INTERMEDIATE 2

INTERMEDIATE 2 READING LIST This list is arranged in the following genres: CRIME AND THRILLER RELATIONSHIPS / ROMANCE REAL LIFE HORROR HUMOUR SCIENCE FICTION / ALTERNATIVE WORLDS FANTASY WAR OTHER TIMES / OTHER PLACES SHORT STORIES Page 2 Page 4 Page 6 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 17 CRIME AND THRILLER ALLINGHAM, Marjorie The Tiger in the Smoke Word goes round that Jack Havoc, jail breaker and knife artist, is at large again, carving his way into more innocent – or less innocent – lives. Together Albert Campion and Chief Inspector Luke draw a tight net around the man-eater loose in London‟s November smog. BROOKMYRE, Christopher Quite Ugly One Morning Set in Edinburgh where the maverick journalist, Jack Parlabane is caught in the investigation of the brutal murder of the man who lives in the flat below him. BUCHAN, John The Thirty Nine Steps Richard Hannay, falsely accused of murder, has only a few days to discover the secret of the thirty nine steps and thwart a German spy ring. CORMIER, Robert In the Middle of the Night One Halloween, Denny Colbert‟s father was involved in a terrible accident that killed 22 children. Twenty five years later, Denny is drawn into a highly charged relationship with a mystery phone caller who threatens deadly revenge. CORNWELL, Patricia Cruel and Unusual A novel featuring Dr Kay Scarpetta, female Chief Medical Examiner. The electrocution of a murderer and the killing of a 13 year old boy the same night seem unrelated, until Scarpetta recalls that the boy‟s body had been arranged in a strikingly similar position to that of the executed man‟s victim. Other Cornwell novels featuring Kay Scarpetta include Body of Evidence and Point of Origin. DEXTER, Colin Death is now my Neighbour An Inspector Morse novel set as usual in Oxford with the bitter rivalry of two dons for the coveted position of Master of Lonsdale College providing the background. Other Morse novels to try include Last Bus to Woodstock and The Wench is Dead. DU MAURIER, Daphne Rebecca A story of love and suspense set in Cornwall and opening with the famous line “Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again”. GRISHAM, John The Pelican Brief Late one night Abe Rosenberg, the Supreme Court‟s liberal legend, is gunned down in his own home. The same night, Myron Jensen, the court‟s youngest and most conservative justice, is strangled. What linked the two men and what caused their deaths? Darby Shaw thinks she knows the answer. Also try The Chamber or The Firm. JAUNCEY, James The Witness The Witness is set in the Scottish Highlands at a time in the not-too-distant future when people are caught up in a conflict over who should own the land. 18 year-old John MacNeil witnesses a massacre and later returns to the scene to find the sole survivor, a small boy, too frightened to speak. Pursued by soldiers, John and the boy set off together on a terrifying journey through the mountains. Jensen, Liz The Ninth Life of Louis Drax Nine-year-old Louis Drax falls off a cliff into a ravine but miraculously survives. However the family has been shattered: Louis' father has vanished, his mother is paralysed by shock, and Louis lies in a deep coma from which he may never emerge. In a clinic in Provence, Dr Pascal Dannachet tries to coax Louis back to consciousness. Only Louis holds the key to the mystery surrounding his fall - and he can't communicate. Or can he? McILLVANNEY, William Laidlaw Glasgow detective Jack Laidlaw is give the job of hunting down the killer of a young girl. PRICE, Richard Clockers When a man steps forward to confess to a drugs related murder, Detective Rocco Klein has no sense of the case being anything special. A little background research reveals however, that the man has never been in any trouble whereas his brother runs a crew of street corner cocaine dealers. PULLMAN, Philip The Ruby in the Smoke Sixteen year old Sally is left an orphan in Victorian London after her father drowns in mysterious circumstances in the South China Sea. Unbeknown to Sally she is in dreadful danger. An excellent historical thriller from a master writer. This book is part of a series continued in The Tin Princess. Rai, Bali The Angel Collector A search for a missing girl leads to the uncovering of a racist cult and a serial killer. RANKIN, Ian Black and Blue In the 1960s “Bible John” terrorized Glasgow, raping and murdering three women. Now a copy-cat killer has been nicknamed “Bible Johnny” by the media and is targeting not only Glasgow, but also Edinburgh and Aberdeen. Investigating another murder, Rebus runs head on into the media circus. There is a wide selection of other Rebus novels to choose from including Mortal Causes and Dead Souls. . RENDELL, Ruth A New Lease of Death Chief Inspector Wexford has to reinvestigate a 15 year old murder case. Some of the Wexford novels touch on topical issues, such as the public reaction to the release of a paedophile into the community in Harm Done and protests against new roads in Road Rage. You might also like to try some of Rendell‟s psychological thrillers such as Gallowglass and The Chimney Sweeper‟s Boy written under the name of Barbara Vine. RELATIONSHIPS / ROMANCE BERTAGNA, Julie The Opposite of Chocolate It‟s a long, hot summer – and a climactic one. For 14 year old Sapphire it brings the awesome, terrifying realization that she is pregnant – a discovery that catapults her into the eye of a storm as her body, her future, her life, becomes a battleground for everyone‟s needs but her own. DOHERTY, Berlie Dear Nobody When Helen discovers that she is pregnant, she and Chris struggle to cope with the frightening uncertainty of the future. DOWD, Siobhan A swift, pure Cry The story is of a young girl coming of age in rural Ireland. DOWNHAM, Jenny Before I Die 16 year old Tessa has been living with leukaemia for 4 years; with only a few months left to live, she makes a list of things she must experience before she dies. FINE, Anne Telling Liddy The Palmer sisters are close. They see each other often, they care for one another's children and houses and pets. Their phones ring in a ceaseless chat about in-laws and job plans and anxieties and triumphs. They have never kept any secrets from each other - until now. Stella tells Bridie a rumour she's heard about Liddy's new boyfriend. Bridie is shocked, and discusses it with Heather. But should they tell Liddy? GALLOWAY, Janice Where you Find It A collection of stories with an emphasis on relationships: the struggle to love against the odds; a yearning to communicate; and the extraordinary moments where the world falls away, leaving only the lovers. GUARD, Candy Just a little Disco on an Open-top Bus Edie is an imaginative and confused 20 year old in 1982. Over the course of the year Edie must decide what to do with her life – if she can keep her head out of the clouds for long enough. HISLOP, Victoria The Island On the brink of a life-changing decision, Alexis Fielding longs to find out about her mother's past. But Sofia has never spoken of it. All she admits to is growing up in a small Cretan village before moving to London. When Alexis decides to visit Crete, however, Sofia gives her daughter a letter to take to an old friend, and promises that through her she will learn more. Arriving in Plaka, Alexis is astonished to see that it lies a stone's throw from the tiny, deserted island of Spinalonga - Greece's former leper colony. Then she finds Fortini, and at last hears the story that Sofia has buried all her life LONG, Kate Swallowing Grandma Bullied and picked on for most of her life, Katherine is desperate to lose weight, leave her poisonous Gran, and most of all get a life. Swallowing Grandma is about growing up, getting out and becoming an adult. MAGORIAN, Michelle A Little Love Song A magical summer of love and war is the catalyst that changes Rose from an uncertain, gawky schoolgirl into a confident, assured woman. NEWBERY, Linda Set in Stone Samuel Godwin was hired by Ernest Farrow to be an art tutor to his two young daughters. He has no idea of the dark secrets that surround this family...secrets that threaten to consume everyone that comes into contact with the Farrow family. PARSONS, Tony The Family Way The Family Way is about three sisters ranging from their mid 20s to 30s. It reflects their different attitudes towards motherhood though it is also, as much as this, an illustration of the very strong bond between the three siblings. RAI, Bali Rani and Sukh In 1950s Punjab, a secret affair goes terribly wrong and the bride commits suicide after her lover is attacked by her family. The two families part in violence and conflict. In Leicester in 2004, Rani and Sukh fall in love, unaware of the terrible legacy of the past and the conflict between their families. SPARKES, Nicholas The Notebook This book is an achingly tender story about the enduring power of love. It begins with Noah Calhoun who returned home from World War II. Noah is restoring a plantation home to its former glory, and he is haunted by images of a beautiful girl he fell in love with 14 years earlier. Unable to find her, yet unwilling to forget the summer they spent together, Noah is content to live with only memories… .until she unexpectedly returns to his town to see him once again. WESTALL, Robert Falling into Glory Brilliant student, Robbie, develops a close and dangerous relationship with Emma Harris, a teacher nearly twice his age. As the situation reaches crisis, they must decide what they really want – which for Emma means the future of her career. REAL LIFE BROOKS, Kevin Kissing the Rain This book deals with an accident that Moo, the unlikely hero, witnesses whilst standing on his favourite motorway bridge and watching the traffic. The consequences from this one innocent action threaten to spiral out of control and both the reader and Moo are left with a terrible decision to make. BROOKS, Kevin The Road of the Dead Ruben and Cole are two brothers who are trying to cope with the horrific rape and murder of their sister Rachel. In order to find some answers they travel to the place of her death, the village of Lychcombe in Dartmoor. Cole's impetuous nature soon means that Ruben and he end up in extreme danger themselves. BURGESS, Melvin Junk A true to life story of 2 teenagers drawn into the dangerous and destructive world of heroin addiction. CASSIDY, Anne Looking for JJ This gripping novel explores the murder of a child by her best friend. Seven years after the murder, Jennifer Jones is released with a new identity. Through a series of flashbacks Jennifer‟s unhappy life with her reckless mother, the events leading up to the murder, and those immediately following it are recounted, while the main story shows Alice Tully (as Jennifer is now called) adapting to her new life while desperately trying to keep her secret from the press. CORMIER, Robert Heroes The story of teenage war hero and victim Francis Joseph Cassavant who returns home to confront his past, the youth leader he idolised and who betrayed him, and a girl he still loves. You could try I am the Cheese. DOYLE, Roddy The Van Hilarious and poignant, this novel deals with the friendship between two men in North Dublin and their attempts to set up a mobile chip shop. You could also try Paddy Clarke, Ha, Ha, Ha, The Woman Who walked into Doors and The Snapper. ELTON, Ben Dead Famous A satirical look at the world of TV Reality shows, in which a contestant is murdered live on TV. GIBBONS, Alan Hold On John has been holding on for years, finding inner strength to beat the bullies that torment him during school and his father who tormented him at home. Yet something breaks, causing him to commit suicide, and his friend Annie is determined to find out what. GLOVER, Sandra You Josie is at college, living in digs and making new friends - just the new start that she needs. Yet someone is haunting her, leaving her unable to move on from her traumatic past. GRAY, Keith Warehouse A community of young people have gathered in an old warehouse to get away from a world they don‟t fit in to. Through separate but interweaving narratives Warehouse tells the stories of three of the community‟s members. HADDON, Mark The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time Christopher is 15 and lives in Swindon with his father. He has Asperger‟s Syndrome, a form of autism. He is obsessed with maths, science and Sherlock Holmes but finds it hard to understand other people. When he discovers a dead dog on a neighbour‟s lawn he decides to solve the mystery and write a detective thriller about it. As in all good detective stories, however, the more he unearths, the deeper the mystery. KENNAN, Ally Beserk When Chas finds a website asking people to write to prisoners on death row, he decides it would be funny to get letters from a murderer. He writes to an inmate, pretending to be his mum, but the replies are not what he expects. His own escapades land him in a young offender's institute, where he learns his penpal has been released. KLASS, David The Braves Joe Brickman is looking forward to his year as captain of the Lawndale High soccer team – and to a blooming relationship with his neighbour Kristine. But when the social structure of the school begins to crumble, Joe finds himself on the wrong side of the new order. Violence has always been part of school life – especially at Lawndale. It goes back generations. But as the brutal, tribal rules that govern the school are exposed, Joe has to find the courage to break free…… MacPHAIL, Catherine Roxy’s Baby Roxy's Baby is about a young girl who gets pregnant and runs away from home. She gets caught up in a sinister plan and saves the life of other people and brings life to a special little person. MacSween, Richard Victory Street This novel is set against the background of the race riots of 2001. The narrator is Ellie, a 15-year-old girl who lives in a run-down, multi-racial area of a northern English town. One of her best friends is Muzz, the Asian boy next door but her older brother Lewis is involved in the fringes of a white nationalist group, and her younger brother Mattie, who has Down's Syndrome. NEWBERRY, Linda Sisterland Hilly‟s German grandmother, HeidiGran, comes to live with her family after she gets Alzheimer‟s disease; but as her mind becomes more muddled, secrets buried in her past starts to emerge. Why does HeidiGran keep talking about a girl called Rachel? And why does she make racist remarks about Hilly‟s friend, Reuben? As Hilly struggles to cope with revelations about her family‟s past, she encounters racism and prejudice for herself when a friend becomes the victim of a mindless attack; she also falls in love for the first time. PADDOCK, Terri Come Clean Disturbing novel about one girl's struggle to cope after being wrongly admitted to a bootcamp-style rehabilitation centre for drug addicts and alcoholics. PARSONS, TONY Man and Boy Harry Silver has it all. A successful job in TV, a gorgeous wife, a lovely child. And in one moment of madness, he chucks it all away. This is the story of how he comes to terms with his life and achieves a degree of self-respect, bringing up his son alone. PIERRE, D B C Vernon God Little Fifteen-year-old Vernon Gregory Little is in trouble, and it has something to do with the recent massacre of 16 students at his high school. Soon, the quirky backwater of Martirio, barbecue capital of Texas, is flooded with wannabe CNN hacks, eager for a scapegoat. ROSOFF, Meg Justin Case What if Fate were out to get you? The day David Case saves his brother's life, his whole world changes. He must hide, become an entirely new person to escape Fate...if he can. SEBOLD, Alice Lucky In this memoir, the author of „The Lovely Bones‟ describes the devastating effect on her life following her brutal rape when she was an 18-year old student. WHYMAN, Mat Boy kills Man Set in Medellin, Columbia, the story is about a boy, Sonny, who lives in a brutal environment and is regularly subjected to beatings from his uncle. Like his best friend Alberto, Sonny becomes a hired killer, (young boys are recruited into this job because they are immune from prosecution). The story has a very chilling ending - which is based on real events. HORROR CARTER, Dean Vincent The Hand of the Devil Ashley Reeves, a young journalist working for a „weird science‟ magazine receives a letter inviting him to investigate the discovery of an extremely rare insect in a remote island in the Lake District. Stranded on the island with the sinister Reginald Mather, Reeves makes a grisly discovery in the basement of a disused scientific research centre. HARRIS, Thomas Red Dragon; Silence of the Lambs; Hannibal The series of books portraying the grisly exploits of Dr Hannibal Lector. HERBERT, James The Rats For millions of years man and rats have been natural enemies. But now, for the first time – suddenly, shockingly, horribly – the balance of power has shifted and the rats begin to prey on the human population. You could also try The Magic Cottage. HILL, Susan The Woman in Black Creeping unease begins with mysterious appearance of a young woman dressed in black at the funeral of the sole inhabitant of Eel Marsh House and builds inexorably to a chilling climax. KING, Stephen Pet Sematary This is the story of Dr Louis Creed, his wife Rachael and their two children, Ellie and Gage who move from Chicago to Ludlow, Maine. Here they become friends with an elderly couple across the street, Jud and Norma Crandall. One night Jud takes Louis up to the Pet Sematary ….. KOONTZ, Dean Whispers Bruno Frye succumbs nightly to the whispers‟ malicious lullaby. Losing himself in their cries, he is deafened by whispers more piercing than any scream. In the dark recesses of his mind no act is too violent, no deed too shocking. He is driven to kill – even if it means returning from the grave. Other titles to try are Midnight and The Mask. SEDGWICK, Marcus My Swordhand is Singing In a bitter winter in the 17th century, Peter and his father settle in an unfriendly community. It is when the captivating gypsies arrive, and reveal themselves as vampire slayers that the truth is finally and shockingly revealed. STEVENSON, Robert Louis Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde A nightmare fantasy about the nature of good and evil. This is the tragic story of how one man‟s experiments to find out about his own nature went horribly wrong. HUMOUR ADAMS, Douglas The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy One Thursday lunchtime the Earth is unexpectedly demolished to make way for a new super hyperspace bypass. For Arthur Dent this seems more than he can cope with, but his problems have only just begun. HORNBY, Nick About a Boy Will is 36 and doesn't really want children but then he comes across 12-year-old Marcus who starts to look to him for support and guidance. You could also try Fever Pitch – a hilariously funny book about an obsessional football fan. LEGGE, Gordon The Shoe This humourous novel follows 3 days in the life of Archie and his friends – football, music, pubs are all a major focus of attention MacKENZIE, Compton Whisky Galore Wartime food rationing is bad enough, but when the whisky supplies run out on the Hebridean Islands of Great and Little Todday, nothing seems to go right. Then the cargo of the shipwrecked S.S. "Cabinet Minister" brings salvation - in its most giddily intoxicating form. PRATCHETT, Terry Wyrd Sisters Three witches decide to right the wrongs of a Discworld kingdom. Other Discworld novels worth a try include Mort and Equal Rites TOWNSEND, Sue The Queen and I A republican government has just won the General Election, and the Royal Family, stripped of its regal privileges start a new life on a council estate WODEHOUSE, P G A Few Quick Ones A collection of short stories by featuring Bertie Wooster and Jeeves and other Wodehouse characters. SCIENCE FICTION / ALTERNATIVE WORLDS ASIMOV, Isaac The Complete Robot In these stories, Isaac Asimov creates the Three Laws of Robotics and ushers in the Robot Age: when Earth is ruled by master-machines and when robots are more human than mankind. BLACKMAN, Malorie Noughts and Crosses Callum and Sephy have been best friends since childhood but Callum is a nought--a second-class citizen in a world dominated by the Crosses--and Sephy is a Cross, and the daughter of one of the most powerful men in the country. The barriers they would have to cross to be together at first seem little more than minor obstacles to the two idealistic teenagers, but soon those barriers threaten not only their friendship but their lives. Malorie Blackman tackles the issues of racism and prejudice in a world set in an alternate historical reality. The story continues in Knife Edge and Checkmate. BRADBURY, Ray Fahrenheit 451 Set in a not-too-distant future where reading is forbidden, the story concerns a fireman, whose job is to burn books, but who finds himself increasingly reluctant to do so. BURGESS, Melvin Bloodtide The retelling of an old Norse legend, set in future London, where normal society has broken down. A power struggle between two rival gangs, very violent in parts. DICK, Philip Do Androids dream of Electric Sheep? When a group of androids - manufactured to do hard physical labour in the colonization of distant planets - go on a murder spree, hijack a ship and return to Earth, it is up to special police officer Rick Deckard to search and destroy them. DU PRAU, Jeanne The People of Sparks This book is set several hundred years in the future in a post-nuclear-disaster underground city known as Ember. Supplies in Ember are running low and two young people, Lina and Doon, manage to piece together an ancient parchment that directs their people out into the world above and they journey to a settlement known as Sparks. MARSDEN, John Tomorrow When the War Began A group of Australian teenagers spend a week in the bush. They return to find the world they knew changed forever. The first in a series of 6 novels. SIMAK, Clifford The Werewolf Principle In the middle distant future, Andrew Blake, discovered huddled inside a capsule on a remote star, is brought back to earth suffering from total amnesia. Over 200 years old, he thinks and acts like a man but becomes frighteningly aware of two alien beings that lurk in his body. SINGLETON, John Angel Blood The nurses call this place the Bin. We have to get out. We have to run away before they hurt us for good. But there's no escaping Dr Dearly and his brutality - is there? Four extraordinary children face a terrifying ordeal. Their only hope is local hard-case Nail - but has he got what it takes to save them? URE, Jean Plague After the Plague Watchers on the Shrine How would you cope if you arrived home to find the streets deserted, your neighbourhood quarantined and your family dead after a plague? The story is continued after a gap of several generations in the follow up books. WELLS, HG The War of the Worlds The classic account of earth being invaded by the Martians, a broadcast version of which created panic in America. WYNDHAM, John Day of the Triffids The triffids are a monstrous species of stinging plant; they walk, they talk, they dominate the world. The narrator of this novel wakes up in hospital to find that, by missing the end of the world, he has survived to witness a fantastic and horrific new world. FANTASY GIBBON, Alan The Shadow of the Minotaur This is a novel about a boy, Phoenix, the son of a computer geek who creates a virtual reality game that gets a bit too real. Phoenix becomes Theseus pursued by the Minotaur, and Perseus confronting the Gorgon. HEARN, Liam Across the Nightingale Floor This epic story is set in a mythical, feudal Japanese land, a world both beautiful and cruel. In his palace at Inuyama, Lord Lida Sadamu, warlord of the Tohan clan, surveys his famous nightingale floor. Its surfaces sings at the tread of every human foot, and no assassin can cross it. But 16 year old Otori Takeo, his family murdered by Lida‟s warriors, has the magical skills of the Tribe – preternatural hearing, invisibility, a second self – that enable him to enter the lair of the Tohan. He has love in his heart and death at his fingertips. First in a series McCAFFERY, Anne Black horses for the King A young boy helps bring a troop of black Libyan stallions to England to the court of King Arthur to help to drive the Saxons back. PULLMAN, Philip Northern Lights The first book in „His Dark Materials‟ trilogy. A beautifully written fantasy of parallel worlds in which the mysterious „dust‟ swirls invisibly through the air and only one child knows the secrets that some of the adults would kill for. The story continues in The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass. REEVE, Philip Here lies Arthur In this unusual retelling of the Arthurian legend, Arthur is a brutal warlord whose campaigns are managed by Myrddin (Merlin), partly through his storytelling skills and partly through conjuring tricks. The story follows Gwyna, a young girl who Myrddin takes under his wing after her home is razed to the ground. She is pivotal to his king-making plans. SEDGWICK, Marcus My Swordhand is Singing In a bitter winter in the 17th century, Peter and his father settle in an unfriendly community. It is when the captivating gypsies arrive, and reveal themselves as vampire slayers that the truth is finally and shockingly revealed. WAR Boyne, John The Boy in Striped Pyjamas Nine year old Bruno knows nothing of the Final Solution and the Holocaust. All he knows is that he has been moved from a comfortable home in Berlin to a house in a desolate area where there is nothing to do and no-one to play with. Until he meets Shmuel, a boy who lives a strange parallel existence on the other side of the adjoining wire fence and who, like the other people there, wears a uniform of striped pyjamas. BRESLIN, Theresa Remembrance This book is about 5 young people growing up during the First World War and the effects war and fighting have on them. An unforgettable and tear jerking novel. CRANE, Stephen The Red Badge of Courage Young Henry Fleming has very idealised views of war and dreams of performing heroic deeds in battle. But as a new recruit in the American Civil War the reality of war is quickly brought home to him. HAAR, Jaap Ter The Ice Road It is 1942 and the German army surrounds Leningrad. No one can get out, no food can get in and the temperature is below zero. Food is strictly rationed and twelve-year-old Boris Morenko is terrified that his mother will die. An uplifting and passionate book about the terrible nine hundred day siege of Leningrad. MORPURGO, Michael Private Peaceful This book describes the childhood of young Thomas Peaceful in the early years of the 20th Century, and his eventual underage enlistment in the British army to help fight the First World War. OTHER TIMES / OTHER PLACES BANKS, Lynne Reid One More River A Canadian girl comes to terms with life on a Kibbutz in Israel. The sequel Broken Bridge is set twenty years later at the height of the Arab uprising against Israeli occupation of the West Bank. BRESLIN, Teresa The Medici Seal This story is set in Romagna, Italy in the year 1502. Fleeing from a murderous brigand, Matteo is taken into the household of Leonardo da Vinci. From this moment on, Matteo is at Leonardo's side as he carries out his work, which ranges from the painting of magnificent frescos, dissection of the human body to military assignments for the cruel Cesare Borgia, head of one of Italy's leading families. DONNELLY, Jennifer A Gathering Light When Mattie is given the letters by a guest at the hotel in which she has a summer job she thinks that the giver is simply upset. But the next day when the woman is found drowned in Big Moose Lake Mattie has to decide if she will read the letters, or burn them as the woman requested. But Mattie has problems enough of her own as she is growing up and trying to decide on her future. GAVIN, Jamilla Coram Boy Set in Eighteenth Century England, this book tells the story of the evil „Coram Man‟ who deals in orphaned or abandoned children, selling them to either a slave ship of the Coram Hospital for money. One of these children is Aaron, the illegitimate son of an heir to a great estate and Toby taken at birth from an African slave ship. FINE, Anne The Road of Bones Set in a totalitarian state this is a chilling and dramatic adventure that also challenges the nature of beliefs, and how these can be taken and twisted to justify acts of real horror and inhumanity. GERAS, Adele Troy A magnificent re-working of the ancient legend of Troy, this book describes the fall of Troy through the eyes of two young Trojan sisters. Greenway, Alice White Ghost Girls This first novel from Greenway is a beautiful evocation of a childhood in Hong Kong during the Vietnam War. "White Ghost Girls" is the tale of Frankie and Kate, two American sisters, who tumble into their teenage years against the backdrop of the heat and colour of Hong Kong, a world of fishermen, temple gods and unexplained dead bodies. GUEVARA, Ernesto The Motor Cycle Diaries In January 1952, two young men from Buenos Aires set out to explore South America on 'La Poderosa', the Powerful One: a 500cc Norton. One of them was the twenty-threeyear-old Che Guevara. Written eight years before the Cuban Revolution, these are Che's diaries describing how he becomes a stowaway, a fireman and a football coach; he sometimes falls in love and frequently falls off the motorbike. HENDRY, Frances Chandra A sensitive and gripping story about a schoolgirl in New Delhi who is married at the age of 11 and widowed almost immediately. As a widow, her fate is to be isolated from society for the rest of her life. Should she bow to tradition or try to escape? KADOHATA, Cynthia Weedflower After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Sumiko and her family are interned like other Japanese-Americans. They are shipped to a camp on an Indian reservation. There Sumiko meets a young Mohave boy. Weedflower is the story of the rewards and challenges of a friendship across the racial divide, told with searing insight through the eyes of a young girl who yearns to belong. LAIRD, Elizabeth Crusade The lives of two boys from opposing worlds and faiths coincide in this story set during the Third Crusade: Adam, a dog-boy for a crusading knight, and Salim, a Muslim boy apprenticed to a Jewish doctor. You could also try her modern day novel set in Ethiopia The Garbage King LANDMAN, Tanya Apache Siki is an orphan of the Black Mountain Apache. Her mother was killed by Mexicans three years ago and her father lost in an ambush the winter before that. When Siki witnesses the brutal murder of her little brother Tazhi, she vows to become an Apache warrior and avenge her brother's death. NAIDOO, Beverly The Other Side of Truth The moving, topical story of a Nigerian brother and sister fleeing oppression and seeking asylum in the UK. The story continues in Web of Lies PEET, Mal Keeper In a newspaper office, Paul Faustino, South America‟s top football writer, sits opposite the man they call El Gato, the cat, the world‟s greatest goalkeeper. On the table between them stands the World Cup. In the hours that follow, El Gato tells his incredible life story. RIVERBEND Baghdad Burning A riveting weblog about life in Baghdad since the US occupation STRATTON, Allan Chanda's Secrets Tense and deeply moving story about one girl's struggle to rescue the people she loves in a tragedy that is destroying her world. Set in a fictional Sub-Saharan African country. SHORT STORIES BRADBURY, Ray The Toynbee Convector In this selection of tales the world‟s only time-traveller reveals his secret – a hundred years after the event and a ghost is given new life by a particularly perceptive nurse. You could also try Quicker than the Eye. Du MAURIER, Daphne Don’t Look now 5 stories of suspense, full of unexpected twists and turns. ECCLESHARE, Julia (Ed) Masque of the Red Death A collection of classic short stories by Lawrence, Poe, Mansfield, De Maupassant, Waugh, Saki, M R James, Pushkin and Chekov. FORSYTH, Frederick (Ed) Great Flying Stories Amongst authors included in this collection are HG Wells, Roald Dahl, Len Deighton and J G Ballard. HAMLIN, Mike (Ed) Short Stories by Women A selection of stories from the nineteenth century to the present day. KEMP, Gene (Ed) Rebel, Rebel An anthology of prose and poetry celebrating rebellious girls. The collection includes work by writers from George Elliot to Steve Smith, as well as representing heroines of myth and legend from Eve to Pandora.