Michael Morpurgo

Michael loves to visit Mrs Pettigrew in her railway carriage by the sea, where she lives with her donkey, dogs and hens. But when plans are made to build a nuclear power station, Mrs Pettigrew's idyllic life becomes threatened - and Michael learns that nothing can ever stay the same.

It all began with a necklace, made of glistening pink cowrie shells. A long, long necklace that had taken Cherry days - weeks - of careful, painstaking work. It was nearly complete, and Cherry was determined it would be the longest necklace she had ever made; that it would be fit for a giant! But the end of the holidays had arrived. 'You've only got today, Cherry', said her mother. 'Just today, that's all'. Cherry didn't mind, a day would be enough...

Marooned on a sandbank, the boy faces certain death. With the sea closing in and the current about to drag him to a watery grave, his final wish is to see heaven. Waking up in a strange bed, the boy meets an old man sitting by the fire with his dog. It is Arhthur, the great warrior king of legend, and from his lips the boy hears of Camelot, magic, evil and betrayal.

A lonely boy struggles to cope with school bullies and caring for his mother, until a mysterious encounter reveals life in the Foundling Hospital in the eighteenth century and unravels a touching tale about the power of music.

Johnny didn't expect to end up with Kaspar, the Savoy cat, on his hands forever, and nor did he count on making friends with Lizziebeth, a spirited American heiress. Pretty soon, events are set in motion that will take Johnny - and Kaspar - all around the world, surviving theft, shipwreck and rooftop rescues along the way.