Books in the Collins Readers series

Longlisted for the 2004 Man Booker PrizeShortlisted for the 2004 Orange PrizeA haunting tale of an Africa and an adolescence undergoing tremendous changes by a talented young Nigerian writer.The limits of fifteen-year-old Kambili's world are defined by the high walls of her family estate and the dictates of her repressive and fanatically religious father. Her life is regulated by schedules: prayer, sleep, study, and more prayer.When Nigeria begins to fall apart during a military coup, Kambili's father, involved mysteriously in the political crisis, sends Kambili and her brother away to live with their aunt. In this house, full of energy and laughter, she discovers life and love - and a terrible, bruising secret deep within her family.Centring on the promise of freedom and the pain and exhilaration of adolescence, Purple Hibiscus is the extraordinary debut of a remarkable new talent.

Nine-year-old Meena can't wait to grow up and break free from her parents. But, as the daughter of the only Punjabi family in the mining village of Tollington, her struggle for independence is different from most.Meena wants fishfingers and chips, not chapati and dhal; she wants an English Christmas, not the usual interminable Punjabi festivities - but more than anything, she wants to roam the backyards of working-class Tollington with feisty Anita Rutter and her gang.Blonde, cool, aloof, outrageous and sassy, Anita is everything Meena thinks she wants to be. Meena wheedles her way into Anita's life, but the arrival of a baby brother, teenage hormones, impending entrance exams for the posh grammar school and a motorcycling rebel without a future threaten to turn Anita's salad days sour.Anita and Me paints a comic, poignant, compassionate and colourful portrait of village life in the era of flares, power cuts, glam rock, decimalisation and Ted Heath. It is a unique vision of a British childhood in the Seventies, a childhood caught between two cultures, each on the brink of change.

Meet the great Skulduggery Pleasant: wise-cracking detective, powerful magician, master of dirty tricks and burglary (in the name of the greater good, of course). Oh yeah. And dead. Then there's his sidekick, Stephanie. She's... well, she's a twelve-year-old girl. With a pair like this on the case, evil had better watch out...

The Narnia Chronicles, first published in 1950, have been and remain some of the most enduringly popular children's books ever published. The best known, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, has been translated into 29 languages! "e;It's a magic wardrobe. There's a wood inside it, and it's snowing! Come and see,"e; begged Lucy. Lucy has stumbled upon a marvellous land of fauns and centaurs, nymphs and talking animals. But soon she discovers that it is ruled by the cruel White Witch, and can only be freed by Aslan, the great Lion, and four children... This is the second adventure in the exciting Chronicles of Narnia.

A stunning story from a master storyteller, published for the first time in an adult edition.Both a love story and a deeply moving account of the horrors of the First World War, this book will reach everyone from 9 to 90.Told in the voice of Private Tommo Peaceful, the story follows twenty-four hours at the front, and captures his memories of his family and his village life - by no means as tranquil as it appeared. Full of vivid detail and engrossing atmosphere, and leading to a dramatic and moving conclusion, Private Peaceful is both a compelling love story and a deeply moving account of the First World War.