Bear Books Lower School

• Birdsong by Katya Balen; Richard Johnson (Illustrator)

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  Call Number: FIC BAL

  ISBN: 9781800900981

  Publication Date: 2022-07-07

  Following a traumatic accident, a special friendship helps talented musician Annie heal and rediscover her love of music in this captivating novella from Carnegie Medal-winner Katya Balen. After a devastating car crash, Annie is unable to play her flute and retreats from the music she's always loved. She exists in a world of angry silence - furious with her mum and furious she can't seem to play her beloved flute any more. Then she meets Noah, who shows her the blackbirds' nest hidden in the scrubland near their flats. As their friendship grows, the blackbirds' glorious song reignites Annie's passion for music. But when tragedy strikes again, will her fragile progress be put at risk? Particularly for readers aged 9+ with a reading age of 8.

• Duck's Backyard by Ulrich Hub; Jörg Mϋhle (Illustrator)

  Call Number: FIC HUB

  ISBN: 9781776574735

  Publication Date: 2022-09-06

  A duck spends her days limping around her backyard with the help of a crutch until one day a blind chicken stumbles in, lost, and persuades the duck to embark on an adventurous journey. The duck will guide the chicken; the chicken will steady the duck's wobbly leg. They leave together for a place where their most secret wishes will come true. The pair come upon astonishing obstacles along the way--a wild forest, a cavernous gorge and many differences of opinion. The chicken starts to wish she'd taken a guide dog rather than a duck! When the two finally arrive at their destination after all the hardships, they realize that their own backyard plus a little imagination offers as much adventure as a whole world.

• A Passing on of Shells : 50 Word poems by Simon Lamb

  Call Number: POE LAM

  ISBN: 1915252121

  Publication Date: 2022

  With subjects ranging from family, identity, and growing up, to the need for hope, the wonder of nature, and the very concept of poetry itself, Simon offers his poems as small nuggets of wisdom, warmth and wit to help readers of all ages navigate their lives. Complementing the always-present three-dimensional sense of drama and interaction with the reader, every poem is gifted its own double page spread, each one exquisitely illustrated by Chris Riddell, with his distinctive insight and flair adding new layers of meaning and joy to these already magical poems.

• Unicorn Boy by Dave Roman

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  Call Number: GN ROM

  ISBN: 9781250830272

  Publication Date: 2024-03-12

  Go on a magical journey with this quirky, young reader's graphic novel about a boy who sprouts a unicorn horn and uses his newfound powers to help those in need! The first few years of Brian Reyes' life were unremarkable--nothing weird about this kid, no sir. Then, one day, a bump appeared on his head, and it grew...and grew...and grew until it was a full-blown, sparkling, SINGING unicorn horn. That's absolutely the last thing a shy kid like Brian wants, but destiny waits for no unicorn boy. Luckily, Brian has his reassuring pal Avery to keep him grounded as weird occurrences start stacking up, like Brian's breakfast muffin talking to him, or a bizarre black cat offering him a business card. But when shadowy creatures from another realm kidnap Avery, Brian has to embrace his fate to rescue his best friend.

• The Book That No One Wanted to Read by Richard Ayoade; Tor Freeman (Illustrator)

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  Call Number: FIC AYO

  ISBN: 9781536222166

  Publication Date: 2023-03-14

  Quirky, smart, and genre-busting, this is the saga of a book that nobody wants to read--until the day it meets YOU. The life of a book isn't easy, especially when people judge you by your cover (not every book can be adorned with sparkly unicorns!). And this narrator should know--it's the book itself, and it has a lot of opinions. It gets irritated when readers bend its pages back, and it finds authors quite annoying. But it does have a story to tell. Through witty direct address and charming illustrations, readers meet a book that has never been read, with a cover the boring color of a school lunch table and pages so dry they give bookworms indigestion. But what happens when this book meets you, a curious reader?

• The Deadlands: Hunted by Skye Melki-Wegner

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  Call Number: FIC MEL

  ISBN: 9781250827692

  Publication Date: 2023-04-04

  When the Fallen Star struck, it brought death and despair, ash and toxic rain. But some dinosaurs survived . . . and were changed. Their minds grew alert. They learned to speak. To dream. To wage war. As the two remaining dinosaur kingdoms fight for territory, Eleri, the disgraced son of a prince, is exiled from his home for saving an enemy soldier. Banished to the merciless Deadlands, a terrifying desert full of tar pits, poisonous gas, and ruthless carnivores, he must join forces with a group of questionable allies--including the enemy soldier he saved--to avoid becoming prey. When Eleri and his fellow exiles discover the horrific truth behind the war, the unlikely heroes must do all they can to save their kingdoms from a lurking predator. . . and a secret plot that might destroy them all.

• The Final Year by Matt Goodfellow; Joe Todd-Stanton (Illustrator)

  Call Number: FIC GOO

  ISBN: 1915659043

  Publication Date: 2025-09-01

  Life can be tough in your last year of primary school. Tests to take, preparing for the change to high school. Nate is ready for it all, knowing his best friend PS at his side - they’ ve been inseparable since Nursery. But when they are put in two different classes and PS finds a new friend in Turner, the school bully, his world turns upside-down. As he struggles to make sense of this and forge new friendships, he’ s dealt another blow when his youngest brother, Dylan is rushed into hospital. His new teacher, Mr Joshua, sees a spark inside of Nate that’ s lit by his love of reading and writing and shows him how to use this to make sense of what’ s going on. But with so much working against him, and anger rising inside him, will this be enough?

• The Lovely Dark by Matthew Fox

  Call Number: FIC FOX

  ISBN: 9781444964745

  Publication Date: 2023

  When 12-year-old Eleanor Newton dies in an accident, she finds herself journeying down a mysterious river that takes her to The Underworld. She apprehensively embarks on her "afterlife" at Eventide House, a boarding school of sorts for children who have died.
  The Underworld is captivating: always sunny and warm but also fractured. Strange things have been happening to Ellie since she arrived: she knows something isn't right, and she doesn't want to be there. She desperately wants to get back to the world of The Living to meet her new baby brother, even if it means being a ghost.
  Can Ellie find a way out of the Underworld? And who - or what - will she be if she does?

• Hope on the Horizon by Onjali Q. Raúf

  Call Number: 158.1 RAU

  ISBN: 9781526364418

  Publication Date: 2022

  Bestselling children's author and human rights campaigner Onjali Raúf invites young readers to discover everything there is to know about kindness, empathy, friendship and fighting for the things that matter. (Not to mention cool things like using our inbuilt X-ray vision and detecting negative forces!)
  With the help of her favourite fictional characters (from She-Ra to Superman), some of the inspiring people she has been honoured to work with, and a few of her biggest inspirations (from Frederick Douglas to Malala Yousafzai), Onjali motivates budding young activists, showing them that no one is too small to make a difference.
  Because with a bit of compassion, a big dollop of hope and even the smallest act of kindness, magical things can happen. Hope is on the horizon; here's how children everywhere can find it . . .

• Safiyyah's War by Hiba Noor Khan

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  Call Number: FIC KHA

  ISBN: 9780063351868

  Publication Date: 2024-05-07

  Safiyyah loathes the brutal Nazi occupation of Paris, even though her Muslim identity keeps her safe—or, at least, safer than her Jewish neighbors. Violence lurks in the streets, her best friend has fled, and even her place of refuge—the library—has turned shadowy and confusing, as the invaders fear the power of books. Safiyyah longs to fight back and hates feeling powerless to help her Jewish friends. Worse yet, her father—who taught her to always do the right thing—is acting strangely and doing nothing to help them either. Or is he? Unravelling the mystery of her father’s odd behavior draws Safiyyah deep in the heart of the perilous underground resistance to the Nazis, where her bravery is put to the ultimate test…

• The Swifts: a Dictionary of Scoundrels by Beth Lincoln; Claire Powell (Illustrator)

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  Call Number: FIC LIN

  ISBN: 9780593533239

  Publication Date: 2023-02-07

  When someone gives Arch-Aunt Schadenfreude a deadly push down the stairs during the Swift Family Reunion, Shenanigan Swift, who has a penchant for mischief, decides to become a detective and solve this mysterious case.

• The Worlds We Leave Behind by A.F. Harrold, illustrated by Levi Pinfold

  Call Number: FIC HAR

  ISBN: 9781526623881

  Publication Date: 2022

  After an accident in the woods involving a young girl, eleven-year-old Hex meets a mysterious woman who offers him a deal to change his world, which sets off a ripple effect that Hex's best friend Tommo must rectify.