Billy Brigson Shines

Can a small lump of coal really be magic? Billy s dad, a miner, gives him a piece of coal, but it turns out to be much more than just a keepsake. When trouble strikes, the coal might be the very thing that comes to Billy s rescue Each day on the way to school, Billy and his friends pass the War House: an overgrown, crumbling place, dark and forbidding. No one dares go near it. But when Billy rescues Maisy, a little dog caught on the garden fence, he returns her to the kindly old caretaker, Mr Parker, and ends up late for school, with Sandra Blagstock, the dreaded late monitor, waiting to pounce. That evening, Mr Parker comes with worrying news: Maisy has vanished. Billy and his friends search high and low, but she s nowhere to be found. Then, on the way home, Billy hears barking from inside the War House. He creeps towards the gate. Is his adventure about to begin? He knows he must help the little dog But will he dare enter the terrifying building alone?