Category Archives: Kidlit

Poisoned by Jennifer Donnelly

Poisoned by Jennifer Donnelly

Once upon a time, a girl named Sophie rode into the forest with the queen’s huntsman. Her lips were the colour of ripe cherries, her skin as soft as new-fallen snow, her hair as dark as midnight. When they stopped to rest, the huntsman pulled out his knife and took Sophie’s heart. It shouldn’t have come as a surprise. Sophie had heard the rumours, the whispers. They said she was too kind and foolish to rule — a waste of a princess. A disaster of a future queen. And Sophie believed them. She believed everything she’d heard about herself, the poisonous words people… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Child abuse
  • Self-harm
  • Suicide

A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly

A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly

Sixteen-year-old Mattie Gokey has big dreams but little hope of seeing them come true. Desperate for money, she takes a job at the Glenmore, where hotel guest Grace Brown entrusts her with the task of burning a secret bundle of letters. But when Grace’s drowned body is fished from the lake, Mattie discovers that the letters could reveal the grim truth behind a murder. Set in 1906 against the backdrop of the murder that inspired Theodore Dreiser’s An American Tragedy, Jennifer Donnelly’s debut novel weaves romance, history, and a murder mystery into something moving and real.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a mother
  • Murder by drowning

All the Acorns on the Forest Floor by Kim Hooper

All the Acorns on the Forest Floor by Kim Hooper

A couple brimming with the hope of a new pregnancy. A woman coming to terms with the truth behind her adoption. A husband trying to save his marriage from the despair of infertility. These are just a few of the stories in All the Acorns on the Forest Floor, a book about the lengths we go to for the love of our children, our spouses, our mothers, our daughters. All the Acorns on the Forest Floor is a book of connections between people, connections lost and found, across time and space. There are stories of women who never became mothers (by choice or by fate), women who became mothers in unexpected or nontraditional…. Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Miscarriage
  • Terminal illness

The Fascinators by Andrew Eliopulos

The Fascinators by Andrew Eliopulos

Living in a small town where magic is frowned upon, Sam needs his friends James and Delia—and their time together in their school’s magic club—to see him through to graduation. But as soon as senior year starts, little cracks in their group begin to show. Sam may or may not be in love with James. Delia is growing more frustrated with their amateur magic club. And James reveals that he got mixed up with some sketchy magickers over the summer, putting a target on all their backs. With so many fault lines threatening to derail his hopes for the year, Sam is forced to face…. Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Homomisia
  • Child abuse
  • Cults

A House of Rage and Sorrow by Sangu Mandanna

A House of Rage and Sorrow by Sangu Mandanna

Esmae once wanted nothing more than to help her golden brother win the crown of Kali but that dream died with her best friend. Alexi broke her heart, and she vowed to destroy him for it. And with her sentient warship Titania beside her, how can she possibly fail? As gods, beasts, and kingdoms choose sides, Alexi seeks out a weapon more devastating than even Titania. Past lives threaten the present. Old enemies claim their due. And Esmae cannot outrun the ghosts and the questions that haunt her. What really happened to her father? What was the third boon her mother asked of Amba? For in the shadows, lurking in wait, are… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Parental abandonment recounted
  • Blood & injury depiction
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a friend recounted
  • Infanticide mentioned
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Knife & sword violence
  • Poisoning
  • Kidnapping
  • War, rebellion & royal coup (theme)

Color Outside the Lines edited by Sangu Mandanna

Color Outside the Lines edited by Sangu Mandanna with contributions from Anna-Marie McLemore, Elsie Chapman, Karuna Riazi, Lydia Kang, L.L. McKinney, Lauren Giabaldi, Tara Sim, Caroline Tung Richmond, Kelly Zekas, Tarun Shanker, Samira Ahmed, Adam Silvera, Eric Smith, Lori M. Lee and Michelle Ruiz Keil

When people ask me what this anthology is about, I’m often tempted to give them the complicated answer: it’s about race, and about how being different from the person you love can matter but how it can also not matter, and it’s about Chinese pirate ghosts, black girl vigilantes, colonial India, a flower festival, a garden of poisons, and so, so much else. Honestly, though? I think the answer’s much simpler than that. Color outside the Lines is a collection of stories about young, fierce, brilliantly hopeful people in love.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Ableism, racism & antisemitism
  • Dieting & disordered eating
  • Hospitalisation
  • Police brutality
  • Explosion
  • Bullying

Fake ID by Lamar Giles

Fake ID by Lamar Giles

Nick Pearson is hiding in plain sight. My name isn’t really Nick Pearson. I shouldn’t tell you where I’m from or why my family moved to Stepton, Virginia. I shouldn’t tell you who I really am, or my hair, eye, and skin colour. And I definitely shouldn’t tell you about my friend Eli Cruz and the major conspiracy he was about to uncover when he died—right after I moved to town. About how I had to choose between solving his murder with his hot sister, Reya, and “staying low-key” like the Program has taught me. About how moving to Stepon changed my life forever. But I’m going to… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Death of a friend
  • Murder
  • Animal attack

Endangered by Lamar Giles

Endangered by Lamar Giles

The one secret she cares about keeping—her identity—is about to be exposed. Unless Lauren “Panda” Daniels—an anonymous photoblogger who specializes in busting classmates and teachers in compromising positions—plays along with her blackmailer’s little game of Dare or . . . Dare. But when the game turns deadly, Panda doesn’t know what to do. And she may need to step out of the shadows to save herself . . . and everyone else on the Admirer’s hit list.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Ableism
  • Slut shaming
  • Public outing recounted
  • Statutory rape
  • Nonconsensual voyeurism
  • Adult-minor relationship*
  • Cheating
  • Attempted suicide
  • Substance addiction mentioned
  • Blood & injury depiction
  • Hospitalisation
  • Murder
  • Physical assault
  • Strangulation
  • Fire
  • Stalking
  • Blackmail
  • Car accident
  • Kidnapping mentioned
  • Bullying & cyberbullying (theme)

*Context : Adult-minor relationship between an underage female student and a male teacher.

Overturned by Lamar Giles

Overturned by Lamar Giles

Nikki Tate is infamous, even by Las Vegas standards. Her dad is sitting on death row, convicted of killing his best friend in a gambling dispute turned ugly. And for five years, he’s maintained his innocence. But Nikki wants no part of that. She’s been working on Operation Escape Vegas: playing in illegal card games so she can save up enough money to get out come graduation day. Then her dad’s murder conviction is overturned. The new evidence seems to come out of nowhere and Nikki’s life becomes a mess when he’s released from prison. Because the dad who comes home… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Murder
  • Imprisonment

The Beast of Callaire by Saruuh Kelsey

The Beast of Callaire by Saruuh Kelsey

Yasmin is a descendant of the Manticore. A creature of Persian mythology. A Legendary. But she doesn’t want to be. Unlike the Legendaries in The Red, Yasmin wants nothing more than an ordinary life. She tries to fool herself into believing that she doesn’t change into a beast every full moon and savagely kill innocent people. But when Yasmin starts hearing a voice in her head and is drawn into dreams that aren’t her own, she is led to Fray—a girl who once saved Yasmin from hunters, who has shadowy memories that hint at her having Legendary magic—and Yasmin is catapult… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Blood depiction
  • Murder