Frank Cottrell-Boyce has created a brilliantly sympathetic and funny character in Noah, and his insecurity about being the smallest, the youngest, and the person seemingly responsible for everything going wrong makes him a wonderfully relatable hero. With a delightful cast of characters including Dario who is full of interesting facts and Ada who is convinced the island is inhabited by fairies, this is a wonderful funny adventure story about pulling together, helping each other - and maybe not spending all your time looking at your phone! In Noah's Gold, a school field trip to an online retailer's warehouse (the humorously named Orinoco Company, in a nod to the behemoth online company named after another South American river) goes awry when the satnav attempts to direct them to the Orinoco River, leading the minibus off the coast of Ireland and via ferry to a deserted island.

It seems that Noah’s managed to break the island’s internet connection, leaving the minibus crew without any phone connection. Yesterday a parent came over to tell me how impressed she was by the book fair and that you did a fabulous job of selling the books to the children first. It’s a fantastic independent book seller that will actually be responsive and select appropriate books for you.You guys were so fab and Dawn was such a lovely presence in the schools - I will absolutely be in touch next time I'm in your neck of the woods. I'm not sure about Dimitri, but if Dimitri means most-annoying-brother-in-the-whole-wide-world, then that's him.

In common with some of his previous books, there is some mild peril involving dastardly criminals up to no good, whom - in the manner of Scooby Doo - the meddling kids thwart. Noah is a wonderful narrator, and if you're after an easy read that will give you plenty of giggles, you could do a lot worse.When his older sister and her class go on a field trip to see the world’s largest warehouse, is Noah “Needed On Journey”? When the teacher takes them the wrong way, they lose the rest of the class and somehow end up on an uninhabited island. At another point, I thought I'd spotted a hiccup in the timeline: at the end of one letter, Noah learned that he had received a letter from his family; we were then presented immediately with said letter, which talked about events which had only just happened. How is Noah communicating with his parents when technology doesn’t work and the kids are stuck on an island in the middle of the sea – Letters of course! Her quirky pictures will keep the reader entertained and focused as they work through the book, or simply dip into the pages for ten minutes of calm colouring.

Although the dry, sarcastic humour which appealed to me so much may go over younger children's heads, the plot will appeal to all of KS2.His second book, Framed was inspired by a news story he’d read in an old scrapbook: During the Second World War, a collection of valuable paintings from the National Gallery was hidden in a slate mine for safekeeping. Young Noah accidentally finds himself caught on a geography school trip with his older sister and some fellow year 9 students; through the naivety of their teacher they find themselves stranded on a small island where accidentally young Noah “ switches off “ the internet and thus chaos ensues. Steve Lenton’s charming black-and-white illustrations complement the chapters beautifully, giving the book a real scribbled-treasure-map feel.