From the author of the New York Times bestselling Alex Rider series! A year ago, thirteen-year-old David Eliot would have given anything to see the end of Groosham Grange and its ghastly teachers. Now he's on track to win the Unholy Grail, a cup of magical power rewarded to the star student. But a series of suspicious mishaps is closing the gap between David and the new boy, Vincent. It seems as though someone - or some thing - doesn't want David to win the cup and may even be threatening Groosham Grange's very existence!

Thirteen-year-old David Eliot was a disappointment to his parents. But to be sent to Groosham Grange? Hidden away on a lonely island, Groosham Grange is a school that is unknown to the outside world. Pupils forced to sign their names in blood. An English teacher held together entirely with bandages. A soccer ball made of . . . well, you?d rather not know. What is the chilling secret hidden behind the headmaster?s door? And why are students disappearing in the middle of the night? Suddenly, David has a lot more to worry about than pleasing his parents?like survival!

Twelve-year-old Joe Warden isn't happy. Sure, he's rich, but his parents don't care about him. His grandmother should make everything better, except that Joe's granny is a nightmare. She's not just physically repulsive, she's horribly mean. Everyone thinks she's just a dotty old woman, but Joe knows the truth. He's seen behind her mask and glimpsed the wicked glimmer in her eyes - she is pure evil. And now she's out to get Joe, unless he can stop her and her band of nasty grannies first.

When wealthy, spoiled, thirteen-year-old Tad Spencer wishes he were someone else, he awakens as Bob Snarby, the uncouth, impoverished son of carnival workers, and as he is drawn into a life of crime he begins to discover truths about himself and his family.

From the # 1 New York Times bestselling author of the Alex Rider series. When the vertically-challenged Johnny Naples entrusts Tim Diamond with a package worth over three million pounds, he’s making a big mistake. Tim Diamond is the worst detective in the world. Next day, Johnny’s dead, Tim feels the heat, and his smart younger brother, Nick, gets the package—and every crook in town on his back!

Under Platform 13 at King's Cross Station there is a secret door that leads to a magical island . . . It appears only once every nine years. And when it opens, four mysterious figures step into the streets of London. A wizard, an ogre, a fey and a young hag have come to find the prince of their kingdom, stolen as a baby nine years before. But the prince has become a horrible rich boy called Raymond Trottle, who doesn't understand magic and is determined not to be rescued. Shortlisted for the Smarties Prize, The Secret of Platform 13 is an exciting magical adventure from Eva Ibbotson, the award-winning author of Journey to the River Sea. 'This kind of fun will never fail to delight' Philip Pullman

In The Other in the School Stories: A Phenomenon in British Children’s Literature Ulrike Pesold examines the portrayal of class, gender, race and ethnicity in selected school stories and shows how the treatment of the Other develops over a period of a century and a half. The study also highlights the transition from the traditional school story to the witch school story that by now has become a subgenre of its own. The school stories that are analysed include selected works by Thomas Hughes, Rudyard Kipling, Enid Blyton and J.K. Rowling.