A Calamity of Mannerings


Book Description

‘IT IS A CURSE TO BE BORN A GIRL . . .’ Take a peek into the diary of Panth (never enquire as to her given name), a young woman knocking on the gilded door of adult life and high society. But kicking up one’s heels at the Café de Paris does not come easily to a girl navigating: 1. Poverty (even the genteel kind), thanks to her papa’s sad demise 2. A lack of any experience whatsoever with the opposite sex, of course not counting Freddie Spencer (and he wasn’t that sort of experience, anyhow) 3. Multiple sisters with ideas, a grandmother with opinions and one recalcitrant sheep Panth knows there is more for her out in the world – it’s 1924, for goodness’ sake – and that could include swoonsome American with excellent teeth, Buck Buchanan. The question is – how in the name of Tatler is she to claim it? A hilarious coming-of-age story for fans of I Capture the Castle and Bridgerton from Carnegie-nominated, bestselling author Joanna Nadin.




The Worst Class in the World Gets Worse


Book Description

'HILARIOUS! Proper laughs!' Pamela Butchart 'Deliciously silly, with hilarious catchphrases, Joanna Nadin's The Worst Class in the World, illustrated with grubby glee by Rikin Parekh, is a great cheer-up book.' Guardian A brand new, laugh-out-loud young fiction series from bestselling author Joanna Nadin. Perfect for fans of Horrid Henry and the Trouble with Daisy series. According to head teacher Mrs Bottomley-Blunt, 4B is the WORST CLASS IN THE WORLD. She says school is not about footling or fiddle-faddling or FUN. It is about LEARNING and it is high time 4B tried harder to EXCEL at it. But Stanley and Manjit didn't LITERALLY mean to flood the toilets when they should have been monitoring the playground. And they definitely didn't LITERALLY mean to bring a penguin home from the zoo on their school trip. These things just happened even though they had a FOOLPROOF plan to get away with them.




The Queen of Bloody Everything


Book Description

Joanna Nadin's first novel for adults, The Queen of Bloody Everything, is about mothers, daughters and how we can make many choices in life but can't choose where we come from. As Edie Jones lies in a bed on the fourteenth floor of a Cambridge hospital, her adult daughter Dido tells their story, starting with the day that changed everything. That was the day Dido – aged exactly six years and twenty-seven days old – met the next door neighbours and fell in love. Because the Trevelyans were exactly the kind of family Dido dreamed of. Normal.




The Talk of Pram Town


Book Description

For fans of Eleanor Oliphant is Absolutely Fine and Queenie Malone's Paradise Hotel, comes a story about mothers, daughters and second chances... It's 1981. Eleven-year-old Sadie adores her beautiful and vibrant mother, Connie, whose dreams of making it big as a singer fill their tiny house in Leeds. It's always been just the two of them. Until the unthinkable happens. Jean hasn't seen her good-for-nothing daughter Connie since she ran away from the family home in Harlow – or Pram Town as its inhabitants affectionately call it – aged seventeen and pregnant. But in the wake of the Royal Wedding, Jean gets a life-changing call: could she please come and collect the granddaughter she's never met? We all know how Charles and Diana turned out, and Jean and Sadie are hardly a match made in heaven – but is there hope of a happy ending for them? Written in Joanna Nadin’s trademark dazzling prose, The Talk of Pram Town tells the story of three generations of Earnshaws and asks whether it always has to be like mother, like daughter . . .




Joe All Alone


Book Description

Now a major CBBC TV series. Joe All Alone won the Children's BAFTA award for Best Drama. It was also nominated for an Emmy and two other Children's BAFTA awards: Director and Young Performer. Home Alone meets Jacqueline Wilson - a heartwarming, humorous, issue novel for 10+ readers about a young boy left home alone. When thirteen-year-old Joe is left behind in Peckham while his mum flies to Spain on holiday, he decides to treat it as an adventure, and a welcome break from Dean, her latest boyfriend. Joe begins to explore his neighbourhood, making a tentative friendship with Asha, a fellow fugitive hiding out at her grandfather's flat. But when the food and money run out, his mum doesn't come home, and the local thugs catch up with him, Joe realises time is running out too, and makes a decision that will change his life forever. Deeply poignant, deceptively simple, this book will cut the reader to the bone almost without their realising it. Imogen Russell-Williams, Teens On Moon Lane




The Life of Riley


Book Description

Rachel Riley is back! And this time she is desperately seeking the ONE. Well, actually, she may already have found him . . . now all she has to do is make him see that she is his ONE! Join Rachel in her latest laugh-out-loud escapade! Not suitable for younger readers.




Wonderland


Book Description

She’s back. Jude’s childhood friend -- sexy, daring Stella-- returns to their stifling hometown, and life will never be the same again. (Ages 14 & Up) Sixteen-year-old Jude has to get out of tiny Churchtown. She has to escape her outcast status and her pathetic dad, who hasn’t gotten past her mother’s death. The one bright light is drama, her way out, if only she can get into the Lab, a prestigious program in London. Then Stella, Jude’s childhood best friend, swaggers in after years away. With bold and magnetic Stella by her side, Jude knows she’s capable of anything. But Stella’s influence extends well beyond the theater. Soon Stella’s wild and dangerous streak begins to cause trouble for Jude -- yet Jude can’t bring herself to abandon Stella and the attention she’s always craved. And besides, now that Stella’s back, there’s no stopping her. In Jude’s dark and tangled story, British author Joanna Nadin plumbs the aftermath of loss and the consequences of becoming the person you always wished you were.




Everybody Hurts


Book Description

MORE HOPE. MORE HEART . . . MORE FOOL YOU. Matt and Sophia live in the same city, but they come from opposite sides of the track. By rights they should never have met. They definitely should never have fallen in love at first sight, of all cliches. But, to their great surprise, they do. That's the easy part. It's what to do next that they struggle with. Friends, family and circumstance are mostly against them. They betray themselves; then they betray each other. And in the end they learn, the hard way, what it takes for love to survive. It's true what they say. Everybody hurts sometimes. But sometimes, too, the pain is worth it.




Where Do You Go, Birdy Jones?


Book Description

From the author of JOE ALL ALONE - a BAFTA winning and Emmy nominated CBBC series. A story about finding yourself when everything changes and believing that love never runs out. Perfect for fans of A Boy called Hope and Jacqueline Wilson. Eleven-year-old Birdy Jones is all alone. She doesn't belong at school, at home, or even with her dad anymore. The only place she feels like herself is at her grandpa's pigeon loft, where the familiar warmth and birdsong block out the world. It's also where she meets Dogger - her only friend and the one person who really seems to know where she's coming from. Birdy used to be happy, when it was just her and Dad, but now she has a stepmum, a little sister, and another baby on the way. Worse, her growing family needs to move house, but Birdy doesn't believe there'll ever be enough room for her in Dad's busy life - and she can't leave Grandpa and the pigeons. She won't. Birdy dreams of a different family and future, and with Dogger's help she decides to find one - even if it means running away from everything she's ever known. But sometimes you need to fly away to find your way home again . . .




Things a Bright Girl Can Do


Book Description

Shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal 2019, National Book Award, Books Are My Bag Readers' Awards and the YA Book Prize Includes an exclusive preview of The Silent Stars Go By by Sally Nicholls Through rallies and marches, in polite drawing rooms and freezing prison cells and the poverty-stricken slums of the East End, three courageous young women join the fight for the vote. Evelyn is seventeen, and though she is rich and clever, she may never be allowed to follow her older brother to university. Enraged that she is expected to marry her childhood sweetheart rather than be educated, she joins the Suffragettes, and vows to pay the ultimate price for women's freedom. May is fifteen, and already sworn to the cause, though she and her fellow Suffragists refuse violence. When she meets Nell, a girl who's grown up in hardship, she sees a kindred spirit. Together and in love, the two girls start to dream of a world where all kinds of women have their place. But the fight for freedom will challenge Evelyn, May and Nell more than they ever could believe. As war looms, just how much are they willing to sacrifice?