Siblings – for teens

Black Brother, Black Brother

Author: Jewell Parker Rhodes
Publisher: Orion
Interest age: 10-12
Reading age: 9+

Donte has had enough of being treated worse than his lighter-skinned brother. He finds a way to beat the bullies by become an expert at fencing. A unique, unforgettable novel with plenty of pointers for further reading and learning.

Little Women

Author: Louisa May Alcott
Publisher: Signet
Interest age: 13+
Reading age: 12+

The novel follows the lives of four sisters—Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy March—detailing their passage from childhood to womanhood

The story begins at Christmas time. The March girls, Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy, are unhappy because they have agreed to give up their Christmas presents.

My Brother Simple

Author: Marie-Aude Murail
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Interest age: 14+
Reading age: 14+

Kleber is 17 years old and at sixth form college in Paris. He's trying to secure himself a place in a shared flat, but things are complicated by his elder brother who has learning difficulties.

Sisters Red

Author: Jackson Pearce
Publisher: Hodder Children's Books
Interest age: 12-15
Reading age: 11+

Scarlett and Rosie March saw their grandmother killed by a monster wolf, a Fenris. Now they have made it their mission to rid the world of Fenris and hunting is the focus of their lives.

Pike

Author: Anthony McGowan
Publisher: Barrington Stoke
Interest age: 13+
Reading age: 8+

This companion to McGowan's Brock is spare, poetic, moving, often wryly funny.

Needle

Author: Patrice Lawrence
Publisher: Barrington Stoke
Interest age: 12-13
Reading age: 8-9

How come, if there’s any kind of ‘incident’ at school, at home, at the shopping centre, it’s always the Black kid in care who gets the blame?

We Played With Fire

Author: Catherine Barter
Publisher: Andersen Press
Interest age: 12-14
Reading age: 12+

Based on a true story, this chilling tale follows the lives of Kate and Maggie Fox - two sisters who convince their parents, and then the world, that they can communicate with the dead. It starts as an elaborate hoax, but then the dead begin to talk back...

Long Way Down: The Graphic Novel

Author: Jason Reynolds Illustrator: Danica Novgorodoff
Publisher: Faber
Interest age: 12+
Reading age: 10+

Will's older brother Shawn is shot dead in front of him, leading Will to the conclusion that revenge is his only option. This hard-hitting tale, based on an award-winning novel in verse by the same author, is extremely accessible in graphic novel format.

One

Author: Sarah Crossan
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Interest age: 12+
Reading age: 12+

This is a book that goes straight into your heart and once it is there, won't leave. One is a brilliant, beautiful, and heart-wrenching novel that is not to be missed.

Half Brother

Author: Kenneth Oppel
Publisher: David Fickling Books
Interest age: 11+
Reading age: 9+

Oppel bases his first YA novel on projects in the 1970s which tested the capability of chimpanzees to acquire sign language.