There's no telling who might write back . . . It's been a year since Tom Pellow's dad was lost at sea. He was a sailor and Tom also finds himself drawn to the vast ocean; it holds so many possibilities, dangers and secrets. After hearing a song on the radio, Tom decides to write a message in a bottle, and throw it out into the sea. To 'cast his bread upon the waters'. He doesn't really expect to hear back, but Tom keeps writing anyway, sending messages out on the tide and searching the waves for a reply. One day he finds one. It's a letter that seems to be from a ghost, deep down in Davy Jones's Locker - and the writer has a shocking answer to Tom's question. But if Tom's dad didn't perish at sea, where is he? A charming and beautifully written story about grief, hope and miracles.

Shortlisted for Bolton's Children's Book of the Year.

Literary Strengths: Alex Shearer's trademark fast pace and high suspense A heady mixture of genres Multiple text forms Themes: Forced child labour Friendship Evil adults! Perfect for teaching! Explore genre Study the craft of suspense Analyse writing styles that suit different purposes Longlisted for the CILIP Carnegie Children's Book Award 2007.

The Great Blue Yonder by Alex Shearer is the quirky, gentle journey of a boy stuck between looking back, and moving on. 'You'll be sorry when I'm dead.' That's what Harry said to his sister, before the incident with the lorry. And now he is just that - dead. And he wishes more than anything that he hadn't said it. He wishes he could say sorry. And say goodbye to everyone he left behind - his mum, his dad, his best friend Pete. . . even Jelly Donkins, the class bully. Now he's on the Other Side, waiting to move on to the Great Blue Yonder. But he doesn't know how to get there - until he meets Arthur, a small boy in a top hat who's been dead for years, who helps him say goodbye. . .

Even when you have received a death sentence, you still have to live... This is the story of Louis, who never quite fitted in, and of his younger brother who always tagged along. Two brothers on one final journey together, wading through the stuff that is thicker than water. Tender-hearted, at times achingly funny, this is a moving testimony to both the resilience of the human spirit and to the price of strawberries.

Fergal is a self-confessed nerd with an eccentric hobby: tin collecting. He likes the lucky dip aspect of buying tins that have their labels missing - after all, you never know what might be inside. It's Fergal's idea of living dangerously. That is, until the day he innocently opens up a tin to find . . . a bloodied human finger. Everyone thinks it's a joke. But not Fergal - and when his next tin discovery is a note with the word 'Help' scribbled on it, he feels compelled to track down the factory responsible for these mysterious and macabre products. Fergal might be hungry to play detective, but has he opened a can of worms . . . ? This Dahl-esque black comedy will have readers squirming on the edge of their seats. Funny, frightening and totally gross - Alex Shearer taps into the repulsive-but-appealing tradition of urban myths that are perennial playground fodder.

A spooky, funny mystery with ghost-hunting, useless adults ... and tea Thruppence and Tim don't know what they're getting themselves into when they ring the bell at the house with dusty windows and a tarnished name plate to enquire about the advertised 'Saturday Person'. What could be so difficult about an unspecified Saturday job? Well, had that name plate been properly cleaned, Thruppence and Tim might not have been so keen to enter ... Pressured by the stern Minister Beeston from the Department of Economies, the Ministry of Ghosts has been given three months to prove the existence or non-existence of ghosts, or else it will be shut down! As it seems that children are particularly magnetic to ghosts and supernatural beings, Thruppence and Tim are added to their ghost-catching team. And although neither of them are scared by talk of ghosts or monsters, they couldn't have imagined the truth behind what they will find ...