Clara Kumagai’s Catfish Rolling (Head of Zeus/Zephyr) is set in the aftermath of the 2011 Japanese earthquake, an event that has left strange pockets of fractured time around the country. Since losing her mother to the devastation, Sora has felt aimless and alone and when her grief-stricken father goes missing, she follows him into uncharted spaces and unknown dangers. An outstanding debut, this is a unique and ambitious story of grief and coming of age, woven around a rich backdrop of Japanese folklore, culture and magical realism.
Candy Gourlay’s Bone Talk was shortlisted for both the Carnegie medal and the Costa children’s book award. Now she returns to the Philippines of the early 20th century in Wild Song (David Fickling Books), a companion novel that can also be read as a standalone. When Luki’s tribe is offered the chance to journey to America for the St Louis World Fair, she eagerly escapes the constraints of rural mountain life. Her overseas adventure brings great wonder, but Luki soon discovers a darker side, of racism and inequality. This is a powerhouse of a novel, rich and immersive, with a fierce and unforgettable narrator.
Next, to ancient Greece and Sarah Underwood’s Lies We Sing to the Sea (Electric Monkey). In the kingdom of Ithaca, 12 girls must be hanged each spring to appease Poseidon. When Leto awakes from her death, the enigmatic Melantho reveals her destiny: to kill the last prince of Ithaca and destroy the curse. Inspired by the fate of Penelope’s maids in Homer’s The Odyssey, this is a lavish epic of power, vengeance, love and fate.
In Boy Like Me by Simon James Green (Scholastic), it is 1994 and, thanks to section 28, there can be no mention of gay relationships in UK schools. When an intuitive librarian lends Jamie a disguised book that reflects his own emerging feelings towards boys, a romance is sparked by scribbled notes in the book’s margins. Green’s experience of being banned from visiting a church school in the UK because he is gay and the current debate about sex education in the classroom make this all the more timely and important. Believable characters and the warmth of Green’s writing bring light to a difficult topic.
In Happy Head by Josh Silver (Rock the Boat) a radical new retreat claims to have the answers to an epidemic of teenage unhappiness. Early recruit Seb is determined to make his parents proud, but when he meets the enigmatic Finn, the boys begin to question the true nature of the institute and the challenges they must complete. This is a truly thought-provoking thriller, channelling the menace of dystopian favourites such as Maze Runner and The Hunger Games.
Finally, for younger readers aged 11-14, Friendship Never Ends by Alexandra Sheppard (Knights Of, May) follows four girls over one long summer apart: Sunita on holiday with her blended family; Dawn at drama summer school in London; Gifty with her grandparents in an isolated village; and May at home working in her parent’s Chinese takeaway. Sheppard brilliantly captures all the awkwardness and insecurities of being in your early teens in this hopeful, heart-filled paean to friendship and girlhood.
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