Read for Empathy

 

#Read for Empathy: A selection from the school library

 

“Fiction gives us empathy: it puts us inside the minds of other people, gives us the gifts of seeing the world through their eyes. Fiction is a lie that tells us true things, over and over.”    Neil Gaimen

 

Eve Ainsworth                                                                   7 days

Every stories has two sides. Told from the point of view of the bullied and the bully, this is a taut, powerful story of two girls locked in battle with each other and themselves

 

Laurie Halse Anderson                                                   Wintergirls

A beautifully written and riveting account of a young girl in the grip of anorexia, perfectly capturing the isolation and motivation

 

Malorie Blackman                                                            Cloudbusting

It’s hard to step into the shoes of a bully. Written in verse, this book gives new insights, whilst also being a terrific read.

 

Malorie Blackman                                                            Boys Don’t Cry

Explores the unchartered territory of teenage fatherhood. A gripping story about love and relationships and growing up the hard way

 

Vanessa Curtis                                                          The Baking Life of Amelie Day

The tale of a young baker determined not to let her Cystic Fibrosis condition stop her doing what she wants

 

 

Sharon Draper                                                                   Out of my mind

Melody refuses to be defined by cerebral palsy. She cannot walk or talk, but she has a photographic memory. She is smarter than most of the adults who try to diagnose her and smarter than her classmates—the very same classmates who dismiss her as mentally challenged, because she cannot tell them otherwise.

 

Zana Fraillon                                                                    The bone sparrow

Subhi is a refugee. Born in an immigration detention centre, life behind the fences is all he has ever known. Then he meets Jimmie a scruffy impatient girl from the other side of the fence….

 

Alan Gibbons                                                                     The Trap

THE TRAP is a teen thriller about espionage, a missing brother and the ever-raging war on terror

Alan Gibbons avoids the simplicity of a news story and looks at the complex motivations that lead good people to make bad decisions

 

 

Mark Haddon                            The Curious Incident of the dog in the night-time

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is a murder mystery novel like no other. The detective, and narrator, is Christopher Boone. Christopher is fifteen and has Asperger’s Syndrome. He knows a very great deal about maths and very little about human beings

 

Kim Hood                                                                            Finding a voice

Jo could never have guessed that the friendship she so desperately craves would come in the shape of a severely disabled boy. This is the story of how an unusual friendship unlocks the words that neither knew they had.

 

Penny Joelson                                                                   I have no secrets

Fourteen-year-old Jemma has severe cerebral palsy. Unable to communicate or move, she relies on her family and carer for everything. She has a sharp brain and inquisitive nature, and knows all sorts of things about everyone. But when she is confronted with this terrible secret, she is utterly powerless to do anything. Though that might be about to change…

Erin Lange                                                                           Dead ends

Dane Washington lives by two rules: don’t hit girls and don’t hit special kids. Billy D has Down’s Syndrome and thinks a fierce boy who won’t hit him could come in useful. Billy D has a puzzle to solve, after all, and he has the perfect plan to make Dane help him

 

Harper Lee                                                                          To kill a mocking bird

Through the young eyes of Scout and Jem Finch, Harper Lee explores the irrationality of adult attitudes to race and class in the American Deep South of the 1930s. The conscience of a town steeped in prejudice, violence and hypocrisy is pricked by the stamina of one man’s struggle for justice.

 

Gill Lewis                                                                             Scarlet Ibis

When a fire leaves twelve-year-old Scarlet in a different foster home than her autistic little brother, she tracks a bird to find her way back to him in this deeply moving novel

 

R J Palacio                                                                            Wonder

Born with a terrible facial abnormality, Auggie has been home-schooled by his parents his whole life. Now, for the first time, he’s being sent to a real school – and he’s dreading it. All he wants is to be accepted – but can he convince his new classmates that he’s just like them, underneath it all?

 

Kim Slater                                                                            Smart

There’s been a murder, but the police don’t care. It was only a homeless old man after all.

Kieran cares. He’s made a promise, and when you say something out loud, that means you’re going to do it, for real. He’s going to find out what really happened. To Colin. And to his grandma, who just stopped coming round one day.

 

 

Kim Slater                                                                            A seven letter word

Finlay’s mother vanished two years ago. And ever since then his stutter has become almost unbearable. Bullied at school and ignored by his father, the only way to get out the words which are bouncing around in his head is by writing long letters to his ma which he knows she will never read, and by playing Scrabble online.

 

Robert Swindells                                                              Stone cold

A tense thriller plot is combined with a perceptive and harrowing portrait of life on the streets as a serial killer preys on the young and vulnerable homeles

 

Robert Talley                                                                     Lies we tell ourselves

It’s 1959 and the battle for civil rights is raging in the United States. Sarah and Linda are supposed to despise each other. But the more time they spend together, the less their differences matter. And both girls start to feel something they’ve never felt before. Something they’re determined to ignore.

 

Angie Thomas                                                                   The hate u give

Sixteen-year-old Starr lives in two worlds: the poor neighbourhood where she was born and raised and her posh high school in the suburbs. The uneasy balance between them is shattered when Starr is the only witness to the fatal shooting of her unarmed best friend, Khalil, by a police officer.
Inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement, this is a powerful and gripping YA novel about one girl’s struggle for justice.

 

Lisa Thompson                                                                  The goldfish boy

An intriguing mystery about a missing toddler, seen through the eyes of Matthew, who suffers from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. Real emotional insight wrapped into a romping read.

 

 

Benjamin Zephaniah                                                      Refugee boy

A wry and poignant story of a young refugee left in London is of even more power and pertinence today than when it was first published.

 

Markus Zusak                                                                    The book thief

1939 Nazi Germany. The country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier.
Liesel, a nine-year-old girl, is living with a foster family on Himmel Street. Her parents have been taken away to a concentration camp. Liesel steals books. This is her story and the story of the inhabitants of her street when the bombs begin to fall.

 

Lisa Williamson                                                                  The Art of Being Normal

Two outsiders. Two secrets. David longs to be a girl. Leo wants to be invisible. When Leo stands up for David in a fight, an unlikely friendship forms. But things are about to get messy. At Eden Park School secrets have a funny habit of not staying secret for long.

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