The Hate U Give, by Angie Thomas (paperback)
£7.99
Winner of the Waterstones Children's Book Prize 2018 Sixteen-year-old Starr lives in two worlds: the poor neighbourhood where she was born and raised and her posh high school in the suburbs. The uneasy balance between them is shattered when Starr is the only witness to the fatal shooting of her unarmed best friend, Khalil, by a police officer. Now what Starr says could destroy her community.It could also get her killed. Inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement, this is a powerful and gripping YA novel about one girl's struggle for justice.
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The Unknowns, by Shirley-Anne McMillan ( paperback 2017)
£7.99
A teenage story of friendship, and boundaries, and preconceptions. Likeable main characters of Tilly and Brew, it’s edgy but realistic. My 15yo enjoyed this a lot.
Shirley Anne is from Lisburn and this is her second novel.
Tilly is perched at the top of Belfast's largest crane. She likes to climb up high at night in order to feel free from a city which, despite the best PR, is still full of trouble and conflict. Eventually, she comes back down to discover her bike is missing and in its place is a boy named Brew.
Wearing eyeliner and high-heeled boots, he offers her a drink from his flask of coffee before disappearing into the night. The next morning, Tilly's bike is returned, but tucked into the spoke of the wheel is a card with Brew's number on it. As Tilly learns to trust Brew, he leads her into a world she never knew existed - a world of parties in abandoned houses, completing missions that involve break-ins, and risking everything just to help strangers in need; the world of The Unknowns.
What Tilly doesn't anticipate is that they will also make her question everything she was brought up to believe in, and force her to make a choice that will stay with her for the rest of her life. The Unknowns is a story about hope in a city where increasing numbers of young people are struggling to get by, a place where there is no trust in the political system, and where some people still dare to dream.
I Capture The Castle, by Dodie Smith
£7.99
An absolute classic YA novel from the same Dodie Smith of ‘101 Dalmatians’ fame. The diary of Cassandra Mortmain, her extraordinary family and her crumbling castle home. Loved by teenagers and adults everywhere.
Skellig, by David Almond
£7.99
Skellig won The Carnegie Medal and the Whitbread Children’s Book Award when it was first published almost 20 years ago.
It’s powerful and moving, one of those books that you can’t put down.
Everyone should read it, not just teenagers.
On the Come Up by Angie Thomas ( paperback Feb 2019)
£7.99
New York Times #1 bestselling teen author of The Hate You Give, Angie Thomas returns with a powerful story about hip hop, freedom of speech - and fighting for your dreams, even as the odds are stacked against you. Bri wants to be one of the greatest rappers of all time. As the daughter of an underground hip hop legend who died right before he hit big, Bri's got massive shoes to fill.
But when her first song goes viral for all the wrong reasons, Bri finds herself at the centre of controversy and portrayed by the media as more menace than MC. And with an eviction notice staring her family down, Bri no longer just wants to make it - she has to. Even if it means becoming the very thing the public has made her out to be.
