Category Archives: Kidlit

Among the Beasts and Briars by Ashley Poston

Among the Beasts & Briars by Ashley Poston

Cerys is safe in the kingdom of Aloriya. Here there are no droughts, disease, or famine, and peace is everlasting. It has been this way for hundreds of years since the first king made a bargain with the Lady who ruled the forest that borders the kingdom. But as Aloriya prospered, the woods grew dark, cursed, and forbidden. Cerys knows this all too well: when she was young, she barely escaped as the woods killed her friends and her mother. Now Cerys carries a small bit of the curse—the magic—in her blood, a reminder of the day she lost everything. The most danger… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Animal injury
  • Self-inflicted injuries
  • Blood depiction
  • Body horror

Geekerella by Ashley Poston

Geekerella by Ashley Poston

Part romance, part love letter to nerd culture, and all totally adorbs, Geekerella is a fairy tale for anyone who believes in the magic of fandom. Geek girl Elle Wittimer lives and breathes Starfield, the classic sci-fi series she grew up watching with her late father. So when she sees a cosplay contest for a new Starfield movie, she has to enter. The prize? An invitation to the ExcelsiCon Cosplay Ball, and a meet-and-greet with the actor slated to play Federation Prince Carmindor in the reboot. With savings from her gig at the Magic Pumpkin food truck (and her dad’s old costume), Elle’s determined to win unless her stepsisters… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Death of a parent

The Last Paper Crane by Kerry Drewery

The Last Paper Crane by Kerry Drewery

1945, Hiroshima: Ichiro is a teenage boy relaxing at home with his friend Hiro. Moments later there is a blinding flash as the horrific nuclear bomb is dropped. With great bravery, the two boys find Hiro’s five-year-old sister Keiko in the devastated and blasted landscape. With Hiro succumbing to his wounds, Ichiro is now the only one who can take care of Keiko. But in the chaos, Ichiro loses her when he sets off to find help. Seventy years later, the loss of Keiko and his broken promise to his dying friend are… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Radiation poisoning
  • Death of a child
  • Death of a friend
  • Death of a parent
  • Death of a grandparent recounted
  • World War Two
  • Nuclear bombing

A Brighter Fear by Kerry Drewery

A Brighter Fear by Kerry Drewery

This is the story of Lina, a teenage girl from Baghdad. It starts in 2003, as the bombs begin to fall on the city. In it, Lina fights to survive, to find a life for herself amid the chaos of war, to find what happened to her mother in the years before the war, when she was taken away by the secret police. She also falls in love, with the one person she should never have fallen in love with. It is many things. It is a love story, both for a country and for a person. It is about an amazing girl, growing up in the worst circumstances imaginable. It contains a necklace, that was lost but might still be found. And… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Disappearance of a parent
  • Bombings
  • Iraq War

A Dream of Lights by Kerry Drewery

A Dream of Lights by Kerry Drewery

Yoora is a teenage girl living in North Korea, dreaming of the lights of foreign cities while eking out a miserable existence in a rural northern village. But then she makes a mistake: she falls in love. With someone far removed from her social class. Someone dangerous to know. When tongues start to wag, her father is executed and she is taken to a prison camp in the mountains. There, escape seems even further from her grasp. But Yoora is about to learn an important lesson: love can surprise you, and it can come in many forms…

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Rape
  • Pregnancy
  • Murder

Kaleidoscope by Brian Selznick

Kaleidoscope by Brian Selznick

A ship. A garden. A library. A key. In Kaleidoscope, the incomparable Brian Selznick presents the story of two people bound to each other through time and space, memory and dreams. At the center of their relationship is a mystery about the nature of grief and love which will look different to each reader.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Shipwreck

Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick

Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick

Ben and Rose secretly wish for better lives. Ben longs for the father he has never known. Rose dreams of a mysterious actress whose life she chronicles in a scrapbook. When Ben discovers a puzzling clue in his mother’s room and Rose reads an enticing headline in the newspaper, both children set out alone on desperate quests to find what they are missing. Set fifty years apart, these two independent stories – Ben’s told in words, Rose’s in pictures – weave back and forth in symmetry.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Ableism

The Shattering by Karen Healey

The Shattering by Karen Healey

Keri, Janna and Sione have two things in common: they each have an older brother who committed suicide. And they each have a connection with Summerton. As the three teenagers delve deeper into the mystery they uncover secrets that will shatter everything they thought they knew. Summerton is perfect: gorgeous weather, stunning scenery, cute out-of-towners to hook up with. But sharp-tongued Keri is immune to her hometown’s charms. Her older brother’s sudden death has left her shattered by grief and with too many unanswered questions. When Keri discovers that childhood friend turned rock-chick… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Suicide

The Hollow Heart by Marie Rutkoski

The Hollow Heart by Marie Rutkoski

At the end of The Midnight Lie, Nirrim offered up her heart to the God of Thieves in order to restore her people’s memories of their city’s history. The Half Kith who once lived imprisoned behind the city’s wall now realize that many among them are powerful. Meanwhile, the person Nirrim once loved most, Sid, has returned to her home country of Herran, where she must navigate the politics of being a rogue princess who has finally agreed to do her duty. In the Herrani court, rumours begin to grow of a new threat rising across the sea, of magic unleashed on the world, and of a cruel, black-haired queen who can push false… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Coerced drug abuse recounted
  • Blood depiction
  • Dead bodies
  • Amputation recounted
  • Decapitation, on-page
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Gun violence
  • Poisoning

The Midnight Lie by Marie Rutkoski

The Midnight Lie by Marie Rutkoski

Where Nirrim lives, crime abounds, a harsh tribunal rules, and society’s pleasures are reserved for the High Kith. Life in the Ward is grim and punishing. People of her low status are forbidden from sampling sweets or wearing colours. You either follow the rules or pay a tithe and suffer the consequences. Nirrim keeps her head down and a dangerous secret close to her chest. But then she encounters Sid, a rakish traveler from far away who whispers rumours that the High Caste possesses magic. Sid tempts Nirrim to seek that magic for herself. But to do that, Nirrim must… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Queermisia
  • Physical & emotional child abuse
  • Blood-letting
  • Death of a parent
  • Murder
  • Imprisonment