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The Originals

25 books in this series
Book cover of The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 ¾ by Sue Townsend

The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 ¾

At thirteen years old, Adrian Mole has more than his fair share of problems - spots, ill-health, parents threatening to divorce, rejection of his poetry and much more - all recorded with brilliant humour in his diary.
Book cover of The Tulip Touch by Anne Fine

The Tulip Touch

Nobody wants Tulip in their gang. She skives off school, cheeks the teachers and makes herself unpopular with her classmates by telling awful lies. None of this matters to Natalie who finds Tulip exciting. At first she doesn't care that other people are upset and unnerved by Tulip's bizarre games, but as the games become increasingly sinister and dangerous, Natalie realises that Tulip is going too far, much too far, racing, in fact, to the novel's shocking ending.
Book cover of Buddy by Nigel Hinton

Buddy

Buddy has a hopeless father who is an ageing rocker, interested only in Elvis and bikes, and living on the fringes of the under-world. When Buddy's mum walks out, the two manage to strike up some kind of relationship - until Buddy realises that his dad is involved in something more serious than he suspected. A moving, totally convincing account of a boy's faltering relationship with his father, in an evocative and well-drawn Eighties Britain.
Book cover of Stone Cold by Robert Swindells

Stone Cold

A tense, exciting thriller combined with a perceptive and harrowing portrait of life on the streets as a serial killer preys on the young and vulnerable homeless. 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 ...

Winner of the Carnegie Medal
Book cover of Across the Barricades by Joan Lingard

Across the Barricades

Kevin and Sadie just want to be together, but it's not that simple. Things are bad in Belfast. Soldiers walk the streets and the city is divided. No Catholic boy and Protestant girl can go out together - not without dangerous consequences . . .

The second of Joan Lingard's ground-breaking Kevin and Sadie books
Book cover of The Twelfth Day of July by Joan Lingard

The Twelfth Day of July

Sadie is Protestant, Kevin is Catholic - and on the tense streets of Belfast their lives collide. It starts with a dare - kids fooling around - but soon becomes something dangerous. Getting to know Sadie Jackson will change Kevin's life forever. But will the world around them change too? The first of Joan Lingard's influential Kevin and Sadie books.
Book cover of No Turning Back by Beverley Naidoo

No Turning Back

NO TURNING BACK is the powerful and moving story of Sipho and his struggle to survive on the city streets of South Africa in the 1990s. Society is on the brink of a huge change but will it make any difference to the tough life of Sipho and the other street kids? When Sipho is befriended by a white shopkeeper and his daughter it feels as though his luck might be about to change but is he really safe?
Book cover of Dear Nobody by Berlie Doherty

Dear Nobody

The moving and very real story of two teenagers and an unplanned pregnancy. It is told from two viewpoints - that of Helen as she writes her thoughts in a series of letters to the unborn baby, the Dear Nobody of the title, and of her boyfriend Chris as he reads the letters. This Carnegie Medal-winning novel is now part of the Originals - Penguin's ground-breaking modern classics for young adults.
Book cover of Brother in the Land by Robert Swindells

Brother in the Land

An 'After-the-Bomb' story told by teenage Danny, one of the survivors - one of the unlucky ones. Set in Shipley, an ordinary town in the north of England, this is a powerful portrayal of a world that has broken down. Danny not only has to cope in a world of lawlessness and gang warfare, but he has to protect and look after his little brother, Ben, and a girl called Kim. Is there any hope left for a new world?