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Oxford University Press
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Orphan Ray has been separated from his sister. The only clue to finding her is a lodestone, left to him by his father before he vanished. The lodestone tugs Ray towards a train bursting with astounding characters. Soon Ray is hurtling across the Wild West, joining in as they perform their enthralling medicine show. But something dark is following the train. Something that wants to steal people's souls. How long before Ray realizes it? And can he and his new friends do anything to stop it? |
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It starts with the phone call, late at night. The mysterious boy says he is dying. Dusty doesn't want to get involved — but the boy seems to have a link to the one person who's most important to her. Soon she has been drawn in — and now she has to deal with the other people who are looking for the boy — the violent man and his two sons, and the police too... Yet throughout all this, Dusty senses the presence of a boy who is not dying, a strange elusive boy who can show her what happened to her missing brother and solve the greatest mystery of her life. Where he is, who he is, why he wants to die, she cannot say. Only one thing is certain. Finding him will be dangerous. |
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Luke is in trouble. Skin and the gang have a job for him. They want him to break into Mrs Little's house and steal the jewellery box. They want him to prove that he's got what it takes. That he's part of the gang. But Luke finds more than just a jewellery box in the house. He finds something so unexpected it will change his life forever... This is a wonderful, rich novel, written with lyricism, drama and power. Tackling issues of loss, love, and healing, and filled with the sense of a universe bursting with music, it is unputdownable from the first page to the last. |
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There's an emergency in Ratbridge! Only orphan Arthur and his new friends Willbury Nibble QC, Marjorie the inventor, a timid cabbagehead, and some very excitable boxtrolls can save the day! But are they really up to the job? Why has the evil Snatcher taken up residence in Cheese Hall? Who has stolen Marjorie's latest invention? And who knew that rats were so good at removing stains? Find out in this amazing, fun, and highly-illustrated romp! |
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Archfiends Basilisk and the Worm have dreamt up a plan so cunning it will strike fear into the heart of the bravest superhero. Combining their dastardly skills, they will infect HERO.COM with a virus potent enough to cripple it and ultimately to destroy Hero HQ. Toby, Lorna, Pete and Emily are tasked to stop them. Hard enough at the best of times, but particularly tricky once Hero.com is on the blink and their superhero powers keep fluctuating. And when Pete is kidnapped and cryogenically frozen by the vile villains, things start going from bad to worse... Another superpowered adventure from a master of pen and plot! |
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The Hero Foundation is a shadow of its former self and Lord Eon — the most terrible supervillain ever — is still at large. Worse, he has hatched a plan to tear apart time. Toby and his superhero friends should be able to stop him... but Pete has woken from his coma a different person and Lorna has disappeared. In the titanic struggle that will follow, friendships will be tested and superhero powers strained to the limit as time runs out for the world... literally... |
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Something is not quite right in the Foundation's War Room. The training robots powered by Hero.com are starting to take on a life of their own. A new villain is taking control-NanoMite. This fiendish cyborg is using his nanite swarm to take control of every electric appliance on the planet. Within days he threatens to plunge the entire world back into the Dark Ages. For Toby, things are not looking so good either. Lorna is keeping a low profile after her relationship with the Dark Hunter is revealed, Emily wants to find their traitrous friend Pete-and Toby has a painful crush on Jen. Worse still, Toby's plan to bring down the Council of Evil is thwarted when he is assigned to train up fledgling heroes. To add insult to injury, a pair of new Downloaders are now everybody's favourite heroes. A dangerous game of one-upmanship unfolds between Toby and the horribly likeable twins. But Toby won't let anything distract him from his main focus. He is determined to bring wrongdoers to justice-even at the cost of betraying somebody close to him... As civilization teeters on the brink of disater-which heroes will save the day? |
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The world is in danger! From gigantic eruptions to asteroid collisions natural disasters have the power to devastate life on Earth. Find out why these disasters occur, what effects they have on our surroundings and how likely each disaster is to strike again. Find out what we are doing to avoid disasters in the future, and how people are learning to live with the threat of an earthquake or volcano on their doorstep. |
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Nathan knows something is watching him — something menacing and dangerous. Something without a shape, that he can't get out of his head. The Creature. Then there are the noises he starts hearing in the attic. Shuffling. Scratching. Even a voice. The Bogeyman. Nathan's sure that the Creature and the Bogeyman are the same thing. Whatever it is, it's after him. As soon as it's strong enough, it will show Nathan what it really wants. And it's growing stronger all the time... |
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Kez is a traveller girl, living with her mum in an old Bedford bus, enjoying life on the open road. Then one day disaster strikes — Kez's mum goes missing, the police raid the site, and before she knows it, Kez has been whisked away into a foster home. Her new foster mother has been taking in children for many years, and in fact Kez is the 99th — and so becomes known as Number 99. With the help of the first foster child — Number 1, now a high-up civil servant — Kez sets out to find what has become of her mother. However, they find their way barred at every turn, and soon realize there is a high-level conspiracy to stop them finding her. Eventually they discover that Kez's mum had identified an illegal genetically-modified crop of wheat near the site where they lived, and has been spirited away to stop her revealing her knowledge before the crop is safely harvested. The race to find her is fraught with obstacles and danger, but Kez has a fighting spirit... |
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Tom is back at the Scatterhorn Museum, looking forward to spending some time there while his parents are away on one of their adventures. But an unexpected visitor called Pearl Smoot throws everything into disarray when she arrives with an incredible story. She says Tom's old enemy, Don Gervase Askary, has taken her father and brother — and what's more, she claims he has Tom's parents too. Together Tom and Pearl set out on a perilous journey to rescue their families — a journey that will take them in and out of time, to exotic foreign lands, and finally into the secret hidden world of Scarazand, stronghold of the terrifying Don Gervase himself... It's non-stop action in this breathtaking sequel to the first fantastic Tom Scatterhorn book, The Museum's Secret. |
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Beren, a Viking princess, is forced to flee her home after her father is killed and her people defeated in battle. Guided by her uncle, she and the remains of her tribe come to England seeking sanctuary. But Vikings have been there before and laid waste to the land, and Beren's small group is met with scorching hatred from the locals. When Beren's uncle takes her men south to fight the king, Beren is left struggling to protect the rest of her followers. The only help comes from the local abbey. The monks there want everybody to live in peace. But when Beren befriends a trainee monk, the factions are further divided, and the hatred simmering under the surface begins to boil over. And then a new threat — from Beren's own uncle — raises its head. Now the people must decide: fight amongst themselves and be annihilated by a greater power, or unite under Beren's command, and fight for their freedom. |
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Everyone in the village where Lizzie lives thinks that she's a dreamer — so it's no wonder that they don't believe her when she says she's seen a witch. But Lizzie doesn't care because she knows it's true and having a witch for a friend makes life much more exciting. Helen Cresswell is a well-known writer and has written more than forty books. She has adapted stories such as The Phoenix and the Carpet and The Demon Head master for television. |
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Yanis has spent his life so far scrubbing socks in an orphanage. But that changes when Dr Gomarus knocks on the door, seeking an apprentice. The strange doctor is travelling to far-flung Osva to study the craniums of criminals. He needs a helper, and Yanis fits the bill. Awaiting execution in Osva jail is Nikolai Kolchak, the notorious leader of the revolutionaries who are holding the country in the grip of civil war. The chance to study the skull of Kolchak is a prize worth any danger. On the perilous journey to Osva, Yanis encounters a kind and beautiful countess and her pistol-packing minder, Miss Minsky. They too are travelling to the town, but why? And how can it be that when Yanis finally accompanies Dr Gomarus to Kolchak's cell, he finds there a charming, friendly man, and not the devil described and feared throughout the country? Soon Yanis finds himself running errands for the rebel leader, and for the Countess. And, as he does, he begins to realise that people are not always what they seem... |
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Bridie's grandfather has vanished, and the menacing Crickbone brothers have taken over his yard. Suddenly Bridie finds herself all alone in the city. It never looked so strange and threatening before. But then she begins to discover friends in the unlikeliest of places, and ends up meeting Miss Firbanks, owner of the Byzantium Bazaar, a department store where time stands still and dust covers everything. Now all Bridie has to do is solve the mystery of what happened to Gramps, and for that she enlists the help of the street people. |
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Excuses, Excuses is a perennial favourite and best-selling collection of poems about school, compiled by top anthologiser John Foster. Most the poems here are humorous, but some are more serious and will make you think. Many of them have been written specially for this collection and, together with other poems by such well-known children's poets as Michael Rosen, Kit Wright, and Spike Milligan, go to make up a lively and engaging anthology. This popular book is being reissued with a fresh, modern new look. |
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It's a long hot summer. Temperatures are soaring and a strange creature has been spotted on Dartmoor. Connie Lionheart and her friends soon discover that the creature is a chimera. When it attacks Connie, leaving her gravely wounded, Col and Rat must rescue her from hospital: she needs treatment beyond the knowledge of mortals. But a weakened Connie is easy prey for the evil shapeshifter Kullervo. He believes that, finally, the time is ripe for him to seize her Universal power, gather his army of mythical beings, and wipe out humanity. The battle between him and Connie will be a fight to the death. And the prize will be the future of mankind. |
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Rain designs exquisite stained glass for the windows of her city. But the law is clear-it is forbidden for girls to be part of the glassmakers' guild. To keep her secret hidden, she leaves home and travels to the strange new country of Magharna. When Peri witnesses Rain's capture by a gang of bandits, both his fate and his heart become tied to hers. They escape the outlaws, but Peri and his family of falconers are untouchables who are scorned by all, and Rain is not allowed to be part of their lives. Can Rain and Peri's love survive the prejudices against them? And with the country on the brink of disaster will they be able to stop their world from smashing apart? |
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Connie has immense power. The trouble is, she doesn't really know how to use it, and nobody in the Society for the Protection of Mythical Beasts has enough knowledge to train her. Only one being understands Connie's potential — the evil shapeshifter Kullervo. Unknown to Connie, he has started infiltrating her dreams, causing her to raise devastating storms in her sleep. Now, when she's awake, the dark side of Connie's power increasingly feels more attractive than the good side. When Connie's best friend Col discovers what is happening, he begs Connie to seek help. She turns to the Society, the group meant to protect her. But they are terrified by what she tells them and expel her. Feeling abandoned and scared, Connie hides in an old mine — and finds she is not alone. The mine is full of sick mythical creatures that the Society has forgotten. They are led by the once-proud Minotaur who, having been blinded in a fight, is now a broken soul. The Minotaur gives Connie the courage to face her demons, and in doing so begins to heal himself. Could it be that Connie and the Minotaur, along with Col and the sick creatures, have the strength to battle Kullervo, while the Society for the Protection of Mythical Beasts stands ineffectually by? |
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David Jones loves ships, particularly ships in bottles. His latest, the Golden Needle, is a fine pirate vessel. So when David wakes up to find himself being press-ganged on board, he assumes it's a dream. The only thing is, he isn't asleep. The Golden Needle is crewed by a motley assortment of fiendish pirates, led by the once-terrifying Captain Fisher. The only thing they have in common is the desire to atone for past misdeeds, and a lot of gold thread. Now, trying to be good, they are desperately attempting to stitch together the many worlds — including our own — that are sliding towards obliteration in Inferno Rim. But not every pirate in this new dimension is good. Some still have a yearning for gold. In hot pursuit of the Golden Needle is the Scythe, crewed by pirates who live only to steal the golden thread anchoring the worlds. Soon the Golden Needle will run out of time and golden thread — and then her crew will have to turn and face the Scythe. What will David do when the day of battle dawns? Who will win this fight to the death? If it is the Scythe, who will save the worlds? A swashbuckling adventure to shiver yer timbers! |
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