Kwame Alexander (Andersen Press) Josh and his twin brother Jordan are basketball fanatics. At twelve, they are already the star players of their school, with a bright future ahead of them. The game is in their blood, and their passion is fueled by their father, himself an ex-professional player known as “Da Man”. But when …
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Apple and Rain
Sarah Crossan (Bloomsbury Children’s Books) Apple has been brought up by her rather strict Irish Catholic grandmother after her mother walked out on her one doomed Christmas morning. Since then she has not stopped hoping that one day she would return. When she eventually returns, out of the blue, it could not be at a better time: …
Klaus Vogel and the Bad Lads
David Almond, with artwork by Vladimir Stankovic (Barrington Stoke) The Bad Lads have always been more mischief makers than trouble makers, more scamps than bullies. That is until older boy Joe takes over as gang leader. He has other darker ideas, and though at first Tonto thinks he is pretty cool, he soon becomes weary …
Jake + Lily
Jerry Spinelli (Orchard Books) Jake and Lily are twins and they have always been close, really close. So close, that they can feel what the other one is feeling even when miles apart, and every year, on their birthday, they both sleep-walk to the same place, near to where they were born. But the summer …
The Secrets Club
Pre-teen (or tween) girls can be a difficult audience to cater for when it comes to books. They often feel too “grown-up” for whatever they have been reading in primary school (although sometimes in year 7, students will go back to books they enjoyed in junior school, as a form of comfort blanket) and though they would beg …
The Apothecary
Maile Meloy(Andersen Press) When 14 year-old Janie has to move unexpectedly and abruptly from sunny California to London, she is not expecting it to be fun, despite her parents’ best efforts to convince her otherwise. When she gets there, she finds it dull and cold, and school rules are unfamiliar. But soon she meets Benjamin, who dreams …
His Dark Materials
Philip Pullman(Scholastic Children’s Books) Christmas is the perfect time to give classic books as gifts, whether they are old or modern. With its Arctic setting, Northern Lights is most perfectly fitted for this purpose, and His Dark Materials, the classic award-winning trilogy it is part of, is now available as a single volume in this stunning …
Princess Academy
Shannon Hale (Bloomsbury Children’s Books) When representatives of the king arrive in an isolated mountain village to announce that the priests have divined that the future princess will come from there, fourteen year-old Miri’s life is turned upside down, as are the lives of all of the other girls in the village. For now they must leave the …
Wonder
R.J. Palacio(Bodley Head) August Pullman is a bright, happy ten-year-old who until now has been home-schooled by his parents, in an attempt to protect him from people’s cruel reactions to his facial abnormalities. But now he is starting school for the first time at Beecher Prep and he is petrified. Will people accept him as …