Middle Grade & Children’s – Page 21 – Trigger Warning Database

Broken Ground by Victoria Schwab

Broken Ground by Victoria Schwab

Something ancient and evil has awoken from beneath the world of Erdas. Shrouded in shadow and older than memory, just a sliver of its power can destroy with a touch. Even the spirit animal bond, the sacred link between humans and animals that keeps Erdas in balance, is under threat. Four young heroes, Conor, Abeke, Meilin, and Rollan, are determined to stop it. Together with their spirit animals, they embark on a desperate journey that takes them deep underground and to the far corners of the world. As… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Torture
Knife violence
Fire
Loss of autonomy (mind control worms)

Girl Detective by RA Spratt

Friday Barnes: Girl Detective by R.A. Spratt

When girl detective Friday Barnes solves a bank robbery she uses the reward money to send herself to the most exclusive boarding school in the country, Highcrest Academy. When girl detective Friday Barnes solves a bank robbery she uses the reward money to send herself to the most exclusive boarding school in the country, Highcrest Academy. Can Friday solve Highcrest Academy’s many strange mysteries, including the biggest mystery of all – what’s the point of high school?

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Kidnapping & captivity mentioned
Bullying

My Jasper June by Laurel Snyder

My Jasper June by Laurel Snyder

The school year is over, and it is summer in Atlanta. The sky is blue, the sun is blazing, and the days brim with possibility. But Leah feels. . . lost. She has been this way since one terrible afternoon a year ago when everything changed. Since that day, her parents have become distant, her friends have fallen away, and Leah’s been adrift and alone. Then she meets Jasper, a girl, unlike anyone she has ever known. There’s something mysterious about Jasper, almost magical. And Jasper, Leah discovers, is also lost…. Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Grief & loss depiction
Death of a brother from drowning

Extraordinary by Miriam Spitzer Franklin

Extraordinary by Miriam Spitzer Franklin

Last spring, Pansy chickened out on going to spring break camp, even though she’d promised her best friend, Anna, she’d go. It was just like when they went to get their hair cut for Locks of Love; only one of them walked out with a new hairstyle, and it wasn’t Pansy. But Pansy never got the chance to make it up to Anna. While at camp, Anna contracted meningitis and a dangerously high fever, and she hasn’t been the same since. Now all Pansy wants is her best friend back—not the silent girl in the wheelchair who has,… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Ableism
Physical injury & illness, including meningitis, brain damage, & seizures
Brain surgery mentioned
Bullying

The Pants Project by Cat Clarke

The Pants Project by Cat Clarke

Whoever wrote the uniform policy decided (whyyy?) that girls had to wear skirts, while boys were allowed to wear pants. Sexist. Unfair. “Girls must wear a black, pleated, knee-length skirt.” I bet I read those words a hundred times during summer vacation. The problem wasn’t the last word in that sentence. Skirt wasn’t really the issue, not for me. The issue was the first word. Girls. Here’s the thing: I may seem like a girl, but on the inside, I’m a boy.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Queermisia
Misgendering
Coming out themes
Sexism
Internalised ableism
Attempted sexual assault recounted
Death of a father
Death of a grandfather
Physical assault discussed
Bullying (theme)

The Secret of Nightingale Wood Lucy Strange

The Secret of Nightingale Wood by Lucy Strange

1919. Mama is ill. Father has taken a job abroad. Nanny Jane is too busy to pay any attention to Henrietta and the things she sees — or thinks she sees — in the shadows of their new home, Hope House. All alone, with only stories for company, Henry discovers that Hope House is full of strange secrets: a forgotten attic, ghostly figures, mysterious firelight that flickers in the trees beyond the garden. One night she ventures into the darkness of Nightingale Wood. What she finds there will change her whole world…

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Prescription drug abuse
Medical experimentation mentioned
Forced institutionalisation
Death of a brother in a fire

The Great Trouble by Deborah Hopkinson

The Great Trouble by Deborah Hopkinson

Eel has troubles of his own: As an orphan and a “mudlark,” he spends his days in the filthy River Thames, searching for bits of things to sell. He’s being hunted by Fisheye Bill Tyler, and a nastier man never walked the streets of London. And he’s got a secret that costs him four precious shillings a week to keep safe. But even for Eel, things aren’t so bad until that fateful August day in 1854—the day the deadly cholera (“blue death”) comes to Broad Street… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Child abuse
Cholera epidemic
Dead bodies mentioned
Death of a parent mentioned
Physical assault
Kidnapping & captivity
Animal abuse

Pashmina by Nidhi Chanani

Pashmina by Nidhi Chanani

Priyanka Das has so many unanswered questions: Why did her mother abandon her home in India years ago? What was it like there? And most importantly, who is her father, and why did her mom leave him behind? But Pri’s mom avoids these questions–the topic of India is permanently closed. For Pri, her mother’s homeland can only exist in her imagination. That is, until she find a mysterious pashmina tucked away in a forgotten suitcase… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Sexism
Hospital
Bullying

Race to the Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse

Race to the Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse

Lately, seventh grader Nizhoni Begay has been able to detect monsters, like that man in the fancy suit who was in the bleachers at her basketball game. Turns out he’s Mr. Charles, her dad’s new boss at the oil and gas company, and he’s alarmingly interested in Nizhoni and her brother, Mac, their Navajo heritage, and the legend of the Hero Twins. Nizhoni knows he’s a threat, but her father won’t believe her. When Dad disappears the next day, leaving behind a message that says “Run!”, the siblings and Nizhoni’s best friend, Davery, are thrust into a rescue mission that can only be… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Death of a parent
Disappearance
Kidnapping

Dreamer, Wisher, Liar by Charise Mericle Harper

Dreamer, Wisher, Liar by Charise Mericle Harper

When her best friend is moving away and her mom has arranged for some strange little girl to come and stay with them, Ash—who is petrified of change and new people—is expecting the worst summer of her life. Then seven-year-old Claire shows up. Armed with a love of thrift-store clothes and an altogether too-sunny disposition, Claire proceeds to turn Ash’s carefully constructed life upside down. While every part of Ash’s life seems to be disrupted, she must protect a carefully hidden secret: She has discovered a magical jar in her basement. It’s a wish jar, full… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Prosopagnosia
Death of a mother