Branching Out: Books for Fans of Lottie Brooks

A pre-teen graphic novel from a series of graphic novel memoirs about growing up, puberty, navigating peer relationships, tackling school and finding self-confidence.

In this book, American twelve-year-old Raina has a momentary accident that causes injury to her teeth and leads to years of dental treatment. The story follows the ups and downs of her experience of braces, headgear, dental surgery and fake teeth – all at a time of life when self-consciousness is high and a rush of embarrassment comes easily, especially about personal appearance.

Readers will feel empathy with Raina, but will also draw courage from her journey and see that true friendships run deeper than surface appearance.

This is the perfect book for tweens and is sure to be a popular reading for pleasure choice. Birdie is an overthinker, and she currently has a lot of change to navigate in her life, including moving house, becoming a blended family, tending to an elderly hamster and not yet needing a bra!

Birdie and her best friend decide to create a happy list of ideas to help them with their well-being. But, along with daily gratitudes, drinking water and doing things for others, her BFF adds ‘new friends’ to the list! Trying to branch out, Chloe and Birdie find themselves the target of a bullying group of girls.

This book perfectly encapsulates tween life – the happiness, stresses, anxieties, betrayals and joy. The brilliantly chatty tone, mix of font styles and illustrations make it so engaging, and there’s plenty of laugh-out-loud moments. Above all, it is filled with supportive friendships and a caring family to help the girls find their way.

A great reading for pleasure book that will resonate with young people making the transition to Secondary School.

How to Roller-Skate with One Leg follows the story of 12-year-old Maya, an extraordinary girl navigating ordinary tween years after an accident resulted in limb difference.

Maya is determined to achieve her pre-accident goals, including learning to roller-skate and mending friendships. This honest and hope-filled story captures Maya’s journey of self-discovery, supported by some loyal friends.

Inspired by the author’s own experiences, this book is authentic, warm and engaging. Maya’s story is a powerful testament to hope and resilience, showing that with courage and good friends, bright futures can still happen even when life takes an unexpected turn. Readers will undoubtedly fall in love with Maya and cheer her on every step of the way.

Incredibly funny and really of the moment, written as group chat messages.

Contemporary, zingy, cringy, funny and snappy!

Cafe Chaos: My Family is Not a Piece of Cake is a fun, entertaining story which was exciting to read throughout. The book uses fun illustrations and fonts throughout the book, which makes the story seem like a diary and enables readers to relate to the characters.

The story follows Hope Crumble, who is about to start Year 7, The troubles and problems Hope runs into are very relatable, and there is a good variety of different characters, who all make the story more interesting. The small details, such as little splatters on the paper and the whisk next to each page number, help to draw together the story and themes. There are themes of friendships, families, the pressures of running a business and navigating the age where you are trying to find your own identity.

This book would be perfect to share with Year 6s or 7s to help transition into a new school and will appeal to fans of Lottie Brooks..

This is a fun school adventure which will appeal to fans of Pamela Butchart and Serena Patel. The story centres around Mina and her friends and their fears as they hear rumours of a spooky phantom that’s said to haunt the venue for their school camping trip.

The text is large, with wide-spaced lines and generous illustrations and some playful typesetting for emphasis, which all help with appealing to those children put off by extensive blocks of dense text. The authentic portrayal of Mina’s Bangladeshi family adds a layer of interest to the story.

This will be particularly popular with lower KS2 in a school library and will also be enjoyed by some of the older children looking for a lighter, entertaining read.