Middle Grade & Children’s – Page 30 – Trigger Warning Database

Guantanamo Boy by Anna Perera

Guantanamo Boy by Anna Perera

Khalid, a fifteen-year-old Muslim boy from Rochdale, is abducted from Pakistan while on holiday with his family. He is taken to Guantanamo Bay and held without charge, where his hopes and dreams are crushed under the cruellest of circumstances. An innocent denied his freedom at a time when Western boys are finding theirs, Khalid tries and fails to understand what’s happening to him and cannot fail to be a changed young man.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Incarceration (theme)

Fake Blood by Whitney Gardner

Fake Blood by Whitney Gardner

It’s the beginning of the new school year and AJ feels like everyone is changing but him. He hasn’t grown or had any exciting summer adventures like his best friends have. He even has the same crush he’s harboured for years. So AJ decides to take matters into his own hands. But how could a girl like Nia Winters ever like plain vanilla AJ when she only has eyes for vampires?

When AJ and Nia are paired up for a group… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Kidnapping

Shadowghast by Thomas Taylor

Shadowghast by Thomas Taylor

In this third adventure, shipwrecked orphan Herbert Lemon, Lost-and-Founder at the Grand Nautilus Hotel, must square off with a creature of town lore as he confronts a shadow from his past. While other towns celebrate Halloween, in Eerie-on-Sea it’s Ghastly Night, and a grim spirit in a lantern awaits its moment. Legend has it that if people fail to light manglewick candles on Ghastly Night, and if no showman conjures shadow puppets on the pier as an offering, the insulted Shadowghast will seize and devour the.. Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Physical assault
Fire

The Wizards of Once by Cressida Cowell

The Wizards of Once by Cressida Cowell

Wizard boy, Xar, should have come into his magic by now, but he hasn’t, so he wants to find a witch and steal its magic for himself. But if he’s got any chance of finding one, he will have to travel into the forbidden Badwoods. Xar doesn’t realise he is about to capture an entirely different kind of enemy. A Warrior girl called Wish. And inside this book, at this very moment, two worlds collide and the fate of the land is changed forever. Xar and Wish must visit the dungeons at Warrior fort, and face the evil Queen. But something that has been sleeping for hundreds of years is stirring …

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Sword violence & stabbing
Dead bodies and severed heads

How to Train Your Dragon by Cressida Cowell

How to Train Your Dragon by Cressida Cowell

Hiccup Haddock Horrendous III was a truly extraordinary Viking hero. The warrior chieftain and awesome sword fighter was known as ‘the Dragon Whisperer’, on account of his power over these terrifying beasts. But it wasn’t always like that, and this is the story of his rise to fame, in his own words.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Amputation & loss of limb
Animal attack
Animal death

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