The Current: Coming of Age

Where the light goes

Sara Barnard

Beth was Emmy’s  funny, blunt, charismatic sister, who she loved more than anyone else. To the rest of the world Beth was Lizzie Beck, lead singer of the Jinks, whose exploits seemed to be a permanent fixture in the tabloids. When Beth commits suicide Emmy finds that she has to cope not only with her own searing grief but also with media intrusion, online trolling, public hysteria, and people she thought she could trust who want to exploit her sister’s death for their own ends.

A powerful, emotional, and wholly believable look at what it is like to be caught up in the aftermath of a sudden death and to confront the downsides of celebrity. 

Treacle Town

Brian Conaghan

Set in an impoverished town just outside of Glasgow, Treacle Town follows the life of Con O’Neill immediately after the death of his best friend and a few years after the death of his mother. Whilst his mates want to seek revenge on the gang who killed their mate, Biscuit, Con is more interested in maintaining the peace, watching Slam poetry, and escaping the town unscathed.

But will his friends allow him this freedom, or will he yet again be embroiled in the violence he’s trying so hard to escape? The perfect read for fans of Kevin Brooks and Melvin Burgess.

Play

Luke Palmer

What does it mean to be a boy? Or a man? Four boys, very different in personalities and interests, try to work this out for themselves as they grow from building dens and smashing things up in Year 8 to substance-fuelled tragedy in year 11. For Luc, the journey involves trying to win his overbearing father’s affection by being a mirror image of him, a path that leads to bigotry and misogyny. In Matt’s case he has to come to terms with his sexuality. Mark has grown up in poverty and the allure of the money he can make by working for a drug dealer is too much to resist, although things turn sour very quickly. And intertwined with them all is Johnny; crazy, mercurial, perceptive, brilliant, and ultimately doomed.

This story about male friendship is gripping, sad and totally convincing. 

A Sudden Storm

Bali Rai

A difficult and heart-breaking read that packs a punch in only sixty pages. Inspired by true events, this novel follows Arjan, a Sikh teen who faces extreme racism on his birthday due solely to the colour of his skin and the turban on his head.

Harrowing and affecting, a book that can be read in a short time but will stick with you forever.

This accessible Barrington Stoke novel would appeal to fans of The Hate U Give and books by Malorie Blackman or Kwame Alexander.

Stateless

Elizabeth Wein

1937. With war looming a small group of pilots from across Europe gather to take part in an air race. Stella North, the British pilot, soon notices that there are old rivalries and enmities just beneath the surface and some competitors evidently have things that they wish to hide. When disaster strikes and a pilot dies during what should have been an uneventful first leg, Stella is convinced that there has been foul play. Is it something to do with Antoine Robert, the  French pilot with the terrible French accent and the truculent manner? Or the aloof German, Major Rosengart? It will need all Stella’s resourcefulness to find out, and Nazi Germany lies ahead, which proves to be dangerous for several of the pilots.

A period whodunnit with a courageous and intelligent central character.