What Are You Looking For?

This is an imaginative, issue-led adventure about environmental collapse, inequality and resistance, balanced by family loyalty and hope. Its vivid language may invite close discussion as much as straightforward plot-following.

A gripping wartime adventure built around an unlikely friendship. Robert and David’s shared displacement creates empathy and emotional depth, while espionage, pursuit and cliffhangers provide momentum.

A playful, high-energy quest turns familiar ideas upside down. Its central appeal is the combination of gaming-style adventure, colourful illustrations, unusual allies and a clear goal: return to the real world.

This is a lively choice for a child who enjoys mischief, silly bodily humour and action. Its Viking setting, school episodes and group problem-solving provide variety, while the short, episodic structure can support shared reading or growing independence.

This is a light, observant story about a child trying to understand a parent’s changed life. Its humour comes through the gap between the dad imagined by the child and the dad seen at home.

A gentle read-aloud about children whose lives may look different but who share feelings and everyday experiences. It pairs direct, simple wording with colourful paintings that invite children to look closely.

This is a warm read-aloud about a child who can be lively, quiet, bold, cuddly, imaginative or unsure. Its central reassurance is that individuality can include seeming contradictions.

This is a gentle, realistic story about a child negotiating identity and belonging after moving countries. It offers a clear starting point for discussing names, pronunciation, welcome and cultural pride.

This is a survival adventure centred on resilience, resourcefulness, grief and connection with nature. Karana's growing self-sufficiency drives the story, while her isolation and the treatment of Indigenous characters add weight beyond the adventure.

This is a practical, illustrated guide that treats survival broadly: outdoor preparation and emergencies sit alongside city safety and online risks. Its appeal lies in actionable scenarios, visual references and concise sections rather than a continuous story.

A sweeping fantasy sequel about friends divided by danger and prejudice, with witches, magic, political responsibility and a developing romance. It offers an immersive world, tense escapes and battles, while leaving parts of the journey open for a later book.

Expect a gradual plot, military conflict, monsters, magic and questions about whether unity can challenge oppression.

This is an ocean fantasy about two siblings seeking their vanished father while discovering a second world and a changing connection to the sea. Mystery, magic and family feeling drive the adventure.

This is a fast-moving historical heist about a teenager challenging wealthy and powerful rulers. Its appeal lies in the team’s contrasting abilities, disguises and audacious objective, but the story also contains substantial violence and references to sexual violence.

This is a coming-of-age story about what money appears to make possible, and what it may cost. Penny’s circumstances invite attention to poverty, social treatment, identity and the difference between happiness and wealth.

A lively comic story about ambition, family pressures and unexpected fame. Kamari’s attempts to make money lead to trouble, while a mistaken musical identity creates a sustained question about honesty and responsibility.

What Type Of Family Are We? is presented as a short book about modern families, told through a child’s eyes. Its central invitation appears to be noticing that families can take different forms.

This offers a gentle, imaginative way into questions about origins, adoption, belonging and family. Its woodland journey, animal encounters and illustrated fairytale atmosphere may invite close shared reading.

A gentle adoption story centred on Mia’s questions about family resemblance and her mixed feelings. It can open discussion of belonging without requiring every part of a child’s own experience to match Mia’s.

This is a warm, repetitive read about a child making sense of her family story. It offers an adoption narrative framed through loving recollection, with comic visual details alongside tender family moments.

A quiet, participatory family story in which closeness is conveyed through shared routines rather than explanation. The sparse text and cropped illustrations invite a child and adult to notice details and create spoken stories together.

This is an atmospheric, dark fantasy centred on a distinctive card-based magic system and Elspeth’s uneasy relationship with the Nightmare. Romance develops alongside political conflict rather than replacing the fantasy plot.

This is an identity-and-belonging fantasy in which girls marked as impure are drawn into military training and conflict. It combines a supportive friendship group with questions about power, gender and social judgement.

This is an action-led fantasy about a trans teen navigating a dangerous divine competition, with friendship and social inequality at its centre. Its imaginative mythology and representation may appeal, while the sacrifice premise and sustained peril make the emotional stakes substantial.

A high-stakes fantasy about two sisters whose loyalty is tested by liberation, empire, dragons and divine power. Expect complex political and family tensions alongside action, sacrifice and questions about who deserves protection.

A magical historical-fantasy adventure about identity, family and friendship, with mysteries uncovered through flashbacks. Expect spells, Fairyland, talking animals, shapeshifting and a curse rather than a realistic everyday setting.

This is a fast-moving fantasy adventure centred on a fierce, guarded heroine. Expect a dangerous rescue journey, strange creatures, corrupted magic and evolving friendships, alongside a serious exploration of loss, guilt and anger.

A lively fantasy mystery for readers who enjoy hidden worlds, supernatural beings, competition and surprises. Its emotional centre is Amari’s search for her brother and her movement from feeling like an outsider towards recognising her strengths.

This is a warm, mystery-led story about wanting to belong while pursuing an unusual ambition. Its seaside setting, humour, family secrets and theme of self-acceptance may particularly suit readers drawn to determined protagonists and magical possibilities.

A thoughtful picture book built around one question: different family members offer different answers, while Henry searches for an answer he can grasp. Its colourful illustrations and unusual page orientation invite looking as well as listening.

A gentle, fantastical story about a statue searching for a place where she feels important and accepted, then discovering the warmth of familiar community. City scenes and animal characters support the emotional journey.

This is an imaginative adventure combining friendship, mystery and a robot with a society changed by water scarcity. It also gives sustained attention to Auden’s experience of achromatopsia and his changing relationship with that difference.

This is a mystery about belonging, family secrets and the search for truth, shaped by shifting timelines and repeated discoveries. It offers suspense through Pearl’s growing uncertainty about her identity and relationships.

A clue-driven mystery set among gifted students, pairing investigation with questions about grief, friendship and the human cost of treating crime as an intellectual puzzle.

Expect a darkly funny, morally complicated fantasy heist: Elle rebuilds her crew to pursue a seemingly impossible rescue from the Afterlife while translating a mysterious manuscript and avoiding powerful syndicates.

A tense story about girls seeking safety and belonging under Sol’s control. As new relationships and demands unsettle the cabin, the book follows questions of loyalty, selfhood, survival and whether protection can become coercion.

This is a dark, twist-led mystery about a young woman living under the shadow of a notorious parent. Its main appeal is likely the unfolding investigation and uncertainty about Ryan’s identity and knowledge.

A dark, emotionally charged YA mystery about first love, bereavement and unanswered questions. Its alternating timelines gradually reveal what happened, while Dylan’s investigation tests his understanding of Ellis and the people around him.

This is an emotionally candid memoir about depression, coming out and survival. It offers a first-person account of painful experiences alongside reflection on identity, social messages, relationships, memory and the gradual work of finding self-acceptance.

This is a fast-moving, illustrated adventure about a vulnerable robot trying to recover its past and return to Beth. Friendship, fear, memory and the treatment of discarded things sit alongside danger and humour.

Expect a large-scale space adventure with mythic elements, unusual worlds and questions about identity. The illustrations are an important part of the experience, adding atmosphere rather than simply depicting events.

Expect inventive comic mishaps, misunderstandings and an eccentric central character rather than a serious science story. The humour often comes from failed inventions and Branestawm’s difficulty with everyday social situations.

This is a fantasy adventure about a young witch who loves robots, enters the City seeking robotics education, and confronts a secret threatening the balance between magic and technology.

A tense, contemporary tech thriller about wanting recognition and discovering that helpful technology can take influence too far. It offers a clear springboard for discussing online choices and personal control.

A grief-centred mystery about the gap between a person’s private self and online persona, combining emotional recovery with questions about what digital traces can reveal—or conceal.