Recommended by: Leah Ponsonby Form and Genre: Fiction novel and Thriller Length: 480 pages Summary: England has been infested with ghosts and the story follows a trio of teenagers who have set up their own agency to help tackle the problem. Very suspenseful with elements of humour thrown in Age recommendation and challenging content: Loss of parents, …
Lockwood & Co The Screaming Staircase by Jonathan Stroud. Read More »
Recommended by: Stephen Dilley/@stephenjdilley Form and Genre: Prose /Historical Fiction. Length: 324 pages. Summary: This novel follows members of the Bontok people in Philippines as they travel to America to take part in the 1904 World’s Fair in St Louis. Narrator Luki thinks this will give her more freedom, but in America she discovers many forms …
Recommended by: Stephen Dilley/@stephenjdilley Form and Genre: Novel Length: 350 pages Summary: Hard-hitting but beautifully written novel about a Black British teenage boy’s experiences in prison and after his release, exploring some of the injustices in the criminal justice system and wider British society which disproportionately affect people of colour, but also showing how poetry can help people …
Recommended by Emma Sheppard @emma_au_soleil Author: Helen Canac and Agnes Dormergue Form: Graphic Novel/Fantasy Length: 88 pages Brief synopsis: Lila’s father goes missing and she ventures out into the snow to find him. She meets and becomes friends with the wolves living in the snowy forests of her island. Age recommendation and challenging content: KS2-3 …
Between Snow and Wolf by Helen Canac and Agnes Dormergue. Read More »
Recommended by Emma Sheppard @emma_au_soleil Author: Marjane Satrapi Form: Graphic Novel Length: 352 pages Brief synopsis: The author / narrator’s experience of growing up in Iran during the revolution. Age recommendation and challenging content: Deals with military coups, imprisonment, oppression of women, religious rule, murder and death, torture and war. Age 13+ Notable reasons for recommending …
Recommended by Emma Sheppard @emma_au_soleil Author: Shaun Tan Form: Graphic Novel Length: 32 pages Brief synopsis: The narrator finds a strange lost robot sort of creature and tries to find out where it belongs. Age recommendation and challenging content: KS2-3 Notable reasons for recommending this book: Explores belonging, rejection and being different.
Recommended by: Stephen Dilley/@stephenjdilley Form and Genre: Novel. Length: 256 pages. Summary: A heartwarming and laugh-out-loud funny story set in Peckham about Shaun (aka MC Growls), a young wannabe rapper which explores serious issues including racial prejudice, housing insecurity and being a young carer. With the help of his friends, his family, his teacher and his counsellor, …
Recommended by: Stephen Dilley/@stephenjdilley Form and Genre: Verse novel. Length: 400 pages. Summary: This verse novel, the first in a trilogy, explores Asante history and the horrors of the slave trade. The first half of the story explores eleven-year-old Kofi Offin’s childhood in Upper Kwanta before he is captured and sold into slavery, which is …
Recommended by: Stephen Dilley/@stephenjdilley Form and Genre: Novel Length: 255 pages Summary: A novel about three children living as Nons in a city ruled by the Permitted. After Adam and Leila’s father dies, their family face eviction from the Stone City, and then Adam and his friend Zak are arrested following a prank that goes …
Recommended by: Stephen Dilley/@stephenjdilley Form and Genre: Verse novel Length: 252 Summary: A canine bildungsroman which follows the dog Scruffity from an unhappy start in life to discovering ‘the way of dog’ and understanding the world – featuring moments of Dickensian cruelty and lots of lovely moments of tenderness. Age recommendation and challenging content: Suitable …