Asteroid Peach is heading straight for Earth, and the planet will be destroyed in a matter of days. In desperation the world turns to the evil space lizard Admiral Skink, currently imprisoned in Cottelton police station in the body of Pickles the iguana. In return for his freedom, Admiral Skink promises to destroy the asteroid and save Earth, but instead he builds a wormhole bridge to his home planet, Swerdlix, and escapes! And just as Skink is making his getaway, a giant thrall-beast emerges from the wormhole, promptly eating Sally Spratley, Lance's little sister. It's up to Lance and his best friend, Tori, to travel to Swerdlix, capture Admiral Skink, stop the asteroid from destroying humanity, and find some flooblescoop powder to make the thrall-beast sneeze out Sally ... which shouldn't be that hard, should it?

When Admiral Skink, an alien-lizard warlord from the planet Swerdlix, is attacked by The Hideous and Unimaginably Vast Comet Creature of Poppledock he faces a certain death… but luckily his underlings have installed the BrainTwizzler 360 Mind Migration SystemTM. This nifty invention safely transfers Skink's mind on to a memory wafer and jettisons it through space to find a suitable temporary "home" until he can be rescued by his fellow Swerdlixians. Unluckily for eleven-year-old Lance Spratley it just so happens that the temporary home for Admiral Skink's mind is his body! And while Skink deals with being trapped in Lance's useless body - it can't even breathe fire! - Lance is transferred to a virtual waiting room surrounded by the lizard race who seem intent on destroying Earth when they have successfully retrieved Skink.Will Lance ever get his body back? And even if he does will he be able to thwart Admiral Skink and the Swerdlixians plans to invade Earth…

A Dinosaur Ate My Sister is the first book selected in the Marcus Rashford Book Club. 'The perfect story to escape into and find adventure. Pooja is super talented and I'm a big fan!' - Marcus Rashford MBE This brilliantly illustrated, laugh-out-loud, wacky adventure through time by Pooja Puri is the perfect blend of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and Jurassic Park. Before you start reading, there are a few things you should know: 1. I, Esha Verma, am a genius inventor extraordinaire. 2. There is nothing I cannot invent. This includes words. 3. I did not mean to send my sister back to the Age of the Dinosaurs. That was HER OWN FAULT (Mum and Dad, if you’re reading this, please take note). Esha Verma, her snotty apprentice Broccoli and his cunning pet tortoise have a dream. They are going to win the legendary Brain Trophy – the ultimate inventing prize. This year's entry: A TIME MACHINE. But the day before the competition, Esha's IGNORAMUS big sister hijacks the time machine and is lost in the Cretaceous age. With help from a new recruit for The Office of Time, Esha and Broccoli will have to face hungry dinosaurs, mysterious black holes and malfunctioning inventions to get them back in time. The Marcus Rashford Book Club is a collaboration between Marcus Rashford and Macmillan Children's Books, inspiring children to develop a love of reading and literacy as a life skill.

An ALA Notable Book Kids ages 9-12 will “delight in [the] oddness” of this Home Alone-style tale set in the 1970s—from a prolific children’s author who captures “a magic that’s not like anyone else’s” (Neil Gaiman). With Victor’s parents out of town, he is free to investigate the mysterious lizard musicians who have recently appeared on TV . . . Things Victor loves: pizza with anchovies, grape soda, B movies aired at midnight, the evening news. And with his parents off at a resort and his older sister shirking her babysitting duties, Victor has plenty of time to indulge himself and to try a few things he’s been curious about. Exploring the nearby city of Hogboro, he runs into a curious character known as the Chicken Man (a reference to his companion, an intelligent hen named Claudia who lives under his hat). The Chicken Man speaks brilliant nonsense, but he seems to be hip to the lizard musicians (real lizards, not men in lizard suits) who’ve begun appearing on Victor’s television after the broadcast of the late-late movie. Are the lizards from outer space? From “other space”? Together Victor and the Chicken Man, guided by the able Claudia, journey to the lizards’ floating island, a strange and fantastic place that operates with an inspired logic of its own.

A New York Times Notable Book of the Year “Brilliantly breathes life not only into the perils of living at sea, but also into the hidden dangers of domesticity, parenthood, and marriage. What a smart, swift, and thrilling novel.” —Lauren Groff, author of Florida Juliet is failing to juggle motherhood and her stalled-out dissertation on confessional poetry when her husband, Michael, informs her that he wants to leave his job and buy a sailboat. With their two kids—Sybil, age seven, and George, age two—Juliet and Michael set off for Panama, where their forty-four foot sailboat awaits them. The initial result is transformative; the marriage is given a gust of energy, Juliet emerges from her depression, and the children quickly embrace the joys of being at sea. The vast horizons and isolated islands offer Juliet and Michael reprieve – until they are tested by the unforeseen. A transporting novel about marriage, family and love in a time of unprecedented turmoil, Sea Wife is unforgettable in its power and astonishingly perceptive in its portrayal of optimism, disillusionment, and survival.

LONGLISTED FOR THE 2023 CHILDREN'S INDIE BOOK AWARD On the night of a full moon, a small tropical dingo cub is born. And it is her destiny to travel far from home to change things for her kind. Kimmi sleeps with her mama at her back, her aunty at her front and her three brothers squeezed in beside her. They are a family. But when the farmer who took her father returns to threaten the rest of them, Kimmi is separated from her mama. In an incredible act of determination, Kimmi's mama runs over mountain tops and dusty red earth to spend one last day with her cub and share with her the knowledge that will one day make her a queen. This is Kimmi's story, the story of how she became Queen of the Dingoes in a sanctuary that saves them from extinction. It is her mama's story, too. But mostly it is a story that goes back thousands of years, and follows the long line of female dingoes they belong to. An inspiring true story of survival and courage from one of Australia's best-loved writers. 'Parrett blends matter-of-fact content with a confidently poetic voice . . . For readers aged 8+' BOOKS+PUBLISHING 'A lyrically told tale of survival and resilience for younger readers' SATURDAY AGE

*Includes a brand-new story feauturing the Tenth Doctor (David Tennant) and Donna Noble (Catherine Tate)!* We all change, when you think about it. We're all different people all through our lives . . . Amy Pond looks for her Raggedy Man, Jo Grant remembers her childhood, the Master hunts the past . . . a young girl discovers a love for explosives. Eleven incredible stories from the world of Doctor Who - the early lives of friends and foes that have never been told before. The characters and their writers include: Ace by Sophie Aldred Sarah-Jane Smith by Mark Griffiths The Master, Kate Lethbridge-Stewart and Madame Vastra by Dave Rudden Ryan Sinclair and Yaz Khan by Emma Norry Clara Oswald by Jasbinder Bilan Amy Pond by Nikita Gill Davros by Temi Oh Martha Jones by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé Jo Grant by Katy Manning © 2022 Doctor Who (P)2022 Penguin Audio