Secondhand Chapter Book (Age 10-14) Bargain Book Box SP4138

Secondhand Chapter Book (Age 10-14) Bargain Book Box SP4138

Eighteen chapter books for the older primary and early high-school reader, with an Australian spine: both Cedar B. Hartleys, Scot Gardner’s White Ute Dreaming, Carole Wilkinson’s Black Snake, Don’t Call Me Ishmael, Andrew Daddo, Riding with Thunderbolt, plus Inkheart, Wolf Brother, Molly Moon, The Little White Horse and The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants.

1. Dragon’s Tear — Sue Lawson — A dragon’s tear, a curse, and a girl who has to break it. Australian fantasy from the Finding Darcy author.
2. Inkheart — Cornelia Funke — Meggie’s father can read characters out of books, and years ago he read out a villain called Capricorn and read Meggie’s mother in. Now Capricorn wants the book. The first of a trilogy, and the best book-about-books for this age.
3. Wolf Brother — Michelle Paver — Six thousand years ago, Torak’s father is killed by a demon bear and he’s left with a wolf cub and a promise. Paver learned to make fire and skin a deer to write it. The first Chronicle of Ancient Darkness, and the Times called it the kind of story you dream of reading.
4. Molly Moon Stops the World — Georgia Byng — Molly, the orphan who can hypnotise anyone, goes to Hollywood to stop a billionaire with the same gift. Book two, with time-stopping added to the mix.
5. The Slightly Bruised Glory of Cedar B. Hartley — Martine Murray — Cedar is back, with a boy who can’t help flying high and falling in deep, a circus, and her brother Barnaby still missing. The sequel.
6. The Little White Horse — Elizabeth Goudge — Maria Merryweather, an orphan in 1842, comes to Moonacre Manor and finds a feud, a dog that’s a lion, and a unicorn in the moonlight. J.K. Rowling says she absolutely adored it, and it’s the book Harry Potter owes most to.
7. Whispering to Witches — Anna Dale — Joe’s Christmas holidays with his mother turn into a hunt for a missing page of a spellbook, with a coven that’s not what it seems. Debut fantasy, British and cosy.
8. The Slightly True Story of Cedar B. Hartley (Who Planned to Live an Unusual Life) — Martine Murray — Cedar is twelve, does cartwheels, has a dog called Stinky and a brother who’s run away. She meets Kite, who can do acrobatics. CBCA shortlist, and one of the most-loved Australian books of its decade.
9. The Great Blue Yonder — Alex Shearer — Harry is dead, knocked off his bike, and he’s stuck in the Other Lands until he can go back and tell his sister he didn’t mean what he said. Very moving indeed, said the Times, and it is.
10. How the Hangman Lost His Heart — K.M. Grant — 1746: Alice’s uncle is executed for treason and his head is put on a spike, so she and the hangman go to steal it back. A comedy, with real history in it.
11. White Ute Dreaming — Scot Gardner — Wayne’s got a white ute, a dog, a dead-end town and a girl he can’t talk to. Gardner writes teenage boys like nobody else in Australia. Sequel to One Dead Seagull.
12. The Music of Dolphins — Karen Hesse — Mila was raised by dolphins off the coast of Florida, and now scientists are teaching her to be human. Told in her own words as they grow. Newbery medallist Hesse’s strangest book.
13. My Story: Riding with Thunderbolt — Allan Baillie — Northern NSW, 1865: Ben Cross’s diary of the months he spent riding with the bushranger Captain Thunderbolt. Scholastic’s Australian My Story series.
14. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants — Ann Brashares — Four friends, one pair of jeans that fits all of them, and a summer apart. The book, before the film.
15. The Adventures of Charlie Conti: Small Sacrifices — Ben & Eliza Langdon — Charlie finds a fake ID and a mystery in her own family. Book one, Australian, illustrated.
16. Black Snake: The Daring of Ned Kelly — Carole Wilkinson — The Kelly story told straight, with the evidence on both sides and the reader left to decide. From the Dragonkeeper author; the best Ned Kelly for this age.
17. You’re Dropped! — Andrew Daddo — Cooper is dropped by his girlfriend in Year Six, and it’s the end of the world for about a week. With absolutely no doodles by Terry Denton, says the cover; it’s lying.
18. Don’t Call Me Ishmael! — Michael Gerard Bauer — Ishmael Leseur has Ishmael Leseur Syndrome: the belief that his name has ruined his life. Year Nine, a bully called Barry Bagsley, and a debating team. Australian school comedy at its best.