Inspiring young protagonists

Refugee

farm since she was found outside its gates at the age of five. Now 17, she’s part of the security force guarding the food from “scavengers”, people who live outside the system, who would rather steal food from an agribusiness than work for it. When a scavenger raid goes disastrously wrong and releases a blight that begins to destroy all living things in its path, Tempest manages to save some unspoiled seeds. She has to stay ahead of the spreading blight and get to AgraStar so the seeds can be protected. But is AgraStar the right place for the precious seeds? Why does the company seem to have dark connections with the blight?

Solo

a comeback with drugs, and lots of unwanted paparazzi attention, and you have the complicated life of 17-year-old Blade Morrison. And then things get even worse when a family secret is revealed, prompting Blade to embark on an unexpected trip in search of his identity.

Author Kwame Alexander is a poet, educator and author of 24 books, including The Crossover (2014), which received the 2015 Newbery Medal (awarded by the Association for Library Services to Children). He worked with poet Mary Rand Hess on

Author: Publisher:

this novel written in poetic verse.

Mask Of Shadows

SALLOT Leon is a thief, and a good one at that. But Sal wants nothing more than to escape the drudgery of life as a highway robber and get closer to the upper-class and the nobles who destroyed their home.

When Sal steals a flyer for an audition to become a member of the Left Hand, the Queen’s personal assassins, named after the rings she wears, Sal jumps at the chance to infiltrate the court and get revenge.

But the audition is a fight to the death. A childhood as a common criminal hardly prepared Sal for the trials. Yet, Sal has skills, too, and progresses surprisingly well in the competition, earning the attention of Elise, an intriguing scribe at court. As the two tentatively begin dreaming of a different future, Sal becomes determined to survive.