the early evening, a psychoanalyst checks in under a pseudonym: Nora Dickinson. Nora is young, diligent and ambitious. Though she doesn't see herself as a liar, she is travelling with an agenda.