Middle Grade & Children’s – Page 31 – Trigger Warning Database

Last Gamer Standing by Katie Zhao

Last Gamer Standing by Katie Zhao

Twelve-year-old Reyna Cheng is the up-and-coming junior amateur Dayhold gamer, competing in a VR battle royale against AI monsters and human players alike. But despite Reyna’s rising popularity and skills, no one know who she is. Gaming is still a boy’s club and to protect herself against trolls, she games as the mysterious TheRuiNar.

When Reyna qualifies for the Dayhold Junior Tournament sponsored by her favourite team, she knows she’s got what it takes to win the championship title and the $10,000 prize. But when she’s blackmailed and threatened to be doxed, having her personal identity revealed, by an anonymous troll, Reyna will have to deal with a toxic gaming community, family complications, and the increasing pressure to win as the tournament gets underway.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Misogyny
Threats of doxxing

The Fallen Hero by Katie Zhao

The Fallen Hero by Katie Zhao

Faryn Liu thought she was the Heaven Breaker, a warrior destined to wield the all-powerful spear Fenghuang, command dragons, and defeat demons. But a conniving goddess was manipulating her all along…and her beloved younger brother, Alex, has betrayed her and taken over as the Heaven Breaker instead. Alex never forgave the people who treated him and Faryn like outcasts, and now he wants to wipe out both the demons and most of humanity.

Determined to prevent a war and bring Alex back to her side, Faryn and her half-dragon friend Ren join the New Order, a group of warriors based out of Manhattan’s Chinatown. She learns that one weapon… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Abandonment

The Dragon Warrior by Katie Zhao

The Dragon Warrior by Katie Zhao

As a member of the Jade Society, twelve-year-old Faryn Liu dreams of honouring her family and the gods by becoming a warrior. But the Society has shunned Faryn and her brother Alex ever since their father disappeared years ago, forcing them to train in secret.

Then, during an errand into San Francisco, Faryn stumbles into a battle with a demon–and helps defeat it. She just might be the fabled Heaven Breaker, a powerful warrior meant to work for the all-mighty deity, the Jade Emperor, by commanding an army of dragons to defeat the demons. That is, if she can prove her worth and find the island of the immortals before the Lunar New Year… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Blood depiction
Bullying

Himmler’s Cook by Franz-Olivier Giesbert

Himmler’s Cook by Franz-Olivier Giesbert

“History is a bitch. She has taken everything from me. My children. My parents. My great, true love. My cats. I don’t understand the stupid veneration that the human race feels for her.”

Aged 105, Rose has endured more than her fair share of hardships: the Armenian genocide, the Nazi regime, and the delirium of Maoism. Yet somehow, despite all the suffering, Rose never loses her joie de vivre. As she looks back over her long life—one of survival and, sometimes, one of retribution—she recalls those unique experiences that added such spice to her life, whether it was being a confidante to Hitler, a friend to Simone de Beauvoir or cooking for Heinrich Himmler.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Antisemitism
Child sexual slavery
Rape
Child sexual abuse
Cheating
Attempted abortion
Pregnancy from rape
Death of a husband
Death of a child
Murder
Genocide
World War Two & the Holocaust
Animal death

Cape by Kate Hannigan

Cape by Kate Hannigan and illustrated by Patrick Spaziante

Josie O’Malley does a lot to help out Mam after her father goes off to fight the Nazis, but she wishes she could do more—like all those caped heroes who now seem to have disappeared. If Josie can’t fly and control weather like her idol, Zenobia, maybe she can put her math smarts to use cracking puzzles for the government.

After an official tosses out her puzzler test because she’s a girl, it soon becomes clear that an even more top-secret agency has its eye on Josie, along with two other applicants: Akiko and Mae. The trio bonds over their shared love of female superhero celebrities, from Fantomah to Zenobia to the Black Cat. But during one extraordinary afternoon, they find themselves transformed… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Misogyny
Racism
Death of father mentioned
Fire
Bullying
Japanese internment camps
World War Two

A Mutiny in Time by James Dashner

A Mutiny in Time by James Dashner

When best friends Dak Smyth and Sera Froste stumble upon the secret of time travel — a hand-held device known as the Infinity Ring — they’re swept up in a centuries-long secret war for the fate of mankind. Recruited by the Hystorians, a secret society that dates back to Aristotle, the kids learn that history has gone disastrously off course.

Now it’s up to Dak, Sera, and teenage Hystorian-in-training Riq to travel back in time to fix the Great Breaks . . . and to save Dak’s missing parents while they’re at it. First stop: Spain, 1492, where a sailor named Christopher Columbus is about to be thrown overboard in a deadly mutiny!

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Explosion
Gun & sword violence
Near drowning incident

The Girl and the Ghost by Hanna Alkaf

The Girl and the Ghost by Hanna Alkaf

I am a dark spirit, the ghost announced grandly. I am your inheritance, your grandmother’s legacy. I am yours to command.

Suraya is delighted when her witch grandmother gifts her a pelesit. She names her ghostly companion Pink, and the two quickly become inseparable.

But Suraya doesn’t know that pelesits have a dark side—and when Pink’s shadows threaten to consume them both, they must find enough light to survive . . . before they are both lost to the darkness.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Death of a child
Bullying

City of Secrets by Victoria Ying

City of Secrets by Victoria Ying

Ever Barnes is a shy orphan guarding a secret in an amazing puzzle box of a building. Most of the young women who work at the building’s Switchboard Operating Facility, which connects the whole city of Oskar, look the other way as Ever roams around in the shadows. But one of them, Lisa, keeps an eye on the boy. So does the head of the Switchboard, Madame Alexander . . . a rather sharp eye. Enter Hannah, the spunky daughter of the building’s owner. She thinks Ever needs a friend, even if he doesn’t know it yet. Lisa and Madame Alexander are each clearly… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Hospitalisation for injury & blood depiction
Grief & loss depiction
Death of a father recounted
Murder & attempted murder
Death from a fall
War themes, including a missile strike
Child homelessness & poverty

The Time Paradox by Eoin Colfer

Artemis Fowl & the Time Paradox by Eoin Colfer

Artemis’s mother is gravely ill. Unfortunately the cure, an endangered lemur, was made extinct eight years ago . . . by Artemis Fowl. Talk about awkward.

What if he could travel back in time, outwit his former self and bring the lemur home? With the right demon warlock, it might be possible.

But we all remember the young Artemis. He was, to put it mildly, a pretty terrible human being, so this won’t be easy.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Serious physical illness of a parent
Physical injury including broken bones
Death of a mother from radiation poisoning mentioned
Explosion & bombings
Kidnapping
Plane crash
Gun violence
Fire
Animal death (theme)
Animal cruelty
Animal medical experimentation
Animal stampede

The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman

The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman

Will is the bearer of the knife. Now, accompanied by angels, his task is to deliver that powerful, dangerous weapon to Lord Asriel – by the command of his dying father. But how can he go looking for Lord Asriel when Lyra is gone? Only with her help can he fathom the myriad plots and intrigues that beset him. The two great powers of the many worlds are lining up for war, and Will must find Lyra, for together they are on their way to battle, an inevitable journey that will even take them to the world of the dead…

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

Child abuse
Kidnapping
War themes