The Lions' Run by Sara Pennypacker illustrated by Jon Klassen

Compassionate and complex. Kirkus Star review

Occupied France, 1944. Lucas Dubois lives in an abbey orphanage. There are rule and constraints but Lucas has some freedom because he works as a delivery boy for a local town greengrocer. Once his deliveries are completed he can enjoy a little free time and some fishing but on this day he sees two of the older orphanage boys stuffing some kittens into a sack. 

"When Marcel cinched the sack, Lucas squeezed his eyes shut. There was nothing he could do, either. Two against one; the two known to relish brawls. Lucas famous for running from them."

But not this time. Lucas follows the boys the bridge. He desperately tries to bargain with these bullies and hands over his precious fishing lure "but Claude didn't hand over the sack. He swung it out toward the canal and let go. Then both boys ran off laughing."

Perhaps all is not lost. Lucas grabs the bag and yes he saves all but one kitten but what will he do with the five that are left? There is an abandoned stable up in the hills above the town. To get there he has to ride past the Nazi maternity home - this is a place he visits regularly with his deliveries. On arrival at the stable Lucas makes an amazing, and life-changing, discovery. There is a horse in the stable and a girl. Alice is hiding her racehorse because:

"The Germans issued orders ... All healthy horses are to be seized for the war effort. They don't mean the racing horses still here - the Germans love their horse facing too much. But Bia doesn't race, so they would take her. They would probably use her to move artillery in Poland where the roads are gone until she was wounded or dropped dead of exhaustion. Then the soldiers would eat her."

The lives of these two kids in occupied France now collide. Lucas needs help to keep the kittens alive and safe; Alice needs Lucas to keep Bia, her horse, a secret; and then there is the further twist when Lucas steps in to help the local resistance movement helping Mme Garnier headhouse keeper at Lebensborn. 

"Lucas lay wide awake that night. Beneath his pillow was a slip of paper Mme Garnier had dropped. She had been so afraid of those Germans discovering this paper that it could mean only one thing: She was in the Resistance and it was a secret message."

As expected, this all puts Lucas in grave danger - this tension will keep you turning the pages of The Lions' Run desperately hoping Lucas, Alice, Bia and those kittens will all survive. Do NOT flip to the end of the book - the ending you will arrive at is unexpected and more.

This is the second book where I have read about the Lebensborn.

"to be accepted, the pregnant girls must pass all these tests. Not just blue eyes and blonde hair. They measure their heads, they measure the space between their eyes, everything. It's called 'Aryan,' what they're breeding for. Some with the men, the fathers ... Two blonde parents are most likely going to have blonde children."

Adding to all the complexities of this story - Lucas meets and talks with Clare, one of the young pregnant girls. As an orphan himself he is so dismayed when he hears that her baby will be taken away and she will never see him again. 

This immersive story is driven by Lucas’ emotional yearnings and the sometimes complicated relationships among the well-drawn characters, ... the history and the specific setting are accurate and carefully delineated, creating a strong sense of place. Kirkus Star review

... this a book the reader won’t be able to put down. Historical Novel Society

Pennypacker’s tale feels both relevant and necessary. She captures the idea that bravery doesn’t always look grand or heroic; sometimes it’s found in the smallest, most private choices. A Book a Week

Please read this interview of Sara Pennypacker by Betsy Bird. The Lions' run is available in hardcover for a really good price here in Australia (shop around I've seen this book between AUS$18 and AUS$25) so I highly recommend you add this book to your library collection. The cover by Jon Klassen is perfect - you need to stretch it out to see the front and back images together. Listen to an audio sample of Chapter 5 and you can read chapters one and two here.

There are so many books for readers aged 10+ about aspects of World War II but I highly recommend you consider adding this one to your school library. The story is a powerful one and yet also very personal. Lucas is an orphan and this drives his desire to firstly help the kittens and later the baby. Alice is wise beyond her years and a character to cherish. The important work of the resistance is woven into this story and this adds a very real layer of tension. (Click the label Resistance Fighters at the bottom of this post to find other books that explore the heroism of people who worked so hard to thwart the enemy). 

Companion books:

Waiting for the Storks

All the Beautiful Things

Faceless

Birdie

I am a huge fan of Sara Pennypacker.

Pax; Pax: The Journey Home

Summer of the Gypsy Moths

Leeva at Last

Sparrow Girl

The Ash House by Angharad Walker

He had been expecting a healing refuge for children like him. Something between a school and a summer camp. But this wasn’t it. The Ash House was like the end of a world that had been left to decay, forgotten by everyone who had ever cared about it.

Sol (Solitude) has been in hospital. He has a mystery illness that leaves him wracked with pain and it is so severe he falls to the ground unconscious. As this book opens Sol has been taken out of the hospital to the strange Ash House. There he meets a group of children - boys and girls - with names that strangely link with their ethos of kindness. There are no adults, but the children talk about The Headmaster. He has been absent for three years but each day, until now, he communicates via a telephone, with instructions for the children. Their days are filled with routines of preparing food, cleaning, washing, and feeding three monstrous creatures called Shucks that live under ash house. 

The sky is empty of birds but the children have never seen real birds so they name the drones that constantly monitor them - birds. Sol has lived in the outside world - he knows so much more about life than these strange kids. It seems impossible that Sol will make any friends here and even more impossible that this place can cure his illness. But Dom (short for Freedom) is determined to have Sol as a friend and then the doctor arrives with the promise of a cure for Sol - but can he be trusted?

Bookseller blurb: A new boy arrives at the Ash House. He can't remember his name or why he's been sent there. Given the name Sol, and troubled by a mystery pain that no medicine can cure, he joins the gang of children living in the shadows of the secretive house. Soon, however, there's more for him to face: the darkness that descends with the arrival of the Doctor...

I never seek out horror stories, but I belong to an online Middle Grade book group and, because it is nearly Halloween, The Ash House was our assigned reading for October. The Ash House is from the UK publisher Chicken House. They relate this book to Lord of the Flies; and Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. These are both books that make me shudder and if I had read that before picking up this book I might not have ventured further. Strangely though, I really loved the open ending so reading this book was well worth the harrowing journey. 

Here are some text quotes to give you a flavour of this book:

He had been expecting a healing refuge for children like him. Something between a school and a summer camp. But this wasn’t it. The Ash House was like the end of a world that had been left to decay, forgotten by everyone who had ever cared about it.

‘So . . . there aren’t any adults here? No teachers or parents or anyone? Just us?’ ‘Par-ents,’ Libby sounded out the word. Heads tilted to one side. ‘You don’t have parents?’ ‘What are parents?’ Dom asked. Sol looked scared, suddenly, which Dom thought was strange. His green eyes were wide and worried, and his voice became high-pitched as he tried to explain: ‘Parents – your mums and dads? The people who made you and raise you and look after you!’

Nobody saw the Doctor arrive. His car was black and shining and didn’t have number plates. The children gathered around it and looked at their stretched, alien faces reflected in its glossy metal. Stray flakes of ash were already settling on its roof.

‘You will not question my decisions!’ the Doctor thundered over the outcry. Silence fell again and he continued at a normal volume: ‘How dare you come into the Ash House at night? How dare any of you go upstairs into the Headmaster’s study, and tamper with his documents? No punishment is enough. But I must try to make you all understand the severity of what you’ve done. You’ll face the Shucks, all of you, one by one.

The idea of names matched with this ethos of kindness is an intriguing one. Concord (Con); Happiness and Temperance; Liberty (Libby); Justice and Merit; and the mysterious missing girl Clemency.

Disturbing scenes (spoiler alert):

• the burial of the dead pig and then Sol is placed in the hole with the pig and he cannot climb out.
• when Sol wakes up and he cannot move his legs - what has this 'doctor' done to him?
• the night the doctor discovers someone has been in the headmaster's study.

An unexpected—and pleasing—combination of propitious and disquieting. Kirkus Star review

The Ash House is a vivid and rich read, full of well rounded and complex characters. Each child has their own voice and it is easy to fall into the world that Walker has built. Wound around the striking imagery and fantasy elements of the story are a number of themes including the power of friendship, physical and mental illness and disability and the importance of critical thinking. The Book Bag

It's an incredibly vivid story, the sort with lots and lots of description that is so well integrated into the story that you don't really register why your mind is making such clear pictures. It's a suspenseful mystery, as the reader, along with Sol, tries to figure out what's happening. ... It's also the story of a group of children taking their survival into their own hands, and desperately trying to keep their community together, and I cared about them lots by the end of the story! Charlotte's Library

You can read an extract from The Ash House here. Angharad talks about her book here. What do you think about the two covers - one from the UK and one from USA? I would recommend this book to mature readers aged 11+ who seek out horror stories. 

All through this book I kept thinking of this book I read many years ago:

The Lost Children

Criminal Destiny Masterminds Book 2 by Gordon Korman

The first installment ended on a cliff hanger - actually they had driven over a cliff as the five, now four, kids managed their escape from Serenity. Today I read the second book in this series all in one gulp. I thoroughly enjoyed the premise and roller coaster ride of the first book but for my taste the second spent a bit too much time on recapping book one. 

I do agree with Kirkus who said of book two: Oddly paced with little payoff, this sequel falls victim to middle-volume slump.

Later this week I will dip into book three and hope all of the crazy parts of this story are somehow resolved.

So, what has happened here. Some crazy scientists masquerading as parents have set up a perfect small town. Four of the kids have discovered the truth that they are actually clones and these people are not their parents and the kids themselves ARE the experiment. What is this experiment? Is criminality inherited or acquired? These kids are clones of very dangerous criminals. The town that has been raising them has kept them completely sheltered from the outside world. Even the sports they play have been selected because they don't contain violence. All internet information is also censored.

The kids have escaped after hatching an elaborate plan - they are all criminal masterminds after all. Now they need to expose what has happened AND try to secure the release of the other kids. They decide to track down the other scientist who was part of this project but pulled out. She is a mega rich lady living several hundred miles away. They do reach her, but she won't help although luckily she does give them some money. Next the kids decide to track down one of the criminals. In a crazy scene they head back to Serenity, discover it is deserted, the find a list of their clone 'parents' in the trashed factory and set off again in another stolen car - yes I told you these kids have criminal skills even though they are only 14. 

They do find the jail, they do find the prisoner, they also find their friend Hector who they thought had died during their original getaway but of course in this roller coaster thriller nothing goes completely to plan. AND yes book two ends on another cliff hanger although this time it is not a cliff thank goodness. You can see the ending of book two from the scene on the cover!

Read more here on the author page. Here is the trailer:

This series is great for the phase between reading middle grade and young adult, so if you're a fifth, sixth, or seventh grade, this will be very enjoyable.  Ponderings of a bibliophile

Cat-and-mouse chase scenes deliver the thrills as the kids try to keep half a step ahead of their pursuers, while the sheltered escapees’ rude introduction to the outside world is rife with comedic confusion, from discovering the joy of junk food to untangling the mysteries of idiom. Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

Masterminds by Gordon Korman

Korman is awesome. This book was not only exciting, but thought provoking as well. 

Definitely buying a copy and waiting avidly for the sequel! Ms Yingling

This town is very small. The parents either work at the plastics factory or work in the town as the teacher, doctor, mayor or as shopkeepers. The other group of men are security guards called the Surety. The kids call them Purple People Eaters.

As the story opens one of the kids named Randy convinces Eli (his father is the local doctor) to travel outside the town perimeter but as they reach the edge of town Eli becomes very unwell. Helicopters arrive and he his taken to hospital. Not long after this Randy is sent away but the reason does not sound feasible. Eli enlists the help of three other kids from the town - Malik, Tori and Hector. There is something strange about the factory which 'supposedly' makes plastic traffic cones. Who are these kids? What is really going on in that factory? Why did Eli get so sick? Surely there is something strange about the street names and even the local newspaper does not seem entirely trustworthy. Then Eli is somehow able to access the 'real' internet and so the kids begin to unravel a set of lies that will upset everything they think they know about their lives and families. 

Boy oh boy this book is a wild ride! I was totally engrossed from beginning to end following the lives of these four kids and the weird-sounding community where they live with the prophetic name of Serenity. I do need to warn you this is book one in a trilogy and the ending of book one is a cliffhanger - I plan to borrow book two from the library on my next visit. 

Blurb: Eli Frieden lives in the most perfect town in the world: Serenity, New Mexico. Everyone has a great house, with a pool. Money problems and crime are unheard of. Honesty and integrity are valued above all else. The thirty kids who live there never lie. They know it’s a short leap from that to the awful problems of other, less fortunate places. Eli has never left Serenity … until, one day, he bikes to the edge of the city limits and something so crazy and unexpected happens that it changes everything. Eli convinces his friends to help him investigate further, and it soon becomes clear that nothing is as it seems in Serenity. The clues mount to reveal a shocking discovery, linking their ideal community to some of the greatest criminal masterminds ever known.

This review has lots of plot details: This amazing book is perfectly paced, building in tension as Eli, Tory, Hector, and the other children discover the truth about their town and their lives, and as they try to figure out what they should do about the incredibly difficult situation they have been put in. The chapters alternate between the characters so that we get to see things through several different pairs of eyes, which gives us a wonderful insight into the feelings reactions of Eli and his friends. Readers will be eager to find out if children who have been living in a controlled environment all their lives will be able to truly be who they are. 

Companion book:

Eventown

Which cover do you like? I prefer the second one. This book was published in 2016 but it is still available. 

Here are the covers of books two and three:

Update: Here's my blog post about Criminal Destiny

Criminal Destiny: Follow Eli, Tori, Malik, and Amber as they try to discover the truth of their origins and carve a life for themselves in an outside world that is unfamiliar, baffling, and dangerous. But Project Osiris and its enforcers, the Purple People Eaters, are hot on their trail. They’re free for now. But for how long …? (Here is the review from Ms Yingling)

Payback: After a serious betrayal from one of their former friends, the clones of Project Osiris are on the run again. Now separated into pairs, Eli and Tori and Amber and Malik are fighting to survive in the real world. Amber and Malik track down the one person they think can help them prove the existence of Project Osiris, notorious mob boss Gus Alabaster, also known as Malik's DNA donor. But as Malik gets pulled into the criminal world-tantalized by hints of a real family-his actions put him and Amber into greater danger. Eli and Tori get sucked into even bigger conspiracies as they hunt down Project Osiris's most closely guarded secrets-who does Eli's DNA come from? With a surprising new ally and another cross-country adventure, the four will have to work together to overcome the worst parts of themselves if they are going to end Project Osiris once and for all. (Take a look at this review from Ms Yingling)

Gordon Korman writes thrilling stories that are sure to appeal to readers aged 10+. Years ago I read books from three of his trilogies - Island; Everest and Dive. Each of these have around 175 pages and are perfect for reluctant readers. Look for this one too:

The Unteachables

Song of a Thousand Seas by Zana Fraillon

Days are for watching listening playing planning but

nights are for adventure

Houdini the octopus is a girl but in the world of this book, which we see through her eyes, she refers to herself as we (due to the fact octopuses have nine brains).

Not Welcome

Our nine Octopus brains have a lot we'd like

to say to the Waves of People who

come every day to stare and gawk to

squeak and squawk to squeal to bang on our glass

we'd have a lot to say if only they

knew how to listen

The first thing we'd say is

GO AWAY!

Houdini lives in an aquarium. It is not large and I find that so awful:

We want to say that in the day we

do not hunt at all. The Sea is so very

big so very full but our tank is so

very small so

very empty.

Far too empty

for too small for

hunting.

Like being safe is all

that matters. Like a tank two arms long in

all directions is

any kind of Home. Like

the bubbles from the pump

are enough of an ebb and flow to make us happy

when we know

to be happy is to be free.

Her keeper (is that the right term) is named Paul. In fact I dislike that title keeper - and I am not a fan at all of animals in captivity so I come to this story with a high level of empathy and also quite a bit of rage. Have you twigged about the name Houdini - yes she is an escape artist and who can blame her. Octopuses are not meant to languish in an aquarium for our (human) viewing pleasure. She needs to get back into the ocean - think about the title - her heart needs to hear the song of a thousand seas. 

Luckily Houdini is very clever and yes she can escape but she also knows she has to be very careful of Paul because he is sure to 'fortify' her tank even more and then escape might be impossible. Then we discover Houdini has two human friends, Joe the cleaner and Juno, Paul's daughter, and they do have enough emotional intelligence and also enough understanding of the plight of animals in captivity to know Houdini needs her freedom. I think this is because Joe and Juno also have experienced pain. 

Every night Houdini tries to find her way to the pipes in the bathroom because they lead to the sea but she doesn't quite make it before she needs to be back in the water and so Joe carefully carries her back to her tank. As a reader I was holding my breath hoping that she would make it and be free again. 

Zana Fraillon is one of Australia’s most interesting writers for young children, experimenting with form and voice and offering layered and intelligent narratives. ‘Song of a Thousand Seas’ is a lyrical verse novel of homecoming and friendship focusing on Houdini the octopus who lives in an aquarium, but she misses her home in the wild sea. This is a thought provoking and compelling story ideal for readers aged 8-12, and a great read aloud for teachers. Paul Macdonald 

Here are some very detailed teachers notes.

Do you ever think about author names? I think the name Zana Fraillon is a perfect one for an author. It sounds exotic and mysterious to me. Also I am giving this cover by Aviva Reed top marks - it is fantastic. Australia is a relatively small country and yes I agree we do have some really good authors who write for children but there are a few that are way beyond just good - authors whose work can stand up with the very best in the world - one of those authors is Zana Fraillon. Make sure you pop this book onto your library shelves - the readers in our lives and libraries deserve to read the very best books and this is one of them.

You can see Zana Fraillon talking about her book on this video. Houdini was a real octopus - you must share this with the readers in your library. Thank you to University of Queensland Press (UQP) for sending an advance copy of Song of a Thousand Seas (due for publication 2nd September 2025)

LAUNCH - Song Of a Thousand Seas will be officially launched! Come join the wonderful @kmildenhall and me in conversation @readingskids in Carlton on Saturday the 6th of September from 2pm. There will be sea stones to decorate, awesome octopus tattoos, cupcakes and an octopus quiz with octopus prizes so be sure to brush up on all those octopus facts! All books signed will include the one of a kind ‘signature’ by the real Houdini. Tickets are free, but registrations are necessary.

I have talked about lots of verse novels here on this blog - click that search term on my sidebar.

Companion books:

My Friend the Octopus

Odder

The One and Only Ivan (look for the sequels too)

In 2018 Zana Fraillon's book The Bone Sparrow was our IBBY Australia Honour book title. This means her book goes into a very important international book catalogue and also becomes part of a travelling exhibition. 

Zana Fraillon is an internationally acclaimed, multi-award-winning author of books for children and young adults. Zana's books have won the Amnesty CILIP Honour Award, the ABIA Book of the Year for Older Children, the Readings YA Prize, NSW Premier's Literary Awards and the CBCA Honour Book Award. The Bone Sparrow was chosen as the biennial book to represent Australia for the International Board on Books for Young People. Zana was born and lives in Naarm (Melbourne) but spent her early childhood in San Francisco. She has degrees in history and teaching and is undertaking a PhD in Creative Writing at La Trobe University.

Other books I have talked about by Zana Fraillon:

The Way of Dog

A small collection of Happiness

This should be the CBCA Younger Readers Book of the Year 

but alas it didn't even make the notables list - I am still in shock about that.

The Raven's Song

Very young readers might also look for another book by Zana Fraillon called Etta and the Octopus illustrated by Andrew Joyner. 

Journey to the River Sea by Eva Ibbotson

15th Anniversary edition

This will just be a brief post because I have already talked about Journey to the River Sea back in January, 2012. I first read this book in about 2001 so reading it today means I have read this book three times - that is very unusual for me but in this case I do have a purpose.

Eva Ibbotson died in 2010. In June 2022, Emma Carroll published Escape to the River Sea - a book inspired by Journey to the River Sea. I am really keen to read this new book because I enjoyed many other books by Emma Carroll but it also seemed important to reacquaint myself with the original Amazon adventure first. Very luckily I spied Journey to the River Sea at a charity book sale for just $2. 

Blurb: In 1946, Rosa Sweetman, a young Kindertransport girl, is longing for her family to claim her. The war in Europe is over and she is the only child left at Westwood, a rambling country estate in the north of England, where she'd taken refuge seven years earlier. The arrival of a friend of the family, Yara Fielding, starts an adventure that will take Rosa deep into the lush beauty of the Amazon rainforest in search of jaguars, ancient giant sloths and somewhere to belong. What she finds is Yara’s lively, welcoming family on the banks of the river and, together, they face a danger greater than she could ever have imagined. Featuring places and characters known and loved by fans of Journey to the River Sea (including, among others, Maia, Finn, Miss Minton and Clovis) this spectacular story tells of the next generation and the growing threats to the Amazon rainforest that continue to this day.

Other Emma Carroll books I have read;

Letters from the Lighthouse

The week at World's End

In Darkling Wood

The Girl who Walked on Air

The Little Match Girl Strikes Back

Sky Chasers

The Ghost Garden

The idea of continuing or building on a classic book is an interesting one. Emma Carroll did her version of The Little Match girl.  Here are some other books that do this:

The Princess and the Suffragette

Return to the Secret Garden

The Magic Faraway Tree a new adventure

I am a huge fan of Eva Ibbotson. I loved One Dog and his Boy.

The Barnabus Project by The Fan Brothers

Deep under the city there is a sinister workshop where Perfect Pets are made. Sometimes the experiments go wrong and so, in a remote part of the laboratory, there are a series of bell jars holding the failures. Barbabus is one of the failures. 

"He was half mouse, half elephant, and he had lived in the lab as long as he could remember."

The failed pets are fed by huge scary creatures in green rubber suits. None of the "pets" have ever been outside the lab but a small cockroach tells them stories each evening of green spaces, mountains and stars. Barnabus longs to feel the grass under his feet. Barnabus lives by the credo:

"Nothing is impossible."

He is determined to escape and so he bashes into the side of his bell jar until in finally cracks under the pressure of his screams. Barnabus sets all the other Failed Projects free and they all set off to escape their underground prison. This process takes team work and hope but all twenty-two of them, plus one extra surprising friend, do find their freedom and that all important happy ending.

This is a story about identity, determination, teamwork, consumerism, and hopes and dreams.

This book was written for all the misfits, artists and dreamers out there. The Fan Brothers Facebook

Barnabus wonders:

"He wasn't fluffy enough, and his eyes were beady, but he liked himself just the way he was. And what if, after he was recycled, peanuts and cheese were no longer his favourite foods? What if his friends didn't recognise him after? What if he no longer cared about green trees and mountains lit with their own stars?"

When I first saw this in a local bookshop I knew I wanted to read it but the hardcover price was well above my book budget. Luckily this book is now available in paperback for well under AUS$20 which is wonderful for a larger format book with way more than 32 pages. This book should be added to every Primary school library - and shared widely with students and staff - it is fabulous!

The book design here is simply perfect. Take your time to linger over the front and back end papers, the title page and the final illustration on the author bio page. Think about the graph paper that is included and the paperclips. You can see inside this book here.  In this video (Moon Lane TV) you can see Eric drawing some of the characters. You could share this 19 minute video with an art class or a group of older students. And here is a video reading by Eric, Terry and Devin Fan. 

This epic tale of escape and liberation, set in a clandestine underground lab producing genetically engineered Perfect Pets, stars courageous Barnabus, half mouse, half elephant ...A heartfelt, timely allegory celebrating diversity, bravery, and solidarity.   Kirkus Star review

In the Fan brothers’ hands, the result feels like a happy amalgam of Jules Verne, Maurice Sendak, the Moomins, and Monsters, Inc. Quill and Quire

This book is a visual feast.  And the story? It is dream-like science fiction in picture book form. Jilanne Hoffmann

‘In a world built for Perfect Pets, half-mouse half-elephant Barnabus is a Failed Project who dreams of freedom. Shaun Tan meets “Toy Story”’ — The Bookseller

Awards:

• 2020 Governor General's Award for Young People’s Literature – Illustrated Books.
• The 2021 TD Canadian Children’s Literature Award.
• Nominated for the 2022 Kate Greenaway Medal.
• The 2021 Le Prix Ficelle, category age 6-7.
• 2021 Saskatchewan Young Readers’ Choice Awards, Shining Willow Award.
• 2020-2021 Maryland Black-Eyed Susan Award.
• 2021-2022 Vermont Red Clover Book Award.
• The 2022 Washington Children’s Choice Picture Book Award.
• The Surrey School’s Picture Book of the Year (for primary readers).
• A Kirkus “Best Books of 2020.”
• Chicago Public Library “Best Books of 2020.”
• 2021 Bologna Book Fair Finalist.

I just finished reading a novel for older readers -  They Threw us Away by Daniel Kraus. It was a harrowing book to read but it has a similar theme of rejected toys, identity, value and consumerism. Thankfully The Barnabus Project has a joyous happy ending. I need to read the two sequels to They Thew us Away in the hope this more complex senior novel also has a "they all lived happily ever after" conclusion. I will talk about They Threw us Away over the coming days. 

This book reminded me of The Adventures of Beekle. 

I guess you could link The Barnabus Project with the Toy Story movie series. I would also look for these:

Ruby and Little Joe

Who are you Stripy Horse?

Eight

Teddy & Co. 

If you are reading The Barbabus Project book with an older child try to find Boot which is also about a failed project - in this case a robot. 

Boot