Dublin, 1830.When his da gets injured, Hugh 'Scholar' O'Dare has to leave school to work as a chimney sweeper. The job is scary and dangerous, but it brings him into the home of the most famous man in Ireland, Daniel O'Connell, who takes an interest in the young boy's life.Then Scholar comes across another young sweeper whose circumstances are much worse than his own, and a shocking secret comes to light. Can he help this new friend escape a life of darkness?

In the spring of 1945 a mother dies, leaving four children to fend for themselves in a Dublin tenement.Nancy, the oldest, lives in dread of the family being split up. The power to send them all to industrial schools such as Artane and Goldenbridge lies with the 'Cruelty Men'. Their spy, the Pig Farmer, lives next door and holds a long term grudge against the family.Thankfully Nancy has loyal friends in Summerhill and the Diamond, among them Lilly, her brother Charlie Weaver...

It's spring 1919. Ireland's War of Independence has just begun. In a cottage in County Westmeath, thirteen-year-old Colm Conneely longs to join the local Volunteers, the 'Rainbow Chasers' who dream of an independent Ireland. Caught up in republican fever, he smuggles guns, stands up to the RIC during a house raid and raises the tricolour on a lake island.But Colm is also chasing another rainbow — he dreams of a life in America working as a fiddle player and involved in the republic...

This is a book about a ghost called Story.She's lost in the city - alone, afraid and without her memory.Then she meets Jude, a boy who sees the dead.And he is the only one who can help her remember...

Allan Ahlberg's five poetry books, written over a period of twenty-five years – Please Mrs Butler, Heard it in the Playground, Friendly Matches, The Mighty Slide and The Mysteries of Zigomar – have delighted generations of children and received many accolades and prizes.Allan has sifted through them and chosen a collection to delight and entrance a new generation of readers and their parents. Here are all the trials and tribulations of childhood, embracing school,...

In The Fib, The Swap and The Trick, George Layton's collections of short stories evoke a nostalgic, atmospheric view of growing up in the 1950s. Now published together for the first time as a bind-up*The coach started to move off. I felt frightened. All these weeks, looking forward to it, and now I didn't want to go. Please, Mum, let me go home. She was running alongside, waving her hanky and crying . . .He'd nagged his mother for weeks to let him go on the school ...

A thrilling, pacy adventure about friendship, bravery and real-life injustice from the award-winning author of High Rise Mystery'For 9+ readers, this gripping, thoughtful update to the Blytonesque "secret society" genre engages squarely with racism and social injustice.' Guardian'Brilliant; a joy to the very end' Katherine RundellJosephine Williams is definitely a leader - and her teachers ...

Jack the Station Cat and his friends are expecting royal visitors to Tail’s End station. Mr. Parker the Station Master receives a letter. Twm, the cat at the Old Gaol Museum at Ruthin needs help. A rat is annoying the visitors. Jack goes to Ruthin but will he be back in time to take charge of the royal visit?

A fascinating, moving and often funny collection of stories about the Australian way of life.For 10-14 year olds.'If you've got a minute to spare I'll more than gladly relate to you the real, true, fair-dinkum, ridgy-didge, authentic story ... 'Bill 'Swampy' Marsh is one of Australia's most popular storytellers - he knows a good story when he hears it and now he has gathered together a collection of real Aussie adventures for younger readers! Imagine droving thousands of cattle acro...

A class of young students rise up against their teacher one afternoon in a small west of Ireland town.

A flu epidemic ushers in a plague of dark magic in this spooktastic mystery featuring teenage sleuth Johnny Dixon from The Wrath of the Grinning Ghost.Though forty miles away, Duston Heights is not safe from the flu that's raging through Boston. When Johnny Dixon's grandmother falls ill, he's sent to live with his neighbor to avoid infection. So many locals are getting sick that school is canceled for a week, and the reclusive Dr. Abram Ashburn comes out o...

An invigorating tale of suffragettes and heroes, courage and survival, as World War One ends, a pandemic sweeps the land – and women get to vote!Stella has always looked forward to changing the world. It’s what she was brought up to do, by a suffragette mother who knew all about fighting and rebellion. But it’s November 1918. The great flu pandemic sweeping the world has robbed Stella of her mother and her home, and she’s alone in a strange country, with an aunt sh...