Primary For Children

Philip Ardagh's Unlikely Exploits chart the extraordinary changes in fortune of the downtrodden McNally family beginning with The Fall of Fergal. The setting is an unidentified country suffering from an unexpected breakout of large holes.

Long before dinosaurs, slime moulds ruled the world. Now they've been sucked through time and are growing on an old iron fort. Too bad that Smiler is stuck there too, together with the worst clown in the world, a Giant Maggot, a green glowing rabbit, and some really nasty head life. Is this the end of civilization as we know it?

In this eagerly awaited sequel to A House Called Awful End, Eddie Dickens narrowly avoids being blown up, trampled by horses, hit by a hot-air balloon, and arrested...only to find himself falling head over heels for a girl with a face like a camel's and into the hands of a murderous gang of escaped convicts, up on the misty moors, who have a "little job" for him to do.

Do you believe in fairies? Rosie does but her mum doesn't. Sometimes, though, real life is stranger than a fairy tale.

In this, the third and final Unlikely Exploit, the reader is taken on a journey through time in all directions, even revisiting some events from the previous Exploits and traveling back further still to a time before the McNally family's extraordinary adventures began. And as if that wasn't ridiculous enough, there's also a glimpse of the shape of things to come.

Mr. Chickee, the genial blind man in the neighborhood, gives nine-year-old Steven a mysterious bill with 15 zeros on it and the image of a familiar but startling face. Could it be a quadrillion dollar bill? Could it be real? Well, Agent Fondoo of the U.S. Treasury Department and his team of Secret Government Agents are determined to get that money back! But Steven and his best friends, Russell and Zoopy the giant dog, are more than a match for the Feds.

The first four books of the Andrew Lost series: On the Dog, In the Bathroom, In the Kitchen, and In the Garden.

In this, the second Unlikely Exploit, Fergal McNally's brain, last seen in a pickling jar in the basement of the Sacred Heart Hospital, is stolen, and the remaining McNally children are mysteriously drawn to Fishbone Forest and the forgotten crumbling mansion which lies at its heart.

A vain emperor who loves new clothes wears a royal robe created especially for him by two swindlers.

An Australian possum named Hush used to think that the magic made by Grandma Poss to make her invisible was fun, until one day, Hush wants to know what she looks like. Tour Australia with these two charming possums as they sample the food that will one day make Hush's wish come true.

This folktale explains why Chinese people no longer choose long names for their children.

Plucky Flossie Finley asks a clever fox to prove that he is a fox before she will be frightened of him on her way to deliver a basket of eggs. Narrated by author Patricia McKissack.

Archie needs to come up with a pet in a hurry for the neighborhood pet show. A timeless story.

John Langstaff's endearing version of an old counting song for children is filled with the beauty and wonder of meadow life.

Three bears come home from a bicycling trip through the woods to find a little girl "all nice and cozy and fast asleep" in Baby Bear's bed.

An imaginative boy graciously accepts an invitation from the King and Queen and then invites them to the zoo.

In 1952, April is seven years old and adores her big sister, Annabel. But Annabel is failing her math class and desperately needs help with a tough math problem. April decides to write to Albert Einstein, asking him to give a hand.

Trucks need a time-out in this picture book about emotions written by Todd Tarpley (Beep! Beep! Go to Sleep! and Ten Tiny Toes) and illustrated by bestselling artist Guy Parker-Rees (Giraffes Can't Dance). Whirr! Whomp! Grind! Chomp! Three toy trucks have big plans for their day at the...

This tender Japanese tale recalls the legend about Suho, a poor shepherd lad, and the newborn foal he finds on the Mongolian steppes.

Malusi, affectionately nicknamed Songololo by his grandmother Gogo, goes to the city to go shopping with her. Set in South Africa, Daly's text captures the warmth and tenderness shared by grandmother and child.