When a boy takes a ride from a bear in a boat, he doesn’t expect more than a short crossing, although, luckily, he has packed some useful things, including food. But soon the boat is in the middle of an empty sea and the bear is struggling with a map and searching the horizon with a telescope. Together, they enjoy an epic adventure as they deal with impenetrable mist, a terrifying sea monster and even the remains of a disgusting sandwich. This is a humorous and gentle journey of survival and self-discovery.
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Four generations of women on a night-time drive of discovery, enjoy each other’s company and share childhood of the past. Mary’s grandmother Emer is dying. She is supported in the real world by Mary and her mother Scarlett but then Tansy, Mary’s great grandmother appears, too. Tansy may be a ghost but she has a message to pass on … Told in nimble dialogue, tinged with sadness.
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Podcast: Listen to Roddy Doyle read from A Greyhound of a Girl Photograph: Scholastic
A sharply observed story about three boys, some girls, a lot of guns and the choices the boys make about them. The son of a gamekeeper, gentle Alex knows all about guns; their danger and their value. To Max, guns represent everything about his parents and brother that he is in revolt against. Sensible Levi is more interested in girls and money. How will the three react when they discover a hidden stash on an Army training base?
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Ally Kennen on how she wrote Bullet Boys
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When Jack fires a gun he had thought not to be loaded, he is grounded for the summer by his mother. There is just one place he can go: to visit his elderly neighbour, Miss Volker, who writes obituaries for the Norvelt News. Jack helps solve murder mysteries and learns snippets of American history that he has never been taught in school. A witty, uplifting story about the importance of self-sufficiency, community and neighbourliness.
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Dead End in Norvelt wins the Newbery medal Photograph: Random House
This is a teasingly provocative and touching cross-generational story, written with a rare candour about love, sex, thoughts of suicide and growing old. Karl is dyslexic; Fiorella loves books. Karl turns to Fiorella's favourite writer, now an elderly man, for help. Photograph: Bodley Head
Set in “a North where the white wind blows”, this is a fantastical, timeless story full of mystery and the unexpected. Sixteen-Face John is a shape-shifting shaman whose wife is waiting for the birth of their baby, the Soonchild of the title. Unable to hear the World Songs which draw babies from the womb, the Soonchild will remain unborn unless Sixteen-Face John can track down the necessary music. This posthumous novel is an awe-inspiring labour of love for his child and also a wonderful journey of discovery for himself.
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When Lady Agatha Farlingham disappears from her father’s expedition to the Himalayas it is not hard to guess that she has been snatched by a yeti. And so it proves. But, despite their enormous size, shaggy fur, strangely shaped feet and ability to scare the daylights out of humans, yetis, far from being frightening, turn out to be gentle, well-mannered and full of the highest ideals. And Lady Agatha has a plan for them: to keep them safe she determines to transport them to her idyllic childhood home in England in a ¬frozen-food lorry. An outlandish and very funny ¬adventure told with vivacity and warmth, but also a story which rails against injustice in general and cruelty to animals in particular. Photograph: Scholastic
Hidden within this funny and well-observed story is a sparely told but utterly believable exposition of how the immigration system affects children – not just on those directly involved. Julie tells of the unexpected arrival in year six of Chingis and Nergui, two brothers from Mongolia. There’s no preaching here, but it’s a story that will influence how children think about this issue.
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Read Lottie Longsghanks's review Photograph: Walker
