If you liked Holes – you love these

Skellig (Hodder), David Almond

Michael's baby sister is sick, maybe dying. But a miraculous life is unfolding in his parents' crumbling garage. What is Skellig's secret? This incredible story shimmers with wonder.

Winner of the Carnegie Medal

Noughts and Crosses (Random House), Malorie Blackman

Imagine a world split by racial hatred, where black is always right and white is wrong. A girl at the heart of power loves a boy who counts for nothing. What will happen when the bomb explodes?

Multi-award winner Sheffield Children's Book Award and the Red House Book Award.

Millions (Macmillan), Frank Cottrell Boyce

Sweet and innocent Damian is more interested in the lives of saints than worldly wealth but, still reeling from the death of his mother, he stumbles upon a huge sack of cash by the side of a railway track. The tale of Damian and his brother's attempts to spend this money before time runs out is both funny and moving.

Winner of the Carnegie

Coram Boy (Egmont), Jamila Gavin

Jamila Gavin delivers a story which has everything - soaked in atmosphere, intrigue and danger. Sweeping across the last decades of the 1700s, it weaves together the fortunes of an African slave boy and an illegitimate foundling against a mesmerising background of slavery, class division, corruption, love and murder.

Winner of the Whitbread Children's Book Award

The Outsiders (Penguin), S.E. Hinton

The Socs's idea of having a good time is beating up Greasers like Ponyboy, the rough, tough, long-haired kids from the other side of town. Ponyboy knows what to expect and knows he can count on his friends - until the night someone goes too far.

Alone on a Wide, Wide Sea (HarperCollins), Michael Morpurgo

Plucked from his Liverpool home, his sister and his past, orphan Arthur entrusts his future to the sea. The harsh Australian outback lies in wait. How far must he go to fulfil his destiny?

Multi Award Winner including the Whitbread and Blue Peter Awards.

Wolf Brother (Orion), Michelle Paver

A riveting story set 6000 years ago. In Torak's shadow-world of snow, forests, bears and primal magic, life is harsh and fragile. Can a wolf cub bring him the luck to defeat a demon spirit?

Floodland (Orion), Marcus Sedgwick

Floodland is set in the not too distant future in a land that has been reclaimed by the bone-chilling sea. Zoe's parents are gone and she is forced to face the future alone on Eel Island, a graveyard of a place where the mob rule and no one is safe.

Winner of the The Brandfoard Boase

Feather Boy (HarperCollins), Nicky Singer

Always kicked around, always ignored, Robert secretly longs to find his voice. Then he tangles with school bully Niker, and finds himself facing a terrifying challenge - and a shocking journey of discovery. Could freedom be waiting on the other side?

Winner of the Carnegie Medal

A Series of Unfortunate Events (Egmont), Lemony Snicket

Meet the Beaudelaire children; orphaned, illtreated and pursued by the evil Count Olaf, but most of all, seriously, seriously unfortunate. Forget happy endings and get ready for maladies, misfortunes and lashings of misery!

Stone Cold (Penguin), Robert Swindells

"So you pick your spot. Wherever it is ... it's going to have a floor of stone, tile, concrete or brick". Link, 17 years old and driven from his home, has drifted to London, jobless and homeless. The only light on his horizon is Deb, a homeless girl, but, taking shelter in a mysterious stranger's home, they are closer to a gruesome danger than either of them realise.

Winner of the Carnegie Medal

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Penguin), Mark Twain

'You don't know about me, but that ain't no matter'. This is the classic story of a poor white boy in America's Deep South. To escape his brutal father he runs away with a slave boy, and their journey down the Mississippi is one of courage, hope and danger...