Kimmi: Queen of the Dingoes by Favel Parrett

Kimmi sleeps with her mama at her back, her aunty at her front and her three brothers squeezed in beside her. They are a family. But when the farmer who took her father returns to threaten the rest of them, Kimmi is separated from her mama. In an incredible act of determination, Kimmi’s mama runs over mountain tops and dusty red earth to spend one last day with her cub and share with her the knowledge that will one day make her a queen. This is Kimmi’s story, the story of how she became Queen of the Dingoes in a sanctuary that saves them from extinction. It is her mama’s story, too. But mostly it is a story that goes… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Murder of a brother/dingo cub by a hunter (on-page)
  • Animal death & hunting (on-page)
  • Animal injury including loss of ear (on-page)

Akata Woman by Nnedi Okorafor

From the moment Sunny Nwazue discovered she had mystical energy flowing in her blood, she sought to understand and control her powers. Throughout her adventures in Akata Witch and Akata Warrior , she had to navigate the balance between nearly everything in her life—America and Nigeria, the “normal” world and the one infused with juju, human and spirit, good daughter and powerful Leopard Person. Now, those hard lessons and abilities are put to the test in a quest so dangerous and fantastical, it would be madness to go but it may destroy the world if she does… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Racism & racial slurs
  • Physical child abuse

Wet Paint by Chloë Ashby

Since the death of her best friend Grace, twenty-six-year-old Eve has learned to keep everything and everyone at arm’s length. Safe in her detachment, she scrapes along waiting tables and cleaning her shared flat in exchange for cheap rent, finding solace in her small routines. But when a chance encounter at work brings her past thundering into her present, Eve becomes consumed by painful memories of Grace. And soon her precariously maintained life begins to unravel: she loses her job, gets thrown out of her flat, and risks pushing away the one decent man who… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Rape (on-page)
  • Suicide & suicidal ideation
  • Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

The Reindeer and the Submarine by Beverley McWilliams

An orphaned reindeer with no antlers, Pollyanna is raised by Igor, a Sámi herder, and is more at home in the company of people than other reindeer. When she discovers Igor is leaving for war, Pollyanna decides to follow, but en route, she is captured and gifted to the crew of a British submarine, the HMS Trident. Life onboard the Trident brings more than a few surprises, and Pollyanna – with her love of food – gets into all kinds of mischief. But she also makes friends, becomes part of the crew, and uses her courage and cheekiness to comfort her companions in the dark days of the war.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Naval warfare in World War Two (theme) including mentions of sunk submarines during skirmishes and on-page use of gun/torpedo.

Never Die by Rob J. Hayes

Ein is on a mission from God. A God of Death. Time is up for the Emperor of Ten Kings and it falls to a murdered eight year old boy to render the judgement of a God. Ein knows he can’t do it alone, but the empire is rife with heroes. The only problem; in order to serve, they must first die. Ein has four legendary heroes in mind, names from story books read to him by his father. Now he must find them and kill them, so he can bring them back to fight the Reaper’s war.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Fatphobia and body-shaming
  • Alcohol consumption (multiple on-page scenes)
  • A secondary character is dying of leprosy with some mentions of his symptoms including loss of fingers and teeth
  • Graphic fight scenes, including battle scenes/raids, destruction and pillaging of villages, hand-to-hand combat, and gun- & sword violence (on-page)
  • Murder by gunshot, poisoning, and stabbing (on page)
  • Attempted murder by strangulation

Saha by Cho Nam-Joo

In a country called ‘Town’, Su is found dead in an abandoned car. The suspected killer is presumed to come from the Saha Estates. Town is a privatised country, controlled by a secretive organisation known as the Seven Premiers. It is a society clearly divided into the haves and have-nots and those who have the very least live on the Saha Estates. Among their number is Jin-Kyung, a young woman whose brother, Dok-yung, was in a relationship with Su and quickly becomes the police’s prime suspect. When Dok-yung disappears, Jin Ky-ung is determined to get to the bottom of things.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Ableism & classism
  • Sexual assault
  • Pregnancy & abortion
  • Suicide
  • Death of a child
  • Blood & injury depiction
  • Unethical human experimentation & medical procedures (on-page)
  • Gun violence
  • Police brutality
  • Animal cruelty

Thunderhead by Miranda Darling

When Winona Dalloway begins her day — in the peaceful early hours before her children, that ‘tiny tornado of little hands and feet’, wake up — she doesn’t know that by the end of it, everything in her world will have changed. On the outside, Winona is a seemingly unremarkable young mother: unobtrusive, quietly going about her tasks. But within is a vivid, chaotic self, teeming with voices — a mind both wild and precise. And meanwhile, a storm is brewing…

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Domestic violence (theme, on-page)
  • Pregnancy mentioned

Raymie Nightingale by Kate DiCamillo

Raymie Clarke has come to realize that everything, absolutely everything, depends on her. And she has a plan. If Raymie can win the Little Miss Central Florida Tire competition, then her father, who left town two days ago with a dental hygienist, will see Raymie’s picture in the paper and (maybe) come home. To win, not only does Raymie have to do good deeds and learn how to twirl a baton; she also has to contend with the wispy, frequently fainting Louisiana Elefante, who has a show-business background, and the fiery, stubborn Beverly Tapinski, who’s determined to… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Physical child abuse & parental abandonment
  • Smoking mentioned
  • Death of parents in a boating accident mentioned
  • Animal death (implications of death of a kitten, off-page)

Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo

One summer’s day, ten-year-old India Opal Buloni goes down to the local supermarket for some groceries – and comes home with a dog. But Winn-Dixie is no ordinary dog. It’s because of Winn-Dixie that Opal begins to make friends. And it’s because of Winn-Dixie that she finally dares to ask her father about her mother, who left when Opal was three. In fact, as Opal admits, just about everything that happens that summer is because of Winn-Dixie. 

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Alcohol consumption & abuse recounted

The Tiger Rising by Kate DiCamillo

Walking through the misty Florida woods one morning, twelve-year-old Rob Horton is stunned to encounter a tiger—a real-life, very large tiger—pacing back and forth in a cage. What’s more, on the same extraordinary day, he meets Sistine Bailey, a girl who shows her feelings as readily as Rob hides his. As they learn to trust each other, and ultimately, to be friends, Rob and Sistine prove that some things—like memories, and heartaches, and tigers—can’t be locked up forever.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Abandonment & physical child abuse
  • Smoking mentioned
  • Gun violence
  • Animal death & hunting
  • Bullying

Context : The protagonist’s father shoots a bird. Mentions of a child being beaten by their father for freeing a pet bird.