The First Martian

Lucas is an alien. He was the first human to be born on Mars. He has been brought home to Earth, but school feels more alien to him than Mars did. Lucas stands out. He has to wear a special suit in order to get around under Earth's gravity. His two best friends are the only people who don't treat him like an outsider. Until one day...

Teen Reads are visually appealing and age-appropriate for struggling teenage readers, helping to develop confidence and foster an interest in reading, whilst bridging the gap between more specialised books and full-length novels. The complete collection of 46 books has characters diverse in gender, sexuality, ethnicity and background to ensure they are relatable to a wide range of readers. Themes vary from horror and the supernatural to sci-fi, crime, adventure, family breakdown, relationships and moral conflicts. These books are accessible and appealing in equal measure, and have content to suit many different tastes.

This hi-lo series for struggling and reluctant readers has been written for children aged between 12 and 15 years, whose current reading age is between 8 and 9 years. These age-appropriate short reads range from 46 to 120 pages and are written by accomplished authors writing stories with relatable characters. They incorporate a large font size and text separated into bite-sized chunks, along with carefully considered letter and paragraph spacing that can reduce visual stress. The series has plenty of practice at one level, allowing consolidation of learning before moving on to more challenging reads.