World Book Day - A World of Stories Online

Rooftoppers By Katherine Rundell Read by Gordon Griffin Winner of the Blue Peter Book Award and the Waterstones Children's Book Prize, Rooftoppers is a charming novel. Everyone thinks that Sophie is an orphan. Found floating in a cello case, she is the only recorded female survivor of a shipwreck on the English Channel. But Sophie remembers seeing her mother wave for help… When the child welfare agency threatens to send Sophie to an orphanage, Sophie and her guardian flee to Paris to find her mother, starting with the only clue she has - the address of the cello maker.

Meerkat Mail By Emily Gravett Illustrated by Emily Gravett Read by John Sessions Sunny the meerkat lives with his enormous family in the Kalahari desert. They are all very close . . . so close, in fact, that one day Sunny decides it's just too crowded and packs his bags. He's off to visit his mongoose cousins. But from the watery world of the Marsh Mongoose to the nocturnal lifestyle of the Malagasy Mongoose, Sunny just doesn't fit in. And who's that shadowy figure who seems to be following him around? There's so much to enjoy, from the newspaper cuttings on the endpapers to the wittily accurate information about each mongoose species Sunny visits on his journey. With seven giant glossy postcards attached to the pages, this beautiful book is rich with comic detail and will keep any meerkat fan entertained for hours.

Half Bad By Sally Green Read by Carl Prekopp A debut novel about one boy's struggle for survival in a hidden society of witches. You can't read, can't write, but you heal fast, even for a witch. You get sick if you stay indoors after dark. You hate White Witches but love Annalise, who is one. You've been kept in a cage since you were fourteen. All you've got to do is escape and find Mercury, the Black Witch who eats boys. And do that before your seventeenth birthday. Easy. Sally Green lives in north-west England. She has had jobs (paid and unpaid) and even a profession but at last has found the time to write down the stories she used to only be able to daydream about. She likes to read, walk in the country and would like to drink less coffee.

Flying Fergus: The Best Birthday Bike By Chris Hoy Read by Chris Hoy The first in a fantastically fun, magical cycling adventure series from Sir Chris Hoy. Fergus Hamilton, a boy who always dreams big, gets a rusty old bike for his ninth birthday from his mum and granddad. It's not the flashy Sullivan Swift he'd longed for - but when it's all cleaned up and he takes it for a test run, he discovers something amazing. When the pedals turn backwards, Fergus and his dog, Chimp, are magically transported to Nevermore, a land where cycling is banned by the wicked King Woebegot

Maggot Moon By Sally Gardner Read by Robert Madge A starkly original and heartbreaking tale of friendship and rebellion Winner of the Carnegie Medal and a 2012 Costa Award winner. Narrated against the backdrop of a ruthless regime determined to beat its enemies in the race to the moon, MAGGOT MOON is a starkly and heartbreaking tale of friendship and rebellion from award-winning author, Sally Gardner.