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Louis’s reasons for joining include wages and the Union’s fight to end slavery. The story follows his experience in the Irish Brigade and brings together the perspectives of an Abenaki teenager and the Civil War.

Dit and Emma’s friendship develops amid racial prejudice in 1917 Alabama. When a Black barber is condemned after a trial, they make a daring plan to save him.

A historical story about a girl’s attachment to a Japanese doll during wartime, and the pressure to choose between that personal bond and national loyalty.

A historical family story about wartime change, German-American prejudice and Carl’s first summer living away from home.

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.

This story brings together a wetland ecosystem, a newcomer’s view of town divisions and a friendship that opens onto Blackfoot culture and stories.

A family’s response to wartime bereavement is entwined with an extraordinary cloning premise and a community’s prejudice towards a Japanese man.

This is a coming-of-age story about Nick's emerging romance with Bobby and the gap between his private self and a public image shaped by others.

This is a wartime story centred on service, family separation and friendship, with the Pacific setting bringing military danger into Hank's life.

This is a multi-character story about young people in a Brooklyn neighbourhood. Gingerbread’s claim that “life is funny” sits beside the difficulties described in the outline.

This is a fantasy romance built around a reimagined fairy tale, with competing survival needs and a relationship that challenges Isra’s inherited beliefs.

A bilingual life story linking Cris Plata’s Mexican American family background and migrant farmwork with his development as a musician and his eventual home in Wisconsin.

This is a wartime family story centred on Ada’s changing sense of identity and the tensions that follow Ruth’s arrival. Its focus is on belonging and moral choices under threat.

The book brings a close friendship into conflict with the changing treatment of Jewish people in pre-war Austria, using a teenager’s journal to tell the story.

A teen story that brings together debating, a first crush and a disagreement at home, with Phoebe facing the challenge of speaking up for herself as well as in competition.

A family’s car journey becomes a story about how racial prejudice changes the sisters’ experience of a trip they had anticipated with pride and excitement.

A cross-generational mystery unfolds through Henni’s investigation and emails with Leo. Alongside puzzles and friendship, the book examines migration, prejudice, belonging and the pressure placed on people whose home is questioned.

A reflective coming-of-age novel centred on a teenager waiting for her fisherman father, with family strain, friendship, first love, self-image and prejudice among its stated concerns.

This is a child-centred historical story about family work, community strain and changing social relationships. Its central challenge is how a small act of welcome might matter when prejudice and hardship affect a whole town.

This is an intense, visually symbolic story about shame, identity and survival. Its painful experiences are balanced by friendship and a hopeful possibility of acceptance, without suggesting that every difficulty has been resolved.

A culturally grounded vampire story pairs supernatural suspense with a teenager’s struggles over home, family, trust and belonging. Its unusual perspective may invite thoughtful discussion as well as emotional preparation.

This is a historical diary about a family trying to remain together amid Gold Rush hardship. It offers domestic perspective as well as danger, grief and ethical choices, with a generally bleak atmosphere and attention to friendship over sudden wealth.

This is a lively historical novel about sisters navigating an emotionally distant mother while encountering Black Panther community work and racial injustice. Its strongest offering is the combination of distinct girl characters, family complexity and a child’s perspective on a changing society.

This is a serious verse novel about friendship under pressure. It offers a close view of BJ’s insecurity, the pull of social acceptance, and how rumours and prejudice can intensify a painful situation.

Expect an unusual war fantasy where friendship and chosen family matter amid occupation, bodily vulnerability and shifting loyalties. Its experimental form may reward patient readers, but the story’s violence and sexual exploitation are substantial.

This is a determined sibling-rescue adventure rooted in a little-known historical episode. It combines family loyalty and questions about adoption with travel, danger and prejudice, while inviting readers to notice how institutions and communities treat vulnerable children.

This is a personal account of rejecting inherited hatred and choosing peace. It offers a way into questions about responsibility, identity and prejudice, while engaging with terrorism and family history rather than treating them as abstract subjects.

This is an emotionally engaging school story centred on a bright child whose thoughts are overlooked because she cannot communicate conventionally. It offers sustained attention to dignity, family advocacy, friendship and the consequences of assumptions.

This is a character-focused story about friendship, identity and growing independence. Henry’s heritage and Marcus’s emerging self-confidence create different but connected journeys, with humour and affection balancing angry confrontations and social pressure.

This is comic, diary-like young-adult fiction about Georgia Nicolson, whose self-centredness, friendship and romantic uncertainty sit alongside a sense that she has not yet grown up. Its humour includes recurring theatrical and eccentric comic situations.

This is a historical coming-of-age story about how proximity to power can distort a child’s judgement, while friendship, conscience and resistance remain possible responses to injustice.

A sports-centred school story broadens into questions about trying unfamiliar activities and supporting a friend. Kyle’s basketball and theatre commitments provide the main conflict, while homophobic bullying is a significant social issue in the story.

This novel follows a mixed-heritage teenager negotiating family ties, cultural belonging and other people’s expectations. It offers a story about identity that places personal uncertainty alongside racial prejudice and changing relationships.

A stark historical journey about a young woman claiming an independent life, while discovering that escape does not remove poverty, danger or responsibility. Its restrained style and unsettled emotional relationships may reward readers who prefer serious, atmospheric fiction over easy comfort.

This is a character-led supernatural sequel combining a recovery mission with coven conflict, witch-hunter danger and queer community. Its emotional centre is Sideways’s struggle to function while feeling incomplete.

This is a romantic fantasy about people negotiating marriage, status, belief and social expectations in a fictional world resembling colonial America. Friendship, adventure and intrigue accompany a relationship that becomes a passionate marriage.

This is a serious, character-led account of friendship tested by colonial injustice. It offers a personal route into Kenya’s history, showing how fear, racial privilege and silence can damage people across divided communities.

This is a compact, suspenseful adventure centred on siblings protecting their connection while fleeing danger. Its speculative premise supports reflection on difference and identity without relying on an elaborate fictional world.

This is a fast-moving science-fiction fairy-tale reworking, centred on determined young characters facing divided loyalties, prejudice, identity and difficult choices about power. Its adventure is accompanied by graphic violence, frightening attackers, torture, deaths and some romantic and drinking-related content.

Expect an atmospheric historical fantasy centred on a vulnerable boy, an alchemist’s dangerous ambitions, and cats drawn into rivalry over magical inheritance. Its plot combines adventure with grim events and unsettling supernatural ideas.

This is a school story about the harm caused by judging people by appearance. It offers two viewpoints on being teased and also includes a child’s difficult home life.

This is a mystery about discovering and confronting organised racism in a new community. It offers suspense, a young investigator and questions about how prejudice can be spread through technology and social networks.

This is a family-and-community story about cultural identity, belonging and resilience. Its period details, family interactions and humour sit alongside racism, economic pressure and the difficult work of translating between languages and expectations.

This is an identity-focused coming-of-age story: Sophie confronts stereotyping, cultural expectations and questions of belonging while a school relationship brings those tensions into sharper focus.

This is a visually rich wartime memoir about service, segregation, friendship and artistic persistence.