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Robert Westall

Is there a barrier that divides the dark unknown from the everyday world around us? 
 
If so, is it broken sometimes by the dead returning, by the undead, or by alien creatures? 
 
What else could account for the chance meeting (or was it?) between a young student and hitch-hiker who turns out to be so much stranger than she seems? Why else should three successive crews flying a Second World War bomber - Blackham's Wimpey - be driven to madness, despair, even to death, though the plane returns from each mission without a scratch? Who are Fred, Alice and Aunty Lou; the figments of Peter's imagination that become a real life nightmare for Roger and Biddy? 
 
There is St Austin Friars, too: a church without a congregation - until a burial service, oddly arranged a month ahead, is attended by a sinister assortment of the living and the dead. And Sergeant Nice, an ordinary policeman in an ordinary seaside town faced with a series of quite extraordinary thefts; the work surely, of no human hand. 
 
Chilling, but often humorous as well, these stories creep up on you and take you by surprise.

Break Of Dark

Andy Mulligan

NOW A MAJOR FILM BY STEPHEN DALDRY AND RICHARD CURTIS 
 
Raphael is a dumpsite boy. He spends his days wading through mountains of steaming trash, sifting it, sorting it, breathing it, sleeping next to it. 
 
Then one unlucky-lucky day, Raphael's world turns upside down. A small leather bag falls into his hands. It's a bag of clues. It's a bag of hope. It's a bag that will change everything. 
 
Soon Raphael and his friends Gardo and Rat are running for their lives. Wanted by the police, it takes all their quick-thinking and fast-talking to stay ahead. As the net tightens, they uncover a dead man's mission to put right a terrible wrong. 
 
And now it's three street boys against the world...

Trash

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. 
 
If you do start to read this book, you will go on a journey with a nine-year-old boy called Bruno. And sooner or later you will arrive with Bruno at a fence. 
 
We hope you never have to cross such a fence.

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

Anthony McGowan

Anthony McGowan is the Carnegie Medal 2020 winning author of Lark. 
Sent to Hell for typical teenage misdemeanours, Conor is surprised to find that it's not all pitchforks and leaping flames. But an eternity in a fusty cave full of philosophy books and obscure classical music is actually worse. 
Then Conor realizes that his personal version of Hell might be someone else's idea of Heaven - and vice versa. He sets out on a filthy, funny and forbidden journey to search for his opposite number, accompanied by his repulsive pet dog, a depressed cross-dressing Viking and a stumpy devil called Clarence. What he sees is disgusting and what he discovers is shocking, but oddly enough Conor learns a hell of a lot about life - now that he's dead!

Hellbent

Jack Gantos

Sixteen-year-old Walker has accidentally discvered that two female classmates are lovers. When a rabid evangelical preacher arrives in their town, a witch-hunt is launched against gay students and Walker, for some reason, is the prime target. Walker knows the quickest way to divert the attention would be to give away the girls' secret - but should he sacrifice their peace of mind for his? A powerful, unusual and thought-provoking read from an award-winning author.

Desire Lines

Siobhan Dowd

Digging for peat in the mountain with his Uncle Tally, Fergus finds the body of a child, and it looks like she's been murdered. As Fergus tries to make sense of the mad world around him - his brother on hunger-strike in prison, his growing feelings for Cora, his parents arguing over the Troubles, and him in it up to the neck, blackmailed into acting as courier to God knows what, a little voice comes to him in his dreams, and the mystery of the bog child unfurls. 
 
Bog Child is an astonishing novel exploring the sacrifices made in the name of peace, and the unflinching strength of the human spirit.

Bog Child

Markus Zusak

SPECIAL 10TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION with exclusive extra behind-the-scenes material from the author 
 
It is 1939. In Nazi Germany, the country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier - and will become busier still. 
 
By her brother's graveside, Liesel's life is changed forever when she picks up a single object, abandoned in the snow. It is The Gravedigger's Handbook, and this is her first act of book thievery. So begins Liesel's love affair with books and words, and soon she is stealing from Nazi book-burnings, the mayor's wife's library . . . wherever there are books to be found. 
 
But these are dangerous times, and when Liesel's foster family hides a Jew in their basement, nothing will ever be the same again. 
 
In superbly crafted writing that burns with intensity, award-winning author Markus Zusak has given us one of the most enduring stories of our time. 
 
Now a major film from Twentieth-Century Fox starring Geoffrey Rush and Emily Watson.

The Book Thief

Film Tie-in Enhanced Edition

Aidan Chambers

Subtitled The Pillow Book of Cordelia Kenn this is the story of Cordelia from the time she is 15 until she is 20. She is pregnant and plans to give this account to her daughter on her 16th birthday so that they can share their youth together. She chooses the old and famous Japanese book, 'The Pillow Book' by Sei Shonagon, as a model in order to include all kinds of things she has already written as well as the episodes and thoughts she has now as she compiles her book. 
 
She tells of her mother (who died when Cordelia was 5) of her father and her aunt Doris (who marry when she is 16), of her love for William Blacklin, the boy with whom she chooses to have her first sex - and with whom she falls deeply in love. She writes about Julie Martin her teacher who helps her spiritually, describes her love affair with an older married man and her terrifying sexual experience with an unbalanced young man who is obsessed with her. The book includes thoughts on being a women, on poetry, music, reading and writing, on being pregnant and finally of her marriage to William. 
 
This Is All is an anthology, written in six 'books' of Cordelia's adolescent life, by turns funny, poignant, sad, exciting, fascinating ironic and truthful about topics that parents often do not tell their children. It is a richly entertaining and challenging read.

This Is All

After Shell's mother dies, her obsessively religious father descends into alcoholic mourning and Shell is left to care for her younger brother and sister. Her only release from the harshness of everyday life comes from her budding spiritual friendship with a naive young priest, and most importantly, her developing relationship with childhood friend, Declan, charming, eloquent and persuasive. But when Declan suddenly leaves Ireland to seek his fortune in America, Shell finds herself pregnant and the centre of a scandal that rocks the small community in which she lives, with repercussions across the whole country. The lives of those immediately around her will never be the same again.

A Swift Pure Cry

Trevor Colgan

Luke is fed up. Just as his football team has made it to the semi-finals of the All Ireland Schoolboys' League, his mother has decided to move him to Dun Laoghaire. For her it means a new job - perhaps a new man. But for Luke it means the loss of his footballing dream and struggling to fit into a new school. Whom can he trust? Cecilia whose bullying boyfriend wants to beat him to a pulp? Ella the quiet Man City Fan he sits next to? And will he be able to create a half-decent football team in Dun Laoghaire?

The Stretford Enders

From the author of The Book Thief comes this darkly funny and ultimately uplifting thriller which proves that anyone can be extraordinary. 
 
Ed Kennedy is just your less-than-average Joe who is hopelessly in love with his best friend, Audrey. But after he single-handedly manages to catch a bank robber, he receives a playing card in the mail: the Ace of Diamonds. This is the first message. Four more will follow. But before this particular card game can end, Ed will be changed forever . . . 
 
Will Audrey love the man he has become?

I Am the Messenger

Memories of Mum are the only thing that make Holly Hogan happy. She hates her foster family with their too-nice ways and their false sympathy. And she hates her life, her stupid school and the way everyone is always on at her. Then she finds the wig, and everything changes. Wearing the long, flowing blonde locks she feels transformed. She's not Holly any more, she's Solace: the girl with the slinkster walk and the super-sharp talk. She's older, more confident - the kind of girl who can walk right out of her humdrum life, hitch to Ireland and find her mum. The kind of girl who can face the world head on. 
 
So begins a bittersweet, and sometimes hilarious journey as Solace swaggers and Holly tiptoes across England and through memory, discovering her true self, and unlocking the secrets of her past. Holly's story will leave a lasting impression on all who travel with her.

Solace of the Road

Chloe Rayban

Justine Duval has modest goals in life: to attain celebrity status, earn stacks of cash, be drop dead gorgeous and find pure, unadulterated love. Simple. By achieving her ambitions of fame, money, beauty and a bloke, Justine will cunningly evade ever becoming Grown-Up-and-Past-It. And a bizarre meeting with her future self - ten years older and ten years wiser - gives Justine the chance to really get to grips with her ultimate destiny...in more ways than one.

Wild Child

Tabitha Suzuma

Raven is a deeply disturbed teenager, who, after witnessing the death of his mother, is placed in foster care. The Russells do their best to earn his trust, but only little Ella manages to get through to him. 
Meanwhile, at school, bullies are making his life a living hell. An unexpected companion comes in the form of Lotte, a classmate bored by her 'ordinary' friends. Together, they track down Raven's mum's killer, with the goal of exposing him to the police. But their carefully crafted plan goes dangerously wrong and suddenly nothing is as it seems. Everything is falling apart and, ultimately, there is only one, final way out.

From Where I Stand

Linda Newbery

Following the success of The Shell House, Linda Newbery again demonstrates her brilliance at weaving thought-provoking subjects into a wholly satisfying and sensitively drawn novel. 
 
Hilly's German grandmother, HeidiGran, comes to live with her family after she gets Alzheimer's disease; but as her mind becomes more muddled, secrets from her memories of life during the Second World War start to emerge. 
 
Why does HeidiGran keep talking about a girl called Rachel? And why does she make racist remarks about Hilly's friend, Reuben? As Hilly struggles to cope with revelations about her family's past, she encounters racism and prejudice for herself when a friend becomes the victim of a mindless attack. She also falls in love for the first time. 
 
This is a wonderfully evocative novel exploring the recurring prejudices that affect every generation.

Sisterland

Catherine Fisher

Rob's sister Chloe lies in a coma after a riding accident, trapped in a forest of dreams between life and death. But when a dark druid shape-shifts his way into Rob's life, despair turns to hope. Because the druid knows the way through the Unworld, where he claims Chloe is imprisoned. Could the ominous black ring of timbers slowly emerging from a secret archaeological dig hold the key to rescuing her? And will Chloe want to be rescued from a world where the landscapes of story merge and blur, and she has the chance to be Queen? Catherine Fisher's new novel combines a fascinating exploration of Celtic myth with a modern quest for understanding. Where is the land of the imagination? And if we found our way would we ever want to come back?

Darkhenge

Jenny Downham

When Mikey's sister claims a boy assaulted her, his world begins to fall apart. 
 
When Ellie's brother is charged with the offence, her world begins to unravel. 
 
When Mikey and Ellie meet, their worlds collide. 
 
A brave and unflinching novel from the bestselling author of Before I Die, about first love, loyalty, betrayal and truth.

You Against Me

She is pretty and talented - sweet sixteen and never been kissed. 
He is seventeen; gorgeous and on the brink of a bright future. 
And now they have fallen in love. 
 
But . . . 
They are brother and sister. 
 
Forbidden will take you on an extraordinary emotional journey. Passionate and shocking, this is a book you will remember long after you have put it down.

Forbidden

United under the banner of flash fiction, this is a collection of stories, or little 'cells', complete in themselves but connected by the overarching themes of betrayal and revenge. All featuring teenagers and often with an unexpected twist, these frighteningly realistic stories will take you to the very edge and beyond.

The Kissing Game

Fox Benwell

And these are they. My final moments. They say a warrior must always be mindful of death, but I never imagined that it would find me like this . . . 
 
Japanese teenager Sora is diagnosed with ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease). Lonely and isolated, Sora turns to the ancient wisdom of the samurai for guidance and comfort. But he also finds hope in the present; through the internet he finds friends that see him, not just his illness. This is a story of friendship and acceptance, and testing strength in an uncertain future.

The Last Leaves Falling

John Rowe Townsend

The inhabitants of Halcyon Island are ruled by the laws of the Deliverer and follow the same customs and traditions that have prevailed for hundreds of years. The laws state 'No incomers', but when Thomas and Molly find a shipwrecked canoe with a boy and girl, barely alive, inside they are determined not to reject them outright. New blood on the island is bound to cause a disturbance, but the effects the incomers have on the close-knit community are beyond anyone's predictions.

The Islanders

At seventeen, Matheo Walsh is Britain’s most promising diving champion. He is wealthy, popular - and there's Lola, the girlfriend of his dreams. 
 
But then there was that weekend. A weekend he cannot bring himself to remember. All he knows is that what happened has changed him. 
 
Mathéo is faced with the most devastating choice of his life. Keep his secret, and put those closest to him in terrible danger. Or confess, and lose Lola for ever . . .

Hurt

Gayle Forman

Following a horrific car accident in which she was the only survivor, seventeen year old Mia is faced with a choice. Does she stay, living with her grandparents and her loving boyfriend, or does she leave? She makes a difficult decision, leaving  it all behind her, breaking Adam's heart. Three years later, and the pair find themselves thrown together in New York, reminding Mia of her past and everything that she left behind her. If I stay and Where She Went are simultaneously tragic and hopeful, exploring grief, romance and memory.

NOW A MAJOR FILM STARRING CHLOE GRACE MORETZ 
 
'Just listen,' Adam says with a voice that sounds like shrapnel.' I open my eyes wide now. I sit up as much as I can. And I listen. 
'Stay,' he says. 
 
Everybody has to make choices. 
 
Some might break you. 
 
For seventeen-year-old Mia, surrounded by a wonderful family, friends and a gorgeous boyfriend decisions might seem tough, but they're all about a future full of music and love, a future that's brimming with hope. 
 
But life can change in an instant. 
 
A cold February morning . . . a snowy road . . . and suddenly all of Mia's choices are gone. Except one. 
 
As alone as she'll ever be, Mia must make the most difficult choice of all. 
 
Haunting, heartrending and ultimately life-affirming, If I Stay will make you appreciate all that you have, all that you've lost - and all that might be. 
 
Includes interviews with the stars of the film, Chloe Moretz and Jamie Blackley.

If I Stay

Alan Durant

Cheap tabloid headlines scream the brutal facts at 17-year-old Robert Harrison: his parents have been shot dead in the sitting room of their suburban home. Robert's initial shock and anger is soon replaced by a growing sence of a conspiracy to protect him from the truth. So he decides to investigate the murder himself and the secrets he uncovers about his parents lead him to the brink of sanity and put his life in danger . . .

Blood

Keith Gray

'Hundreds of people want to be in a band. They all get guitars and they all play gigs and they all write songs, and they still never make it.'There's a big difference between being a rock star and a pop idol - Will and Danny know which they'd prefer to be. They form the group Happy and it seems they are on the way to realising their ambitions. But when Happy's first gig is cut short by a fire at the venue, Will struggles to cope with his bitter disappointment and retreats into his private world, rejecting everyone around him. His girlfriend, Beth turns to Danny for comfort and their friendship soon becomes something more. With nothing left for him at home, Will leaves for London to stay with his session-musician father and to follow his dream.

Happy

Tessa has just a few months to live. So she compiles her bucket list, her To Do Before I Die list. Number one is sex. 
 
Released from the constraints of 'normal' life, Tessa tastes new experiences to make her feel alive while her failing body struggles to keep up. 
 
Heartbreaking yet astonishingly life-affirming, Before I Die will take you to the very edge.

Before I Die

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