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Hanna: My Holocaust Story by Goldie Alexander
Hanna has dreams of being a gymnast. But in 1939 the Nazis invade her home, Warsaw, and everything changes. All Jews are being rounded up and being threatened. Her family escape to a farm with their housekeeper, but how long can they remain hidden? And what will happen when they are taken to the Ghetto? |
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The Boy who Harnessed the Wind by William Kamkwamba
When a terrible drought struck William Kamkwamba’s tiny village in Malawi, his family lost all of the season’s crops, leaving them with nothing to eat and nothing to sell. William began to explore science books in his village library, looking for a solution. There, he came up with the idea that would change his family’s life forever: he could build a windmill. Made out of scrap metal and old bicycle parts, William’s windmill brought electricity to his home and helped his family pump the water they needed to farm the land. |
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Stories for Boys Who Dare to be Different by Ben Brooks
Prince charming, dragon slayer, mischievous prankster… More often than not, these are the role-models boys encounter in the books they read at home and at school. As a boy, there is an assumption that you will conform to a stereotypical idea of masculinity. |
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A Great Escape by Felice Arena
When Peter’s family leaves for a trip across the border, he stays behind. So when the government builds a wall through the city, guarded by soldiers, tanks and ferocious dogs, he’s trapped. Everyone says he might never see his family again. But Peter has a courageous plan… |
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Fearless Frederick by Felice Arena
When the river rises and the city of Paris begins to disappear under water, Frederic decides to help those who can’t help themselves. But as his heroic acts escalate, so does the danger. |
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Between Us by Clare Atkins
Is it possible for two very different teenagers to fall in love despite high barbed-wire fences and a political wilderness between them? |
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Detention by Tristan Bancks
Sima and her family are pressed to the rough, cold ground among fifty others. They lie next to the tall fence designed to keep them in. The wires are cut one by one. |
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The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne
The story of The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas is very difficult to describe. Usually we give some clues about the book on the cover, but in this case we think that would spoil the reading of the book. We think it is important that you start to read without knowing what it is about. |
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Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer
Twelve-year-old criminal mastermind Artemis Fowl has discovered a world below ground of armed and dangerous–and extremely high-tech–fairies. He kidnaps one of them, Holly Short, and holds her for ransom in an effort to restore his family’s fortune. But he may have underestimated the fairies’ powers. Is he about to trigger a cross-species war? |
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The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Set in a dark vision of the near future, a terrifying reality TV show is taking place. Twelve boys and twelve girls are forced to appear in a live event called The Hunger Games. There is only one rule: kill or be killed. |
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Lenny’s Book of Everything by Karen Foxlee
I knew my brother. I knew when he talked too much about Timothy his imaginary pet eagle. He was scared. |
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Refuge by Jackie French
Refuge centres around a 14-year-old male Afghan who spent much of his life in Pakistan refugee camps before making the voyage from Indonesia to Australia. As the boat crashes against the rocks of Christmas Island he loses consciousness and awakes to find himself in the life he has always dreamed of in Australia, but with no memory of how he got there: not unusual, says his doctor father. AS it is the school holidays he becomes one of a gang of kids who roam the beach, led by an older boy, although he slowly realises that the true power is wielded by ten year old Susanna – who has been ten years old for twenty years. |
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Once by Morris Gleitxman
Felix, a Jewish boy in Poland in 1942, is hiding from the Nazis in a Catholic orphanage. The only problem is that he doesn’t know anything about the war, and thinks he’s only in the orphanage while his parents travel and try to salvage their bookselling business. And when he thinks his parents are in danger, Felix sets off to warn them—straight into the heart of Nazi-occupied Poland. |
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Gone by Michael Grant
In the blink of an eye. |
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Alex Rider by Anthony Horowitz
When his guardian dies in suspicious circumstances, fourteen-year-old Alex Rider finds his world turned upside down. Forcibly recruited into MI6, Alex has to take part in gruelling SAS training exercises. Then, armed with his own special set of secret gadgets, he’s off on his first mission to Cornwall, where Middle-Eastern multi-billionaire Herod Sayle is producing his state-of-the-art Stormbreaker computers. Sayle has offered to give one free to every school in the country – but there’s more to the gift than meets the eye. |
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Skulduggery Pleasant by Derek Landy
Meet the great Skulduggery Pleasant: wise-cracking detective, powerful magician, master of dirty tricks and burglary (in the name of the greater good, of course). Oh yeah. And dead. Then there’s his sidekick, Stephanie. She’s… well, she’s a twelve-year-old girl. With a pair like this on the case, evil had better watch out… |
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Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
Originally designed as a story for boys, Stevenson’s novel is narrated by the teenage Jim Hawkins, who outwits a gang of murderous pirates led by that unforgettable avatar of amorality, Long John Silver. But Treasure Island has also had great appeal for adult readers and was admired by Mark Twain, Rudyard Kipling, and (reluctantly) Henry James. The story has a dreamlike quality of a fairy tale and has worked its way into the collective imagination of more than five generations of readers, gaining the power of myth. |
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The Giver by Lois Lowry
In Lois Lowry’s Newbery Medal-winning classic, twelve-year-old Jonas lives in a seemingly ideal world. Not until he is given his life assignment as the Receiver does he begin to understand the dark secrets behind his fragile community. |
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The Dog Runner by Bren MacDibble
Ella and her brother Emery are alone in a city that’s starving to death. If they are going to survive, they must get away, upcountry, to find Emery’s mum. But how can two kids travel such big distances across a dry, barren, and dangerous landscape? Well, when you’ve got five big doggos and a dry-land dogsled, the answer is you go mushing. But when Emery is injured, Ella must find a way to navigate them through rough terrain, and even rougher encounters with desperate people… |
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The Whisperer by Fiona McIntosh
Griff is an ordinary boy, working at a circus – but he has an extraordinary ability. He can receive people’s thoughts, although in an unfocussed way. When the circus master decides to exploit this talent, disaster ensues. Griff decides to escape, taking fellow circus member Tess and her magical creatures with him. |
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The Grandest Bookshop in the World by Amelia Mellor
Pearl and Vally Cole live in a bookshop. And not just any bookshop. In 1893, Cole’s Book Arcade in Melbourne is the grandest bookshop in the world, brimming with every curiosity imaginable. Each day brings fresh delights for the siblings: voice-changing sweets, talking parrots, a new story written just for them by their eccentric father. |
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The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris
Lale Sokolov is well-dressed, a charmer, a ladies’ man. He is also a Jew. On the first transport from Slovakia to Auschwitz in 1942, Lale immediately stands out to his fellow prisoners. In the camp, he is looked up to, looked out for, and put to work in the privileged position of Tätowierer – the tattooist – to mark his fellow prisoners, forever. One of them is a young woman, Gita, who steals his heart at first glance. |
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When the Ground is Hard by Malla Nunn
Adele loves being one of the popular girls at Keziah Christian Academy. She knows the upcoming semester at school will be great with her best friend Delia at her side. Then Delia dumps her for a new girl with more money, and Adele is forced to share a room with Lottie, the school pariah, who doesn’t pray and defies teachers’ orders. |
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Middle School by James Patterson
Rafe Khatchadorian has enough problems at home without throwing his first year of middle school into the mix. Luckily, he’s got an ace plan for the best year ever, if only he can pull it off: With his best friend Leonardo the Silent awarding him points, Rafe tries to break every rule in his school’s oppressive Code of Conduct. Chewing gum in class-5,000 points! Running in the hallway-10,000 points! Pulling the fire alarm-50,000 points! But when Rafe’s game starts to catch up with him, he’ll have to decide if winning is all that matters, or if he’s finally ready to face the rules, bullies, and truths he’s been avoiding. |
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The Last Thirteen by James Phelan
I click my fingers and everybody dies. Sam wakes from his nightmare to discover the terrifying reality. It will come true. Kidnapped from school and finding out his parents aren’t who he thinks they are, Sam is suddenly running from danger at every turn. Nothing will ever be the same again. With his life and identity shattered, Sam’s salvation is tied to an ancient prophecy. He is in the final battle to save the world, up against an enemy plotting to destroy us all. He alone can find the last 13. 13 books. 13 nightmares. 1 destiny. |
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Thai-no-mite by Oliver Phommavanh
I’m Lengy and I’m Thai. My parents run a restaurant named Thai-riffic! but I’m always craving hot chips and pizza. Recipe for getting there? Recipe for surviving the planning? |
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Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve
Mortal Engines launched Philip Reeve’s brilliantly imagined creation, the world of the Traction Era, where mobile cities fight for survival in a post-apocalyptic future. The first instalment introduces young apprentice Tom Natsworthy and the murderous Hester Shaw, flung from the fast-moving city of London into heart-stopping adventures in the wastelands of the Great Hunting Ground. Repackaged with a stunning double cover and eye-catching new look that features the famous recycled ‘Old-Tech’ of Reeve’s fantastic world. |
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Hover Car Racer by Matthew Reilly
Meet Jason Chaser, hover car racer. He’s won himself a place at the International Race School, where racers either make it on to the Pro Circuit – or they crash and burn. But he’s an outsider. He’s younger than the other racers. His car, the Argonaut, is older. And on top of that, someone doesn’t want him to succeed at the School and will do anything to stop him. Now Jason Chaser isn’t just fighting for his place on the starting line, he’s racing for his life. |
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Percy Jackson by Rick Riordan
Look, I didn’t want to be a half-blood. I never asked to be the son of a Greek god. I was just a normal kid, going to school, playing basketball, skateboarding. The usual. Until I accidentally vaporized my maths teacher. That’s when things started really going wrong. Now I spend my time fighting with swords, battling monsters with my friends and generally trying to stay alive. This is the one where Zeus, God of the Sky, thinks I’ve stolen his lightning bolt – and making Zeus angry is a very bad idea… |
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Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J K Rowling
When the Quidditch World Cup is disrupted by Voldemort’s rampaging supporters and the terrifying Dark Mark appears against the night sky, it is obvious to Harry Potter that, far from weakening, Voldemort is getting stronger. |
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Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J K Rowling
Harry is furious that he is stuck at the Dursleys’ house for the summer, when he suspects that Voldemort is gathering an army, and the wizarding authorities seem unwilling to do anything. |
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Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J K Rowling
As the Dark Lord’s sinister forces amass, a spirit of gloom and fear is sweeping the land. Harry Potter waits nervously in his bedroom at the Dursleys’ for Professor Dumbledore to arrive. |
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Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J K Rowling
Harry Potter is preparing to leave the Dursleys and Privet Drive for the last time. But the future that awaits him is full of danger, not only for him, but for anyone close to him – and Harry has already lost so much. Only by destroying Voldemort’s remaining Horcruxes can Harry free himself and overcome the Dark Lord’s forces of evil. |
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Holes by Louis Sachar
Stanley Yelnats is under a curse. A curse that began with his no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather and has since followed generations of Yelnatses. Now Stanley has been unjustly sent to a boys’ detention center, Camp Green Lake, where the boys build character by spending all day, every day digging holes exactly five feet wide and five feet deep. There is no lake at Camp Green Lake. But there are an awful lot of holes. It doesn’t take long for Stanley to realize there’s more than character improvement going on at Camp Green Lake. The boys are digging holes because the warden is looking for something. But what could be buried under a dried-up lake? Stanley tries to dig up the truth in this inventive and darkly humorous tale of crime and punishment-and redemption. |
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The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick
Orphan, clock keeper and thief, Hugo lives in the walls of a busy Paris train station, where his survival depends on secrets and anonymity. But when his world suddenly interlocks with an eccentric, bookish girl and a bitter old man who runs a toy booth in the station, Hugo’s undercover life, and his most precious secret, are put in jeopardy. |
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Scythe by Neal Shusterman
A dark, gripping and witty thriller in which the only thing humanity has control over is death. In a world where disease, war and crime have been eliminated, the only way to die is to be randomly killed (“gleaned”) by professional scythes. Citra and Rowan are teenagers who have been selected to be scythes’ apprentices, and despite wanting nothing to do with the vocation, they must learn the art of killing and understand the necessity of what they do. Only one of them will be chosen as a scythe’s apprentice and as Citra and Rowan come up against a terrifyingly corrupt Scythedom, it becomes clear that the winning apprentice’s first task will be to glean the loser. |
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Nevermoor by Jessica Townsend
Morrigan Crow is cursed. Born on an unlucky day, she is blamed for all local misfortunes, from hailstorms to heart attacks – and, worst of all, the curse means that Morrigan is doomed to die at midnight on Eventide. But as Morrigan awaits her fate, a strange and remarkable man named Jupiter North appears. Chased by black-smoke hounds and shadowy hunters on horseback, he whisks her away into the safety of a secret, magical city called Nevermoor. It’s there that Morrigan discovers Jupiter has chosen her to contend for a place in the city’s most prestigious organisation: the Wundrous Society. In order to join, she must compete in four difficult and dangerous trials against hundreds of other children, each boasting an extraordinary talent that sets them apart. Except for Morrigan, who doesn’t seem to have any special talent at all. To stay in the safety of Nevermoor for good, Morrigan will need to find a way to pass the tests – or she’ll have to leave the city to confront her deadly fate. |
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The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
On the banks of the Mississippi, Tom Sawyer and his friends seek out adventure at every turn. Then one fateful night they witness a murder. The boys swear never to reveal the secret and run away to be pirates and search for hidden treasure. But when Tom gets trapped in a cave with the murderer, can he escape unharmed? |
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Stuff Happens series by various authors
Stuff Happens is an important new series for boys aged between 7 and 11 about everyday challenges. Created by series editor, Susannah McFarlane, and written by established authors Tony Wilson, Andrew Daddo, Philip Gwynne, Will Kostakis, Oliver Phommavanh, Scot Gardner, Justin D’Ath and James Roy, each book features a different character and follows them as they overcome a particular everyday challenge. It explores those everyday struggles in life that boys can sometimes be reluctant to express: quarrels with mates, a bad day at school, fear of disappointing mum and dad, rejection and not fitting in. |
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Billionaire Boy by David Walliams
Joe has a lot of reasons to be happy. About a billion of them, in fact. You see, Joe’s rich. Really, really rich. Joe’s got his own bowling alley, his own cinema, even his own butler who is also an orangutan. He’s the wealthiest twelve-year-old in the land. |
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Time Travelling with a Hamster by Ross Welford
“My dad died twice. Once when he was thirty nine and again four years later when he was twelve. The first time had nothing to do with me. The second time definitely did, but I would never even have been there if it hadn’t been for his ‘time machine’…” |
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Bridge of Clay by Marcus Zusak
Let me tell you about our brother. |
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Mirror by Jeannie Baker
Two diverse cultures, countries and families are linked with warmth and charm in this two-in-one picture book. |
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Window by Jeannie Baker
A wordless account of the reclamation of an urban landscape told through fascinating, detailed collage artwork. |
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The Feather by Freya Blackwood
This is a story about hope, kindness and redemption set in a grey dystopian world. When a great feather drifts from the leaden sky, two children recognise its extraordinariness and take it to the village for its protection. The villagers, however, want to encase it, upon which the feather loses its radiance. |
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Girl on Wire by Elsie Hurst
Girl on Wire is a simple yet brilliantly uplifting allegory of a young girl struggling to build her self-esteem and overcome the anxiety that many children feel as they grow – she walks the tightrope, afraid she will fall, but with the support of those she loves, her toes grip the wire and she walks forward, on her own, with a new confidence. |
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Tales from the Inner City by Shaun Tan
World-renowned artist Shaun Tan applies his unique imagination to a reflection on the nature of humans and animals, and our urban coexistence. From crocodile to frog, tiger to bee, this is a dark and surreal exploration of the perennial love and destruction we feel and inflict – of how animals can save us, and how our lives are forever entwined, for better or for worse. |
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Warriors by Erin Hunter
For generations, four Clans of wild cats have shared the forest according to the laws laid down by their ancestors. But now ThunderClan is in grave danger. Rival ShadowClan is growing stronger, a traitor may be hiding in their midst, and rising tensions threaten every cat in the forest. In the dark days ahead, ThunderClan’s fate will rest in the paws of an unexpected hero: an ordinary house cat named Rusty, who may yet turn out to be the bravest warrior of them all. |
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Deltora Quest by Emily Rodda
Deltora Quest tells the story of three companions – Leif, Barda and Jasmine – who are on a perilous quest to find the seven lost gems of the Belt of Deltora. |