A children’s novel on friendship, love, loneliness, sorrow and melancholy. 10 year-old India Opal Bulloni has just moved to a trailer park in a small town in Florida. Her father preaches at the local church and India trys to settle in and get to know her neighbors. When she sees a scruffy little dog at […]
A dystopian, social science fiction novel about the importance of memory, individualism and identity construction. 12 year-old Jonas lives in a society where the ruling force is ‘Sameness’. A life without colours, pain or past. Everyone is assigned their job at the age of twelve. No uncertainty, no problems. The only person who safekeeps the […]
This magic novel about the invigorating and healing power of nature, friendship, childhood, isolation and rebirth follows 10-year-old Mary, a sour child of wealthy British parents living in India. When Mary’s parents suddenly die of cholera, she is sent to England to live with her uncle in the Yorkshire Moors. It is not long after […]
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.
Imagine entering the world only to realize you’re all alone. In this illustrated story a baby bird hatches out of its egg but its mother is nowhere to be found. On a quest to find her, the baby bird encounters many different animals, always leading to the question ‘Are you my mother?’.
An illustrated collection of opposites ranging from big and small to whisper and shout. Each set of opposites has its own representative animal, no extra words needed. Sandra Boynton’s range of illustrated children’s books include various topics that cover the building blocks of basic vocabulary. Whether it’s From Horns to Toes about different body parts […]
A children’s book series about a sentient, anthropomorphic school bus that takes a teacher and her class on unusual field trips to explain different scientific facts or phenomena. Destinations include outer space, the human body, the past and more. The Magic School Bus Inside the Human Body provides a good entry point to the series. […]
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, […]
A novel set in a town that celebrates an annual Pigeon Day, on which pigeons are released into the air and shot. Ten-year-old boys act as “wringers”, collecting injured pigeons and wringing their necks to put them out of their misery. Nine-year-old protagonist Palmer is pressured by his friends into becoming a wringer but finds […]
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 science fiction, fantasy novel about a girl fighting for her life and finding herself in the process. When her mostly absent father gives her a virtual reality gaming experience as a birthday present, she’s hesitant but up for it. It all goes downhill when she’s suddenly trapped inside this looping virtual reality medieval setting. […]
A fable about helping others. When an ant is stranded on an island and asks different animals for help, each one has an excuse as to why they can’t help the ant. Only the elephant helps him. Shortly after, the elephant falls into a ravine and a horde of ants comes to his rescue, showing […]
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 […]
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 […]
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’.
Powerful teenage fiction about how to not give up in life even though you are facing terminal illness. This young adult novel follows 16-year-old cancer patient Hazel. Reluctantly attending a meeting of her cancer support group, she happens to meet Augustus, a boy she soon feels drawn to, even more so when they discover their […]
A dystopian novel between loyalty and betrayal, publicity and privacy. When Mae is offered to work at The Circle, an influential tech company, she could not be happier. It is only when she realizes the company’s desire to permeate ever more fields of their customers’ lives that Mae starts to wonder where the use of […]