Recommended English-language Books lists

Ten-year-old India Opal Buloni describes her first summer in the town of Naomi, Florida, and all the good things that happen to her because of her big ugly dog Winn-Dixie.

Albert, Carrie and young Nick are war-time evacuees whose lives get so tangled up with the people they've come to live among that the war and their real families seem to belong to another world.
Carrie and Nick are billeted in Wales with old Mr Evans, who is so mean and cold, and his timid mouse of a sister, Lou, who suddenly starts having secrets. Their friend Albert is luckier, living in Druid's Bottom with warm-hearted Hepzibah Green and the strange Mister Johnny, who can talk to animals but not to human beings. Carrie and Nick visit him there whenever they can for Hepzibah makes life exciting and enticing with her stories and delicious cooking. Gradually they begin to feel more at ease in their war-time home, but then, in trying to heal the rift between Mr Evans and his estranged sister, and save Druid's Bottom, Carrie does a terrible thing which is to haunt her for years to come. Carrie revisits Wales as an adult and tells the story to her own children.

When Michael's parents lose their jobs, they buy a boat and decide to sail around the world with their son and their beloved dog. It's an ideal trip - until Michael is swept overboard. He's washed up on an island, where he struggles to survive. Then he discovers that he's not alone. His fellow-castaway, Kensuke, keeps his distance at first. But when Michael's life is threatened, he slowly lets the boy into his world. The two teach and learn from each other until, inevitably, they must part ways.

Little Wolf has been behaving too courteously, so he has been kicked out of the family lair in order to be made bad at his uncle's Cunning College where badges are awarded for wicked ways and dirty deeds.

The novel is set in Widnes, England, in the near future, just as the euro is about to replace the pound sterling. Damian and Anthony are two brothers who have recently suffered the loss of their mother. Because of this tragedy, Damian becomes obsessed with saints and eventually hallucinates about them. When brothers Damian and Anthony unwittingly come into possession of the proceeds of a train robbery, they find themselves with millions of pounds to spend in the next 17 days before the currency change. Damian believes the money comes from God and should be spent to do good, but Anthony has different ideas. Meanwhile, the robbers are looking for their money...