What Are You Looking For?

This is a gentle family story about adapting to hearing loss without losing closeness. Jacki and her mother use sign language, while Jacki discovers that music can also be shared through vibration, movement and visual communication.

A relationship-focused coming-of-age story about queer identity, family and friendship. It offers several queer perspectives and a strong fandom element, while allowing characters to hurt one another, argue, forgive and change.

This is character-led contemporary fiction centred on two care-experienced young men. It explores how they manage trauma, vulnerability and change without necessarily resolving their past, while keeping a strong sense of place and emotional warmth.

A gentle story about a child who is upset but not ready to talk, using a woodland walk to explore hidden feelings, shared understanding and the difference between appearances and inner experience.

A warm but potentially poignant story about a boy, a dog and a strained parent-child relationship. Its central appeal is the bond between Rhys and Worthington, alongside questions about responsibility, honesty and adapting to change.

Expect a tense American road story combining mystery and crime with themes of inner strength, self-confidence and personal growth. Jessie and Brooke’s changing relationship is central, with music and cassette tapes forming a recurring creative feature of their journey.

A small-town début novel that has been recognised for honest, authentic treatment of important themes.

Expect an energetic treasure-hunt adventure involving tunnels, caves, ruins, a hidden weapon and suspected betrayal. Its central appeal is discovery under pressure, with Tom’s street-smarts and his friends’ trust tested as the expedition unfolds.

Seed combines family difficulty and bullying with magical gardening, an unlikely adventure, friendship and dreams of escape. Its emotional material is presented alongside humour, wonder and suspense rather than as a purely realistic story.

This is a tense, fast-moving thriller about displacement, family separation and moral risk. Its speculative time ability creates repeated escape possibilities, while Alex’s search for safety and his father keeps the human stakes central.

A character-led coming-of-age story about an autistic teenager navigating friendship, secrecy, school life and disruption to routine. Its central appeal is Phoebe’s perspective and the changing demands placed on her relationships.

This is a contemporary YA novel about students resisting school book bans. It combines activism and community conflict with Noor’s relocation, family strain, Muslim identity, friendship, grief and tentative romantic feelings.

This is a school-based story about a quiet pupil whose achievement brings unexpected visibility. Its central interest is the tension between being encouraged to speak up and retaining the right to be yourself.

Expect a humorous adventure shaped by Benji’s determination to help his uncle, alongside more tender material about his parents and the possibility of family change.

This looks like a monster-themed read involving Mis Mary-Kate Martin and the Woolington Worm.

A young elephant wants to join a lifeboat crew, but his size appears to prevent this. When a storm puts the crew in trouble, Gabriel may be able to help, creating a story about belonging, courage and finding a way to contribute.

This is a child-centred story about an autistic protagonist who actively tackles problems, considers solutions and uses coping strategies, presented as a joyful variation on a traditional tale.

A small whale who keeps to himself finds purpose through friendship and action when his brother is in danger. The lively rhyme and colourful sea imagery frame a reassuring story about courage that is not measured by size.

A wartime adventure about loyalty and protection: Ronnie is troubled by his brother’s secret work for dangerous people, while bombs fall on London and the boys face choices about whom to trust.

This is an imaginative family-and-adventure story about how feelings, books and language can shape relationships. Its fantasy premise sits alongside a contemporary refugee storyline, offering both playful invention and social questions.

This is a thoughtful story about a child carrying adult responsibilities who finds friendship, creativity and adventure while visiting Italy. An injured otter and the people Jakub meets help broaden his sense of who he is.

Its placement in a children’s 3–6+ longlist indicates that it was considered within that category, but nothing here reveals what Colin’s Castle is about or how its story is told.

A fast-moving environmental dystopian adventure about polluted air, family survival, invention and corporate control. Sparrow and Miriam face a powerful opponent while trying to make clean air available beyond one supplier.

A lively coming-of-age romance about a confident, self-styled teenager whose plans for finding a boyfriend meet the complications of attraction, theatre and changing friendships.

This is a story-led introduction to donor conception, donor siblings and varied family structures, alongside friendship and self-acceptance.

A survival adventure built around two sisters, a forbidden rewilded landscape and the challenge of finding a route home. Its imagined future also brings together wildlife, environmental change and questions about human access to nature.

A lively school-camp adventure centres on friendship, frightening folklore and a difficult peer relationship.

This offers a warm, determined story about rebuilding ordinary life after major change, with humour, friendship and family alongside frustration, social hurt and physical setbacks. Its central challenge is adjustment, not simply achievement.

This is an adventurous nature-centred novel about Orla’s investigation into a disease damaging plants and harming people. It combines magical plant knowledge, travel, friendship and questions about how people can work towards a common good.

This is an immersive fantasy adventure in which a rejected boy is drawn into unicorn riding, dangerous magic and a threat to the wider community. Alongside suspense, it explores grief, disappointment, friendship, loyalty and the search for belonging.

This appears to be a character-led story combining songwriting with questions of identity and belonging. Its distinctive musical element may invite readers to experience Ellie’s creativity as well as read about it.

A spirited magical adventure about a girl pursuing family answers, learning witchcraft and building friendships in Hedgely. Expect a picturesque but spooky setting, folklore-inspired creatures, exciting escapes and a heroine whose courage develops unevenly.

Choose this for a child who enjoys immersive fantasy quests, invented creatures, game-like challenges and a determined protagonist whose family and friendships matter as much as the adventure.

Choose this for a reader interested in imaginative settings, flying ships and questions about identity, power and freedom.

A warm, imaginative school mystery combining animal shapeshifting with friendship, sensory overwhelm and family pressures. Alice’s investigation offers adventure while bringing several pupils’ struggles with belonging into the story.

A tender coming-of-age story about coping with family change, mental ill-health and school upheaval. Magic, mystery and friendship give Phyll ways to explore belief, choice and the possibility of making a new beginning.

This is a spooky, emotionally charged mystery with a determined heroine, supernatural elements and a strong justice thread. It may suit readers who enjoy suspense while thinking about fairness, truth and growing up.

A serious, introspective time-loop novel about responsibility after a classmate’s death. Its repeated-day structure gives Spence opportunities to notice harm, question his loyalties and reconsider how he treats people around him.

A spirited story about boxing, loyalty and making sense of difficult circumstances. Molly’s investigation brings mystery and emotional pressure together, while the verse-and-prose form gives her voice a distinctive, place-rooted rhythm.

A strong choice for readers drawn to atmospheric fantasy, folklore and friendships tested by danger. Its Welsh setting, farming life and translated Welsh dialogue give the adventure a distinctive cultural texture.

This is an imaginative fantasy adventure about a child pursuing answers about her family in a magical plant world. It offers lively action, inventive world-building and clear conservation themes, while also introducing peril, hostility and loss.

This is a children’s debut novel by Emily Randall-Jones, recognised on the 2024 Branford Boase Award longlist.

This is a socially focused YA novel about racism, Muslim identity and belonging, balancing painful conflict with family, friendship, faith and Somali community. Its central movement is from enforced quietness towards speaking up.

A tense wartime adventure about a young Muslim protagonist whose family and community face Nazi occupation. Safiyyah undertakes dangerous errands, while the mosque becomes a place of sanctuary for persecuted Jewish people.

This is a romance shaped by disability, bereavement and online friendship. Chess lets Juliet and Ronan reveal different parts of themselves, while the wider cast reinforces the idea that appearances can conceal difficult experiences.