Showing results by narrator "Aysha Kala" in All Categories

In this love letter to reading, curated by Pandora Sykes in aid of the National Literacy Trust, bestselling and beloved writers share their favourite books: the ones they hold most dearly, that they return to time and again and that helped make them the writers they are.

In this fun, fact-filled instalment, Connor the marine expert and Kiki the engineer go off in search of pirate treasure, but find their plans have to change when they encounter a basking shark that's in need of their help. Can the Secret Explorers find the treasure as well as rescue the shark? Only time will tell!

Born in a Soviet prison camp, Lina has never seen the world outside until the night she escapes with her best friend, Bogdan. As the pair journey across a snowy wilderness, they are pursued by a vengeful sorceress and her pack of shadow wolves. The children will need every ounce of courage - and a whisper of magic - if they are to survive.

Benny Burns spends every weekend helping his dad by working at their burger van, parked outside the local football ground. And when Benny finds his grandfather’s old recipe book and begins following its instructions, he starts cooking INCREDIBLE food – so good, in fact, that he attracts the unwanted attention of fast food giant Bonkers Burgers! and its CEO, Bodley Bonkers.

Meet the Secret Explorers - a band of brainiac kids from all around the world. Everyone in this diverse group of young experts has a speciality, from outer space to dinosaurs, and each story follows a character who gets chosen for a 'secret exploration'. Space expert Roshni and geology expert Cheng blast off into outer space on a mission to the Moon. There, they must navigate the dangerous terrain to clear up space debris before it can interfere with a lunar mission! Along the way, the Secret Explorers pilot a space buggy and collect important rock samples.

When 12-year-olds Willa and Manny hear of a mysterious animal prowling their town, they are determined to prove it is real. Following the creature into a cave one full moon, they are swept into an alternate, ideal, world - one where pollution and conflict have been conquered decades ago and even their own families seem happier. But when they return, no one believes them. So, with a global war looming in their own world, their quest for proof of the Sideways World becomes ever-more urgent, in a nail-biting race against time.

Leah the biology explorer and Cheng the geology expert are sent on a daring mission to a network of caves in India. However, when they get there they realise there's more to this mission than meets the eye.

Memer is a child of rape; when the Alds took the beautiful city of Ansul, they descecrated or destroyed everything of beauty. The Waylord they imprisoned and tortured for years until finally he is freed to return to his home. Though crippled, he is not destroyed. His life still has purpose. Memer is the daughter of his House, the daughter of his heart. The Alds, a people who love war, cannot and will not read: they believe that in words lie demons that will destroy the world.

What if everything you set yourself up to be was wrong? Frances has always been a study machine with one goal, elite university. Nothing will stand in her way; not friends, not a guilty secret – not even the person she is on the inside. But when Frances meets Aled, the shy genius behind her favourite podcast, she discovers a new freedom. He unlocks the door to Real Frances and for the first time she experiences true friendship, unafraid to be herself. Then the podcast goes viral and the fragile trust between them is broken.

When 12-year-old Georgie makes friends with an eccentric retired scientist, she becomes the test subject for a thrilling new experiment: a virtual reality, 3-D version of the future. Then a deadly virus threatens to wipe out every dog in the country, and Georgie’s beloved dog, Mr Mash, gets sick. Which is bad - but worse is still to come. As the world is thrown into chaos, Georgie embarks on a desperate quest: to save every dog on earth and all of humanity....

When Hugh Henry Van Boren, one of the most popular and richest kids in Jess Choudhary's school, is found dead, the student body is left reeling and wondering who the murderer could be.... Jess, a student under strict instructions to keep her record clean or risk losing her scholarship, finds herself at the center of the investigation when it's revealed that Hugh died in the exact same way as a character in a short story she wrote.

Celestine North lives in a society that demands perfection. After she was branded Flawed by a morality court, Celestine's life has completely fractured - all her freedoms gone. Since Judge Crevan has declared her the number one threat to the public, she has been a ghost, on the run with the complicated, powerfully attractive Carrick, the only person she can trust. But Celestine has a secret - one that could bring the entire Flawed system crumbling to the ground.

Yesterday Crumb is no ordinary girl. She was born with fox ears that have cursed her to a lonely life working in the circus, and her origins are a complete mystery. But she is about to escape into the adventure of a lifetime when she learns that she's a strangeling who's lost her magic. Taken in by Miss Dumpling the flamboyant Tea Witch, Yesterday is introduced to a magical, walking teashop filled with fantastical customers, a flying teapot turtle called Pascal and powerful spells in every teacup!

October and her dad live in the woods. They sleep in the house Dad built for them and eat the food they grow in the vegetable patches. They know the trees and the rocks and the lake and stars like best friends. They read the books they buy in town again and again until the pages are soft and yellow - until next year's town visit. They live in the woods and they are wild.

Sixteen-year-old Mehreen Miah's anxiety and depression, or 'Chaos', as she calls it, has taken over her life, to the point where she can't bear it any more. So she joins MementoMori, a website that matches people with partners and allocates them a date and method of death, 'the pact'. Mehreen is paired with Cara Saunders and Olivia Castleton, two strangers dealing with their own serious issues.

"Your mother has been arrested. She stole you." For as long as thirteen-year-old Diya can remember, it’s always been just her and her mum, Vani. Despite never staying in one place long enough to call it home, with her mother by her side, Diya has never needed anything else. Then, in an instant, Diya’s fragile world is shattered. Her mother is arrested, accused of abducting Diya when she was a baby... Vani has spent a lifetime looking over her shoulder, determined to make the best possible life for her daughter.

The grieving widower. The motherless daughters. A beautiful house in the woods. Deep in a remote Norwegian forest, Lexi has found a new home with architect Tom and his two young daughters. With snow underfoot and the sound of the nearby fjord in her ears, it’s as if Lexi has stepped into a fairy tale. But this family has a history – and this place has a past. Something was destroyed to build their beautiful new house. And those ancient, whispering woods have a long memory. Lexi begins to hear things, see things that don’t make sense.

When Yara’s mother passes away, she leaves behind a letter and a strange set of instructions. Yara must travel from the home she has always known to a place that is not on any map – Zehaira, a world of sorcerers, alchemists and simmering magic. But Zehaira is not the land it used to be. The practice of magic has been outlawed, the Sultan’s alchemists are plotting a sinister scheme – and the answers Yara is searching for seem to be out of reach.

When 12-year-old Ami arrives at The Escape, she thinks it’s just a game - the ultimate escape room with puzzles and challenges to beat before time runs out. Meeting her teammates, Adjoa, Ibrahim, Oscar and Min, Ami learns from the Host that they have been chosen to save the world and that they must work together to find the Answer. But as he locks them inside the first room, they quickly realise this is no ordinary game.

Apprentice tea witch Yesterday Crumb is on a mission to find her mother. First stop in her search is London to watch The Wild Feast, the biggest magical cooking competition in Europe. But when the teashop Yesterday and her friends call home is shrunk by the Faerie Queen's Spymaster, she must join the competition to win it back. Yesterday will have to face more than just a fierce competition when new enemies emerge and members of the Faerie Court start to go missing.