The First Year - Matt Goodfellow

Nate’s eleven and has just finished Primary School.

After a challenging final year, life is looking up. His brother has recovered from a life-threatening heart condition, he’s got the love of his mum, brothers and Auntie San, and he’s off to Secondary School with his two best mates.  

But while he's making new friends and avoiding the fists of Turner, his old nemesis, and struggling to come to terms with a strict new teacher and a sense of isolation from his brothers, a sudden surprise appearance in Nate's life threatens to throw him completely off course.

And The Beast - the anger he tries so hard to control - reappears.

Crossing the Line - Tia Fisher

Erik's life has been falling apart ever since his dad died.

Homework and being good at school stop feeling important when you're the new man of the house.

When Erik's bad behaviour attracts the wrong crowd, he's sucked into a terrifying new world of drug dealing, trap houses and violence. Making money feels good but Erik soon learns that a small favour can become a huge debt.

 And when his sisters' lives are threatened, Erik will have to cross one more line to save them.

Rebound by Kwame Alexander

It's 1988. Charlie Bell is still mourning his father and struggling to figure out how he feels for his best (girl) friend, CJ.

When he gets into trouble one too many times, he's packed off to stay with his grandparents for the summer.

There his cousin Roxie introduces him to a whole new world: basketball.

A legend on the courts is born. But can Charlie resist when trouble comes knocking once again?

The Crossing - Manjeet Mann

The Crossing is a profound story of hope, grief, and the very real tragedies of the refugee crisis.

 The sea carries our pain. The stars carry our future. Natalie's world is falling apart. She's just lost her mum and her brother marches the streets of Dover full of hate and anger.

Swimming is her only refuge. Sammy has fled his home and family in Eritrea for the chance of a new life in Europe.

Every step he takes on his journey is a step into an unknown and unwelcoming future. A twist of fate brings them together and gives them both hope.

The Black Flamingo - Dean Atta

This is not about being ready, it's not even about being fierce, or fearless, IT'S ABOUT BEING FREE.

 Michael waits in the stage wings, wearing a pink wig, pink fluffy coat and black heels.

One more step will see him illuminated by spotlight.

He has been on a journey of bravery to get here, and he is almost ready to show himself to the world in bold colours....

Can he emerge as The Black Flamingo?

Clap when you land - Elizabeth Acevedo

Camino Rios lives for the summers when her father visits her in the Dominican Republic.

But this time, on the day when his plane is supposed to land, Camino arrives at the airport to see crowds of crying people...

In New York City, Yahaira Rios is called to the principal's office, where her mother is waiting to tell her that her father, her hero, has died in a plane crash.

Separated by distance - and Papi's secrets - the two girls are forced to face a new reality in which their father is dead and their lives are forever altered. And then, when it seems like they've lost everything of their father, they learn of each other.

In a dual narrative novel in verse that brims with both grief and love, award-winning and bestselling author Elizabeth Acevedo writes about the devastation of loss, the difficulty of forgiveness, and the bittersweet bonds that shape our lives.

The boy lost in the maze - Joseph Coelho

In this highly acclaimed and prize-winning verse novel, Joseph Coelho brilliantly blends Greek myth with a 21st century quest.  In Ancient Greece Theseus makes a dangerous and courageous journey to find his father, finally meeting the Minotaur in the Labyrinth.

While Theo, a modern-day teenage boy, finds himself on a maze-like quest to find his own father.

Each story tells of a boy becoming a man and discovering what true manhood really means. The path to self-discovery takes Theo through ‘those thin spaces where myth, magic and reality combine’.

Doubts, difficulties and dangers must be faced as Theo discovers the man he will become.