Noel Streatfeild

Noel Streatfeild was born in Sussex in 1895 and was one of three sisters. Although she was considered the plain one she ended up leading the most glamorous and exciting life! After working in munitions factories and canteens for the armed forces when WWI broke out, Noel followed her dream of being on stage and went to RADA where she became a professional actress. 
 
She began writing children's books in 1931 and Ballet Shoes was published in 1936. She quickly became one of the most popular authors of her day. When she visited Puffin exhibitions, there were queues right out of the building and all the way down The Mall. She was one of the first winners of the Carnegie Medal and was awarded an OBE in 1983. Noel Streatfeild lived in London. She died in 1986.

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A series of children's modern classic novels by renowned 20th century children's writers. All the titles in this series have the A Puffin Book logo, contemporary-style covers, and child-friendly endnotes.

Every family has its secrets, but it was a huge surprise to the three young Forbeses, fresh from a country vicarage, to discover that their grandmother was a famous actress. Sent to live with her in bombed-out, wartime London, they soon discovered that they were expected to follow in the family footsteps - to the footlights -! 
 
As an actress herself, Noel Streatfeild was familiar with all the details of the backstage world of the theatre. She has created an authentic, perceptive and vivid picture of theatrical life - from stage school to auditions to performances.

Theatre Shoes

Christmas with the Chrystals is a gorgeous short story about how an influx of cheery young cousins at Christmas warms the heart of a haughty grandmother and lights up her chilly home. This very special Yuletide story is accompanied by several Streatfeild Christmas extracts from her many children's novels, including an (almost) never-before-seen sequel chapter to her bestseller Ballet Shoes. There are also recollections of the author's own childhood Christmases (taken from the Noel Streatfeild Christmas Holiday Book).

Christmas with the Chrystals & Other Stories

There's great excitement when an unexpected parcel arrives for Selina. A beautiful long evening-dress and shiny satin party shoes - the best present a girl could ever wish for! She can hardly wait for a special occasion to wear them, but there's still a war on and all the grown-ups are far too busy to arrange a party. So Selina and her cousins decide to organize a pageant with acting, singing, dancing and dressing-up. Will Selina find the perfect role in which to put on her amazing new clothes?

Party Shoes

Gus the clown is Peter and Santa's only living relative, and escape to the circus seems a better idea to them than an orphanage. But Gus will keep the children only if they make themselves useful - and they have to fight hard to really belong to the circus.

Circus Shoes

Pauline, Petrova and Posy Fossil are sisters - with a difference. All three were adopted as babies by Great Uncle Matthew, an eccentric and rich explorer who then disappeared, leaving them in the care of his niece Sylvia. The girls grow up in comfort until their money begins to run out and nobody can find Great Uncle Matthew.Things look bleak until they hit on an inspired idea: Pauline, Petrova and Posy will take to the stage. But it's not long before the Fossils learn that being a star isn't as easy as they first thought...

Ballet Shoes

Mary Clive

Based on real events and people, this story of a small girl's Christmas holiday in a large Edwardian country house is effortlessly funny. At Tamerlane Hall, Evelyn finds a horde of children: the gentle Glens, the plaintive Howliboos, and above all, the uninhibited Savages. They are controlled - or not - by a host of parents, supernumerary Uncles and Aunts, Nannies and nurserymaids. Evelyn survives the Christmas festivities - just - returning home none too soon! Seen through the eyes of a prim little eight-year-old, this is an amusing and touching account of a childhood a hundred years ago.

Christmas with the Savages

Wendy Cooling

The Puffin Book of Christmas Stories is essential Christmas-time reading including classic and contemporary stories, from traditional to real life, humour and most importantly, the magic of Christmas. Christmas is coming! A delightful collection of stories by some of the finest writers for children.Writers range from Charles Dickens to Gillian Cross, Trish Cooke, Malorie Blackman and Jacqueline Wilson.

The Puffin Book of Christmas Stories

Alison Uttley

C. Tunnicliffe

This is a book about a girl growing up in the country. Alison Uttley has drawn on her own youth to produce memories so vivid and nostalgic that you can almost smell the honeysuckle and hear the owls calling at dusk. 
She writes about the small intense joys and sorrows of life on a small farm: the fun of haymaking, the sadness of favourite animals being slaughtered, and the close sweetness of Christmas celebrations in the farmhouse kitchen.

The Country Child

M M Kaye

Crustacea, Prince Amy's cross Fairy Godmother, gave her goddaughter a curious christening present. 'You shall be ordinary!' she cried. But Her Serene and Royal Amethyst Alexandra Augusta Araminta Adelaide Aurelia Anne grew up to have the most extraordinary adventures . . .

The Ordinary Princess

Barbara Sleigh

This is the story of a cat, a broomstick and an ordinary schoolgirl called Rosemary.  She bought them both in the market, quite cheaply. Of course, neither the cat nor the broomstick were just what they seemed, and they turned up just when Rosemary badly needed something nice to happen to her. A good cat is apt to be independent, so she did not have things all her own way, and as Carbonel proved to be a Royal cat in a very special sense, that was understandable. Between the cat and the broomstick, Rosemary picked up some useful spells and magic, and the adventures they brought about turned a dull-looking holiday into one long to be remembered for its unexpected excitements and rewards.

Carbonel

Eleanor Farjeon

Every night when the children were tucked up in bed, the Old Nurse would pull out a pair of stockings from the mending-basket and while she threaded her needle she would look in her memory for a story that fitted the size of the hole. The children always stopped their bickering at once, for none of them wanted to miss her extraordinary stories of princes and princesses, Greek gods, sea captains and other wonderful characters she had come across in her hundreds of years as a children's nurse. All the tales were so entrancing that the boys could hardly be blamed for sometimes making large holes on purpose, so that they'd have a long story to match! 
This is a charming collection of bedtime fairytale stories, with evocative line drawings by Edward Ardizzone.

The Old Nurse's Stocking-Basket

Accidentally transported from his remote Scottish castle to the bright, fast-moving, hi-tech city of Toronto, the highly mischievous Boggart simply can't resist the opportunity for pranks, and wreaks havoc for the Volnik family, inheritors of his distant castle home. But the Boggart doesn't mean any real harm, and when he begins to pine for the rolling Scottish mists and the sound of bagpipes, he turns to his two young friends, Emily and Jessup Volnik, for help. 
 
A delightfully funny and moving story for children.

The Boggart

Tove Jansson

Rediscover the A Puffin Book series and bring the best-loved classics to a new generation - including this magical edition of Moominland Midwinter complete with a charming new cover design. 
 
Moomins always sleep through the winter - or they did until the year Moomintroll woke up and found he couldn't go back to sleep again. All the clocks had stopped, there was nothing to eat and no one to talk to at home, so he went out - into the unknown. The valley was white and silent and very scary. But then Moomintroll spied some tracks in the snow. . . 
 
They seem to grow in wisdom and delight every time I read them - Philip Pullman

Moominland Midwinter

Rediscover the A Puffin Book series and bring the best-loved classics to a new generation - including this magical edition of Moominvalley in November complete with a charming new cover design. 
 
'They can't have moved away without saying a word!' Winter is coming, and the Fillyjonk, the Hemulen, Toft, and Mymble, are all waiting in Moominvalley to see the Moomins return home. Winter doesn't seem right without them . . . 
 
They seem to grow in wisdom and delight every time I read them - Philip Pullman

Moominvalley in November

Penelope Farmer

It is Charlotte's first night at boarding school. Before she goes to sleep, she sees from the window a corner of the new building. But when she wakes up, instead of the building there is a huge, dark cedar tree, and the girl in the next bed is not the girl who slept there last night. She calls Charlotte 'Clare', and says she is her younger sister Emily. Somehow, Charlotte has slipped back forty years to 1918 and the end of the First World War. Charlotte and Clare swap places ever night until one day Charlotte becomes trapped in 1918 and must find a way to return to her own time before the end of term.

Charlotte Sometimes

Joan Aiken

Rediscover the A Puffin Book series and bring the best-loved classics to a new generation - including this special edition of The Wolves of Willoughby Chase. 
 
It's 19th Century England, Good King James III is on the throne, and the whole country is ravaged by wolves which have migrated through the newly-opened Channel Tunnel. 
 
When young orphans Bonnie and Sylvia get caught by the governess, Miss Slighcarp - they need their wits and Simon the goose-boy - to escape unscathed. 
 
For Miss Slighcarp is more cruel and merciless than the wolves that surround the great house of Willoughby Chase. . .

The Wolves of Willoughby Chase

60th Anniversary Edition

Rosemary Sutcliff

In this thrilling re-telling of the Anglo-Saxon legend, Rosemary Sutcliff recounts Beowulf's most terrifying quests: against Grendel the man-wolf, against the hideous sea-hag and, most courageous of all - his fight to the death with the monstrous fire-drake.

Beowulf, Dragonslayer

Following a serious illness, Will is sent to stay with his uncle in the wild, bleak mountains of Tywyd. He is troubled by vague memories until he meets the mysterious Bran - and suddenly Will knows the task that lies ahead. With Bran's help, Will set outs to find the golden harp and awaken the six sleepers who must join the final battle between the Dark and the Light. But Will is about to encounter his most terrifying opponent yet: the Grey King. 
 
The fourth powerful book in the highly acclaimed Dark is Rising sequence.

The Grey King

The Dark is Rising sequence

Mary Norton

The Borrowers live in the secret places of quiet old houses - behind the mantelpiece, inside the harpsichord, under the kitchen clock. Everything they have is borrowed from the 'human beans', who don't even know they exist. But then young Arrietty makes friends with a boy - a 'human bean' - and from that moment danger is never far away for, above all else, they must avoid the great disaster of 'being seen'. 
In The Borrowers Afield the Pod family escape to the fields where their cousins live, but it's a long and dangerous journey. In The Borrowers Afloat Arrietty looks forward to a life away from the dark country cottage, to one full of sunshine. In The Borrowers Aloft: the family are now living in the model village of Little Fordham. All they have to do is avoid being seen by the visitors . . . In The Borrowers Avenged Pod, Homily and Arrietty have managed to escape with the help of Spiller. They move into the old rectory where they live happily until the Potters come looking for them. 
Poor Stainless: Young Stainless, a Borrower boy, goes missing on a mission to borrow some parsley and an enormous search ensues.

The Complete Borrowers

Michelle Magorian

Penguin presents, the downloadable audiobook edition of Goodnight Mr Tom, read by Patrick Malahide. 
 
Young Willie Beech is evacuated to the country as Britain stands on the brink of WW2. A sad, deprived child, he slowly begins to flourish under the care of old Tom Oakley - but his new-found happiness is shattered by a summons from his mother back in London... 
 
Winner of the Guardian Children's Fiction Award.

Goodnight Mister Tom

On holiday in Cornwall, Simon, Jane and Barney Drew discover an ancient map in the attic of the Grey House, where they are staying with their mysterious Great-Uncle Merry. They know immediately that it is special. But it is much more than just a map. It is the start of a quest to find a grail, a source of great power that could contain - or resurrect - the powerful, age-old forces of evil in the world. And the Drews are not the only ones searching for it. 
 
The first thrilling book in the highly acclaimed Dark Is Rising sequence.

Over Sea, Under Stone

Anne Fine

Let it be flour babies. Let chaos reign. 
 
When the annual school science fair comes round, Mr Cartwright's class don't get to work on the Soap Factory, the Maggot Farm or the Exploding Custard Tins. To their intense disgust they get the Flour Babies - sweet little six-pound bags of flour that must be cared for at all times. 
 
Funny and poignant, Flour Babies is a brilliant depiction of secondary school life.

Flour Babies

Quentin Blake

Rediscover the A Puffin Book series and bring the best-loved classics to a new generation - including this treasured edition of Arabel and Mortimer Stories. 
 
Late one night, as Mr Jones drove his taxi home through a storm, he spotted a large black bird with a hairy fringe round its beak sprawled out in the road. 
 
Mr Jones decides to take the bird home to Number Six, Rainwater Crescent, London, NW 3 ½, to meet his daughter, Arabel, she'll know what to do - she loves animals! 
 
'His name's Mortimer', she said. 
 
But it doesn't take long until the mischievous Mortimer causes chaos in the Jones household. . .

Arabel and Mortimer Stories

Rediscover the A Puffin Book series and bring the best-loved classics to a new generation - including this treasured edition of The Whispering Mountain. 
 
Owen and Arabis live in a quiet town in Wales, near the Whispering Mountain, rumoured to be where a long-lost King buried his treasure, including the legendary Harp of Teirtu. 
 
The Harp was discovered a long ago and was kept in the town's museum until it was stolen by the dishonourable Lord Malyn. 
 
'And the Harp of Teirtu find her master.' 
 
But it's disappeared. . . 
 
Join Owen and Arabis on an exhilarating adventure into the Whispering Mountain and unearth its ancient secrets.

The Whispering Mountain (Prequel to the Wolves Chronicles series)

Rediscover the A Puffin Book series and bring the best-loved classics to a new generation - including this highly anticipated edition of More Arabel and Mortimer. 
 
Late one night, as Mr Jones drove his taxi home through a storm, he spotted a large black bird with a hairy fringe round its beak sprawled out in the road. 
 
Mr Jones decides to take the bird home to meet his daughter, Arabel, she'll know what to do - she loves animals! 
 
'His name's Mortimer', she said. 
 
Return to Number Six, Rainwater Crescent, London, NW 3 ½ with Arabel and Mortimer as this mischievous bird continues to cause chaos in the Jones household. . .

More Arabel and Mortimer

Pod, Homily and Arrietty are a family of tiny people who live beneath the floor, behind the grandfather clock in the old rectory. They own nothing - everything they have is borrowed from the 'human beans' who don't even know they exist. Arrietty's father, Pod, is an expert borrower. He can scale curtains using a hatpin and bring back a doll's teacup without breaking it. Girl's aren't supposed to go borrowing, but as Arrietty is an only child, Pod breaks the rules. But when she is in the house borrowing, something happens which changes their lives. Arrietty makes friends with 'the boy upstairs'.

The Borrowers

In their desperate quest to find the grail, stolen by the forces of the Dark, the Drew children have returned to Trewissick. One night, in a strange ceremony, Jane watches the village women construct the Greenwitch: an ancient offering to the sea. Overcome by the Greenwitch's power, Jane makes a perilous wish - one that will tip the balance in the ongoing struggle between good and evil.

Greenwitch

Catherine Storr

The wolf is up to his old tricks again. He's trying to fool Polly so that he can gobble her up. He has thought of several new ways of getting her into his clutches, but the stupid wolf is no match for clever Polly.

Tales of Polly and the Hungry Wolf

It's 1945. World War II has just ended and twelve-year-old Rusty comes back home to Britain after being evacuated to the US. The greyness and bleakness of life in England is a shock, but even worse is adapting to the strict discipline of her family, including a brother she's never met, after the warmth and openness of her adopted American family. Rusty is sent to an horrific boarding school, before finally running away as her search for happiness becomes more and more desperate.

Back Home

Young Willie Beech is evacuated to the country as Britain stands on the brink of WW2. A sad, deprived child, he slowly begins to flourish under the care of old Tom Oakley - but his new-found happiness is shattered by a summons from his mother back in London . . . 
 
Winner of the Guardian Children's Fiction Award.

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