Stargazing for Beginners by Jenny McLachlan

Science geek Meg is left to look after her little sister for ten days after her free-spirited mum leaves suddenly to follow up yet another of her Big Important Causes. Mum’s disappearance has come at the worst time: Meg is desperate to win a competition to get the chance to visit NASA headquarters...

Themes: family, scientists, NASA, stars, coming of age

How Do You Live? by Genzaburo Yoshino

Copper, our hero, and his uncle are our guides in science, in ethics, in thinking. And on the way they take us, through a school story set in Japan in 1937, to the heart of the questions we need to ask ourselves about the way we live our lives.

Themes: science, ethics, philosophy, family, Japan

Interworld by Neil Gaiman

Joey Harker is the kind of guy who gets lost in his own house. But one day, Joey gets really lost. He walks straight out of his world and into another dimension. This walk between worlds makes Joey prey to armies of magic and science, both determined to harness Joey’s power to travel between dimensions.

Themes: other dimensions, magic, fantasy, peril

Joey Harker is the kind of guy who gets lost in his own house. But one day, Joey gets really lost. He walks straight out of his world and into another dimension. This walk between worlds makes Joey prey to armies of magic and science, both determined to harness Joey’s power to travel between dimensions.

Themes: other dimensions, magic, fantasy, peril

Pig Heart Boy by Malorie Blackman

Cameron is thirteen, and all he wants is a 'normal' life - friends, swimming, school, family. But his life is far from normal. Not every thirteen-year-old desperately needs a new heart because theirs doesn't work properly. But then he is offered hope, in the form of a radical, controversial procedure...

Themes: biology, family, coming of age, illness, social issues

The Giver by L. S. Lowry

It is the future. There is no war, no hunger, no pain. No one in the community wants for anything. Everything needed is provided. And at twelve years old, each member of the community has their profession carefully chosen for them by the Committee of Elders. For Jonah, this means becoming the Receiver of Memory.

Themes: futuristic, dystopia, coming of age, peril

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

It's an ordinary Thursday lunchtime for Arthur Dent until his house gets demolished. The Earth follows shortly afterwards to make way for a new hyperspace express route, and his best friend has just announced that he's an alien. He is floating through space with a book that reads “DON’T PANIC”...

Themes: humour, bizarre, space, adventure, friendship

Electric Life by Rachel Delahaye

Estrella is the perfect society; everyone says so. But Alara is bored in a world where boredom is frowned upon. So, when she gets the chance to execute a secret mission in the toxic, dangerous wastes of London Below, she jumps at the chance even though it terrifies her as much as it excites her.

Themes: adventure, technology, dystopia, coming of age

TimeRiders by Alex Scarrow

Liam, Maddy and Sal aren't rescued from their fated deaths. They are recruited by an agency that no one knows exists, with only one purpose - to fix broken history. Because time travel is here, and there are those who would go back in time and change the past. That's why the TimeRiders exist: to protect us.

Themes: thriller, time-travel, friendship, survival, adventure

Liam, Maddy and Sal aren't rescued from their fated deaths. They are recruited by an agency that no one knows exists, with only one purpose - to fix broken history. Because time travel is here, and there are those who would go back in time and change the past. That's why the TimeRiders exist: to protect us.

Themes: thriller, time-travel, friendship, survival, adventure

Railhead by Philip Reeve

Zen Starling is a petty thief, hopping on and off the sentient trains that speed across the galaxy, hoping he won't get caught. When he is approached by the mysterious Raven to infiltrate the Emperor's train, he jumps at the chance of adventure. But does Zen really understand what he's getting into?

Themes: adventure, futuristic, space, peril, thriller

Geek Girl by Holly Smale

Harriet Manners knows that a cat has 32 muscles in each ear, a “jiffy” lasts 1/100th of a second, and the average person laughs 15 times per day. But she doesn’t know why nobody at school seems to like her. So when Harriet is spotted by a top model agent, she grabs the chance to reinvent herself.

Themes: friendship, school, modelling, fashion

A.N.T.I.D.O.T.E. by Malorie Blackman

It's just your average Friday night. Then the police show up. Your mum's been caught on CCTV, breaking into a giant chemical company. They say she's working undercover for A.N.T.I.D.O.T.E, a group against animal testing - but how is that possible? She's not a spy - is she?

Themes: chemistry, spies, thriller, family, race against time

It's just your average Friday night. Then the police show up. Your mum's been caught on CCTV, breaking into a giant chemical company. They say she's working undercover for A.N.T.I.D.O.T.E, a group against animal testing - but how is that possible? She's not a spy - is she?

Themes: chemistry, spies, thriller, family, race against time

All Our Yesterdays by Cristin Terrill

Em is locked in a bare, cold cell with no comforts. Finn is in the cell next door. The Doctor is keeping them there until they tell him what he wants to know. Trouble is, what he wants to know hasn’t happened yet. Em and Finn have a shared past, but no future unless they can find a way out.

Themes: dystopia, time-travel, romance, survival

Eve and Adam by Michael Grant

While Eve is recovering from an accident, her mother sets her an unexpected challenge: to use a cutting-edge virtual reality system to design the perfect boy; everything from the colour of his eyes to the level of his IQ. It's the chance of a lifetime. The chance to play God... or is it more than just playing?

Themes: futuristic, technology, genetics, biology

Lightning Mary by Anthea Simmons

One stormy night, a group of villagers are struck by lightning. The only survivor is a baby - Mary Anning. Mary must depend upon her unique courage and knowledge to fulfil her dream of becoming a scientist in a time when girls have no opportunities for such ambitions.

Themes: scientists, historical, coasts, ecosystems, true stories

Survival in Space: The Apollo 13 Mission by David Long

Astronauts Jim Lovell, Jack Swigert and Fred Haise were over 200,000 miles from Earth, in a rocket on the way to the moon, when a faulty wire caused a disastrous explosion. With compromised support systems and one oxygen tank completely destroyed, their survival was on the line.

Themes: space, physics, adventure, survival, true stories