Mad, Bad and Dangerous to Know by Samira Ahmed

It’s August in Paris and 17-year-old Khayyam Maquet—American, French, Indian, Muslim—is at a crossroads. This holiday with her professor parents should be a dream trip for the budding art historian. But her maybe-ex-boyfriend is probably ghosting her, she might have just blown her chance at getting into her dream college, and now all she really wants is to be back home in Chicago figuring out her messy life instead of brooding in the City of Light.

Two hundred years before Khayyam’s summer of discontent, Leila is struggling to survive and keep her true love hidden from the Pasha who has “gifted” her with favored status in his harem. In the present day—and with the company of a descendant of Alexandre Dumas—Khayyam begins to connect allusions to an enigmatic 19th-century Muslim woman whose path may have intersected with Alexandre Dumas, Eugène Delacroix, and Lord Byron.

Skellig by David Almond

Unhappy about his baby sister's illness and the chaos of moving into a dilapidated old house, Michael retreats to the garage and finds a mysterious stranger who is something like a bird and something like an angel...

Monsters by Sharon Dogar

1814: Mary Godwin, the sixteen-year-old daughter of radical socialist and feminist writers, runs away with a dangerously charming young poet - Percy Bysshe Shelley. From there, the two young lovers travel a Europe in the throes of revolutionary change, through high and low society, tragedy and passion, where they will be drawn into the orbit of the mad and bad Lord Byron.

But Mary and Percy are not alone: they bring Jane, Mary's young step-sister. And she knows the biggest secrets of them all

A Kestrel for a Knave by Barry Hines

Life is tough and cheerless for Billy Casper, a troubled teenager growing up in the small Yorkshire mining town of Barnsley. Treated as a failure at school, and unhappy at home, Billy discovers a new passion in life when he finds Kes, a kestrel hawk. Billy identifies with her silent strength and she inspires in him the trust and love that nothing else can, discovering through her the passion missing from his life. Barry Hines's acclaimed novel continues to reach new generations of teenagers and adults with its powerful story of survival in a tough, joyless world.

Nowhere on Earth by Nick Lake

On the run with her little brother, Aidan, sixteen-year-old Emily stows away on a plane in this fast-paced thriller. When their plane crashes into the side of a snowy mountain, it’s up to Emily to ensure Aidan and their pilot, Bob, make it off the mountain alive. Lost in the Alaskan wilderness and pursued by mysterious government forces who want to capture them, the unlikely team of three trek across the freezing landscape, learning more about each other, and about life, than they ever thought possible.

The Kite Rider by Geraldine McCaughrean

Strapped onto a beautiful scarlet -- and-gold kite, Haoyou is sent into the sky to soar perilously among the clouds and entertain the awestruck crowds below. Traveling the Empire as part of the Jade Circus, Haoyou earns freedom, money, and unexpected fame -- as he skillfully performs for local villagers who believe he can bring back messages from lost loved ones whose spirits haunt the sky. Miao even plans for Haoyou to perform before the Mongol conqueror Kublai Khan himself!

But what about the duties that bind Haoyou to the ground -- his duties to his family, especially to his widowed mother? And is the Great Miao all that he seems, or could he be using Haoyou in a treacherous plot?

Twilight by Stephenie Meyer

About three things I was absolutely positive.

First, Edward was a vampire.

Second, there was a part of him—and I didn't know how dominant that part might be—that thirsted for my blood.

And third, I was unconditionally and irrevocably in love with him.

Deeply seductive and extraordinarily suspenseful, Twilight is a love story with bite.

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

For years, rumors of the “Marsh Girl” have haunted Barkley Cove, a quiet town on the North Carolina coast. So in late 1969, when handsome Chase Andrews is found dead, the locals immediately suspect Kya Clark, the so-called Marsh Girl. But Kya is not what they say. Sensitive and intelligent, she has survived for years alone in the marsh that she calls home, finding friends in the gulls and lessons in the sand. Then the time comes when she yearns to be touched and loved. When two young men from town become intrigued by her wild beauty, Kya opens herself to a new life–until the unthinkable happens.

Wolf Brother by Michelle Paver

Thousands of years ago the land is one dark forest. Its people are hunter-gatherers. They know every tree and herb and they know how to survive in a time of enchantment and powerful magic. Until an ambitious and malevolent force conjures a demon: a demon so evil that it can be contained only in the body of a ferocious bear that will slay everything it sees, a demon determined to destroy the world.

Only one boy can stop it—12 year old Torak, who has seen his father murdered by the bear. With his dying breath, Torak’s father tells his son of the burden that is his. He must lead the bear to the mountain of the World Spirit and beg that spirit’s help to overcome it.

Where the World Turns Wild by Nicola Penfold

Juniper Greene lives in a walled city from which nature has been banished, following the outbreak of a deadly man-made disease many years earlier. While most people seem content to live in such a cage, she and her little brother Bear have always known about their resistance to the disease, and dream of escaping into the wild. To the one place humans have survived outside of cities. To where their mother is.

When scientists discover that the siblings provide the key to fighting the disease, the pair must flee for their lives. As they cross the barren Buffer Zone and journey into the unknown, Juniper and Bear can only guess at the dangers that lie ahead. Nature can be cruel as well as kind... Will they ever find the home they’ve been searching for?

Lampie by Annet Schaap (translated by Laura Watkinson)

Every evening Lampie the lighthouse keeper’s daughter must light a lantern to warn ships away from the rocks. But one stormy night disaster strikes. The light goes out, a ship is wrecked, and an adventure begins. In disgrace Lampie is sent to work as a maid at the Admiral’s Black House, where rumour has it that a monster lurks in the tower. But what she finds there is stranger and more beautiful than any monster.

Voyage to Valhalla by Robert Swindells

When Davy and his friends discover the skull of an ancient Briton buried in the woods, they decide to unearth as much as they can of the skeleton themselves before telling any adults. But by the time they have disinterred the skeletons, Davy has become the subject of hauntings and hallucinations.

Walkabout by James Vance Marshall

A plane crashes in the vast Northern Territory of Australia, and the only survivors are two children from Charleston, South Carolina, on their way to visit their uncle in Adelaide. Mary and her younger brother Peter set out on foot, lost in the vast, hot Australian outback. They are saved by a chance meeting with an Aboriginal boy on walkabout, who teaches them to find food and water in the wilderness, but whom Mary can’t bring herself to trust.

Peter’s innocent friendship with the Aboriginal throws into relief Mary’s no longer childish anxiety, and together raise questions about how Aboriginal and Western culture can meet. And in the vivid descriptions of the natural world, we realize that this story—a deep fairy tale in the spirit of Adalbert Stifter’s Rock Crystal—must also be a story about the closeness of death and the power of nature.

Wilde by Eloise Williams

Being different can be dangerous. Wilde is afraid strange things are happening around her. Are the birds following her? Is she flying in her sleep? Moving to live with her aunt seems to make it all worse. Wilde is desperate to fit in at her new school, but things keep getting stranger. In a fierce heatwave, in rehearsals for a school play telling the old, local legend of a witch called Winter, ‘The Witch’ starts leaving pupils frightening letters cursing them. Can Wilde find out what’s happening before everyone blames her? Or will she always be the outcast?

Half a Creature from the Sea by David Almond

May Malone is said to have a monster in her house, but what Norman finds there may just be the angel he needs. Joe Quinn’s house is noisy with poltergeists, or could it be Davie’s raging causing the disturbance? Fragile Annie learns the truth about herself in a photograph taken by a traveling man near the sea. Set in the northern English Tyneside country of the author’s childhood, these eight short stories evoke gritty realities and ineffable longings, experiences both ordinary and magical.

In brief autobiographical preludes, master storyteller David Almond speaks to his own inspiration and shows how all things can be turned into tales, reflecting on a time of wonder, tenderness, and joy.

'A Matter of Fact' by Rudyard Kipling

Rudyard Kipling (1865-1939) was, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, one of the most widely read writers in the English language. Today he remains well known for his Just So Stories and The Jungle Book, made into much-loved animated and now live-action, films by Disney. His poem ‘If’ was voted the British public’s favourite in a nationwide BBC poll. ‘A Matter of Fact’, first published in 1892, is a typical Kipling story, packed with adventure and mystery.

This is an abridged version of the story.

'The Open Window' by Saki

The writer is Hector Hugh Munro (1870-1916), a British writer, who used the pen name Saki. His stories often poked fun at middle and upper class Edwardian society. 'The Open Window' was first published in the collection Beasts and Super-Beasts in 1914.

Tales from the Inner City by Shaun Tan

A collection of incredibly original stories, rich with feeling, strangely moving, almost numinous. And when the reader comes to the artwork, it's like walking into an amazing room, and then throwing open a curtain to see a brilliant scene that makes you understand and appreciate everything you've encountered in a deeper way.

A Year of Nature Poems by Joseph Coelho

See how animals behave through the seasons, and the cycle of trees and plants, from the first blossoms of spring through to the stark winter wonderland in December. Twelve inspiring poems from Joseph Coelho, one for each month of the year, paired with folk art from Kelly Louise Judd give this book year-round appeal.

Red, Cherry Red by Jackie Kay

Jackie Kay explores the theme of identity in poems about an older generation, especially grandmothers, about the old days and the new days, and places the poet associates with these people, who live dreamlike, isolated existences, geographically, but also in the memory.

'Aliberti's Ride' by Gretel Ehrlich

Gretel Ehrlich made her first trip to Greenland in 1993. Since then she has returned many times, drawn by the landscape and by a desire to understand native culture. In this passage below, from her book This Cold Heaven she travels by dogsled with a hunter named Aliberti from the tiny island town of Uummannaq to the even tinier town of Niaqornat.

The Book of Time by Kathrin Koller

In this thought provoking book, curious readers will discover all kinds of fascinating information about how and why we think about time. Chapters on mythology discuss Chronos, Janus, and the legend of the Phoenix. Others look at how different cultures perceive time--as a straight line or in circles? Young readers will learn how animals and plants tell time, how the study of longitude and latitude is related to clocks, and why an hour used to last one hundred minutes. Along the way, they'll encounter historic time pieces such as sundials, chronometers, and Al-Jazari's famous 12th-century elephant clock.

The Slave Trade Events and Outcomes by Tom Monaghan

In the Events & Outcomes series, readers get a macro and microscopic view into historical events that have had and continue to have world-changing consequences. Maps, timelines, contemporary photographs and illustrations, and the most up-to-date analyses spotlight the forces that brought about these important events--and the consequences that continue to be felt today. Analysis spreads follow the early chapters, summing up the immediate significance of that part of the story. Extensive use of quotes from contemporary documents, speeches, speeches and journals. Also includes glossary and timeline.

'The Winter Night' by Fridtjof Nansen

This text is an extract from the diary of Fridtjof Nansen, a Norwegian explorer who in 1887 set out to drift to the North Pole in ‘the Fram’, a boat specially adapted to the icy conditions. Although they did not reach the Pole itself, his expedition did get further north than anyone else had managed before.

Flower Power: The Magic of Nature's Healers by Christine Paxmann (illustrated by Olaf Hajek)

Olaf Hajek's art is familiar to many adults. Now young readers can enjoy his work while learning about the health benefits of flowers they encounter every day. Accompanying each painting are texts that explore various cultural and medicinal aspects of the flowers as well as their importance to artists, writers, and healers. As they learn how iris roots were used to alleviate teething pain in babies and how poppy plants led to the invention of the salt shaker, kids will also get to know a garden's worth of blooms--from wild roses to carnations and peonies to marigolds.

Touching the Void by Joe Simpson

Touching the Void is the heart-stopping account of Joe Simpson's terrifying adventure in the Peruvian Andes. He and his climbing partner, Simon, reached the the summit of the remote Siula Grande in June 1995. A few days later, Simon staggered into Base Camp, exhausted and frost-bitten, with news that that Joe was dead.

What happened to Joe, and how the pair dealt with the psychological traumas that resulted when Simon was forced into the appalling decision to cut the rope, makes not only an epic of survival but a compelling testament of friendship.