Frank Cottrell Boyce

'A writer of comic genius - he has something of Roald Dahl's magic, but more heart' - Sunday TelegraphNo matter how big the show – family, friendship and adventure shine through in The Wonder Brothers by multi-award-winning author Frank Cottrell-Boyce, illustrated throughout by Steven Lenton.Cousins Middy and Nathan love magic. The on-stage, cape-swirling, bunny-out-of-a-hat kind.For Middy, it’s all about patience and practice. She uses magic skills to help her out of tricky situations.Nathan is a show-off and a total danger magnet, he is drawn to the sensation, spectacle and audience.So when the famous Blackpool Tower dramatically vanishes the night of the Grand Lights Switch-On, showman Nathan announces live on TV that they will magic it back home.With a stick of rock, a spangly cape, and a bit of misdirection, they end up lost in Las Vegas, home to the grand master of illusion, Perplexion, ‘Legend of Magic’.Full of tricks, twists and deceptions, the delightful Nathan and Middy will keep you guessing until the very end.

No matter how big the show, family, friendship and adventure shine through in The Wonder Brothers - the dazzling novel from the bestselling, multi-award-winning author of Noah's Gold, Frank Cottrell-Boyce.

When the Prime Minister begins making Ted's great ideas a reality, he suddenly has a lot of responsibility on his shoulders … A hilarious comedy caper from Waterstones Children's Laureate Frank Cottrell-Boyce. Ted thinks there’s something fishy going on. Ever since his birthday when he got a special loyalty card at the local shop, all his great ideas are being thought of by the new Prime Minister too. Now there’s laws about walking to school and everyone has Mondays off! Could the shop’s market research lady have anything to do with it? And if Ted has become a Leader, shouldn’t he start thinking up proper laws to save the world… Particularly suitable for readers aged 7+ with a reading age of 7.

The unforgotten coat belongs to Chingis, one of two Mongolian brothers Julie knew as a child. As she tries to help them make sense of their new, unfamiliar surroundings, the brothers speak of their fear of a demon that makes people vanish. Slowly, Julie learns the painful truth behind this very real threat.

‘The Bible,’ says Pope Francis, ‘is not a collection of books for the benefit of a privileged few. It belongs to those called to hear its message and to recognise themselves in its words.’ The How the Bible Can Help Us Understand guides are designed to help us explore these words together today. Each book asks what the Bible has to say about an important aspect of our lives, and can be read either privately or as part of a small study group. The authors offer thoughts and questions for reflection, prayers, and suggestions for considering a topic more deeply.

Runaway Robot is a funny and heartwarming adventure about two best friends helping put themselves back together, from the award-winning Frank Cottrell-Boyce, illustrated by Steven Lenton.When Alfie goes to Airport Lost Property, he finds more than he bargained for. A lot more. Because there's a giant robot called Eric hidden away on the shelves. Eric has lost one leg and half his memory. He's super strong, but super clumsy. He's convinced that he's the latest technology, when he's actually nearly one hundred year's old and ready for the scrap heap.Can Alfie find a way to save Eric from destruction – before Eric destroys everything around him?

A one-of-a-kind story of heart, humor, and finding one's place in the universe. Prez knows that the best way to keep track of things is to make a list. That's important when you have a grandfather who is constantly forgetting. And it's even more important when your grandfather can't care for you anymore and you have to go live with a foster family out in the country.Prez is still learning to fit in at his new home when he answers the door to meet Sputnik--a kid who is more than a little strange. First, he can hear what Prez is thinking. Second, he looks like a dog to everyone except Prez. Third, he can manipulate the laws of space and time. Sputnik, it turns out is an alien, and he's got a mission that requires Prez's help: the Earth has been marked for destruction, and the only way they can stop it is to come up with ten reasons why the planet should be saved.Thus begins one of the most fun and eventful summers of Prez's life, as he and Sputnik set out on a journey to compile the most important list Prez has ever made--and discover just what makes our world so remarkable.

A one-of-a-kind story of heart, humor, and finding one's place in the universe. Prez knows that the best way to keep track of things is to make a list. That's important when you have a grandfather who is constantly forgetting. And it's even more important when your grandfather can't care for you anymore and you have to go live with a foster family out in the country.Prez is still learning to fit in at his new home when he answers the door to meet Sputnik--a kid who is more than a little strange. First, he can hear what Prez is thinking. Second, he looks like a dog to everyone except Prez. Third, he can manipulate the laws of space and time. Sputnik, it turns out is an alien, and he's got a mission that requires Prez's help: the Earth has been marked for destruction, and the only way they can stop it is to come up with ten reasons why the planet should be saved.Thus begins one of the most fun and eventful summers of Prez's life, as he and Sputnik set out on a journey to compile the most important list Prez has ever made--and discover just what makes our world so remarkable.

What if your best friend was a robot?

The Astounding Broccoli Boy is the hilarious tale of an unlikely (and very green) hero believing in himself and finding adventure.Rory Rooney likes to be prepared for all eventualities. His favourite book is Don't Be Scared, Be Prepared, and he has memorized every page of it. He could even survive a hippo attack. He knows that just because something is unlikely doesn't mean it won't ever happen . . .But Rory isn't prepared when he suddenly and inexplicably turns green. Stuck in an isolation ward in a hospital far from home with two other remarkably green children, Rory's as confused by his new condition as the medics seem to be.What if turning green actually means you've turned into a superhero? Rory can't wait to make it past hospital security and discover exactly what his superpower might be . . .This edition of Frank Cottrell Boyce's funny adventure features fantastic cover artwork and black and white inside illustrations from the incredible Steven Lenton.

The perfect crime – it's a work of art, in Frank Cottrell Boyce's ingenious story, Framed.Dylan is the only boy living in the tiny Welsh town of Manod. His parents run the Snowdonia Oasis Auto Marvel garage – and when he's not trying to persuade his sisters to play football, Dylan is in charge of the petrol log. And that means he gets to keep track of everyone coming in and out of Manod – what car they drive, what they're called, even their favourite flavour of crisps. But when a mysterious convoy of lorries trundles up the misty mountainside towards an old, disused mine, even Dylan is confounded. Who are these people – and what have they got to hide?A story inspired by a press cutting describing how, during World War II, the treasured contents of London's National Gallery were stored in Welsh slate mines. Once a month, a morale-boosting masterpiece would be unveiled in the village and then returned to London for viewing. This is a funny and touching exploration of how art – its beauty and its value – touches the life of one little boy and his big family in a very small town.This edition of Framed includes bonus material and discussion questions from Frank Cottrell Boyce, and illustrations by Steven Lenton.

Shortlisted for the 2017 Carnegie Medal and selected for the Tom Fletcher Book Club, Sputnik's Guide to Life on Earth by Frank Cottrell-Boyce is an adventure about the Blythes: a big, warm, rambunctious family who live on a small farm and sometimes foster children. Now Prez has come to live with them. But, though he seems cheerful and helpful, he never says a word.Then one day Prez answers the door to someone claiming to be his relative. This small, loud stranger carries a backpack, walks with a swagger and goes by the name of Sputnik. The family all think Sputnik is a dog and chaos is unleashed as suddenly household items come to life – like a TV remote that fast-forwards people and a toy lightsaber that entertains guests at a children's party, until one of them is nearly decapitated by it – and Prez is going to have to use his voice to explain himself.As Sputnik takes Prez on a journey to finish writing his guidebook to Earth called Ten Things Worth Doing on Earth, each adventure seems to take Prez nearer to the heart of the family he is being fostered by, but they also take him closer to the day that he is due to leave them forever . . .This edition features fantastic cover artwork and black and white inside illustrations from the incredible Steven Lenton.

Whatever happened to British protest? For a nation that brought the world Chartism, the Suffragettes, the Tolpuddle Martyrs, and so many other grassroots social movements, Britain rarely celebrates its long, great tradition of people power. In this timely and evocative collection, twenty authors have assembled to re-imagine key moments of British protest, from the Peasants' Revolt of 1381 to the anti-Iraq War demo of 2003. Written in close consultation with historians, sociologists and eyewitnesses - who also contribute afterwords - these stories follow fictional characters caught up in real-life struggles, offering a streetlevel perspective on the noble art of resistance. In the age of fake news and post-truth politics this book fights fiction with (well researched, historically accurate) fiction.

George Garrett’s autobiographical work Ten Years On The Parish, published here in full for the first time since it was written in the late 1930s, shines a light on the hardships and poverty endured by many in the years between the wars. Garrett was a merchant seaman, writer, playwright and radical activist, who was central to working class politics and culture in the 1920s and 30s in Liverpool and beyond. He travelled the world, wrote a series of documentary reports about poverty and struggle in the 1920s and 30s, three plays influenced by the new realism of Eugene O’Neill, and a series of short stories, which led George Orwell, who met him while researching The Road to Wigan Pier, to say he was ‘very greatly impressed by Garrett’. In the late 1930s he was a founder member of Liverpool’s Unity Theatre. In Ten Years On The Parish Garrett touches upon his time in New York in the early 1920s, gives a graphic account of the unemployed struggles in Liverpool, including The First Hunger March in 1922, and reveals how he personally, as well as others in the working classes, struggled to survive in Liverpool as it was caught up in the great depression of the 1930s. Published alongside Ten Years On The Parish are a series of letters exchanged from January 1935 to July 1940 between Garrett and New Writing editor John Lehmann, which reveal a unique insight into the relationship between a working-class writer and his editor. Both original texts have extensive introductions by the editors, as well as a foreword by Frank Cottrell-Boyce, which establishes the context and importance of Garrett’s work. This publication gives long-overdue credence to Garrett’s importance as a writer and radical, whose work occupies a unique and significant position as the central point of a compass linking Liverpool's radical, literary, cultural, and maritime history.

From Frank Cottrell Boyce--the beloved, award-winning, New York Times-bestselling author of Millions and Cosmic--comes a hilarious, heartbreaking, and completely original middle grade novel about a young boy who turns...green.Rory Rooney likes to be prepared for anything. That sort of planning pays off when you're the smallest kid in your class. Rory is even prepared (mostly) for Tommy-Lee, his nemesis, who starts most days by throwing Rory out of the back of the school bus. Don't be scared, his favorite book says, be prepared. And Rory aims to be. What's more heroic than that?But Rory isn't prepared when he suddenly and inexplicably turns green and finds himself stuck in an experimental hospital ward. The doctors are just as baffled as Rory is, and that's when he begins to wonder: What if this isn't caused by his genes, or a virus, or something he ate? What if it's something even more extraordinary? After all, more than a few superheroes' careers began when they turned green. Could this be a sign that he's meant for something greater? Rory is going to find out--and that's going to start with escaping from the hospital.

The first-ever sequel to Ian Fleming's Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, written by bestselling author Frank Cottrell Boyce and endorsed by the Fleming estate.

From the award-winning Frank Cottrell Boyce comes the third official sequel to Ian Fleming's Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. The Tootings are stuck in 1966 Somebody's stolen Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and left them behind. And Little Harry's been kidnapped by whoever stole their magical car. There's only one solution: the Tootings must find the Potts--the family that originally built Chitty. Sharing their combined knowledge of how Chitty works, the families may stand a chance of rescuing Little Harry and finding the most brilliant car in the world. But a fiendish criminal has different plans, ones that involve flying Chitty Chitty Bang Bang to the moon and putting an explosive scheme into action.