The Way of the Warrior

In a dangerous world, everyone needs protection. Hostage is the first installment from the Bodyguard series by Chris Bradford, best-selling author of Young Samurai. Bodyguard is a bulletproof action-adventure series that fans of Cherub and Alex Rider will love. This is Lee Child for younger readers--Jason Bourne for the next generation.

Will is small for his age, but agile and energetic. All his life, he has dreamed of becoming a great knight like the father he never knew, so he is devastated when he is rejected as an apprentice to Castle Redmont's Battleschool. Instead he is apprenticed to Halt, the mysterious Ranger whose uncanny ability to move unseen is thought to be the result of black magic. Reluctantly, Will learns to use a Ranger's secret weapons: a bow and arrow, a mottled cloak and a stubborn little pony. It may not be what he longs for, but when he and Halt are sent out to prevention the assassination of the King....

Ever since MI6 recognised his potential, Alex Rider has constantly been thrust into the line of danger. From a routine visit to the dentist that turns into a chase through the streets of London, to a school trip with a deadly twist, no day has ever been ordinary for the teenage super-spy. This collection of thrilling adventures features familiar and new assailants from the best loved world of Alex Rider and also includes three never-before-heard stories. 

H.I.V.E. is a top-secret school of villainy, where children with a precocious talent for wrongdoing are sent to develop their talents and become criminal masterminds. After all, "Villains have the best lines and wear the best costumes."

Can one boy stand between two kingdoms at war? Jaevid Broadfeather has grown up as a wartime refugee, hiding from the world because of his mixed racial heritage. He feels his future is hopeless - until a chance encounter with a wild dragon lands him in Blybrig Academy, a place usually forbidden to anyone but the rich and royal. But Jaevid's case is special; no dragon has voluntarily chosen a rider in decades, so the proud riders of Blybrig must begrudgingly let him join their brotherhood despite his bloodline.

Otto and Wing have permission to leave H.I.V.E.'s secret island location to attend a funeral. But before they can reach their destination, the duo is ambushed. Who would risk assassinating the star pupil of the Higher Institute of Villainous Education?

When the vertically challenged Johnny Naples entrusts Tim Diamond with a package worth over three million pounds, he’s making a big mistake. Tim Diamond is the worst detective in the world. Next day, Johnny’s dead, Tim feels the heat, and his smart younger brother, Nick, gets the package – and every crook in town on his back!

In a world where animals no longer exist, 12-year-old Kester Jaynes sometimes feels like he hardly exists, either. Locked away in a home for troubled children, he's told there's something wrong with him. So when he meets a flock of talking pigeons and a bossy cockroach, Kester thinks he's finally gone a bit mad. But the animals have something to say.... The pigeons fly Kester to a wild place where the last creatures in the land have survived. A wise stag needs Kester's help, and together they must embark on a great journey, joined along the way by an over-enthusiastic wolf cub, a spoilt show cat, a dancing harvest mouse, and a stubborn girl named Polly.

Boy Underwater is a heartbreaking story about family, friends and secrets. And it’s very, very funny. Cymbeline has never been swimming, so he’s a bit nervous at the prospect of his first school swimming lesson. But how hard could it be? He’s Googled front crawl, and he’s found his dad’s old pair of trunks. He’s totally ready for this. But he’s not ready for an accident at the pool to reveal a family mystery that turns his life completely upside down. Only Cym and his friends can solve it because, as usual, the grown-ups aren’t telling them anything....

When Fionn Boyle sets foot on Arranmore Island, it begins to stir beneath his feet.... Once in a generation, Arranmore Island chooses a new Storm Keeper to wield its power and keep its magic safe from enemies. The time has come for Fionn’s grandfather, a secretive and eccentric old man, to step down. Soon, a new Keeper will rise. But deep underground, someone has been waiting for Fionn. As the battle to become the island’s next champion rages, a more sinister magic is waking up, intent on rekindling an ancient war.

The Higher Institute of Villainous Education is in grave danger: Dr Nero, its leader, has been captured by the world's most ruthless security force. It's up to Otto to save him, but first he must escape Nero's sinister replacement and H.I.V.E. itself. Then Otto faces the ultimate challenge - to break into MI6. Something no villain has ever succeeded in doing...The second thrilling story in the H.I.V.E. series from bestselling author Mark Walden.

Elliot's mum is ill and his home is under threat, but a shooting star crashes to earth and changes his life forever. The star is Virgo - a young Zodiac goddess on a mission. But the pair accidentally release Thanatos, a wicked death daemon imprisoned beneath Stonehenge, and must then turn to the old Olympian gods for help. After centuries of cushy retirement on earth, are Zeus and his crew up to the task of saving the world - and solving Elliot's problems too?

After dying and being reborn into a world that's built like a video game, Jim has found himself stuck in a very old-world style new-player zone for low-level adventurers. Unfortunately, the zone fell out of use centuries ago, and no one told the monsters they were supposed to take it easy on the Noobs. Even worse, the only new player around is Jim. Jim has been given an opportunity, and he'll do his best to take advantage of it.

A thousand-year-old cultivator, Drew, is about to ascend to a higher existence. As he begins the process, he finds out he has pissed off one too many demigods. Though he manages to fight off the concerted effort of sect elders and patriarchs...he is slapped away from the higher realms by something. After an instant or an eternity, he awakens on a lower realm! The air is filled with garbage energy, and his emotions of all things are allowing him to control it. For a cultivator that has spent his existence absolutely controlling his thoughts...that won’t do at all.

Luke is a comic-mad 11-year-old who shares a tree house with his geeky older brother, Zack. Luke's only mistake is to go for a wee right at the wrong time. While he's gone, an alien gives his undeserving, never-read-a-comic-in-his-life brother superpowers and then tells him to save the universe. Luke is massively annoyed about this, but when Zack is kidnapped by his archnemesis, Luke and his friends have only five days to find him and save the world.... Hilariously narrated by Joe Thomas.