Condition: As new

The second sensational novel from the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize winner Sarah Moore Fitzgerald. THE APPLE TART OF HOPE is a contemporary love story about loyalty and friendship and the power of never giving up hope. Oscar Dunleavy, who used to make the world’s most perfect apple tarts, is missing, presumed dead. No-one seems too surprised, except for Meg, his best friend, and his little brother Stevie. Surrounded by grief and confusion, Meg and Stevie are determined to find out what happened to Oscar, and together they learn about loyalty and friendship and the power of never giving up hope.

If anyone tried to determine the most common rite of passage for preteen girls in North America, a girl’s first reading of Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret would rank near the top of the list. Judy Blume and her character Margaret Simon were the first to say out loud (and in a book even) that it is normal for girls to wonder when they are ever going to fill out their training bras. Puberty is a curious and annoying time. Girls’ bodies begin to do freakish things–or, as in Margaret’s case, they don’t do freakish things nearly as fast as girls wish they would!

Thirteen-year-old Hollywood (Holly) Bliss Wintermann is unfazed when her mother yanks her out of boarding school after a kidnapping scare: “I’ve kind of got used to threats. Like you do, when your mum is like the tenth richest woman in the world.” Holly’s mum is Kandhi, a mega pop star who resettles her daughter in a separate, posh London hotel suite and then ignores her!

Condition: Very good

Charlie Bone awakes one morning to find the city covered with snow and all the animals gone. Where have they gone and why? Blessed, the dog tells Billy there was a terrible shuddering of the earth and immediately after, he saw a witch with two shadows crossing the hall in Bloor’s Academy.

The Secret Commonwealth is truly a book for our times; a powerful adventure and a thought-provoking look at what it is to understand yourself, to grow up and make sense of the world around you. This is storytelling at its very best from one of our greatest writers.

Lyra is an orphan who lives in a parallel universe in which science, theology and magic are entwined. Lyra’s search for a kidnapped friend uncovers a sinister plot involving stolen children and turns into a quest to understand a mysterious phenomenon called Dust.

When Mike and his friends decide to go for a day’s cruising around the coast of Scotland, they are surprised to come across a mysterious barren island that doesn’t show up on any map or satellite image. Determined to explore it, they make some chilling discoveries: piles of bones, evidence of explosives, and a strange old abandoned building full of scientific equipment – including gas masks. But still none of them quite realizes the trouble they’re in until a helicopter flies in and blows up their boat, leaving them stranded.