Booklist

Paul Dowswell
Battle Fleet Trafalgar, 1805
Bloomsbury (301 pages) 9780747583967
In a further adventure in the 'Hornblower' or Patrick O'Brian mould, Sam Witchall relates in the first person his tale as a young midshipman aboard the Victory. Through his eyes and alert mind the reader experiences things as if from right inside the ship among the crew. All seaboard life is here, the everyday harsh cruelty, the courage and teamwork of the motley seamen, the bloody horrors of wounds, the deaths of companions and the shared pride which leads to a devoted sense of duty. This sea battle story does have strongly realistic scenes which make for an effective and totally riveting tale from a series following Sam's young life. The fact infusing the fiction works as an extraordinarily efficient history lesson too.

Tobias Druitt
Corydon and the Siege of Troy
Simon and Schuster (359 pages) 9781416901167
These books are created by a scholar, Diane Parkins, and her 12-year-old son Matthew. In this third tale, the outlandish, goat-legged Corydon and his group of outcast boys are back amid Greek myth once again with thrills and intrigues and a few godly interferences in a crackingly paced adventure. The title gives the exact scenario and a glossary at the end, together with a bibliography, attests to the authenticity, while the fast-action, page-turner plot transforms new images into traditional settings.

Sally Gardner
The Red Necklace
Orion (376 pages) 9781842551743
The time of this novel is the French Revolution. A boy, Yana Norgaya, assistant to a stage magician, and a dwarf of a man whom he relies upon become the targets of a powerful enemy with the most evil intents. Yana's meeting with the unfortunate girl, Sido, and the secret of the red necklace found on the corpses of some murder victims are central to affairs. This wonderful adventure story is full to the brim with intrigue and moves from France to London and back again with the heaving, violent backdrop of revolutionary fervour looming all the while. The design and presentation of the book are superb, making it a joy to handle and in spite of the violence and heartlessness there is a steady theme of devotion and loyalty threaded through the plot. Sally Gardner's previous book, I Coriander, has gained many admirers among older primary school readers. This one similarly is most appropriate only for that oldest group.

Morris Gleitzman
Once
Puffin (153 pages) 9780141320632
Set at the time of the Holocaust, this book is both incredibly moving and extraordinarily uplifting. It is also quite a shock to read as the author is noted for the pointed hilarity which he usually employs in very contemporary stories, such as the classic opening page of Bumface. Believing his parents are still alive and hanging on tightly to his precious notebook of stories, Felix runs from an orphanage seeking news of them. He is rescued from the streets and taken into a cellar refuge for youngsters under the care of a dentist. Brilliantly straightforward writing tells of unspeakable things seen through a child's eyes. For those who know the truly horrific is implied and then summed up with an expression of realisation: 'Oh'. The hardships of the everyday struggles for survival under constant threat are alleviated by escaping into stories, for they have the power to transport. When capture and that final train journey comes it is the notebook that enables Felix and his friend Zelda to jump off. The ending leaves just a glimmer of hope for both, and for the reader, in a world made hope-less. A lovely - an 'awfully' lovely - book.

Richard Hamilton
Jack Bolt and the Highwaymen's Hideout
Bloomsbury (192 pages) 9780747585107
Jack is 10 and lives in modern London but when staying with his gran in the countryside a timeslip takes him into the sphere of eighteenth century highway robbery. There's great fun in the conversations between Jack and Henry Vane, as so much of the London area and street naming is of long standing, though many terms are both new and particular to technological and transport developments. Both learn from the other and this is interlaced with a cracking good, old-fashioned action narrative.

Geraldine McCaughrean
Tamburlaine's Elephants
Usborne (208 pages) 9780746078778
Rusti is a boy accompanying the army, the horde of Mongols, and by chance he captures an elephant and its boy rider in a battle and gains quite a reputation. The relationship of the two boys develops with subtlety as they share the responsibility of caring for the elephant and Rusti grows ever more attached to his charge. In the meantime the campaign progresses to the City of Gems and begins to return to Samarqueland. Revelations from unexpected sources about Rusti's ancestry begin to fall into place until he has to choose a loyalty: the strong tribal force or his more personal friendships and feelings. This is another amazing book from Geraldine McCaughrean whose writing covers a fantastic range of times and settings but who always delights with stunning prose and wonderful stories.

Michelle Paver
Chronicles of Ancient Darkness: Outcast
Orion (263 pages) 9781842551738
The superb, wonderful, riveting books about Torak and his quest, set in prehistoric times, reach number four, only two to go. The unburdening of his secret has left Torak abandoned, exiled and cut off from all and everyone, even the faithful Wolf. There's a very skilled balancing act in the writing giving new readers enough to get into the story but repeating things in interesting ways for old hands too. It is the devoted loyalty of the rejected Wolf that tugs the emotions here as Torak's flight eventually brings him to the landscape around Lake Axehead where a secretive Hidden People dwell. Inevitably, as the need to feed off the land is essential there are ecological implications within the narrative, but all is story led and what a story!

Anthony Read
Sherlock Holmes's Baker Street Boys: The Case of the Limehouse Laundry
Walker (158 pages) 9781406303414
The seven-strong Baker Street Boys, including three girls, occasionally give assistance to Holmes but in this series those roles are reversed. London's flower girls, even the gang's own Rosie, are disappearing from off their pitches on the streets. A few clues and some breathless chases lead to a last-minute rescue in the docklands area. The crime involves a Chinese laundry, an opium den and the smuggling of girls into slavery - all apparently master-minded by the looming presence of Moriarty. The books in this series are all good period adventures written with all the pace and panache of this scriptwriter author responsible for the original Baker Street Gang TV series too.

Justin Richards
The Death Collector
Faber (320 pages) 9780571229918
Some diaries left to the British Museum attract a lot of attention as an employee, George, discovers when he's mixed up in an attempt to steal them. Then a pickpocket named Eddie has a go at him and tries his skill on Liz, a vicar's daughter, too. These three join forces and get stuck into an odd mix of things that all seem to be part of the mystery. There are scientists of evil intent to outwit, with cliffhanging thrills and spills amid the gloom and pervading fog of Victorian London. This book is a typically taut and well-characterised thriller from a prolific writer. It has the compulsive opening: 'Four days after his own funeral, Albert Wilkes came home for tea.'

Rick Riordan
Percy Jackson and the Titan's Curse
Puffin (292 pages) 9780141382890
The Greek Gods of Mount Olympus are still going strong, but like many other displaced folk they are living in America, in New York. Percy Jackson is 12 and he himself has an alter-ego as a demi-god, Perseus. He has a mission to fulfil - to recruit two other similar beings from military school. The winning mix of known myth, cracking action and snappy humour has gained a lot of keen readers. Those who began with the first book, Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief, might have an advantage but each book in the on-going series does stand alone.

Eleanor Updale
Montmorency's Revenge
Scholastic (352 pages) 9780439942928
After the last episode with international terrorists in the very late 1890s, Montmorency, and his friends of course, are still on the hunt seeking revenge for the death of his best friend. The pursuit of scurrilous enemies roams far and wide and over the Atlantic to discover a plot to assassinate the president. Then it is back to London for an amazing cliffhanger ending - look out for the next book. This is the fourth in a wonderful series of gripping thrillers. Reading them in order from the first one, Montmorency, onwards helps but is not essential; but to read one means the rest just have to follow.