Published by Orion

Siberia by Ann Halam

When she is very small, Sloe and her mother are made to leave their home, and go to live in the frozen wilderness of Siberia. Life is hard, cold, and there are no prospects of it ever getting any better. Until one night, when Sloe discovers that her mother has a secret – she is the guardian of tiny, strange creatures that she alone can bring to life.

Sloe is entrusted with this secret, and is told to keep this safe, until she is old enough to make the great journey – across the wilderness and forest beyond – to bring these creatures to the haven which they need to survive. Although she does not fully understand, she knows that the little creatures have a far greater significance, and must be protected at all costs.

When Sloe’s mother disappears, she realizes that now is the time to begin this journey. The story tells of her adventures along the way, the dangers she faces, and of her lonely bravery and determination to succeed.
 

Published by Hodder

The Fire-Eaters by David Almond

In the summer of 1962, young Bobby first encounters McNulty, the strange, frightening wild man who performs bizarre tricks for his audiences. Bobby's father falls ill, he starts a new school, and the whole community is anxious about Cuba and America starting another war. This unusual and deeply poetic story is set in Keely Bay, near Newcastle. Bobby's friend Ailsa Spink avoids school and instead helps her family draw coal from the sea. A new family move nearby, and take photographs of the community. Daniel, the new boy becomes a friend to Bobby and together they stand up to vicious practices in their school. Several different themes and strands are woven together in this tale about McNulty "the greatest of the fire-eaters". Short chapters make this wonderful book compulsive reading and the climax is both moving and symbolic.
 

Published by MacMillan 

Millions by Frank Cottrell Boyce

Brothers Anthony and Damian have recently lost their Mum. Then they come into money, but in a most unusual way. However, the boys have very different views on how this money should be spent! Anthony is keen to spend, spend, spend – and earn lots of new friends – but Damian wants to give it to the poor.

Meanwhile, the ‘baddies’ want their money back, the pound is about to be converted to Euros, and time is running out. How are the boys ever going to get rid of all this money?

This is a lovely, funny, sad, happy, contemporary story, based on a film-script written by the same author.
 

Soundtrack by Julia Bertagna

Finn lives in a Scottish fishing village and shares his uncle’s affinity with the sea.  He often skips school to go off in his boat alone. Music is important to him, as is Ebbie the girl from the peace camp. A tragedy with a trawler and one of the many submarines in the area devastates the village and changes Finn’s life. Should he have acted on the omens he saw before hand?

What are the strange sounds in his head? The amazing junk machine built by Finn meets a fitting end when he leaves the village and its forces and begins to make decisions for his own future.
 

Mercy by Caroline B Cooney

This is a powerful moving story of Mercy Carter and what happened to the residents of Deerfield, Massachusetts in 1704. Mercy wakes up one night to screaming – the Indians have come – but she isn’t killed. Much worse happens … she is captured by the Kahnawake Indians and dragged 300 miles into the wilderness. During this trek, she has to find an inner strength to keep on going whilst all around her the world she once knew crumbles away with friends and family dying at every turn – but is this a terrible nightmare that she can’t escape from or in some way a kind of freedom for her?

Caroline Cooney has cleverly written this novel and has based this book on real-life events – Mercy Carter did exist and was captured by Kahnawake Indians in 1704 which makes this book all the more fascinating and interesting.
 

Chinese Cinderella and the Secret Dragon Society by Adeline Yen Mah

Chinese Cinderella is a young girl who finds her self searching for her own destiny after she is thrown out of her home. She soon meets up with a group of orphaned children, all from very different backgrounds, who live with an old lady called Grandma Wu. Chinese Cinderella realises her destiny is to help the lives of others and the young group set out on a mission to rescue a group of American pilots whose plane has crashed after a bombing raid in Japan. Although she knows her father is searching for her Chinese Cinderella knows that there is no going back to the cruel life she knew with her step-mother.

This is an unforgettable story based on true events of the Second World War and inspired by the adventure stories Adeline Yen Mah wrote as a child growing up in Shanghai.
 

Sea Hawk, Sea Moon by Beverley Birch

Ben arrives to spend the summer with his uncle in a remote coastal village in the Scottish Highlands. Walking from the ferry to his uncle's cottage he sees a girl beside a damaged boat on the beach. The village has many secrets from a tragic past. Ben and Iona stumble upon and help unravel these mysteries, through dreams and the memories of old villagers. Uncle Michael has also left a tragedy behind him in Canada, and eventually begins to talk more openly to Ben. Iona is seriously injured in an accident. Will the unravelling of the mysteries release her? An adventure story set in the Highlands which is atmospheric and haunting.
 

Stop the Train by G. McCaughrean

Short-listed for the 2002 Carnegie Medal, this excellent story is set in Oklahoma in the 1890's. A group of settlers arrive by train at Florence, a town yet to be created in the empty prairies. We witness the hardships and tragedies caused to a whole range of characters, through the refusal of the Railroad company chairman to let the train stop at Florence. Cissy, daughter of the grocer, and her friends, are determined to help the adults solve the problem which threatens their whole existence. A fast-moving adventure with historical setting, which is also humourous at times.

Journey to the River Sea by Eva Ibbotson

It is the early 1900s and orphaned Maia sets sail, with her mysterious governess Miss Minton, for a new life with relatives in South America. On arrival in Manaus on the Amazon River Maia receives an unexpectedly cold welcome from her uncle, aunt and cousins and life would be very difficult without Miss Minton's support. However she cannot fail to enjoy the exotic surroundings and soon has many friends including Clovis, a boy actor and Finn, a half English, half Indian boy. As the story unfolds Maia and her friends become involved in a thrilling adventure.

The Wanderer by Sharon Creech

Sophie is 13 and has always been drawn by the sea.  She is determined to join her uncles and two boy cousins when they embark on the challenge to sail across the Atlantic from Connecticut to Ireland, then on to England, where her "Bompie" lives. Is the forty five foot long boat the Wanderer up to the challenge, and are the crew ?

During the voyage they each teach a skill to the others. Sophie chooses to tell Bompie stories - but as he is not really her grandfather, how does she know them?  Sophie has a secret which unfolds. Exciting and scary episodes occur during the storms which hit the Wanderer hard.  A forceful book of the sea for all aspiring adventurers.

Holes by Louis Sachar

The story of Stanley Yelnats ( think about this name! ) is set in the unusual location of Camp Green Lake, a boys' juvenile detention centre, in a dried up lake bed in the wastelands of Texas. All the boys have to dig a five feet deep hole, five feet across every day as their punishment. However are they really just digging, or are they digging for something?  110 years ago Green Lake was a very different place, in the time of Kate Barlow.  How does this fit in with Stanley's family history and his eventual change in fortune?

An American award-winner which is also a story of friendship in a desert prison, this is an unusual and gripping read.

Sequel: Small Steps