Close Your Pretty Eyes

Sally Nicholls

Olivia has been moved between care homes and foster parents since she was five yearsold. When she is placed with the Iveys, Olivia hopes that she will belong to a family. Unfortunately, there is also a ghost living with the Iveys, and this evil woman keeps getting into Olivia’s head. Olivia wants to be good, but she cannot seem to stop being bad.

emotionally disturbing

Why We Took the Car

Wolfgang Herrndorf

Mike Klingenberg could use a friend, but Tschick – the strange new Russian boy – was not what he had in mind. After neither boy is invited to ‘the’ party of the summer, Tschick offers to drive Mike there in a stolen, hotwired car. Mike has been boring and afraid all of his life . . . should he take a chance? When two fourteen year-old misfits start driving around Germany by themselves, it could be the road trip of a lifetime.

The Year of the Rat

Clare Furniss

Pearl’s life falls apart when her mother dies unexpectedly during childbirth. Nobody can get through to her – not her father, not her best friend, and certainly not her baby sister (aka ‘the rat’). This emotionally moving novel deals honestly with grief and recovery. Although it has moments of unexpected humour, it is definitely a tear jerker.

Weirdos vs. Quimboids

Natasha Desborough

15 year-old Blossom and her best friends Petrina and Walter are definitely weirdos, but they have lots of energy and a cunning plan: popularity through musical domination. Unfortunately, even with close proximity to coolness, weirdness just comes naturally to Blossom. The awkward moments of adolescence are thoroughly explored in this ridiculously funny book, with plenty of boy crushes, embarrassing parents, a band called Camel Toe and weekly updates on the scale of shame.

Picture Me Gone

Meg Rosoff

Mila prides herself on her observational skills and powers of deduction. When her father’s best friend goes missing, she offers to accompany him on a search-and-rescue mission across New York. The mysteries Mila discovers are not necessarily the ones she hoped to solve. Unexpected secrets will be revealed, with unintended results.

Counting by 7s

Holly Goldberg Sloan

Willow Chance knows a lot about plants, but not so much about people. When she has the incredibly bad luck to be orphaned for the second time, Duke Dell – the world’s worst behavioural counsellor – becomes her guardian. With the help of Duke and the Nyugen family, Willow starts transforming more than just her own life. This humorous and touching novel will appeal to readers who can appreciate a quirky point-of-view.

Ghost Hawk

Susan Cooper

This historical novel, set in the earliest colonial period of New England, describes the evolving relationship between the Puritan settlers and the Native American tribes. Through the intertwined lives of Little Hawk and John Wakeley, the reader can identify with two cultures – in all of their similarities and differences. The theme of intolerance, both religious and cultural, has much resonance for the present.

Buffalo Soldier

Tanya Landman

When the Civil War ends, former slaves hope for a better life but find only homelessness and hatred in the destroyed South. In an act of desperation, Charlotte disguises herself as ‘Charley’ and joins the U.S. Army. As a Buffalo soldier she will be sent out West to tame the ‘Indian problem’. Gradually Charley becomes a good soldier, but when promises prove false she starts questioning whose side she is on.

violence; emotionally disturbing; sexuality

All the Truth That’s In Me

Julie Berry

Judith longs to communicate with Lucas, the man she has loved since early childhood, but she cannot speak. When she returns to her home after a two year absence, her tongue has been cut out – and she becomes the town’s tragedy and scandal. Set in an unidentifiable historical past, this original and compelling novel defies easy categorization. The story gradually unfolds until Judith understands the truth of what really happened to her.

After Iris: The Diaries of Bluebell Gadsby

Natasha Farrant

Bluebell Gadsby may be the quietest member of the large, loud Gadsby family, but she is not as invisible as she thinks. After her twin sister dies, Bluebell just wants to hide behind her camera . . . but life keeps getting in the way. When Joss Bateman moves next door, and a Bosnian au pair takes the place of the absentee Gadsby parents, things really start getting crazy. This fast-paced novel has lots of laughs, but there is an undertow of sadness and real feeling, too.