Middle Grade & Children’s – Page 25 – Trigger Warning Database

Hearts Unbroken by Cynthia Leitich Smith

Hearts Unbroken by Cynthia Leitich Smith

When Louise Wolfe’s first real boyfriend mocks and disrespects Native people in front of her, she breaks things off and dumps him over e-mail. It’s her senior year, anyway, and she’d rather spend her time with her family and friends and working on the school newspaper. The editors pair her up with Joey Kairouz, the ambitious new photojournalist, and in no time the paper’s staff find themselves with a major story to cover: the school musical director’s inclusive approach to casting The Wizard of Oz has been provoking backlash in their mostly white, middle-class Kansas town… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Racism
Slut-shaming discussed
Bullying discussed

Saucy by Cynthia Kadohata

Saucy by Cynthia Kadohat and illustrated by Marianna Raskin

Being a quadruplet can make it hard to stand out from the crowd. Becca’s three brothers all have something that makes them…them. Jake has his music and dancing, Jammer plays hockey, and K.C. thinks they’re all living in a simulation and doesn’t see the point of doing much of anything. Becca is the only one with nothing to make her special. But when she finds a tiny, sick piglet on the side of the road, Becca knows this is it. This is her thing. She names the piglet Saucy and between her… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Animal cruelty
Animal illness & injury

New Kid by Jerry Craft

The New Kid by Jerry Craft

Seventh grader Jordan Banks loves nothing more than drawing cartoons about his life. But instead of sending him to the art school of his dreams, his parents enroll him in a prestigious private school known for its academics, where Jordan is one of the few kids of color in his entire grade.

As he makes the daily trip from his Washington Heights apartment to the upscale Riverdale Academy Day School, Jordan soon finds himself torn between two… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Racism & racial profiling

Winterborne Home for Mayhem and Mystery by Ally Carter

Winterborne Home for Mayhem and Mystery by Ally Carter

April thought she had her happy ending. After all, she has her new house and new friends and new guardian. But she also has a very big new secret. The kids of Winterborne House are the only ones who know that Gabriel Winterborne—famous billionaire and terrible cook—is really a sword-wielding vigilante. What they don’t know is that he’s not the only one.

When a masked figure breaks in, looking for… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Parental abandonment, recounted & discussed (on-page)
Drugging
Blood depiction
Physical injuries including gunshot wounds, stab wounds, and a sprained ankle
Death of a mother & father recounted
Murder & attempted murder
Gun violence
Sword violence & stabbing
Fire, on-page & recounted
Boating accident recounted
Explosion
Home invasion
Kidnapping & attempted kidnapping
Disappearance & presumed death of a loved one
Experiences in orphanages, group homes, and foster care discussed including child abuse & neglect

Winterborne Home for Vengeance and Valor by Ally Carter

Winterborne Home for Vengeance and Valor by Ally Carter

When 11-year-old April joins a group of kids living at Winterborne Home she doesn’t expect to be there for very long. But she soon learns that this home isn’t like any of the others – especially when she unearths the secret of the missing-and-presumed-dead billionaire, Gabriel Winterborne, who is neither missing nor dead but is actually living in a basement lair, sharpening his swords and looking for vengeance… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Parental abandonment
Child abuse recounted
Serious physical injury
Death of a parent
Murder & attempted murder
Knife & sword violence
Gun violence
Home invasion
Bullying

The Night Gardener by Jonathan Auxier

The Night Gardener by Jonathan Auxier

The Night Gardener follows two abandoned Irish siblings who travel to work as servants at a creepy, crumbling English manor house. But the house and its family are not quite what they seem. Soon the children are confronted by a mysterious spectre and an ancient curse that threatens their very lives. With Auxier’s exquisite command of language, The Night Gardener is a mesmerizing read and a classic in the making.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Ableism
Death of a parent recounted
Shipwreck recounted

Imagine Me by Tahereh Mafi

Imagine Me by Tahereh Mafi

Now that Ella knows who Juliette is and what she was created for, things have only become more complicated. As she struggles to understand the past that haunts her and looks to a future more uncertain than ever, the lines between right and wrong—between Ella and Juliette—blur. And with old enemies looming, her destiny may not be her own to control.

The day of reckoning for the Reestablishment is coming. But she may not get to choose what side she fights on.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Blood & gore depiction
Human experimentation
Gun & knife violence

Defy Me by Tahereh Mafi

Defy Me by Tahereh Mafi

Juliette’s short tenure as the supreme commander of North America has been an utter disaster. When the children of the other world leaders show up on her doorstep, she wants nothing more than to turn to Warner for support and guidance. But he shatters her heart when he reveals that he’s been keeping secrets about her family and her identity from her—secrets that change everything.

uliette is devastated, and the darkness that’s always dwelled within her threatens to consume… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Child abuse
Torture
Gun violence

Restore Me by Tahereh Mafi

Restore Me by Tahereh Mafi

Juliette Ferrars thought she’d won. She took over Sector 45, was named the new Supreme Commander of North America, and now has Warner by her side. But when tragedy strikes, she must confront the darkness that dwells both around and inside her. Who will she become in the face of adversity? Will she be able to control the power she wields, and use it for good?

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Transmisia
Emotional, verbal & physical child abuse recounted
Alcohol consumption & abuse
Anxiety
Panic attack, on-page
Hallucinations
Gun violence

Furthermore by Tahereh Mafi

Furthermore by Tahereh Mafi

Born as blank as canvas in a world brimming with colour and magic, Alice’s pale skin and milk-white hair mark her as an outcast. Because, for the people of Ferenwood, colour and magic are one and the same. And since the disappearance of her beloved father, Alice is more determined than ever to prove herself and her own magical abilities.

To do so she’ll have to travel into the myth … Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Parental abuse
Parental abandonment
Death from childbirth mentioned
Minor blood & gore depiction
Amputation
Cannibalism
Loss of autonomy (mind control & powers of manipulation)
Imprisonment
Disappearance of a parent
War themes mentioned
Bullying