Category Archives: Kidlit

Forestborn by Elayne Audrey Becker

Rora is a shifter, as magical as all those born in the wilderness–and as feared. She uses her abilities to spy for the king, traveling under different guises and listening for signs of trouble. When a magical illness surfaces across the kingdom, Rora uncovers a devastating truth: Finley, the young prince and her best friend, has caught it, too. His only hope is stardust, the rarest of magical elements, found deep in the wilderness where Rora grew up–and to which she swore never to return. But for her only friend, Rora will face her past and brave the dark, magic… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Murder
  • Physical assault

Figure It Out, Henri Weldon by Tanita S. Davis

Seventh grader Henrietta Weldon gets to switch schools—finally! She’ll be “mainstreaming” into public school, leaving her special education school behind. She can’t wait for her new schedule, new friends, and new classes. Henri’s dyscalculia, a learning disability that makes math challenging to process and understand, is what she expects to give her problems. What she doesn’t expect is a family feud with her sister over her new friends, joining the girls’ soccer team, and discovering poetry. Henri’s tutor and new friend, Vinnie, reminds her to take it slow. One problem at a time… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Anxiety
  • Bullying

Crow Country by Kate Constable

Sadie isn’t thrilled when her mother drags her from the city to live in the country town of Boort. But soon she starts making connections—with the country, with the past, with two boys, Lachie and Walter, and, most surprisingly, with the ever-present crows. When Sadie is tumbled back in time to view a terrible crime, she is pulled into a strange mystery. Can Sadie, Walter, and Lachie figure out a way to right old wrongs, or will they be condemned to repeat them? A fantasy ground in mythology, this novel has the backing of a full consultative process on the use of indigenous lore.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Racism & racial slurs
  • Murder (hate crime)
  • Destruction & theft of sacred Indigenous sites and objects

Tumbleglass by Kate Constable

Thirteen-year-old Rowan is helping her older sister Ash paint her bedroom when she discovers a mysterious ring that transports them both back in time to 1999. To a party being held in the very same house! .While Ash dances, Rowan unwittingly disrupts the laws of time, and when she wakes up back in the present day, her sister is missing, and – even worse – everyone in their family seems to be forgetting she ever existed. With the help of her magical neighbour Verity, Rowan must find the courage to travel back through the history of the house. But can she find everything she needs to rescue Ash before her sister disappears forever?

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Disappearance
  • Military violence & World War II

Drawing Deena by Hena Khan

Deena’s never given a name to the familiar knot in her stomach that appears when her parents argue about money, when it’s time to go to school, or when she struggles to find the right words. She manages to make it through each day with the help of her friends and the art she loves to make. While her parents’ money troubles cause more and more stress, Deena wonders if she can use her artistic talents to ease their burden. She creates a logo and social media account to promote her mom’s home-based business selling clothes from Pakistan to the local community. With her cousin and friends modeling the outfits and lending… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Anxiety & panic attacks

Wrath Becomes Her by Aden Polydoros

Lithuania, 1943. A father drowns in the all-consuming grief of a daughter killed by the Nazis. He can’t bring Chaya back from the dead, but he can use kishuf — an ancient and profane magic — to create a golem in her image. A Nazi killer, to avenge her death. When Vera awakens, she can feel her violent purpose thrumming within her. But she can also feel glimpses of a human life lived, of stolen kisses amidst the tragedy, and of a grisly death. And when she meets Akiva, she recognizes the boy with soft lips that gave warm kisses. But these memories aren’t hers, and Vera doesn’t know if she gets—or deserves —to have a life beyond what… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Antisemitism
  • Body horror
  • Death of a parent
  • Murder & genocide

A Place at the Table by Saadia Faruqi and Laura Shovan

Sixth-graders Sara, a Pakistani American, and Elizabeth, a white, Jewish girl meet when they take a South Asian cooking class taught by Sara’s mom. Sixth-graders Sara and Elizabeth could not be more different. Sara is at a new school that is huge and completely unlike the small Islamic school she used to attend. Elizabeth has her own problems: her British mum has been struggling with depression. The girls meet in an after-school South Asian cooking class, which Elizabeth takes because her mom has stopped cooking, and which Sara, who hates to cook, is… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Parent with depression

Treacherous by Chloe Walsh

When seventeen year old Teagan loses her mother in tragic circumstances, she is forced to move to America to live with her uncle. Worlds apart from her home in Ireland, Teagan struggles to find her feet in Colorado. Struggling to fit into her new high school, and warring with her troubled next-door neighbor, Teagan is in for a wild senior year.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Sexual assault & drugged rape of a minor (on-page)
  • Incarceration recounted

Taming 7 by Chloe Walsh

She’s the quintessential sunshine girl. He’s the lovable class clown. But storm clouds are rolling in, and this Tommen boy is about to get serious. Tommen’s cheeky lad, Gerard ‘Gibsie’ Gibson, is a comedian at heart, but underneath his happy-go-lucky-nature lurks a broken boy, tortured by the events of his past. Using humour to cope with his demons, Gibsie hides everything from the world. Tommen’s cheeky lad, Gerard ‘Gibsie’ Gibson, is a comedian at heart, but underneath his happy-go-lucky-nature lurks a broken boy, tortured by the events of his past. Using humour to cope with his demons, Gibsie hides everything from the world. Envelope… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Paedophilia, rape & child sexual abuse mentioned
  • Death of a father
  • Death of a sister from suicide
  • Drowning

Redeeming 6 by Chloe Walsh

With his world unravelling around him, and pressure rising at home, Joey Lynch’s life has never been in more turmoil. Desperate to prove himself worthy of the only person he’s ever put his trust in, Joey fights to stay away from a world that threatens to destroy everything. But with the odds stacking against him by the day, can he keep his head above water? Unwilling to give up on the boy she loves, Aoife Molloy fights to save her best friend from the edge of self-destruction. Drowning in a world she doesn’t understand, with only her heart to guide her, Aoife refuses to turn her back on Joey, no matter how badly the odds are stacked against them.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Rape & attempted rape
  • Child abuse & neglect
  • Foster care system experiences recounted
  • Parental infidelity
  • Substance addiction & parent with alcoholism
  • Suicidal ideation & attempted suicide
  • Miscarriage mentioned
  • Arson
  • Graphic bullying (on-page)