THE HORSE AND HIS BOY
By C. S. Lewis
Collins £6.99
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This is a Narnia book, but instead of being about some children from our world who go into Narnia, it is about a little boy who already lives there. The story happens during the time of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. The hero, Shashta, is brought up in a desert. He meets a talking horse called Bree and they run away to Narnia. The horse is very bossy and proud. Later it’s quite sad because he’s worried that when he gets to Narnia he won ’t be able to roll on the grass like an ordinary horse. BCB

THE WHEEL ON THE SCHOOL
By Meindert De Jong
HarperCollins
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This is the story of a village in Holland called Shora. Storks nest on the roofs of all the villages nearby but not in Shora because the roofs are too spiky and there aren’t any trees. A girl called Lina has an idea to try and attract the storks by putting a cart wheel on the roof of the school. So the six children of the village go out on different roads to try and find a cart wheel. Each one has different adventures, and each one makes their way back to the school. The stories are like spokes and the school is like the hub. BCB

Vicky Munro Age 9

MORTAL ENGINES
By Philip Reeve
Scholastic £5.99
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This truly gripping adventure takes you to the not-so-near future where whole towns move around like scavengers, hunting down and eating the weaker towns. We travel to London, where we meet Tom, an orphan who is looked after by a guild. But there is a dark and powerful secret beneath the bustle of the city, and Tom’s life is about to change drastically. This is not a book for squeamish readers, but if you can stomach mangled deaths and horrifying accidents, I strongly recommend it. VM

I WAS A RAT
BY PHILIP PULLMAN
Corgi £4.99
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Have you ever wondered what it would be like to change places with your pet? Roger starts out as the pet of a poor girl, but on the night of the ball he changes into a human servant. At first he is adopted by a family, who put up with his ratty ways. But soon he is on the run. His exciting story is partly told through newspaper reports from The Daily Scourge. It would spoil this fast-paced and funny story to reveal the ending, but all ends well (though it suggests you shouldn’t always believe what you read in the press). VM

Ellen Gleeson Age 12

THE RUBY IN THE SMOKE
By Philip Pullman
Scholastic £5.99
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Sally Lockhart is a 16-year-old orphan girl in Victorian London. To find out about her father, she visits his old colleague, Mr Higgs. When she asks him about the Seven Blessings, which her father mentioned in his letters, Mr Higgs drops dead with fear. Sally finds herself in a web of lies, treachery and the deadly drug opium — and the cause of all the worry: the beautiful ruby. I really enjoyed this book because it keeps you hanging on to every word, and it has a very unexpected, surprising ending. EG

SABRIEL
By Garth Nix
Collins £5.99
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Sabriel is the daughter of Abhorsen, a powerful Charter Mage. Abhorsen sends Sabriel to live in Ancelstierre at Wyverley College, where she can learn magic and stay away from the Old Kingdom, where uncontrollable Free Magic is everywhere and the Dead will not stay dead. When her father goes missing, Sabriel crosses the Great Wall into the Old Kingdom to find him. This is a great book: exciting, fast-moving and action-packed. The plot is quite complicated, so you need to concentrate. EG

Robert Jones Age 13

WEE FREE MEN
BY TERRY PRATCHETT
Corgi £5.99
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This is the first book featuring the Nac Mac Feegles and Tiffany Aching. Tiffany is your average nine-year-old girl, apart from the fact that she lives on the Discworld and has a powerful combination of First Sight and Second Thoughts. The Nac Mac Feegles are a group of Pictsies that have been thrown out of Fairy Land and they have decided to help Tiffany rescue her brother from the evil clutches of the Fairy Queen. This book has good imagery, an original plot, and is very funny in places. RJ

ANIMAL FARM
By George Orwell
Penguin £6.99
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This book is an allegory of the Russian Revolution. The farm, with its incompetent owner, is taken over by the animals, with the pigs in charge. After a year the pigs start acting like the farmer. My favourite animal is Boxer, the horse. He follows the pigs so blindly that he works himself to death by exhaustion. The pigs are so ruthless that that they send him to the knacker’s: they kill their most devoted follower. I like this book because it shows how people can get drunk on power and change the law to suit themselves. RJ

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