It’s the Christmas holidays, and Thea is looking forward to spending them with her father. She can tell him all about her plans to become a writer, and maybe he’ll buy her the typewriter she’s been dreaming of. But when Thea arrives in Norway, everything feels...wrong. Her father is as distant as ever, and now she has to share him with his new family: his girlfriend, Inge, and her children. Then Thea makes a surprise discovery. Deep in the snowy woods by the house is a bear. He’s scared and hungry, and he desperately needs Thea’s help.

A shared story can last forever. Hannah's grandad loves telling stories from his past, but there's one that he can't remember…one that Hannah knows is important. When a whale appears off the coast, clues to Grandad's secret begin to surface. Hannah is determined to solve the mystery but, as she gets closer to the truth, Grandad's story is more extraordinary than she imagined.

When Azi’s grandfather leaves their small Mediterranean island, Azi waits every day for him to return. The arrival of a nesting turtle and a tall sandy dog convinces Azi that it must mean that Grandfather is on his way. As Azi digs deeper into the past, he begins to unravel hidden secrets and starts to find out just how alike he and his grandfather really are. And without him, Azi knows, he will never feel complete....

Special friendships can be found in the most unlikely places. A powerful, intriguing story from the bestselling author of A Dog Called Homeless. Sometimes when things are broken you can't fix them on your own - no matter how hard you try. When Nell is sent to stay with distant family, she packs a suitcase full of secrets. A chance encounter with a wild horse draws Nell to Angel - a mysterious, troubled girl who is hiding secrets of her own.

Some friendships are meant to be.... A story about family, friendship, and belonging from best-selling author Sarah Lean. Hope lives with her artist mum in the Pyrenees. It's always been just the two of them...until Frank - a free-spirited traveller - arrives with his donkey, Harry. Hope and Frank form a close bond, so it's hard for both of them when Frank decides it's time to move on. Hope questions what she is to Frank. He's not her dad, but he was more than just her mum's boyfriend. Except there's no name for that kind of pair.... Hope promises to look after Harry ,and slowly another special pair is made - one that makes Hope realise that some friendships become part of you, and even when someone is far away they are always near to your heart.

There are no polar bears left on Bear Island. At least, that’s what April’s father tells her when his scientific research takes them to this remote Arctic outpost for six months. But one endless summer night, April meets one. He is starving, lonely and a long way from home. Determined to save him, April begins the most important journey of her life....

Nine is an orphan pickpocket determined to escape her life in the Nest of a Thousand Treasures. When she steals a house-shaped ornament from a mysterious woman’s purse, she knocks on its tiny door and watches it grow into a huge higgledy-piggeldy house. Inside she finds a host of magical and brilliantly funny characters, including Flabberghast - a young wizard who’s particularly competitive at hopscotch - and a hideous troll housekeeper who’s emotionally attached to his feather duster. They have been placed under an extraordinary spell.

Cosmo’s family is falling apart. And it’s up to Cosmo to keep them together. He knows exactly what to do. There’s only one problem. Cosmo is a golden retriever.  

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.  

Told from the perspective of a bully, this book explores themes of homelessness, while celebrating kindness, friendship and the potential everyone has to change for the good. Inspired by Onjali's own childhood experiences of growing up in London and seeing the impact of homelessness on those around her, The Night Bus Hero follows an unlikely friendship between our narrator and Thomas - who lives in the park. Can they get to the bottom of some unusual thefts taking place across the city and discover what it takes to be a real hero?

Stories mould who we are, from our character to our cultural identity. They drive us to act out our dreams and ambitions, and shape our politics and beliefs. We use them to construct our relationships, to keep order in our law courts, to interpret events in our newspapers and social media. Storytelling is an essential part of what makes us human.

Harrison Beck is reluctantly joining his travel-writer Uncle Nate for the last journey of the royal train, The Highland Falcon. But as the train makes its way to Scotland, a priceless brooch goes missing, and things are suddenly a lot more interesting. As suspicions and accusations run high among the passengers, Harrison begins to investigate and uncovers a few surprises along the way. Can he solve the mystery of the jewel thief and catch the culprit before they reach the end of the line? 

During an eventful holiday in Kingsport, Arianwyn is recruited for an important mission: to retrieve the Book of Quiet Glyphs from its hiding place in the Great Wood. But as she returns home to Lull, feyling refugees gather outside the town walls, and hex plagues the forest. As tensions lead to fall outs with her friends, town squabbles and magical mishaps, Arianwyn faces a sobering truth: she alone can find the Book and wield its secrets....

Violet Veil wants nothing more than to prove her worth and become her father’s apprentice at Veil & Sons Undertakers. And one rain-soaked night she gets her chance when she meets a boy, Oliver, who is wandering around the graveyard. Only, the last time Violet saw Oliver, he was indoors and very much dead, waiting to be buried. Violet has just found her first case and it doesn’t get bigger than this: can she, with the help of her dog, Bones, help Oliver solve his own ‘murder’. 

In all the years that Elinora Gassbeek has been matron of the Little Tulip Orphanage, not once have the Rules for Baby Abandonment been broken. Until the autumn of 1886, when five babies are left in outrageous circumstances: one in a tin toolbox, one in a coal bucket, one in a picnic hamper, one in a wheat sack and finally, one in a coffin-shaped basket.