Chinglish

by Sue Cheung

It is difficult trying to talk in our family cos:

a) Grandparents don’t speak English at all

b) Mum hardly speaks any English

c) Me, Bonny and Simon hardly speak Chinese

d) Dad speaks Chinese and good English – but doesn’t like talking

In other words, we all have to cobble together tiny bits of English and Chinese into a rubbish new language I call 'Chinglish'. It is very awkward.

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.

ISBN-13 978-1783448395

King of Nothing

by Nathanael Lessore

They're used to ruling the school and Anton wears the crown. The other kids run away when he's about but that's the way he wants it - he's got a reputation to live up to after all.

So when he gets into serious trouble at school, he doesn't really care, but his mum most definitely does. She decides it's time for Anton to make some new friends and join the Happy Campers, a local activity group. Anton would quite literally rather do anything else, especially when he finds out Matthew, the biggest loser in school, is also a member.

But after Matthew unexpectedly saves Anton's life, Anton figures maybe this kid is worth a shot. Teaching him some game is the least Anton can do to repay the debt.

As the boys strike up an unlikely friendship, Anton finds himself questioning everything he thought was important. Does he want ruling the school to be his crowning glory or should he set his sights on better things?

ISBN-13 978-1471413247

WINNER OF THE WATERSTONES CHILDREN'S BOOK PRIZE FOR OLDER READERS 2025

SHORTLISTED FOR THE YOTO CARNEGIE MEDAL FOR WRITING 2025

SHORTLISTED FOR AMAZON BOOK OF THE YEAR 2024

A Beautiful Lie

by Irfan Master 

An extraordinarily rich debut novel, set in India in 1947 at the time of Partition, touching on the importance of tolerance, love and family.

The main character is Bilal, a boy determined to protect his dying father from the news of Partition - news that he knows will break his father's heart. With great spirit and determination, and with the help of his good friends, Bilal persuades others to collude with him in this deception, even printing false pages of the local newspaper to hide the ravages of unrest from his father. All that Bilal wants is for his father to die in peace. But that means Bilal has a very complicated relationship with the truth...

ISBN-13 978-1408805756

The Final Year

by Matt Goodfellow

Life can be tough in your last year of primary school. Tests to take, preparing for the change to high school. Nate is ready for it all, knowing his best friend PS is at his side - they’ve been inseparable since Nursery.

But when they are put in two different classes and PS finds a new friend in Turner, the school bully, Nate's world turns upside-down. As he struggles to make sense of this and forge new friendships, he’s dealt another blow when his youngest brother, Dylan is rushed into hospital.

His new teacher, Mr Joshua, sees a spark inside of Nate that’s lit by his love of reading and writing and shows him how to use this to process what’s going on. But with so much working against him, and anger rising inside him, will this be enough?

ISBN-13 978-1915659040

Winner of the CLiPPA (CLPE Children's Poetry Award) 2024

Shortlisted for The Carnegie Medal for Writing 2024

Winner of the Children's Book Award for Books for Older Readers 2024

Shortlisted for The Branford Boase Award 2024

Shortlisted for The Week Junior Book Awards 2024

Green Rising

Lauren James

Set in a near-future world on the brink of ecological catastrophe, Lauren James’ novel is a gripping, witty and romantic call to arms.

Gabrielle is a climate-change activist who shoots to fame when she becomes the first teenager to display a supernatural ability to grow plants from her skin. Hester is the millionaire daughter of an oil tycoon and the face of the family business. Theo comes from a long line of fishermen, but his parents are struggling to make ends meet.

On the face of it, the three have very little in common. Yet when Hester and Theo join Gabrielle and legions of other teenagers around the world in developing the strange new “Greenfingers” power, it becomes clear that to use their ability for good, they’ll need to learn to work together. But in a time of widespread corruption and greed, there are plenty of profit-hungry organizations who want to use the Greenfingers for their own ends. And not everyone would like to see the Earth saved…

As they navigate first love and family expectations, can the three teenagers pull off the ultimate heist and bring about a green rising?

ISBN-13 978-1406384673

The Haunted House on Hollow Hill

by Derek Landy

On a dark and stormy night …A pair of journalists arrive at the most haunted house in Britain – the Hollow Hotel. They’re here to interview the Dark King of television magic, Romeo Gideon.Instead, they discover the body of a murdered man hanging from the rafters – the work of a killer who wields actual magic as viciously as he does his blade. With the storm closing in, all exit routes cut off, and the killer taking them out one by one, their only hope lies with the two mysterious Irish detectives who seem quite at home with all this bloodshed …Skulduggery Pleasant and Valkyrie Cain have only hours to figure out who the killer is in a hotel filled with the tortured spirits of the dead, the anguished wails of the dying, and the relentless whines of the living.

ISBN-13 978-0008708511

The Boy Who Didn't Want to Die

by Peter Lantos

A story of survival, of love between mother and son and of enduring hope in the face of unspeakable hardship. An important read.

The Boy Who Didn't Want to Die describes an extraordinary journey, made by Peter, a boy of five, through war-torn Europe in 1944 and 1945.

Peter and his parents set out from a small Hungarian town, travelling through Austria and then Germany together.

Along the way, unforgettable images of adventure flash one after another: sleeping in a tent and then under the sky, discovering a disused brick factory, catching butterflies in the meadows - and as Peter realises that this adventure is really a nightmare - watching bombs falling from the blue sky outside Vienna, learning maths from his mother in Belsen.

All this is drawn against a background of terror, starvation, infection and, inevitably, death, before Peter and his mother can return home.

ISBN-13 978-0702323089

WINNER: THE UK LITERACY ASSOCIATION BOOK AWARDS 2024: INFORMATION BOOK SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKSELLER CHILDREN'S NON-FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR 2024

Cosmos

The Story of Cosmic Evolution, Science and Civilisation 

by Carl Sagan

ISBN-13 978-0349107035

Hugo Award: Best Non-Fiction Book (1981)

Best-Selling Science Book: Became the best-selling science book ever published in English