Check out our top latest picks for young adult readers for March. There are some real gems in this selection like A Trio of Sophies and Cloudburst. Let us know what your big kids are reading and can’t put down.
Viper’s Daughter, by Michelle Paver
A boy. A wolf. The legend lives on.
Dazzling entertainment and seamless story-telling, number seven in the best-selling Wolf Brother series is set in a world of myth, menace, natural magic and exhilarating adventure.
For two summers Torak and Renn have been living in the Forest with their faithful pack-brother, Wolf. But their happiness is shattered when Renn realises Torak is in danger – and she’s the threat.
Viper’s Daughter is the seventh book in the award-winning series that began with Wolf Brother, selling over 3 million copies in 36 territories. It can be read as a standalone story.
A Trio of Sophies, by Eileen Merriman
Today is the first of September, the first day of Spring, and it’s been sixty-four days since I last saw Sophie Abercrombie. It’s been sixty-four days since anyone saw Sophie Abercrombie. The prettiest Sophie. The missing Sophie.
As Sophie MacKenzie – Mac – confides to her diary, she last saw Sophie Abercrombie kissing James Bacon, their English teacher. Mac has passed this on to the police, but there is plenty she knows about James Bacon that she has kept to herself. She hasn’t even told Twiggy, the third Sophie in their once tightknit threesome. The trio of Sophies is no more.
E-Boy, by Anh Do, illustrated by Chris Wahl
Ethan is supposed to be doing regular teenage things – like playing sports and hanging out with friends. He is not supposed to be in hospital getting a brain tumour removed by Gemini, a high-tech android doctor.
But just as the operation begins, the medical facility is hit by an unusual bolt of lightning.
When Ethan wakes up he discovers that things are different. He’s always been good with computers, but now his skills are next-level. Ethan almost feels like he’s part of the machine.
And what about the android Gemini? If Ethan is now part robot, does that make the robot part human? Ethan will need all his new skills just to stay alive.
A lightning fast, thrilling new series from Anh Do.
For ages 10-14.
Cloudburst, Wilbur Smith with Chris Wakling
Jack Courtney has lived in London his whole life. But this summer his parents are travelling to the Democratic Republic of the Congo for a gorilla conference, and they’ve promised to take Jack and his friends with them. When his parents go missing in the rainforest, abducted by mercenaries, nobody seems to have any answers. Jack is pretty sure that it’s got something to do with the nearby tantalum mines, but he needs to prove it.
Along with Amelia and Xander, Jack must brave the jungle to save his parents. Standing in his way is a member of his own family – Caleb Courtney. There are western gorillas, forest elephants and hippos. But there are also bandits, mercenaries and hostile tribes. The three friends will need their wits about them if they are not only to save Jack’s parents but their own lives too.
For ages 11-14.
Nightshade, Anthony Horowitz
The explosive thirteenth book in the internationally best-selling Alex Rider series.
In this adrenaline-fuelled adventure, Alex Rider is sent by MI6 Special Operations to infiltrate a new and sinister organisation known only as Nightshade.
Alex is on his own, with the fate of thousands of people resting in his hands.
16 million copies of the Alex Rider series have been sold worldwide and his adventures and being developed for the small screen in an eight-episode adaptation of book one: Point Blanc.
The Vanishing Deep, by Astrid Scholte
Two sisters. One dangerous secret. Twenty-four hours to uncover the truth.
Seventeen-year-old Tempest was born into a world of water. The most skilled diver on the Equinox Reef, she searches drowned cities with her older sister Elysea, seeking out old world treasures to trade for Notes. After Elysea mysteriously drowns, Tempest scavenges the ruins alone, driven to collect enough Notes to buy her sister’s life for 24 hours, and to finally learn the secret she had kept until her last breath.
However, once revived, Elysea convinces Tempest to break her out of the Palindromena research facility and they embark on a dangerous journey to discover the truth about their parents’ death. But they’re pursued by two Palindromena employees desperate to find them before Elysea’s time is up and prevent them from uncovering the secret behind the revival process and the true cost of restored lives.
For ages 13+.
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, by Muriel Spark
The classic novel of the power of loyalty and influence now available in a stunning package accessible for all readers. At an Edinburgh school in the 1930s, glamorous, outspoken Miss Jean Brodie devotes the wisdom of her prime years to six young girls, the crème de la crème, who will receive an education of the most unique kind. The girls are soon entangled in their teacher’s world of unconventional ideas and manipulative schemes – destined to live in Miss Brodie’s shadow for the rest of their lives.
For ages 10-15.
Havenfall, by Sara Holland
Maddie Marrow lives for her summers at the Inn at Havenfall, hidden up in the mountains of Colorado. But the inn is much more than it appears. Maddie’s uncle runs the inn, guardian of the gateways to the hidden worlds that converge in the tunnels. But this summer, everything is going wrong. With everything she loves at stake, Maddie must confront startling truths about the secrets lurking beneath Havenfall, and within herself.
For ages 12+.
Wink, by Rob Harrell
Surviving school with one eye open. Ross Maloy just wants to fit in. But after he is diagnosed with a rare eye cancer in Year Seven, he suddenly becomes the ‘cancer kid’ of his school.
Based on Rob Harrell’s real-life experiences, and packed with his cartoons and illustrations, this is a heartbreaking and hilarious story of survival, and of finding the music, magic and laughter in all of life’s weirdness.
