Category: MG Books

‘Quiet Storm’ by Kimberly Whittam

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When Storm starts Year 7 at Daisy Mill Academy, all her teachers expect her to be as confident and proactive as her older brother, Isaiah – the Head Boy. But Storm isn’t like Isaiah. Storm is quiet – she hates having to speak aloud in class in front of the other children and will do anything to avoid being the centre of attention. 

When Storm is selected for the school athletics team, she’s excited to have finally found something she is good at but she’s not sure she will have the courage to participate unless her best friend, Zarrish, goes with her. But Zarrish is distracted by a new girl at school, Melissa, who is determined to belittle Storm at every opportunity. Storm has to find her voice and learn to stand up for herself.

I was the quiet kid at school and dealt with the mind-numbing frustration of knowing exactly what I should’ve said, but not being able to get the words out in the moment. (And people endlessly asking that annoying question: “Why are you so quiet?”) So it was fantastic to see the ‘quiet one’ represented in this moving and empowering novel. 

I particularly appreciated the fact that even though Storm has to speak out, she is not suddenly miraculously cured of her shyness, her new friends accept her as she is and tell her that she needs to be proud of who she is.

I can tell that the author works in a secondary school, the school vibes are pitch perfect and her adult characters are as relatable and well-rounded as her children/teenagers. (I LOVE that Storm’s Mum has a roller-skating club!) I particularly enjoyed the empathetic portrayal of Ryan – the kid who always gets into trouble, but there are hidden circumstances behind his behaviour.

‘Quiet Storm’ is a wonderfully warm, relatable and engaging story that is bound to be a comfort and inspiration to other quiet children or anyone who is struggling to fit in during those early years of secondary school. This is also a perfect transition read that I would recommend for both upper KS2 as well as KS3.

‘The Kingdom Over the Sea’ by Zohra Nabi

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When Yara’s mum dies, she leaves a strange set of instructions behind that lead Yara away from the home she’s always known in England to a parallel realm across the sea and the city of Zehaira.

In Zehaira, Yara discovers that the person she was supposed to find has been banished and the city itself has been torn apart by a power struggle between sorcerers and alchemists. Zara must journey into the wilderness to join up with the outcast sorcerers and find out who she really is. 

‘The Kingdom Over the Sea is a lyrical and spellbinding story of friendship, found family and finding your feet in a dazzling new world. Zohra Nabi is a marvellous storyteller and after that cliffhanger ending I hope book 2 isn’t too far away!

‘Jamie’ by L.D. Lapinsky

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Jamie is your average Year 6 pupil, apart from one thing – they have known for a few years that they are non-binary, neither a boy nor a girl. But when everyone starts talking about which secondary school they are going to, Jamie realises that there are only two options: a Boys’ School and a Girls’ School, and there is nowhere for Jamie to go without having to pick one or the other. And if that’s not bad enough – Jamie’s friendship group will be split up and Jamie will have to pick one best friend over the other.

At first Jamie’s teachers, their parents and even their best friends, Ash and Daisy, don’t understand how important this is to Jamie. But when Jamie, Ash and Daisy stage a dramatic protest, to raise awareness of non-binary people, Jamie receives support from some unexpected places. 

‘Jamie’ is an empowering story about finding out who you are and learning to stand up for yourself. It is equally informative and empathetic – a joyful rainbow of a book that left me in tears at the end.

‘My Life on Fire’ by Cath Howe

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One terrible night Ren’s house burns down. (Or ‘burns up’ as she describes it.) Within a few hours Ren loses all her clothes, her treasured possessions and her home. Her family moves in with her stiff and disapproving Gran while her parents try to sort out their insurance claim and keep their business going. But there is nothing to do at her Gran’s house, the food is awful and Ren has to share a room with her little brother.

Caspar is missing his older brother who has gone away to university, but he likes his new teacher, Miss Chatto, and he is looking forward to the new project their class is working on with a local artist, called ’My Life in a Box’. But when Ren comes back to school she has nothing left to put in her box and then things start to disappear in Miss Chatto’s class. Perhaps Caspar can help Ren to start afresh. 

Like Cath Howe’s other books, the story is told in alternating voices. Ren is angry and grieving for everything she has lost, but protective of her brother and worried about her parents. Caspar is kind and thoughtful but frustrates his teachers with his endless questions and curiosity. (There are definitely some lessons in empathy for adults as well as children in this book.) 

‘My Life on Fire’ has a particularly arresting opening. A house fire isn’t a topic I’ve seen explored much in contemporary children’s fiction, though it happened to a friend of my daughter’s in primary school. And there are probably children who experience kleptomania in most primary schools, although it is more frequently represented in teen fiction.

I always enjoy the way Cath Howe takes unusual situations and explores the emotional tensions surrounding them, without sensationalising them, and with great insight and sensitivity. ‘My Life on Fire’ is another gripping and engaging read and I’ll definitely be recommending it in the library.

‘Rumaysa Ever After’ by Radiya Hafiza

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‘Rumaysa Ever After’ is the sequel to Radiya Hafiza’s first novel ‘Rumaysa’, in which Rumaysa escaped a tower using her hijab, defeated the evil witch Cordelia who kidnapped her as a baby, and has two other adventures with her friends Cinderayla and Sleeping Sara. But now all Rumaysa wants is to find the parents she never had a chance to know, and go home.

But on the way, Rumaysa saves a prince from a terrifying beast, and is invited to a golden castle by his sister, Queen Saira White, to thank her for her heroic actions. There Rumaysa hears the story of how Saira’s evil stepmother was jealous of her beauty and tried to have her killed, but instead she hid in the woods with the Seven Outcasts and eventually returned to kill her stepmother. So far, it is the story we all know. But Saira White is hiding something and once again Rumaysa’s magic necklace leads her to someone who needs her help. Little does Rumaysa know that her parents are still desperately searching for her in the meantime, but there is someone who is determined to stop them from finding each other. 

I love Radiya Hafiza’s take on the traditional fairy tales, in particular her feisty and determined protagonist who doesn’t wait around for a boy to save her, and her happy endings that are about finding family and being true to yourself, rather than falling in love and getting married.

“‘True love?’ Rumaysa made a face. ‘That’s so clichéd! Besides, I think we’re a bit young for that.’”

Another inspiring and empowering Rumaysa adventure!

‘The Light in Everything’ by Katya Balen

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Zofia and Tom are opposites: Zofia is bold, brave and loud while Tom is quiet and fearful. Zofia is training herself to withstand the cold seawater and swim to a rocky outcrop the locals call ‘Fiji’ while Tom makes paper cranes and sleeps with the lights on to drive out the dark. But when Zofia’s dad and Tom’s mum move in together, they must learn to get along, especially because their parents are also expecting a baby together.

Zofia is furiously angry that Tom and his mum have pushed their way into her life, she can’t understand why Tom is so timid and afraid, and she’s worried that her anger will drive her dad away and she will be left out of his cosy new family. Tom just wants his mum to be happy, after the difficult times that they’ve had, but he can’t quite trust that the new man in her life won’t be aggressive and violent like his dad. But as Zofia and Tom begin to understand one another they realise that perhaps they have more in common than they know, and perhaps they can find a way to be a family.

The story is told from both Tom and Zofia’s perspectives in alternating mini-chapters that make it impossible to put the book down and I finished it within an afternoon. Like ‘October, October’, the book cover is a stunning work of art in its own right—created by illustrator, Sydney Smith. (I have the cover art of ‘October, October’ on a tote bag—perhaps I’ll have to expand my collection.)

‘The Light in Everything’ is a quiet story, but it is exquisitely written, full of big emotions, vivid descriptions and authentic, heartrending moments. The protagonists are only 11, but I would highly recommend this book for KS3 as well as KS2 readers.

‘The Underpants of Chaos’ by Sam Copeland & Jenny Pearson

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When something weird starts to happen at their school, Agatha and Lenny team up to investigate…

Agatha is already a spy-detective so she is naturally well-placed to figure out what’s going on when a mysterious ‘shiver’ causes all of her classmates to dance wildly and then forget it ever happened. Lenny has tried a lot of different things, in a lot of different schools, (his mum is sure he’ll find his thing eventually) so he’s happy to give investigating a try – particularly as he and Agatha seem to be the only ones who notice the shiver and remember its effects afterwards. The shiver continues to cause chaos, from rampaging gargoyles to vicious underpants, but can Agatha and Lenny work out who is behind it all before their whole school is destroyed?

A lively and laugh-out-loud hilarious story from two very funny authors – this one has been highly requested in the school library!

‘Let’s Chase Stars Together’ by Matt Goodfellow

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A collection of powerfully emotive and beautifully written poems, ideal for older children.

Among my favourites were: ‘It’s Always the Same’ about a vulnerable child who lacks the protective armour that stability provides, the lyrical ‘When You Get Sad You Speak Like the Sea’, ‘Guess What’ about finding a friendship that seems like destiny, and ‘The Wolf’ – a metaphor for divorce.

These poems made me cry – highly recommended!

‘How To Be More Hedgehog’ by Anne-Marie Conway

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When Lily’s new teacher asks the pupils to team up and create a presentation about conserving the environment, she is thrilled as she is very passionate about wildlife. But as Lily’s supposed-best friend reminds her, she has a stammer and finds some letters particularly difficult to say – other people often talk over her as they don’t have the patience to wait for Lily to get her words out. But she is determined to do the presentation and she videos herself practising to help with her preparation. But then someone shares the video online and the comments fill up with people making fun of Lily’s stammer. Lily is sure that the only solution is to run away to live with her Dad in Scotland, change schools and start over where no one knows her. But perhaps Lily needs to learn to be more hedgehog…

Lily is a resilient and determined character and her experience of living with a stammer is sensitively and astutely explored. ‘How to be More Hedgehog’ is a warm, emotive and inspiring story about learning to face your fears and stand up for the things you are passionate about. Highly recommended.

‘The Octopus, Dadu and Me’ by Lucy Ann Unwin

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Sashi is devastated when her beloved Dadu doesn’t remember her and her parents won’t let her visit him in the Care Home anymore. But when she visits the Aquarium to take her mind off Dadu, she meets an incredible creature – an octopus called Ian. And it seems like Ian is trying to tell her something…that he wants to escape his tank and return to the ocean. 

‘The Octopus, Dadu and Me’ is a heartfelt story about friendship, family and grief that will definitely make you cry!