Louis Sachar - Holes
Teen.
233 pages.
Stanley Yelnat's family has a history of bad luck, so he is not too surprised when a miscarriage of justice sends him to a detention centre. Nor is he surprised when he is told that his daily labour is to dig a hole and report anything he finds in it.
Alex Scarrow - Time Riders
Teen 11-14.
423 pages.
Liam O'Connor should have died at sea in 1912. Maddy Carter should have died on a plane in 2010. Sal Vikram should have died in a fire in 2029. Yet moments before death, someone mysteriously appeared and said, 'take my hand'.
Liam, Maddy and Sal have been recruited by the Time Riders, to stop time travel from destroying the world.
Gary D Schmidt - Orbiting Jupiter
Teen.
183 pages.
A heart breaking story, narrated by twelve-year-old Jack, whose family is caring for fourteen-year-old Joseph. Joseph is misunderstood. He was incarcerated for trying to kill a teacher. Or so the rumours say.
But Jack and his family see something others in town don't want to. What's more, Joseph has a daughter he's never seen. The two boys go on a journey through the bitter Maine winter to help Joseph find his baby - no matter the cost.
Dave Shelton - Thirteen Chairs
Teen 11-14.
256 pages.
When a boy finds himself drawn into an empty house one cold night, he enters a room in which 12 unusal-looking people sit around a table. And the 13th chair is pulled out for him. One by one, each of those assembled tells their own ghost story: tales of doom and death; of ghostly creatures and malevolent spirits; of revenge and reward.
It is only at the end of the night that the boy starts to understand what story he must tell.
Genres: Horror, ghost stories, fantasy. Collection of short stories.