Category Archives: Kidlit

Love Letters to the Dead by Ava Dellaira

Love Letters to the Dead by Ava Dellaira

It begins as an assignment for English class: write a letter to a dead person – any dead person. Laurel chooses Kurt Cobain – he died young, and so did Laurel’s sister May – so maybe he’ll understand a bit of what Laurel is going through. Soon Laurel is writing letters to lots of dead people – Janis Joplin, Heath Ledger, River Phoenix, Amelia Earhart… it’s like she can’t stop. And she’d certainly never dream of handing them in to her teacher. She writes about what it’s like going to a new high school, meeting new friends, falling in love for the first time – and how her family has shattered since May died.

But much as Laurel might find writing the letters cathartic, she can’t keep real life out forever. The ghosts of her past won’t be contained between the lines of a page, and she will have to come to terms with growing up, the agony of losing a beloved sister, and the realisation that only you can shape your destiny. 

.Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Child sexual abuse

How the King of Elfhame Learned to Hate Stories by Holly Black

How the King of Elfhame Learned to Hate Stories by Holly Black and illustrated by Rovina Cai

Before he was a cruel prince or a wicked king, he was a faerie child with a heart of stone. Revealing a deeper look into the dramatic life of Elfhame’s enigmatic high king, Cardan, his tale includes delicious details of life before The Cruel Prince, an adventure beyond The Queen of Nothing, and familiar moments from The Folk of the Air trilogy, told wholly from Cardan’s perspective.

This new instalment in the Folk of the Air series is a return to the heart-racing romance, danger, humour, and drama that enchanted readers everywhere. Each chapter is paired with lavish and luminous full-colour art, making this the perfect collector’s item to be enjoyed by both new audiences and old.

.Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Child abuse & neglect
  • Parental abandonment
  • Cheating
  • Alcohol consumption & abuse
  • Recreational drug use, including forced & coerced use
  • Whipping mentioned
  • Loss of autonomy (mind control)
  • Murder mentioned
  • Bullying

This Savage Song by Victoria Schwab

This Savage Song by Victoria Schwab

Kate Harker and August Flynn are the heirs to a divided city—a city where the violence has begun to breed actual monsters. All Kate wants is to be as ruthless as her father, who lets the monsters roam free and makes the humans pay for his protection. All August wants is to be human, as good-hearted as his own father, to play a bigger role in protecting the innocent—but he’s one of the monsters. One who can steal a soul with a simple strain of music. When the chance arises to keep an eye on Kate, who’s just been kicked out of her sixth boarding school and returned home, August jumps at it. But Kate discovers August’s secret, and after a failed assassination attempt the pair must flee for their lives.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Domestic violence
  • Suicide & attempted suicide
  • Blood depiction
  • Death of a parent
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Mass shooting
  • Torture
  • Physical assault
  • Car accident
  • Arson

Since You’ve Been Gone by Morgan Matson 

Since You’ve Been Gone by Morgan Matson

It was Sloane who yanked Emily out of her shell and made life 100% interesting. But right before what should have been the most epic summer, Sloane just…disappears. All she leaves behind is a to-do list.

On it, thirteen Sloane-inspired tasks that Emily would normally never try. But what if they could bring her best friend back? Apple picking at night? Okay, easy enough. Dance until dawn? Sure. Why not? Kiss a stranger? Um… Emily now has this unexpected summer, and the help of Frank Porter (totally unexpected), to check things off Sloane’s list. Who knows what she’ll find?

Go skinny-dipping? Wait…what?

.Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Cheating

The Crown of Embers by Rae Carson

The Crown of Embers by Rae Carson

Elisa is a hero. She led her people to victory over a terrifying, sorcerous army. Her place as the country’s ruler should be secure. But it isn’t.

Her enemies come at her like ghosts in a dream, from foreign realms and even from within her own court. And her destiny as the chosen one has not yet been fulfilled.

To conquer the power she bears, once and for all, Elisa must follow a trail of long-forgotten–and forbidden–clues, from the deep, hidden catacombs of her own city to the treacherous seas. With her go a one-eyed spy, a traitor, and the man whom–despite everything–she is falling in love with. If she’s lucky, she will return from this journey. But there will be a cost.

.Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Blood depiction
  • Serious physical injury
  • Knife violence & stabbing

The Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson

The Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson

Once a century, one person is chosen for greatness. Elisa is the chosen one. But she is also the younger of two princesses, the one who has never done anything remarkable. She can’t see how she ever will.

Now, on her sixteenth birthday, she has become the secret wife of a handsome and worldly king—a king whose country is in turmoil. A king who needs the chosen one, not a failure of a princess.

And he’s not the only one who seeks her. Savage enemies seething with dark magic are hunting her. A daring, determined revolutionary thinks she could be his people’s saviour… Read more.

.Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Fatmisia & body shaming
  • Self-harm
  • Blood depiction
  • Death of a friend
  • Death of a spouse

Wake by Lisa McMann 

Wake by Lisa McMann

For seventeen-year-old Janie, getting sucked into other people’s dreams is getting old. Especially the falling dreams, the naked-but-nobody-notices dreams, and the sex-crazed dreams. Janie’s seen enough fantasy booty to last her a lifetime.

She can’t tell anybody about what she does they’d never believe her, or worse, they’d think she’s a freak. So Janie lives on the fringe, cursed with an ability she doesn’t want and can’t control.

Then she falls into a gruesome nightmare, one that chills her to the bone. For the first time, Janie is more than a witness to someone else’s twisted psyche. She is a participant.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Outing
  • Bullying

A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor by Hank Green

The Carls disappeared the same way they appeared, in an instant. While they were on Earth, they caused confusion and destruction without ever lifting a finger. Well, that’s not exactly true. Part of their maelstrom was the sudden viral fame and untimely death of April May: a young woman who stumbled into Carl’s path, giving them their name, becoming their advocate, and putting herself in the middle of an avalanche of conspiracy theories. Months later, the world is as confused as ever. Andy has picked up April’s mantle of fame, speaking at conferences and online about the world… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Internalised ableism
  • Blood and graphic physical injury depiction including body horror and body dysmorphia due to prosthetics
  • Hospitalisation
  • Kidnapping & captivity
  • Gun violence
  • Strangulation
  • Loss of autonomy (mind control)
  • Terrorist attacks discussed

An Absolutely Remarkable Thing by Hank Green

The Carls just appeared. Coming home from work at three a.m., twenty-three-year-old April May stumbles across a giant sculpture. Delighted by its appearance and craftsmanship–like a ten-foot-tall Transformer wearing a suit of samurai armour–April and her friend Andy make a video with it, which Andy uploads to YouTube. The next day April wakes up to a viral video and a new life. News quickly spreads that there are Carls in dozens of cities around the world–everywhere from Beijing to Buenos Aires–and April, as their first documentarian, finds herself at the centre… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Bimisia
  • Graphic physical injury
  • Hospitalisation
  • Attempted murder by gun violence and stabbing
  • Terrorist attack (explosion)
  • Building collapse from a fire, on-page
  • Loss of autonomy (mind control)

Her Land, Her Love by Evangeline Parsons Yazzie

Her Land, Her Love by Evangeline Parsons Yazzie

The first novel, in a sweeping epic of one determined Navajo family’s efforts to persevere during the Long Walk, blends history, romance, conflict, culture, and family in a finely crafted story that is a true work of passion.

The story begins in Black Mesa, Arizona in 1865 at the start of the Navajo Long Walk. The woman at the heart of the story is Ninaanibaa’ (The Woman Warrior who Came Home Once Again) and her husband, Hashke Yil Naabaah (The Warrior Who Fights with Anger). When two of their daughters are kidnapped, they set out on a journey in search of their missing children.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Rape
  • Sexual assault