Showing results by publisher "Bolinda Publishing Pty Ltd" in Growing Up & Facts of Life

James splits his life between his mum’s and his dad’s houses. It’s far from perfect. Especially now Dad doesn’t have time for bike rides with him any more and Mum’s always with her new boyfriend. The constant is Digger, his dog and best friend. He’s the glue that holds the two halves of James’ life together. So when James finds a lump on Digger’s leg, everything changes. Digger is the one he can talk to about anything. But when it’s Digger he needs to talk about, where can he turn?

A poignant and uplifting story of family, connection and imagination. Tabby’s fed up. Fed up with losing her best friend and fed up that Grandad has come to stay. Grandad’s always telling the same old silly, made-up stories, and now Tabby has to walk his smelly dog, Buster, every day after school. When one of Tabby’s walks takes her to a lonely hilltop house she spots something strange going on. So strange she can’t help but mention it to Grandad, who of course turns it all into another fantasy.

Theo Stein-Meyer loves being part of the Magic Misfits. Armed with his trusty violin bow, he completes the team with his levitation skills, unflappable calm and proper manners. But when a girl named Emily begins to spend time with the group, Theo is surprisingly drawn to her. She seems to understand the pull he feels between music and magic, between family and friends. Then a famous ventriloquist arrives in town, and the Misfits are sure he (and his creepy dummy) are up to no good.

Liverpool, 1940: 13 year old Joan's home is under threat from the Nazi's terrifying nightly air-raids. It is not an easy time to be a teenager, especially with the sweet rationing, strict curfews and blackouts. Joan and best friend Doreen love going to the cinema until the bombings intensify and then even that becomes too dangerous, especially when an army deserter is found lurking near their home. Who is he and why does he think Joan can help him?

When any pony asks Princess Celestia for help, she is more than happy to be of service. So when Duchess Diamond Waves says she is in desperate need of assistance, the wise leader of Equestria clears her schedule. Arriving at Monacolt Magic Academy, Celestia notices that her dear old friend seems to have lost her sparkle. Diamond Waves confides that her beautiful city by the sea is on the brink of disaster and, having failed their exams, none of her pupils are prepared for what lies ahead. Diamond Waves says her colts and fillies are lacking focus, but that doesn't seem to be the case.

"Dear Your Majesty the Queen, I need to speak to you urgently about my brother Luke. He's got cancer and the doctors in Australia are being really slack...." If you want something done properly, Colin Mudford reckons, go straight to the top.

Eleven-year-old Willodeen adores creatures of all kinds, but her favourites are the most unlovable beasts in the land - strange beasts known as 'screechers'. The villagers of Perchance call them pests, even monsters, but Willodeen believes the animals serve a vital role in the complicated web of nature. Lately, though, nature has seemed angry indeed. Perchance has been cursed with fires and mudslides, droughts and fevers, and even the annual migration of hummingbears, which are a source of local pride and income, has dwindled.

Jessie's friends from the Realm beg her to return and help them with a problem. Magic is thick in the air, and the terrifying griffins that guard the Realm's treasure house are out of control! The tiny, beautiful flower fairies play an important part in Jessie's clever plan to stop the griffins. But then the fairies themselves fall into a new and terrible danger, and only Jessie can save them.

How to Be a Human is a warm and otherworldly story about finding friendship in the most unlikely of places from highly acclaimed and much-loved children's author Karen McCombie. Kiki has been dumped by the Popular Crew and is feeling the pain of rejection. Wes is a loner and an easy target for the school bullies. Both could use a friend. The Star Boy is marooned on Earth, awaiting rescue. From the safety of the basement of Fairfield Academy he watches the humans, in particular Kiki and Wes.

Stanley Potts is just an ordinary boy, but when all the jobs in Fish Quay disappear his Uncle Ernie develops an extraordinary fascination with canning fish. Suddenly their home is filled with the sound of changing machinery and the stench of mackerel, and Uncle Ernie's obsession reaches such heights that he would even can Stan's beloved goldfish! Stan, however, has his own destiny, which leads him - via a hook-a-duck stall - to Pancho Pirelli, the blue-caped madman who swims with piranhas.

Winning is a good thing, isn’t it? Everyone in first year is really excited about the big prize in the English essay competition - four months in France - and Alice has a good chance of winning. Megan loves writing essays, but she doesn’t want to win - go away for four months alone? No way! She doesn’t want Alice to go either - why would anyone want to go abroad without her best friend?

An immersive anthology of stories examining home and belonging, with an introduction from former Waterstones Children’s Book Prize category winner Sharna Jackson, Happy Here features stories and poems by 10 Black British authors exploring themes of family, friendship, laughter, magic and peril - in different genres and styles, but all about joy.

When Lissa spends the summer with her dad on his boathouse, she can’t help but feel a little lonely. She misses her mum and sister back home, and her dad’s job means that he can’t spend as much time with her as she’d hoped. Then one morning during a paddle boarding lesson, she spots a lost seal pup in the river trying to find its way home. Lissa wants to help her, but can she protect the young seal without scaring her away?

A British spy plane crashes in Nazi-occupied France. Its pilot and passenger are best friends. But just one of the girls has a chance at survival. Arrested by the Gestapo, 'Verity' is given a choice: reveal her mission or face a grisly execution. They’ll get the truth out of her. Only, it won’t be what they expect.

When Jessie visits her grandmother at beautiful Blue Moon, she discovers an amazing secret and enters the Realm for the first time. Fairies, elves, tiny horses and all kinds of magical beings live in the Realm, and a noble Queen in a great golden palace rules them all. But the Realm is in terrible danger, and Jessie must outwit an evil enemy to save the land before it is destroyed forever.

When a bullying incident sends 12-year-old Nico Holland over the edge of a cliff into the icy waters of Still Cove, where no one ever goes, friends Tyler and Ella - and even 'cool kid' Opal - rush to his rescue...only to discover an island hidden in the swirling mists below. Shrouded by dense trees and murky tides, the island appears uninhabited, although the kids can't quite shake the feeling that something about it is off.

After The Evil's assault on Portland, everything returns to relative normality... for the moment. The twins continue to work hard to control their Gifts, and at school they make a new friend, Tara. But then the instruments in Grandma X's antique store begin registering Evil activity, and Tara's dad turns out to be the suspicious big-city property developer working on the house next door. Matters turn from bad to worse when the twins discover that Grandma's cats are fighting an important battle of their own. Can the twins solve the mystery of the living Ward before it's too late?

Through the long years of the Great Depression, Harper Flute watches with a child's clear eyes her family's struggle to survive in a hot and impoverished landscape. As life on the surface grows harsher, her brother Tin escapes ever deeper into a subterranean world of darkness and troubling secrets, until his memory becomes a myth barely whispered around the countryside.

Aftershocks explores the ways in which grief can affect not only individuals, but communities at large, from award-winning author Anne Fine. A family mix-up means Louie has to tag along with his engineer father and his team as they head for a routine job in the farthest flung and most neglected province of the Federation. A massive earthquake, with ensuing tsunami, devastates the entire isolated coastal region, laying bare the other-worldly manner in which the silent and strange Endlanders deal with life, death and the hinterlands of memory and loss.

The hilarious series from best-selling duo Tim Miller and Matt Stanton - sure to get kids laughing! All four books from the hilarious Fart Monster and Me series!