100 books like The Breadwinner

Twelve-year-old Emmaline and her mother are desperate for help with their farm and agree to take on Angus who has just been released from a hospital for patients with mental illness. At first they have the same fears and prejudice as people in town, but they come to learn that Angus is gentle and extremely knowledgeable. Thanks to him they have the best crop they’ve ever had. The most heroic point in the story is when one of the locals, Harry Record, leaves Angus far from town during a snowstorm with the expectation he will die. But as Angus struggles for safety he finds Harry’s little boy who was accidentally stranded in the storm and near death and gets him to the hospital in time to save his life. 

Quote: "That man is from the mental, stay away from him." 

This book was lovely to read because it was written… show more.

When it comes to unforgettable protagonists fifteen-year-old Starr Carter definitely tops the list. Her father, Maverick, is also someone that I was left wanting to know more about and, luckily, Concrete Rose (Thomas’s follow-up to THUG), gives us the backstory to his life.

The Hate U Give details Starr’s journey as she struggles with deciding whether or not to testify in front of a grand jury after her best friend, Khalil, is killed by a police officer. The settings of the novel are critical to Starr’s inner conflict as she grapples with having to navigate between her home in Garden Heights, a tight-knit but underserved community where the lack of good schools and employment opportunities allows gangs and gun violence to flourish, and the wealthy neighbourhood where she attends private school.

Before I read this book, in the 1990s, I had never heard of Canada’s residential school system for Indigenous children. I was horrified, and also ashamed to have been so ignorant. Over the years, I have heard many Indigenous authors speak and have read many books on the subject, and have come to realize that the residential school tragedy is parallel to the Holocaust for Jews—my family’s story. This is the book that opened my eyes.

As both a reader and a writer, I seem to be drawn to books about characters experiencing oppression and persecution, and drawing on inner reserves of courage and compassion to combat it. This book fits that description perfectly. I was on the edge of my seat following Hanneke as she works for the Dutch Resistance during World War II. I was left wondering: How do you find the bravery and determination to risk your own life in order to save someone else’s?

This book is creepy! When girls are sixteen they are sent away for a year, into the woods, to get rid of their ‘magic’. It is called their Grace Year, and it is very extreme, and nothing fun about it. This story has a creepy atmosphere, and creepy old men trying to choose their innocent teenage brides (if those brides make it back from the journey!). There are some sick and twisted death scenes, and romance, which of course I love a little romance in all the creepy stories I read.

First of all, if you go into this book expecting a slasher story, you’ll be disappointed. While its characters are rooted in the horror genre, the story focuses more on thriller until its final act. However, the best thing about the book is its character development with its main character and the other Final Girls. While the plot collapses in on itself every so often, the character work keeps it afloat and provides the suspense to make the reader scared.

I love thrilling action books, especially zombie ones, that feature a strong female heroine. The more believable they are as an everyday woman and not some CIA agent superhero the better! Turbulent delivered on this and more. I loved the main character and her survival in this post-apocalyptic world was extremely believable. I also loved the twist that technology helped to bring us down because that’s something I have a real fear of, so it made it all the scarier for me. The topping on the rotting cake that tipped this book into my favorites pile was that the story was set in Chicago, near where I live and where most of my books take place as well. It really brought the story home for me (pardon the pun).

I picked this novel because, for lack of a better phrase, it’s too real. In an entirely believable and horrifying future lies Silicon Isle, an island made of trash. It’s where the world dumps all its electronic waste, for generations of poor, marginalized people to sort through, while pollutants make the tiny world they call home uninhabitable and hostile.

It also happens to be where a powerful biological weapon is hidden, unknowingly discovered by Mimi, one of the novel’s protagonists. It transforms her. Class disparities come to the fore, leading to revolution. This is classic cyberpunk, refreshingly set in a future outside the UK/ US, translated from the original Chinese by Ken Liu.

There is nothing more fun than a rag-tag group of kids living in a tree house and battling monsters, zombies, and whatever else bleeds into their dimension.

Max Brallier does an amazing job of tapping into a middle grader’s pituitary. What he squeezes out is a thrilling and hilarious roller-coaster of an adventure. Just writing this makes me want to take the ride all over again. And I didn’t even mention the art yet either.

Douglas Holgate draws monsters so cool, that they are often drool inducing. Seriously. Do a Google search if you don’t believe me.

Flesh has it all – zombies, characters who come alive on the page, romance that sizzles, and action to keep the suspense going. Ali, Daniel, and Fin have to discover how to deal with each other as their relationship develops, while at the same time battling zombies and other survivors to reach safety. They learn to fight for each other, make sacrifices they would never have imagined in their old lives, and love like they would never have believed possible. The key to it all is the trust they develop in each other which forms a team that nothing can break.