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A portal-like magical shop gives Daniel a route from hardship into wonder, responsibility and danger. The story combines bullying, orphanhood, inventive fantasy and a clear save-the-Emporium quest, with creative possibilities beyond the plot.

A good choice for shared reading about family history, friendship and how the past shapes present relationships. Its historical strand offers substantial discussion, while the school setting gives children an immediate way into questions about belonging and courage.

Choose this for a reader who enjoys high-action horror, suspense, twists and science-fiction menace, and who may also appreciate friendship, teamwork and witty dialogue. It is designed to be creepy and exciting rather than calm.

Expect energetic visual comedy rather than realism: a previously weak baby becomes superstrong after eating avocado and uses that strength in increasingly surprising situations.

A humorous adventure about a reluctant child facing unfamiliar activities, social pressure and team expectations. Tim’s practical idea in a challenge suggests that contribution need not depend on sporting ability.

This offers a lively, personal story about cultural and family pressures, school belonging and wanting independence. Humour sits alongside increasingly serious material, so the emotional experience may change notably as Jo grows older.

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 illness-and-school story that gives Ross's anger a central role rather than presenting cancer only through hope or life lessons. Friendship, embarrassment, creativity and humour shape his efforts to retain an ordinary identity.

A warm but potentially emotionally charged story about a neurodivergent teenager responding to unfairness, protecting her sister and challenging a culture in which bullying can be enabled by silence.

A fast-moving Irish fantasy about protecting a magical world from destruction, combining folklore, adventure and danger. It offers an imaginative quest while bringing contemporary concerns, including bullying and climate change, into an ancient-myth setting.

This offers a poetic, character-led account of a young person facing anorexia and other mental-health difficulties, with attention to treatment, relationships, bullying and the possibility of accepting help.

This is an empathetic school story about an autistic girl navigating sensory overload, anxiety, bullying and friendship while deciding how openly to present herself. It offers recognition without promising an uncomplicated transformation.

A brisk environmental adventure about a reluctant visit becoming a relationship with a grandad, a local stream and its wildlife. Kyle’s growing responsibility gives the story an encouraging focus on courage, care and standing up for a place.

This is a school drama about disability prejudice, bullying and self-worth. Billy and Mia’s friendship provides a counterpoint to classmates’ treatment of Billy and to a football hero who proves disappointing.

A school mystery gives Alex and David a route into an uneasy friendship. The story looks closely at how fear, peer pressure and self-protection shape choices, while using the Icarus idea to frame risk, hope and possible escape.

A practical, activity-led exploration of digital wellbeing: readers are invited to examine screen habits, manage distractions, stay safer online and make room for relationships and activities beyond devices.

This is an energetic, funny and sometimes unsettling portrait of childhood, told through Paddy’s immediate perspective. Its loose vignettes reward attention to changing relationships rather than expecting a conventional, steadily plotted story.

A funny, socially focused coming-of-age story about an intimidating school leader whose reluctant connection with a bullied classmate challenges his ideas about status, friendship and what masculinity requires.

This is a character-led family and school story about two unlike teenagers learning to live together. It offers humour, emotional change and questions about status, difference and what makes relationships dependable.

This is a grief-centred novel with a supernatural frame, offering a serious exploration of contradictory feelings rather than a light adventure. Its short, spare narration contrasts with the monster’s larger, ambiguous tales.

This is a character-led coming-of-age novel about identity, secrecy, family and finding community. Its emotional centre is Amir’s attempt to reconcile his Muslim family life, sexuality, fear and desire for freedom.

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 focused transition guide that turns common secondary-school uncertainties into topics for reflection. Its practical, confidence-building approach may help a child organise questions about routines, relationships, learning demands and online life.

A tense climate-emergency adventure that combines rising floodwater and urgent problem-solving with questions about identity, friendship, bullying and finding courage. The children’s changing relationships are central to the story’s momentum.

This is comic fantasy adventure about an underestimated boy whose intelligence, courage and loyalty matter more than physical strength. Its lively illustrations, eccentric names and slapstick tone may make the story especially inviting.

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

Expect anarchic humour, imaginative adventures and a central character who challenges adult authority. Pippi’s friendships, confidence and physical strength drive the fun, while the episodic structure offers distinct comic situations rather than one tightly unfolding plot.

This is an imaginative story about making a world that reflects one person’s ideas. Its main appeal is the inventive detail: Wesley turns a plant into resources, culture and communication, then sees others respond.

This is a comic adventure about resourcefulness, friendship and family loyalty, set against the pressure of possible eviction. Magical potions and their possible use in the pizza shop set up energetic slapstick, while the story gives serious subjects space without presenting humour as belittling them.

This is a direct, expressive anti-bullying poem that gives space to experiences of being bullied, witnessing bullying or participating in it, with intense words and artwork working together.

This is a tense, character-led mystery about returning to a traumatised community, carrying family shame and questioning an accepted version of events. Grief, harassment, cultural identity and a developing romance sit alongside the investigation.

This is a school-set story about an unlikely friendship, grief and attempts to repair a damaged community. Its humour and sharp voice sit alongside family instability, social cruelty, substance-related trouble and questions about religious belief and personal responsibility.

A school mystery about a child under social pressure, with a new friendship helping him investigate an accusation. Humour sits alongside bullying, prejudice, moral choices and family conversations about religion and values.

This is a dark, emotionally demanding story about reclaiming identity amid bullying, grief, family strain and a public suicide attempt. Its unusual, darkly comic voice gives Angie's inner life considerable force.

This is an emotionally intense contemporary teen novel about a fiercely angry, isolated girl whose connection with Nate opens a possibility of hope before serious harm tests that possibility.

This is a relationship-focused story about identity, secrecy, belonging and pressure. It places Evan between a secret boyfriend and a friendship drawn towards a group promising protection and status.

This is a fast-moving fantasy adventure about a vulnerable child, a remarkable instrument and adults who seek to exploit its power. Its central appeal is the tension between healing as a gift and healing as something others may exploit.

This is a coming-of-age story about self-understanding, changing friendships and finding a community where different identities can be discussed openly.

A school community is shown dealing with bullying, harassment, exclusion, hostile online posts and damage to a library. The central uncertainty is whether the harm can be repaired.

This is a playful school adventure about a child investigating owl pellets, facing interference from bullies and encountering unexplained magical objects and events.

A story about openly expressing identity when family disapproval, peer abuse and romantic uncertainty create pressure. Evan’s determination is central, alongside the consequences of hostility towards his sexuality and gender expression.

This looks like a character-led story about an unlikely friendship formed amid loneliness, secrecy and competing space programmes. It combines an animal’s struggle to trust people with a child’s effort to understand unsettling changes around her.

A playful reworking of the “big and bad” wolf idea becomes a story about pressure, identity and choosing how to respond to a bully. Its unresolved final turn may reward readers who enjoy discussing what appearances and actions mean.

This is a deliberately silly wilderness adventure built around Blacky's rude bodily humour, a time-pressured search and escalating obstacles. Alongside the jokes, the mission concerns finding a supposedly last Tasmanian tiger and saving it from extinction.

This is a youth suspense story combining basketball ambitions with threats that move from the road to online messages. Its central appeal appears to be Dylan and Jenna trying to make sense of danger together.