New Releases by Michelle Magorian

Super sporty tale with a strong message of self-belief and a lovely inter-generational friendship at its heart, from the award-winning author of Goodnight Mister Tom. Particularly suitable for struggling, reluctant and dyslexic readers aged 7+ Ben knows he's taking on a lot, offering to do the first hundred lengths of the swimathon himself, but he's desperate to impress Jack and Harry. But as he swims - and swims - Jack realises that his 'friends' aren't going to show. Now he either has to forfeit or swim another hundred lengths! But support and encouragement come from an unlikely quarter and Ben pushes his way to victory. Particularly suitable for struggling, reluctant and dyslexic readers aged 7+

Set during the dark and dangerous build-up to the Second World War, Goodnight Mister Tom follows sad young William Beech, who is evacuated to the idyllic English countryside and builds a remarkable and moving friendship with the elderly recluse Tom Oakley. All seems perfect until William is devastatingly summoned by his mother back to London.-6 women, 7 men

The Second World War has ended, but Henry is fighting his own battles. He misses his father, who died a war hero, and his only distraction is the cinema. But everything is about to change. When Henry develops an old camera film he uncovers a mystery and events spiral until his life resembles the drama of the big screen. Like a bomb waiting to explode, Henry's discovery will shatter his world

A battered child learns to embrace life when he is adopted by an elderly man in the English countryside during World War II.

It is the summer of 1947 and the second year of world peace. Elsie, however, is still fighting a war. Against a vicious bully. Against the indifference of her father. Against being the scholarship pupil at the girl's grammar school. But Elsie learns to fight back.

As an evacuee, Ralph received a good education, but after the war Ralph's working-class father resents his education and his ambition to be an actor, and is furious when Ralph is sacked from the paper mill. The story traces Ralph's struggle to reconcile the disparate strands of his life.

A magical summer of love and war is the catalyst that changes Rose from an uncertain, gawky schoolgirl into a confident and assured woman. This love story is written by the author of Goodnight Mister Tom.

Sent to America from England at age seven to escape war-torn England, Rusty returns five years later to go to a strict English boarding school and renew her relationship with her family, who now seem like strangers to her.

A seventeen-year-old girl in 1940's England spends an unchaperoned summer at a cottage in a seaside village, where a series of diaries by the cottage's most recent inhabitant, together with some intense personal experiences, open up her life to reveal her true wants and priorities.

In this collection of short stories, water, in all its many shapes and forms, becomes a catalyst in the lives of the people it touches.