What Are You Looking For?

A fast-moving historical fantasy that places a child and a growing phoenix inside the Great Fire of London. Maps, historical events and an imagined creature create an adventurous route through danger, trust and responsibility.

This is a socially engaged Manchester story about three Black teenagers whose lives become connected after a stabbing. Its central interest lies in contrasting viewpoints, unequal experiences and the friendships formed in the aftermath.

This is a lively, comic adventure about identity, family and belonging. Film-making, mistaken identity and celebrity create the fun, while Rafa’s disrupted home life and concern for Cillian give the story a more serious emotional thread.

A gripping, humane mystery follows Ayrton, Stanley and Sen as family secrets bring them together. Its emotional centre is friendship: the three young people face very different pressures while trying to understand adults and their own identities.

A school-transition story about Frankie finding ways to join in, protect her privacy and build friendships through music, while facing sensory challenges and the return of a bully.

A story about facing prejudice while navigating family worries, friendship and uncertainty about identity. It combines painful school experiences with warmth, music, LGBTQ+ history and a hopeful sense of personal agency.

A vivid, culturally rooted coming-of-age novel about Sheba discovering power, heritage and responsibility while facing a threatening parent. It offers imaginative magic, close family care, friendship and an intimate portrayal of hair as connected with identity and inner life.

This is a high-stakes school thriller centred on a student’s planned revenge with an explosive device. Its central appeal is likely suspense, while its subject matter invites reflection on bullying and changed identity.

This is an emotionally attentive story about a child whose secluded woodland life is abruptly disrupted. It explores unfamiliar family relationships, different ways of experiencing the world, and the possibility of connection without requiring October to become someone else.

A vivid, music-centred coming-of-age story for readers interested in identity, friendship and emotional overload. Its energetic visual form may feel immersive, but the rapid, interrupted presentation can require sustained attention.

This is an imaginative, unsettling science-fiction story about cloned people, social control and the meaning of a ‘real’ life. Its strongest appeal is likely its unusual premise and willingness to leave difficult questions unresolved.

This is an emotionally serious friendship story rather than a straightforward adventure. Its imagined kingdom, school conflicts and family pressures lead into an unsoftened account of bereavement.

A witty, emotionally serious story about teenagers confronting illness, love and mortality. It combines an accessible prose style with grief, brief sex, some swearing, drinking and reflections on literature, fate and what makes a life matter.

This offers an atmospheric supernatural mystery centred on mortality, family loyalty and a young woman questioning restrictive social expectations. Its emotional appeal lies in Gothic tension, romance and Signa’s developing self-understanding.

A poetic supernatural romance centred on desire, identity and difficult choices. Immy’s love for Claudia is intertwined with blood hunger, recurring lives, past mistakes and the sustaining bonds among three vampires.

This is an intense retelling that gives a traditionally vilified woman an inner voice without excusing her actions. Its folklore, dark magic and shifting emotional perspective make the story morally complicated rather than comforting.

A family-change story told through Izzy’s worries about her father, school, friendships and shifting family roles. It offers a child-centred route into gender identity, loyalty and uncertainty, with conflict eventually moving towards greater understanding.

A warm set of everyday adventures about brothers whose activities include helping at home, spending time with friends, caring for family, and engaging with their local environment.

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.

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 warm, socially focused story about a child questioning expected crushes and trying to preserve friendships. It offers room to discuss belonging, queer self-discovery, honesty and the possibility that friendships can change without ending.

Birdie offers a historical story about a child seeking belonging after leaving care, set against racism and suspicion. Her friendship with Mr Duke, a pit pony, provides an important strand of connection and care.

A light fantasy adventure about dance and recovering a missing magical object, with Rachel, Kirsty and Jessica opposed by Jack Frost’s goblins. Its main appeal is likely the combination of movement, friendship and a simple quest.

A comic fantasy apprenticeship story becomes a tense encounter with an invisible mind-entering creature. Tiffany’s learning involves practical care, responsibility and confronting powerful influences, alongside magic, community conflict and imaginative humour.

A lively summer plan becomes a story about concealed feelings, friendship strain and learning to treat oneself with greater empathy. Disability, race and sexuality are central to Andrea’s life without being presented as obstacles to her belonging.

This is a tense family story about a young person’s alienation and a brother’s attempt to understand and help him. Its opening voice combines sharp humour with unease, while the wider direction involves extremism and possible self-destruction.

A comic vampire adventure about twins managing separate lives, school rules and mistaken identity. Expect playful fright imagery, a concert-related disguise, and confusion around Olivia’s efforts to dress like Ivy.

This is a wartime coming-of-age story about a young girl who forms a significant connection with a German prisoner who has escaped. It brings personal empathy, divided loyalties and family pain into a dangerous historical setting.

This is a family-centred story about a child whose behaviour and identity appear to change dramatically, and a brother who tries to understand what is happening while the household struggles.

This appears to be a comic space adventure centred on a penguin crew, exploration, rescues and a former comrade who becomes an opponent. A secret decision involving an egg introduces an unresolved complication.

This is a family-centred story about a young person confronting a parent’s substance addiction after military service. Its central tension lies between wanting recovery, preserving a close relationship and protecting Paige’s future plans.

A lively superhero adventure centres on a comic-loving boy whose brother gains powers. Its main appeal is the clash between Luke’s expertise, Zack’s new role and a world-threatening challenge.

Ari’s search for her origins combines a strong mystery with unsettling fantasy: a warning from her dead mother leads her towards New 2, where frightening creatures fear her and her own identity becomes the central puzzle.

This is a child-centred story about making sense of an unusual experience while navigating family beliefs, friendship and possible involvement in investigative work. Its central interest is Abby’s uncertainty about what her ability means.

This is an adventure about protection, loyalty and finding courage. Max’s journey is both physical and personal: he tries to help Rachel while questioning whether he can be “mighty” independently of Kevin.

A coming-of-age story about leaving a familiar place, falling in love, and facing painful change. Stephen’s compassion, humour and eventual movement towards self-acceptance are central to its emotional arc.

This is a family-centred historical story about confinement, freedom and feared inherited illness. Its child narrators place responsibility, secrecy and uncertainty inside a household shaped by Sarah’s distress and Patrick Henry’s public reputation.

Expect a lively superhero adventure balancing comic ideas with genuine peril: friendship, empathy and clever problem-solving sit alongside threats to Earth, altered history and an uncertain attempt to avert catastrophe.

A wartime story about a child seeking freedom and family after being kept indoors because of her twisted foot. Ada’s new life brings learning, trust and danger, while the possibility of returning to her mother remains unresolved.

A young protagonist’s attempt to leave his old life behind becomes a journey involving institutional care, companions, family estrangement and the possibility that escape cannot settle what remains unresolved.

A collection of short princess adventures centred on celebrations, dressing up, dreams, friendship and helping others. Its variety offers familiar fairy-tale situations alongside Tiana and Naveen’s frog transformation and Ariel’s rescue of a baby seal.

This is a supernatural story about helping others, beginning with a quiet girl whose family is affected by her brother’s illness. It combines school friendship, hidden identity and magical abilities, with trust tested by Aria’s secret.

A relationship-focused novel about three separated biological siblings negotiating adoption, foster care, pregnancy, family secrets and the question of where they belong.