Moving On

The second of the two fiction lists of suggested titles for S1 & S2.

# indicates books that are not too difficult
* indicates books that are more challenging

Adventure

*CROSS, Gillian
Tightrope
Eddie Beale looks after his friends, as long as they entertain him. When he takes notice of Ashley, she is happy to put on a show and be part of the excitement. Then she realises someone is stalking her and leaving messages that get uglier. Can Eddie help? And if he does, what price will she pay?
You might also try A Map of Nowhere and Calling a Dead Man.

HOROWITZ, Anthony
Stormbreaker
When his guardian dies in suspicious circumstances, Alex Rider goes from schoolboy to superspy within days as his world is turned upside down. Forcibly recruited into MI6, Alex has to take part in gruelling SAS training. Then, armed with his own special set of secret gadgets, he's off on his first mission.
The story continues in Point Blanc, Skeleton Key, Eagle Strike and Scorpia.

HOWKER, Janni
The Nature of the Beast
On the moors above Haverston an unknown beast is attacking livestock, and Haverston itself is threatened by another beast - the threat of unemployment - as the local mill is about to close.

LAIRD, Elizabeth
The Garbage King
This is the story of children who live on the very edge of destitution. Dani and Mamo, and the gang of street boys that they join, have nothing and share everything. Their courage, loyalty and determination enable them to survive in the harshest of worlds.

MAHY, Margaret
Underrunners
Living with his father in an isolated house on a windswept coast, life can be lonely for Tris. His main companion is an imaginary friend - Selsey Firebone. Then he meets Winola, who joins in his fantasy games with an evil character of her own. But Winola?s baddie is real, and she and Tris are caught up in danger and drama that is well beyond their control.
Try also The Other Side of Silence

*MASTERS, Anthony
The Day of the Dead
Alex goes to California to stay with his estranged father. Unwilling to be abandoned yet again, he stows away in the back of his father?s truck - a decision with unimagined but terrifying consequences.
Lots of other books by this author; try Whiteout and Bullies don?t Hurt

MORGAN, Nicola
Fleshmarket
Set in the 1820s in Edinburgh, a city of cruel contrasts between the lives of the rich and poor, and home to the infamous Burke and Hare, who sold their murder victims to brilliant anatomist Dr Robert Knox. This is the evocative, often harrowing story of a boy who must survive the pain of his mother?s death, at the hands of Doctor Knox.

MORPURGO, Michael
Kensuke?s Kingdom
When Michael is washed up on an island in the Pacific after falling from his parent's yacht, the Peggy Sue, he struggles to survive on his own. But he soon realises there is someone close by, someone who is watching over him and helping him to stay alive.

#SACHER, Louis
Holes
A miscarriage of justice sends Stanley Yelnats to Camp Green Lake. He accepts his fate philosophically, after all his family has a history of bad luck. Each of the boys at the camp must dig a five-foot deep and five-foot wide hole daily. The warden says it?s character building. Stanley?s character shines through.

UPDALE, Eleanor
Montmorency
Fleeing across a roof on a dark night in Victorian London, a thief crashes through a glass skylight to almost certain death. But an ambitious young doctor revives and reconstructs his shattered body. On his release from prison the thief begins to lead a double life. He becomes both the respectable, wealthy Montmorency and his degenerate servant, Scarper ? while the police are baffled by a wave of mysterious and seemingly unstoppable thefts?..But Montmorency must be on his guard at every moment.

URE, Jean
Who says Animals don?t have Rights
Penny, staying for a short time with her rich uncle, is seized by an animal rights group and forced to think of the rights and wrongs of animal testing.
Jean Ure has written many books of different types; for another story of suspense try Faces at the Window

WESTALL, Robert
A Place for Me
?You must run away to somewhere where nobody can find you. You musn?t go to anybody you know. That?s the first place they?ll look.? With these instructions from her father and a briefcase full of bank notes, Lucy sets off, neither knowing where she?s running to, nor what she?s running from...


Family and Friends

BLACKMAN, Malorie
Pig-heart Boy
Cameron lives for football and swimming, until a mystery virus damages his heart and starts a time bomb ticking on his life. No donor hearts are available and his only chance of recovery is a transplant with a pig?s heart.

*BOWLER, Tim
River Boy
As Jess helps her ailing grandfather complete his final picture, she is entranced by the scene he is painting. Then she becomes aware of a strange presence in the river, the figure of a boy, asking for her help and issuing a challenge that will stretch her swimming talents to the limit.

CREECH, Sharon
Walk Two Moons
Salamanca Hiddle is on a long journey across America and on the way she discovers all kinds of stories about her family. The trip has something to do with her mother?s sudden disappearance and these stories help prepare her for the truth, when she finally reaches her destination.
You could also try Chasing Redbird and The Wanderer.

FINE, Anne
Goggle Eyes
A very funny account of how to cope when you can?t stand your mother?s new boyfriend.
Lots of other good titles by this author including Madame Doubtfire and The Tulip Touch.

*GRANT, Cynthia
Mary Wolf
Economic hardship forces the Wolf family to take to the road in their once plush mobile home. They tour America, trying to believe their father?s repeated claims of a job in the next town. Mary, the eldest, becomes increasingly sickened by her parents? self-delusion and irresponsibility and comes to realise only she can call a halt.

*LAIRD, Elizabeth
Jay
While Cassie is recovering from a long illness, her dad leaves home and her brother Jay runs away. At first she is jealous of his freedom, but things start to spin out of control, and Jay is in danger of losing both his music and mind.
You could also try Red Sky in the Morning and Jake?s Tower.

LEESON, Robert
Red, White and Blue
Wain comes from a family of soldiers. His brother is a thug. His father went missing believed killed in the Falklands War. In an attempt to unravel the truth about himself, Wain writes down three different versions of events: his homework, the real story, and a fantasy novel on different coloured paper.

LINGARD, Joan
A Secret Place
Snatched from their Edinburgh school gate by their father, Maria and Charlie are initially quite excited by the prospect of a Spanish holiday. But after a time they realise that their father, although genuine, hasn?t prepared a proper home for them and that their mother is distraught at their absence.
You could also try the Kevin and Sadie novels, set in Belfast, starting with The Twelfth Day of July.

MOON, Pat
The Spying Game
Joe?s father has been killed in a road accident and his anger against the man responsible builds up so much that Joe begins a personal campaign against him.
You might also try Nathan?s Switch and Truth or Dare.

*VOIGHT, Cynthia
Homecoming
The four Tillerman children, inexplicably abandoned by their mother, make their way across America to try to find a home.
There are a whole series of novels about the Tillerman family; try A Solitary Blue.

ZEPHANIAH, Benjamin
Face
How could Martin know when he accepts a lift late one night that it will change his life for ever? The car crashes at speed and he is left horribly scarred. This is a powerful story of bravery in the face of dreadful odds. And it isn?t only Martin who has to be courageous.
Well known for his poetry, this is Benjamin Zephaniah?s first novel.You might also like to try his second novel Refugee Boy, which deals with the issue of asylum seekers.


Future Worlds

*ANDERSON, Rachel
The Scavenger?s Tale
This novel deals with the story of a family on the run from a harsh technological state which is putting electronic tags on all its citizens.

*BRANFIELD, Henrietta
A Chance of Safety
A dictatorial and sinister government presides in this society of ?haves? and ?have-nots?. The ?haves? never question their lifestyle, or the inhuman treatment of the ?have-nots?. That is until Alex and Nelly?s father begins to make dangerous enquires, and their lives are never the same again.

CHRISTOPHER, John
A Dusk of Demons
Ben has heard stories about terrible demons but he has never seen them except in his nightmares. But when he has to seek shelter away from his quiet island home, a terrifying adventure begins.

LOWRY, Lois
The Giver
Imagine a world without conflict, poverty or inequality. Conformity and happiness are a way of life. But for Jonas, things are different. While his friends are selected to be doctors or teachers, Jonas is sent to the Giver where he discovers the dark secrets that lie below the surface of his world.

STRACHAN, Ian
Throwaways
Sky and Chip, abandoned by their parents, manage to escape the clutches of the Child Protection Unit and eke out a living on the rubbish tip with hundreds of others. Even in their despair, the children find out what they need to survive.
The story is continued in Wastelanders.


Ghost and Horror

#BARKER, Clive
The Thief of Always
It is the middle of February, and Harvey Swick is bored, so he is glad to accept an invitation to Mr Hood?s Holiday House. This turns out to be a magical place of endless treats and changing seasons, where every childish whim is granted. But there is a price to be paid...

GROSS, Philip
Plex
Mr Multiplex has the gift of ?plexing? - the ability to mix two things together to make ?the best of both worlds?. But when Tod and Sly burst into his room in the middle of one of his experiments, something goes badly wrong and a monster is released.
Try also The Wind Gate.

PIKE, Christopher
Weekend
The weekend in Mexico sounded like a dream holiday; nine friends and a gorgeous ocean-side mansion all to themselves. But now everything seems to be going wrong. The phone lines are dead, the garage has exploded and the terror only just begun??

SCOTT, Hugh
The Gargoyle
Although the rest of the family are thrilled by their new Scottish home, Marion senses an atmosphere of menace. Are the residents of the nearby castle - Callum and the mysterious German - responsible for the sinister occurrences in the area. And who has the strength to control the terrifying gargoyle?
Other books to try by this author include A Ghost Waiting and Something Watching

SHAN, Darren
Cirque du Freak
Everyone warns Darren not to go to the Cirque du Freak. But to Darren and his friend, Steve the chance of seeing a snake boy or a wolf man is irresistible ? even though the tickets are very expensive and mysteriously difficult to get hold of. Soon Darren is caught up in a struggle for life itself and must make a pact with a vampire to save his friend?s life. This is the first book in a compelling series about Darren Shan.

WESTALL, Robert
Yaxley?s Cat
Jane and Tim persuade their mother to take the lonely cottage on the marsh. But why has it been deserted for seven years? And what of the terrible cat that comes clawing its way into the house at midnight?
Most of Robert Westall?s books feature cats, the supernatural or World War 2 or some combination of these themes. Try Blitzcat (for the first two themes) and The Wheatstone Pond for another supernatural tale.

And from the Short Story Section
13 Again : Point Horror
An anthology including stories by Susan Price, Malcolm Rose, John Gordon and Dennis Hamley.


In and Out of School

FINE, Anne
Flour Babies
4C, the worst class in the school, don't get to work on the Soap factory, the Maggot Farm or the Exploding Custard Tins for the annual Science Fair. Instead they have to look after flour babies, 3 kilos of flour in a bag, which have to be nursed and protected.

JOHNSON, Pete
The Protectors
Josh and Andy only agree to become anti-bullying counsellors in the hope of benefiting from the associated perks. However, the ?Protectors? as they become known, soon find themselves involved in a dangerous campaign to rid the school of its worst tormentor.

*MAGORIAN, Michelle
A Spoonful of Jam
Set in London in 1947, this is the story of Elsie, a misfit scholarship student at the girls? Grammar School.
Among other excellent books by this author is Goodnight Mr Tom.

#SPINELLI, Jerry
Crash
When Crash Coogan meets Penn Webb he decides this is a boy ripe for bullying. But nothing seems to bother Penn and Crash?s disdain turns to grudging admiration.


In Time of War

BUCHIGNANI, Walter
Tell no-one Who You are
Based on a true story, this book recounts the wartime adventures of Regine Miller. After her brother is taken by the Nazis,her father sent Regine to live with a widow in Brussels where she survived by moving between four Belgian households.

CAMPLING, Annie
Smiling for Strangers
Nina escapes the civil war that killed her parents by stowing away in an aid lorry driving back from the former Yugoslavia. Once in England, she searches for the only safe haven she knows - an address on a scrap of paper.

*CRONIN, Michael
Against the Day
It?s 1941 and the Nazis have invaded Britain. Two boys find themselves caught up in the Resistance movement; a thrilling account of history as it might have happened.

*DICKINSON, Peter
AK
Paul Kagomi is a boy soldier fighting for freedom in the African bush with only his gun to rely on.
You might also try Shadow of a Hero

HAWKINS, Elizabeth
Sea of Peril
When a ship is hit by a torpedo, forty survivors are packed into a lifeboat. This story follows six boys who must survive the eight day ordeal in the Atlantic.

RIORDAN, James
Sweet Clarinet
Billy is orphaned and severely burned as a result of the Blitz. Shielded from the outside world, he becomes despondent and bitter. He finds inspiration in the shape of Terry Clough, a disfigured war hero whose gift of a clarinet brings Billy new hope.

Life and Times

ALEXANDER, Caroline
Mrs Chippy?s Last Expedition
This is an account of Sir Ernest Shackleton?s 1914 expedition to Antarctica, as told from the journal of the redoubtable Mrs Chippy, the ship?s cat, who accompanied the carpenter Harry ?Chippy? McNeish from their home in Cathcart, Glasgow.

BITTON-JACKSON, Livia
I have lived a Thousand Years
(You will find this book in Non-fiction section: Code Number 940.53)
This is the story of Elli Friedmann, who was 13 years old when the Nazis invaded Hungary. It describes the process of occupation, the family?s separation, Elli?s deportation to Auschwitz with her mother and her remarkable survival.

*BRYSON, Bill
Notes from a Small Island
(You will find this book in the Non-Fiction Section: Code Number 914.2)
After nearly twenty years in Britain, Bill Bryson decided to move back to the USA. Before leaving his much-loved home in North Yorkshire, he took one last trip around the UK, and in this book takes an affectionate but ironic look at his adopted country.

GOLD, Leslie Ann
Hannah Goslar Remembers
(You will find this book in the Non-Fiction Section: Code Number 940.53)
The story of Hannah Goslar, who was friends with Anne Frank before she went into hiding and who lived in Amsterdam during the Nazi occupation. Starting with the disappearance of the Frank family, supposedly to safety in Switzerland, Hannah?s account takes us through the fear of waiting for the Nazi?s knock on the door, the actual deportation and the sheer horror that awaited at the concentration camps.

HERIOT, James
All Creatures Great and Small
A collection of stories based on the true experiences of a Yorkshire vet

HOUSDEN, Maria
Hannah?s Gift
(You will find this book in the Non-Fiction Section: Code Number 920.HOU)
Maria Housden tells the story of her 3 year old daughter, Hannah?s brave battle with cancer during the last year of her short life.

YEN MAH, Adeline
Chinese Cinderella
(You will find this book in the Non-Fiction Section: Code Number 951)
Adeline Yen Mah tells the story of early life: how she suffered appalling emotional deprivation and rejection by her family as a child growing up in China and Hong Kong. She tells of the consequences in her adult life, above which she rose to make a happy marriage and becomes a successful doctor in the USA.

Other Times and Places

BAILLIE, Alan
The China Coin
When Leah?s father dies, she travels from Australia, with her Chinese-born mother, in search of the other half of their family. The only clue they have is half of an ancient Chinese coin.

BEAKE, Lesley
A Cageful of Butterflies
Mponyane lives in a world of silence - he is deaf and dumb. When his grandfather can no longer care for him, Mponyane goes to live with the Sanderson family. As the Zulu boy learns about live with the white Kenyan family, he senses they are in trouble and knows he must help them.
You could also try The Song of Be

BRANFIELD, Henrietta
Fire, Bed and Bone
The Peasants? Revolt of 1381 - as seen through the eyes of an old hunting dog! Her masters are imprisoned and she is left alone.

*CURTIS, Christopher
The Watsons go to Birmingham
It?s Michigan, 1963. Kenneth Watson is both frightened by his aggressive brother Byron and dependent on him for protection. When Byron?s behaviour deteriorates into delinquency, the Watsons decide he needs a summer with the legendary Grandma Sands in Alabama, to have sense knocked into him. But the family?s arrival coincides with race riots which change all of them.

#CUSHMAN, Karen
The Midwife?s Apprentice
Brat, a fourteenth-century orphan, fetches up in Midwife Jane?s dung-heap. In return for hard work, Brat is given shelter plus the odd blow or curse, but slowly she transforms herself into Alyce, who knows what she wants from life.
If you enjoy this book, try Catherine called Birdy.

HENDRY, Frances
Chandra
A sensitive and gripping story about a schoolgirl in New Delhi who is married at the age of 11, but widowed almost immediately. As a widow, her fate is to be isolated from society for the rest of her life. Should she bow to tradition or try to escape?

IBBOTSON, Eva
Journey to the River Sea
Set in the early 1900s the story follows the orphaned heroine Maia as she moves from England with the mysterious Miss Minton to the Amazon Basin to live with relatives she has never met.

LLOYD, Errol
Many Rivers to Cross
When her grandmother tells her she is going to England, 12-year old Sandra is happy that she will see her father again, but sad she is leaving her grandmother and all her friends. The journey from Jamaica to London is only the first river she has to cross.

*LOVEDAY, John
Goodbye Buffalo Sky
Cappy and Alice live in pioneer country, a tranche of land in which the native Americans have been displaced. When Burkhart and Two Songs set up home together, their bold decision has devastating results for them, the settlement and the Indian Community.

McCAUGHREAN, Geraldine
Plundering Paradise
When the opportunity arises to be a real pirate, Nathan Gull can?t believe his luck. Led by Tamo, the pirate?s son, and with his sister in tow, the three sail for Madagascar in this eighteenth century adventure.
Plenty of other titles by this author, try The Kite Rider set in China in the days of Kublai Khan.

*MOONEY, Bel
Voices of Silence
Life for Flora in Ceausescu?s Romania has always been comfortable and worry-free. But gradually teenage consciousness opens her eyes to the realities and iniquities of the communist regime. Friendships become less secure, secrecy more important, no-one can trust anyone.

PAULSEN, Gary
Nightjohn
The brutality of slavery is shown in this novel set in the American South in the 1850s. It the story of Sarny, a 12 year old slave girl and her meeting with Nightjohn, who risks everything to teach Sarny to read.
The story is continued in Sarny

PEYTON, K M
Firehead
The Vikings have invaded and Edmund?s family flee before their murderous advance. Although Edmund is left behind he is saved by virtue of his unusual flame-red hair and becomes a Viking slave, but if he doesn?t escape he will be forced to fight in battle against his own people.

TOMLINSON, Theresa
The Herring Girls
When Dory Lythe?s mother suffers a stroke, the family risks being sent to the workhouse. However, Dory manages to convince the Reverend Hawkins that she is strong enough to join the Herring Girls, who gut and pack fish at Whitby.
You could also try The Rope Carriers.

WALSH, Jill Paton
Grace
The story of Grace Darling?s heroic rescue of men from the Forfarshie and the effect it had on her life.
Try A Parcel of Patterns an account of the Great Plague in the village of Eyam.


Other Worlds

AIKEN, Joan
The Cockatrice Boys
A cargo of strange, shapeless bags appear at Manchester Airport. Gradually Britain is devastated by the cockatrice monsters they contain.
Plenty of other great fantasy novels by this author. You might try one of her short story collections such as A Handful of Gold.

ALMOND, David
Skellig
Michael and his family move to a new home. Exploring a ramshackle garage with his new-found friend, Mina, he discovers a strange part human ?creature?. Skellig, as the creature likes to be known, is ill-mannered, with questionable personal hygiene, but in persevering with their kindness towards him, Michael and Mina find a bond forms which will change their lives forever.

*CROSSLEY-HOLLAND, Kevin
The Seeing Stone
Set in the Welsh Marches in the year 1199, this book tells the story of young Arthur de Caldicot, who discovers his namesake, the boy King Arthur, in his seeing stone.
First book in a trilogy.

CURLEY, Marianne
Old Magic
When Kate meets Jarrod she senses that like her, he has magical powers. She also knows that he is unaware of his gift and will be difficult to persuade. When Jarrod learns to use his gift, they both find themselves in a time hundreds of years old, pitched in the greatest battle of their lives.

FUNKE, Cornelia
The Thief Lord
Two orphaned children are on the run, hiding among the crumbling canals and misty alleyways of Venice. Befriended by a gang of street children and their mysterious leader, the Thief Lord, they shelter in an old, disused cinema. On their trail is a bungling detective, obsessed with disguises and the health of his pet tortoises. But a greater threat to the boys? new-found freedom is something from a forgotten past ? a beautiful, magical treasure with the power to spin time itself.

GAVIN, Jamilla
Wormholers
Suddenly cracks are opening up around Chad?s house. Not cracks in the plaster, but wormholes, passages from one universe to another. It?s not long before Natalie, Chad and Sophie disappear,
plunged into other worlds. Can they get back to their own dimension?

*JACQUES, Brian
Redwall
The first novel in a series centred round Redwall Abbey and its peaceful community of mice, badgers and rabbits. But danger is at hand in the shape of Cluny the evil one-eyed cat.

JARVIS, Robin
The Alchymist?s Cat
This story, the first in the Deptford Histories series explains the origin of the evil monstrous cat, Jupiter, whose tale is continued in the Deptford Mice trilogy.

NEEDLE, Jan
Wild Wood
The ancient ferret, Baxter, recalls events long past, when he and his friends from the Wild Wood stormed and captured ?Brotherhood Hall? (otherwise known as Toad Hall). A retelling of The Wind in the Willows from a very different viewpoint.

NICHOLSON, William
The Wind Singer
In the walled city of Aramanth. exams are everything. When Kestrel Hath dares to rebel, the Chief Examiner humiliates her father and sentences the whole family to the harshest punishment. Desperate to save them, Kestrel learns the secret of the wind singer, and she and her twin brother Bowman, set out on a terrifying journey to the true source of the evil that grips Aramanth.

NIX, Garth
Sabriel
Sabriel is sent as a child across the Wall to the safety of a school in Ancelstierre. Away from magic: away from the Dead. After receiving a cryptic message from her father, 18 year old Sabriel leaves her ordinary school and returns across the Wall into the Old Kingdom. Fraught with peril and deadly trickery, her journey takes her a world filled with parasitical spirits, Mordicants, and Shadow Hands ? for her father is one other than The Abhorson. His task is to lay the disturbed dead back to rest. This obliges him ? and now Sabriel, who has taken on her father?s title and duties ? to slip over the border into the icy river of Death, sometimes battling the evil forces that lurk there, waiting for an opportunity to escape into the realm of the living.

*PULLMAN, Philip
Northern Lights
A powerful fantasy of an alternative world, where each human is accompanied by their personal daemon, and armoured bears rule the North Pole.
The story is continues in The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass.

REEVE, Philip
Mortal Engines
In this futuristic fantasy, cities have torn themselves up by the roots in order to survive. London is on the move again seeking its quarry, while events within the walls begin to take a sinister turn. The story continues in Predator?s Gold.

SHIPTON, Paul
The Pig Scrolls
Gryllus is the smartest pig in Ancient Greece. Well, not strictly speaking a pig. He?s a man who got turned into a pig. More specifically, he was one of Odysseus?s crew who got turned into pigs by the witch Circe, only Gryllus never got turned back. He?s all for a quiet life and is not pleased when he?s called upon to help save the world.

STEWART, Paul
Beyond the Deepwoods
Abandoned at birth in the perilous Deepwoods, Twig is brought up by a family of woodtrolls. Once cold night, Twig does what no woodtroll has ever done before ? he strays from the path. So begins an adventure that will take Twig through a nightmare world of goblins and trogs, bloodthirsty beasts and flesh-eating trees. The story (part of The Edge Chronicles) continues in Stormchaser and Midnight Over Santaphrax.

TAYLOR, G P
Shadowmancer
Obadiah Demurral is a sorcerer who is seeking to control the highest power in the Universe. He will stop at nothing. The only people in his way are Raphah, Kate, Thomas ? and the mysterious Jacob Crane.

THOMPSON, Kate
Switchers
Kate is a Switcher, meaning that she can change shape to become any animal she chooses. She always thought she was unique, but not any more. Tess meets Kevin, another Switcher, and together they turn out to have powers they never dreamed of.
The story is continued in Midnight?s Choice and Wild Blood.

*TOLKIEN, J R R
The Lord of the Rings
The epic adventures of the hobbit, Frodo Baggins and his companions in their quest to destroy the power of Sauron, the evil Lord of the Rings. The story is told in three parts: The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers and The Return of the King. A very demanding read, but well worth it.

*WHITE, T.H.
The Sword in the Stone
The story of the young King Arthur as you?ve never heard it before; A classic comic fantasy.

Poetry Corner

Look in the 821 Section for a selection of poetry books. Here are some suggestions to get you started.

KAY, Jackie
Two?s Company

ZEPHANIAH, Benjamin
Talking Turkeys

The Puffin Book of Twentieth Century Children?s Verse

*The Rattle Bag
Edited by Seamus Heaney and Ted Hughes
This anthology is a good introduction to a wide range of poetry, old and new.