WOW! Here is a list of some great novels, most released in 2025. uncovering a range of tough topics. Three special titles are given ‘shout-outs’.
GROWING HOME by Beth Ferry; Art by The Fan Brothers
This illustrated novel was a nice diversion from the Tough Topic titles I’ve recently embarked upon. The story takes place in Number 3 Ramshorn Drive where a young girl named Jillian lives with her parents, Mr and Mrs. Tupper, antique dealers, who are looking for a big break to pay off some lofty bills. But the Tuppers aren’t the main characters. Beth Ferry has invented some endearing, comical plant and animal heroes: Toasty, a cheese puff, soccer loving goldfish (orange fish) who lives in an antique octagonal fish tank; a houseplant named Ivy who tends to be green with envy but shows great leadership; a singing violet plant named Ollie; Arthur a spider who can create messages on a typewriter. They are quite the foursome that take care of each other and together are able to solve problems, especially when it involves the scheming, thieving, Mr. Brookstone. Along the way we also meet Louise, the bee and Sunny, the Scary Canary. The black and white illustrations by The Fan Brothers help to make the story ‘pop’. Growing home is a delightful, quick-paced – and humourous adventure story that I highly recommend for lover of books featuring anthropomorphic characters, each with loads of personality. A fun read indeed!
THE HIDDEN STAIRCASE by Caolyn Keene / 1930/ 1959 / Mystery
This popular book was first published in 1930 and then updated in 1959. This is the second title in the Nancy Drew series. The title seemed to come up in some recent workshop sessions with teachers and so I decided to re=read a book, that I know I read and enjoyed over 65 years ago. I had no memory of the plot but the cover image, then and now, stands out in my mind. I don’t think I went on to read other titles written by Carolyn Keene (pseudonym). But the book has sold over two million copies worldwide so somebody must have enjoyed Drew’s amateur detective work. I did read several Hardy Boys books and these novels were some of the first novels i embarked upon. The plot of The Hidden Staircase entails the disappearance of Nancy’s father, a scheme to sell some property, the appearance of ghosts in the home of Nancy’s friend’s elderly relatives, an empty mansion, a robbery, a near fatal car accident and the shenanigans of the evil Nathan Gombet. Spoiler: We don’t actually meet The Hidden Staircase until the final pages of the book but knowing that we would helps to keep us guessing, I guess. Today, books in series explode on the shelves of bookstores and libraries and some homes (Dogman, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, The Magic Treehouse etc.) Nancy Drew and The Hardy Boys an be attribued for setting the foundation for series literature that hase engaged so so may middle age readers as they developed their tastes and interests. I don’t think I’ll be joining Nancy in any more of her detective pursuits.
FYI
620 Nancy Drew books have been published as of August 2025. There are over thirteen series including the classic Nancy Drew Mystery Stories (1930 -2003) consists of 175 books. There have been several spin-offs: The Nancy Drew Files (YA), Nancy Drew Notebooks, Nancy Drew Diaries, graphic novels and comics. As of this writing, The Hidden Staircase has sold over 2 million copies worldwide.
KATIE CRUMBLE AND THE CASE OF THE MISSING UNDERWEAR by Oksanna Crowley. Ill. Lydia Ramsey / Chapter Book
A pair of underwear goes missing. Not just any pair of underwear but hard-to-get Pickles the Destroyer underwear that belonged to Kate Crumble;s Kindergarten Cousin. Katie is determined to solve the problem along with the help of her dog, Aggie. , even though it gets her into mischief with the school principal and her parentd. Will Katie keep getting into trouble? Will she be able to heed the warning from thegrown-ups in her life? Will she find those darn pair of missing underwear (and other missing items)? Will she let those school bullies get the best of her.Never-give-up Katie Crumble and the feistyRamona Quimby liley be good friends! A fun chapter book read with fun black and white animated drawings.
OTHER BOYS by Damian Alexander / 2021 / graphic memoir / gender identity/ grief / bullying
Damian Alexander’s debut publication tells the story about his years growing up feeling alone, worried and ‘different’. Most of the book is centred on his year as a seventh grade student in a new school where he refused to talk. Damian had been bullied at his old school and so he decided that at this onehe would be quiet as a ghost (“I would give hem nothing they could use against me. I would say nothing. I would be nothing.”). Except for a few girls in his class, he has few friends. Damian is an orphan whose mother was murdered when he was a baby. . He and his brother live with their grandmother who is caring parent. Drawing, video games and sitting alone in the library writing fantasy stories occupies Damian’s days. Bullyitaunts and homophobic slurs hang over his head. He comes to realize that he has special feelings for other boys in the school and at one point declares “I am gay!’. With the help of a school therapist he comes to accept who he is and that he “always felt like freak, but there were peole a lot like me out there. ” At thirteen years or age, he just hadn’t met them yet. This memoir is a poignant, honest story about a boy who is trying to find himself. It is a book that is cerainly relatable and will resonate with tweenagers who are trying to find their place in the world. With it’s LGBTQ+ content, the book has been sadly been banned in some libraries but Damian is a hero for baring his soul and share his story that many students, like want to read, and need to read. If I were to list this title in my book Teaching Tough Topics, Other Boys would appropriately fit in the chapter about Bullying, Death Loss and Remembrance, Gender Identity and Homophobia and Mental Health. Hooray for Damian Alexander.
ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING by Damian Alexander / 2025 / Graphic novel / Mental Health
During his years at school, Damian Alexander experienced many symptoms with ADHD but his scatterbraine, daydreaming, unfocused behavioiurs were dismissed by the adults in his life. It wasn’t until he was an adult that Alexander was officially diagnosed with ADHD. Marcella is a character invented by the author, writing many stories about her. Absolutely Everything is a ‘stand-in’ for Alexander’s experiences with ADHD. Sixth grader, Marcella is troubled. She can’t seem to get assignments done for school, she feels she is abandoned by her best friend, her two dads announce they are moving into a new apartment. How is a girl who has trouble organizing herself, paying attention, focusing on tasks, going to deal with all these distractions? (“Sometimes it feels like there’s a door and all my thoughts are locked behind it.”. The verbal text and the artwork provides vivid images that let’s Alexander get into Marcella’s head. Damian Alexander drew on his own experiences with ADHD but the fictional account has Marcella get the help that she needs (and that he didn’t when he was her age). This is a terrific story about a middle-years girl learning to cope with change and mental health, a story that many tweenagers can identify with.
Excerpt
“Sometimes I feel like my head is going to explode from all my thoughts. I can’t focus on any of them. Like there’s a bunch of people talking really loudly right next to me, saying a bunch of different things at the same time.. except they’re all me.” (p. 56-57)
THE SKY WAS MY BLANKET: A young Man’s Journey Across Wartime Europe by Uri Shulevitz / biography / The Holocaust
Uri Shuvelitz won the Caldecott medal in 1969 for his picture book, The Fool of the World and the Flying Ship and Caldecott honours for The Treasure (1980), Snow (1999) and How I Learned Geography (1999). In 2025, The Wall Street Journal selected Shuvelitz’s memoir Chance: Escape from the the Holocaust about the autors childhood as a war refugee as a Best Childre’ns Book from the past twenty years.
True stories about young people who struggled to survive under the threat of the Nazis are always harrowing. A young Jewish boy named Yehiel Szulewic was the real-life uncle of award-winning author and illustrator, Uri Shulevitz who decides to tell his uncle’s story about leaving his home in Poland at fifteen years of age. Yehiuel journeys take him beyond his homeland as he journeys, penniless, without papers, through Czechoslavoakia, Austria, Croatia, Italy, France and Spain. Fierce determination and the kindness of strangers keeps the adolescent thriving in the midst of the evil that spared across Europe as the fascists and Nazis rise to power. This short true story with stark expressionistic artwork is told in the first person. It completed shortly before the Uri Shulevitz’s death and is a testimony to a young Jewish man’s courage and resilience, never knowing where he would be sleeping, or fed and where he often depended on the sky to be his blanket.
Opening passage
When I was little, I couldn’t fall asleep unless I had a pice of bread under my pillow.
Why? you may aks.
Because I was born in 1915.
THE SUNSHINE PROJECT by Uma Krishnaswami / fiction/ activism
Anil is the protagonist of this novel, a karate loving boy prefers to stay quiet, that is until he learns about the city tha is planning to build a solar panel factory destined to threaten plan and animal species and force evacuation. It’s time to speak up and become an activist and so Anil becomes part of a campaign to do what’s right for the community. This book is the third title in the Book Uncle trilogy. Like her previous two novels, the story deals with young people taking action to make changes in their community, making The Sunshine Project another worthwhile engaging (and inspiring) read about the quest to make a difference.
THE TEACHER OF NOMAD LAND: A World War II Story by Daniel Nayeri / historical fiction / Refugees
I was intrigued by three things on the cover of the book; The word ‘teacher’ is in the title and i like reading stories about teachers; the author Daniel Nayeri is an Iranian-American author who’s autobiographical novel Everything Sad is Untrue (A True story) was a wonderful autobiographical story that i enjoyed a lot; the image of a child carrying a blackboard on his back reminded me of a wonderful Iranian film called Blackboards where a nomadic man wandered through the countryside seeking students to read and write. This book is set in 1941 and German Armies are storming across Europe and Iran, a neutral country is occupied by British anbd Soviet forces. Bahak and his Sana are orphans who made a vow to stick together, Babak, the older brother,devises a plan to carry a chalkboard strapped to his back to carry on his father’s job of being a teacher to the nomads as they make their annual trek across the mountains. Brother and sister find themselves on a treacherous journey struggling to survive through hunger and danger. Encounters with a British ally, a Nazi spy and a Jewish boy hiding from the spy, add to the two Iranian children’s race for survival. Daniel Nayeri has written a fine adventurous piece of historical fiction where languages, literacy, perseverance and resilience are central to a story set in World War II.
Excerpt (p.103)
“They are scorched by the sun. Afer long evening of hiking, when they’re sore and their tongues lol in their mouths desperate with thirst, as the sun gutters behind a hill they finally spot a spring-fed channel of cold, clear waer down ina narrow valley. And at the same time, they realize they are all alone in the wilderness – Baba help them – and they’re being followed.”
WILL’S RACE FOR TIME by Jewell Parker Rhodes / historical fiction / Race and Black Culture
The year is 1888, twenty five years after the Emancipation Proclamation. Will Samuels and his father have just about given up on working as sharecroppers on a land they don’t own and when they hear about an upcoming land rush in Oklahoma, father and son set out, with the help of their loyal donkey, Belle – on a journey from Texas with hope in their hearts. In the race for time, they encounter a number of perils bandits, dangerous terrain, a rattlesnake, a bullet wound, a rushing river. An encounter with a mysterious stranger named Caesar whose friendship, courage and stamina propel the Samuels men forward to freedom, land ownership and a place called home. This novel is an adventure story, a survival story and a story of fighting all odds to fulfill a dream. The subtitle for this book : “A Western” suits the genre well. Jewell Parker Rhodes is a great storyteller who writes historical fiction with sound research, verve and heightened emotion. Will’s Race for Time has been designated a Global Read, 2025.
Excerpt (p. 27)
Reins lax, Father mutters, “Got to get land, Got to get land.”
Even the rumbling wheels echo, “Land, land, land.”
SHOUT OUT
THE FINAL YEAR by Matt Goodfellow; Ill. Joe ToddStanton
Mental Health / Poverty / Bullying
Here’s why I bought this book: 1) It won a batch of awards in Britain, 2) it received stellar reviews (“profoundly moving”… “outtanding”… “incredibly powerful”…”heartstoppingly brilliant”) 3) it’s a verse novel. You had me at verse novel. The protagonist of this novel is Nate who is about to enter year 6, which in the UK is the final compulsory year in primary school. Nate and his peers have been warned that it is an important year of transition that is tough and they better be prepare for it. Nate’s life however is rather gloomy: His mother is bonkers (“She says it herself’) who relies on drinking and Bingo games to get her through life. She doesn’t seem to take any initiative to change even though her love for Nate and his two younger brothers is strong. But Nate must also contend with school bullies, a best friend who abandons him, anxiety attacks (The Beast) and a family tragedy that sets Nate’s world topsy-turvy. Two things in particular help Nate to gain resilience. He is dedicated to writing poetry about the life he is living. Mr. Joshua, a first year teacher is a special mentor whose motto in life and for the classroom is a line from the Bob Marley song, “Three Little Birds;” EVERY LITTLE THING GONNA BE ALRIGHT. Mr. Joshua helps Nate find the light in the darkness and readers are sure to feel for Nate, cheer for Nate as he struggles to find that light. Matthew Goodfellow is a performance poet and former school teacher. The Final Year deserved it’s awards. The dedication to the book reads, “This is a book about family and love and life.” Goodfellow lives up to this expectation. I agree that is a ‘profoundyl moving’, ‘incredible’, ‘outstanding’ book that fills the heart. We don’t want to say good-bye to Nate but lo and behold, Goodfellow has written a sequel entitled The First Year when Nate enters high school.
Excerpts
“Mud is just mud, / so wipe yerself clean.’ And don’t hate, Nate, / yet a dreamer so dream.” (p, 127)”
“…in order to really find yousrelf/ you firsat have to be lost out there in the wilderness,” (p. 210)
“Sometimes I’m concrete/like every pore/ every cell of my body is solid/ and I just can’t feel/ anthin/ but The Beast.” (p.224)
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SHOUT OUT
WAYS TO LIVE FOREVER by Sally Nicholls / 2008 / 2015
Death, Loss and Remembrance
I hadn’t heard of this debut novel by British author Sally Nicholls but an article about the Children’s books in the 21st Century raved about it’s place in children’s literature After being published in 2008, it received a dozen or so Awards, including being he winner of the Waterstone’s Children’s book prize) and was shortlisted for as many. I was intrigued.
The opening page lists five facts about the central character: My Name is Sam / I am eleven years old/ I collect stories and fantastic facs, I have leukemia/ By the time you read this I will probably be dead. The story is written as Sam’s biography where he recounts his day to day trials living with cancer. He and his best friend, also with leukemia, are home schooled. The two share a common bond of dreams and questions and are each realistic about their fate about imminent death. Sam is true to his promise on page one: he enjoys preparing lists and writing stories and raises questions about dying. His family including his mother father and sister work hard to make the best of Sam’s circumstances. When tragedy strikes, Sam has an especially hard time carrying on and finding answers to questions nobody will answer (‘Why does God make kids get ill?’ ‘Does it hurt to die?’ ‘Why do people have to die anyway?’ This book deserved its raves and awards. It is a powerful story, an honest, funny and deeply moving novel about acceptance and grief. To dig deep into the tough topic of ” Death, Loss and Remembrance”, Ways to Live Forever is a must-read.
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SHOUT OUT
POCKET BEAR by Katherine Applegate
kindness and belonging
Katherine Applegate has done her research to learn about tiny sfuffed bears that were stuffed into the pocket of soldier’s jackets. Bear’s eyes always gazed upward so that when the soldier gazed down, he ould see a token of love. Pocket Bear was one of those mascots who served as a good luck charm for the soldier he served during World War 1. A cenury has passed and Pocket Bear was discovered in the cupboard in a house. He has been deemed he official leader of the Second Chance Home for he Tossed and Treasured where stuffed toys are freshened up and passed on to others for a second chance to be loved. Oh-so-clever Applegate has invented a rascally character named Zephyrina, who burgles abandoned toys to be rescued a the Second Chance Home. What a character Zyphyrina is – cocky, arrogant, wise and resourceful. He is described in the book as “the Robin Hood of Felines.” I quite admire anthropomorphic characters and this smarmy cat is up there with the best of them. (Zyphyrina would could easily sit on a shelf keeping Applegate’s Ivan, Ruby and Bob good company). He commandeers a group of wayward toys waiting for a new home; he rescues a bear from the garbage bin outside a restaurant, he cleverly. helps solve a plot when the prized toy, Bearwon, is stolen; he helps care for a mother and daughter who escaped from the Ukraine. . What a cat! I really really liked this novel with 93 short chapters and lovely black and white illustrations spread throughout.
Katherine Applegate is a great writer. She writes great books. Pocket Bear is a great great book by a great author. I love stuffed bears. I love Katherine Applegate. I love Pocket Bear. This book is funny, adventurous, and as feel-good as, well, a favourite stuffed Teddy Bear.
Excerpt
Zephyrina is afraid of absolutely nothing. She does not like to be touched, with the possible exception of an occasional ear scratch. She does not like to leap onto bed. / She is independent and always will be. / Zephyrina is brave. She has been through a lot. Bu she is willing to hunt a like a tiger and fight like a puma. She is a hero. Not a big, important her. but here are many kinds of heroes.” (p. 173)