Like the Willow Tree by Lois Lowry

Like the Willow Tree by Lois Lowry

In 1918, as the Great War rages in Europe, the Spanish influenza tears a brutal path across the United States, leaving devastation in its wake. Suddenly, eleven-year-old Lydia Pierce and her older brother, Daniel, find themselves orphans of the flu, and are taken by their grieving uncle to be raised in the Shaker community at Sabbathday Lake. Thrust into the Shaker’s unfamiliar way of life, Lydia, a fiercely independent girl, must grapple with a new world that is nothing like the one she used to know.

Lydia must work hard, and all the while she worries about her headstrong brother, who has run away. In time, and with her courageous spirit, Lydia learns to overcome the devastation– yet she cannot stop wondering, will Daniel ever return?

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Spanish Influenza pandemic
  • Death of a parent
  • Death of a baby sibling
  • World War One
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On the Horizon by Lois Lowry

On the Horizon by Lois Lowry & illustrated by Kenard Pak

On the Horizon tells the story of people whose lives were lost or forever altered by the twin tragedies of Pearl Harbor and Hiroshima. Composed of poems about individual sailors who lost their lives on the Arizona and about the citizens of Hiroshima who experienced unfathomable horror. 

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Explosion & bombings
  • Fire
  • World War Two, including Pearl Harbour & Hiroshima
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Number the Stars by Lois Lowry

Number the Stars by Lois Lowry

Ten-year-old Annemarie Johansen and her best friend Ellen Rosen often think of life before the war. It’s now 1943 and their life in Copenhagen is filled with school, food shortages, and the Nazi soldiers marching through town. When the Jews of Denmark are “relocated,” Ellen moves in with the Johansens and pretends to be one of the family. Soon Annemarie is asked to go on a dangerous mission to save Ellen’s life.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Antisemitism
  • Alcohol consumption mentioned
  • Smoking mentioned
  • Death of a sister in a car accident mentioned
  • World War Two
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The Giver by Lois Lowry

The Giver by Lois Lowry

The Giver has become one of the most influential novels of our time. The haunting story centers on twelve-year-old Jonas, who lives in a seemingly ideal, if colorless, world of conformity and contentment. Not until he is given his life assignment as the Receiver of Memory does he begin to understand the dark, complex secrets behind his fragile community. 

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Suicide
  • Needles
  • Infanticide
  • Drowning mentioned
  • War & battle mentioned
  • Animal death
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Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden

Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden

In Memoirs of a Geisha, we enter a world where appearances are paramount; where a girl’s virginity is auctioned to the highest bidder; where women are trained to beguile the most powerful men; and where love is scorned as illusion. It is a unique and triumphant work of fiction – at once romantic, erotic, suspenseful – and completely unforgettable

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Slavery
  • Child abuse
  • Cheating
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Paedophilia
  • Rape
  • Abortion mentioned
  • Emesis
  • Physical injuries, including burns
  • Death of a parent
  • Explosion & bombings mentioned
  • Electrocution
  • World War Two
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The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank

The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank


In Amsterdam, in the summer of 1942, the Nazis forced teenager Anne Frank and her family into hiding. For over two years, they, another family and a German dentist lived in a ‘secret annexe’, fearing discovery. All that time, Anne kept a diary. Since its publication in 1947, Anne Frank’s diary has been giving us a deeper insight into her world. Her curiosity about her emerging sexuality, the conflicts with her mother, her passion for Peter, a boy whose family hid with hers, and her acute portraits of her fellow prisoners reveal Anne as more human, more vulnerable and more vital than ever.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Antisemitism
  • Smoking
  • Home invasion
  • Bombings
  • Gun violence
  • Concentration camps
  • The Holocaust & World War Two (theme)
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The One by Kiera Cass

The One by Kiera Cass

The Selection began with thirty-five girls. Now with the group narrowed down to the six Elite, the competition to win Prince Maxon’s heart is fiercer than ever—and America is still struggling to decide where her heart truly lies. Is it with Maxon, who could make her life a fairy tale? Or with her first love, Aspen?

America is desperate for more time. But the rest of the Elite know exactly what they want—and America’s chance to choose is about to slip away.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Murder
  • Gun violence
  • Physical assault
  • War & rebellion themes
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Thirteen Doorways, Wolves Behind Them All by Laura Ruby

Thirteen Doorways, Wolves Behind Them All by Laura Ruby

It’s hard to be a 13-year-old girl. But it’s even harder when your father’s a drunk. It adds an extra layer to everything — your family’s reactions to things, the people you’re willing to bring home, the way you see yourself and the world. For Samantha, it’s something that’s been going on for so long that she’s almost used to it. Only, you never get used to it. Especially when it starts to get worse…

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Misogyny
  • Racism
  • Fatmisia & body shaming
  • Sexual harassment
  • Domestic abuse
  • Depression
  • Attempted suicide mentioned
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Miscarriage mentioned
  • Death of a mother
  • Murder
  • Whipping
  • World War Two
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Angel Mage by Garth Nix

Angel Mage by Garth Nix

It’s hard to be a 13-year-old girl. But it’s even harder when your father’s a drunk. It adds an extra layer to everything — your family’s reactions to things, the people you’re willing to bring home, the way you see yourself and the world. For Samantha, it’s something that’s been going on for so long that she’s almost used to it. Only, you never get used to it. Especially when it starts to get worse…

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Alcohol consumption
  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Physical injury
  • Plague
  • Gun violence
  • Knife violence & stabbing
  • Battle scenes
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The Betrothed by Kiera Cass

The Betrothed by Kiera Cass

When King Jameson declares his love for Lady Hollis Brite, Hollis is shocked—and thrilled. After all, she’s grown up at Keresken Castle, vying for the king’s attention alongside other daughters of the nobility. Capturing his heart is a dream come true.

But Hollis soon realizes that falling in love with a king and being crowned queen may not be the happily ever after she thought it would be. And when she meets a commoner with the mysterious power to see right into her heart, she finds that the future she really wants is one that she never thought to imagine. 

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Classism
  • Misogyny
  • Antiziganism (g slur)
  • Arranged marriage discussed
  • Domestic abuse
  • Cheating, grey-area
  • Miscarriage
  • Pregnancy discussed
  • Death of a parent
  • Death of a husband
  • Death of a son
  • Murder
  • Fire
  • Home invasion
  • War themes
  • Bullying, recounted
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