In this collection of illustrated poems, Dahl gives his own versions of fairy tales that could do with some dark humour. Ranging from Cinderella to The Three Little Pigs, all of them come with a dark twist.

A story about the staple food of many Native American families. ‘Fry Bread’ isn’t just food, it combines Native American culture and history. Additional information about Native American culture and historical context is provided on the last pages as well as a recipe for ‘Fry Bread’. The illustrations accompanying the text allow young readers to […]

This dystopian novel leads the reader down a dark path towards the perils of religion and oppressive patriarchy. A religious shift in the US-American government calling itself the ‘Pure Movement’ results in women being stripped of their voices: Handcuffs every woman has to wear count their spoken words and if the daily number exceeds 100, […]

In The Crucible, Arthur Miller tells a tale about how little is needed for a small community to turn on each other. When rumors of witchcraft arise in rural Salem during the 1690s, it does not take long for people to start to denounce anybody in order to save their own skin. Eventually, truth is […]

A collection of nine humurous short stories about the unusual exploits of different animals. The fifth short story, “The Ant-Eater”, provides a good entry point for poems that can easily be incorporated into the classroom. This poem presents the differences between American and British pronunciation in an unusually witty way. A spoiled American boy begs […]

A Shakespearian comedy on love, jealousy, foolishness, the power of dreaming and the supernatural. In ancient Athens, Egeus wants to force his daughter Hermia to marry Demetrius, even though she is in love with Lysander. Helena loves Demetrius but he doesn’t love her back. Hermia and Lysander decide to run away, and Demetrius and Helena […]

This 19th century best-selling novel about human trafficking, violence and slavery follows Tom, a middle-aged, enslaved African-American slave. As Tom is sold again and again, his life fully depends on the mercy and goodwill of his current owner… The novel is praised for having laid the groundwork for the abolition of slavery, but also harshly […]

This powerful novel on violence, betrayal, dehumanisation and redemption follows the life of a child soldier in an unnamed West-African country. Written by an American author of Nigerian parents, this novel tells the story of civil war from the perspective of Agu, a young boy who lives with his family in a small village. One […]

A story about the Troubles in Ireland and an unemployed teenager caught in a bloody conflict. Cal is a member of the Catholic minority in Northern Ireland. Like his peers, he goes to school but unlike his peers, he occasionally works as a driver for the Irish Republican Army IRA. This way he becomes complicit […]

An epistolary novel about oppression, abuse and the power of love. Celie is an African-American teenager who grows up in poverty with her younger sister in a small village in Georgia and is raped by her father Alphonso at the age of fourteen. Living around abusive men, Celie builds relationships with other black women and […]

In this dystopian future set in Australia, there are no more bees in the whole wide world. Children are charged with hand pollination, trying to replace the bees as best they can, but 9-year-old Peony is still too young to take on the job. Nevertheless, she is convinced that she would make a fabulous bee […]

A young adult novel about conflicts and migration, family relationships and a boy fighting for survival. 14-year old Alem is half Ethiopian and half Eritrean. Because his parents countries are at war with each other, his only way to safety leads him to Europe. In London he struggles to be officially recognised as a refugee […]

An empowering poem on migration and diversity creating an understanding for the fact that it takes so little to turn a ‘someone’ into a refugee because, following the speaker, we ‘all came here from somewhere’.

A poem calling for justice, respect and equality. Zephaniah reflects on the diverse backgrounds of the people currently living in the United Kingdom, all mixed up in the shape of a recipe.

A dystopian novel about conformity and otherness set in a world where every teenager is transformed from an “ugly” into a “pretty” with the help of extreme cosmetic surgery when they turn 16. 15-year-old Tally can’t wait, but her friends Shay and David show her the downsides of their society, which causes her to rebel. […]

A book series surrounding two siblings, Jack and Annie Smith, traveling through space and time in a magic tree house. Their adventures range from watching dinosaurs and meeting Shakespeare to being dropped into the American Civil War. Suitable for interdisciplinary teaching, primarily in the subjects History, Geography, and Biology. The “Fact Trackers” are non-fiction books […]

This novel portrays abuse, resilience, violence and a girl fighting for her rights. The story follows 15-year-old Aiyana’s escape from a brutal patriarchal riverboat community in Arkansas in the 1930s. Having been denied any education and having suffered from her abusive father, this young heroine sets out to flee with only her grandmother and brother […]

The young wizard Harry broadens his knowledge and skills in the second volume of the Harry Potter series. Together with his friends Ron and Hermine, he critically investigates Hogwart’s history and the continuing conflict between students from Gryffindor and Slytherin – in which identity seems to play a major role.