Young Adult Book of the Month
November 2024
Handle With Care Written by Louisa Reid
No one knows Ruby is pregnant - not even Ruby herself. So when she gives birth at school on a miserable February morning, her world is thrown into chaos.
Keeping the baby isn't an option, but keeping quiet about who the father of her child definitely is; because if Ruby's best friend Ashley finds out the truth, then she'll lose her too.
When Ruby finally realises what she and her baby need, somehow that doesn't seem to matter any more. So Ruby must take matters into her own hands, with tragic consequences.
October 2024
Witch by Finbar Hawkins
Set in the 17th century, a breathtaking debut, and a potential prize-winner, about the power of women, witchcraft, fury, revenge and the ties that bind us.
After witnessing the brutal murder of her mother by witch-hunters, Evey vows to avenge her and track down the killers. Fury burns in her bright and strong. But she has promised her mother that she will keep Dill, her little sister, safe.
As the lust for blood and retribution rises to fever pitch, will Evey keep true to the bonds of sisterhood and to the magick that is her destiny?
September 2024
You Could Be So Pretty by Holly Bourne
In Belle and Joni's world there are two options for girls: follow the rules of the Doctrine, apply your Mask and be a Pretty, or fight the rules, leave your face bare and become an Objectionable. But maybe there is a third option...change the rules and reclaim your power. What would you choose?
August 2024
One of us is Lying by Karen M. McManus
Five students walk into detention. Only four come out alive.
Yale hopeful Bronwyn has never publicly broken a rule.
Sports star Cooper only knows what he's doing in the baseball diamond.
Bad boy Nate is one misstep away from a life of crime.
Prom queen Addy is holding together the cracks in her perfect life.
And outsider Simon, creator of the notorious gossip app at Bayview High, won't ever talk about any of them again.
He dies 24 hours before he could post their deepest secrets online. Investigators conclude it's no accident. All of them are suspects.
Everyone has secrets, right?
What really matters is how far you'll go to protect them.
July 2024
Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard
The Reds are commoners, ruled by a Silver elite in possession of god-like superpowers.
To Mare Barrow, a seventeen-year-old Red thief from the poverty-stricken Stilts where the only possible future is conscription into the empire's endless war, it seems like nothing will ever change, especially now her brothers and her best friend have all been called up to spill their blood for their oppressor.
Then she finds herself recruited to work in the Silver Palace by an enigmatic stranger who turns out to be none other than the crown prince himself, Tiberias Calore. Here, surrounded by the people she hates the most, Mare discovers that she possesses a deadly power of her own - one that threatens to upend their entire world order.
Fearful of Mare's potential, the Silvers hide her in plain view, declaring her a long-lost Silver princess, now engaged to Maven Calore, their future king's brother. Even though she knows one misstep means certain death, Mare still works silently to help the Red Guard, a militant resistance group, in a desperate guerrilla effort to bring down the Silver regime once and for all.
But this is a world not only of ultimate bloodshed but also of ultimate betrayal, and Mare has been sucked into a dangerous dance - Red against Silver, prince against prince, brother against brother, head against heart . . .
June 2024
The Night Itself by Zoe Marriott
When Mio steals the family's katana, a priceless ancestral sword, from her parents attic, she just wants to spice up a fancy-dress costume. But the katana is much more than some dusty antique and her actions unleash a terrible, ancient evil onto the streets of unsuspecting London. Soon Shinobu, a fearless warrior boy, appears to protect Mio,
and threatens to steal her heart. With the gods and monsters of Japanese myth stalking her and her friends, Mio realizes that if she cannot keep the sword safe, and learn to control its legendary powers, she will lose not only her own life ... but the love of a lifetime.
May 2024
Splinters of Sunshine by Patrice Lawrence
I pick up the envelope... As I rip down the sides, there's loads of paper bursting out; stuck on flowers, dandelions, roses...
Spey recently received two surprises. The first: his ex-prisoner dad turning up unannounced, and the second: a mysterious package containing torn-up paper flowers. Spey instantly recognises it as a collage he made with his old friend Dee, and decides she must be in danger, but there are no clues to her whereabouts.
There's only one person he knows who can help to track her down...
On a road trip like no other, will Spey and his dad find Dee, before it's too late?
April 2024
No Fixed Address by Susin Nielsen
Felix Knutsson is nearly thirteen, lives with his mother and pet gerbil Horatio, and is brilliant at memorising facts and trivia. But Felix and his mom Astrid have a secret: they are living in a van. Astrid promises it’s only for a while until she finds a new job, and begs Felix not to breathe a word about it. So when Felix starts at a new school, he does his very best to hide the fact that most of his clothes are in storage, he only showers weekly at the community centre, and that he doesn’t have enough to eat. When his friends Dylan and Winnie ask to visit, Felix always has an excuse.
March 2024
Catch Your Death by Ravena Guron
When three girls are stranded at the grand Bramble Estate in the middle of a snowstorm, they stumble into a murder plot. Someone has poisoned wealthy Emily Vanforte in the middle of a family dinner - which means Devi, Lizzie and Jayne are trapped in the house with a killer and a mystery to solve. With knives under floorboards, vanishing guns and secret passages in the walls, no one is safe and everyone is a suspect. But in a house of liars and corruption, will the girls save themselves...or learn to fit in?
February 2024
Heartstopper Volume 5 by Alice Oseman
Nick and Charlie are very much in love. They've finally said those three little words, and Charlie has almost persuaded his mum to let him sleep over at Nick's house ... But with Nick going off to university next year, is everything about to change?
January 2024
The First Move by Jenny Ireland
Juliet believes girls like her - girls with arthritis - don't get their own love stories. She exists at the edges of her friends' social lives, skipping parties to play online chess under a pseudonym with strangers around the world. There, she isn't just 'the girl with crutches'.
Ronan is the new kid: good looking, smart, a bad boy plagued by guilt over what happened to his brother Ciaran. Chesslife is his escape.
Juliet thinks Ronan thinks someone like Ronan could never be interested in someone like her - and she wouldn't want him to be anyway - he always acts like he's cooler than everyone else.
Little do they know they've already discovered each other online, and have more in common than they think . . .
December 2023
Cinderella is Dead by Kalynn Bayron
It’s been 200 years since Cinderella found her prince but the story never ends for Sophia and the rest of the girls in her village.
Every girl is expected live by the story of Cinderella until they are sent to the Royal Ball for the Choosing Ceremony. You have to be kind, helpful and prove you would be a worthy wife and mother. But you only have one chance to be chosen by a man and if you are not chosen then you become a forfeit.
Sophia does not want to be chosen and she doesn’t want the girl she loves to be chosen either, so she runs. Pushed to breaking point by a society who won’t let her be who she is, Sophia sets out on a journey to remake her world. A world where she and every other girl gets to choose and live their own life.
November 2023
Vega Jane and the end of time by David Baldacci
Packed with thrilling dangers and terrifying monsters Vega Jane and the End of Time is the fourth and final title in the epic, fast-paced fantasy adventures series for children of 10+ by bestselling master storyteller David Baldacci. Illustrated in black and white throughout by Tomislav Tomic.
When evil comes, heroes stand to meet it.
Vega Jane has tried to outrun, outsmart, and outlast her enemy, but the showdown she has dreaded is finally here. Her ragtag crew of friends and fighters must take a stand against a fully trained army, knowing the odds are impossible. But when you face injustice, the only choice is to stand and fight.