October anticipated children’s book releases …

It’s time for my October anticipated children’s book releases – a wonderful mix of spooky stories, Christmas stories and exciting adventures. There are only two new-to-me or debut authors in this collection, so I’m mostly returning to favourite series and/or authors whose previous books I’ve loved.

I’ve taken each synopsis from the Waterstones website except for Emba Oak which I’ve taken from the Publisher’s website.

It’s the near-future and Britain is having yet another heatwave. Of course, the government have put in the normal curfews for this kind of weather, and shops are forced to shut again. For Polly, it’s the sort of heat that makes her do wild, out-of-character things just to cool down. Like face her fear of deepwater. Essential when she and her brother have been sent to their aunt’s eco lake-side house for the summer.  But Truthwater Lake is beginning to dry up. As the water level diminishes, a lost village emerges. Swimming over the rooftops at midnight, Polly dives down and is suddenly able to breathe, to hear church bells and bird song… Polly has discovered an underwater gateway… to the past!

London, 1601. Honesty, a storyteller seeking fame and fortune, befriends Alice, a maid to Queen Elizabeth I. But can Alice be trusted? A tale of intrigue, scheming and plots set in the spellbinding world of the Elizabethan court. A thrilling adventure where nothing is as it seems.

A dark, gothic adventure set on the island of Anglesey in North Wales and featuring a very fantastical beast… Wren lives in an ancient castle in the mountains near the sea. The wind whistles through it and the walls sing to her. Wren is busy inventing things, and her father is busy disapproving. But the castle contains a mystery and as Wren is drawn further into it, she realises the answer lies in the very foundations of her home, foundations that are being shaken to their core… 

Theodora, Sherman and Dexter are off to the Big Apple for the holidays, and they cannot wait! However, if Dracula and Mummy thought an overseas trip would keep Theodora safe from bad monsters with sinister intentions, they were wrong. For New York is teeming with Shadowmongers – sly, shadowy creatures controlled by the most sinister foe of all. A foe who wants nothing more than to see the Monstrous League of Monsters brought down … and Theodora with it.

Adam has found something incredible in a rubbish dump in London. A mysterious, mythical, magical animal. A tyger. And the tyger is in danger. Adam and his friend Zadie are determined to help, but it isn’t just the tyger’s life at stake. Their whole world is on the verge of destruction. Can they learn to use their powers before it’s too late?

The Christmas-crazy Carrolls are back – and this time, they have an ice-skating baby penguin! There’s a new family in town determined to steal the Carrolls’ tinselly crown. Can Holly and her family win the Christmas Chronicle’s competition for the Most Festive Family? Or will they discover that there is more to life than perfect Christmas decorations, a personal toboggan run, and more pressies than you can shake a candy cane at?

Harrison Beck and Uncle Nat climb aboard the night train to Narvik, travelling to the Arctic Circle to see the northern lights for Christmas. But as their train leaves Stockholm, Hal and Uncle Nat realize they’re being followed by a sinister figure, and Hal’s powers of observation are tested when Uncle Nat’s past comes back to haunt him. Journeying into the never-ending night of the arctic winter, our railway detectives must outsmart an assassin in their most chilling adventure yet, in which nothing is as it seems.

The beast, who has tried to eat Bethany twice and controlled Ebenezer Tweezer for 511 years, is now in prison. Even better, it seems to have lost its despicable mind and is pinky-winky promising to be a do-gooding beast, vomit out helpful gifts, and be besties with Bethany and Ebenezer. There’s really no sign of the old beast at all any more, as long as you don’t count that hungry belly which still needs feeding…

When Oscar and Molly rush outside to investigate a crash in the night, they’re not expecting to find a dazed Angel Gabriel wandering around their grandparents’ back garden. And they’re certainly not expecting to find themselves in a race to save Christmas. But if they don’t track down a missing shepherd, wise man, donkey and the actual Mary and Joseph, who’ve all crash-landed in Chipping Bottom, not only will Christmas cease to exist, but they will too. Operation Nativity is on. 

Every year a Halloween Ball is thrown by the Topunders for their friends in Underland. It’s a big deal – excellent gloating fodder – and every Topunder family wants the honour of hosting it. Finally, it seems as though the Malign family luck has changed; this is their year. Preparations are in full swing when the Underland Mayor is ghostnapped, throwing Underland into turmoil. Worse is to come when the mayor is discovered in the Malign oubliette. It is down to Malice, Seth and Uncle Vex to prove Ma and Pa’s innocence and bring the real culprits to justice. If they don’t, it will be more than just the Halloween Ball in ruins… 

The grown-ups all think she’s going to die soon-she can see it in their eyes. Still, when poor twelve-year-old Stina is sent to remote Raspberry Hill Sanatorium she can’t believe her luck. She gets to ride in a real motor car to the hospital, which looks like a magnificent castle hidden deep in the forest. But as Stina explores the long, echoey corridors of her eerie new home, she begins to suspect that the building is concealing a dark secret. How did the old East Wing burn down? Why doesn’t her mother reply to any of her letters? And what are the nurses all so afraid of? Stina is determined to solve the mystery of Raspberry Hil l-but as she edges closer to the truth, she finds herself in terrible danger…

Turn on your torches and join Aveline Jones! Aveline is determined to discover the truth behind her uncle’s mysterious disappearance when she travels to his home with Mum and Aunt Lilian. After years of hoping Aveline’s uncle would return, they have finally decided to sell his house – but Aveline and Harold have other plans. Sneaking into her uncle’s study, Aveline discovers he had been researching possible supernatural activity around an ancient burial mound – and linked this with the unexplained disappearances of other local villagers. Dark, magical forces are at work, and they’ll do anything to remain hidden, as Aveline and Harold soon learn…

It’s a cold winter during the Great Frost of 1683. Thomasina and Anne are the best of friends, one running her father’s sweet shop and the other the apprentice at the family apothecary – together they sell their goods on the frozen River Thames. When a family tragedy turns Thomasina’s world upside down, she is drawn to a mysterious conjuror and the enchanted frost fair. But soon the world of Father Winter threatens to claim everything she holds dear. Will they be able to solve the magical mysteries that surround them…?

Step through the door in the tree and into another breathtaking adventure. . . When Anneshka’s hunt for the greatest kingdom brings her into our world, Imogen and Marie know it’s bad news. But Anneshka isn’t their only problem. Mum’s boyfriend, Mark, is sick and getting sicker, thanks to the monsters he accidentally carried home. Can the girls escape Anneshka and find a cure for Mark before it’s too late? Their quest will take them through the door in the tree and further than ever before, into the magical lands of Nedobyt beyond. But there is more to this kingdom than meets the eye. Miro, Imogen and Marie must learn its secrets if they’re to save their families – and stop Anneshka once and for all. . .

“Starting on All Fools Day, twelve years ago, I remember everything. EVERYTHING. That was a wet Saturday, and that was the day I was born.” 12-year-old Piaf has the ability to (and burden of) remembering everything that has happened since the day she was born. When she discovers everyone in Paris has forgotten the entire last year, 1887, including the disappearance of several gifted children, Piaf and her twin brother Luc embark on a dangerous journey that brings them to the depths of Paris’s underground twin, the Catacombs, to capture the memory thief and find the lost children.

All the best stories and adventures start with a knock at the door… Or the thwump of a dragon’s tail at the entrance to her cave, in the case of Emba Oak. But then nothing about Emba’s story is normal; from the scales on her arms and legs, to the shocking discovery that she hatched out of a dragon’s egg. Even more shocking is the news that an evil sorcerer is after her dragon blood and will do anything to get his hands on it. Can Emba keep herself safe or will her loved ones pay the price?

I think the run-up to Christmas is going to be full of wonderful reads if these are any indication! Have any of these grabbed your interest?