Alex Rider Stormbreaker Anthony Horowitz Walker Books
This is a silver edition celebrating the very first of the Alex Rider novels. The story begins with an ordinary fourteen year old boy being woken from his slumbers by the doorbell ringing. It’s the police with the news that his only known relation, Uncle Ian has been killed in a traffic accident. However, suspicious of the explanation he’s given, Alex starts his own investigation and discovers his uncle’s car full of bullet holes. Why kill a banker, he wonders, having just missed being crushed to death himself when his uncle’s BMW is tossed into the crusher.
When Alex climbs through a window to gain access to his uncle’s office it transpires that Uncle Ian was not a banker at all but a field agent for MI6 – a spy in other words. Before long Alex finds he’s been dragged into the world of cloak and dagger intrigue and espionage Then, having undergone an intensive programme of training, he reluctantly becomes MI6 youngest ever spy. His mission revolves around one Mr Herod Sayle and Alex sets about infiltrating Sayle’s operation and the revolutionary Stormbreaker computers set to be given to schools.
To call the assignment action-packed is a complete understatement: it’s totally gripping and has spawned a series that has become something of a rite of passage for pre-teen readers. This 25th anniversary edition includes a brand new Alex Rider short story but you’ll have to get your own copy to discover what happens therein.
Bunny vs Monkey: Bunny Bonanza! Jamie Smart David Fickling Books
If you’ve yet to make the acquaintance of Bunny et al. these wacky short stories (‘strips’) of the woodland dwelling creatures including the megolomaniac Monkey first appeared in The Phoenix comic. David Fickling Books published several compilation books of these and then bind-ups of which this is the latest.
As the new year begins down in the woods, all is well except that Bunny is inexplicably missing. We join the gang on their search for their floppy-eared pal. As they hunt high and low they encounter several imposters: there’s Robot Bunny, Neanderbunny, Old Bunny aka Algernon Withersnap the Third, Bunny Law, Shadow Bunny and even weirder, Not Bunny: Maybe Bunny is merely suffering from acute amnesia or are these other leporine forms due to some other phenomenon. Most important, having gone right through the year, will the real Bunny return to take possession of his residence?
Anarchic, brim full of high jinks (and some decidedly low ones), frenetic and with a plethora of giggle-inducing surreal happenings, this bumper volume left this reviewer’s head spinning.
Groosham Grange: the graphic novel Anthony Horowitz, adapted by Max L’Hermenier, illustrated by Clément Lefèvre Walker Books
One of Horowitz’s classics is transformed into a hilarious graphic novel version. We follow David Eliot from the time his parents, despairing over the fact that their son has been expelled from his school Beton College, decide to send him to Groosham Grange, an establishment in a gothic castle on Skull Island with a reputation for sorting out rebellious pupils.
Not long after his arrival David overhears a conversation taking place in the headmaster’s study to the effect that something very nasty is going to happen to him and possibly the new friends Jill and Jeffery whom he met on the train..
They discover that every night the other pupils go to the library and then disappear. The three really must make an escape plan though it may not be possible for anyone to escape Groosham Grange.
Full of thrills and spooky chills, this is weird and strangely gripping.
Where Seagulls Dare Anthony Horowitz, illustrated by Mark Beech Walker Books
Private Investigators Nick and his older brother Tim, the world’s worst private investigator are without clients, the last case having been some three months ago. All they have for breakfast is a mini box of cornflakes between them so when a rather unusual-looking woman walks into their establishment, introducing herself as Jane Nightingale, leaving them a large bundle of fifty pound notes in advance for finding her missing father, supposedly a writer, they can’t believe their luck.
They start by paying a visit to what they think is the man, writer Alistair Nightingale’s home in Bath and that’s when things start to turn very weird and in fact, downright dangerous with shots being fired in their direction and threatening messages being left in unexpected places.
The danger really ramps up with steel girders plummeting towards the two,
out of control computers and much more, including a meeting with an old acquaintance, Mr Waverly. He talks of his final operation involving the sinister far-right White Crusaders and the kidnapping of a certain Alistair Nightingale – the very case that the brothers unbeknownst to themselves, are looking at. The well-organised Crusader group is led by one, Neville Fairfax who not only wants to be in charge of a smallish island but of the entire UK. To that end he plans to break into GCHQ, access their computers and … Now the brothers have a choice: cooperate with Waverly or face a month locked up, till the case is over. Looks like they’re in over their heads.
With a superabundance of thrills and spills, jokes on virtually every page and Mark Beech’s droll, disarming illustrations, this latest Diamond Brothers story will have readers hooting with laughter from start to finish.
Agent Asha: Operation Cyber Chop Sophie Deen, illustrated by Priyanka Sachdev Walker Books
The second spy story blending STEM subjects with deadly adventure sees Asha and her robo-hamster sidekick Tumble on a mission to protect her favourite Wembley Park from the evil teenage trillionaire Shelly Belly who plans to chop down all its existing natural trees and replace them with new electronic Cyber Oaks that can monitor what people are doing all the time. Said trees are supposed to be able to reverse climate change – if you believe the hype, that is. Definitely don’t fall for the anti-real tree propaganda being put about by the pro-fellers on social media platform FaceSpace. Now if there’s one thing Asha knows about the world’s youngest CEO Shelly Belly, it’s that she’s very, very bad; she’s even gulled Asha’s elder sister Nush into believing her disinformation.
Could this be Asha’s big chance to crack this case, ultimately save the planet and become a fully-fledged member of the CSA, even if it means facing robot security parrots, taking on an iffy internship and visiting Shelly’s secret test site in Orkney, Scotland.
Wittily written, with high tech devices, coding and critical thinking, diagrams, charts, plus fart fun aplenty, and Priyanka Sachdev’s cyber-style illustrations, this is a great read for young eco-warriors, fans of gadgets, in fact anyone who enjoys a good crime caper.
Red Reading Hub - Jillrbennett's Reviews of Children's Books 