The Crossing
Gary Paulsen
Book summary
This is a tense story about poverty, hope and a dangerous attempt to reach a promised better life. Manny must judge both physical risks and whether an older stranger is safe to trust.
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Gary Paulsen
This is a tense story about poverty, hope and a dangerous attempt to reach a promised better life. Manny must judge both physical risks and whether an older stranger is safe to trust.
Patrick Jones
This is a family-centred story about a young person confronting a parent’s substance addiction after military service. Its central tension lies between wanting recovery, preserving a close relationship and protecting Paige’s future plans.
Michael Morpurgo
This is a fantastical football story about hope after repeated disappointment, with a family of foxes facing an apparently impossible wish and a mysterious king seeking freedom.
Shelley Adina
A festive friendship adventure with serious pressures underneath: Mac hopes a shared holiday can repair her family, while the friends face a failing home, money worries, and danger connected with Shani.
Obert Skye
This is a portal fantasy about a dissatisfied teenager whose encounter with an imaginative parallel world brings questions of destiny, self-belief and responsibility. Its central appeal is the contrast between Lev’s difficult life and Foo’s threatened wonder.
Kara Storti
This is a dark coming-of-age story about competing pressures: Finn’s wish to help his sister, his drug use and dealing, academic failure, popularity and search for peace. Bird-watching offers a contrasting strand to his increasingly unstable choices.
Miralee Ferrell
A horse-centred story about hopes, change and friendship. Kate’s new farm offers possibilities, but the apparently unattended thoroughbred introduces uncertainty beyond simply getting a horse of her own.
D. Marie Prokop
This appears to be a character-focused story about identity, hoped-for change and two lonely teenagers finding common ground. Its central tension asks whether a promised cure or a changed dream can deliver belonging.
Alex Tully
The story’s central tension is between Trevor’s wish to preserve his relationship with Bea and the realisation that he must first save himself.
Christopher Paolini
This is a high-stakes fantasy conclusion about Eragon and Saphira confronting a powerful ruler. It combines adventure, battles and moral stakes with loss, hope and the difficult question of what restoring justice may require.
T. M. Brenner
This is a bleak survival story centred on Sam, a young hunter caught between a violent enclosed society and a prophecy that may make Sam its focus. It offers danger, scarcity, social division and questions about whether hope can survive fear.
Coleen Murtagh Paratore
This is a hopeful story about a girl whose ambitions are obstructed by family problems and caring responsibilities. Her appeal for change grows into a community project, while the seriousness of her father’s drinking remains part of the emotional backdrop.
Andrew Peters
This is a family story about depression seen through a child’s eyes. Its movement from confusion and self-blame towards help and hope may support a careful conversation about what illness can change.
Daisaku Ikéda
This is an encouraging, idea-led collection inviting children to reflect on life, their place in the world and the possibility of making a positive contribution.