Showing results by narrator "Charlie Sanderson" in All Categories

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.

Eleven-year-old Bella Bright has just moved into Darkling House in Castleton. On her first day at her new school, she is spotted by a pair of manipulative mean girls, Skylar and Regan. They push her into inviting them to a Halloween sleepover. Another much friendlier girl, Lex, comes to Bella's rescue and offers to join the sleepover to support Bella, who is delighted to be making a real friend. On Halloween night, things start getting spooky for the four girls, when the huge front door appears to shut itself, and their mobile phones lose signal.

Meet the Unreliable Nature Writer: a macabre product of late capitalism, climate anxiety and personal loss. Finding herself alone at a wedding, tailed by an unctuous and infatuated fellow guest, she proceeds to have her fun—plunging us into a potpourri of disturbing, darkly funny visions of a near future. Aloof, evasive and sardonic, she will be our guide; her stories will bare truths about how the world we’re changing so violently might affect us in turn.

Manon Pawlak has just turned eighteen—a debutant at the start of The Virtue Season: a process which will result in a match with a suitable genetic mate. Her best friend, Agatha, has been decommissioned. Her seizures mean that she has been branded with a scar on the crest of her cheek which will forever sit at the corner of her vision, colouring the world in shades of mauve. This is the story of their ritual year. And the Council is watching...

When Tessa Skye’s father is killed by order of a powerful conjurer, her world is turned upside down. As a locksmith’s apprentice with a magical amulet that lets her transform into a sparrow, Tessa is determined to do the impossible, bring him back.

Murder, romance, and the discovery of the true nature of her high-powered patron disrupt the life of a sheltered courtesan. Beautiful, cultured Gabrielle lives and works at a house of courtesans. After uncovering evidence that her patron has committed murder, she plots to bring him down by allying herself with a secret society of wives who will use any means to avenge the wrongs against them.

Tessa (the shapeshifter), Ash (the swordsman), and Calder (the trickster) reunite for a potentially deadly new adventure in Book Two of the award-winning Thieves of Magic series that began with Dreadmarrow and ends with Kingshackle. Desperate to cure her mother of the delusion that she’s a bird, Tessa appeals to the conjurer lord in neighboring Blackgrove. Everything goes wrong, however, when he takes Calder hostage and refuses to help until Tessa and Ash bring him the Gravenwood. They set out to steal this magical tablet while romance blossoms between them.

Thirteen-year-old Clementine Merlyn lives with her mom, her aunts, and her cousin Mirabelle at Number 15 Pendragon Road. The Merlyns are a family of witches, but because of an ancient falling out with the other branch of the family, the Morgans, they only have powers for a single month of the year: October. And this October may be the one that Clemmie gets her magic. It should be exciting, except that magic is the reason that Mirabelle never talks to her anymore, Aunt Flissie leaves at the end of every September and doesn't come back until November, and Aunt Temmie...well, is long gone.

Eleven-year-old Norah lives in temporary accommodation, relies on foodbanks for dinner, and doesn't have a mum. But she's happy enough, as she has a dad, a pet mouse, a pet spider, and a whole zoo of rescued local wildlife to care for. Eleven-year-old Adam lives with his parents in a nice house with a big garden, a private tutor, and everything he could ever want. But his life isn't perfect. He's recovering from leukaemia, and questioning his dream of becoming a champion swimmer. When a nest of baby birds brings them together, Norah and Adam discover they're not so different after all.

Berlin, 1961. Anja and Monika are best friends–they even share a cat called Otto. When a huge barbed wire fence is built between their apartment blocks, everything changes; their city and family are divided by the Berlin Wall. In the West, Anja is sure it will be taken down, but Monika is afraid. Her world is changing: neighbours keep disappearing, others become spies and shadowy threats lurk around every corner.

Asha Kennedy (Lisbeth Salander for a new generation) has uncovered the dark secret at the heart of Virtual Reality game 'Shackle'—You don't play the game; it plays you—and must now go deeper into a dangerous world of corruption and greed.

When three figures arrive at Harper's window in a flying canoe, informing her that she is due to start her apprenticeship, Harper discovers she is a Spectacular - a magical performer, gifted special powers from the stars.

Twenty-six-year-old Penny Webber has never had a boyfriend, but she’s about to launch a new dating app with her best friend, Rory, designed to make dating less shallow. What could possibly go wrong? As soon as LEVEL launches, it’s an immediate hit. Challenged by her team, but discouraged by Rory, she hits download on her very own app to prove a point. Alongside dating, she juggles her brother's wedding plans, mediating between divorced parents and supporting her flatmate through heartbreak.

When 11-year-old K-pop obsessed Skylar inexplicably switches bodies with her super strict 71-year-old headteacher, Ms Callus, she's thrown into a hilarious world of dancing old ladies gone viral and school rules thrown out the window, as she tries to figure out how on earth to swap back! But then the chance to meet her favourite boyband AZ8 in real life changes everything, and Skylar must decide whether her K-pop dream come true is worth risking being stuck as an old lady for ever…

Everyone thinks that Lin is the cutest panda in the world. So much so that they ship her off to the local zoo, away from her beloved brother, to be ogled at by the masses. But Lin HATES being cute, and now she will do everything in her power to prove that she's the baddest, meanest, most un-cute animal in the zoo.

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.

Kelda has always protected her little sister Isla from danger on the rivers, and from the suspicions of their community. For Isla cannot breathe underwater – and so her very existence is forbidden by silvermen's Lore. Now the rivers of England are growing sick: monstrous creatures are awakening and a fierce torrent of blame falls upon Kelda's family. When betrayal comes, the sisters escape on a desperate journey upstream. Joining forces with a mysterious boy, Kelda discovers the darkest depths of her kind's secret history.

Bella Bright has invited her three best friends to visit her new cottage, which stands in the shadows of a ruined manor house. As they explore, Bella thinks she catches a glimpse of a pale face in one of the empty windows. Who could it be? Things go from spooky to scary when they get lost in a hedge maze, and find themselves hurled back in time by the mysteriously burnt willow tree growing at the centre. Now trapped in 17th century England, Bella must uncover the mystery of how the manor was destroyed, find out whose face she saw at the window, and try to get herself and her friends back home.