Showing results by author "A.F. Harrold" in All Categories

Nobody knew it at that moment, but only three things stood in the way of the complete destruction of the Earth: one elderly parrot; one eight-year-old spelling mistake; and an intrepid young schoolgirl-turned-reporter.... Greta Zargo needs a big scoop if she's going to win the Prilchard-Spritzer Medal, the quite famous award for great reporting. But big scoops are in short supply in the quiet town of Upper Lowerbridge. But then, with a whoosh of unknown energy, a mysterious silver robot descends from the sky....

Fizzlebert Stump lives in a circus. His mum's a clown, his best friend is a bearded boy, and he sticks his head in a lion's mouth every night. Other than that, he's pretty normal. When Fish the sea lion goes missing Fizzlebert tracks down the runaway beast to the Aquarium, with its piratical owner Admiral Spratt-Haddock, invisible octopus, and colour-coded fish. But the Aquarium has problems of its own. Fish (not Fish the sea lion, fish. Keep up.) are going missing, and the Admiral blames the circus.

Rudger is Amanda's best friend. He doesn't exist, but nobody's perfect. Only Amanda can see her imaginary friend - until the sinister Mr. Bunting arrives at Amanda's door. Mr. Bunting hunts imaginaries. Rumour says that he eats them. And he's sniffed out Rudger. Soon Rudger is alone, and running for his imaginary life. But can a boy who isn't there survive without a friend to dream him up?

Not everything in this book is necessarily good advice, and not all of it is sensible advice. (But if you take the bad or unsensible advice and don’t follow it, then it may become useful advice in its own way.) Filled with silly rhymes, witty wordplay and thought-provoking story poems, this collection will delight children of all ages.

Fact: Ember and Ness are best friends. There’s nothing more to say about it. It is what it is. It is what will always be. Ember and Ness. Then Ness dies. It is sudden and unexpected and leaves Ember completely empty. How can this be? When Ember finds a way into the Afterworld, she determines to bring Ness back. Because that’s what friends do, isn’t it? They rescue each other. They help. They never give up. Ember and Ness. That don’t change. A powerful, poignant, darkly comic and deeply moving story about friendship at its most extraordinary.

Fizzlebert Stump lives in a travelling circus. But although he gets to hang around with acrobats, play the fool with clowns, and put his head in a lion's mouth every night, he's the only kid there - and he's bored. But then Fizz decides to join a library, and life suddenly gets a lot more exciting, when a simple library card application leads to him being kidnapped by a pair of crazed pensioners! Will he ever see the circus again?

Fizzlebert Stump's second adventure. The bearded Barboozul family are the new stars of Fizz's circus. Their act is full of magic, mystery, fear and fun. And it's nice to have another boy around, even if he is a bit... hairy round the chin. But then things start going wrong. The lion loses his dentures. The clowns lose their noses. The Ringmaster loses his temper. And the circus is about to lose its licence. Is the bearded boy to blame? Can Fizz save the day?

Frank thought her summer couldn’t get any worse—until big, weird, smelly Nick Underbridge rescues her from a bully, and she winds up at his house. Frank quickly realizes there’s more to Nick than meets the eye. When she’s at his house, she hears the strangest, most beautiful music, music which leads her to a mysterious, hidden door. Beyond the door are amazing creatures that she never even dreamed could be real. For the first time in forever, Frank feels happy...and she and Nick start to become friends.

Hex never meant for the girl to follow him and his friend Tommo into the woods. He never meant for her to fall off the rope swing and break her arm. When the finger of blame is pointed at him, Hex runs deep into the woods and his fierce sense of injustice leads him to a strange clearing in the woods—a clearing that has never been there before—where an old lady in a cottage offers him a deal. She’ll rid the world of those who wronged him and Hex can carry on his life with them all forgotten and as if nothing ever happened.

Hex doesn’t know why he does the things he does—why he sometimes stands up in class to look out the window or ask an unrelated question. He also doesn’t know why he threw the rock that day in the woods. He didn’t mean for the girl to fall and break her arm. But he’s blamed anyway. Enraged at how unfair life is, Hex runs into the woods and finds himself in a strange clearing where a strange old woman offers him a deal: she’ll rid the world of those who wronged him. All he has to do is accept. But what Hex doesn’t know is that someone else has been offered the same deal.

Rudger is Amanda Shuffleup's imaginary friend. Nobody else can see Rudger -- until the evil Mr. Bunting arrives at Amanda's door. Mr. Bunting hunts imaginaries. Rumor has it that he even eats them. And now he's found Rudger. Soon Rudger is alone, and running for his imaginary life. He needs to find Amanda before Mr. Bunting catches him--and before Amanda forgets him and he fades away to nothing. But how can an unreal boy stand alone in the real world?