Collins Big Cat supports every primary child on their reading journey from phonics to fluency. Top authors and illustrators have created fiction and non-fiction books that children love to read. Book banded for guided and independent reading, there are reading notes in the back, comprehensive teaching and assessment support and ebooks available. A modern retelling of Cinderella ... on roller-skates! Ella is forbidden from going to the roller disco with her stepsisters. Will she follow the rules or follow her dreams? Copper/Band 12 books provide more complex plots and longer chapters that develop reading stamina. Pages 30 and 31 allow children to re-visit the content of the book, supporting comprehension skills, vocabulary development and recall. Ideas for reading in the back of the book provide practical support and stimulating activities.

A new book from the winner of the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize When Tom meets Spider, he thinks he has found a friend for life. But their friendship doesn't run smoothly; Spider can't help being a naughty puppy, while Tom has to deal with his parents' separation, the pressure of a new school and a bully's unwanted attention. But when Tom and Spider become separated, they learn that they are far braver and more determined than anyone could have imagined. And in losing each other, they discover an unbreakable bond of love.

I am how I've always been. My name is Auden Dare. I am eleven years old. Auden Dare has an unusual perspective on life: he cannot see in colour. He's always had this rare condition - and life is beginning to get harder for Auden. The war for water that is raging across the world is getting a little closer all the time. It hardly rains any more, anywhere. Everyone is thirsty all the time, and grubby, and exhausted. Auden has to learn to live without his father, who is away fighting, and has had to move to a new town with his mother, and start a new school, where everyone thinks he's a weirdo. But when he meets Vivi Rookmini, a smiling girl bright with cleverness, his hopes begin to lift. It soon becomes clear to Auden, though, that there are some strange things afoot in his new hometown. He and his mother have moved into the old cottage of his recently-dead uncle Jonah Bloom - a scientist and professor at the university. The place is in disarray - and although Auden's mother tells him it's because Jonah was a messy old thing, Auden knows differently. Someone else did this - someone who was looking for something of Jonah's. Auden had heard too that Jonah was working on something that could cure Auden's condition - could this be it? Then Auden and Vivi make an extraordinary discovery. Hidden away under the shed at the bottom of Jonah's garden is an engimatic and ingenious robot, who calls himself Paragon. A talking, walking, human-like robot. Apparently built by Jonah - but why? The answer to this will take Auden and Vivi on a thrilling journey of discovery as they seek to find out just what exactly Paragon is - and what link he has to Auden - and find that the truth is bigger and more wonderful than either of them could have imagined.

This helpful guide will help children to understand more about divorce and why couples split up. Understand how to deal with arguments and stress, or find out how to give advice and support to someone else whose parents might be separating. Topics covered will include step-families; how to deal with arguments; having two homes; sibling issues; emotions and feelings; asking for help. Other titles in The Kids' Guide series: Anti-Bullying Anti-Racism Dealing with Anxiety Dealing with Death Understanding Autism

Book Band: Purple (Ideal for ages 6+) A heart-warming family story, ideal for children practising their reading at home or in school. Little Bear lives with Daddy Bear at weekends, and usually they play games like Monster Chase and Daddy-is-a-Big-Climbing-Frame. But today, all Daddy Bear is doing is tap-tap-tapping on his keyboard. Waiting is so boring! Can Little Bear convince him to play? This charming story from Dawn McNiff is perfect for Key Stage 1 (KS1) children who are learning to read by themselves. It features fun illustrations from Andy Rowland and explores a topic many young children will relate to. _______________ Bloomsbury Young Readers are the perfect way to get children reading, with book-banded stories by brilliant authors like Julia Donaldson. The series is ideal for both home and school, with gorgeous colour illustrations, tips for parents, and fun activity ideas. Online guided reading and teaching notes, written by the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education (CLPE), are available at bloomsburyreaders.com. 'Every child needs a Bloomsbury Young Reader.' - Julie-Ann McCulloch, Teacher

Sent to stay with her estranged grandmother while her parents try to save their crumbling marriage, 11-year-old Bailey feels helpless and cast away. When a self-proclaimed prophet predicts "a stranger from the sea will change everything," Bailey hopes this stranger can solve her problems-little suspecting her own ability to influence the world. Eleven-year-old Bailey believes in miracles. She has to; it will take a miracle to keep her warring parents together. This summer they are at a Marriage Counselling camp, leaving Bailey and her little brother Kevin with their estranged grandmother in the island town of Felicity Bay. There, an eccentric deposed minister makes a prophecy that a stranger from the sea will change everything. When Bailey discovers a mermaid-shaped piece of driftwood, she begins to believe that the mermaid is this stranger from the sea. Then, when a dolphin becomes stranded on the beach, Bailey forgets her own troubles and rouses the reluctant locals into action. Written in light and lyrical free verse, Shari Green's warm and wistful novel brings Bailey face to face with both hard and beautiful truths about growing up and growing into her own ability to shape the world.

Sam likes being a twin. He likes having two mums. He likes cheese sandwiches and his dog and drawing comics with his friend Pea. He does not like humus - or heights . . . His twin sister Sammie likes being a twin too. She knows that she's perfect best friend material for somebody - the girls in her class just haven't realised yet. And she knows that she's the best Sam - Sam A. Both Sam and Sammie - and everybody in their lives seems to be keeping secrets - which ones will come out?

In all the years that Elinora Gassbeek has been matron of the Little Tulip Orphanage, not once have the very strict Rules for Baby Abandonment been broken. Until the autumn of 1886, when five babies are left in outrageous circumstances:

One in a tin toolbox.
One in a coal bucket.
One in a picnic hamper.
One in a wheat sack.
And finally, one in a coffin-shaped basket.

Those babies were Lotta, Egg, Fenna, Sem and Milou.

And although Gassbeek might think they're 'unadoptable', they know their individuality is what makes them so special - and so determined to stay together.

Then a most sinister gentleman appears and threatens to tear them apart. The gang decide to make a daring escape, fleeing the frozen canals of Amsterdam for an adventure packed with puppets and pirate ships, clock-makers and cruel villains - and with only a scrap of a clue to guide them.

But is their real home - and their real family - already closer than they realise?

When You Left is a picture book for 4- 8 year olds, and explores the theme that when parents break up and one parent moves on, it's okay to have muddled feelings. A child's parents split up and a new parent, Alex, has come on the scene. While the child desperately wants their parents to get back together and wants to dislike the new parent, there is a realisation that the sadness gets better, there can be room to love another parent and that the future can look hopeful.

A humorous, poignant and heartwarming story of four girls and their exasperating parents. Reissued in the Jean Ure branding. "People always fall out after they're married. I'm going to stay single." Jasmine, Laurel, Rose and Daisy. Four very different sisters, four very different attitudes! As if living with each other wasn't bad enough, living with their parents is worse - particularly parents who are both actors. Please! But after the Great Row, the girls find themselves living with Mum, while Dad has gone to America to find work. How are the sisters going to achieve their own personal ambitions: become an actress, model, writer, vet... when they can't even achieve their joint ambition - to reunite parents who are on different continents?

From award-winning Children's Laureate Joseph Coelho, the fourth book in the Luna Loves... series celebrates separated families at Christmas time, and shows the power of giving to bring people together. Luna loves Christmas. Sometimes at Mum’s, sometimes at Dad’s, she gets two trees, two dinners, two advent calendars to open . . . but this Christmas, Luna’s family are doing something different. They’re volunteering, and Luna can’t wait for them to all be together at the community Christmas dinner! Other books in the Luna Loves... series: Luna Loves Library Day Luna Loves Art Luna Loves Dance Luna Loves Gardening (coming soon!) Luna Loves Books board book

Change and transitions are hard, but Goodbye, Friend! Hello, Friend! demonstrates how, when one experience ends, it opens the door for another to begin. It follows two best friends as they say goodbye to snowmen, and hello to stomping in puddles. They say goodbye to long walks, butterflies, and the sun...and hello to long evening talks, fireflies, and the stars. But the hardest goodbye of all comes when one of the friends has to move away. Feeling alone isn't easy, and sometimes new beginnings take time. But even the hardest days come to an end, and you never know what tomorrow will bring.

Karen's parents have always argued, and lately they've been getting worse. But when her father announces that they're going to get divorced, it seems as if Karen's whole world will fall apart. Her brother, Jeff, blames their mum. Her kid sister, Amy, asks impossible questions and is scared that everyone she loves is going to leave. Karen just wants her parents to get back together. Gradually, she learns that this isn't going to happen - and realizes that divorce is not the end of the world. It's Not the End of the World is Judy Blume's classic young adult novel about family separation.

From the Editor's Desk
A Question of Fairness

There has been no teaching so far this year in Mr. Larson's classroom. There has been learning, but there has been no teaching. There is a teacher in the classroom, but he does not teach.

Cara Landry is a budding journalist. When she posts a scathing editorial about her burned-out teacher on the bulletin board one afternoon, everything changes. Prodded into action for the first time in years, Mr. Larson challenges his fifth-grade students to create a real newspaper. Soon The Landry News gets more attention than either Cara or her teacher bargained for, as the principal uses the paper to try to get Mr. Larson fired. While the whole town is swept up in a dramatic debate over The Landry News and the First Amendment, Mr. Larson uses the controversy as raw material for some of the finest teaching of his career. And Cara and her classmates learn the importance of tempering a newspaper's truth with mercy. But will their lessons cost Mr. Larson his job?

Written by the author of the immensely popular Frindle, this is a compelling new novel about the collision of a student in need of a teacher with a teacher in need of inspiration.

In this inventive take on the traditional Cinderella tale, Fanny Agnes is a sturdy farm girl with a big dream. Someday, she believes, she will marry a prince. When the town mayor announces he is throwing a grand ball, Fanny is convinced her time has come. She puts on her best calico dress and goes out to the garden so that she'll be ready when her fairy godmother arrives. As the seconds tick by, Fanny waits and waits. Finally, she hears a voice. It isn't her fairy godmother-but it is someone who will change her life forever.

A group of undocumented children with letters for names, are stuck living in a refugee camp, with stories to tell but no papers to prove them. As they try to forge a new family amongst themselves, they also long to keep memories of their old identities alive.

Will they be heard and believed? And what will happen to them if they aren't?

An astonishing piece of writing that will enchant and intrigue children; perfectly pitched at a 9+ readership.