The portrait of a beautiful girl with tumbling red hair takes on sinister undertones in this unnerving tale from much-loved, multi-award-winning author Anne Fine.Jess’s mum is furious when she discovers a muddy, football-shaped splodge on her bedroom wall and sends Jess on a mission to find something to cover it up. Luckily, Jess manages to bag a bargain in her local charity shop: a beautiful portrait of a girl with tumbling red hair in a frame exactly the right si...

Skye and Harry discover Gran isn’t quite as strict as Dad makes out in this funny family story from multi-award-winning author Anne Fine.Skye and Harry are dreading going to visit their gran, as Dad says she was so strict when he was young. He had to do lots of chores, wasn’t allowed much screen time and only had sweet treats on a Sunday! But when they arrive, Gran is much more chilled out than they were expecting. She lets them relax in the garden and play on thei...

Everyone loves the wickedly dry sense of humour of The Diary of a Killer Cat by Anne Fine.Okay, Okay. So hang me. I killed the bird. For pity's sake, I'm a cat.Poor Ellie is horrified when Tuffy drags a dead bird into the house. Then a mouse. But Tuffy can't understand what all the fuss is about.Who on earth will be the next victim to arrive through the cat-flap? Can soft-hearted Ellie manage to get her beloved pet to change his wild, wild ...

Colin is in many ways an ideal citizen. He holds down a responsible job for the council. He visits his aged mother Nora, shops for her, cooks for her, and listens to her grumbles. He also keeps in touch with his sister Dilys, long estranged from her mother, in a vain attempt to maintain family ties. But neither Dilys, Norah nor Colin's colleagues know about his other - much more secret - life that involves a garden shed, a circus acrobat, a much adored three-year-old charmer, and a certain...

Lydia, Christopher and Natalie are used to domestic turmoil. Their parents' divorce has not made family life any easier in either home. The children bounce to and fro between their volatile mother, Miranda, and Daniel, their out-of-work actor father. Then Miranda advertises for a cleaning lady who will supervise the children after school - and Daniel gets the job, disguised as Madame Doubtfire. This is a bittersweet, touching and extremely funny book.

Lovers, colleagues, family - Tilly has always been brilliant at pushing people in and out of her life exactly as it suits her. Then along comes Geoffrey, gentle, compassionate, generous to a fault, with his miserable little children and his manipulative ex-wife.Tilly's own expertise in the arts of deception and avoidance should be enough to make sure she's always one step ahead of Geoffrey's disastrous, crumbling family. But time and again she finds herself staying, brought down by...

Kitty Killin is not only a good storyteller, but also the World's Greatest Expert when it comes to mothers having new and unwanted boyfriends. Particularly when there's a danger they might turn into new and unwanted stepfathers...

A classic children’s book from one of best-loved Bill's New Frock authors, former Children’s Laureate Anne Fine. Perfect for readers aged between 7 and 9 and fans of Awful Auntie and Pamela Butchart's Wigglesbottom Primary series.Until the angel came, Penny, Mark and Marigold were bitterly unhappy. ‘Fat.’ ‘Freak.’ ‘Smelly.’ Barry Hunter was bullying them and everyone at Nitshill Road School knew it. But the angel brings a clever solution. Life at school is going to be very differen...

Christmas comes but once a year. Luckily . . . The Christmas holiday is, traditionally, a time when families gather together. In Ralph's case this means ten or more relatives coming to stay, including assorted aunts and uncles, nutty Great-Aunt Ida (the Home tells them to be careful not to let her out) and his ghastly cousins: Titania in her silly, sick-making frilly fairy dresses and the twins Sylvester and Sylvia (it took until Easter last year before the family dog got over them...

A classic children’s story from one of our best-loved authors, former Children’s Laureate Anne Fine.Bill Simpson wakes up to find he’s a girl, and worse, his mother makes him wear a frilly pink dress to school. How on earth is he going to survive a whole day like this? Everything just seems to be different for girls …Anne Fine’s fun school stories have been delighting children for more than 20 years, winning her awards such as the Smarties Book Award and Carnegie Medal alon...

Flour Babies by Anne Fine, won the Carnegie Medal and the Whitbread Children's Book Award in 1992. When the annual school science fair comes round, Mr Cartwright's class don't get to work on the Soap Factory, the Maggot Farm or the Exploding Custard Tins. To their intense disgust they get the Flour Babies - sweet little six-pound bags of flour that must be cared for at all times.Funny and poignant, Flour Babies is a brilliant depiction of secondary school life.

One stormy night, five stranded schoolchildren uncover the story of Richard Clayton Harwick – a boy who many years ago learned what it was like to have a truly wicked stepfather. But the children have stories of their own step-parents to tell – stories that have warmth and humour, as well as sadness, and a fair share of happy endings.‘For children who have some similar experience, this novel will be therapeutic; for those who haven’t it’s an absorbing read, to make them laugh and c...