Showing results by narrator "Thomas Judd" in All Categories

Billy Slipper is a fairly normal boy with a not-so normal family. All he wants to do is add to his 'Collectabillya' (an assortment of weird and wonderful objects) in peace, but his cleaning-mad mum and his horrid twin sister have other ideas. However, they don't bargain on Billy finding his best ever Collectabillya - Jumblecat! Jumblecat is...well, a jumbled-up cat (who talks, by the way), and he's set to change their lives forever.

Jack is a teenager who wants nothing more than to be normal - even if being normal means having divorced parents and a rather strange best friend. But when Jack's father takes him out rowing on a lake and tells his son that he's gay, nothing will ever be normal again. Out of Jack's struggle to redefine 'family', comes a work of enormous humour, charm and resonance.

Dan and his little sister, Claudia, aren't really religious - though Claudia is obsessed with asking questions about Christianity. Dan's just obsessed with the Muppets. Then, one day, they both get to answer the big question about what happens when you die.... A funny, touching story about the afterlife from acclaimed teen author Philip Ardagh.

My name is Kyle Straker and I don’t exist any more.' So begins the story of Kyle Straker, recorded on old audio tapes. You might think these tapes are a hoax. But perhaps they contain the history of a past world.... If what the tapes say are true, it means that everything we think we know is a lie. And if everything is a lie, does that mean that we are, too? A gripping, fabulously imaginative sci-fi story for older children from debut author Mike Lancaster.

When Will takes home a small, smooth stone from Poldavy Wood as a holiday souvenir, he begins to have strange dreams - dreams of a huge forest, and of something big and black that is trying to get in his room. The Ghost Wood is a terrifying ghost story that will chill your blood, from acclaimed author Philip Reeve.

The Mickledean Parish Workhouse is known to be a place of dread. Though it has long ceased to be a workhouse, no one wants to live there, and tales are told of frightful spirits and a ghostly carriage. Then Rosie and Doug arrive, and fall in love with the tumbledown old house... A terrifying ghost story that will chill your blood, from acclaimed author Jamila Gavin.

Jez is spending the holidays at his Uncle Jack's cottage in Cornwall. One night, there is a storm, and through the noise of the howling wind and rain, he thinks he hears a child's voice moaning.... The Little Ship's Boy is a terrifying ghost story that will chill your blood, from much-loved author Berlie Doherty.

Frank Fisher works for the Thirteenth Hour Insurance Company. His job is incredibly dangerous, and generally his clients are grateful for the help he gives them - but Mary Alice Evans is a different matter.... A thought-provoking story about the afterlife from acclaimed teen author Jonathan Stroud.

Alex has a lot of the same concerns most of us do growing up (exams, puberty and, in his case, a punctuation obsession plus a little quantum mechanics) but since his brain surgery, everyone in his life is behaving a little mysteriously. Maybe it's adjusting to life after epilepsy or maybe it's the pressure of his pending scholarship application, but Alex is starting to see the world differently.

When Tom Finn is almost jailed for confronting two burglars in his own home, this taxi driver takes his young family to live on the tropical island of Phuket, Thailand. Phuket is all the Finn family dreamed of - a tropical paradise where the children swim with elephants, the gibbons sing love songs in the jungle, the Andaman Sea is like turquoise glass, and this young family is free to grow. But both man-made disaster and the unleashed forces of nature shatter this tropical idyll for Tom Finn's family.

When fiercely independent chambermaid Nancy Nettleton first moved to London and the Buckingham hotel, the last thing on her mind was finding love, let alone falling for the debonair demonstration dancer Raymond de Guise. As the festive season approaches, life at the exclusive hotel is busier than ever, with guests arriving from around the world, seeking comfort, relaxation and refuge as tensions build across Europe and it looks like another war is imminent.

When James Cook's daughter was nearly one, he began to suspect that she wasn't simply a 'late bloomer', as he and his wife were telling friends and family. Emily was strongly taken by images and patterns around the house, had a marked response to music, but never pointed at anything, and hadn't crawled yet. At the age of two-and-a-half, after months of invasive tests, Emily was finally diagnosed with severe autism and everything changed.

Brat has always lived in the isolated castle on the island, taking care of the vicious creatures that his master creates, waiting in terror for the moment when they are ready to be put to use. But then the unthinkable happens. The monsters get out. Now Brat must overcome his fears and venture into the world he has hidden from his whole life. For the fate of everyone rests on his shoulders alone....

TV presenter Nadia and her husband, Mark, took their two children out of mainstream school five years ago. Since then they have homeschooled them. At a time when so many of us are being forced to rethink our roles as parents and teachers, Mark and Nadia bring their experiences - the good and the bad - and offer a candid and practical guide to teaching at home. Statistics show that the number of homeschooled children in the UK has increased by 40 percent over the last three years, and the rate is steadily increasing.

Jack found the love of his life when he met Kate. But their happiness was shattered when she opened the door to a cold-blooded killer. Jack will never forget the face of the man who stole his future. The only person who loved Kate as much is Emily, her twin. So when Jack tells her that he’s found the man who murdered her sister she doesn’t hesitate to help him exact revenge. As the plans for vengeance lead to unforeseen danger, Emily has to trust Jack more than she has ever trusted anyone. Can you always believe what you see?

A space-obsessed child conjures up a vortex in his mother's airing cupboard. A musician finds her friendship with a flock of birds opens up unexpected possibilities. A rat catcher, summoned to a decaying royal palace, is plunged into a battle for the throne of a ruined kingdom. Two newlyweds find themselves inhibited by the arrival in their lives of an outsized and watchful stuffed bear.

September 1810. Raids across the Straits of Messina to disrupt preparations for the French invasion of the island have been repulsed with heavy casualties. George Warne, a bright young British officer, suspects treachery back in Messina, and is ordered to investigate. Warne uncovers a shadowy underworld of spies, traitors and informers where nothing is quite as it seems and where danger lurks around every corner. If the long-threatened French invasion erupts, will Sicily’s defenders be prepared?

For over two centuries, as rulers have risen and fallen and wars have raged, one majestic oak tree has lived out an epic drama. From germination in 1780 to adapting to the changing climate of the modern age, its struggles and triumphs took place far from human eyes. That is, until one day a young man named Laurent Tillon came across it, and a decades-long relationship began ... In this dazzling book, biodiversity expert Tillon narrates the story of the tree he calls Quercus

Carly and Rob, Jenni and Craig. Two couples, four friends. Betraying each other. Wanting each other. All of them have access to prescription drugs through the medical practice where they work, and all of them are fighting their own demons. But can any of them be trusted? And when the lies begin, can they ever be silenced?

Fourteen-year-old Charlie Law has lived in Little Town, on the border with Old Country, all his life. He knows the rules: no going out after dark; no drinking; no litter; no fighting. You don't want to get on the wrong side of the people who run Little Town. When he meets Pavel Duda, a refugee from Old Country, the rules start to get broken. Then the bombs come, and the soldiers from Old Country, and Little Town changes forever.