Fire and Hemlock
Diana Wynne Jones
Book summary
Expect a layered fantasy mystery, with Polly piecing together memories and the significance of stories she and Tom invented. It also follows her changing friendships and sense of self as she grows up.
Explore
Type a book, author, topic, idea or reading experience.
Find a Book
Scan the ISBN, scan the front cover, or type what you know.
Combine filters when useful. Values show what a book addresses, not what it endorses.
Clear filtersRequests, popularity, awards and recommendations—not just age. A list is a starting point, not a suitability verdict.
Popular themes
Type to search the full theme index.
Fresh mix gives you a varied selection that stays steady while you browse, so returning from a guide does not reshuffle the page.
Diana Wynne Jones
Expect a layered fantasy mystery, with Polly piecing together memories and the significance of stories she and Tom invented. It also follows her changing friendships and sense of self as she grows up.
Natasha Preston
A suspense-led story about Scarlett piecing together an obscured childhood while facing the people who want her returned to their group. Romance is part of the premise, alongside danger and questions of trust.
Recommendations
Choose a route in, then open only the collection you want. 1 collections · 2 books.
Subjects, worlds and interests to browse into.
A carefully curated collection of children’s books in which grief, bereavement or remembrance is central. Compare how each book handles loss, emotional intensity and continued connection before deciding what suits your child and family values.
2 booksHarry Woodgate
A gentle family story about love, loss and renewal: a child learns about Grandad and Gramps’s life together, then helps Grandad move towards new adventures while keeping shared memories alive.
Stephanie Oakes
This is a story of a young person trying to rebuild trust and make sense of beliefs taught within a cult, while detained and facing a choice about revealing her past.
Stephen Chbosky
Charlie’s letters follow his friendships and family relationships as he tries to understand his place between adolescence and adulthood. The story combines everyday coming-of-age concerns with difficult experiences that shape his perspective.
Natasha Ngan
A speculative thriller built around stolen, downloadable memories, a hidden past and a government experiment. Seven and Alba’s uneasy bargain draws them into a chase involving the London Guard and Alba’s prosecutor father.
Arie Kaplan
The book opens up the workings of video games without asking readers to dismantle a console, moving from code and the console’s decision-making to memory, controls and display.
Ann Downer
Expect science-led reading rather than a continuous story: the book moves among species and examples to examine learning, memory and problem-solving, including possible applications of animal abilities in engineering and materials science.
Patricia McCormick
Matt’s injury leaves him unsure how he was involved when a young Iraqi boy was shot. Returning to combat, he scans for danger and worries about whether he can act when required.
Berlie Doherty, Maria Teresa Meloni
A snowy Christmas Eve meeting leads two children to hope for a tree like the one in their picture book. The story follows the tree’s appearance at home, where candles and gifts make the scene especially wondrous.
Don Nardo
Odysseus’s journey follows the Trojan War, a storm that sends his ships off course, and encounters with dangerous places and frightening creatures. The book also considers myths as memories and Odysseus’s place in popular culture.
Donny Bailey Seagraves
The story centres on Daniel’s guilt and bereavement after a hunting accident kills his uncle. At home, his father’s drinking and temper add strain, while Daniel tries to find a way forward.
Sally Lloyd-Jones
The children’s summer changes when a nearby fountain is prepared as a temporary home for goldfish. Neighbourhood children visit, while their grandfather’s memories connect the fountain’s earlier use with the present-day adventure.
e. E. Charlton-Trujillo
A family drama about bereavement, estrangement and memory: Michelle faces her changed brother and unresolved questions about a past accident while trying to work out what comes next for her.
Amy Novesky
This biography links Bourgeois’s childhood, her mother’s weaving and their close relationship with the artist she became.
Laurel Croza
A reflective story about leaving a familiar home, remembering what matters and finding a way to carry those memories into a new place.
L. J. Adlington
Expect a historical novel that shifts between ancient, wartime and present-day settings, with an emotional thread linking experiences across time.
J. K. Rowling
A fantasy school adventure where a feared escaped prisoner casts a shadow over Harry’s year. Suspense, frightening magical beings and a time-travel plot sit alongside friendship and school life.
Scott Mebus
A lively urban fantasy for readers drawn to spirits, unusual allies and New York history; the story balances adventure with a strand about the island’s original inhabitants.
Elle McNicoll
At its heart, this is a story about Addie trying to make her voice heard and keep people from the town’s past from being forgotten.
Frewin Jones
This is a fantasy about recovering a lost identity and facing a choice between two worlds, framed by a quest to save Faerie and a threat to both realms.
Matthew James Beier
This is a mystery-led suspense story, with an unusual claim about memory at its centre and a threat that reaches beyond the people being interviewed.
Marianna Baer
A mystery-driven story combines an extraordinary pregnancy and memory gaps with family secrets, public rumour and possible supernatural explanations.
Julia Mary Gibson
This is a fantasy about a child hoping to repair a family in distress, with consequences that reach beyond her home. Its blend of magic, loss and jeopardy may appeal to readers who enjoy emotionally rooted adventures.
Frances Hardinge
A supernatural mystery follows Triss as she tries to understand why her memories and body feel changed, while uncovering secrets about her family and strange forces around them.
Hilary Freeman
A mystery about Ella’s disrupted sense of self gives the story a strong psychological focus. The central pull is her effort to understand a reality that only she seems to question.
Ralph Blum
The premise centres on a young man trying to record his own times for an imagined future reader, with a looming draft decision adding personal and political tension.
Susan D. Bachrach
This is a historical account centred on the lives of people affected by the Holocaust, including young people. Museum objects, images and recorded testimony bring personal accounts alongside the wider history.
Michael Cart
This is a coming-of-age story about Andy’s first relationships as a gay man, set alongside memories of a painful family life and his attempt to make a new start at college.
Holly Jackson
This is a murder mystery centred on Pip’s effort to reassess a closed case. The investigation brings buried secrets and suspicion into a town still affected by the deaths.
Nikki Giovanni, Bryan Collier
A concise historical account centres on Parks’s refusal and places it in the civil rights movement. The book also uses cut-paper images alongside Nikki Giovanni’s text.
Judy Friesen-Wood
A family remembers the companionship and joy Cheerio brought, while living through the loss of a long-loved pet.
Milton Meltzer
This is a history told through personal records as well as historical material, shifting attention from statistics to individual people and families.
Gloria Whelan
This is a post-war story about a young person whose understanding of home and family is unsettled by a discovery. It connects private identity with the way a community remembers a difficult past.
Gareth Thompson
This is a story of memory, friendship and finding ways to face painful experiences. Andy’s interest in daffodils and his work with Angie sit alongside the more difficult events in his life.
Pete Johnson
A supernatural mystery pairs Marcus’s missing memories with his friends’ suspicions about a new shop. The premise also sets vampire hunters against enemies described as threatening humans and half-vampires.
Linda Press Wulf
This is a historical story of survival and displacement, told through Devorah’s experience as she leaves Poland and begins again in South Africa.
Melody Carlson
A travel mystery follows Maddie’s first trip abroad and her search with Ryan for the truth about his father’s death. Their journey also prompts Maddie to consider what she wants from life.
Jonathan M. Rigole
This is a summer diary story about a dolphin-loving girl, her friends and a family trip. Strange events after the trip provide an element of mystery.
Ellen Bari
A family story brings Jewish history into a conversation between a daughter and her father, with a prayer book linking his childhood experience to Ruthie’s discovery.
David R. Collins
A life story of Francis Scott Key that ranges beyond the anthem to childhood, family, education and courtroom work, with faith and religious service given particular prominence.
Rysa Walker
Expect a high-stakes time-travel adventure in which recovering the right keys matters as much as deciding which people Kate can save.
Elizabeth O Dulemba
A playful errand becomes a chain of muddled adventures as Hugo tries to remember what he was sent to buy. The story ends with Hugo discovering that his mother plans to use the soap on him.
Mónica Bergna
This offers a way to encounter a popular Mexican song through a freely adapted version and humorous illustrations, with cultural identity and keeping a song remembered at its centre.
Chris Priestley
The nested-story structure gives the book two levels to follow: the frightening tales and their connection to Uncle Montague’s memories.
Catherine Fisher
A fantasy escape story built around a prison on an immense scale, uncertain origins and a connection between Finn and Claudia, who are on opposite sides of its boundary.
A fact-led introduction to how the brain and nervous system work, pairing eye-catching prompts with scientific explanations and visual material.
Kami Garcia
This is a teen story about grief, risk and a possible new relationship, set amid school conflict and illegal street racing.
Carolyn Meyer
This is a story centred on Nannerl's musical ambitions and her experience of being overshadowed by Wolfgang. It may interest readers drawn to historical fiction about artistic talent and family relationships.
Showing the first 48 results. Add another category or theme to narrow the selection.
Kereen Getten
This is a grief-centred family adventure in which letters and puzzles connect Brie with memories of her mother. Its emotional movement includes loss, uncertainty, support from relatives and friends, and a developing understanding of herself.