Books with author Alan Gibbons

A powerful and humorous story about a family on the theme of bullying, by the popular author of the TOTAL FOOTBALL series.Davy's too chicken to stand up to bullying at school. He's been singled out as an easy target. His family aren't much help - they're all chicken too. Mum's frightened of learning to drive, big brother Carl is terrifying himself trying to impress his new friends. And Dad has too many problems of his own to be sympathetic. But in the end it's his little sisters strange secret which spurs Davy on...and surprises the whole family as well.

The Rough Diamonds are a close knit team. Kev McGovern, their captain, makes sure they work hard and play hard. Right now, John O'Hara feels he's on the verge of losing everything. His family is about to break up. He's dumbstruck when he finds out that his Mum is seeing his teacher, and Dad...well the less said the better. John feels lonely and insecure; none of this is helping his street cred with the lads, and worse still his form on the pitch is really suffering.

Having once risked everything precious to him to halt King Lud's progress from the ancient bowels of London to the city's modern streets, teenage Paul Rector knows his task is far from over. Paul also knows that, like his brother John and his great uncle Harry, he is both demon and man. Will it be fate that decides which side wins out? To find out, Paul takes Hell's Underground back to London of the Blitz in World War II and becomes involved in defeating Harry Rector's plot to assassinate Prime Minister Churchill. His main weapons are fire and fear. Along the way, he learns more about the Rector curse and once again endangers not only his own life, but that of the people he comes to regard as a second family.

John and Gerry have always been friends, brought together by their passion for football. Then Gerry's dad loses his job and everything turns sour. The two boys had always steered clear of the gangs at school, but Gerry gets drawn in and now he and John find themselves standing on opposite sides. Set in a tough inner city Liverpool estate, this story is about friendships, rivalries and survival played out at school and on the football fields.

Set in the East End of London in 1936, this is the story of an unlikely friendship between a Jewish and a Gentile boy during the upsurge of fascist violence ledby Oswald Moseley and his Blackshirts. Jimmy and Benny are adversaries in a boxing match before they become friends. Jimmy lives in a tenament with his newly widowed mother; Benny comes from a large Orthodox Jewish family. The discovery that Jimmy's mother's new friend Mr Searleis a Blackshirt has a profound effect on their relationship and places Jimmy in an agonizing dilemna. A vivid and compelling story that raises issues that have many parallels today.

Winner of the Blue Peter Book Award, The Dark Beneath tells the chilling tale of how one girl's friendship with three refugees could cost her life. 'Today I shot the girl I love'.GCSE's are over and sixteen-year-old Imogen is looking forward to a perfect, lazy English summer. But her world is turned upside down by three refugees, all hiding from life. Anthony is fourteen, already an outcast, bullied and shunned by his peers. Farid is an asylum seeker from Afghanistan, who has travelled across continents seeking peace. And Gordon Craig is a bitter, lonely man. She knows all of them, but she doesn't know how dangerous they are. Being part of their lives could cost Imogen her own.Supercharged with tension and drama, Alan Gibbon's novel is about what happens when the fabric of normality is ripped apart exposing the terrifying dark beneath.