Ruby Holler
Sharon Creech
Book summary
This is a story about siblings who have been moved between foster homes and an older couple who invite them into their lives. It centres on belonging, trust and the possibility of a loving home.
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Sharon Creech
This is a story about siblings who have been moved between foster homes and an older couple who invite them into their lives. It centres on belonging, trust and the possibility of a loving home.
Kathleen Glasgow
This is a grief-centred story about a teenager facing her mother's death, state care and successive foster homes. It also follows her relationships with friends and the possibility of finding family in unexpected places.
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A curated collection of children’s books about setbacks, recovery, perseverance, courage and growth. Compare how each book handles difficulty before choosing what fits your child, timing and family values.
1 bookLinda Sue Park
Mrs. O. F. Walton
Faith’s story centres on loss, difficult care at home, leaving, and seeking help through prayer. Her Christian faith is central to the way the story presents her hardship.
Michelle D. Kwasney
Three teenage girls from different generations navigate difficult family lives and choices about their futures. Their stories eventually converge, and each finds strength and hope.
Ruth Lehrer
Fishkill uses violence to intimidate other pupils and obtain food. A friendship with Duck-Duck and help from her mother create a possible alternative, while Fishkill’s mother’s return complicates that fragile arrangement.
Bob Blaisdell, Carlo Collodi
The appeal is in a lively, wayward hero whose choices propel a string of comic and perilous adventures. The book also offers a clear thread of advice about behaviour and responsibility.
Sharon Darrow
A bleak but lyrical story about siblings navigating unstable care, homelessness and self-invention. Its poems bring attention to the dreams and difficulties of young people without secure homes.
Lisa Tawn Bergren
This is a Christian story about kindness and love, including loving people who are hard to like. Grampa explains these ideas through Little Cub’s questions and relationships.
Else Holmelund Minarik
A warm, lightly playful set of stories about a young bear and his mother, mixing everyday family moments with a fanciful journey.
Pamela Porter
This is a bleak but ultimately hopeful family story: the children’s resourcefulness and the quiet help they receive are set against hardship and cruelty in their community.
Eoin Colfer
A fantasy caper built around a criminal boy’s plan to ransom a fairy, with high-tech opponents and a possible clash between species.
Norma Jean Lutz
A historical family story about wartime change, German-American prejudice and Carl’s first summer living away from home.
Salman Rushdie
This is a fantasy quest driven by Luka’s effort to save his father. Enchanted companions and perilous challenges shape the journey; family love and mortality are also named as themes.
Amy Carol Reeves
A paranormal Jack the Ripper mystery follows Abbie from bereavement and hospital volunteering into visions, murder investigations and a dangerous hunt. A romance also develops alongside the historical setting.
Archie Kimpton
A lively, comic animal adventure, with an eccentric family and a cat whose unusual condition drives the plot. Billy’s collecting hobby and the pet-show challenge add extra strands to the story.
Sue Bentley
This story brings together a hidden prince with magical powers and Jemma’s ambition to attend stage school, offering both fantasy adventure and a family-centred goal.
Karle Dickerson
This is a horse-centred story about bereavement, caring for a vulnerable foal and Joelle's changing feelings. Her hoped-for show success also matters to her, alongside her attachment to Dance Away.
Diana Hendry
The story combines a household mystery with whimsical fantasy: Henry tries to discover what Harvey’s unusual work means, while music, poetry and kindness shape the characters’ experiences.
Elizabeth Goudge
A magical village adventure sits alongside a story about siblings finding a more welcoming home. Expect mysteries and eccentric characters, with the children taking an active part in what happens.
Siobhan Dowd
This is a story about a young person who feels unhappy in foster care and uses a new identity to imagine a more confident way of facing the world.
Sharon Creech
A story of unexpected care and a growing family, with the boy’s unexplained arrival and uncertain future at its centre.
Adeline Yen Mah
The story follows CC as she considers her future, guided by an ancient book, alongside children from different backgrounds. Its historical notes may add context to the adventure.
Coleen Hefley
This true animal tale follows backyard turkey-raising and the particular personalities attributed to Royal, Snuggles and other animals. Its appeal appears to centre on observing their individual antics rather than on a stated practical guide to animal care.
Stefan Petrucha
A teen’s wish for an ordinary family life collides with the corporate control surrounding him. The story also sets personal loyalty against the possibility of exposing wrongdoing.
Abby Sher
This is a friendship story about two friends adjusting to change while one faces an eating disorder and possible self-injury.
M. A. Larson
This is a fantasy adventure about training for a war, but it also puts Evie's ideas about princesshood, family and compassion under pressure.
Anoosha Lalani
This fantasy adventure centres on Isra’s effort to protect her sister and understand her newly revealed responsibility. Family loss, visions and a conflict between supernatural factions shape her search for allies.
Karen Harrington
The premise centres on a young person wishing for the problem-solving certainty of fiction while facing school and family pressures.
Emily Costello
Animal rescue drives the story, alongside Stella’s difference of outlook from her hunter grandfather. The episodes include an injured mountain lion, a trapped fawn, an iguana and a colt’s birth.
G. A. Whitmore
A dog’s search for a home gives the story a clear emotional focus, while his journey brings both loss and hope. Expect a serious arc rather than an account limited to rescue and comfort.
Gail Carson Levine
A fantasy quest puts a timid sister in an unfamiliar role: seeking a cure while facing dangers she feels unready for. Sisterly devotion and the search for courage are central.
Trish Doller
This is a contemporary thriller about craving adventure, taking a risk and discovering that a promising escape may be dangerous.
Sheila Griffin Llanas
The book offers a life-and-business biography, covering Monaghan’s early experiences and later work in pizza delivery. Its timeline and glossary may help readers keep track of people, events and terms.
Jess Mowry
The boys’ choice is not simply about money: they consider whether a possible way to meet personal needs could also send cocaine back into their neighbourhood.
Cornelia Funke
This is a story about a child’s bond with a horse and a dispute over who should have the animal. Emma’s grandmother and the animal sanctuary are part of the setting.
Lynn Messina
This combines sisterly family life and growing up with vampire appetites and danger. Its central tension includes the sisters’ effort to avoid feeding on people.
Mary Casanova
This historical fiction centres on an older brother's responsibility for a younger sibling, while religious conflict and a werewolf belief shape the danger around them.
Isobelle Carmody
This fantasy follows Rage as she tries to protect two worlds from an endless winter linked to a powerful Stormlord and other people’s despair.
Edo Van Belkom
This is a family-and-adventure story about teenage werewolf siblings balancing school and sibling relationships with a threat to the woods they secretly use.
This is a cadet adventure built around a real training mission, with competition and self-doubt alongside a high-stakes decision about responding to danger.
Ysabeau S. Wilce
The story pairs Flora’s ambition to become a ranger with fantastical dangers and a threatened city. Her efforts to help a friend and uncover family revelations add personal stakes.
Jessie Haas
A horse-and-school story about a child who cares deeply about art and wants to support her grandmother's effort to benefit the school's arts programme.
A warm family-centred story built around the Baby-Sitters’ effort to give mothers a break.
Kay O'Neill
This blends magical sea creatures with a story about caring for an injured Aquicorn and deciding how a town should live alongside the sea. Family support and Lana's growing independence also matter.
Jen Calonita
This is a fairy-tale-inspired school adventure centred on Gilly’s effort to help her younger sister. Its setup combines familiar storybook figures with a reform-school predicament.
Ed Young
A fable told through a basket’s role in one family’s life, linking everyday work with changes across generations.
Susan Fletcher
A fantasy quest centres on a girl whose unusual ability to understand dragons may help her find a way to aid someone she loves.
Julia Donaldson
This is an adventure about a dinosaur parent protecting her eggs and young across two worlds, with a rescue at its centre.
Showing the first 48 results. Add another category or theme to narrow the selection.
A focused, dual-narrative historical novel about displacement, survival and access to water. Its language is spare, but the experiences include war, deaths and severe deprivation, balanced by perseverance and collective problem-solving.