Category Archives: Middle Grade & Children’s

Murray Out of Water by Taylor Tracy

Bighearted and observant twelve-year-old Murray O’Shea loves the ocean. Every chance she gets, she’s in it. It could be because the ocean never makes her apologize for being exactly who she is—something her family refuses to do—but it could also be because of the secret magic that Murray shares with the ocean. Though she can’t explain its presence, the electric buzz she feels from her fingertips down to her toes allows her to become one with the ocean and all its creatures, and it makes Murray feel seen in a way she never feels on land. But then a hurricane hits Murray’s Jersey Shore home, sending the O’Sheas far inland to… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Homophobia
  • Parental abandonment
  • Displacement due to a hurricane

Let It Glow by Marissa Meyer and Joanne Levy

When Aviva Davis and Holly Martin meet at the holiday pageant try-outs for their local senior’s centre, they think they must be seeing double. While they both knew they were adopted, they had no idea they had a biological sibling, let alone an identical twin! The similarities are only skin deep, though, because while Aviva has a big personality and even bigger Broadway plans, Holly is more the quiet dreamer type who longs to become a famous author like her grandfather. One thing the girls do have in common is their curiosity about how the other celebrates the… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Antisemitism & racism
  • Hospitalisation of an elderly character for a fall mentioned (secondary character)

Brackenbeast by Kate Alice Marshall

Last Halloween, Eleanor, Pip, and Otto narrowly escaped the clutches of the evil January Society and their leader. But life in the too-quiet Eden Eld isn’t safe just yet: according to the bargain they made with Mr. January, it’s now his sister’s turn to hunt the three of them. And her methods are a bit more…treacherous. When their friends and neighbours begin disappearing, abducted by strange, mud-drenched monsters, Eleanor and her two best friends must race to uncover their enemy’s secrets. If they fail, their families will be next. Stalked by the relentless mud beasts, they… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Attempted murder
  • Kidnapping

Midnight Train by Angie Sage

Alex is pursued by the fiendish Twilight Hauntings, monstrous Enchantments created because a prophecy foretold the king’s death at the hands of an Enchanter’s Child. The Twilight Hauntings are designed to rid the land of all Enchanters and their children, but Alex has other ideas. Why should she be forced to leave the place where she belongs? So now Alex is on a mission to destroy the Twilight Hauntings. And to do so she must find the very thing that created them—a magical talisman called the Tau. But where is it? In her search for the Tau, Alex enlists the reluctant help… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Death of a mother mentioned
  • Death from a fall off a cliff
  • Poisoning
  • Kidnapping & captivity
  • Animal attack (crow, spider)
  • Animal death

Twilight Hauntings by Angie Sage

Alex has a set of Enchanted cards. When she flutters her fingers above them, something magical happens: the cards come alive and create moving pictures of what is now and what is yet to come. But Enchantment is illegal in the city of Luma, and those who practice it are imprisoned forever in the Vaults—dark dungeons deep below the city. When Alex is betrayed by her foster sister Zerra, she knows she is in great danger. With the help of her little foster brother, Louie, she makes a daring escape. But Alex is betrayed by her… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Death of a mother in incarceration
  • Attempted murder by strangulation
  • Near-drowning incident
  • Animal death by gunshot (bird)
  • Animal attack (hawk, eel)

Catherine, Called Birdy by Karen Cushman

Catherine feels trapped. Her father is determined to marry her off to a rich man–any rich man, no matter how awful. But by wit, trickery, and luck, Catherine manages to send several would-be husbands packing. Then a shaggy-bearded suitor from the north comes to call–by far the oldest, ugliest, most revolting suitor of them all. Unfortunately, he is also the richest. Can a sharp-tongued, clever young maiden with a mind of her own actually lose the battle against an ill-mannered, piglike lord and a greedy toad of a father? Not if Catherine has anything to say about it!

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Child abuse
  • Alcohol consumption mentioned (secondary characters)
  • Miscarriage & death during childbirth
  • Hanging mentioned
  • Death from a knife wound mentioned
  • Animal attack (secondary character, dog)

The Memory Wall by Lev A.C. Rosen

Severkin is an elf who slinks through the shadows of Wellhall’s spiraling stone towers, plundering ancient ruins and slaying mystical monstrosities with ease. He’s also a character in a video game—a character that twelve-year-old Nick Reeves plays when he needs a break from the real world. And lately, Nick has really needed a break. His mother had an “incident” at school last year, and her health has taken a turn for the worse. Nick is convinced his mother’s illness has been misdiagnosed but no one believes him. His only escape is the online world of Wellhall, where, as… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Parent with Early-Onset Alzheimer’s Disorder

Wandi by Favel Parrett

A young cub is snatched from his family and home by a giant eagle, then dropped, injured and alone, in a suburban garden. This is where he meets his first Human, and begins his long journey to becoming the most famous dingo in the world. He will never see his mountain home again, or his family. But it is his destiny to save alpine dingoes from extinction, and he dreams of a time when all cubs like him can live in the wild in safety, instead of facing poison and bullets and hatred.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Animal cruelty
  • Animal death & injury
  • Animal attack (eagle)

Kimmi: Queen of the Dingoes by Favel Parrett

Kimmi sleeps with her mama at her back, her aunty at her front and her three brothers squeezed in beside her. They are a family. But when the farmer who took her father returns to threaten the rest of them, Kimmi is separated from her mama. In an incredible act of determination, Kimmi’s mama runs over mountain tops and dusty red earth to spend one last day with her cub and share with her the knowledge that will one day make her a queen. This is Kimmi’s story, the story of how she became Queen of the Dingoes in a sanctuary that saves them from extinction. It is her mama’s story, too. But mostly it is a story that goes… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Murder of a brother/dingo cub by a hunter (on-page)
  • Animal death & hunting (on-page)
  • Animal injury including loss of ear (on-page)

Raymie Nightingale by Kate DiCamillo

Raymie Clarke has come to realize that everything, absolutely everything, depends on her. And she has a plan. If Raymie can win the Little Miss Central Florida Tire competition, then her father, who left town two days ago with a dental hygienist, will see Raymie’s picture in the paper and (maybe) come home. To win, not only does Raymie have to do good deeds and learn how to twirl a baton; she also has to contend with the wispy, frequently fainting Louisiana Elefante, who has a show-business background, and the fiery, stubborn Beverly Tapinski, who’s determined to… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Physical child abuse & parental abandonment
  • Smoking mentioned
  • Death of parents in a boating accident mentioned
  • Animal death (implications of death of a kitten, off-page)