Secondhand Chapter Book (Age 8-12) Bargain Book Box SP4129

Secondhand Chapter Book (Age 8-12) Bargain Book Box SP4129

Eighteen mixed chapter books with a strong Australian streak: two Specky Magees, two Morris Gleitzmans, two Roald Dahls, Selby’s Secret, Elizabeth Honey’s What Do You Think, Feezal?, Andy Griffiths’ Treasure Fever, Judy Blume, a 39 Clues, two Minecraft novels, Geraldine McCaughrean’s Odyssey retelling, and a Partition of India novel for older readers.

1. The 39 Clues Book 7: The Viper’s Nest — Peter Lerangis — Amy and Dan Cahill are in South Africa chasing the Tomas branch, and they’ve just learned which branch they belong to themselves. Six collectible cards inside; the series kids read to unlock the online game.
2. Treasure Fever! — Andy Griffiths — Henry McThrottle’s school goes mad for buried treasure when a map turns up, and Henry’s class digs up the oval. First of the Schooling Around series; Griffiths without Denton, and still funny.
3. Second Childhood — Morris Gleitzman — Mark’s teacher tells the class they’re all reincarnated famous people, and Mark is Thomas Edison. Then the famous people start trying to do what they did last time. Gleitzman’s cleverest idea.
4. It’s True! Everest Kills — Kim Wilson — Frostbite, avalanche, the death zone, and the bodies still on the mountain. Non-fiction from Black Dog’s It’s True series, with the facts kids actually want.
5. Specky Magee & the Great Footy Contest — Felice Arena & Garry Lyon — Specky’s team enters a contest with a game at the MCG as the prize, and his best mate might be the one who stops them. Book two.
6. Specky Magee — Felice Arena & Garry Lyon — Simon Magee takes speccy marks in the backyard, dreams of the AFL, and finds out he’s adopted. The Australian football book, written with a Melbourne champion, and the one that started the series.
7. The Odyssey — Homer, retold by Geraldine McCaughrean — The Cyclops, the Sirens, Circe turning the crew into pigs, and the dog that waits twenty years. Puffin Classics, and McCaughrean is the best reteller in the business.
8. Misery Guts — Morris Gleitzman — Keith’s parents are miserable in a London fish-and-chip shop, so he hatches a plan to move them to tropical Australia where nobody is ever sad. He’s wrong about that. First of the trilogy.
9. A Minecraft Movie: The Junior Novelization — The film retold for readers who want it again, with the creeper on the cover.
10. James and the Giant Peach — Roald Dahl — James’s aunts are crushed by the peach in chapter one, which tells you what kind of book this is. He crosses the Atlantic inside it with a grasshopper, a spider and a centipede who won’t stop talking.
11. Avengers — Marvel — The film novelisation, for a reader who wants the whole story at bedtime.
12. Selby’s Secret — Duncan Ball — Selby is the only talking dog in Australia, and he’s not telling anyone because they’d make him work. The first Selby book, and the funniest.
13. 1947: Torn Apart, the Partition of India — Swapna Haddow — Two best friends, one Hindu and one Muslim, find themselves on opposite sides of a new border overnight. Short, serious, and for the older end of the box.
14. Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing — Judy Blume — Peter’s little brother Fudge swallows his turtle. The book every American kid read in fourth grade, and the one that still works.
15. Pirates of the Caribbean: Jack Sparrow: The Coming Storm — Rob Kidd — Teenage Jack Sparrow, before the Black Pearl, before the captaincy, steals a ship. First in the prequel series.
16. What Do You Think, Feezal? — Elizabeth Honey — Bean’s family gets a dog called Feezal and a summer goes wild. Honey’s warm, scrappy Melbourne, from the author of 45 & 47 Stella Street.
17. Minecraft: Journey to the Ancient City — Danny Lore — An official Mojang novel: a team descends into the Deep Dark and meets the Warden. For the kid who’s read every unofficial one.
18. George’s Marvellous Medicine — Roald Dahl — George’s grandmother is a horror who eats cabbage with caterpillars in it, so he brews her a new medicine from shampoo, engine oil, floor polish and the pills for the animals. She grows through the roof, and the ending is Dahl at his most gleefully irresponsible.