nightmares

5 new children’s fiction worth trying!

admin

Tom Gates; Yes! No. (maybe…)Image courtesy of Syndetics by L Pichon

“Sometimes making up my mind isn’t easy to do. Especially when my grumpy sister Delia is looming over me. Mum’s on a mission to tidy up the whole house. She says if I can’t decide what to get rid of – she’ll do it for me. Which would be a disaster! Luckily for me the fossils come to my rescue (more than once).”–Back cover.

 

 

 

Emily Sparkes and the Friendship FiascoImage courtesy of Syndetics by Ruth Fitzgerald

Emily Sparkes thinks having your best friend move to Wales at the same time as your parents decide to have a new baby is probably more trauma than anyone should have to cope with. But things go from bad to worse when she’s paired with revolting Gross-Out Gavin for the school trip. Emily is determined to escape him, and when glamorous new girl Chloe Clarke turns up it seems her prayers might be answered. Unfortunately, everyone has gone Chloe Clarke mad and Emily finds her ‘sworn enemy’ Zuzanna has had the same idea. Getting and keeping Chloe as a friend proves a lot more troublesome than Emily anticipated and leads her into a whole new set of disasters.

 

 

The Nowhere EmporiumImage courtesy of Syndetics By Ross MacKenzie

When the mysterious Nowhere Emporium arrives in Glasgow, orphan Daniel Holmes stumbles upon it quite by accident. Before long, the ‘shop from nowhere’ – and its owner, Mr Silver – draw Daniel into a breathtaking world of magic and enchantment. Recruited as Mr Silver’s apprentice, Daniel learns the secrets of the Emporium’s vast labyrinth of passageways and rooms – rooms that contain wonders beyond anything Daniel has ever imagined. But when Mr Silver disappears, and a shadow from the past threatens everything, the Emporium and all its wonders begin to crumble. Can Daniel save his home, and his new friends, before the Nowhere Emporium is destroyed forever? Scottish Children’s Book Award winner Ross MacKenzie unleashes a riot of imagination, colour and fantasy in this astonishing adventure, perfect for fans of Philip Pullman, Corneila Funke and Neil Gaiman

 

The Adventures of SholaImage courtesy of Syndetics by Bernado Atxaga

While Shola may look like an ordinary little white dog, she and her long suffering owner know that she is in fact a highly cultivated creature. Shola is always ready to find her inner lioness or lead a wild boar hunt but still likes her home-made cheese and home-cooked chips.

 

 

 

The Dream SnatcherImage courtesy of Syndetics by Abi Elphinstone

Twelve-year-old Molly Pecksniff wakes one night in the middle of the forest, lured there by a recurring nightmare – the one with the drums and the rattles and the masks. The Dreamsnatcher is waiting. He has already taken her dreams and now he wants her life. Because Moll is more important than she knows…The Oracle Bones foretold that she and Gryff, a wildcat that has always been by her side, are the only ones who can fight back against the Dreamsnatcher’s dark magic. Suddenly everything is at stake, and Moll is drawn into a world full of secrets, magic and adventure.

 

WIN Nightmares! by Jason Segel and Kirsten Miller

admin 2 Comments

Book cover courtesy of SyndeticsWe have THREE copies of the brand-new book Nightmares! by Jason Segel (who you might know from The Muppets movie) to give away to some lucky readers! All you have to do to enter is tell us how you would fight off this nightmare. I’ll start it, you put your imagination to the test and tell me how it’s going to end. Ready? Here we go…

You stand in front of an old, spooky, abandoned house. The door is falling off its hinges but you push it open and step forward. The door slams shut behind you and it is pitch black inside. You feel in your pocket for a flashlight, take it out and turn it on. You walk down the hallway to the door at the end and push the door open. Right in front of you is an enormous three-headed monster with giant, sharp teeth ready to pounce at you! Quick, what do you do next?

Comment on this post with your answer to be in to win! Please also include the name of your local library so that we know where to send your prize if you win!

To help get your thinking caps on, here’s a teaser of what Nightmares! is all about:

“Charlie Laird has several problems.
1. His dad married a woman he is sure moonlights as a witch.
2. He had to move into her purple mansion, which is NOT a place you want to find yourself after dark.
3. He can’t remember the last time sleeping wasn’t a nightmarish prospect. Like even a nap.
What Charlie doesn’t know is that his problems are about to get a whole lot more real. Nightmares can ruin a good night’s sleep, but when they start slipping out of your dreams and into the waking world–that’s a line that should never be crossed. And when your worst nightmares start to come true . . . well, that’s something only Charlie can face. And he’s going to need all the help he can get, or it might just be lights-out for Charlie Laird. For good.”

Thank you to Random House for supplying us with these great books!

Fine print: You must be a Wellington City Libraries member aged 5-12 years old to be eligible for a prize. Winners will be drawn at 5pm on September 19th, 2014.