Category Archives: Kidlit

This tag contains all books tagged as Children’s Literature, including picture books, Middle Grade fiction, Young Adult fiction, and relevant non-fiction.

A World Without Princes by Soman Chainani

After saving themselves and their fellow students from a life pitched against one another, Sophie and Agatha are back home again, living happily ever after. But life isn’t exactly a fairytale. When Agatha secretly wishes she’d chosen a different happy ending with Prince Tedros, the gates to the School for Good and Evil open once again. But Good and Evil are no longer enemies and Princes and Princesses may not be what they seem, as new bonds form and old ones shatter.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Torture

War Girls by Tochi Onyebuchi

The year is 2172. Climate change and nuclear disasters have rendered much of earth unlivable. Only the lucky ones have escaped to space colonies in the sky. In a war-torn Nigeria, battles are fought using flying, deadly mechs and soldiers are outfitted with bionic limbs and artificial organs meant to protect them from the harsh, radiation-heavy climate. Across the nation, as the years-long civil war wages on, survival becomes the only way of life. Two sisters, Onyii and Ify, dream of more. Their lives have been marked by violence and political unrest. Still, they dream of peace… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Suicide
  • Drug use
  • Blood & injury depiction, including mentions of amputation, loss of vision & eye trauma
  • Death of a child
  • Murder
  • Gun violence
  • Explosion (landmines)
  • Kidnapping
  • War themes & nuclear disaster recounted

Rebel Sisters by Tochi Onyebuchi

It’s been five years since the Biafran War ended. Ify is now nineteen and living where she’s always dreamed–the Space Colonies. She is a respected, high-ranking medical officer and has dedicated her life to helping refugees like herself rebuild in the Colonies. Back in the still devastated Nigeria, Uzo, a young synth, is helping an aid worker, Xifeng, recover images and details of the war held in the technology of destroyed androids. Uzo, Xifeng, and the rest of their team are working to preserve memories of the many lives lost, despite the government’s best efforts to eradicate… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Torture

We Don’t Swim Here by Vincent Tirado

Bronwyn is only supposed to be in rural Hillwoods for a year. Her grandmother is in hospice, and her father needs to get her affairs in order. And they’re all meant to make some final memories together. Except Bronwyn is miserable. Her grandmother is dying, everyone is standoffish, and she can’t even go swimming. All she hears are warnings about going in the water, despite a gorgeous lake. And a pool at the abandoned rec center. And another in the high school basement. Anais ties her hardest to protect Bronwyn from the shad… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Hate crime
  • Suicide discussed
  • Hospitalisation
  • Emesis
  • Murder
  • Drowning

The Counterfeit Family Tree of Vee Crawford-Wong by L. Tam Holland

When Vee Crawford-Wong’s history teacher assigns an essay on his family history, Vee knows he’s in trouble. His parents—Chinese-born dad and Texas-bred Mom—are mysteriously and stubbornly close-lipped about his ancestors. So, he makes it all up and turns in the assignment. And then everything falls apart. After a fistfight, getting cut from the basketball team, offending his best friend, and watching his grades plummet, one thing becomes abundantly clear to Vee: No one understands him! If only he knew… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Dubious consent scene (on-page)
  • Racism & racial slurs discussed
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Physical assault due to bullying (fistfight)

*Context : The protagonist is making out with his crush but says declines further sex because she is drunk.

A Beautiful Poison by Lydia Kang

Just beyond the Gilded Age, in the mist-covered streets of New York, the deadly Spanish influenza ripples through the city. But with so many victims in her close circle, young socialite Allene questions if the flu is really to blame. All appear to have been poisoned—and every death was accompanied by a mysterious note. Desperate for answers and dreading her own engagement to a wealthy gentleman, Allene returns to her passion for scientific discovery and recruits her long-lost friends, Jasper and Birdie, for help. The investigation brings her closer to Jasper… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Paedophilia, grooming & child sexual abuse
  • Murder

Beautiful by Amy Reed

When Cassie moves from the tiny town where she has always lived to a suburb of Seattle, she is determined to leave her boring, good-girl existence behind. This is Cassie’s chance to stop being invisible and become the kind of girl who’s worth noticing. Stepping into her new identity turns out to be easier than Cassie could have ever imagined… one moment, one choice, changes everything. Cassie’s new existence both thrills and terrifies her. Swept into a world of illicit parties and social landmines, she sheds her virginity, embraces the numbness she feels from the drugs, and.. Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Rape of a child & incest (father-daughter)
  • Emotional & physical parental abuse and sibling abuse
  • Parent with alcoholism
  • Death of a father by suicide from hanging
  • Alcohol consumption & recreational drug use
  • Physical assault

Beating Heart Baby by Lio Min

When artistic and sensitive Santi arrives at his new high school, everyone in the wildly talented marching band welcomes him with open arms. Everyone except for the prickly, proud musical prodigy Suwa, who doesn’t think Santi has what it takes to be in the band.But Santi and Suwa share painful pasts, and when they open up to each other, a tentative friendship begins. And soon, that friendship turns into something more… Will their fresh start rip at the seams as Suwa seeks out a solo spotlight, and both boys come to terms with what it’ll take, and what they’ll have to let go, to realize their dreams?

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Homophobia & transphobia. including deadnaming (off-page) & forced outing recounted
  • Physical & emotional child abuse & abandonment
  • Anxiety & panic attacks
  • Gender dysphoria & body dysmorphia discussed (on-page)
  • Alcohol consumption & recreational drug use
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Deth of a parent recounted
  • Near-drowning incident recounted
  • Bullying

Beasts of Prey by Ayana Gray

Magic doesn’t exist in the broken city of Lkossa anymore, especially for girls like sixteen-year-old Koffi. Indentured to the notorious Night Zoo, she cares for its fearsome and magical creatures to pay off her family’s debts and secure their eventual freedom. But the night her loved ones’ own safety is threatened by the Zoo’s cruel master, Koffi unleashes a power she doesn’t fully understand—and the consequences are dire. As the second son of a decorated hero, Ekon is all but destined to become a Son of the Six—an elite warrior—and uphold a family legacy. But on the night of his… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Sexism
  • Indentured servitude
  • Anxiety & panic attacks
  • Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
  • Drugging & drug use (on-page)
  • Blood & gore depiction, including dead bodies
  • Death of a parent
  • Murder mentioned
  • Kidnapping & captivity
  • Poisoning
  • Fire
  • Animal death & abuse

Beasts Made of Night by Tochi Onyebuchi

In the walled city of Kos, corrupt mages can magically call forth sin from a sinner in the form of sin-beasts – lethal creatures spawned from feelings of guilt. Taj is the most talented of the aki, young sin-eaters indentured by the mages to slay the sin-beasts. But Taj’s livelihood comes at a terrible cost. When he kills a sin-beast, a tattoo of the beast appears on his skin while the guilt of committing the sin appears on his mind. Most aki are driven mad by the process, but 17-year-old Taj is cocky and desperate to provide for his family. When Taj is called to eat a sin of a… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Slavery
  • Emesis
  • Death of a friend