Books with author Karen-McCombie

When Scarlet's grandma goes into a retirement home, she must sort through her belongings in the cramped flat above a shop in Crouch End, north London. Here Scarlet comes across a real treasure: a novel that Gran wrote, imagining the life of a girl just like Scarlet, who once upon a time lived in the flat and worked in a cake shop downstairs. But as Scarlet reads about Ruby's life in Victorian London, she begins to realise this is no piece of fiction - Ruby was real! A real life, facing real danger - and a mystery that unravels to the present day.

Are other thirteen-year-old girl's lives this stressful? Ally's got a list as long as her arm of things to worry about. First of all, it's enough just to get by, living in a madhouse (well, more of a cross between an animal hospital and something out of Changing Rooms). I mean, Ally loves her family, but every now and then Linn (she's the eldest) is so bossy it's untrue! For example, her idea for a present for their Dad's fortieth birthday. Well, frankly, it's rubbish-but try telling Linn that. Rowan (second eldest) did, and she's got the scars to prove it! Tor isn't much help (well, he is only seven). Neither is Ally's best mate, Billy, but then he is a boy, so what can you expect? And then there's school...just in case she did'nt have enough to worry about there's the forgotten history project that's due and, oh yes, the deeply obnoxious new girl that-oh joy!-Ally's been nominated

Want to know a secret? There is something very, very strange living in the trees behind my house. If you tiptoe slowwwwly and quietly (ssh!) to the bottom of my garden, you might hear it rustling and rootling and 'peh!'ing in the dark undergrowth, on the other side of the low stone wall. And if you peek over the wall - holding your breath - there's a chance youcould spot two saucer-round eyes blinking out of a strangely squareopening in the tree roots . . . Ruby and Jackson get the surprise of their lives when they discover a Thing living at the bottom of their gardens. But Thing is cute, and funny, even if sometimes whenit upset it gets a bit ARRGHH! And that's when the trouble starts. Like the time Ruby and Jackson sneak Thing along with them on a school trip to the museum. In case you're wondering, it goes very, badly wrong . . . !