This is bright, brash and colourful, full of sprawling, kinetic action and cartoonish monsters. A young godling is sent to the besieged city of Arcopolis as part of a rite of passage to fight the plague of monsters terrorising the inhabitants. Battling Boy is inexperienced and unprepared, and Acropolis has just lost its own hero, haggard West. BB's first battles do not go well, but Haggard's daughter, out to fill her father's shoes, may be who he needs.

This is the first volume is what's clearly set to be an epic of monster-fighting and evil-bashing. Pope's unique style, combining manga and European sensibilities to deliver cluttered visual chaos has a personality all its own, and this is a wild, funny, and over-the-top graphic novel for all ages.

Annaple Kitson is the oldest daughter of the Kitson family and is generally in charge of running the household. Unfortunately her cooking is not the best so the others are rather keen on the idea of her falling in love and getting married. Francis Vere is very much in love with her and wants to marry her, but Annaple has dreams of romance. Annaple's brothers and sisters decide to lend Francis a helping hand when it comes to a few grand romantic gestures. And so on Christmas day Francis turns up with an odd present. A partridge. In a pear tree. And that's just the beginning.

You see where this is going, right?

What follows is a delightful, giddy, hilariously chaotic tale of ancient Christmas carols and traditions and a determined young man out to win his true live and invent something new in the process. Beautifully written with a light touch by Overton and gorgeously illustrated by Shirley Hughes, this is a perfect Christmas read.

Every year Cara and her family go through a period of bruising and breaking and battering as one mishap after another, large and small, plague them and mark them and sometimes inflict tragedy on them. This is a very odd thing, but this year there are more odd things to come. Why does Elsie, a girl Cara used to be friends with it, appear in all her photographs? Why isn't she turning up at school and why do none of he teachers and classmates seem to know who she is? Searching for Elsie, organising a Halloween party in a haunted house, and enduring accident after accident, Cara and her sister, step-brother and best friend begin to uncover the terrible, life-changing secrets behind the Accident Season.

The Accident Season has a terrific premise, wonderfully drawn characters, a spooky and eerie atmosphere, but what elevates it is the quality of the writing, beautiful and polished, full of strange and arresting imagery and insights into life and love and friendship. The whole book feels strange and supernatural long before any supernatural element is hinted at. But at the same time it remains grounded both physically and emotionally. A great achievement.

A gothic Victorian murder mystery set on a remote island where an excavation offers refuge to a natural scientist besmirched with scandals his daughter can only guess at. But Faith's faith in her father is absolute until his sudden death and her discovery of his most precious and impossible specimen, the Lie Tree. It will show her the truth, but first she has to feed it lies and those lies must be believed. Faith slips into a cunning maze of deception that borders on madness, but will the Lie Tree save her and her family or will it destroy her utterly?

A dark, brooding, delicious book of exceeding cleverness that challenges our various notions of fathers and daughters, of heroism and devotion, of doing the right thing and of doing bad things to achieve a good end. Hardinge racks up the tricks and twists and tensions. Faith starts out as a typical protagonist, innocent and curious and good, but quickly descends into corruption and anger and bitterness in her quest not so much for the truth but for a way out of the trap of lies closing around her, fighting lies with lies because it's the only tool she has, the only power, though it comes at a terrible cost. Excellent.

A child gets plucked from an orphanage, is taken in by a secret society of warriors fighting primordial evil and finds out he has super powers! Awesome! Except it's not because even though it's no fun being an orphan, it's a bit of an insult to injury to find that you have an aunt that has been ignoring your existence all your life and that she's an inflexible, obdurate, emotionally distant head of an order of people who have been scarred and worn down by a long endless war that will eventually take their lives if they are not consumed by the accumulated effects of the disfiguring price they pay every time they use their powers against their terrifying opponents, and which you will have to pay also.

Now, while I find this set-up appropriately angsty and difficult in a fantasy about children recruited to fight in a secret war, while in our world there's nothing particularly nice about being a child soldier, this is not a gloomy or an angsty read. It is, in fact, a fast and smooth read, exciting and emotional, full of dry wit and lovely pieces of writing and turns of phrase that can be very funny or very evocative or downright chilling, with well-developed characters that the author is not afraid to damage or destroy. The setting of the orphanage is particularly well-drawn, and when the book is focused on Denizen's doings in Dublin, the text is haunted by the terrible plight of the unfortunate Simon in the demon-haunted institution at the edge of the world.

Beyond that, however, the hints and glimpses of the dark and deadly adversaries from a different world become more and more intriguing as the book goes on, and it is clear that there is more depth and complexity to them than simple malevolent bad-guys, and if the sample chapter at the end of this edition is any indication, this series (trilogy? Can't remember) is going to some very interesting places indeed.

Father Yarvi's vow for vengeance against the High King and Grandmother Wexen needs a war, so war there is. Caught up in the turmoil are the Princess Skara and Koll the wood-carver and the sword-bearer Raith, and it's from their points of view we see the unfolding conflict and how they effect the course of events, if at all. It's a riveting narrative, with a strong voice and punchy style. The action is tough and bruising, the nerves are raw, the emotions are ragged and confused and the deep-thinking is sly and cunning. A brilliantly compact tale, self contained but completing the story begun in Half A King. Sets the standard for YA fantasy trilogies, and non-YA fantasy trilogies too, while it's at it.

In a world dominated by the Samurai Empire, three children are recruited into a secret ninja army, part of a resistance network that guards a stolen sword coveted by Lord Goda. Cormac, Ghost and Kate all have amazing powers, but will they be enough when the sword is taken from their hidden school and refuge and they find themselves plunged back in time in a desperate race to save the last free corner of the world?

Amazing, cinematic adventure, full of groovy tech and strange magic as well as friendship and courage and heroism. paced like a bullet, the pages fly by until the final epic battle. One senses we are only scratching the surface of the secrets and mysteries if this world and I look forward to more blazing ninja action in future volumes.

Bartimaeus in King Solomon's Jerusalem, trying everything in his not inconsiderable wit to get back to home while slaving for his master, who in turn serves King Solomon with his all-powerful ring. Unable to keep out of trouble for very long, Bartimaeus finds himself being punished for a smart mouth and a rebellious disposition and a tendency to eat careless magicians, but things take a turn for the worse when an assassin for the Queen of Sheba slips into Jerusalem with Solomon himself in her sights. Can Bartimaeus keep his essence intact and achieve the dismissal her craves? Why does he keep getting ensnared in the depraved doings of these horrible humans?

This is a glorious adventure, with the misanthropic, sardonic, long-lived demon providing cutting commentary to the action, exploring notions of freedom and slavery, duty and obedience and the tastiest parts of humans. Brilliantly written, readable, funny and suspenseful and packed with cleverness and dark, dark, jokes about the human condition as well as a surprising and genuine affection for their foibles.

Daisy and Hazel return to Deepdean! And what a triumphant return it is! A bit miserable for our pair, as a new regime is in place, and the Head Girl and her five prefects are thoroughgoing rotters, imposing a reign of terror. That all ends abruptly when the prefect is murdered, and a new case begins for the Detective Society. It soon becomes apparent that the Head Girl was a blackmailer with dirty secrets on everyone and the murderer must be one of the five prefects, but which one? Can the Detective Society solve the case? can it survive the sudden expansion of its membership? More importantly can Daisy and Hazel's friendship survive resentment and jealousy and misunderstanding, all of which threaten to tear them apart and scuttle their investigation?

Another thrilling, charming read; all the joys of Golden Age mysteries with enough of a hint of modern sensibilities to undercut some of the contemporary attitudes. The puzzle is genuinely engaging, the action as suspenseful as it is fun, and the characters wonderful. More please!

In 2255 a gale rips through a beach and exposes the ancient boglands below, and embedded in the bog is a body. A team of archaeologists excavate the body, but it is on the edge of land beloning to the Inglish, an Aboriginal community living an archaic and forgotten way of life. The removal of the body will set off a chain of events that threatens not only the existence of the science of archaeology, but the ongoing tolerance of Aboriginal communities all across Europe. But the skeleton also conceals a secret that might be their salvation.

Useful Idiots is an extraordinarily sophisticated, subtle and adult Young Adult novel - a literary dystopian/utopian science fiction thriller that explores ideas of national identites and the costs of keeping them and the price of losing them. The protagonists is a largely ignored and apparently forgotten graduate assistant whose involvement with the Inglish prompts him to make an extraordinary sacrifice, but old resentments and prejudices may be impossible to overcome.

Written superbly, with fantastically contrasted settings between the sterile shelter of the city and the deadly lush maze of the fens. A timely novel - it will resonate chillingly with the current state of climate change and post-Brexit politics and rising nationalism. A brilliant, gripping read.