Reach for the Stars
The Second Form Stage of your reading journey offers 20 different categories to read from. Your goal is to read at least 10 books within the year and to reflect on what you have felt or learnt from your reading. You will be rewarded with a T-tick for every three books you read and a Commendation for every 5 books.
Where will your journey take you?
When animals talk, it's time humans listened: Harlon has been raised to protect her younger siblings, twins Ash and Xeno, and their outlawed power of communicating with animals. But when the sinister Automators attack their mountain home they must flee for their lives. Xeno is kidnapped and Harlon and Ash are separated.
In a thrilling and dangerous adventure they must all journey alone through the ice fields, forests and oceans of Rumyc to try to rescue each other and fulfil a mysterious promise about a lost island made to their mother.
Zélie is often accused of being a witch, but she doesn't believe in magic. Until Jules climbs up from the reeking Parisian sewer and hands Zélie the golden locket he discovered there. The locket once held the magical Snakestone, and Zélie knows that if she can find the stone, she might also find her missing father.
But a dangerous secret society are equally desperate to get their hands on the Snakestone and its powers. With their lives under threat, Zélie and Jules embark on a desperate hunt for the treasure, facing strange riddles, a mysterious circus, and the miles of murky tunnels that twist beneath the ancient city above...
Sixteen-year-old adopted Tara has questions - about who she is, where she belongs, why she dreams...
When her nightmares darken, fears swarm like a flock of ravens and she traces her visions to the ancient Olumo Rock in Nigeria. It is a sacred place, full of magic, myth, and where whispers of the past linger.
Travelling from England and enrolling in a boarding school at the foot of Olumo, Tara begins a journey to seek the truth of her roots and the spirits that pursue her.
A heart-wrenching true story about life in a Kenyan refugee camp that will restore your faith in real-life happy endings.
Omar and his brother Hassan, two Somali boys, have spent a long time in the Dadaab refugee camp. Separated from their mother, they are looked after by a friendly stranger. Life in the camp isn't always easy. The hunger is constant . . . but there's football to look forward to, and now there's a chance Omar will get to go to school . . .
When war comes to London in 1939, Ronnie Smith is scared and excited: scared of the bombs that fall at night, but excited to race his friends to collect the best bits of shrapnel every morning.
But for Ronnie, the battles aren't just in the sky and on the streets. They're at school and at home too. His little brother is up to no good with a secret job and dangerous new friends, and Ronnie's worried he's getting himself into big trouble.
Ronnie's desperate to help his little brother. But he isn't expecting to uncover secrets that could change the fate of the whole war...
Soon after Sally Lockhart's father drowns at sea, she receives an anonymous letter. The dire warning it contains makes a man die of fear at her feet. Determined to discover the truth about her father's death, Sally is plunged into a terrifying mystery in the dark heart of Victorian London, at the centre of which lies a deadly blood-soaked jewel.
June 6, 1944: The Nazis are terrorizing Europe, on their evil quest to conquer the world. The only way to stop them? The biggest, most top-secret operation ever, with the Allied nations coming together to storm German-occupied France.Welcome to D-Day.Dee, a young U.S. soldier, is on a boat racing toward the French coast. And Dee -- along with his brothers-in-arms -- is terrified. He feels the weight of World War II on his shoulders.But Dee is not alone. Behind enemy lines in France, a girl named Samira works as a spy, trying to sabotage the German army. Meanwhile, paratrooper James leaps from his plane to join a daring midnight raid. And in the thick of battle, Henry, a medic, searches for lives to save.In a breathtaking race against time, they all must fight to complete their high-stakes missions. But with betrayals and deadly risks at every turn, can the Allies do what it takes to win?
England has been radically changed by a series of catastrophes – large cities have disappeared and London has been replaced by a lagoon. The surviving population exists in fortified towns where they cling to traditional ways, while strangely evolved beasts prowl the wilderness beyond. Conformity is rigidly enforced and those who fall foul of the rules are persecuted: some are killed, others are driven out into the wilds. Only a few fight back – and two of these outlaws, Scarlett McCain and Albert Browne, display an audacity and talent that makes them legends.
When Clovis, Eve and Tom decide to play with a ouija board in an old abandoned house on Halloween, none of them foresees the horrors they’re about to unleash. What starts out as a bit of fun, soon transcends into something far more terrifying when a distressed and determined spirit follows them home. Before long the friends are caught up in a series of events beyond their wildest imaginings and their journey as ghost hunters begins . . .
When Cora and her little sister Mimi are sent to stay with their great-aunt in the isolated village of Bryers Guerdon, they sense immediately that they're not welcome. What they don't know is that the last time two young girls were at Guerdon Hall, their visit ended in a mysterious, violent tragedy.
Something dark and evil has haunted the village for centuries. Now it has set eyes on its next victim, and it will stop at nothing to lay claim to her. With the help of local schoolboys Roger and Peter, Cora must uncover the horrifying secrets buried deep within Bryers Guerdon - before it is too late for Mimi.
When Lena’s beloved older brother goes missing at the end of summer camp, the bottom drops out of Lena's world. The police dismiss Kay-Kay’s disappearance as that of just another teenage runaway, but Lena knows they are wrong. Tired of not being listened to, powerless to reach her parents through their grief and unable to imagine a future without her brother in it, Lena sets off to find him.
As Lena journeys across India to retrace Kay-Kay's last known steps, she embarks on a parallel journey of discovery. Because it seems there is a side to Kay-Kay she has never known. The more she learns about her brother in the weeks leading up to his disappearance, the more determined Lena is to find him – and to finally be the sister he has so clearly needed. But will she be too late…?
Fourteen-year-old Cat is lonely - reeling from the loss of her father, she’s disconnected from friends and fighting with her mum. But when a new boy, Tyler, arrives for the summer, Cat finds herself opening up to the handsome stranger. A shocking revelation about her dad turns Cat’s world on its head. She and Tyler uncover a series of secrets that take them on a perilous journey. With fresh lies exposed and threats from a dangerous gang revealed, will Cat risk everything to keep herself and her family safe?
In a perfect world, Jonas begins to see the flaws…
THE GIVER is the classic award-winning novel that inspired the dystopian genre.
It is the future. There is no war, no hunger, no pain. No one in the community wants for anything. Everything needed is provided. And at twelve years old, each member of the community has their profession carefully chosen for them by the Committee of Elders.
Twelve-year old Jonas has never thought there was anything wrong with his world. But from the moment he is selected as the Receiver of Memory, Jonas discovers that their community is not as perfect as it seems.
It is only with the help of the Giver, that Jonas can find what has been lost. And it is only through his personal courage that Jonas finds the strength to do what is right…
The Giver is the award-winning classic of bravery and adventure that has inspired countless dystopian writers as the forerunner of this genre.
Here we are.
And we are living.
Isn't that amazing?
How we manage to be here at all.
Grace and Tippi don't like being stared and sneered at, but they're used to it. They're conjoined twins - united in blood and bone.
What they want is to be looked at in turn, like they truly are two people. They want real friends. And what about love?
But a heart-wrenching decision lies ahead for Tippi and Grace. One that could change their lives more than they ever asked for .
This moving and beautifully crafted novel about identity, sisterhood and love ultimately asks one question: what does it mean to want and have a soulmate?
You’ve stumbled on the city’s greatest secret: Darkside. Incredibly dangerous and unimaginably exciting. Darkside is ruled by Jack the Ripper’s children – a place where nightmares walk the streets.
You think you’re in trouble now, but your problems have just begun…
The first book in the award-winning MORTAL ENGINES quartet. In a dangerous future, huge motorized cities hunt, attack and fight each other for survival. As London pursues a small town, young apprentice Tom is flung out into the wastelands, where a terrifying cyborg begins to hunt him down. MORTAL ENGINES launched Philip Reeve's brilliantly-imagined creation, the world of the Traction Era, where mobile cities fight for survival in a post-apocalyptic future.
Maleeka suffers every day from the taunts of the other kids in her class. If they're not getting at her about her homemade clothes or her good grades, it's about her dark, black skin.
When a new teacher, whose face is blotched with a startling white patch, starts at their school, Maleeka can see there is bound to be trouble for her too.
But the new teacher's attitude surprises Maleeka.
Miss Saunders loves the skin she's in. Can Maleeka learn to do the same?
Marcus has one brother in a youth offender centre and the other is working with their dad on plans for their next theft. Everyone assumes Marcus will follow in their footsteps, but he has other ideas, different hopes.
When a mysterious accident lands a man in hospital, it confirms what everyone in their community expects and Marcus gets the blame. He feels trapped. Only new girl Emma - with her peace protest banners and political badges - questions this story. Can they work together to clear his name - and help Marcus become the person he really wants to be?
In Amsterdam, in the summer of 1942, the Nazis forced teenager Anne Frank and her family into hiding. For over two years, they, another family and a German dentist lived in a 'secret annexe', fearing discovery. All that time, Anne kept a diary. An intimate record of tension and struggle, adolescence and confinement, anger and heartbreak, this is the definitive edition of the diary of Anne Frank.
Armed with a suitcase and an old laundry bag filled with clothes, Kasienka and her mother head for England. Life is lonely for Kasienka. At home her mother's heart is breaking and at school friends are scarce. But when someone special swims into her life, Kasienka learns that there might be more than one way for her to stay afloat.
The Weight of Water is a startlingly original piece of fiction; most simply a brilliant coming of age story, it also tackles the alienation experienced by many young immigrants. Moving, unsentimental and utterly page-turning, we meet and share the experiences of a remarkable girl who shows us how quiet courage prevails.
A plane crashes on a desert island. The only survivors, a group of schoolboys. By day, they explore the dazzling beaches. By night, they are haunted by nightmares of a primitive beast and of what they've lost.
'There aren't any grown-ups anywhere.'
Orphaned by society, they must forge their own; but it isn't long before the group is split, and their innocent games take a dangerous turn.
'What are we? Humans? Or Animals?'
No one loves and quarrels, desires and deceives as boldly or brilliantly as Greek gods and goddesses.
In Stephen Fry's vivid retelling we gaze in wonder as wise Athena is born from the cracking open of the great head of Zeus and follow doomed Persephone into the dark and lonely realm of the Underworld. We shiver when Pandora opens her jar of evil torments and watch with joy as the legendary love affair between Eros and Psyche unfolds.
Mythos captures these extraordinary myths for our modern age - in all their dazzling and deeply human relevance.
Brown Girl Dreaming is the unforgettable story of Jacqueline Woodson's childhood, sharing what it was like to grow up as an African-American in the wake of the Civil Rights movement, and discovering the first sparks of an incredible, lifelong gift for writing. It's packed with wonderful reflections on family and on place, in a way that will appeal to readers from 11 to adult.
Emotionally charged and touching, each line tells the tale of one girl's search to find her voice, her identity and her place in the world.
On a moonlit beach a father cradles his sleeping son as they wait for dawn to break and a boat to arrive. He speaks to his boy of the long summers of his childhood, recalling his grandfather's house in Syria, the stirring of olive trees in the breeze, the bleating of his grandmother's goat, the clanking of her cooking pots. And he remembers, too, the bustling city of Homs with its crowded lanes, its mosque and grand souk, in the days before the sky spat bombs and they had to flee.
When the sun rises they and those around them will gather their possessions and embark on a perilous sea journey in search of a new home.
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