Books we like: April 2013

April brings a bumper crop of great new illustrated books: look out for The Dark, a wonderful picture book collaboration between bestselling author Lemony Snicket and acclaimed illustrator Jon Klassen; The Sleepwalkers, an imaginative graphic novel from Viviane Schwarz; and Pirates 'n' Pistols, a superb swashbuckling short story collection by Chris Mould, which has been shortlisted for the 2013 CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal.

Emerging readers will be delighted by latest installment of Alex T Smith's brilliant Claude series, and will find much to entertain them in the first book about Kate Pankhurst's quirky young detective, Mariella Mystery. Meanwhile, debut novelists Fletcher Moss, Rob Lloyd Jones and Elon Dann serve up unusual and gripping adventure stories that are guaranteed to keep older readers firmly on the edge of their seats.