Other Words for Smoke
by Sarah Maria Griffin
Young Adult – Suitable for 14+
Mae and Rossa are twins beginning to unravel from one another as they come to terms with who they are. Sent to their Aunt’s house for the Summer, they meet the enthralling Bevan and a talking cat named Bobby Dear. As the story simultaneously unravels, we learn that supernatural forces live within the walls of the house, bent on manipulation and power, feeding on fear. This beautifully odd coming of age tale is woven with layers of magical realism and dark Irish history. It is stunning.
Review by Doreen Lundon, JCSP Librarian, Mount Seskin Community College.
Raybearer
by Jordan Ifueko
Young Adult – Fantasy – Mythology – Suitable for 14+
Tarisai has always craved her evasive mother’s approval, but when sent to infiltrate the palace of the Crown Prince and complete an act of violence, family loyalty is tested. Close new bonds are formed with Tarisai’s new chosen family, the Prince and his Council of Eleven. Tarisai must not only choose her own path, but carve it out. Sure to appeal not only to young adults, this West African inspired fantasy is refreshingly unusual and dark, yet full of colour, joy and Nigerian mythology.
Review by Doreen Lundon, JCSP Librarian, Mount Seskin Community College.
The Gifted, the Talented and Me
by William Sutcliffe
Young Adult – Suitable for 14+
“We’re rich!” said Mum, leaping up with Freya still in her arms and beginning to dance around the kitchen. “We’re rich! We’re rich! Goodbye, Stevenage! Goodbye cramped, boxy little house! It’s going to be a whole new life! Nobody believed he could do it but he did! He made it! We’re rich!” “How rich?” said Ethan. “Comfortable” said Dad. “Stinking” said Mum “Not stinking, “ said Dad. “Mildly smelly”. …read more
All The Bad Apples
by Moira Fowley-Doyle
Young Adult – Suitable for 14+
This book opens with a killer paragraph that had me gripped from the start “On my seventeenth birthday, two things happened. I came out to my family (somewhat by accident). And my sister Mandy disappeared. Died. … But I knew Mandy wasn’t dead.” We are soon immersed in Deena’s everyday life, and the threatening air of mystery that starts to become entangled with the regular everyday events of her school and relationship struggles. The book has an ominous start as we begin to feel Deena is haunted, and there is worse to come. Then events take a stranger turn, and we begin to wonder what is real and what is magical, what is lies and what is the truth. …read more
Toffee
by Sarah Crossan
Young Adult – Suitable for 15+
Toffee is Sarah Crossan’s most recent Young Adult novel, and like her others, it is a novel written in verse. The novel opens with “Toffee” (real name Allison), on the run from her abusive father. She finds secret shelter in the home of Marla, who has dementia. At the beginning, Marla and Allison are grasping to remember who they really are. Marla because of her dementia, and Allison because she has buried so much of her identity and memories in order to survive. Gradually they begin to recover parts of themselves, and in their recovery, they grow closer and help each other to find a little happiness and comfort. …read more
Final Draft
by Riley Redgate
Young Adult – Suitable for 14+
Meet Laila Piedra, a straight-laced student with a love for reading, watching and more particularly writing sci-fi. When her favourite teacher and number one writing fan, Mr. Madison, is hurt in a car accident, Laila starts to look at her writing differently. She has a new-found feeling of lived experience that affects what goes into her stories. A new teacher is assigned to her creative writing class to replace Mr. Madison, a Pulitzer Prize winning author who is unimpressed with Laila’s work. She pushes Laila to step away from her stories and to take risks, something she has successfully avoided her whole life. …read more
Lanny
by Max Porter
Young Adult – Suitable for 15+
“Dead Papa Toothwort is awake. He is listening to this twenty-first-century village, to his English symphony. He is listening, intently, for a mischievous, enchanting boy whose parents have recently made the village their home. Lanny. “ Papa Toothwort is a the kind of boogey man that every kid in Lanny’s village tells scary stories about – every adult too – but nobody believes he’s real. That’s because they can’t sense things the way Lanny can. But Papa Toothwort is always listening. …read more
Perfectly Preventable Deaths by Deirdre Sullivan
This is a perfectly atmospheric and spooky October read!
Fifteen-year-old twins Madeline and Catlin move to a new life in Ballyfran, a strange isolated town, a place where, for the last sixty years, teenage girls have gone missing in the surrounding mountains.
As distance grows between the twins – as Catlin falls in love, and Madeline begins to understand her own nascent witchcraft – Madeline discovers that Ballyfrann is a place full of predators. Not only foxes, owls and crows, but also supernatural beings who for many generations have congregated here to escape persecution. When Catlin falls into the gravest danger of all, Madeline must ask herself who she really is, and who she wants to be – or rather, who she might have to become to save her sister.
Dark and otherworldly, this is an enthralling story about the bond between sisters and the sacrifices we make for those we care about the most.
Suitable for 14+
Begone the Reggedy Witches by Celine Kiernan
On the night that Aunty dies the Raggedy Witches come for Mup’s mam. Pale, cold, relentless, they will do anything to coax Mam back to Witches Borough. When they kidnap Mup’s dad, Mup and her mam must leave the mundane world to rescue him. But Mam is strange on this side of the border – striding, powerful, and distant. Even if they can save Dad, Mup is not sure anything will ever be the same again.
Flying Tips for Flightless Birds by Kelly McCaughrain
Twins Finch and Birdie Franconi are stars of the flying trapeze. But when Birdie suffers a terrifying accident, Finch must team up with the geeky new kid, Hector Hazzard, to form an all-boys double act and save the family circus school. Together they learn to walk the high-wire of teen life and juggle the demands of friends, family, first love and facing up to who they are – all served up with a dash of circus-showbiz magic. Winner of the CBI Book of the Year Award 2019
The Day Before by Micol Ostow
Based on the massively successful CW show, Riverdale, this prequel novel explores what the gang was doing before Season One.
Why did Jughead and Archie have a falling out? What did Veronica’s life look like in the Big Apple? And how long has Betty really been in love with Archie?
Told from multiple points of view, your favorite characters tell their story their way.
Suitable for 13+
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The Crossover by Kwame Alexander
“With a bolt of lightning on my kicks . . .The court is SIZZLING. My sweat is DRIZZLING. Stop all that quivering. Cuz tonight I’m delivering,” announces dread-locked, 12-year old Josh Bell. He and his twin brother Jordan are awesome on the court. But Josh has more than basketball in his blood, he’s got mad beats, too, that tell his family’s story in verse, in this fast and furious middle grade novel of family and brotherhood.
Josh and Jordan must come to grips with growing up on and off the court to realize breaking the rules comes at a terrible price, as their story’s heart-stopping climax proves a game-changer for the entire family.
Tuesdays Are Just As Bad by Cethan Leahy
“What would you do if you were haunted by yourself?”
When Adam wakes in hospital after a failed suicide attempt, he finds that he is not alone. In his room is someone only he can see and hear. Tied together by an invisible bond, Adam on his ghostly companion try to find a way to co-exist as Adam works to get his life back on track. But life is never that simple and as the pressure builds on Adam to appear ‘normal’, will his constant shadow turn out to be friend or foe?
Suitable for 14+
The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness
Todd Hewitt is the only boy in a town of men. Ever since the settlers were infected with the Noise germ, Todd can hear everything the men think, and they hear everything he thinks. Todd is just a month away from becoming a man, but in the midst of the cacophony, he knows that the town is hiding something from him — something so awful Todd is forced to flee with only his dog, whose simple, loyal voice he hears too. With hostile men from the town in pursuit, the two stumble upon a strange and eerily silent creature: a girl. Who is she? Why wasn’t she killed by the germ like all the females on New World? Propelled by Todd’s gritty narration, readers are in for a white-knuckle journey in which a boy on the cusp of manhood must unlearn everything he knows in order to figure out who he truly is.
Northern Lights (His Dark Materials #1) by Philip Pullman
When Lyra’s friend Roger disappears, she and her dæmon, Pantalaimon, determine to find him. The ensuing quest leads them to the bleak splendour of the North, where armoured bears rule the ice and witch-queens fly through the frozen skies – and where a team of scientists is conducting experiments too horrible to be spoken about. Lyra overcomes these strange terrors, only to find something yet more perilous waiting for her – something with consequences which may even reach beyond the Northern Lights.
The Deepest Breath by Meg Grehan
Stevie is eleven and loves reading and sea-creatures. She lives with her mum, and she’s been best friends with Andrew since forever. Stevie’s mum teases her that someday they’ll get married, but Stevie knows that won’t ever happen. There’s a girl at school that she likes more. A lot more. Actually, she’s a bit confused about how much she likes her. It’s nothing like the way she likes Andrew. It makes her fizz inside. That’s a new feeling, one she doesn’t understand. Stevie needs to find out if girls can like girls – love them, even – but it’s hard to get any information, and she’s too shy to ask out loud about it. But maybe she can find an answer in a book. With the help of a librarian, Stevie finds stories of girls loving girls, and builds up her courage to share the truth with her mum. Written in accessible verse `chapters’ and in a warm and reassuring style, The Deepest Breath will be of special relevance to young girls who are starting to realise that they are attracted to other girls, but it is also a story for any young reader with an open mind who wants to understand how people’s emotions affect their lives.
Star by Star by Sheena Wilkinson
Stella has always looked forward to changing the world. It’s what she was brought up to do, by a suffragette mother who knew all about fighting and rebellion. But it’s November 1918. The great flu pandemic sweeping the world has robbed Stella of her mother and her home, and she’s alone in a strange country, with an aunt she’s never met. But change is coming – the war is over, and women are about to vote for the first time. History is being made, but how can she help make it? As election day approaches, a day that will transform Ireland forever, Stella realises that she can indeed change the world. Not alone, and not all at once. But just as stars come one by one to brighten the night sky, so history is made person by person, girl by girl.
