Her Belfry Witches series captivated young readers and Five Children On The Western Front, her sequel to E Nesbit’s Five Children And It, won the 2014 Costa Children’s Book Award.
Her latest, The Land Of Neverendings (Faber & Faber, £10.99), is the poignant story of Emily, a little girl who finds solace in an imaginary world after the death of her sister.
In Jessica Townsend’s Nevermoor: The Trials Of Morrigan Crow (Orion Children’s Books, £12.99), cursed Morrigan Crow is doomed to die on her 11th birthday.
In the nick of time, the charismatic Jupiter North whisks her away from her loveless family to his magical hotel in the technicolor land of Nevermoor.
But Morrigan must pass gruelling trials to win a place in the Wundrous Society if she is to stay in Nevermoor. This magical debut novel is a dazzling and engrossing feat of imagination.
For a book that children will treasure forever, look no further than JK Rowling’s Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them, a new edition of Newt Scamander’s field guide to weird and wonderful mythical creatures with beautiful illustrations by Olivia Lomenech Gill (Bloomsbury, £25).
Hetty Feather’s Christmas (Doubleday, £12.99) is the ideal stockingfiller for Jacqueline Wilson fans.
Christmas Day starts badly for feisty Hetty Feather when a cruel matron locks her in a room at the Foundling Hospital.
Then a kindly benefactor swoops in to treat her to the best Christmas ever.
Complete with gorgeous illustrations by Nick Sharratt, facts about Victorian Christmas traditions, a festive quiz and decorations to make, it’s a delight from start to finish. In the space of ten years Jeff Kinney’s bestselling Diary Of A Wimpy Kid books have sold a staggering 180 million copies worldwide and the latest, The Getaway (Puffin, £12.99), is the twelfth in the part-comic strip and part-novel series.
Greg Heffley is horrified when he discovers that his mum and dad are planning a tropical island holiday instead of Christmas at home.
“When I asked how we were gonna get our gifts to the resort,” writes the downcast Greg, “Mom said the trip was our gift.”
From its silver skeleton endpapers to its green sprayed edges and the miniature graphic novel in a pocket in the back, Goth Girl And The Sinister Symphony by Chris Riddell (Macmillan Children’s Books, £11.99) is one of the most beautifully produced books of the year.
Ada Goth is thrilled when Lord Goth holds a music festival in the grounds of Ghastly-Gorm Hall but she is forced to replace Simon Scowl and his band of decomposing musicians with Tailor Extremely-Swift and Ladies Of G.A.G.G.A. A beautifully illustrated novel full of fun and playful references.
Mr Penguin and Colin the spider must help Boudicca Bones, owner of the Museum Of Extraordinary Objects, find her missing treasure.
But there is more to Boudicca Bones than meets the eye in Alex T Smith’s Mr Penguin and The Lost Treasure (Hodder Children’s Books, £9.99), a lively and elegantly illustrated treasure hunt.