Category Archives: Kidlit

This tag contains all books tagged as Children’s Literature, including picture books, Middle Grade fiction, Young Adult fiction, and relevant non-fiction.

The Counterfeit Family Tree of Vee Crawford-Wong by L. Tam Holland

When Vee Crawford-Wong’s history teacher assigns an essay on his family history, Vee knows he’s in trouble. His parents—Chinese-born dad and Texas-bred Mom—are mysteriously and stubbornly close-lipped about his ancestors. So, he makes it all up and turns in the assignment. And then everything falls apart. After a fistfight, getting cut from the basketball team, offending his best friend, and watching his grades plummet, one thing becomes abundantly clear to Vee: No one understands him! If only he knew… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Dubious consent scene (on-page)
  • Racism & racial slurs discussed
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Physical assault due to bullying (fistfight)

*Context : The protagonist is making out with his crush but says declines further sex because she is drunk.

A Beautiful Poison by Lydia Kang

Just beyond the Gilded Age, in the mist-covered streets of New York, the deadly Spanish influenza ripples through the city. But with so many victims in her close circle, young socialite Allene questions if the flu is really to blame. All appear to have been poisoned—and every death was accompanied by a mysterious note. Desperate for answers and dreading her own engagement to a wealthy gentleman, Allene returns to her passion for scientific discovery and recruits her long-lost friends, Jasper and Birdie, for help. The investigation brings her closer to Jasper… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Paedophilia, grooming & child sexual abuse
  • Murder

Beautiful by Amy Reed

When Cassie moves from the tiny town where she has always lived to a suburb of Seattle, she is determined to leave her boring, good-girl existence behind. This is Cassie’s chance to stop being invisible and become the kind of girl who’s worth noticing. Stepping into her new identity turns out to be easier than Cassie could have ever imagined… one moment, one choice, changes everything. Cassie’s new existence both thrills and terrifies her. Swept into a world of illicit parties and social landmines, she sheds her virginity, embraces the numbness she feels from the drugs, and.. Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Rape of a child & incest (father-daughter)
  • Emotional & physical parental abuse and sibling abuse
  • Parent with alcoholism
  • Death of a father by suicide from hanging
  • Alcohol consumption & recreational drug use
  • Physical assault

Beating Heart Baby by Lio Min

When artistic and sensitive Santi arrives at his new high school, everyone in the wildly talented marching band welcomes him with open arms. Everyone except for the prickly, proud musical prodigy Suwa, who doesn’t think Santi has what it takes to be in the band.But Santi and Suwa share painful pasts, and when they open up to each other, a tentative friendship begins. And soon, that friendship turns into something more… Will their fresh start rip at the seams as Suwa seeks out a solo spotlight, and both boys come to terms with what it’ll take, and what they’ll have to let go, to realize their dreams?

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Homophobia & transphobia. including deadnaming (off-page) & forced outing recounted
  • Physical & emotional child abuse & abandonment
  • Anxiety & panic attacks
  • Gender dysphoria & body dysmorphia discussed (on-page)
  • Alcohol consumption & recreational drug use
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Deth of a parent recounted
  • Near-drowning incident recounted
  • Bullying

Beasts of Prey by Ayana Gray

Magic doesn’t exist in the broken city of Lkossa anymore, especially for girls like sixteen-year-old Koffi. Indentured to the notorious Night Zoo, she cares for its fearsome and magical creatures to pay off her family’s debts and secure their eventual freedom. But the night her loved ones’ own safety is threatened by the Zoo’s cruel master, Koffi unleashes a power she doesn’t fully understand—and the consequences are dire. As the second son of a decorated hero, Ekon is all but destined to become a Son of the Six—an elite warrior—and uphold a family legacy. But on the night of his… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Sexism
  • Indentured servitude
  • Anxiety & panic attacks
  • Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
  • Drugging & drug use (on-page)
  • Blood & gore depiction, including dead bodies
  • Death of a parent
  • Murder mentioned
  • Kidnapping & captivity
  • Poisoning
  • Fire
  • Animal death & abuse

Beasts Made of Night by Tochi Onyebuchi

In the walled city of Kos, corrupt mages can magically call forth sin from a sinner in the form of sin-beasts – lethal creatures spawned from feelings of guilt. Taj is the most talented of the aki, young sin-eaters indentured by the mages to slay the sin-beasts. But Taj’s livelihood comes at a terrible cost. When he kills a sin-beast, a tattoo of the beast appears on his skin while the guilt of committing the sin appears on his mind. Most aki are driven mad by the process, but 17-year-old Taj is cocky and desperate to provide for his family. When Taj is called to eat a sin of a… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Slavery
  • Emesis
  • Death of a friend

Bad Romance by Heather Demetrios

Grace wants out. Out of her house, where her stepfather wields fear like a weapon and her mother makes her scrub imaginary dirt off the floors. Out of her California town, too small to contain her big city dreams. Out of her life, and into the role of Parisian artist, New York director—anything but scared and alone. Enter Gavin: charming, talented, adored. Controlling. Dangerous. When Grace and Gavin fall in love, Grace is sure it’s too good to be true. She has no idea their relationship will become a prison she’s unable to escape.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Fatphobia & slut-shaming
  • Physical, emotional psychological & verbal child abuse
  • Abusive relationship (theme)
  • Rape
  • Graphic attempted suicide & suicidal ideation
  • Self-harm

Bad Girls with Perfect Faces by Lynn Weingarten

When Sasha’s best friend Xavier gets back together with his cheating ex, Ivy, Sasha knows she needs to protect him. So she poses as a guy online to lure Ivy away. But Sasha’s plan goes sickeningly wrong. And she soon learns to be careful of who you pretend to be because you might be surprised by who you become…

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Alcohol consumption
  • Prescription pill abuse (secondary character self-medicating for depression)
  • Murder

All I Want For Christmas is the Girl Next Door by Chelsea Bobulski

Graham Wallace has been in love with the girl next door for a decade. Unfortunately, she’s been dating his best friend for the past two years. Out of sheer desperation, Graham makes a wish on a shooting star—all he wants for Christmas is Sarah Clarke. When Graham wakes up the next morning, everything has changed, and he’s the one who’s been dating Sarah for the past two years, not his best friend. Graham assumes the wish would have only come true if he and Sarah were meant to be together, but as it becomes clear that he… Read more,

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Infidelity
  • Dieting & self-starvation discussed
  • Drowning

The Wood by Chelsea Bobulski

Winter didn’t ask to be the guardian of the wood, but when her dad inexplicably vanishes, she’s the one who must protect travellers who accidentally slip through its portals. The wood is poisoned, changing into something more sinister. Once brightly coloured leaves are now bubbling inky black. Vicious creatures that live in the shadows are becoming bolder, torturing lost travellers. Winter must then put her trust in Henry—a young man from eighteenth-century England who knows more than he should about the wood—in order to find the truth and, maybe, those they’ve lost.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Disappearance of a parent