Category Archives: Kidlit

If I Grow Up by Todd Strasser

If I Grow Up by Todd Strasser

In the Frederick Douglass Project where DeShawn lives, daily life is ruled by drugs and gang violence. Many teenagers drop out of school and join gangs, and every kid knows someone who died. Gunshots ring out on a regular basis. DeShawn is smart enough to know he should stay in school and keep away from the gangs. But while his friends have drug money to buy fancy sneakers and big-screen TVs, DeShawn’s family can barely afford food for the month. How can he stick to his principles when his family is hungry?

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Substance addiction
  • Drug use & abuse
  • Pregnancy
  • Death of a child from fall
  • Death of a pregnant woman from gun violence
  • Murder
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The Unlikely Adventures of the Shergill Sisters by Balli Kaur Jaswal

The Unlikely Adventures of the Shergill Sisters by Balli Kaur Jaswal

The British-born Punjabi Shergill sisters—Rajni, Jezmeen, and Shirina—were never close and barely got along growing up, and now as adults, have grown even further apart. Rajni, a school principal is a stickler for order. Jezmeen, a thirty-year-old struggling actress, fears her big break may never come. Shirina, the peacemaking “good” sister married into wealth and enjoys a picture-perfect life. On her deathbed, their mother voices one last wish: that her daughters will make a pilgrimage together to the Golden Temple in Amritsar to carry out her final rites. After a trip to India with her mother long ago, Rajni vowed … Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Abortion discussed
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Boys of Summer by Jessica Brody

Boys of Summer by Jessica Brody

Best friends since they were kids, Grayson, Mike, and Ian were hoping for another epic summer on “The Locks”, filled with clam bakes, bonfires, and late-night swims in the ocean. But that was before Ian’s dad never returned home from his last deployment. Before Mike had to take on more responsibility in order to help provide for his family. Before Grayson’s accident left him with an injured throwing arm and an uncertain future. It’s clear this summer on the island is shaping up to be very different from those Grayson, Mike, and Ian have come to rely on. And when the sacred code of dating a friend’s sister or ex is broken, it will push… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Sexism
  • Slut-shaming
  • Grief & loss depiction
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The Silvered Serpents by Roshani Chokshi

The Silvered Serpents by Roshani Chokshi

Séverin and his team members might have successfully thwarted the Fallen House, but victory came at a terrible cost — one that still haunts all of them. Desperate to make amends, Séverin pursues a dangerous lead to find a long-lost artifact rumoured to grant its possessor the power of God. Their hunt lures them far from Paris, and into the icy heart of Russia where crystalline ice animals stalk forgotten mansions, broken goddesses carry deadly secrets, and a string of unsolved murders makes the crew question whether an ancient myth is a myth after all. As hidden… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Period-typical ableism, classism, misogyny, racism and antisemitism
  • Colonialism discussed
  • Sex work shaming
  • Attempted rape by coercion
  • Child abuse recounted
  • Self harm for magic
  • Suicide mentioned
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Stillbirth & infertility mentioned
  • Blood & injury depiction
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a brother recounted
  • Death of a friend recounted
  • Murder
  • Poisoning
  • Psychological torture
  • Explosion
  • Vivisepulture (being buried alive) mentioned
  • Kidnapping
  • Animal death mentioned

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

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Katie the Catsitter by Colleen Venable

Katie the Catsitter by Colleen A.F. Venable & illustrated by Stephanie Yue

Katie is dreading the boring summer ahead while her best friends are all away at camp–something that’s way out of Katie and her mom’s budget. Unless Katie can figure out a way to earn the money for camp herself. But when Katie gets a job catsitting for her mysterious upstairs neighbour, life gets interesting. First, Madeline has 217 cats (!) and they’re not exactly . . . normal cats. Also, why is Madeline always out EXACTLY when the city’s most notorious villain commits crimes?! Is it possible that Katie’s upstairs neighbour is really a supervillain?

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Animal mistreatment & abuse
  • Animal hunting mentioned
  • Dogfighting mentioned
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Threadneedle by Cari Thomas

Threadneedle by Cari Thomas

Ever since Anna can remember, her aunt has warned her of the dangers of magic. She has taught her to fear how it twists and knots and turns into something dark and deadly. It was, after all, magic that killed her parents and left her in her aunt’s care. It’s why she has been protected from the magical world and, in one year’s time, what little magic she has will be bound. She will join her aunt alongside the other Binders who believe magic is a sin not to be used, but denied. Only one more year and she will be free of the curse of magic, her aunt’s teachings and the disappointment of the little she is capable of. Nothing – and no one – could change her mind before then. Could it?

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Body shaming
  • Slut-shaming
  • Child abuse
  • Suicide mentioned
  • Murder
  • Bullying
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Bloodwitch by Susan Dennard

Bloodwitch by Susan Dennard

High in a snowy mountain range, a monastery that holds more than just faith clings to the side of a cliff. Below, thwarted by a lake, a bloodthirsty horde of raiders await the coming of winter and the frozen path to destroy the sanctuary and its secrets. The Bloodwitch Aeduan has teamed up with the Threadwitch Iseult and the magical girl Owl to stop the destruction. But to do so, he must confront his own father, and his past.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Nightmares
  • Graphic blood & gore depiction including dead bodies
  • Graphic physical injuries & illness
  • Emesis
  • Death of a baby, on-page
  • Death of a wife & daughter mentioned
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Mass murder & massacres, on-page
  • Torture mentioned
  • Gun violence
  • Knife violence & stabbing
  • Fire
  • Explosions, on-page
  • Decapitation
  • Loss of autonomy (possession)
  • Kidnapping
  • Disappearance of a friend
  • Imprisonment mentioned
  • War & military violence (theme)

The Ever Cruel Kingdom by Rin Chupeco

The Ever Cruel Kingdom by Rin Chupeco

After a treacherous journey and a life-shattering meeting with a twin neither knew they had, Haidee and Odessa expected to emerge from the Great Abyss to a world set right. But though the planet is turning once again, the creatures of the abyss will not rest until they have tasted another goddess’s sacrifice. To break the cycle, Haidee and Odessa need answers that lie beyond the seven gates of the underworld, within the Cruel Kingdom itself. The shadows of the underworld may hunger to tear them apart, but these two sisters are determined to heal their world—together.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Emotional abuse & gaslighting
  • Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
  • Self harm
  • Blood depiction
  • Cannibalism
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a parent
  • Murder
  • Animal death

Curse of the Specter Queen by Jenny Elder Moke

Curse of the Specter Queen by Jenny Elder Moke

Samantha Knox put away her childish fantasies of archaeological adventure the day her father didn’t return home from the Great War, retreating to the safety of the antique bookshop where she works. But when a mysterious package arrives with a damaged diary inside, Sam’s peaceful life is obliterated. Ruthless men intent on reclaiming the diary are after Sam, setting her and her best friend, along with her childhood crush, on a high-stakes adventure that lands them in the green hills outside Dublin, Ireland. Here they discover an ancient order with a dark purpose – to perform an occult ritual that will raise the Specter… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Misogyny
  • Blood depiction
  • Murder
  • Fire
  • Loss of autonomy (possession)

Scavenge the Stars by Tara Sim

Scavenge the Stars by Tara Sim

When Amaya rescues a mysterious stranger from drowning, she fears her rash actions have earned her a longer sentence on the debtor ship where she’s been held captive for years. Instead, the man she saved offers her unimaginable riches and a new identity, setting Amaya on a perilous course through the coastal city-state of Moray, where old-world opulence and desperate gamblers collide. Amaya wants one thing: revenge against the man who ruined her family and stole the life she once had. But the more entangled she becomes in this game of deception—and as her path intertwines with the son of the man she’s… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Classism
  • Indentured servitude of children, discussed in-depth
  • Sexual assault, on-page
  • Child abuse
  • Forced arranged marriage
  • Gambling addiction recovery & relapse (theme)
  • Suicide mentioned
  • Alcohol consumption & abuse, recounted & discussed
  • Drugging
  • Blood & gore depiction,
  • Dead bodies & body parts
  • Needles
  • Terminal illness (plague-like), recounted & on-page
  • Depiction of starvation
  • Cannibalism mentioned
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a mother & father recounted
  • Death of children, on-page
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Knife violence & stabbing
  • Torture recounted
  • Whipping recounted
  • Hanging mentioned
  • Kidnapping & captivity
  • Blackmail
  • Death by a fall recounted
  • Near-drowning incident
  • War themes discussed
  • Poverty themes & debt collection (theme)