The Set Up By Sophie McKenzie

Age 10 +

Fourteen years ago, scientist William Fox implanted four babies with the Medusa gene - a gene for psychic abilities. But Fox died and the babies were hidden away for years. Now the children are teenagers - and unaware that their psychic powers are about to kick in. Cocky, charismatic Nico thinks his emerging telekinetic abilities will bring him money, power and the girl of his dreams. He's about to find out just how wrong he is…

Kindle Edition £4.99

Go to Amazon UK for an audio extract.

Read the first chapter:

https://0b603462-2099-44cd-acbf-5e24484323bb.filesusr.com/ugd/7b92b3_604d011e7c2c4bb89e165acea9b89af6.pdf

Readers discussion points, series facts and games from the authors website:

https://0b603462-2099-44cd-acbf-5e24484323bb.filesusr.com/ugd/7b92b3_1576cdfe8c9b42fd91578c48ff05feca.pdf

Questions1. How does Nico learn about his secret power? 2. What is the Medusa gene and what happens to those who have it and their mothers? 3. How does Jack help Nico with his power and where does Jack ask Nico to use it to make money? 4. Why does Carson want Nico?5. Who are the 3 other Medusa children and what are their powers? 6. How does Ketty know that she should jump over the cliff with the data that Carson wants? And what happens when she does? 7. Who is Geri and how is she involved with the Medusa children?

Answers1. In class when he is upset and things start flying around the room.2. It gives a person powers, such as telekinesis and mind reading. All the mothers of the Medusa gene children die from cancer.3. Jack helps Nico focus and concentrate to use his ability to move things with his mind. Jack asks Nico to move a ball during a football match to achieve a certain point value on which Jack has bet.4. To use Nico as a biological weapon and sell him to world leaders who could use his powers.5. Dylan – ability to keep from getting hurt; Ed – ability to mind read; Ketty – ability to see into the future.6. She saw a vision that she would be OK and Nico uses his ability to move things with his mind to save her from falling.7. She is an agent for the UK government wanting to use the children for their abilities to fight crime.

The Recruit By Robert MuchamoreAge 9-12

A terrorist doesn't let strangers in her flat because they might be undercover police or intelligence agents, but her children bring their mates home and they run all over the place. The terrorist doesn't know that one of these kids has bugged every room in her house, made copies of all her computer files and stolen her address book. The kid works for CHERUB.CHERUB agents are aged between ten and

seventeen. They live in the real world, slipping under adult radar and getting information that sends criminals and terrorists to jail.For official purposes, these children do not exist.

Kindle Edition £0.99

Read the first chapter on Amazon UK ‘Look Inside.’

For Bonus material - Cherub campus maps and short stories go to the authors website:

https://www.muchamore.com/cherub-test-2

Listen to audio of the first chapter on the World Book Day - World Of Stories link:

https://audioboom.com/posts/5643102

Questions

1. Why is James expelled from school?2. What happens to James’ Mum Gwen? 3. Why are James and his sister Lauren not living together? 4. Kyle warns James about Rob Vaughn and his friends. What trouble does James get in to because of them?5. What do we discover Kyle is after James is sent to CHERUB? 6. What happens to Lauren? 7. On his first mission what does James discover Fire and World Dunn are planning?8. Despite Brian ‘Bungle' Evans escape, what is James awarded after his successful mission to stop the attack?

Answers

1. He accidentally slashes classmate Samantha Jennings' face with a nail on the wall after she teases him about his mother's obesity. He also shoves his teacher over.

2. She dies after mixing alcohol and painkillers.3. His stepfather Ron dislikes him and so James is sent to a

children’s home.4. Rob convinces James to steal a pack of beer from an off-

licence. The shopkeeper catches him after two of Rob's cronies block the door, preventing James from escaping. He is taken to the police station.

5. Kyle is a CHERUB agent sent to the children’s home to find new recruits.

6. Ron is arrested for abusing her and she is recruited into CHERUB.

7. An anthrax attack against oil executives and politicians at Petrocon, an oil conference.

8. A navy CHERUB T-shirt.

Iguana Boy - Saves the World with a Triple Cheese Pizza

By James Bishop

Age 7+

Dylan Spencer is desperate to be a superhero, especially since his brother and sister are Arctic Thunder and Millie Monday.But when his wish finally comes true, his

superpower turns out to be the most rubbish one ever: he can talk to iguanas!But when super villain Celina Shufflebottom kidnaps all the superheroes in London, Dylan must work out how to use his new team of chatty iguanas to save the day. He's going to have to think outside the box, (the pizza box), if he's going to become the hero he's always dreamed of.

If he's going to make Iguana Boy cool and save the world…

Kindle £3.99

Go to Amazon UK for an audio extract.

Learn how to draw Paul the Iguana:

http://lr-assets.storage.googleapis.com/main/uploads/IguanaBoy_HowToDraw_A4.pdf

Questions

1. What does Dylan want most in the world? 2. Why did Dylan go to Pets Behaving badly and what was funny

about the pets he chose?3. Who was Celina Shufflebottom and what was her plan? 4. How does The Platypus Kid capture all the Superheroes? 5. How did Dylan find where The Platypus Kid was?6. How do the iguanas get in to the building after Dylan is

captured and what do they do to help the heroes?

Answers

1. To have a super power like his brother and sister.2. To get more iguanas, they were all called Paul.3. She is The Platypus Kid. The plan is to kidnap all the worlds Superheroes and take over the world.4. She lets them find her secret lair and then uses a power neutralising machine.5. He went into his brother Arctic Thunder's bedroom and looked on his computer.6. They enter in a pizza box and then jump out of the box and switch off the power neutraliser machine.

Mummy Fairy and Me By Sophie Kinsella

Age 7+

Ella Brook lives in a town called Cherrywood. Her best friends at school are Tom and Lenka. Her worst enemy is Zoe. And then there is her mummy. She looks normal, like any other mummy . . . but she's not. Because she can turn into a fairy. She just has to shut

her eyes tight, say 'Marshmallow' . . . and POOF! She's Mummy Fairy.She can do amazing spells but sometimes the spells go a bit wrong and that's when Ella comes to the rescue!

Kindle Edition £3.99

Listen to the author Sophie Kinsella reading the story on puffin story time:

Part 1https://youtu.be/1FLfp6Dl8mYPart 2https://youtu.be/UbeJYsGrj9sPart 3https://youtu.be/UJGMIFft3BsPart 4https://youtu.be/nqQniUMQhhE

Find cooking, crosswords, crown crafts and more related to this book on the penguin publishers website:

https://www.penguin.co.uk/articles/children/2018/test-your-fairy-skills-with-mummy-fairy-and-me.html

Questions

1. What does Mummy have to do to become a fairy? 2. What happened when Mummy tried to magic some more milk? 3. What happened when Mummy and Ella tried to tidy the house

and make cupcakes when Zoe was coming to tea? 4. Why does Granny tell Mummy not to do any magic and why

does the man think mummy is a monster? 5. At Sports Day why does Ella win everything at first? 6. What happens when Mummy rewinds everything and what

lesson does Ella learn?

Answers

1. Stamp her feet three times, clap her hands, wiggle her bottom and say Marshmallow.

2. A cow appeared in the kitchen and then it began to rain chocolate milk. She then tried to speed up the queue at the supermarket and caused mayhem.

3. As they were tidying the house, Ollie made a huge mess in the kitchen. Mummy tried to magic the mops and brooms to magically tidy but it went wrong and they had to do it themselves in the end but they did magic the cupcakes.

4. She has the fairy flu, Granny says she should rest - Mummy has tried to make herself better but has magicked snow on her head, big muscly arms, a green face and a roaring dragon on her shoulder.

5. Aunty Jo makes the other children run slowly and jump backwards at the long jump.

6. She loses most of the races but she and Tom win the three-legged race. Winning without cheating feels great and working as a team with friends is the way to success.

Peace at Last By Jill MurphyAge 3-6

The hour is late and Mr Bear is tired. But he just can't sleep - however hard he tries, all he can hear are the noises in the house. With a snoring Mrs Bear, an excitable Baby Bear and a house full of tapping and dripping and ticking, peace is hard to come by – will Mr Bear ever get a decent night's sleep?

Amazon UK paperback £5.77

Read this online version of the story:

https://www.slideshare.net/Mrsjalland/peace-story

Watch and listen to the story on Youtube:

https://youtu.be/PWMuB6IwzE4

Colour in - door hanger:

https://www.lovereading4kids.co.uk/kids-zone/content/uploads/1546872805-peace-at-last_activity-sheet.pdf

Make your own bear mask using this template:

https://www.firstpalette.com/pdf/bearmask1.pdf

Make your own finger puppet bear family using this template:

https://www.thelunchboxseason.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/fingerwalkingbearpuppettemplatenoarms.jpg

Questions

1. Why could Mr Bear not get to sleep at first? 2. What was Baby Bear doing instead of sleeping? 3. Who was making noises in the garden? 4. When Mr Bear did get to sleep, what woke him up?5. What did Mrs Bear give Mr. Bear in the morning?

Answers

1. Mrs. Bear was snoring.2. Baby Bear was pretending to be an aeroplane.3. The owl, the hedgehog and the cats.4. The alarm going off.5. A cup of tea.

Billy and the Dragon By Nadia Shireen

Age 3-5

Billy and her sidekick, Fatcat (dressed as a very cute dragon), are enjoying the buns and bouncy castle at a fancy dress party when a very large REAL dragon swoops down from nowhere and grabs Fatcat!Rummaging in her hair, Billy finds a telescope

and manages to spot Fatcat far away in a tall tree within the Deep Dark Forest: understandably, he doesn’t look too happy about it. So, Billy and her animal friends set off to rescue him. Yet, rescuing a cat from a tree isn’t as easy as you might think – and when Billy finds a small dragon who has got lost, she starts to guess what might have happened…

Kindle Edition £3.99

Listen and read along to the story:

https://youtu.be/msMM3dlwpdY

Listen to author Nadia Shireen read Billy and the Beast:

https://youtu.be/T1xhYVM0lmk

Read 10 facts about the author and listen to another story link:

https://www.booktrust.org.uk/news-and-features/features/2018/march/ten-amazing-facts-about-nadia-shireen-and-hear-her-latest-story-read-by-someone-special/

Questions1. Where are Billy and Fatcat going and what happens to Fatcat

on the way? 2. When they find Fatcat in a tree in the dark forest how does Billy

try to rescue him? 3. Where does the dragon take Fatcat next and what does Billy

find on her way to rescue him? 4. When Billy finds the dragon at the top of the mountain what

happens?5. How do Billy and Fatcat get back to the party?

Answers

1. To a fancy dress party - Fatcat is taken away by a dragon.2. She floats up to the top of the tree with a bunch of balloons.3. The Grimbly Mountains, she finds a baby dragon.4. The baby dragon pops out of Billy's backpack and Billy and the dragon swap.5. The dragon gives them a ride.