Essential Modern Classics are relaunched in gorgeous new covers bringing these timeless story to a new generation. Robert is a boy who can do anything – or so old Edith Sorrel at the nursing home tells him. Robert doesn’t think so, knowing as he does that he is the school geek. But something compels him to do what Edith asks – to visit old Chance House, where a boy once fell to his death from the top floor flat, to confront his fears and find some answers. Niker the bully thinks this is a great laugh. He challenges Robert to spend the night at Chance House with him – but there the balance of power changes, and it is Robert who proves to be the stronger. Niker feels threatened by the change – and when he finds out Robert’s secret obsession, to make the dying Edith Sorrel a coat of feathers like in the old legend of the Firebird, he knows just how to wrest his old power back. But just how important is the coat of feathers? Could it really save Edith’s life?

In a world full of checkpoints and controls, can love and hope defy the borders? A searing, timely story, as arresting as it is beautiful.

Mhairi Anne Bain owns only two things: a gun with no bullets and her identity papers.

The world is a shell of what it once was. Now, you must prove yourself worthy of existence at every turn, at every border checkpoint. And if you are going to survive, your instincts will become your most valuable weapon.

Mhairi has learnt the importance of living her own story, of speaking to no one. But then she meets a young boy with no voice at all, and finds herself risking everything to take him to safety.

And so Mhairi and the silent boy travel the road north. But there are rumours that things in Scotland have changed since she has been away. What Mhairi finds there is shocking and heart-breaking, but might finally re-connect her to her sense of self and to the possibility of love.

An extraordinary story about survival and what it costs, about the power of small kindnesses to change everything.

Build your child's reading confidence at home with books at the right level Nicky Singer has captured all the beauty and familiarity of this classic children's book. Follow the adventures of Rat, Mole and Badger as they try to stop their friend Toad from getting into too much trouble. Sapphire/Band 16 books offer longer reads to develop children's sustained engagement with texts and are more complex syntactically. Text type: Fiction from our literary heritage Curriculum links: English: fiction from the English literary heritage This book has been quizzed for Accelerated Reader.