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Must Read Book list 2016

40 of the best new fiction titles for your primary school Library, aimed at years 5 and 6.

The Must Read Book list is our annual selection of the best fiction for primary schools chosen by librarians from the Schools Library Service and primary and secondary schools, and is a suggested list to buy for your school library.

The book list represents a selection of the best new fiction first published in paperback within the last year, and aims to cover as diverse a range of subjects, genres, authors and interests as possible.

Titles from the 2016 Teen and Primary lists will be chosen for the Book Award short list in July. Don’t forget to register for this event!

A set of posters and bookmarks for the book list have been sent to all subscribing primary schools.

Please contact the library for any further information about the book list.

To request additional posters/ bookmarks email jacob.turner@towerhamlets.gov.uk (subject to availability – subscribing schools only)

Read the full list

Title	Author	Synopsis	Themes
Crowns and Codebreakers (Marsh Road Mysteries 2)	Caldecott , Elen	Minnie’s Gran comes to stay all the way from Nigeria, but no sooner has she arrived than she discovers that she has picked up the wrong black suitcase at the airport. When the house is broken into and the suitcase is stolen, Minnie and her friends realise that there is a mystery to be solved. This is an exciting romp with strange clues to solve a mystery which leads the children hot on the trail of a gang of international art smugglers. The second Marsh Road Mysteries story.	Multicultural families
Evil Emperor Penguin	Anderson, Laura Ellen	Far away in the icy wastes of the Antarctic, lives a cute and cuddly penguin who only wants one thing… world domination! If only things would just go his way.	Graphic novels, visual literacy
Dead End Kids	Ashley, Bernard	Josie Turner’s world is the Wapping docklands during the blitz. As German bombers rain fire on the city, Josie and her gang form a kids’ fire brigade with other youngsters in the East End. But after a tragic turn of events, she finds that fighting fires could be the least of her troubles.	Local history
Dog Ears	Booth, Anne	Anna tells her best friend Timmy everything and he always listens, as Timmy is her pet dog. He listens when she tells him about school, and her band, and about her baby brother, Jack, ill in hospital, and about how her Dad says that she needs to look after Mum and Jack while he’s away. But when things get to be too much, will Anna need to find someone else who will listen?	Young carers
Petunia Perry and the Curse of the Ugly Pigeon	Butchart, Pamela	Petunia Perry, aka Peri, is writing her memoirs to explain what it’s like to start secondary school, and like all good memoirs, it needs to begin with a few facts – as to why she is sitting in the wardrobe writing and why her best friend now hates her even though they have both signed the Declaration of Self Independence.	Transition to secondary school
The Monkey’s Secret	Choldenko, Gennifer	It’s San Francisco at the dawn of the last century, and fear of a plague epidemic has caused Chinatown to be quarantined. Lizzie Kennedy is more interested in investigating these rumours and learning to be a doctor than acting the perfect little lady that she’s expected to be, so when she finds a strange boy hiding from the mob in her attic, she’ll need to act fast to put together the pieces of the puzzle…	Historical fiction, race and prejucice
Shadow Cat	Cross, Gillian	Nolan is whisked off in a camper van to who-knows-where by his eccentric mother. Feather feels constrained by her rock star father’s security-filled life. The two are brought together when Feather’s father introduces a wild cat into his live stage act – a beautiful and dangerous serval that needs their protection.	Families, mental health, animal welfare
Far From Home: the Sisters of Street Child	Doherty, Berlie	Set in Victorian London, Lizzie and Emily are turned out onto the streets when their landlord sees that they have no money for rent and no way of earning it. Abandoned and starving, their story takes them to work in the mills of northern England. There the girls work in harsh conditions and any chance of escape seems tempting….	Historical fiction, local history, poverty
Demolition Dad	Earle, Phil	Jake’s dad knocks down buildings by day, but at weekends he knocks down wrestlers as the one and only Demolition Man! When Jake hears about a pro-wrestling competition in America, he’s sure his dad can win it. What can possibly go wrong?	Humour, families and friendship
How to Fly with Broken Wings	Elson, Jane	Willem doesn’t find making friends easily, and is the target of bullies at school. But one day Sasha, a girl in his class, sees the bullies forcing Willem to jump off a high wall and decides to help – for after all, she loves flying too.	Aspergers syndrome, Bullying
The Black Lotus	Fanning, Kieran	If you have super powers, like Ghost, Cormac and Kate, then the Black Lotus – a secret Ninja training school – is probably an ideal place for you. But the three trainees will have their work cut out recovering a stolen magic sword in an adventure that spans modern New York and 16th Century feudal Japan. First in the new Samurai Wars series	Adventure, time travel
Emily Sparkes and the Competition Calamity	Fitzgerald, Ruth	Emily Sparkes might have avoided humiliation at the hands of the grossest boy in the universe, but now her ‘creativityness’ has landed her in a whole new world of trouble. Her embarrassing Mum has just been shortlisted for the national Mum in a Million Competition. Can she come up with a makeover plan in time?	Families
The Imagination Box	Ford, Martyn	Empty boxes are great fun. This one’s extra special because it has a big green button and when you press it, whatever you imagine will be created. But you only get one go. So what would you pick? That’s exactly the question ten-year-old Timothy Hart gets to answer after discovering The Imagination Box.	Mysteries, science fiction
Alistair Grim’s Odditorium	Funaro, Gregory	Set in Victorian England, Grubb has found himself in the Odditorium, a flying house filled with strange machines, enchanted objects and an unusual crew. Being apprenticed to the strange Mr Grim is certainly more enjoyable than being a chimney sweep, but when Prince Nightshade attacks, it’s probably not much safer.	Historical fantasy
Hercufleas	Gayton, Sam	Living in a house within a top hat are twelve fleas. Not normal fleas, but the biggest, rarest fleas in the world. The youngest of them is Hercufleas, and when Greta comes looking for a giant-slayer, this smaller-than-a-raisin hero might just be the flea for the job.	Humour
The 13-Storey Treehouse	Griffiths, Andy	Who wouldn’t want to live in a treehouse? Especially a 13-storey treehouse that has a bowling alley, a see-through swimming pool, a tank full of sharks, a library full of comics, a secret underground laboratory, a games room, self-making beds, vines you can swing on, a vegetable vaporiser and a marshmallow machine that follows you around and automatically shoots your favourite flavoured marshmallows into your mouth whenever it discerns you’re hungry!	Humour, writing books
The Imaginary	Harrold, A.F.	Mr Bunting hunts imaginaries. Some say that he eats them, though it’s not known why. Rudger is Amanda’s imaginary friend. She found him in her wardrobe, and she’s not used to anyone else being able to see him. But Mr Bunting can, and now Rudger is running for his life.	Fantasy, mystery, friendship, growing up
Tess	Hayes, Rosemary	Tess’ mum can’t afford riding lessons for her daughter who wants nothing more than to become a rider. When a group of travellers arrive, most of the people in the villager are hostile towards them, but Tess sees it as an opportunity to learn to work with horses…	Gypsies and travellers, prejudice
Meet at the Ark at Eight	Hub, Ulrich	The rains are on their way and the animals are busily boarding the Ark two by two. The trouble is, there are three penguins. God and Noah are sticklers for this sort of detail, so it’ll take a lot of cunning to get the third penguin to safety.	Humour, religion, friendship and relationships
A Whisper of Wolves	Humphrey, Kris	In the kingdom of Meridina, when a raven drops a white feather at your doorstep on the day of your birth, it is a symbol of your destiny. You are a Whisperer – a guardian of the wild. When hunters from her village disappear without a trace, Alice suspects that something sinister is at work. With the help of Storm, her wolf companion, Alice fights to save her village. The first book in the exciting new Guardians of the Wild series)	Fantasy, adventure
The Shark-Headed Bear Thing	Hutchison, Barry	It’s an alternate steampunk 15th Century with dragons, submarines and robots. Benjamin Blank would rather go on adventures than do his homework, and now it’s time for him and his friends to embark on another adventure to vanquish a beast that’s terrorising a nearby village. You can read more Benjamin Blank adventures in The Swivel-Eyed Ogre Thing and The Moon-Faced Ghoul Thing	Fantasy, adventure, humour
No True Echo	Jones, Gareth P	Nothing ever happens in idyllic Wellcome Valley, much to Eddie Dane’s dismay. Then, one day, mysterious Scarlett White steps onto the school bus. She’s a stranger but somehow familiar. Following her to a remote house, he witnesses a brutal murder and suddenly he’s back on the school bus the day he first met her. Caught in a dangerous repeating time loop, Eddie learns the truth about his mother’s death, and the nature of his connection to Scarlett.	Time travel, mystery, identity
The Hamburgers of Doom	Judge, Malcolm	Jonny Jakes is the feared and despised (by his teachers) undercover reporter for his (now banned) school newspaper. When the new head teacher arrives, It’s not long before Jonny discovers that he’s an alien, and that there’s something very wrong with the food that he’s feeding to the pupils and their parents…	Humour, science fiction
How to Speak Spook	Kennen, Ally	Donald can see ghosts. He can also chat with them. It’s not a problem because they’re friendly most of the time, and when they’re not Donald helps them to talk through their problems. It’s all going well until a huge monster ghost shows up and he isn’t in the mood for talking ….	Humour, ghost stories
Dindy and the Elephant	Laird, Elizabeth	Dindy has known no life other than on a tea plantation in India during the last years of British rule. Struggling to come to terms with her father’s announcement that they may be returning to England, and bored with her little brother’s games, she embarks on an adventure deep into the tea gardens, a place they are never supposed to go to alone.	Historical fiction, India
Gorilla Dawn	Lewis, Gill	The forests of the Democratic Republic of Congo are the home of the gorillas. They are also a land rich in resources that fuel internal conflict. When rebel soldiers capture a baby gorilla with the intention of selling it into captivity, two children, also imprisoned, find the courage to make a break for freedom and return the gorilla to the wild.	Africa, war, wildlife and animals
The Jam Doughnut That Ruined My Life	Lowery, Mark	Roman Garstang likes his life as he likes his doughnuts, nice, with no nasty surprises. So he’s not happy when the ‘Deadly Doughnut’ strikes – accompanied by an encounter with a flying jellyfish – and his predictable existence is turned upside down.	Humour
Stars Shall be Bright	MacPhail, Catherine	James, Belle and William’s dad enlists in the army to fight in the First World War, and not long after he goes, their mother dies. Now alone, their guardian tells them that they’ll have to be put into a home. In desperation, the three children set out to find their father…	Historical fiction, first world war
The Accidental Prime Minister	McLaughlin, Tom	Joe is very upset that his favourite park is going to be shut down and decides to do something about it…. an act that proves so popular that it carries him all the way to 10, Downing Street! Finding himself the leader of a nation, Joe and his guru, agent and best friend, Ajay, embark a mission to make life better for everyone.	Humour, politics
Completely Cassidy – Accidental Genius	Murray ,Tamsyn	Cassidy is about to start secondary school and is hoping that this will be her time to shine. It certainly can’t get any worse than being the invisible one in the family. Somehow, after taking a test at school in which she picked all of the answers at random, she’s officially labelled as ‘Gifted and Talented’. Surely it can’t be a mistake, or can it? You can read more about Cassidy in Completely Cassidy Drama Queen and Completely Cassidy Star Reporter	Transition to secondary school
Joe All Alone	Nadin, Joanna	Thirteen year-old Joe returns from school to discover that he is being left home alone for the May half term holiday. His mum and her disreputable boyfriend are going to Spain, and leaving him in the flat to fend for himself with an inadequate supply of food, and only £20 for the electricity key. It is fun at first, eating what you like, watching TV all day and playing Xbox games all night. But the novelty soon wears off and when his mum does not arrive home at the end of the week things start to become very difficult. Along comes Asha, visiting her grandfather next door, and persuades him that things are bad enough to run away…	Families, crime, abandonment
An Island of Our Own	Nicholls, Sally	Siblings Jonathan, Holly and Davy are struggling to avoid being taken in to care after the death of their mother. When the family’s wealthy but eccentric Great-Aunt Irene has a stroke, they go to visit her. Unable to speak or write, she gives Holly some photographs that might lead them to an inheritance that could solve all their problems. But they’re not the only ones after the treasure…	Adventure, treasure hunting
The Whale Who Saved Us and The Leopard’s Tail	Nicola Davies	In the mountains of Armenia, Malik, who has never forgotten his first glimpse of a leopard, goes exploring against his Grandpa’s wishes and now he’s lost. That night, he hears a shot from a poacher’s gun ring out and he knows his leopard is in grave danger. In the Arctic, Suki is sure that the whales hold the key to saving her brother, just as they saved her Inuit ancestors. But how? These two books in the Heroes of the Wild series are based on real world conservation projects.	Wildlife and conservation
Moone Boy: The Blunder Years	O’Dowd, Chris and Murphy, Nick Vincent	Does Martin Moone have the imagination to come up with an imaginary friend? Will the imaginary friend be able to do the imagining for both of them? Whatever happens, it is clear that Martin is fed up living in an all-girl household and he needs a wingman.	Humour, friendship
The Last of the Spirits	Priestley, Chris	Sam, starving and hungry, makes the mistake of begging for a few coins from Ebenezer Scrooge. Despairing at the unfairness of the world, Sam’s heart has become as cold and bitter as the winter, until a night spent sheltering in a graveyard with a ghost sets him on a journey to change his and Ebenezer’s destinies.	Ghost stories, Charles Dickens, redemption
Five Children on the Western Front	Saunders, Kate	This sequel to E. Nesbit’s Five Children and It is set on the eve of the First World War. The five children have grown up, Cyril is off to fight in the First World War, Robert is at Cambridge University but the adventure still continues for the younger members of the family – Lamb, now 12 and Edie, 10. When they find the magical Psammead again at the bottom of the garden, he helps the family understand the First World War, and they discover a new insight into his quite shocking past.	First world war, historical fiction
My Brother is a Superhero	Solomons, David	Luke loves comics and he’d love to be a superhero. So it’s just his luck that when an alien who can grant superpowers does turn up, he misses out because he’s too busy having a wee! Instead his brother Zack is given the task of saving the universe. And Zack’s never read a comic book in his life!	Superheroes, humour
Dreaming the Bear	Thebo, Mimi	Darcy is supposed to be benefitting from the fresh air and outdoor life up in the mountains of Yellowstone National Park, so why does she feel so tired all the time? One day, out on one of her compulsory walks to build her strength, she feels faint and crawls into a cave to shelter for a while – only to find it occupied by a wounded female bear….	Illness, animals, coming-of-age
Time Travelling with a Hamster	Welford, Ross	Al Chaudhury’s birthday presents included a hamster called Alan Shearer, a tin tub, and a laptop left to him by his father. Apparently they’re a time machine (the tub and laptop, not the hamster). He’s also been left a letter, also from his dad, written before he died, instructing him to travel back to 1984 in order to save his life…	Science fiction, time travel
Bronze and Sunflower	Wenxuan, Cao	Set against the backdrop of the Chinese Cultural Revolution, Sunflower and her father are moved to the countryside. Lonely, she makes friends with a boy, Bronze, who hasn’t spoken a word since a terrible fire. When Bronze’s family agree to take Sunflower in, it seems that fate has brought him the sister he has always longed for.	Historical fiction, China

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Authors	Title	Synopsis
Agard, John; Broad, Michael	Going batty	Shona can’t stand bats, so she’s a bit concerned when her new teacher announces they’re about to begin a bat project. But that’s nothing to how she feels when a colony of the pesky flappers turn up in her own attic!
Atinuke; Johnson-Cadwell, Warwick	The no. 1 car spotter fights the factory	Oluwalase is excited when a factory is built near his village in Nigeria. There will be jobs for the villagers, including his father. But strange things begin to happen: the goats become sick and the fish in the river are dying. What is going on?
Beck, Ian; Beck, Ian	Grey island red boat	Everything on the Island of Ashes is grey, from the weather to the castle, the grass and the flowers. But then the red boat arrives and with it a young man who believes he is cursed – everything he touches turns to colour
Brezenoff, Steven; Weber, Lisa K.	The case of the stolen spacesuit	When the spacesuit of a famous astronaut is stolen from an exhibition, there’s no shortage of suspects. Thankfully, Amal Farah, daughter of the Air and Space Museum’s head archivist, and her friends are on the case.
Burnell, Cerrie; Anderson, Laura Ellen	Harper and the Circus of Dreams	Late one evening as the stars begin to twinkle, Harper and her friends are flying on the scarlet umbrella when they see a girl running on air, skipping along a tightrope. She leads them to the Circus of Dreams, suspended in the air by hot air balloons.
Colfer, Eoin; Robertson, Matt	Anna Liza and the happy practice	Nine-year-old Anna Liza wants to be a psychiatrist just like her Mum. This involves sitting in her mum’s waiting room and asking her patients’ children what their problems are. What could possibly go wrong?
Earle, Phil; Ogilvie, Sara	Superhero street	Michael J Mouse just wants to stand out against his five brothers and when he accidentally helps foil a bank robbery, it looks as though being part of a team of superheroes might be the answer. But the Z-List of Dan-Druff, Skidmark and Cyclots are hardly the Avengers…
Faber, Polly; Vulliamy, Clara	The not-a-pig	Mango Allsorts lives in a city where normally everyone wants to get somewhere very quickly. But today the traffic is being held up by something that’s not a pig – it’s Bambang the tapir.
Fine, Anne; Robins, Arthur	The party club	Rosie loves everything about parties: balloons, presents, games, birthday cake, goody bags! So she is disappointed when some of her classmates announce that they have outgrown parties and would rather go to the cinema or bowling. Can she remind them of what they are missing out on?
Jones, Gareth P	Rise of the slippery sea monster	Wanted: Dead or Alive! (Or smashed into little bits and delivered in boxes.) The Steampunk Pirates get a taste of their own medicine when their ship is raided by a sea monster that’s greedy for gold.
Judge, Chris; Judge, Andrew	Spy mission : it’s so secret we don’t even know what’s inside	Doodle your own adventure! Ethan Doodle, super spy, is on a mission so secret that it’s up to you to fill in the blanks!
Lewis, Gill	Pip and the paw of friendship	Pip the Labrador puppy is learning the skills he needs to be an assistance dog for Kayla, a young girl in a wheelchair. He’s desperate to have a human of his very own, but will Kayla want his help?
Noble, Janet; Turner, Jacob	You’re a pest, Betsy Thumbslurp!	Unsurprisingly, Coco’s little sister drives her mad. But it’s not just Betsy, it’s her toy hippopotamus, her smelly, gooey, snotty toy hippopotamus, that threatens to ruin her birthday party!
Rosen, Michael; Ross, Tony	Bilal’s brilliant bee	Bilal hates tests – he can never remember any of the answers! Then along comes Bumble the Bee who can answer any question in the world…
Smith, James	Future Ratboy and the invasion of the Nom Noms	When a bolt of lightning hit Colin Lamppost he was zapped millions of years into the future and turned into a half boy, half rat, half TV! Can he save Shnozville from the bitey little insects that are turning everyone into zombies?
Chitra Soundar; Uma Krishnaswamy	A jar of pickles and a pinch of justice	Prince Veera and his best friend, Suku, are left in charge of King Beema’s court when the king goes off on a hunting trip. Each day the king’s subjects come before the boys with their problems and petty disagreements.
Strong, Jeremy; Smith, Jamie	The genius aged 8¼	Alfie Poppleton lives in a very silly town with very silly parents and very silly teachers. When the very silly Prime Minister decides to go to war over some cheese, will Alfie be able to save the day?
Manivannan, Sharanya; Canzi, Nerina	The Ammuchi puchi	Aditya and Anjali were always a little afraid of their grandmother, but they love listening to her stories (even the scary ones). When she disappears from their lives they miss her, but then something happens that could have come straight out of one of her stories…
Behrangi, Samad	The Little Black Fish	Little Black Fish may be small, but he has big questions and a determination to find answers. While his friemds are too scared to step outside of their routine, Little Black Fish swims over the edge of the pool, into the river which will show him the world.
Kaadan, Nadine	The Jasmine Sneeze	All cats like sleep. Haroun the cat likes to sleep in the warm sun in the courtyards of Damascus. The only trouble is the pollen from the Jasmine flowers makes him sneeze! Will he fix the problem without angering the Jasmine Spirit?.

Authors	Title	Synopsis
Bessora; Barroux	Alpha: Abidjan – Gare du Nord	Alpha Coulibaly is just one of millions of refugees on the move and at the mercy of people traffickers, endlessly frustrated, endangered and exploited as he attempts to rejoin his family who are already in Europe
Lawrence, Patrice	Orangeboy	Sixteen-year-old Marlon has made his mum a promise – he’ll never take his life down the wrong path. So far, it’s been easy, but then the consequences of his brothers’ actions catch up with him…
Alexander, Kwame	Booked	Football, family, love and friendship take centre stage as Nick tries to figure out how to navigate his parents’ break-up, stand up to bullies and impress the girl of his dreams.
Bedford, Martyn	Twenty questions for Gloria	Gloria is bored with her life, so when the mysterious, rule-breaking boy walks into school, she believes he’s the one she’s been waiting for to take her away from everything…. But is he?
Benjamin, Ali	The thing about jellyfish	Suzy, silent and mourning the death through drowning of her best friend, refuses to believe the explaination that “bad things just happen”. Her determination to find the truth will mean travelling to the other side of the world. Alone.
Blackman, Malorie	Peace maker	Michela lives in a society where violent thoughts are prevented by the wearing of ‘peace maker’ devices. But when a hostile starship attacks her people, Michela discovers that violence is sometimes necessary…
Brooks, Kevin	Five hundred miles	For brothers Cole and Ruben it’s another rainy morning in the badlands of East London, selling dodgy paperwork for even dodgier motors. But what they find in a grimy pub – their latest errand – knocks their entire day off course.
Cassidy, Cathy	Looking glass girl	Alice has spent two years watching herself grow apart from her friends. An invitation to a sleepover seemed like a chance to fit in again, but an accident plunges her into an unconscious world of dreams and broken memories. Can Alice find her way back?
Clammer, James	Why I went back	Aiden needs his bike to stop the bad things from getting worse – like delivering the mail that his postman Dad’s been hoarding. When it’s stolen, Aiden follows the thieves and finds not just his bike, but a prisoner chained to the floor…but what business is it of his?
Cotterill, Jo	A library of lemons	Calypso has shut herself away in books and stories since her mother’s death. So has her father who has been growing ever more distant and needing more care than Calypso can give. When she discovers the sad secret hidden in his library, she knows that there is something wrong. Perhaps her new friend, Mae, and her family hold the key to fixing both their lives.
Curham, Siobhan	The moonlight dreamers	After chance encounters with Maali, Sky and Rose, Amber recruits the three girls to the Moonlight Dreamers -people who crave excitement and adventure! It’s high time they started pursuing their dreams, and how better than with the support of friends?
Foster, Stewart	The bubble boy	Joe has spent his entire life in hospital, trapped. He shares his frustrations with another ‘bubble boy’, dreaming of a day when they can venture outside. When the possibly mad Amir turns up, it looks as though Joe’s wish might come true (after all, a hospital wouldn’t let a crazy person in).
Fraillon, Zana	The bone sparrow	Born in a refugee camp, all Subhi knows of the world is that he’s at least 19 fence diamonds high, the nice Jackets (guards) never stay long, and at night he dreams that the sea finds its way to his tent, bringing with it unusual treasures.
Gamble, Paul	The ministry of strange, unusual and impossible things	The Ministry of SUITs is hidden away in the far reaches of the Ulster Museum in Belfast. It deals with all the things we don’t want to have to think about or deal with as perfectly-normal-thank-you-very-much people – such as aliens, monsters, pirates and much more…..
Hamill, Christine	The best medicine	Philip’s happy-go-lucky life is disrupted when his mother gets breast cancer. Through it all, he’s writing letters to his hero, the comedian Harry Hill, looking for advice.
Hesse, Monica	The girl in the blue coat	Amsterdam, 1943. Hanneke spends her days procuring and delivering sought-after black market goods. One day she’s asked to find something – a person – a young Jew who has vanished from a secret room.
Hitchcock, Fleur	Bus stop baby	On her way home from school, 13-year-old Amy finds a newborn baby abandoned at the village bus stop. It’s wrong, just like when Mum walked out on Amy and her sister ten years ago – so she tries to fix it
Johnson, Catherine	Blade and bone	Ezra, a young surgeon, is on his way to France to find his missing friends, despite the danger that an Englishman faces in revolutionary Paris. In the city he finds Renaud, another ‘surgeon’ making the most of the work of the guillotine to further his research into reanimation…
Keil, Melissa	The incredible adventures of Cinnamon Girl	Alba is facing one of the most important summers of her life. School is over and while her friends want to escape their sleepy hometown, she just wants to stay put. But when a viral video about the end of the world announces that Eden Valley is the only safe place to be, thousands of people descend on the town.
Landman, Tanya	Hell and high water	Devon, 1752 – Caleb is left alone when his father is arrested and transported to the Colonies. Then a body washes up on the nearby beach. As Caleb tries to clear his father’s name, he is caught up in a terrifying net of lies and intrigue.
Levez, Olivia	The island	Frances is alone. Cast away on a small island in the middle of the Indian Ocean, she has to find water, food and shelter. But survival is hard, especially when she is haunted by memories of the things that she did before, the things that made her a monster.
Lingstrom, Eric	Not if I see you first	Parker Grant doesn’t need perfect vision to see right through you. That’s why she created the Rules: Don’t treat her any differently just because she’s blind, and never take advantage. There will be no second chances, as Scott is finding out.
Mayo, Simon	Blame	Ant and her family find themselves locked away in a new kind of prison. None of the inmates are themselves criminals, but wider society wants them to do time for the unpunished crimes of their parents.
McCombie, Karen	The OMG blog	In the first weeks of secondary school, four girls are thrown together in a blogging project. The one thing they have in common? Their frustrations with their mothers.
McNiff, Dawn	How not to be weird	Woody is forever worried about being different. He thinks himself weird and a bit of a wuss, and the bullies make sure he doesn’t forget that. It doesn’t help that his mum dresses up as a sheep for a living. Now he’s got until the start of new school to un-weird himself.
Nadin, Joanna	White lies, black dare	Having to move back to Peckham with her ill mother – ambitions of private school shattered – Asha knows that she has to fit in. But that means playing Angel’s dangerous games…
Nielsen, Susin	The reluctant journal of Henry K. Larsen	Henry used to have a normal life until ‘IT’ happened. Now he’s moved away with his father. New home, new city, new nosy neighbours. Henry wants to keep under the radar, but secrets have a habit of coming out…
Polonsky, Ami	Gracefully Grayson	Grayson Sender has been holding onto a secret for what seems like forever: ‘he’ is a girl on the inside, stuck in the wrong gender’s body. The weight of this secret is crushing, but sharing it would mean facing ridicule, scorn, rejection or worse.
Reeve, Philip	Rail head	The Network Empire. A star-spanning web of rails traversed by sentient trains, ruled by rival families. Just the place for a lowlife thief like Zen Starling to meet his destiny…
Russo, Meredith	If I was your girl	Amanda is 18, pretty and popular. But she hasn’t always been Amanda. When she was born, she was named Andrew. Now, at her new school, she finally feels like herself. But does she owe her new friends the truth about her past?
Sepetys, Ruta	Salt to the sea	It’s early 1945 and a group of people trek across Germany, bound together by their desperation to reach the ship that can take them away from the war-ravaged land. Four young people, each haunted by their own dark secret, narrate their unforgettable stories.
Sheinmel, Alyssa B.	Faceless	When Maisie is struck by lightning, her face is partially destroyed. She’s lucky enough to get a face transplant, but how do you live your life when you can’t even recognize yourself any more?
Smith, Dan	Boy X	Kidnapped and drugged, Ash wakes up on a remote tropical island. His mum – a genetic scientist – has been imprisoned and infected with a deadly virus. Where is he? And what must he do to survive?
Stead, Rebecca	Goodbye stranger	Bridge has always been a bit of an oddball, but since her serious accident she’s found fitting in with her friends increasingly hard. It’s getting harder to keep their promise of no fights, especially when they start keeping secrets from each other.
Wheatle, Alex	Crongton knights	Since his Mum died, McKay’s life on the South Crongton estate has been tougher. He hardly sees his Dad who’s been working all hours and his brother’s out tempting trouble. Now McKay’s strayed off his turf and he’s in for one night of danger…
Millard, Glenda	The stars at Oktober Bend	Alice doesn’t speak well since the assault, so she leaves her poems around the town, expressing what she can no longer say. Manny was a child soldier, who hasn’t stopped running from a past he wants to forget.
Hitchcock, bonnie Sue	The smell of other people’s Houses	Ruth wants to be remembered by her grieving mother. Dora wishes she was invisible to her abusive father. Alyce is staying at home to please her parents. Hank is running away for the sake of his brothers. Four very different lives are about to become entangled. Because if we don’t save each other, how can we begin to save ourselves?
Roy, Nilaijana	The Wildings	Prowling, hunting and fighting amidst the crumbling ruins of one of Delhi’s oldest neighbourhoods, are the proud Wildings. These feral cats fear no one, go where they want and do as they please – but change is in the air…
Dawson, Juno	Margot and Me	Fliss’s mum needs peace and quiet to recuperate from a long illness, so they both move to the countryside to live with Margot, Fliss’s stern and bullying grandmother. Life on the farm is tough and life at school is even tougher, so when Fliss unearths Margot’s wartime diary, she sees an opportunity to get her own back.
Chopra, Zuni	The House that spoke	Fourteen-year-old Zoon Razdan is witty, intelligent and deeply perceptive. She also has a deep connection with magic. She was born into it. The house that she lives in is fantastical – life thrums through its wooden walls – and she can talk to everything in it.

Place	Category	Name	School	Title
1st & best in school	KS2 poem	Tazbid Chowdry	Halley Primary School	‘Please let us Stay’
2nd & best in school	KS2 poem	Penny Gould	Chisenhale Primary School	Refugee
3rd & best in school	KS2 poem	Tanzila Ahmed	Blue Gate Fields Junior School	How I wish
commended	KS2 poem	Nasifa Begum	Halley Primary School
commended	KS2 poem	Isobel McGrath	Chisenhale Primary School	What’s the point of racism?
commended & best in school	KS2 poem	Elysia Morton	Sir John Cass Primary School	Refugee
commended & best in school	KS2 poem	Rojin Keefe	Guardian Angels Primary School	You never forget
best in school	KS2 poem	Shamia Akhtar	John Scurr Primary School	My Refugee Poem
best in school	KS2 poem	Ariana Dewhurst	Globe Primary School	Make a Change
best in school	KS2 poem	Fahmida Naima	St Pauls Whitechapel Primary School	Out of Place

Place	Category	Name	School	Title
1st	KS2 Story	Yousif Al-Kahal	Al-Noor School (Syria)	A Child’s Dream
2nd & best in school	KS2 Story	Fergus O’Sullivan	St Elizabeth Primary School	Refugee Story’
3rd & best in school	KS2 Story	Oumou Gassama	Canon Barnett	‘How?’
commended	KS2 Story	Sabrine Denbri	Halley Primary School	‘The Refugees’
commended & best in school	KS2 Story	Namira Sandhu	St Annes Primary School	James’ Journey
commended	KS2 Story	Angela Vassilakis	St Elizabeth Primary School	Out of Place
commended & best in school	KS2 Story	Safiya Begum	Cayley Primary School	Runaway
commended	KS2 Story	Abdallah Abu Aeesha	Al-Ehssan College (Syria)
commended	KS2 Story	Mahmoud Al-Aarabnyea	Al-Noor School (Syria)	A Story That Occurred One Day
best in school	KS2 Story	Sumaiya Sany	Hague Primary School	I could feel Hope
best in school	KS2 Story	Sanjeedah Ali	Malmesbury Primary School	Out of Place
best in school	KS2 Story	Deborah Momoh	Our Lady and St Joseph Primary School	The Journal
best in school	KS2 Story	Farhana Aktar	Marion Richardson Primary School	The Refugee Catstrophe
best in school	KS2 Story	Archie Pyke	St Saviour’s Primary School	Out of Place

Place	Category	Name	School	Title
1st & best in school	KS3 poem	Nasif Islam	Stepney Green School	Out of Place’
2nd	KS3 poem	Syeda Najah Ali	Central Foundation Girls’ School	Out of Place’
3rd & best in school	KS3 poem	Sam Mossop	Morpeth School	‘The Boats’
commended	KS3 poem	Saimah Begum	Central Foundation Girls’ School	Life as a refugee
commended	KS3 poem	Belal Ahmed	Stepney Green School	The Lone Refugee

Author: slsadmin

The Slam consists of:

Libraries, Reading and Literacy

Digital Information Skills

Global Learning

And the winner of the 10th Tower Hamlets Book Award is…

#THBA16 The Books!

About the Book Award

Why join in?

Your FREE set of books!

How to join in

Order copies of the Out of Place paperback book

The winners

Download/ buy the Book

Approaching the themes

Resources to support the theme