Middle Grade & Children’s – Page 10 – Trigger Warning Database

Ghost Book by Remy Lai

July Chen sees ghosts. But her dad insists ghosts aren’t real. So she pretends they don’t exist. Which is incredibly difficult now as it’s Hungry Ghost month, when the Gates of the Underworld open and dangerous ghosts run amok in the living world. When July saves a boy ghost from being devoured by a Hungry Ghost, he becomes her first ever friend. Except William is not a ghost. He’s a wandering soul wavering between life and death. As the new friends embark on an adventure to return William to his body, they unearth a ghastly truth―for William to live, July must die.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

Death of a mother and wife in childbirth recounted
Near-death of a friend and child (on-page)
Mentions of death of a pet dog.

Gone Wolf by Amber McBride

In the future, a Black girl known only as Inmate Eleven is kept confined — to be used as a biological match for the president’s son, should he fall ill. She is called a Blue — the colour of sadness. She lives in a small-small room with her dog, who is going wolf more often – he’s pacing and imagining he’s free. Inmate Eleven wants to go wolf too―she wants to know why she feels so Blue and what is beyond her small-small room. In the present, Imogen lives outside of Washington DC. The pandemic has distanced her from everyone but her mother and her therapist. Imogen has intense phobias and nightmares of confinement. Her two older brothers… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

Slavery & forced labour
Racism (theme)
Anxiety & agoraphobia
Death of siblings
Mentions of the real murders of Black Americans by the police
Death of a pet

Louder Than Hunger by John Schu

Jake volunteers at a nursing home because he likes helping people. He likes skating and singing, playing Bingo and Name That Tune, and reading mysteries and comics aloud to his teachers. He also likes avoiding people his own age . . . and the cruelty of mirrors . . . and food. Jake has read about kids like him in books—the weird one, the outsider—and would do anything not to be that kid, including shrink himself down to nothing. But the less he eats, the bigger he feels. How long can Jake punish himself before he truly disappears?

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

Smoking (secondary character)
Anorexia, depression & Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
Bullying

Fox Snare by Yoon Ha Lee

While on a mission to cement peace between the Sun Clans and the Thousand Worlds, Min the fox spirit and her ghost brother Jun get stranded on a death planet with Haneul the dragon spirit and Sebin the tiger spirit. To survive, the young cadets will have to rely on all their wits, training, and supernatural abilities. And let’s not forget the Dragon Pearl.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

Explosion (spaceship)

City of Wishes by Christina Soontornvat

During the New Year break, Plum and her friends travel to fancy, fashionable Nakhon City. There they’ll stay with Sam and his mother, the powerful Lady Ubon. At first, Plum is dazzled by how big and exciting Nakhon City is. She’s never experienced anything like it! But under the glittering surface, secrets lurk. A storm is brewing, and Plum will have to harness all of her growing powers to survive it.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

Building collapse from an earthquake
Cave-in

Coyote Lost and Found by Dan Gemeinhart

It’s been almost a year since Coyote and her dad left the road behind and settled down in a small Oregon town. . . time spent grieving the loss of her mom and sisters and trying to fit in at school. But just as life is becoming a new version of normal, Coyote discovers a box containing her mom’s ashes. And she thinks she might finally be ready to say goodbye. So Coyote and her dad gear up for an epic cross-country road trip to scatter the ashes at her mom’s chosen resting place. The only problem? Coyote has no idea where that resting place is—and the secret’s hidden in a book that Coyote mistakenly sold last year, somewhere in the country. Now, it’s up to Coyote to track.. Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

Racism mentioned (a secondary Asian-American character is threatened with a bat)
Physical injuries sustained during a break-in
COVID-19 pandemic

Finally Heard by Kelly Yang

When ten-year-old Lina Gao sees her mom’s video on social media take off, she’s captivated by the potential to be seen and heard! Maybe online she can finally find the confidence she craves. Whereas in real life she’s growing so fast, she feels like microwave popcorn, bursting out of her skin! .With the help of her two best friends, Carla and Finn, and her little sister, Millie, Lina sets off to go viral. Except there’s a lot more to social media than Lina ever imagined, 1. Seeing inside her classmates’ lives! Is she really the only person on the planet who doesn’t have a walk-in closet? 2. Group chats! Disappearing videos! Will anyone.. Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

Anxiety & disordered eating
Minor cyberbullying

The Ruined by Renée Ahdieh

The Sylvan Vale and the Sylvan Wyld are at war. Now that the unsteady truce between them has been broken, lines must be drawn. In an effort to protect the weakened Winter Court, Bastien rallies powerful allies and friends in New Orleans to come to their aid. Meanwhile, under protection alongside her injured mother in the Summer Court, Celine is uncertain of whom to trust. She cannot get word to Bastien, and does not understand why he has not returned. When she realises war between the fey courts is imminent, she journeys with Ali in an effort to find the time travelling mirror and change their fate… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

Child abuse & neglect mentioned
Alcohol consumption (secondary characters)
Blood-drinking
Attempted murder by poisoned arrow and knives
Murder by gun violence
Graphic torture
Accidental explosion resulting in mass death
Graphic battles scenes with cannonballs and gunfire

Heroes by Alan Gratz

December 6, 1941: Best friends Frank and Stanley have it good. Their dads are Navy pilots stationed at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, and the boys get a front-row view of the huge battleships and the sparkling water. Yes, World War II is raging in Europe and in Asia, but the US isn’t involved in the war, and the boys are free to dream about becoming comic book creators. They’ve even invented a superhero of their own, in the style of Batman, Superman, Captain America, and other stars of the Golden Age of Comics. Maybe they’ll even get their comic published someday. December 7th, 1941: Everything explodes. That morning, Frank and Stanley are aboard the battleship the USS Utah… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

Racial slurs (anti-Japanese)
Alcohol consumption mentioned (secondary characters)
Mass hospitalisation for injuries and mentions of dead bodies
Naval warfare including ship explosions, shipwrecks, and death from drowning or burning in flaming oil-spills
Gun violence
Plane crashes & death from explosions upon their impact
Attack of Pearl Harbor (theme)
Animal attack (dog)

Stella by Starlight by Sharon M. Draper and illustrated by Sarah Jane Coleman

Stella lives in the segregated South; in Bumblebee, North Carolina, to be exact about it. Some stores she can go into. Some stores she can’t. Some folks are right pleasant. Others are a lot less so. To Stella, it sort of evens out, and heck, the Klan hasn’t bothered them for years. But one late night, later than she should ever be up, much less wandering around outside, Stella and her little brother see something they’re never supposed to see, something that is the first flicker of change to come, unwelcome change by any stretch of the imagination. As Stella’s community – her world – is upended, she decides to fight fire with fire. And she learns that ashes don’t necessarily signify an end.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

Racism
White supremacy & Klu Klux Klan
Hate crimes
Physical child abuse
Domestic abuse & violence
Death of a father in a lumber mill accident mentioned
House fire & arson