This was the original YA heart-breaker, before Hazel and Augustus were written down on paper and into our hearts. Before I Die remined me how precious life is and how lucky I am. Yes, it broke my heart so badly I cried for days, but it also made me smile and laugh and love. And, really, is there any better life-saving book than that? Delve into Dystopia, site member The Road by Cormac McCarthy is one of those books that makes you see another side to life. The story follows a father and son surviving in a post-apocalyptic America, with the danger of death around every corner.
Though the story is very bleak, it captures the bond of family with the relationship between a father and son. It gives a message that really does stay with you — you have to carry the fire. If you can carry that message within you, you will be able to fight whatever demons come your way, and see the hope within you.
It always was there. This book helped me in many ways such as when I was having some relationship troubles with my boyfriend as well as my diet as I have recently been diagnosed with coeliac disease which basically meant I had to say goodbye to bread, cakes, biscuits Anything that contained gluten.
It also covers exam stress, family troubles, disorders, LGBT and many more issues that cause stress. Scouting for Books, site member The book that saved my life? One that brings together 1. Begrudgingly, I got it. To Kill A Mockingbird saved me in a strange way, I guess it saved me from years of waiting to become the person I was going to be: The Eels album Electroshock Blues got me through one of the most difficult periods of loss in my life.
We bought a legit album when we got home. In my younger years [because I am oh so old now! Honestly, I will contradict myself and say not because there is any special message I take away from it, but because of the characters. The book was given to me by my stepfather who thought it might help to alleviate the boredom of boarding school. I was fourteen and due to my dyslexia had only just learned to read properly. I hid the book under my mattress in the dormitory as it would have taken away from me if it had been found.
I read it at night under my bedclothes by torchlight.
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It was a world I could escape into. The past — Charles II, the plague, the fire of London — became tangible, alive. The love story lingered and I spent many happy hours of daydreaming about Amber and I think it subconsciously inspired me to write I Coriander. Though I read it in my early twenties, the book resonated strongly with me, as I saw, in Tori Spring, a lot of myself. Clair-De-Lune taught me to speak, it taught me that the thoughts in my head could be illustrated just as vividly when I spoke and told them to people as they appeared on paper. But I firmly believe that not only was it the book that ignited my love of reading, but the book that taught me that sometimes, just sometimes, being myself was just good enough.
Shawshank taught me to adapt but not to give in, to keep the best, most ferocious parts of me intact even as I found my own kinds of camouflage. No one book, really, there were so many. That was something I returned to many times between the age of 13 and 20 and always found comfort there. The poetic language, the nostalgia, the mystery, the sense of a summer at the end of childhood, so beautifully captured. To me this book is the original YA novel, exploring the inner life of a teen in turmoil - and a source of comfort and humour to generations of readers.
Walking in a Winter Wonderland Tim Hopgood. Origami for Children Mari Ono. Fun Origami for Children: My First Baking Book Various. Treasury of Bedtime Stories Enid Blyton. Winter Stories Enid Blyton. Stories of Magic and Mischief Enid Blyton. Christmas Treats Enid Blyton. Jolly Good Food Enid Blyton. Mystery of the Skull Pamela Butchart. Secret Seven Adventure Enid Blyton. The Secret Seven Enid Blyton. Summertime Stories Enid Blyton.
Springtime Stories Enid Blyton. I am David Anne Holm.
The Wheel of Surya Jamila Gavin. The Wind Singer William Nicholson. The Whitby Witches Robin Jarvis. Bill's New Frock Anne Fine. National Velvet Enid Bagnold. You're a Bad Man Mr Gum! Whispers in the Graveyard Theresa Breslin. The Snow Spider Jenny Nimmo. Kensuke's Kingdom Michael Morpurgo. The Bad Beginning Lemony Snicket.
Crosswords for Clever Kids Gareth Moore.
Authors and teenagers share the books that saved their life
Wordsearches for Clever Kids Gareth Moore. Asterix and the Picts Jean-Yves Ferri. Omnibus 8 Rene Goscinny. Omnibus 7 Rene Goscinny. Omnibus 6 Rene Goscinny. Omnibus 5 Rene Goscinny. Omnibus 4 Rene Goscinny. Omnibus 3 Rene Goscinny. Horrible Histories and Science. Awful Egyptians Terry Deary. Rotten Romans Terry Deary. Savage Stone Age Terry Deary. Terrifying Tudors Terry Deary. Vicious Vikings Terry Deary.
Microscopic Monsters Nick Arnold. Nasty Nature Nick Arnold. Painful Poison Nick Arnold.
Classic children's library: | Books | The Guardian
Shocking Electricity Nick Arnold. Hachette Kids Books CP banner. Books for younger Children. Mrs Mole, I'm Home! Goodnight Everyone Chris Haughton. Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! A Child of Books Sam Winston. We Found a Hat Jon Klassen. Penguin Problems Jory John. Dinosaurs Don't Have Bedtimes! We Have a Plan Chris Haughton. Alan's Big, Scary Teeth Jarvis. A Bit Lost Chris Haughton. The Dot Peter H. Winnie the Witch Valerie Thomas.
Bestselling Series
The New Computer Valerie Thomas. But she is not alone; the castle grounds are full of other mysterious presences including a ghostly boy, a sinister green lady, a screeching peacock and chains of desperate "stonestruck" children, engaged in a deadly game of tag with Jessica as the quarry. Cresswell writes with a spare, dense poetry about the desolation of separation, the isolating effect of unhappiness and the need to take care about what you wish. A really spellbinding piece of grown-up writing for children that makes the Goosebumps series pale into insignificance.
It can be read alone at 10 upward, but both are very satisfying for adults to read to the 8-upward age range. In a different vein, but just as good, is Cresswell's Snatchers - the story of a girl whose guardian angel appears in the local park to protect her from the Land of the Starless Night. Liable to engender plenty of hilarious discussion about whether angels have belly buttons. Yes, yes, we know. Ridiculously middle-class and old-fashioned and full of Christian imagery, the triumph of good over evil and being a jolly good sort.
But really it is magic, provided you take care not to force it down your children's throats too early. Some of the sentence structure is quite difficult and you really need to be eight upward and a confident reader not to be put off. But it's like getting into the wardrobe in the first place: Of course this isn't actually the first in the series - The Magician's Nephew is - but this is where you should begin. Joan Aiken's classic adventure story is set during the imaginary reign of James III in the early part of the 19th century when the recently completed channel tunnel has allowed wolves to overrun large parts of Britain.
A really rollicking story, with plenty of wild flights of the imagination, it has the essential ingredients of lost parents, an evil governess and two feisty cousins, Bonnie and Sylvia, determined to evade the clutches of the evil Miss Slighcarp. The good news for those with keen readers is that there are more than a dozen books in the Willoughby Chase sequence.
The bad news is that although featuring the memorably stroppy heroine Dido Twite, some of the subsequent novels are off-puttingly obscure. Funny and tender storytelling from the excellent Susan Cooper. This one is about a boggart that is accidentally transported from his remote Scottish island to the bright lights of Toronto, and doesn't like it one bit. Life seemed grim when father lost his job and the family had to move to their aunt's home. But with the arrival of Johnnie the pig, things begin to improve. Childhood is somehow golden in E Nesbit's stories about a family of children who discover a Psammead or sand fairy, a grumpy and very ancient creature that can give them wishes.
The difficulty is of thinking of really good wishes and not getting things that they really don't want at all, and even the simplest of wishes seem to get them into great difficulties. This book is such fun that children want to gobble it down in one sitting and are absolutely amazed when you tell them it was written almost a century ago.
It seems so fresh because it gets to the very heart of being a child - the wonderful sense that anything can happen to you and probably will. To the average nine-year-old girl, Jacqueline Wilson's books are as desirable as a trip to Claire's Accessories and a pair of the latest fringed jeans. This story of ten-year-old identical twins Ruby and Garnet, who lose their mother and have to come to terms not only with their dad's new love but also with growing up and growing apart, is a model of Wilson's exuberant and confessional storytelling style, in which Ruby and Garnet take it in turns to tell the story.
Wilson's books can be too obviously issue-driven to be really satisfying, but they are a stepping-stone into a real world where real kids face tough emotional problems. Plenty to choose from: Join Hazel and his brave band of rabbits as they set out in search of a new home. Richard Adams's modern classic is not fluffy or cute at all. In fact, it's so good that you completely forget after a while that we're talking rabbits, not humans. It is two children against the rest of the world in Thomas's riveting tale about Julia and Nathan, who win popularity at school when they find a stash of money in a deserted house, but soon decide to flee when teachers and parents want to know where it came from.
Thomas writes from a child's point of view about what it feels like not to have a special friend and never to be picked when teams are being sorted. The unlikely friendship between Julia and Nathan is drawn with a delicacy that never ignores its difficulties and the final triumphant realisation that love is worth having is exhilarating.
Macabre is the only word for Pullman's wonderfully creepy tale that, needless to say, runs like clockwork. In a way it is a parable about the power of storytelling itself. But it is also part fairytale, part ghost story and part science fiction; Pullman writes with a deceptive simplicity that makes the whole thing feel both ancient and very modern at the same time. There are some wonderfully witty picture asides, but is the narrative that really winds you up: If families still did that kind of thing, this would be the perfect novel to be read out loud around the fire.
While roasting chestnuts, of course. Cleverly structured and wittily told series of stories that combine to make one satisfying whole as they tell of Ailsa, who sees the truth behind the yarns spun by the mysterious man who helps out in her mum's antique shop. I still can't pass a grandfather clock without thinking of this book, so strong an impression did this haunting story make on me as a child.
Classic children's library: 8-11
Pearce's writing sends a shiver of both excitement and fear up the spine in this clever double time-framed story about Tom who, when the clock strikes 13, can see his aunt's house just as it was 50 years ago. North American classic about the irrepressible Katy who courts disaster and only starts to really grow up after she is paralysed in a fall from a swing.
Based on a true story, Serraillier's book doesn't flinch in recounting the adventures of four children as they struggle to stay alive in Nazi-occupied Europe and their desperate, epic journey from Poland to Switzerland in search of their parents. It is an extraordinarily profound book, no matter what the age of the reader," was the verdict of the Whitbread judges who gave this the Children's Book of the Year Award. An instant modern classic.
Engrossing Guardian Award-winner from the early s and set in the near future, which is nearer now than it was then. It is an atmospheric tale about Rob, on the run after the mysterious death of his dad, who crosses The Barrier and finds himself in a countryside that initially seems idyllic. So why is rebellion in the air?
- Featured Children's Books?
- Astrochemistry and Astrobiology (Physical Chemistry in Action).
- It Started with Men but Ended with the Man;
- Frog Soup.
- La primera Navidad (Spanish Edition).
Friendship proves dangerous in Fine's uncomfortable and genuinely powerful novel that carries with it echoes of the Jamie Bulger case. Natalie is attracted to the difficult, disturbed Tulip, perhaps because she seems so dangerous. But soon she is out of her depth as Tulip's games get increasingly out of control.
Plenty of control, though, in Fine's delicate exploration of friendship, betrayal and guilt. At night Cassie dreams of wolves. They are coming to get her. But how can she be kept safe? When Cassie is sent without warning from her nan's to live with her feckless, beautiful mother she becomes easy prey until she finds a way of protecting herself. How many books for children deal with dying? How many deal with Aids? Morris Gleitzmann's does, and this hard-hitting Australian writer handles the subject with a surprising off-the-wall humour which ensures the book is moving and not at all mawkish.
Colin refuses to believe that his younger brother is dying of cancer and decides to take things into his own hands. Then he meets a young man whose partner is dying of Aids, who helps him come to terms with living and losing. Kitty Killin is not only a good storyteller but also the World's Greatest Expert when it comes to mums having new and unwanted boyfriends, particularly when there is a danger they may turn into new and unwanted stepfathers. Oddly touching story about Goggle-Eyes, the most unwanted boyfriend of them all, written in a knock-kneed prose that is funny and affecting.
Garfield's magnificent book was written in the s, but has a Dickensian richness as it follows the adventures of Smith, a year-old pickpocket living in the slums around St Paul's, who witnesses a murder and escapes with a document belonging to the victim. Hounded through London, befriended and betrayed, Smith eventually discovers that he has something of real value. Not an easy read if you are under eleven, but an enormously satisfying one. The vividness of Garfield's writing puts the blandness of many modern writers' prose in the shade.