Proud of me

 

Proud of me 

by Sarah Hagger-Holt 

Language: English 

London : Usborne Publishing Ltd., 2021. 

1 volume ; 20 cm. 

ISBN: 9781474966245 ; 1474966241 

Summary: Becky and Josh are almost-twins, with two mums and the same anonymous donor dad. Josh can't wait until he's eighteen, the legal age when he can finally contact his donor, and he'll do anything to find out more - even if it involves lying. Becky can't stop thinking about her new friend, Carli. Could her feelings for Carli be a sign of something more? Becky and Josh both want their parents to be proud of them...but right now, they're struggling to even accept themselves. 

Available: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Proud-Me-Sarah-Hagger-Holt/dp/1474966241/

First Day of My Life

 

First Day of My Life 

by Lisa Williamson 

Language: English 

Oxford : David Fickling Books, 2021. 

p. : cm. 

ISBN: 9781788451536 ; 1788451538 

Summary: A brand new YA novel from bestselling, award-winning author Lisa Williamson! A love letter to best friendship, first loves, and unexpected surprises, and a powerful reminder that every day is the first day of the rest of your life. Best friends Frankie and Jojo do everything together - so when Jojo goes missing on GCSE results day, Frankie knows something must be seriously wrong. Then news breaks that a baby has been stolen. When Frankie finally gets a return call from Jojo and hears a crying baby in the background, she can't help but jump to conclusions. She asks her ex-boyfriend Ram to help her track down Jojo but he's less than convinced by her theory. Jojo is the most reliable person he knows - there's got to be another explanation. Right? As the race to find Jojo begins, it becomes clear there are three sides to this story. Friendships are put to the ultimate test as Frankie and Ram are forced to work together to find out the truth - even if that truth destroys everything. 

Available: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1788451538/

Tell it to the moon

Tell it to the moon 
by Siobhan Curham 
Language: English 
London : Walker Books, 2017. 
327 pages; 20 cm. 
ISBN: 9781406366150 ; 1406366153 
Summary: To make a dream come true, tell it to the moon! Tell It to the Moon continues the story of Moonlight Dreamers Amber, Maali, Sky and Rose, who are not like everyone else and don't want to be: becoming friends gives them the courage to be themselves. After failing to find her surrogate mother, Amber is left unsure of who she is and what she wants to do; Maali's spiritual faith is tested when her father becomes ill; Sky, previously home-schooled, struggles to adapt to the pressures of the school system; and after having found the courage to come out, Rose begins to pursue her dream of becoming a patissier. Once again the four girls band together to help one another overcome their individual challenges and fulfill their dreams in this fabulous and heart-warming celebration of friendship. 
Available: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1406366153/

The moonlight dreamers

The moonlight dreamers 
by Siobhan Curham 
Language: English 
London : Walker Books, 2016. 
345 pages ; 20 cm. 
ISBN: 9781406365825 ; 1406365823 
Summary: An inspirational, heart-warming book about four girls trying to find their place in the world. Siobhan Curham celebrates very different but like-minded friends in this captivating novel. Amber craves excitement and adventure. Instead, she's being bullied at school for having two dads, and life at home isn't much better. Inspired by Oscar Wilde, Amber realizes that among the millions of people in London, there must be others who feel the same as she does; other dreamers - moonlight dreamers. After chance encounters with Maali, Sky and Rose, Amber soon recruits the three girls to the Moonlight Dreamers. It's high time they started pursuing their dreams, and how better than with the support of friends? 
Available: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1406365823/

The Lotterys more or less

The Lotterys more or less 
by Emma Donoghue 
illus. by Caroline Hadilaksono 
Language: English 
London, England : Macmillan Children's Books, 2018. ©2018. 
277 pages : illustrations ; 20 cm. 
ISBN: 9781509883844 ; 1509883843 
Summary: Nine-year-old Sumac Lottery considers it her job to make sure none of the Lottery celebrations are forgotten, especially now at Christmas time, and in her large, gay, and multiethnic family there are a lot of occasions for celebration in the house they all call Camelottery--but when a terrible ice storm hits Toronto, one of her dads, and her favourite brother cannot make it home from India, and it becomes increasingly difficult to hang on to the holiday spirit. 
Available: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1338207539/

Children of Eden

Children of Eden 
by Michael Beeney 
Language: English 
Underwood : InHouse Publishing. 2016. 
p. : cm. 
ISBN: 9781925497052 ; 1925497054 
Summary: Children of Eden by Michael Beeney takes us into the world of Harry Lester from London. Harry, like many others, took part in visiting unregulated infertility clinics when he was a medical student. Harry easily donated his genetic material to allow couples who were infertile to seek help. Twenty years after his donation period, Harry has given in to his wanderlust and is a doctor on a cruise ship. This allows him to work, but also travel as much as his heart desires. Harry's lifestyle is luxurious, carefree and fun. Twenty-year-old Jason Brown was born to a mother who desperately wanted him. He was the product of one of those unregulated infertility clinics, his father only ever known as a donor to him. That is until he becomes obsessed with finding out who his father is, and the drive to find this knowledge leads him on a journey around the world. 
Available: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1857764307/

Scissors, sisters & manic panics

Scissors, sisters & manic panics 
by Ellie Phillips 
Language: English 
London : Electric Monkey, 2013. 
276 pages ; 20 cm. 
ISBN: 9781405258203 ; 1405258209 
Summary: Mrs Nellist came in for her cut and colour while Auntie and Tiffany were out the back having a coffee, leaving me to sweep up, and that's kind of where everything got really ugly. It was the hairstyle that Mrs Nellist never knew she wanted. That's all it was about. 
Available: http://www.amazon.com/Scissors-Sisters-Manic-Panics-Phillips/dp/1405258209

Tomorrow

Tomorrow 
by Graham Swift 
Language: English 
New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 2007. 
255 pages ; 20 cm. 
ISBN: 0307266907 ; 9780307266903 
Summary: On a midsummer's night, Paula lies awake, her husband of twenty-five years asleep beside her and her teenage children in nearby rooms, anticipating the coming of the next day, when a revelation will redefine all their lives. 
Available: http://www.amazon.com/Tomorrow-Vintage-International-Graham-Swift/dp/0307386430

Inside the palisade

Inside the palisade 
by K. C. Maguire 
Language: English 
[Place of publication not identified] : Lodestone Books, 2015. 
173 p. : cm. 
ISBN: 1782797157 ; 9781782797159 
Summary: Omega has grown up surrounded by women – literally. Inside the palisade, women fall in love, marry and raise daughters, relying on an artificial insemination process known as the Procedure. But something goes horribly wrong. One day, Omega comes face to face with a mythical monster – a man – within the society’s walls. Men had been eradicated long ago to protect women from the threat of violence. But this boy is not what Omega has been led to believe. And he needs her help. She soon finds herself embroiled in a manhunt headed by a vigilante Protector, Commander Theta. When she falls into Theta’s clutches, Omega realizes that there’s more to the banishment of men, and to her own past, than she’s ever known. Ultimately, she is forced to make a choice between betraying the lost boy and betraying her society, a decision complicated by the realization that she has more in common with him than she cares to admit, and the fact that she is developing feelings for him. 
Available: http://www.amazon.com/Inside-Palisade-K-C-Maguire/dp/1782797157

Say her name

Say her name 
by James Dawson 
Language: English 
London : Hot Key Books, 2014. 
284 p. ; 20 cm.
ISBN: 9781471402449 ; 1471402444
Summary: Roberta 'Bobbie' Rowe is not the kind of person who believes in ghosts. A Halloween dare at her ridiculously spooky boarding school is no big deal, especially when her best friend Naya and cute local boy Caine agree to join in too. They are ordered to summon the legendary ghost of 'Bloody Mary': say her name five times in front of a candlelit mirror, and she shall appear...But, surprise surprise, nothing happens. Or does it? Next morning, Bobbie finds a message on her bathroom mirror...five days...but what does it mean? And who left it there? Things get increasingly weird and more terrifying for Bobbie and Naya, until it becomes all too clear that Bloody Mary was indeed called from the afterlife that night, and she is definitely not a friendly ghost. Bobbie, Naya and Caine are now in a race against time before their five days are up and Mary comes for them, as she has come for countless others before...This is a truly spine-chilling yet witty horror from shortlisted 'Queen of Teen' author James Dawson. 
Available: http://www.amazon.com/Say-Her-Name-James-Dawson/dp/1471402444

Archie Nolan: family detective

Archie Nolan: family detective 
by Beverley Ward 
Language: English 
DC Network, 2015. 
p. ; cm. 
ISBN: 
Summary: Science geek Archie Nolan tries to keep a low profile, but when his class are told to research their family tree, he is terrified twin sister and school swot Jemima is going to reveal that they are donor conceived. Archie’s in turmoil. The only person who understands is his donor conceived friend Cameron, but he seems to have unearthed a village vampire…..and Archie's far more interested in investigating that! 
Available: http://www.dcnetwork.org/products/product/archie-nolan-family-detective-story-8-12yr-olds

Silence is Goldfish

Silence is Goldfish 
by Annabel Pitcher 
Language: English 
London : Indigo , 2015. 
384 p. ; 216 x 135mm 
ISBN: 9781510100435 1510100431 
Summary: What happens to a fifteen-year-old girl when she finds out for the first time that her own father feels revulsion toward her, finds her peculiar, and doesn't even consider her to be his daughter? That's what Tess discovers one night when, during an emergency, she had to go to the nearest computer in the house to find out how to put out a kitchen fire. Glancing at what her father had on the screen, she discovers a blog post he wrote for the Donor Conception Network, where he admits to not loving the "ugly red thing gnawing" at his wife's breast on his daughter's first day of life. This is how in fact Tess discovers that she was actually conceived via sperm donor, and that the only father she has ever known is not really her father. This truth completely unmoors her. At first Tess runs away from home, but decides against it after four hours on her own in the middle of the night, only to wonder how she is to live with this man and this new knowledge. She returns home but within 24 hours, Tess becomes mute as a protest against her parents for a lifetime of lies. The book is told in the first person and though mute, Tess has a lot to say, but all of the dialogue stays in her head as she communicates only with a plastic goldfish she bought when she ran away and that she now keeps in her pocket. Meanwhile, finding out the truth about her conception is just one of her problems. Tess is brutally bullied both online and at school for being fat and for her large frame, which she now knows she mustn't have gotten from her father, and she loses her best friend when she can no longer confide in her about what she found out on her father's computer that night. Tess also becomes fixated on the substitute math teacher who has the same blonde hair, brown eyes, and fat fingers that she has. Convinced they share the same DNA, she becomes obsessed with learning more about him, and what she does is so shocking that it finally leads her out of her mutism. This book explores what happens when parents keep the truth from their children in cases where they had to use donor sperm to conceive. It is not so much this fact that causes Tess's problems as much as it is the fact that the truth has been kept from her her entire life. Except for scenes of cruel bullying, there is no violence, sex, or foul language in this book. Recommended for ages 12 and up.
Available: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Silence-Goldfish-Annabel-Pitcher/dp/1780620004

Missing me

Missing me
by Sophie McKenzie
Language: English
London : Simon and Schuster, 2012.
290 p. ; 22 cm.
ISBN: 9780857077271; 0857077279
Summary: Six years have passed since the end of 'Sister, Missing'. Madison is now a teenager and learns that their biological father was an anonymous sperm donor and sets out to track him down. Her search bears fruit sooner than she expects, but is the father she discovers all he seems? As Madison gets drawn into a mysterious investigation involving missing girls and secret hideaways, she finds herself in more and more danger.
http://www.sophiemckenziebooks.com/

Dads, geeks and blue haired freaks

Dads, geeks and blue haired freaks
by Ellie Phillips
Language: English 
London : Electric Monkey, 2012.
295 p. ; 20 cm.
ISBN: 9781405258197; 1405258195  
Summary: Sadie Nathanson spends her life trying to survive the excruciating embarrassment of simply existing. It's hard enough being a bit of a shrinking violet within a loud and outspoken extended family, but the unexpected card from 'Dad' on her 15th birthday is the last straw. As 'Dad' was an Internet sperm-donor, it doesn't take a genius to work out that this is a bad joke, probably set up by her ex-best-friend Shonna. But it starts Sadie wondering - just who was her father? Is he the cause of her worry crinkle and wonky bum? What would happen if she tracked him down? So she decides to do just that. With help from her nerd cousin Billy, his friend Nodding Tony and a regular dose of 'Haironomics' (Sadie's own hairstyle-related philosophy system), they uncover a lot more than they bargain for.
http://www.elliephillips.co.uk/