FloodWorld
Tom Huddleston
Publisher: Nosy Crow Ltd
What is this about?
Floodworld is a gripping, action-packed story for 10+ readers. Kara and Joe spend their days navigating the perilous waterways of a sunken city, scratching out a living in the ruins. But when they come into possession of a mysterious map, they find themselves in a world of trouble. Suddenly everyone's after them: gangsters, cops and ruthless Mariner pirates in their hi-tech submarines. The two children must find a way to fight back before Floodworld's walls come tumbling down...
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Furious Thing
Jenny Downham
Publisher: David Fickling Books
What is this about?
Anger was something to believe in when the world let her down. FURIOUS THING roars with justifiable anger at an unfair world, as one girl fights to claim back the spaces that belong to her and battles to be heard . . . Lexi's angry. And it's getting worse.
If only she could stop losing her temper and behave herself, her step-father would accept her, her mum would love her like she used to and her step-brother would declare his crushing desire to spend the rest of his life with her.
She wants these things so badly she determines to swallow her anger and make her family proud. But pushing fury down doesn't make it disappear. Instead, it simmers below the surface waiting to erupt. There'll be fireworks when it does.
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Deeplight
Frances Hardinge
Publisher: Macmillan Children's Books
What is this about?
The gods of the Myriad were as real as the coastlines and currents, and as merciless as the winds and whirlpools. Then one day they rose up and tore each other apart, killing many hundreds of islanders and changing the Myriad forever.
On the jumbled streets of the Island of Lady's Crave live Hark and his best friend Jelt. They are scavengers: living off their wits, diving for relics of the gods, desperate for anything they can sell. But now there is something stirring beneath the waves, calling to someone brave enough to retrieve it. Something valuable. Something dangerous.
Nothing is quite as it seems, and when the waves try to claim Jelt, Hark will do anything to save him. Even if it means compromising not just who Jelt is, but what he is . . .
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The Collective
Lindsey Whitlock
Publisher: Pushkin Children's Books
What is this about?
Stuck in the traditional community of Badfish Creek, Elwyn longs for change. When his uncle offers him the chance to leave his rural roots behind, he jumps at the opportunity, eager to move to Liberty to gain an education and become part of a flourishing world. Finally, life seems to be opening up to him.
But it is not long before he understands that all that glitters is not gold: there are things going on in Liberty that Elwyn cannot ignore. Things that profoundly threaten the world he has rejected and things that he has to fight against.
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The Places I've Cried in Public
Holly Bourne
Publisher: Usborne Publishing Ltd
What is this about?
The Places I've Cried in Public tells the story of first love, loss, and rebuilding yourself after everything you thought made you is taken away. - Bustle
It looked like love.
It felt like love.
But this isn't a love story.
Amelie fell hard for Reese. And she thought he loved her too. But she's starting to realise that real love isn't supposed to hurt like this.
So now she's retracing their story, revisiting all the places he made her cry. Because if she works out what went wrong, perhaps she can finally learn how to get over him.
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The Somerset Tsunami
Emma Carroll
Publisher: Faber & Faber
What is this about?
When Fortune Sharpe carves a boat from a tree with her beloved brother, Gem, she's only having a bit of fun. But now is not the time for a girl to be drawing attention to herself. She is sent away to find work dressed as a boy. Luckily a rich manor house is hiring.
Yet Barrow Hill's inhabitants harbour dangerous secrets of their own, the suspicious owner is hunting for witches, and the house itself is a little too close to the sea.
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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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