Year Book
Synopsis
Genre Themes
7 The Jungle Book
7 The Railway Children
7 The Girl of Ink and Stars
7 Alice in Wonderland
The Jungle Book key characters are Mowgli, a boy raised by wolves. As Baloo the sleepy brown bear, Bagheera the cunning black panther, Kaa the python, and his other animal friends teach their beloved “man-cub” the ways of the jungle, Mowgli gains the strength and wisdom he needs for his frightful fight with Shere Khan, the tiger who robbed him of his human family.
This story centres on the lives of three children whose comfortable, middle-class existence ends when their father has to go away unexpectedly. They move with their mother to a small cottage in the country where life is very different. With their mother now busy writing to earn money, the railway becomes a source of fascination and solace to the children.
The Girl of Ink and Stars is a story of myth, magic and the power of friendship. Forbidden to leave her island, Isabella dreams of the faraway lands her father once mapped. When a girl from the village disappears into the island's Forgotten Territories, Isabella and her lifelong friend Pablo go in search of her.
Alice falls down a rabbit hole and lands into a fantasy world that is full of weird, wonderful people and animals. Nothing is quite as it seems, and Alice must attempt to find her way back home via tea parties, talking with a large cat and playing croquet with a rather disgruntled queen.
fantasy loyalty and family importance of rule and law courage coming of age identity.
classic fiction family responsibility kindness bravery
fantasy adventure Journey Family Friendship identity
fantasy, literary nonsense, children's fiction
coming of age identity absurdity
7 War Horse
7 Who let the Gods out?
7 When the Sky Falls
7 Welcome to nowhere
8 The Secret Garden
During the terrible and deadly chaos of World war
1, a horse witnesses the battle from both sides of the trenches. This is his story: Joey tells of the truest friendships surviving though the most terrible times. He tells of the powerful and destructive nature of war and the beauty of peace.
When a shooting star crashes to earth, it lands Eliot smack bang in the path of Virgo - a young Zodiac goddess on a mission. But when the pair accidentally release Thanatos, a wicked death daemon imprisoned beneath Stonehenge, they've got nowhere to turn for help but to the old Olympian gods.
It's 1941 during the Second World War. While everyone else seems to be evacuated to the countryside, 12-year-old Joseph is sent from rural Yorkshire to stay with his gran's friend, Mrs F, in the city. She's a gruff, unfriendly woman and he's an angry boy who kicks out at everything and feels totally abandoned.
Twelve-year-old Omar and his family live in the beautiful and bustling city of Bosra, Syria. Omar doesn't know much about politics, nor does he care, he just wants to grow up to be a successful entrepreneur. However, when his older brother, Musa, throws his lot in with the student opposition to the government, everything changes. Soon bombs are falling, people are dying, and Omar and his family have no choice but to flee their homes, and after that their country.
When the spoilt and bad-tempered Mary is orphaned at the age of ten, she is sent from India to live with her hunchback uncle on the Yorkshire Moors. At first, she is utterly miserable, but gradually the frienship of her maid and the discovery of a secret garden in the grounds of the house begin to change her.
modern classic adventure War Conflict Love Loyalty loss
adventure fantasy fiction family friendship mothers mental health myths and legends
adventure historical fiction War Coming of age Friendship Bullying Personal and Social issues
young adult fiction Refugees/asylum Family War
Politics, human rights
fiction
coming of age abandonment, the home, isolation, happiness, weakness, man and the natural world, youth.
8 The Bone Sparrow
Subhi is a refugee. Born in an Australian permanent detention centre after his mother and sister fled the violence of a distant homeland, Subhi has only ever known life behind the fences. But his world is far bigger than that—every night, the magical Night Sea from his mother's stories brings him gifts, the faraway whales sing to him, and the birds tell their stories. And as he grows, his imagination threatens to burst beyond the limits of his containment.
8 Treasure Island Treasure Island" is the story of a twelve-year-old boy, Jim Hawkins, who finds a treasure map that belonged to a pirate, Captain Flint. Jim and his friends travel to a faraway island and meet excrew members of Captain Flint, who were also looking for the treasure and take Jim as a hostage. Jim and his friends escape from the pirates and the island with the treasure.
8 Private Peaceful
8 Long Walk to Water
8 I am David
The Peaceful brothers, Tommo and Charlie, have a tough rural childhood facing the death of their father, financial hardship and a cruel landlord. Their fierce loyalty to each other pulls them through, until one day they both fall for the same girl. And then the Great War comes.
Based on the war in Southern Sudan, this story
fictionalizes the story of Nya who walks eight hours every day for water and Salva whose survival as a refugee, inspires his commitment to raise funds and build wells to provide clean water for African communities. A tale of survival that celebrates survival and how empathy can help those in need and make a better world.
David's entire twelve-year life has been spent in a grisly prison camp in Eastern Europe. He knows nothing of the outside world. But when he is given the chance to escape, he seizes it. With his vengeful enemies hot on his heels, David struggles to cope in this strange new world, where his only resources are a compass, a few crusts of bread, his two aching feet, and some vague advice to seek refuge in Denmark. Is that enough to survive?
historical fiction, modern classic Immigration political oppression, prejudice war bereavement family separation
Adventure Young adult fiction adventure, escapism, loyalty, bravery growing up pirates
children's modern classic cruelty of war power family loyalty, courage, regret
Historical Fiction. Family Identity death.
8 Bear Grylls, Blood, sweat and tears
8 Sword in the Stone
9 Wonder
9 Goldfish boy
9 The Day of the Triffids
This is the thrilling story of everyone's favourite reallife action man - from secret childhood missions to climb the town's school buildings and steeples, to starring in his own global TV series and becoming Chief Scout to the Scouting Association.
The extraordinary story of a boy called Wart –ignored by everyone except his tutor, Merlyn –who goes on to become King Arthur.
Children's classic, Fantasy Myth and magic Friendship Loyalty Education Society, power
August (Auggie) Pullman was born with a severe facial difference that, up until now, has prevented him from going to a mainstream school.
Starting 5th grade at Beecher Prep, Auggie wants nothing more than to be treated as an ordinary kid—but his new classmates can’t get past his extraordinary face.
Twelve-year-old Matthew is trapped in his bedroom by crippling OCD, spending most of his time staring out of his window as the inhabitants of Chestnut Close go about their business.
Until the day he is the last person to see his next door neighbour's toddler, Teddy, before he goes missing.
After most people in the world are blinded by an apparent meteor shower, an aggressive species of plant starts killing people.
young adult, fiction, coming of age friendship, family, empathy, appearance vs. reality, being an outsider
Mystery, Realistic Fiction
Bereavement & loss, struggling with personal flaws, Mental health, Identity & difference
Science-Fiction
The Conflict between Necessity & Moral Norms, Hope, The Fragility of Human Domination, Catastrophe, Evolution, Dystopian Society.
9 The Outsiders
9 The Hunger Games
The novel tells the story of Ponyboy Curtis and his struggles with right and wrong in a society in which he believes that he is an outsider.
Fiction
Young-adult Drama
16-year-old Katniss Everdeen, a girl from District 12, volunteers for the 74th Hunger Games in place of her younger sister Primrose Everdeen. Also selected from District 12 is Peeta Mellark, who once saved Katniss from starvation when they were children. They are mentored by their district's only living victor, Haymitch Abernathy, who won 24 years earlier and has since led a solitary life of alcoholism.
Action Science-fiction
Young adult Dystopian-fiction
Gang violence, KnifeCrime, Family, Identity, Coming of age, Crime, Death
Responsibility, tyranny, loyalty, death & violence, friendship, oppression, poverty, love, sacrifice
9 I am Malala
The amazing story of Malala’s courage and her fight for the education of girls is well known. Here, in her own voice, she tells of her journey from her early days as a clever school girl to her exceptional life as an international speaker on the rights of girls to get an education.
Non fiction Autobiography
Women’s rights Persecution Education Oppression
9 Stone Cold
17-year-old Link is distrustful of people until he pairs up with Deb, homeless like him. But what Deb doesn't tell him is that she's an ambitious young journalist on a self-imposed assignment to track down the killer and that she's prepared to use herself as bait ...
Young adult Adventure Thriller Homelessness Prejudice
10
Across the Barricades
In 1942, with the Nazis occupying Holland, a thirteen-year-old Jewish girl and her family fled their home in Amsterdam and went into hiding. For the next two years, until their whereabouts were betrayed to the Gestapo, the Franks and another family lived cloistered in the “Secret Annexe” of an old office building.
Non-fiction History
Autobiography
10
10
Machine Gunners
The short story tells the tale of two families; one Catholic and one Protestant and the violence that flares around them. Regardless of their religious divide, Sadie and Kevin fall in love. Their love comes with dangerous consequences, but this doesn't stop the pair meeting up in secret. Things are bad in Belfast. Soldiers walk the streets, and the city is divided. This is an interesting look into life in Northern Ireland in the 70s when bombing, shooting and murder were commonplace, this story suggests that this was a nightly occurrence, and nobody was safe.
Set during WW2, the Nazi planes are raining bombs on England night after night. Every boy in Garmouth has a collection of shrapnel and other war souvenirs. But nothing comes close to the working machine gun Chas McGill pulls out of a downed bomber.
While the police search frantically for the missing gun, Chas and his friends build a secret fortress to fight the Germans themselves.
The War of the Worlds
A strange meteor-like object lands in the heart of England, the inhabitants of earth find themselves the victims of a terrible attack. A ruthless race of Martians, armed with lethal heat rays, is intent on destroying everything in its way and claiming the earth's resources for their own.
Coming of Age, Identity, Jewish consciousness, AntiSemitism, Virtue, War, Duty, Suffering.
Young-adult, Historicalfiction Religious divide, difference, friendship & trust, betrayal &treachery, violence.
Young-adult Historical fiction War & Conflict, Friendship, Trust & Secrets
classic science fiction conflict, imperialism/invasion, development of technology, nature, power, community
10
Around the World in 80 days
Touching the void
Phileas Fogg of London and his newly employed French valet Passepartout attempt to circumnavigate the world in 80 days on a wager of £20,000 (equivalent to £1.9 million in 2019) set by his friends at the Reform Club.
Adventure Chance
Adventure Human connection
Friendship Travel
Touching the Void is the heart-stopping account of Joe Simpson's terrifying adventure in the Peruvian Andes. He and his climbing partner, Simon, reached the the summit of the remote Siula Grande in June 1995. A few days later, Simon staggered into Base Camp, exhausted and frost-bitten, with news that Joe was dead.
Non-fiction
Autobiography
Adventure Suspense
Friendship Identity