New Releases by Andrew Fusek Peters

There is a party on the train and all the animals are jumping aboard with their instruments. Follow the pace and rhythm of a locomotive as the party starts off slow and gets wilder and wilder then slows back down to a snooze at bedtime.

Fed up with Dingo Dog''s bullying ways, the other animals of the Australian bush country come up with a plan to keep him away from their billabong.

Part of the specially commissioned White Wolves fiction range of imaginative and engaging stories for primary school children.

Saturday night will never be the same again! This hilarious play is packed with cheesy chat-up lines, girls with attitude, wannabe Romeos, awkward teenagers, and comedy-act bouncers. Fast-paced and fun, this is the perfect play for performance, class work, improvisation, or practical assessments.

This exciting drama puts a contemporary twist on a trio of traditional European folk tales. Together they explore the drama and tragedy of human relationships, the dangers of judging by appearances, and the importance of finding the truth about those around you.

When Jan and Marie discover who is stealing and selling the eggs of a peregrine falcon, they suddenly find themselves in danger. This exciting novel revisits the Kleceks, a family from the Czech Republic newly settled in Shropshire. Teenage brother and sister Jan and Marie are soon unravelling mysteries, but they will need even greater courage to face what is about to happen.

This title features a new country, a new school, an evil landlord, a shady secret from the past and the ghostly legend of the Roaring Bull. Andrew Fusek Peters'' and Polly Peters'' exciting new novel revolves around the Klecheks, a family from the Czech Republic arriving for the first time in Shropshire where Mr Klechek is taking up a teaching post. Not everyone is welcoming. As they try to settle in, they are plunged into a series of mysteries. Who is the batty old lady in the tattered clothes? Why is their new landlord such an unpleasant piece of work? What is the real story of the ghostly Roaring Bull - and what lies hidden in the local church? Old legends are re-enacted as Jan and Mari unearth shady secrets in a desperate bid to save their family from eviction,. In their quest, they find unlikely allies and deadly enemies: enemies who will stop at nothing to keep the past hidden.

Gretel is in a coma. In the course of finding out how she got there, this gripping story unfolds through flashback, the reactions of those around her, speculation, and visual dramatic devices. In the end, the cause of Gretel''s coma is not as clear-cut as might be expected. Requiring a minimum cast of 17 but capable of handling a much larger performance group, Gretel’s story is presented with a mix of psychological realism, ensemble performance, monologue, and improvisation.

Megan is finding life at home a little dull, and school is no better. However, she''s not a girl to sit around, and a few cogs, wheels and a garden rake put cunningly together are turned into an amazing rocket! Now, where is the best place a rocket can take you?

An illustrated first book of poetry, ''Here''s a Little Poem'' contains over 60 verses from noted English and American authors, including Wendy Cope, Roger McGough, John Agard and Grace Nichols.

At a home match with archrivals Mill Spill, a valuable soccer league cup is stolen from the halls of Diddlebury Heights. The home team loses the match, the cup, and their confidence! What follows is a series of fast-paced chases, mimed soccer sequences, interactions with a pompous headmaster and rapping cheerleaders, slapstick humor, and an unexpected conclusion. Will the school be saved from the evil developer who has her eye on the land it''s built on? This is a perfect play for group work, drama lessons, and full-scale productions.

A tiny ant helps overcome a bullying goat.

A lively and colourful original story about one day in the life of two friends Dragon and Mousie, a dragon and a mouse who live together in a large oak tree, with a short Welsh glossary; for 4-7 year-old children. A Welsh version Gwich a Draig (ISBN 08624 36222) is available. First published in January 2003.

At 6''8 1/2", Andrew Fusek Peters is Britain''s tallest poet. His collections include Sadderday and Funday, Love Hate and My Best Mate, and Poems with Attitude (the only poetry collection to have ever made the Carnegie long-list). This book combines a selection of the best of his published work, plus new material specially written with Lion''s audience in mind. Andrew''s poems focus on themes including family, friendship, pets, seasons and schools, and mix the side-splitting with the serious - making a varied and valuable collection.

There''s nothing that Fred likes better than to stroll around the local graveyard. For Fred isn''t your normal type of kid-he just loves all things ghoulish and ghosty, even if it means getting grief from Barry the Bully at school. But one day while mooching around the cemetery he suddenly slipsdown a hole and enters a whole different world-the world of ghosts! To be accepted, he must pretend to be dead (of course) and he finds himself taking the entrance exams to Ghost School. Fred succeeds and has a whale of a time, for he can now practise his spooking as much as he likes, and he meetslots of hilarious characters. When his cover is finally blown and he returns to his own world, his new friends are very useful for giving old Barry the creeps . . . Full of variety and humour with an appealing design to draw the reader in, this book is great for dipping into or reading from start tofinish. There are many different types of poems and plenty of jokes and riddles to make this collection a useful resource for teachers as well as highly appealing to children.

George is spy-crazy--at home he sleuths around to his heart''s content with all sorts of gadgets and at school with his mate Stan he runs a spy club with a secret language, codes, a spy magazine and special missions. The suspicious behaviour of his drama teacher and the hold-up of the bank by amysterious granny give George a real challenge; can he piece it all together? And what will he do when discovers a sinister plot to take over the country? Here are poems that can be read as stand-alone pieces but that also form humorous and fun storylines. With lots of variety in design and content,including plenty of different types of poem such as haiku, acrostics, diary poems and shape poems, this is a book with much direct appeal to children that can also be used as a resource by teachers.

A clever retelling of the tortoise and hare, combining the classic tale with the story of why bears hibernate all winter.

Ed and his friend Zack are on holiday in London, where Ed keeps noticing the particularly friendly and intelligent rats coming out of the cellars. Following a rat into an abandoned underground station, Ed finds himself on a weird journey into London''s sewers and the forgotten River Fleet. Here he encounters mystical owls and Victorian sewer workers, but also the power to take on the drug-pushers who threaten to destroy the city''s youth.

An emotional story of love and death, uniquely told in poems.

A retelling of the traditional Indian tale, in which one sly animal is outwitted by another.

Nat and Kate start going out, break up, make up, and feel their love growing deeper. But in one moment everything changes, and all the hopes and promises of the future are shattered. Deeply absorbing, this powerful story is told in different voices and entirely in poems. Lyrical, funny, heart-wrenching and gripping, the variety of poetic forms magically captures the panoply of emotions associated with falling in love for the first time and suffering a bereavement.

After his mother disappears and he has to move to a new town to live with his grandfather, Ed makes a new friend, is tormented by the local bully, and has an intimate encounter with a local legend.

The mischievous Ameerah Monkey promises Crocodile her tail and those of her parents, brothers, and sisters in exchange for a ride across the river in this version of a Jataka tale from India.