"Have they told you?" His voice was lowered now, he was speaking of secrets to be told.
"Told me? What?"
"Of the lost village..."

As soon as she arrives in Wellow, Polly Flint knows there is magic in the place. And she should know because she is an unusual girl who can see things others can't.

Polly Flint seems to be able to call up a village that had disappeared from the face of the earth - and the people who lived in it, as they slip in and out of time.

Helen Cresswell, who also wrote Lizzie Dripping and the Bagthorpe series, was runner up for the Carnegie award four times. The Secret World of Polly Flint was runner up for the Whitbread award and was televised by Central Television. The book is set in Nottinghamshire, where she lived.

It was the first time my mum had left me on my own. Five days of glorious freedom stretched in front of me. “Enjoy yourself,” I shouted, waving her off. “Don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine!”
I danced back into the house, whooping with delight. And half an hour after she’d gone, I was plunged into the worst experience of my life.

Shaun Parker is a suspect in a murder at a lonely cottage near his house – only Caroline, his girlfriend, believes in his innocence. Can they find the real murderer before the police charge Shaun?

Berlie Doherty is the author of Dear Nobody and Granny Was a Buffer Girl, both of which won the Carnegie Prize. She has written over fifty books. She lives in Derbyshire, the setting for A Beautiful Place for Murder. You can read more about her on www.berliedoherty.com.

Four days after Nick Harman’s seventh birthday, his father climbed onto a bridge high above four lanes of traffic, paused, then threw himself to his death on the road below. That was a little over nine years ago. Today Nick was sixteen. The clock alongside his bed read 7:59.

Nick lives with his mother on a tough housing estate in north London. On his sixteenth birthday, his mother gives him a box of things left by his father all those years ago. The contents lead Nick to try and discover what led his father from being a successful blues singer to the point where he took his own life.

Against a background of shifting allegiances, involving both the violent gangs on the estate and his first serious involvement with a girl, Nick is forced to come to terms, not only with who his father was but who he is himself.

“A fine novel about growing up by one of the masters of British crime fiction.” - Le Monde

John Harvey has written many books of crime fiction and won the Crime Writers' Association Diamond Dagger for Sustained Excellence in Crime Writing. You can read more about him on www.mellotone.co.uk.

The little cradle creaked on curved rockers, creak, creak on the flagstone floor; a tiny cradle of dark brown wood, with carved acorns on each of the corners of the square wooden hood. Figures in long dresses and white bonnets surrounded it. One of them turned her face to Jack. "Jack, please help us!"

Jack's dream is frightening and confusing. It is so vivid that it seems almost true and he senses that it contains some sort of message for him.

Jack's intuition is correct, and the cradle comes to play an important part in his life, for in mysterious ways it links him with the past - so much so that he begins to live in two worlds; his ordinary, everyday time and one in Eyam, an isolated village in Derbyshire in the year 1665.

As the story unfolds Jack learns his destiny. It seems he is the only one who can help.

The Naming of William Rutherford was short-listed for the Sheffield Children's Book Award and nominated for the Carnegie Medal.

"...a writer who knows how to weave plot, character, and major themes into a haunting, wonderful story. Ten out of ten..."
Weekend Telegraph

"We've got him and he knows it. Sooner or later he's going to confess"

New in town, sixth-former Jon Crier finds himself in the wrong place at the wrong time. He is arrested for the murder of a young woman. Coincidences can happen to anyone, but the evidence begins to mount. Friends and family turn against him. As the plot twists and turns Jon finds it hard to tell fact from fiction. Someone is out to get him - but who?

The most complex and compelling murder mystery yet from the author of Love Lessons and The Beat series. David Belbin is the UK's best-selling author of crime fiction for young adults. He is also the author of City Of Crime, available from Five Leaves.

"A gripping thriller..." - Achuka

"This novel is pacey and direct and will appeal to readers who like a fast-moving and gripping murder mystery. The characters are well-drawn and the dialogue unpretentious and lively. Belbin has a long track record of hard-hitting books for teenagers, and it's good to read another" - Carousel

"I found this book a compelling read... Highly recommended."
- Reading Matters

Shortlisted for the 2001 North-East Book Award.

David Belbin is one of Britain's best selling young adult crime writers and is the author of Last Virgin, Love Lessons, and Festival.

"The headteacher's body lay sprawled across the desk. Her head was soaked in blood... "

In Dead Teachers Don't Talk Beechwood Grange school is full of secrets - nothing is quite what it seems. And the shootings have only just begun...

Here's what the reviewers said about David Belbin's last Five Leaves' title Dead Guilty (which was shortlisted for the 2001 Waterstone's North East Book Award, and is still available):

"An enjoyable whodunit which plants some red herrings and leaves the real surprises for the end" - Books for Keeps

"This novel is pacey and direct and will appeal to readers who like a fast-moving and gripping murder mystery" - Carousel

"A gripping thriller" - Achuka

"Highly recommended" - Reading Matters

Xenophobia... and all stops in between.

David Belbin is a long-established name in young adult fiction. He also writes regularly for magazines including Secondary English and teaches young adult fiction at Nottingham Trent University.

"Adhering strictly to the unflinching candour of the folk tale... The Golem of Old Prague is a beautiful and unfortunately timely book" -Times Educational Supplement

"...in this gentle but powerful book the stories become approachable with a life and dynamic of their own. They illustrate the life of Jews and Christians in a medieval city... characteristic and authentic"
- The Friend

In the Frame is one of a set of anthologies being published to celebrate the tenth birthday of Five Leaves Publications.

The thirteen stories address the transitional moment when we pass from the last stage of our childhood into the first stage of our adulthood. The stories illustrate how a key event in our lives can force us to change our understanding of the world.

Amongst the stories on offer Berlie Doherty gives us a glimpse of the start of a murder mystery. B K Mahal shows the way people cope in places alien to them as well as to us. Gwen Grant gives us the reactions when we are witness to others secrets. David Belbin's character finds that being gay brings an unexpected danger. Nick Mann frames adult hypocrisy for us all to see.

With Chris D’Lacey we are taken on the ride of our lives. Sylvia Hall shows us the moment when the tormented turns and faces off the bully.

Each story gives a voice to the feelings we experience when changing from child to adult.


Contributors:

Gill Vickery, Linda Kempton, Chris D'Lacey, Nick Manns, Sylvia Hall, B.K.Mahal, Gwen Grant, Pauline Chandler, Lynne Markham, Berlie Doherty, Bette Paul, Caroline Pitcher.