Books selected for the Reading Agency's Summer Reading Challenge 2012 - Nosy Crow Skip to content
Posted by Kate, March 6, 2012

Books selected for the Reading Agency’s Summer Reading Challenge 2012

We’ve received the good news that four of our titles – the four pictured above – have been selected for The Reading Agency’s Summer Reading Challenge.

We don’t know how many books were chosen in total, but it’s usually around seventy, so, particularly as a small, new publisher, we were pleased to have bagged four slots.

And it is, of course great both to have the extra sales; to see The Reading Agency supporting new talent as well as more established writers/illustrators; and for us to be working on this library project at a time when we’re keen to do whatever we can to support libraries against the threats they face.

Of these books, Danny Danger and the Cosmic Remote by Adam Frost has been out longest, and has already drawn some nice praise from librarians and parents:

“Young readers today who have grown up with an amazing array of electronic gadgets will certainly enjoy this fast-moving and imaginative story.” – The School Librarian, Winter 2011

“A great read for boys – the story really grips the reader and draws you through the book.” – Parents in Touch

Twelve Minutes to Midnight by Christopher Edge was published last month. The Bookseller described it as “a really pacy historical thriller with a great sense of Victorian atmosphere”, while Lovereading4kids.com said, “A thriller with a fast-paced cinematic style…an electrifying story from an exciting new author”.

The Secret Hen House Theatre by debut novelist Helen Peters will be published in April, but it’s already had a great mention in the Ham and High from Kate Agnew, children’s book consultant at the brilliant Children’s Bookshop, Muswell Hill. She says the book is “absolutely delightful … Astonishingly accomplished for a first novel, it is on one level an engaging story about a group of children determinedly staging a play in a disused old hen house and, on another, a warm-hearted and compassionate account of a family coming to terms with loss. I enjoyed the proof so much that I read it in two sittings”.

The paperback of Goldilocks and Just The One Bear by Leigh Hodgkinson won’t be published until June, but the signs are good, with a promotion lined up with Sainsburys.

Roll on summer and summer reading…

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