‘Hello Strange’ by Pamela Morrow
A vivid, fast-paced novel about artificial emotional intelligence. Since the death of their mother, Hunter, Milly, and Coel have come unstuck. Their father isn’t coping either, even though he’s the successful head of BIOlogic and is developing a humanoid to enhance human lives.
He brings home Josie, the latest prototype, hoping she might restore the family’s happiness. But Josie took a blast during an epic electrical storm and her system is unstable.
Meanwhile Professor Bishop and his mysterious student Gwin Tang have their own ominous plans for Josie.
‘Orangeboy’ by Patrice Lawrence
Not cool enough, not clever enough, not street enough for anyone to notice me. I was the kid people looked straight through.
NOT ANY MORE. NOT SINCE MR ORANGE.
Sixteen-year-old Marlon has promised his widowed mum that he’ll be good, and nothing like his gang-leader brother Andre. It’s easy when you keep yourself to yourself, listening to your dead dad’s Earth, Wind and Fire albums and watching sci-fi. But everything changes when Marlon’s first date with the beautiful Sonya ends in tragedy; he becomes a hunted man and he has no idea why.
They’re after the mysterious Mr Orange, and they’re going to use Marlon to get to him. He’s out of choices – with his Dad dead and his brother helpless, Marlon has little choice but to enter Andre’s old world of guns, knives and drug runs in order to uncover the truth and protect those close to him. It’s time to fight to be the last man standing – can he become the person he never wanted to be, to protect everyone he loves?
‘A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder’ by Holly Jackson
The case is closed. Five years ago, schoolgirl Andie Bell was murdered by Sal Singh. The police know he did it. Everyone in town knows he did it.
But having grown up in the same small town that was consumed by the crime, Pippa Fitz-Amobi isn’t so sure. When she chooses the case as the topic for her final project, she starts to uncover secrets that someone in town desperately wants to stay hidden. And if the real killer is still out there, how far will they go to keep Pip from the truth . . . ?
‘Flawed’ by Cecilia Ahern
Celestine North lives a perfect life. She’s a model daughter and sister, she’s well-liked by her classmates and teachers, and she’s dating the impossibly charming Art Crevan.
But then Celestine encounters a situation in which she makes an instinctive decision. She breaks a rule and now faces life-changing repercussions. She could be imprisoned. She could be branded. She could be found FLAWED.
In this novel, bestselling author Cecelia Ahern depicts a society in which perfection is paramount and mistakes are punished. And where one young woman decides to take a stand that could cost her everything.
‘We are Displaced’ by Malala Yousafzai
After her father was murdered, María escaped in the middle of the night with her mother.
Zaynab was out of school for two years as she fled war before landing in America. Her sister, Sabreen, survived a harrowing journey to Italy.
Ajida escaped horrific violence, but then found herself battling the elements to keep her family safe in their new makeshift home.
Nobel Peace Prize winner and activist Malala Yousafzai shares various stories of displacement, including her own. Her experiences visiting refugee camps caused her to reconsider her own displacement – first as an ‘Internally Displaced Person’ when she was a young child in Pakistan, and then as an international activist who could travel anywhere in the world except to the home she loved. In We Are Displaced, which is part memoir, part communal storytelling, Malala introduces readers to some of the incredible girls she has met on her many journeys and lets each tell her story – girls who have lost their community, relatives and often the only world they’ve ever known, but have not lost hope.
Longing for home and fear of an uncertain future binds all of these young women, but each is unique. In a time of immigration crises, war and border conflicts, We Are Displaced is an important reminder that every single one of the 68.5 million currently displaced is a person – often a young person – with hopes and dreams, and that everyone deserves universal human rights and a safe home.
‘Buried Beneath the Baobab Tree’ by Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani
On April 14, 2014, Boko Haram kidnapped 276 girls. Some managed to escape. Many are still missing.
Based on interviews with young women who were kidnapped by Boko Haram, this poignant novel by Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani tells the timely story of one girl who was taken from her home in Nigeria and her harrowing fight for survival.
A new pair of shoes, a university degree, a husband–these are the things that a girl dreams of in a Nigerian village. And with a government scholarship right around the corner, everyone can see that these dreams aren’t too far out of reach.
But the girl’s dreams turn to nightmares when her village is attacked by Boko Haram, a terrorist group, in the middle of the night. Kidnapped, she is taken with other girls and women into the forest where she is forced to follow her captors’ radical beliefs and watch as her best friend slowly accepts everything she’s been told.
Still, the girl defends her existence. As impossible as escape may seem, her life – her future – is hers to fight for.