'Immensely, cheerily silly' Guardian 'A thunderously good read, so funny and action packed. Children are going to love it!' Serena Patel, author of ANISHA, ACCIDENTAL DETECTIVE Grown an extra head and don't know why? Pocket money stolen by a green blob? Lost your peculiar pet? You need the Space Detectives! What seems like a simple case of a missing pet soon has the Space Detectives completely bamboozled! This is no ordinary pet – it's a synthpet, where owners mix in different animals to make a totally unique one-of-a-kind pet. The missing pet has the body and legs of a cat, a duck's bill, long rabbit-like ears and the scaly tail of a crocodile. A creature like that should be easy to spot, right? Not on Starville, the universe's biggest space station where every inhabitant looks different – it's like looking for a star in a galaxy. Where should our heroes Connor and Ethan even begin? Another out-of-this-world adventure awaits!

'Immensely, cheerily silly' Guardian 'A thunderously good read, so funny and action packed. Children are going to love it!' Serena Patel, author of ANISHA, ACCIDENTAL DETECTIVE Grown an extra head and don't know why? Pocket money stolen by a green blob? Lost your peculiar pet? You need the Space Detectives! What seems like a simple case of a missing pet soon has the Space Detectives completely bamboozled! This is no ordinary pet – it's a synthpet, where owners mix in different animals to make a totally unique one-of-a-kind pet. The missing pet has the body and legs of a cat, a duck's bill, long rabbit-like ears and the scaly tail of a crocodile. A creature like that should be easy to spot, right? Not on Starville, the universe's biggest space station where every inhabitant looks different – it's like looking for a star in a galaxy. Where should our heroes Connor and Ethan even begin? Another out-of-this-world adventure awaits!

'Immensely, cheerily silly' Guardian Dog lost in space? Grown an extra head and don't know why? Pocket money stolen by a green blob? You need the Space Detectives! Connor and Ethan are spending their summer holidays aboard the world's first orbiting city, Starville (basically Beverley Hills in space!). The amazing space station is bursting with celebrities and the mega-rich. But Connor and Ethan are too busy selling ice cream to see the sights. However, neither of our heroes can resist a mystery and when they discover the space station is hurtling on a collision course with the moon (eep!) they know they need to step in. This is a case for the SPACE DETECTIVES! Can Connor and Ethan find the culprit and save Starville from its impending doom? LOOK OUT FOR SPACE DETECTIVES: EXTRA WEIRD CREATURES

'Immensely, cheerily silly' Guardian 'A thunderously good read, so funny and action packed. Children are going to love it!' Serena Patel, author of ANISHA, ACCIDENTAL DETECTIVE Grown an extra head and don't know why? You need the Space Detectives! Connor and Ethan are bamboozled when Starville, the space station where they live, is overrun with cosmic chaos! Boys have two heads, dogs have three tails and even aliens who normally have six arms are growing extra ones! What is going on? Can Connor and Ethan get to the bottom of this intergalactic mystery? Featuring: a piano-playing pig, zooming hover-scooters and astronomically scrumptious Snorgleberry tarts

The world's leading toy manufacturer gives each toy it creates a tiny, computerized brain and a unique personality making for some seriously awesome toys. But sometimes there's a faulty toy . . . Dan is a "Snugliffic Cuddlestar" bear--he should be perfect for hugging. But because of a malfunctioning chip, Dan is so strong he could crush a car. Thrown into the rejects pile, he meets Arabella, a "Loadsasmiles Sunshine" doll, who has a very short temper. Soon Dan, Arabella, and Flax (a custom-made police robot rabbit) are recruited by the head of the toy world exactly for what makes them unfit. And their first mission is a doozy: to protect a senator's eight-year-old son from being kidnapped. With black-and-white illustrations throughout, this hilarious book has reluctant reader appeal written all over it.

An accessible look at the mysteries that lurk at the edge of the known universe and beyond The observable universe, the part we can see with telescopes, is incredibly vast. Yet recent theories suggest that there is far more to the universe than what our instruments record—in fact, it could be infinite. Colossal flows of galaxies, large empty regions called voids, and other unexplained phenomena offer clues that our own "bubble universe" could be part of a greater realm called the multiverse. How big is the observable universe? What it is made of? What lies beyond it? Was there a time before the Big Bang? Could space have unseen dimensions? In this book, physicist and science writer Paul Halpern explains what we know?and what we hope to soon find out?about our extraordinary cosmos. Explains what we know about the Big Bang, the accelerating universe, dark energy, dark flow, and dark matter to examine some of the theories about the content of the universe and why its edge is getting farther away from us faster Explores the idea that the observable universe could be a hologram and that everything that happens within it might be written on its edge Written by physicist and popular science writer Paul Halpern, whose other books include Collider: The Search for the World's Smallest Particles, and What's Science Ever Done For Us: What the Simpsons Can Teach Us About Physics, Robots, Life, and the Universe

The terrifyingly surreal universe of horror master H. P. Lovecraft bleeds into the logical world of Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s champion of rational deduction, in these stories by twenty top horror, mystery, fantasy, and science fiction writers. Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes is among the most famous literary figures of all time. For more than a hundred years, his adventures have stood as imperishable monuments to the ability of human reason to penetrate every mystery, solve every puzzle, and punish every crime. For nearly as long, the macabre tales of H. P. Lovecraft have haunted readers with their nightmarish glimpses into realms of cosmic chaos and undying evil. But what would happen if Conan Doyle’s peerless detective and his allies were to find themselves faced with mysteries whose solutions lay not only beyond the grasp of logic, but of sanity itself? In this collection of all-new, all-original tales, twenty of today’s most cutting-edge writers provide their answers to that burning question. “A Study in Emerald” by Neil Gaiman: A gruesome murder exposes a plot against the Crown, a seditious conspiracy so cunningly wrought that only one man in all London could have planned it—and only one man can hope to stop it. “A Case of Royal Blood” by Steven-Elliot Altman: Sherlock Holmes and H. G. Wells join forces to protect a princess stalked by a ghost—or perhaps something far worse than a ghost. “Art in the Blood” by Brian Stableford: One man’s horrific affliction leads Sherlock Holmes to an ancient curse that threatens to awaken the crawling chaos slumbering in the blood of all humankind. “The Curious Case of Miss Violet Stone” by Poppy Z. Brite and David Ferguson: A girl who has not eaten in more than three years teaches Holmes and Watson that sometimes the impossible cannot be eliminated. “The Horror of the Many Faces” by Tim Lebbon: Dr. Watson witnesses a maniacal murder in London—and recognizes the villain as none other than his friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes. With thirteen other dark tales of madness, horror, and deduction, a new and terrible game is afoot: “Tiger! Tiger!” by Elizabeth Bear “The Case of the Wavy Black Dagger” by Steve Perry “The Weeping Masks” by James Lowder “The Adventure of the Antiquarian’s Niece” by Barbara Hambly “The Mystery of the Worm” by John Pelan “The Mystery of the Hanged Man’s Puzzle” by Paul Finch “The Adventure of the Arab’s Manuscript” by Michael Reaves “The Drowned Geologist” by Caitlín R. Kiernan “A Case of Insomnia” by John P. Vourlis “The Adventure of the Voorish Sign” by Richard A. Lupoff “The Adventure of Exham Priory” by F. Gwynplaine MacIntyre “Death Did Not Become Him” by David Niall Wilson and Patricia Lee Macomber “Nightmare in Wax” by Simon Clark