siblings – Kids' Blog

5 New kids fiction books to warm your heart on these freezing winter days

admin11 August, 2016

The Adventures of Alfie Onion by Vivian French

Alfie Onion has just set off on a great adventure …but only to carry his brother’s luggage. It’s his elder brother, Magnifico Onion, who’s destined to win their family a Happily Ever After. But when it turns out Magnifico isn’t half the hero he’s cracked up to be, it falls to Alfie to save the day – with a little help from his loyal dog, a talking horse and a couple of meddling magpies.

Perijee & Me by Ross Montgomery

When 11-year-old Caitlin discovers a shrimp-like alien creature on the shores of her island home, she takes responsibility for teaching it about the world. Mostly, this just involved stopping little Perijee from eating everything. Caitlin becomes increasingly close to her alien friend, treating him like a brother. There’s only one problem – Perijee won’t stop growing. Then the authorities try to hunt him down and through his fear, Perijee disappears and starts causing trouble. Caitlin must leave home and travel across the country to try and convince Perijee to stop destroying everything before it’s too late.

Binny Bewitched by Hilary McKay

Binny Cornwallis has lost some money. Money that wasn’t really hers in the first place. With her best enemy Gareth and her beloved dog Max she turns detective to track it down, but the Cornwallis family are anything but helpful. Little brother James and his friend Dill are having an adventure of their own and big sister Clem is acting very strangely. And on top of all this, Binny suspects their next-door neighbour may be a witch …

The Girl of Ink and Stars by Kiran Millwood Hargrave

Forbidden to leave her island, Isabella dreams of the faraway lands her cartographer father once mapped. When her friend disappears, she volunteers to guide the search. The world beyond the walls is a monster-filled wasteland and beneath the dry rivers and smoking mountains, a fire demon is stirring from its sleep. Soon, following her map, her heart and an ancient myth, Isabella discovers the true end of her journey: to save the island itself.

Emily Sparkes and the Backstage Blunder by Ruth Fitzgerald

‘It’s school play season, and Emily Sparkes has landed herself a starring role… not. In fact it’s the most HUMILIATING role in the history of all time – even worse than the time she was cast as a duck. (Quack, quack.) Emily’s friends Chloe (pretty much a Hollywood-star-to-be, daahling) and Zuzanna are very excited. Partly because, for the first time ever, they’ll be performing in a gala at the local theatre like proper actors! But things take a turn for the worse when they meet the other school who’ll be performing. The girls from Mag Hall have a history with Chloe that seems a bit mysterious. It’s going to take some real Emily Sparkes creativityness to get to the bottom of things!’ – taken from book cover.

Start Term 3 with this awesome new kids’ ficiton

admin16 July, 2015

Check out these great new fiction titles. Get them while they are hot!

Coco Banjo is having a Yay Day by N.J Gemmell

Coco Banjo loves her life. She sleeps in a tiger onesie, wears her mum’s diamonds just because she can, and has dolphins and penguins for friends. Today Coco’s planning a Yay Day of fun on her secret island home in the middle of Sydney Harbour. But wait . . . what’s that Secret Signal? Oh no, Narianna (known as N) is being bullied! Coco sets off for school to rescue her. But when cranky school principal Miss Trample sees Coco’s school uniform (customised, thank you very much), Coco might be in even more trouble than her best friend. How will she get out of this one?

Absolutely Almost by Lisa Graff

Ten-year-old Albie has never been the smartest, tallest, best at gym, greatest artist, or most musical in his class, as his parents keep reminding him, but new nanny Calista helps him uncover his strengths and take pride in himself. First person recount.

Lost in the Sun by Lisa Graff

“As Trent Zimmerman struggles to move past a traumatic event that took place several months earlier, he befriends class outcast Fallon Little, who helps him understand that he can move on”– Provided by publisher.

The Worst Class Trip Ever by Dave Barry

When the eighth grade civics class of Miami’s Culver Middle School goes on a trip to Washington, D.C., Wyatt Palmer finds himself in deep trouble before the plane even lands because his best friend Matt’s decided the men sitting behind them are terrorists–and it’s up to the boys to stop them.

Image Courtesy of Syndetics Kenny Wright Superhero by James Patterson

Kenny Wright is a sixth grade ‘Grandma’s Boy’ in a tough inner city school, struggling with bullies, schoolwork and keeping his detentions secret from his ‘G-ma’. Though in his active imagination he’s a world-famous superhero, Stainlezz Steel, who fights crime, saves lives and rescues helpless animals. But now Kenny’s neighbourhood needs him – can he step up in his real life and help his ‘G-ma’ save the best School Principal he’s ever had?

Latest New Kids Fiction

admin27 November, 2014

Nest by Esther Ehrlich

On Cape Cod in 1972, eleven-year-old Naomi, known as Chirp for her love of birds, gets help from neighbor Joey as she struggles to cope with her mother’s multiple sclerosis and its effect on her father and sister.

A Wonderlandiful Life by Shannon Hale.

“When a mysterious being from Wonderland begins to infect Ever After High with a strange magic, everything goes topsy-turvy. Lizzie Hearts, Wonderland’s future queen; Cedar Wood, daughter of Pinocchio; and Madeline Hatter, heir to the Mad Hatter’s Haberdashery & Tea Shoppe, seem to be the only ones who haven’t completely lost their heads. It’s up to them to save their best friends forever after from a curse that threatens to give their school–and their lives–a very unhappy ending”– Provided by publisher.

The Girl who Walked on Air by Emma Carroll

Louie, was abandoned at Chipchase’s Travelling Circus as a baby and dreams of becoming a ‘Showstopper’. She secretly practises the tightrope and dreams of being the Girl Who Walked on Air. Mr Chipchase reluctantly lets Louie perform. She is a sensation, and gets an offer from the sinister, opposition, Mr Wellbeloved to perform… over Niagara Falls. But nothing is quite as it seems and soon Louie’s bravery is tested not just on the highwire but in confronting her past and the shady characters in the world of the circus.

Angels in training by Karen Mccombie

Riley’s life has changed a lot since she discovered the Angelos sister’s secret. You see her new neighbours are a little bit …magical. They know things that no-one else does and that’s why she thinks they can help her find out about mum. But just as she’s about to get some answers, mysterious events start happening at school. As things get stranger and stranger, Riley begins to suspect that they’re the only ones who can work out what or who is behind them.

The Winter Wolf by Holly Webb

Amelia is exploring the huge, old house, where her family are spending Christmas when she finds a diary hidden in the attic. It was written by a boy struggling to look after an abandoned wolf pup. Before she knows it, Amelia is transported into the wintry world of the diary…

Fun New Kids Fiction!

admin29 October, 2014

Tell Me by Joan Bauer

Feeling scared and powerless when her father’s anger escalates and her parents separate, twelve-year-old Anna spends the summer with her grandmother and decides to make a difference when she sees what seems to be a girl held against her will.

The Whispering Skull by Jonathan Stroud

“In the six months since Anthony, Lucy, and George survived a night in the most haunted house in England, Lockwood & Co. hasn’t made much progress. Quill Kipps and his team of Fittes agents keep swooping in on Lockwood’s investigations. Finally, in a fit of anger, Anthony challenges his rival to a contest: the next time the two agencies compete on a job, the losing side will have to admit defeat in the Times newspaper. Things look up when a new client, Mr. Saunders, hires Lockwood & Co. to be present at the excavation of Edmund Bickerstaff, a Victorian doctor who reportedly tried to communicate with the dead. Saunders needs the coffin sealed with silver to prevent any supernatural trouble. All goes well-until George’s curiosity attracts a horrible phantom. Back home at Portland Row, Lockwood accuses George of making too many careless mistakes. Lucy is distracted by urgent whispers coming from the skull in the ghost jar. Then the team is summoned to DEPRAC headquarters. Kipps is there too, much to Lockwood’s annoyance. Bickerstaff’s coffin was raided and a strange glass object buried with the corpse has vanished. Inspector Barnes believes the relic to be highly dangerous, and he wants it found…”

The incomplete book of dragons; (a guide to dragon species) by Cressida Cowell

Long ago, the world was full of dragons. But what happened to them? Where are they now? These pages are taken from the notebooks of Viking Hero Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third when he was just a boy. A keen dragonwatcher, Hiccup paints a picture of the brilliance and fire and spirit of that lost dragon world. Featuring dragon profiles, dragon anatomy, dragon riding tips and lots more must know info e.g. how to spot the difference between an arsenic adderwing and a glow worm (you don’t want to mix those two up) and what to do when confronted with a Hellsteether.

Egg & Spoon by Gregory Maguire

An impoverished Russian country girl Elena Rudina and the aristocratic Ekaterina meet and set in motion an escapade that includes mistaken identity, a monk locked in a tower, a prince traveling incognito, and the witch Baba Yaga.

Awful Auntie by David Walliams

Aunt Alberta is on a mission to cheat the young Lady Stella Saxby out of her inheritance – Saxby Hall. But with mischievous and irrepressible Soot, the cockney ghost of a chimney sweep, alongside her Stella is determined to fight back … And sometimes a special friend, however different, is all you need to win through

Some great new Fiction books worth checking out!

admin18 March, 2014 2 Comments

Paws and Whiskers by Jacqueline Wilson

Animal tales from Jacqueline Wilson, Michael Morpugo, Enid Blyton and more! (book cover)

Contains many (many!) short and funny stories about our favourite pets – cats and dogs! Snuggle up and read them all at once, or just a few at a time.

Hippomobile! by Jeff Tapia

Ten-year-old twins Jimmy and Stella start a campaign to save their dying small town (population 49) by restoring the amazing hippomobile, an old-fashioned vehicle made out of a horse wagon.

Fizzlebert Stump #3: The boy who cried fish by A.F Harrold”Fizzlebert

Stump lives in a circus. His mum’s a clown, his best friend is a bearded boy, and he sticks his head in a lion’s mouth every night. Other than that, he’s pretty normal. When Fish the sea lion goes missing Fizzlebert tracks down the runaway beast to the Aquarium, with its piratical owner Admiral Spratt-Haddock, invisible octopus, and colour-coded fish. But the Aquarium has problems of its own. Fish (not Fish the sea lion, “fish.” Keep up.) are going missing, and the Admiral blames the circus. Can Fizzlebert solve the mystery, avoid an over-enthusiastic crocodile, and find his friend? (from –– www.goodreads.com)

Bird by Crystal Chan

A girl, who was born on the day her brother Bird died, has grown up in a house of silence and secrets; when she meets John, a mysterious new boy in her rural Iowan town, and those secrets start to come out. (From www.goodreads.com)

Racing the Moon by Michelle Morgan

Joe Riley is growing up in a tough neighbourhood of Sydney, Australia during the Great Depression.

Fresh New Fiction

admin9 September, 2013

Atticus Claw Settles a Score by Jennifer Gray (sequel to Atticus Claw, Breaks the Law)

Atticus Grammatticus Cattypus Claw, the world’s greatest REFORMED cat burglar is back. This time, the tabby with talent is on the right side of the law. And when Jimmy Magpie and his gang are busted out of jail by a mysterious villain and an evil cat called Ginger Biscuit, Atticus knows from bitter experience he’s going to need all his skill and courage to catch them.

A Very Peculiar Plague by Catherine Jinks

The thrilling second book in this 3-part series, set in a time when science clashes with superstition and monsters lurk in chimneys. Jem takes on the role of bogler’s apprentice and gets the fright of his life.

Osbert The Avenger by Christopher William Hill

Meet Osbert Brinkhoff, the unlikeliest of avengers. His is a tale of dark delights and ghastly goings-on, of injustice and revenge. The Villains are VICIOUS. The settings are SINISTER. And good does NOT always prevail… If you prefer CLEAVERS to kittens and FIENDS to fairies…. then welcome to the GRUESOMELY FUNNY tales from Schwartzgarten.; (taken from book cover)

Project Huia by Des Hunt

“Logan’s grandfather grew up near Palmerston North in the 1940s. One day, he and his sister Mavis spotted a beautiful and unusual bird in the kowhai tree outside their house: it was a huia bird, which was believed to be extinct. The bird flew away, and in an attempt to photograph it they managed to track it deep into the Manawatu Gorge. It was a dangerous journey through two train tunnels, made even more so when the horrible Carson boys got wind of their mission and decided to try and find the huia first so they could shoot it and sell its highly valuable feathers. More than 60 years later, 11-year-old Logan has returned to the Manawatu with Grandpop and a scientist to try and solve the mystery of what happened to the huia that he and Mavis found all those years ago. Grandpop must remember all the details of the events of many years ago. Can the group rely on his version of the events, and find the huia’s final resting place? Will the huia still be there, and will its DNA still be valuable for scientific research into NZ’s native fauna? And whoever would have thought that those Carsons are still living in the area and on the loose, and still up to their nasty tricks?”–Publisher information.

The Thing About Luck by Cynthia Kadohata

Just when twelve-year-old Summer thinks nothing else can possibly go wrong in a year of bad luck, an emergency takes her parents to Japan, leaving Summer to care for her little brother while helping her grandmother cook and do laundry for harvest workers.

Top 10 Children’s Comic for June

admin5 July, 2013

Are you a comic fan? Here’s are the most popular ones for the month of June:

1. Pokemon by Hidenori Kusaka (series)

2. Big Nate by Lincoln Peirce

3. Warriors by Dan Jolley (series)

4. Amulet by Kazu Kibuishi (series)

5. Babymouse by Jennifer L. Holm (series)

6. Chi’s sweet home by Kanata Konami (series)

7. The complete Peanuts by Charles M. Schulz (series)

8. The Baby-sitters Club by Ann M. Martin ( short series)

9. Tiny Titans by Art Baltazar (series)

10. Garfield by Mark Evanier (series)

Get Stuck into Some Fab New Fiction!

admin1 July, 2013

Rump: The True Story of Rumpelstiltskin by Leisl Shurtliff

Relates the tale of Rumpelstiltskin’s childhood and youth, explaining why his name is so important, how he is able to spin straw into gold, and why a first-born child is his reward for helping the miller’s daughter-turned-queen

Hold Fast by Ble Balliett

On a cold winter day in Chicago, Early’s father disappeared, and now she, her mother and her brother have been forced to flee their apartment and join the ranks of the homeless–and it is up to Early to hold her family together and solve the mystery surrounding her father.

Finding Fortune by Pippa Goodhart

Ida’s mother has died, and now Grandmama has plans for Ida that don’t include her beloved Fa. But Ida is not going to let Fa travel to the Klondike in search of gold on his own. She must find a way to go with him, whatever it takes…The long, tough journey will push the two of them to the limit, but it also helps them to decide what kind of life they really want back home.

Super Sister and the Birthday Party by Gwyneth Rees

“Emma and Saffie are off to Granny’s house for the summer to practise their superpowers. Soon the gnomes are doing the gardening, the dolls are coming to life and the washing-up is doing itself! It’s Grandpa’s birthday soon, and Saffie decides to use her powers to throw him the best party ever – whether he likes it or not. What could possibly go wrong?”–Back cover.

The Cats of Tanglewood Forest by Charles de Lint

Twelve-year-old Lillian, an orphan who loves roaming the woods looking for fairies when her chores are done, is bitten by a deadly snake and saved through the magical forest creatures in this expansion on the author’s and illustrator’s previous work, A circle of cats.

New fiction to devour

admin21 June, 2013

Here’s some great new Junior Fiction books for you to borrow from our Library shelves!;

Upside Down in the Jungle by Helen Phillips

Our world turned upside down when bird-freak Dad went to the Central American jungle and didn’t come back. All we have from him is the Very Strange and Incredibly Creepy Letter, which Roo swears is in code. So what does she want us to do?

Spy Camp by Stuart Gibbs

As almost thirteen-year-old Ben, a student at the CIA’s academy for future intelligence agents, prepares to go to spy summer camp, he receives a death threat from the evil organization SPYDER.

Runaways by Sherryl Clark

Cassie and her brother Jack are on the run from the past, from the future and from their failure of a family. But where can they go? And can you ever really run away?

Story’s End by Marissa Burt

(Sequel to Storybound) “A deadly Enemy has threatened the future of Story–and twelve-year-old Una Fairchild is the only one who can stop his plans and save the character world from destruction”–Provided by publisher.

Mirage by Jenn Reese