Great Books Guide Cymru 2023: 8 to 9

Suzie’s invention has sent her into space! Can she and the spaceship crew solve the mystery of the missing moons? Pacy and exciting, this young chapter book is perfect for newly confident readers.

Can Felix and his new friend the wishkeeper stop a monster from destroying everyone’s happiness? A delightfully charming and perfectly plotted adventure that packs a real emotional punch.

Juniper Mae lives in the ultra-high-tech Tykotech City, spending her days tinkering in her dad’s repair shop and dreaming of one day being an inventor at Tykotech Tower… and little does she know, her city is counting on her to save it! This is a fun and engaging graphic novel for younger readers.

Clem and her friends love mudlarking – but when they find a strange object by the shores of the River Thames, they discover a whole new secret world… Dive in to this fun, friendly new fiction series!

Michael the mind-reading sausage dog is extremely clever and talented. But can he get his own show in Hollywoof? With his friend Stanley Big Dog as his assistant, Michael discovers that talent can only get you so far without teamwork. A small dog with a big personality!

A vibrantly colourful celebration of India, its people, history and wildlife. A beautiful and fascinating book to dip into and pore over.

Sometimes we all need a bit of a positive boost, and this book of 50 poems packed with positivity and happiness is just the ticket.

An incredibly practical guide to 12 different terrains, with guidance on their particular challenges and top tips for survival should you be stranded there. Fascinating, brilliantly illustrated and very useful.

This is a story about a family. There are five child characters: K2 and his twin sister Izzabird O’Hero, Theo and Mabel Smith and little Annipeck O’Hero-Smith. They are fairly ordinary children (although K2 and Izzabird have some odd magical relatives) living normal lives on Earth in the present day. The O’Hero mum and the Smith dad fell in love and got together to make a new family and none of the older siblings are very happy about it and don’t get on – although they all adore their mutual younger sister Annipeck. 

The Earth’s history – all 4.5 billion years of it – presented in a captivating, hugely informative large-format book. With brilliant colour illustrations and a useful timeline, this is fascinating and thought-provoking natural history.

Lijah loves football, but his Romani father doesn’t want him to play. How can Lijah follow his passion if he has to hide it from his dad?

Ró finds reading hard because the words jump around. She can’t tell anyone because her parents are unhappy and she doesn’t want to make it worse. A heart-felt, accessible book for all kinds of readers. 

Action Dude – aka Charlie Munderdrew – may be a kid, but he loves danger and excitement and to be a hero. Even just popping round to the corner shop requires a daring leap from a jet plane. So when disaster strikes at ​‘Prehistoric Land’, the new local theme park, obviously it’s Action Dude that the Mayor calls on for help.

This action-packed, black and white graphic novel is witty, original and dynamic with a unique take on grief, and learning to find the magic in life after the loss of a loved one.

Can Cilantro the chameleon discover who’s making the crop circles – aliens or something closer to home? A brilliantly funny graphic novel for fans of Dog Man and InvestiGators.

Ben doesn’t want to sit next to Alice in class – she’s scary. But her forthright opinions might just be helpful to him… An accessible, dyslexia-friendly story told with humour and a light touch.

When Jack is shipwrecked, he concocts a perilous plan to get back home. With pirates, sharks and sea monsters circling him, he’ll need an awful lot of luck! A ripping adventure with a classic feel.

Laugh yourself silly reading the antics of Looshkin – ​‘the maddest cat ever’. Short storylines in the form of comic strips mean this second Looshkin book is just as irresistible and highly accessible as the first.

12 year-old Bridie sells matches on the mean streets of Victorian London. Her mother works 14 hours a day making matches in the Bryant and May factory… and the poison from the factory is making her ill. Even though they work so hard, they are very poor and often hungry. Then one New Year’s Eve, when Bridie seems to have lost everything, she lights her three remaining matches with miraculous effects.

Can Rowan save the baby dragon from the poachers? The first in a series of charming magical animal adventures.

Brilliantly entertaining and informative, this guide to wild animals is a must-read for all nature fans. Told in comic style, with dialogue from the animals themselves, it’s great fun.

It’s Luton, it’s the holidays and there is a heatwave. Low on friends, ten year old Leo is passing the long, lonely summer practising the thing he loves most – dancing. Then he meets his new next-door neighbour – confident and chatty, Richa is everything he isn’t but the two instantly become friends.

When Danny accidentally summons a feisty green fairy, he does everything he can to send her back to Fairyland before she causes too much havoc. This hilarious tale has a bonkers plot and an imaginative cast of eccentric characters.

For millions of years, Rex the dinosaur has been frozen in a block of ice. As the planet gets warmer, the ice thaws, releasing him into the modern world, which has changed beyond all recognition since the Cretaceous Period. Confused and alone, Rex wanders around the natural history museum in search of fellow dinosaurs but is appalled when he finds fossilised bones rather than living creatures.