What Are You Looking For?

A school hero whom classmates still regard as a nerd takes on a graffiti mystery, while protecting his secret identity and facing an attempt to shift blame onto him.

Tally’s pursuit of a musician tied to her family past leads her to Maddy and a love that unsettles her assumptions. Family secrets and questions of identity sit alongside friendship and supernatural elements.

A mythic adventure links a child’s changing identity with the recovery and sharing of light. The illustrated story also has an accompanying musical score on CD.

Expect a tense escape-and-journey story shaped by David’s guarded outlook. New sights and ordinary comforts become striking discoveries, while the threat of being caught shadows his encounters with people who may help him.

Catherine’s efforts to guide David sit alongside her wish for friendship and an ordinary life. New connections with Jason and Kristi bring her own choices into focus, prompting questions about difference and what it means to be normal.

A bleak but lyrical story about siblings navigating unstable care, homelessness and self-invention. Its poems bring attention to the dreams and difficulties of young people without secure homes.

At its centre is Pattyn’s search for where she belongs, as family ties, faith and her feelings about being loved come into question.

This is a romance shaped by a bid for stardom: Roxanne’s Hollywood prospects and her feelings pull in different directions. The book’s ending and the eventual outcome of her choices are unclear.

Expect a high-stakes fantasy conflict with shifting alliances, repeated attempts to stop Darquesse, and a focus on Valkyrie and Skulduggery’s bond.

This is a high-stakes story about sisters, secrecy and political power, centred on Frey’s struggle to protect Rafi while confronting a life shaped by someone else’s identity.

This is a turbulent story about a teenager facing legal consequences and a difficult choice involving a friend and an almost-boyfriend. Expect a plot that includes several crises and a fictional drug.

This is a coming-of-age fantasy about belonging and ambition, shaped by a martial-arts contest, a prophecy and a web of linked destinies.

A brisk period adventure combines pursuit and mystery with questions about identity and who gets to claim knowledge or power. London’s streets and scientific showmanship give the story a grubby, unsettling edge.

A verse-led coming-of-age story about the gap between Addie’s outspoken public self and her more vulnerable inner thoughts.

This is a high-stakes fantasy finale focused on loyalty, identity and difficult choices, with a continuing cast and world. It is not presented as a standalone story.

This illustrated family-history story traces Jewish roots through generations and connects them with African-American and Geechee heritage. A recurring Friday-night candle-lighting tradition remembers the family’s Jewish ancestry.

This is a spooky, folksy fantasy about two girls whose quarrel unleashes a graveyard full of angry ancestors. The story pairs that supernatural danger with questions of friendship, family history and finding a place to belong.

A historical story about a girl’s attachment to a Japanese doll during wartime, and the pressure to choose between that personal bond and national loyalty.

Louis is a bookish, sensitive boy in a world where physical toughness is prized. The novel examines how family and neighbourhood expectations shape his sense of himself, alongside his growing feelings for Ray Anthony.

A school popularity story that centres a well-liked girl rather than an outsider, and follows her as she takes on a leadership role.

This is a realistic school story in which harassment grows from insults and humiliation into physical attacks. Piddy also faces questions about identity and family, while trying to keep up with school and work.

This is a make-believe invitation to explore mermaid dress, homes and pastimes, with stories, sea scenes and a themed treat.

A colourful animal fable turns the difficulty of fitting into fixed categories into a story about finding belonging, then facing a choice about welcoming others.

This is a stark story about exploitation and a young person trying to find a way out. Its verse form also gives space to Angel’s reflections on words, identity and faith.

This is a school-and-social-life story with an environmental thread: Jessica's failing biology grade takes her to Panama and into conservation work. Her wish to keep her status meets the possibility of academic success and new friendships.

Expect an action-led dystopian story that asks what happens when a society sorts people into fixed groups. Identity and belonging sit beneath the suspense; a romance is also part of the plot.

The progress-report format brings you close to Charlie's changing perspective. His growing understanding is accompanied by loneliness and painful memories, so the story is not simply an uplifting account of scientific success.

Expect an intergenerational family story shaped by biblical parallels, with identity and love among its central concerns. Its tone is described as often brutal, so the emotional register may be intense.

This is a comic story about two boys whose efforts to influence their parents’ relationship bring together family upheaval, a school event and the boys’ own changing relationship.

This is a fantasy about recovering a lost identity and facing a choice between two worlds, framed by a quest to save Faerie and a threat to both realms.

This is a teen romantic comedy about trying to repair a relationship after a mistake, set in a school where gender and sexuality norms are unusually playful.

At its centre is an unlikely friendship that brings together two teenagers facing loneliness and change. Their lives involve family troubles, romantic relationships and the effort to imagine a future on their own terms.

This is a story of survival and a divided sense of self, set against Victorian London's criminal underworld. Cora's attempt to distance herself from her actions drives the central tension.

A queer teen romance about second chances, changing behaviour across social settings and the uncertainty of deciding whether to trust someone again.

This is a relationship and identity story set around wrestling. Jorge’s career ambitions, gay identity and first boyfriend come into conflict over the meaning and impact of his wrestling persona.

This is a mistaken-identity adventure built around two girls who look alike but lead very different lives. Their bargain launches the story into unfamiliar settings and comic-sounding complications.

A comic, mock-Victorian quest follows Solomon as he searches for the spoon left with him as a baby and for his birth parents, with two unusual companions.

The story combines a teenager’s discovery about her identity with fairy lore and a perilous journey. Aoife’s friendship with Shay becomes important as she tries to make sense of what is happening.

The collection offers a range of fictional adventures and everyday situations centred on disabled teenagers, with an explicit aim of moving beyond stereotyped portrayals.

A supernatural mystery follows Triss as she tries to understand why her memories and body feel changed, while uncovering secrets about her family and strange forces around them.

A mystery about Ella’s disrupted sense of self gives the story a strong psychological focus. The central pull is her effort to understand a reality that only she seems to question.

A humorous identity story that puts self-image and outside expectations at its centre, alongside the pain of grief and changing relationships.

A child’s moonlit transformation frames a poetic story about reaching for imagined possibilities while also encountering pain and loneliness.

Expect a playful historical adventure: a substitute teacher, his talking horse and students travel to the Mayflower and Plymouth Plantation to meet Pilgrims and observe their lives.

This is a supernatural school story centred on Beth’s wish to regain her life and the dangers surrounding the spread of vampirism. Its central conflicts involve killing and a boyfriend’s threat.

A family-centred comedy built around separated twins and mistaken identity. It may suit a reader interested in theatrical misunderstandings, though the available plot account leaves the events beyond the setup unclear.