Category Archives: Kidlit

Blade of Secrets by Tricia Levenseller

Eighteen-year-old Ziva prefers metal to people. She spends her days tucked away in her forge, safe from society and the anxiety it causes her, using her magical gift to craft unique weapons imbued with power. Then Ziva receives a commission from a powerful warlord, and the result is a sword capable of stealing its victims’ secrets. A sword that can cut far deeper than the length of its blade. A sword with the strength to topple kingdoms. When Ziva learns of the warlord’s intentions to use the weapon to enslave all… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Attempted sexual assault (unwanted kiss)
  • Anxiety & anxiety attacks (on-page)
  • Agoraphobia & claustrophobia
  • Self-harm for magic
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Blood depiction & emesis
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of parents mentioned
  • Murder (on-page)

Shadowshaper by Daniel José Older

Shadowshaper by Daniel José Older

Sierra Santiago was looking forward to a fun summer of making art, hanging out with her friends, and skating around Brooklyn. But then a weird zombie guy crashes the first party of the season. Sierra’s near-comatose abuelo begins to say “Lo siento” over and over. And when the graffiti murals in Bed-Stuy start to weep…. Well, something stranger than the usual New York mayhem is going on.

Sierra soon discovers a supernatural order called the Shadowshapers, who connect with spirits via paintings, music, and stories. Her grandfather once shared the order’s secrets with an anthropologist, Dr. Jonathan Wick, who turned the Caribbean magic to his own foul ends. Now Wick wants to become the ultimate Shadowshaper… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Racism
  • Colourism
  • Sexism
  • Ableism
  • Sexual harassment
  • Stroke recounted
  • Dead bodies

The Shape of Thunder by Jasmine Warga

The Shape of Thunder by Jasmine Warga

Cora hasn’t spoken to her best friend, Quinn, in a year. Despite living next door to each other, they exist in separate worlds of grief. Cora is still grappling with the death of her beloved sister in a school shooting, and Quinn is carrying the guilt of what her brother did.

On the day of Cora’s twelfth birthday, Quinn leaves a box on her doorstep with a note. She has decided that the only way to fix things is to go back in time to the moment before her brother changed all their lives forever—and stop him.

In spite of herself, Cora wants to believe. And so the two former friends begin working together to open a wormhole in the fabric of the universe… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Racism
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a sister in a school shooting recounted

The Helheim Princess by Tiana Warner

The Helheim Princess by Tiana Warner

For as long as Sigrid could remember, she’s wanted to become a mighty, fearless valkyrie. But without a winged mare, she’s a mere stable hand, left wondering who her parents were and why she’s so different. So when the Eye shows her a vision where she’s leading a valkyrie charge on the legendary eight-legged horse Sleipnir, she grabs the possibility of this greater destiny with both hands, refusing to let go.

Too bad that the only one who can help her get there is Mariam, an enemy valkyrie who begrudgingly agrees to lead her to Helheim but who certainly can’t be trusted―even if she does make Sigrid more than a little flustered. As they cross the nine worlds, battling night elves, riding sea serpents, and hurtling into fire… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Parental abandonment
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Blood depiction
  • Fire
  • Bullying
  • Animal death

Ice Massacre by Tiana Warner

Ice Massacre by Tiana Warner

The Massacre is supposed to bring peace to Eriana Kwai. Every year, the island sends its warriors to battle these hostile sea demons. Every year, the warriors fail to return. Desperate for survival, the island must decide on a new strategy. Now, the fate of Eriana Kwai lies in the hands of twenty battle-trained girls and their resistance to a mermaid’s allure.

Eighteen-year-old Meela has already lost her brother to the Massacre, and she has lived with a secret that’s haunted her since childhood. For any hope of survival, she must overcome the demons of her past and become a ruthless mermaid killer.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Ableism & ableist language
  • Blood & gore depiction

Paper Cranes Don’t Fly by Peter Vu

Paper Cranes Don’t Fly by Peter Vu

For Adam Auttenberg, the hospital is like a second home. Despite the ever-growing tumour in his head, he just wishes he was normal. This is until his latest operation when everything seems like a lost hope, and he knows he isn’t normal. He doesn’t know what to do, because there is nothing he can do. Facing the toughest challenge of his life, all Adam has to help him are his friends. But will they be enough?

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Medical procedures
  • Hospitalisation
  • Terminal brain cancer (theme)
  • Death of a friend

Alone in Space by Tillie Walden

Alone in Space by Tillie Walden

Alone In Space compiles award-winning cartoonist Tillie Walden’s short comics into a stunning and comprehensive collection of the early work which shot her to fame.

We start with Tillie’s first published comic The End of Summer, in which Lars battles illness in a secluded castle at the start of an endless winter with a giant cat to keep him company amid mounting family tensions. Also featured are I Love This Part – Tillie’s bittersweet breakout story of small-town teen romance, and A City Inside – a study of growth and adulthood through a surreal and poetic recounting of one woman’s life.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Coming out themes
  • Internalised lesbomisia
  • Terminal illness
  • Graphic death of a pet cat

The Girl with the Gold Bikini by Lisa Walker

The Girl with the Gold Bikini by Lisa Walker

Eighteen-year-old Olivia Grace has deferred her law degree and ducked out of her friends’ gap-year tour of Asia. Instead, she’s fulfilling her childhood dream of becoming a private investigator, following in the footsteps of Nancy Drew and Veronica Mars – who taught her everything she knows, including a solid line in quick-quipping repartee and the importance of a handbag full of disguises.

Playing Watson to the Sherlock of her childhood friend, detective agency owner Rosco, Olivia pursues a routine cheating husband case from the glitzy Gold Coast to Insta-perfect Byron Bay, where she faces yoga wars, dirty whale activism, and a guru who’s kind of a creep.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Fatmisia
  • Cheating
  • Disappearance

This is How We Change the Ending by Vikki Wakefield

This is How We Change the Ending by Vikki Wakefield

Sixteen-year-old Nate McKee is doing his best to be invisible. He’s worried about a lot of things—how his dad treats Nance and his twin half-brothers; the hydro crop in his bedroom; his reckless friend, Merrick.

Nate hangs out at the local youth centre and fills his notebooks with things he can’t say. But when some of his pages are stolen, and his words are graffitied at the centre, Nate realises he has allies. He might be able to make a difference, change his life, and claim his future. Or can he?

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Domestic abuse
  • Child abuse

Friday Brown by Vikki Wakefield

Friday Brown by Vikki Wakefield

Friday, 17, flees memories of her mother, granddad, and the family curse. She joins Silence in a street gang led by beautiful charismatic Arden, and escapes to a ghost town in the outback. In Murungal Creek, the town of never leaving, Friday faces the ghosts of her past. Sometimes you have to stay to finish what you started, and before you can find out who you are, you have to become someone you never meant to be.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Death of a mother