What Are You Looking For?

A lively mystery about belonging somewhere new: Poppy’s unusual circus upbringing meets boarding-school traditions, while friendship and investigation draw her into a dangerous case involving an Egyptian ruby.

This is a clue-led historical mystery with an active young protagonist, a strong seaside setting and a family crisis at its centre. It offers atmosphere, teamwork and a determined character whose limb difference is part of her life, not the whole plot.

A gentle Chilean folktale about finding companionship, caring for someone who is not yours to keep, and living through separation. Its sea imagery and illustrations may invite close, unhurried attention.

A gentle adventure about curiosity becoming a shared project. Arthur and his father respond to rumours about the forest by building towards a view beyond it, while bread, neighbours, a storm and a dog add warmth, suspense and opportunities to notice how the community responds.

A tense, emotionally serious science-fiction mystery about desperate choices, hidden exploitation and sibling love. Its strongest appeal is the combination of a threatening facility, ethical questions and contrasting prose and poetry voices.

This is a fast-moving wartime escape story combining orphanhood, sibling loyalty and espionage. Its child characters repeatedly make difficult choices while trying to survive danger, loss and separation.

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.

Expect a playful space adventure centred on a father and son, with absurd alien details, school embarrassment and moments of danger. Its emotional centre is the difficulty of recognising a parent’s love beneath embarrassing behaviour.

A football-centred story about pressure, responsibility and learning to co-operate, with Roy juggling his place in the team, college, family duties and coaching. It offers both match-focused excitement and everyday-life concerns.

This is an emotionally engaging family story about a child trying to understand separation, a parent’s newly disclosed sexuality and the limits of fixing adult problems. Friendship, humour and Pride’s community provide energy and hope.

Expect a richly illustrated, surreal story rather than a straightforward cosy tale. The Greenling brings abundance and connection, yet its arrival and departure carry an ominous, folkloric atmosphere.

This is a queer romantic fiction about a self-assured young man whose matchmaking project unsettles his rules about friendship, sex and love. It combines social observation with relationships shaped by shared communities and personal loss.

Expect an intense crime thriller about grief, anger and the pursuit of revenge. The brothers face secrecy, hostility and danger while investigating their sister’s death, with an unsettling atmosphere and a strongly action-driven climax.

Louie’s grief after his brother’s death unfolds alongside parental separation and a community’s devastation. The story uses ghosts and Endlander mourning traditions to explore how people remember the dead, communicate loss and begin rebuilding.

This is a direct, emotionally serious story about a child living through her mother’s death. It offers language for grief, shows that support can coexist with loneliness, and uses a familiar garment to represent continuing love and memory.

Expect a fast-moving fantasy mystery rooted in a Nigerian village, Yoruba myths and family relationships. Its atmosphere shifts between joy and dread, with danger often suggested rather than directly shown.

A nature-rich memoir that follows a young birder’s family travels and growing public activism. Its strongest interest may lie in the way birdwatching connects personal identity, family life, conservation and a search for belonging.

This is a coming-of-age novel that combines personal stories with substantial exploration of Deaf culture, language and rights. It may suit readers interested in how identity, communication and community shape one another.

A thoughtful speculative story about whether a digital recreation can be treated as a person. Its emotional centre is Isla’s changing relationship with her returned sister, alongside family disagreement and the island community’s divided response.

Expect a twisty, atmospheric ghost story with humour, danger and a morally ambiguous central character. Harriet’s pursuit of power drives the tension, while the surrounding friendships and queer romantic thread add warmth and complication.

This is a supernatural survival story grounded in sibling loyalty and Filipino folklore. Its main appeal is the tension between keeping hidden, protecting a community and deciding what to believe when danger makes familiar rules unsafe.

A detailed garden-year book that blends children’s activities with practical information. Its pleasures are observation, making and growing together, supported by illustrations, recipes and ideas that can extend beyond the page.

A warm, lively story about an isolated child finding companionship, then helping her family reconsider a wild animal. Its historical setting and concluding information extend the story into an introduction to prehistory and domestication.

This is a serious, emotionally focused novel about returning home, confronting painful memories and imagining a future beyond harmful family dynamics. Flooding and climate danger provide an urgent backdrop, while romantic love adds another strand.

This is a refugee journey told through Sami’s changing circumstances: a familiar life in Damascus gives way to displacement, danger and attempts to rebuild in England. Family bonds, guilt, anxiety, kindness and discrimination shape the experience.

A coming-of-age story about identity, belonging and disclosure, balancing painful social pressures with friendship, family love and romantic possibility. It offers a queer Mexican American protagonist whose choices are shaped by school, faith and immigration-related family separation.

A comic fantasy adventure about leadership, strained relationships and finding workable compromises. Vampire lore, artificial blood and absurd food details sit alongside sincere treatment of self-doubt, responsibility and adolescent romance.

A dark supernatural mystery combines witchcraft, ghosts, grief and romance. Viola’s investigation is supported by friendships and a search for justice, while the story also builds suspense through murder, dangerous spirits and unsettling deaths.

This is a child-centred detective adventure in which solving a mystery becomes a way to learn about Gran’s life, memory and the importance of understanding people as individuals.

Expect an ambitious illustrated adventure in which two sibling seeds face separation, danger and uncertainty while learning about Earth’s history and living systems. Its emotional centre is family loyalty, alongside a sustained interest in survival, connection and the natural world.

This is a warm, richly observed set of island stories about a child whose moods, wishes and adventures feel changeable and recognisable. Family routines, community life and humorous mishaps provide the setting, while the illustrations add substantial detail to explore together.

Choose this for a reader who enjoys horses, richly imagined landscapes, folklore and a slowly tightening mystery. Its emotional centre is a complicated family whose love and resilience coexist with absence, suspicion and uncertainty.

This is a child-centred book about the hidden work of young carers, their fears and hopes, and the kindness that may surround them. It foregrounds empathy, family, friendship and community rather than providing a full plot outline.

A funny school-and-family story about disrupted routines, fostering and learning to cooperate when two boys must tackle a shared challenge.

A story of sporting ambition and family inheritance, shaped by segregation and racial prejudice. Its verse form brings rhythm to Charley’s determination, while historical danger and a consequential choice give the narrative emotional weight.

A warm wilderness adventure combines a new family arrangement, practical outdoor activity and animal characters with comic community problems. It offers a gentle route into discussing belonging, cooperation and care for the natural world.

A focused, verse-written story about how a young person can be groomed into criminal exploitation, with an emphasis on the damage county lines causes to children and families.

A richly imagined magical-school adventure that places friendship and belonging alongside prejudice, family reputation and mystery. Ella’s determination and growing relationships drive the story, while the fantasy world draws on varied cultures and customs.

This is a richly imagined fantasy adventure about searching for a missing parent while navigating a hidden botanical world. It offers magical danger, family revelations, environmental stakes and questions about belonging.

This is a brisk story about a child responding to a lost dog’s memory by inventing an invisible companion. Imagination, persistence, family decisions and an older neighbour’s good-humoured acceptance shape the action.

A mysterious island adventure where friendship, fear and compassion matter. Children encounter local suspicion, a bullying family relationship, a stranded narwhal and the disruptive shadow of war.

Expect a playful fantasy adventure centred on an unusual hotel, magical visitors and comic world-building. The story appears designed for momentum and imaginative enjoyment, with short chapters, action and humour rather than a complex plot.

This is a family adventure shaped by sudden loss of security and encounters with people connected to the railway. Its central interest is how the siblings respond to changed circumstances.

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.

This is a comic, art-centred adventure in which a boy’s curiosity opens up a struggling Welsh community. It offers family relationships, local change and many real paintings.

A seasonal collection follows Beti through birthday events, a journey to a waterfall, berry picking with Mam, a storm, and winter responsibilities. Friendship, family reassurance, practical problem-solving and living alongside nature shape the book’s gentle world.