The Space We're In
Katya Balen
Publisher: Bloomsbury Childrens Books
What is this about?
Frank is ten. He likes cottage pie and football and cracking codes. Max is five. He eats only Quavers and some colours are too bright for him and if he has to wear a new T-shirt he melts down down down.
Sometimes Frank wishes Mum could still do huge paintings of stars and asteroids like she used to, but since Max was born she just doesn't have time.
When tragedy hits Frank and Max's lives like a comet, can Frank piece together a universe in which he and Max aren't light years apart?
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All Fall Down
Sally Nicholls
Publisher: Andersen Press Ltd
What is this about?
A deadly contagion races through England...
Isabel and her family have nowhere to run from a disease that has killed half of Europe. When the world she knows and loves ends for ever, her only weapon is courage.
The Black Death of 1349 was the deadliest plague in human history. All Fall Down is a powerful and inspiring story of survival in the face of real-life horror.
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The Sharp Edge of a Snowflake
Sif Sigmarsdottir
Publisher: Hodder Children's Books
What is this about?
Hannah Eiríksdóttir has been banished from her home in London to a place of eternal punishment for the wicked. No, not Hell, but close: Iceland. There, she faces a new life working as a journalist for her father's newspaper - a man she barely knows.
Imogen Collins has the perfect life as a social media influencer, showing off her glamorous London existence to adoring fans. But behind the filters lies a dark secret. She thought she'd buried it: But the Beast is back - a ghost from her past who's threatening to ruin her future.
When a man is found murdered at the edge of the road in snowy Iceland the girls' lives collide. Imogen had the motive. Can Hannah find out the truth, and discover the reality of the girl beneath the filters?
Behind perfection often lies unbearable ugliness.
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The Liars
Jennifer Mathieu
Publisher: Hodder Children's Books
What is this about?
How can one family have so many secrets?
It's the summer of 1986. Joaquin and Elena, two teenage siblings live in a toxic environment with their alcoholic mother on an island off the Texas Gulf Coast.
Elena falls for a new boy who has just arrived from California. Joaquin must wrestle with his decision to stay on Mariposa Island to protect his sister or flee from his mother's abuse.
As both teenagers struggle to figure out who they are and want to be, they are caught in a web of family dysfunction and secrets from their mother's past.
Can fierce love save them, or will their truth tear them apart?
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The M Word
Brian Conaghan
Publisher: Bloomsbury YA
What is this about?
Moya. The M Word. Whisper it. Conceal it. But, please, never mention it .
Maggie Yates tells her best mate Moya everything.
She tells her about Mum losing her job - how Mum's taken to crying in secret. She even tells her about her foolproof plan to cheer Mum up: find her a fella with cash to splash.
Moya's with her every step of the way. I'll help, she smiles. Though you're surfing a rainbow if you think someone like that exists round here.
But at the back of her mind Maggie knows that Mum's crying is more than sadness. That there are no easy fixes. And that she shouldn't be speaking to Moya any more. Because Moya died months ago.
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Jelly
Clare Rees
Publisher: Chicken House Ltd
What is this about?
Life has its ups and downs, doesn't it? And Martha and her friends are really sick of going up, and down, and up, and down.
After a traumatic event that no one can talk about or even quite remember, they're stuck on a giant killer jellyfish, tantalisingly close to the shore and safety. They've had enough of it. They've decided that they're either going to escape, or die trying.
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Chinglish
Sue Cheung
Publisher: Andersen Press Ltd
What is this about?
Jo Kwan is a teenager growing up in 1980s Coventry with her annoying little sister, too-cool older brother, a series of very unlucky pets and utterly bonkers parents.
But unlike the other kids at her new school or her posh cousins, Jo lives above her parents' Chinese takeaway. And things can be tough - whether it's unruly customers or the snotty popular girls who bully Jo for being different. Even when she does find a BFF who actually likes Jo for herself, she still has to contend with her erratic dad's behaviour. All Jo dreams of is breaking free and forging a career as an artist.
Told in diary entries and doodles, Jo's brilliantly funny observations about life, family and friends.
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The Paper & Hearts Society: Book 1
Lucy Powrie
Publisher: Hodder Children's Books
What is this about?
Tabby Brown is tired of trying to fit in. She doesn't want to go to parties - in fact, she would much rather snuggle up on the sofa with her favourite book.
It's like she hasn't found her people ...
Then Tabby joins a club that promises to celebrate books. What could go wrong? EVERYTHING - especially when making new friends brings out an AWKWARD BUZZING feeling all over her body.
But Olivia, Cassie, Henry and Ed have something that makes Tabby come back. Maybe it's the Austen-themed fancy-dress parties, or Ed's fluffy cat Mrs Simpkins, or could it be Henry himself ...
Can Tabby let her weird out AND live THE BEST BOOKISH LIFE POSSIBLE?
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Pay Attention, Carter Jones
Gary D. Schmidt
Publisher: Andersen Press Ltd
What is this about?
Carter Jones is astonished early one morning when he finds a real English butler, bowler hat and all, on the doorstep. He announces he is here to stay to help the Jones family, which is a little bit broken.
In addition to figuring out middle school, Carter has to adjust to the unwelcome presence of this new know-it-all adult in his life and navigate the butler's notions of decorum and love of cricket. And ultimately, when his burden of grief and anger from the past can no longer be ignored, Carter learns that a burden becomes lighter when it is shared.
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Lost for Words
Aoife Walsh
Publisher: Andersen Press Ltd
What is this about?
Dallas's life was turned upside down the day her mum was killed in a traffic accident. Now she lives with her brothers, step-sister and her mum's partner Gemma in a too-small house filled with bickering and grief. As the end of primary school approaches, Dallas learns that the local library has run out of funding and will soon be closing.
Dallas decides she cannot let another thing she loves be lost. Together with her friends Aiza and Ruby, and her freewheeling American aunt Jessi, she starts a campaign to save the library for everyone.
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The House of Light
Julia Green
Publisher: Oxford University Press
What is this about?
Bonnie is scavenging on a beach when she finds a battered old row boat. And under the boat, a bare-footed boy-cold, hungry, and in need of help.
The authorities have already been troubling Bonnie and Granda for breaking rules, but how can she leave this boy when he has no-one?
Bonnie does her best to keep the boy hidden from the border guards, but as their suspicions grow, she wonders if it's time to escape the life she's always known. Under cover of darkness they set sail to the 'house of light' in search of a new beginning, and a sense of hope.
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Rose, Interrupted
Patrice Lawrence
Publisher: Hodder Children's Books
What is this about?
18 months ago, 17-year-old Rose and 13-year-old Rudder escaped a strict religious sect with their mum. They are still trying to make sense of the world outside - no more rules about clothes and books, films and music, no more technology bans. But also no more friendship with the people they've known all their lives, no community and no certainty.
While Rudder gorges on once-taboo Harry Potters, Rose swaps the ankle skirts of the Woodford Pilgrims for Japanese-cute fairy dress and her new boyfriend, Kye. Kye, who she wants with all her being. But there's loads of scary stuff about their new life that Rose and Rudder have no idea how to handle and when Rudder accidently sets a devastating chain of events into action, Rose must decide whether to sacrifice everything and go back to the life she hates, in order to save the people she loves.
A story about coming of age, slap-bang in the middle of a strange new world.
Ages 14+.
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The Gifted, the Talented and Me
William Sutcliffe
Publisher: Bloomsbury YA
What is this about?
Fifteen-year-old Sam is not a famous vlogger, he's never gone viral, and he doesn't want to be the Next Big Thing. In fact he's ordinary and proud of it.
None of which was a problem until Dad got rich and Mum made the whole family move to London. Now Sam's off to the North London Academy for the Gifted and Talented, where everyone's busy planning Hollywood domination or starting alt-metal psychedelica crossover bands. Sam knows he'll never belong, even if he wanted to. And that's before he ends up on stage wearing nothing but a fur onesie ...
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Jemima Small Versus the Universe
Tamsin Winter
Publisher: Usborne Publishing Ltd
What is this about?
Jemima Small is funny and smart. She knows a lot of things. Like the fact that she's made of 206 bones, over 600 muscles and trillions of cells. What she doesn't know is how that can be true and yet she can still sometimes feel like nothing... Or how being made to join the school's "special" healthy lifestyle group - aka Fat Club - could feel any less special. But Jemima also knows that the biggest stars in the universe are the brightest. And maybe it's her time to shine...
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Check Mates
Stewart Foster
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Childrens Books
What is this about?
'Some people think that I'm a problem child, that I'm lazy and never pay attention in lessons. But the thing is, I'm not a problem child at all. I'm just a child with a problem.'
Felix is struggling at school. His ADHD makes it hard for him to concentrate and his grades are slipping. Everyone keeps telling him to try harder, but no one seems to understand just how hard he finds it.
When Mum suggests Felix spends time with his grandfather, Felix can't think of anything worse. Granddad hasn't been the same since Grandma died. Plus he's always trying to teach Felix boring chess. But sometimes the best lessons come in the most unexpected of places, and Granddad soon shows Felix that there’s everything to play for.
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