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This is a fast-moving fantasy adventure centred on a fierce, guarded heroine. Expect a dangerous rescue journey, strange creatures, corrupted magic and evolving friendships, alongside a serious exploration of loss, guilt and anger.

A lively fantasy mystery for readers who enjoy hidden worlds, supernatural beings, competition and surprises. Its emotional centre is Amari’s search for her brother and her movement from feeling like an outsider towards recognising her strengths.

A mythic rescue adventure centred on Marcy’s fear, determination and relationship with her father. Egyptian gods, the Sphinx and a legendary book create a vivid fantasy setting, while the illustrations carry substantial visual detail and action.

This is a gentle family story about caring for the coast, responding to pollution and encountering marine life. Aaron’s hesitation about going underwater is treated through patience, encouragement and personal readiness.

Expect a bleak flooded setting, solitary travel, danger from other young people and a determined search for family. The ending is described as positive, although the journey is repeatedly presented as harrowing and gloomy.

This is a fast-moving, illustrated adventure about a vulnerable robot trying to recover its past and return to Beth. Friendship, fear, memory and the treatment of discarded things sit alongside danger and humour.

A whimsical quest combines magical characters, tongue-in-cheek humour and determined friendship with a strong longing for home. Its imaginative surface is interrupted by abrupt, casually narrated violence that may surprise readers expecting gentler fantasy.

A folklore-rich quest about a girl protecting her home and family. Its imaginative setting, magical companions and nature imagery sit alongside questions about self-belief, inherited responsibility and whether the past can be repaired.

A brisk, humorous rescue adventure in which Dulcinea uses her wits to confront a witch and navigate enchanted obstacles, with illustrations that contrast her calm manner with the witch’s theatricality.

This is a socially aware family story with a determined child protagonist. It combines motel life, immigrant family pressures and Mia’s writing ambitions, while presenting difficult injustices alongside friendship, support and attempts to help others.

This is a visually led story about forced movement, family resilience and the search for safety. It may help children consider refugees as people with fears, relationships and hopes, rather than as an abstract issue.

This offers immersive folklore, a slow-building relationship and a heroine confronting shame about her magic. It may suit readers who enjoy gothic atmosphere, complex myth-making and emotionally difficult fantasy rather than a light fairy-tale retelling.

A good fit for readers drawn to eerie fairy-tale retellings, magical quests, mysteries and determined protagonists. Its central journey carries genuine danger, while its romantic thread and unresolved ending may shape the reading experience.

This is a warm but perilous time-slip adventure about a child coping with frightening family circumstances. Its emotional centre is the growing trust between two boys who must care for one another while trying to return home.

This is a fantasy adventure combining K-pop performance culture, martial-arts action and supernatural danger. Its emotional centre is a friendship group learning to work together while facing fears that affect them and others.

A tense, politically charged dystopian novel about a Muslim teenager resisting confinement and discrimination. Its emphasis falls on moral courage, collective action and the human consequences of Islamophobia, alongside disturbing scenes of coercion and violence.

This is a war novel centred on a young woman’s divided loyalties: caring for the wounded, protecting family and considering escape. It offers an emotionally intense perspective on civilian danger, responsibility and hope.

A dark, atmospheric Dracula retelling centred on two sisters, captivity and resistance. Its strongest offering is the way female relationships, Traveller identity and collective courage reshape a familiar vampire story.

This is a fast-moving wartime escape story centred on protecting horses and people. Its strongest features are peril, courage and companionship, while the historical setting gives the adventure serious emotional weight.

A true story follows Jennie from childhood through meeting Abram, love, his death and her search for courage. It links fear and bravery while showing grief as part of continuing life.

Expect an energetic fantasy quest combining Caribbean-inspired folklore, spirits, gemstones and magical battles with a warm friendship story. The central characters face fear, grief, abandonment and morally difficult decisions while trying to protect their island.

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.

This is a brisk gateway to interconnected Greek myths rather than a single narrowly focused war story. Its sweep includes the war’s background, the conflict itself and the difficult returns of several heroes.

Expect an atmospheric Norse-inspired adventure in which a boy, rather than a god, becomes central to solving a community-threatening crisis. The visual storytelling is as important as the written narration.

Expect a brisk, comic swashbuckling story: pirates take Molly, but her courage and cleverness unsettle them. The story’s main pleasure is the reversal of who appears powerful and who needs to be feared.

This is a character-led story about four lonely children becoming connected. Its emotional focus is stronger than its action, with distinct voices, friendship and courage developing alongside questions about fate and belonging.

A horror premise places Charity and her friends inside a frightening version of the attraction they work in. Expect slasher suspense, dark humour, romance, disappearances and graphic violence, alongside questions about survival and familiar genre roles.

A supernatural horror story rooted in a family homecoming, with queer romance and questions of belonging. It combines frightening events with explorations of Vietnamese American identity, colonialism and family history.

This is a spooky rescue adventure centred on a frightened boy trying to protect his brother. Expect cemetery and crypt imagery, supernatural games, riddles and sustained suspense, alongside friendship and compassion.

This is an emotionally charged historical animal adventure: Delta uses courage and resourcefulness to search for separated friends while Pompeii faces catastrophe. It offers suspense, relationships and a window onto Roman life, including the unequal position of enslaved people.

A clue-driven historical adventure centred on a determined violinist, with friendship and perseverance alongside bereavement, abandonment, deception and threats. Its journey spans India, the sea voyage and Victorian England.

A spooky, character-led mystery about protecting ghosts, confronting fear and forming connections. It offers queer representation, a disabled protagonist and a romance alongside supernatural danger, with Charlie’s personal growth central to the story.

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.

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.

A brisk historical mystery follows Lily and Tom from their travelling life into a more dangerous search involving a carved treasure, a new friendship and hidden family secrets. Its accessible prose and illustrations may suit readers who enjoy adventure but prefer shorter chapter books.

A lively first encounter with Greek mythology: ten short, illustrated adventures introduce heroes, monsters, magical objects and transformations. The collection prioritises memorable action and recognisable figures, making it suitable for sharing aloud or dipping into story by story.

A lively fantasy quest with a determined heroine, comic creatures and a school setting. Bronte’s pursuit of knighthood challenges traditional expectations while the story explores courage, responsibility and standing by others.

A dark, atmospheric story for readers who enjoy ghosts, folklore, natural magic and narratives that connect across time. Three girls face danger and loss while their stories gradually converge around a threatening presence in the woods.

A richly imagined adventure about mapmaking, friendship and courage under authoritarian rule. Isabella must act when murder, imprisonment and a friend’s disappearance unsettle her island, leading her towards magic and danger in the Forbidden Territories.

Expect an imaginative underwater adventure with a determined heroine, a strong sibling bond, unusual creatures and a richly developed river community. The story combines quest tension with questions about trust, belonging and changing long-held assumptions.

An energetic adventure about clever siblings confronting secret tests, technological danger and a world-scale threat. Its strongest appeal is likely momentum: trials, gadgets, mystery and high stakes, alongside questions about responsibility and confronting fear.

This is an adventure about two young people from opposing populations whose friendship brings hidden injustice into view. Its imaginative giant-built city provides a route into questions about prejudice, power, exploitation and environmental responsibility.

This is a clue-led historical adventure about a young protagonist acting under pressure to help her imprisoned father. It offers travel, ancient objects, a companionable magpie and a mystery that links art and evidence.

A fast-moving rescue adventure about courage, loyalty and learning to trust. Wolves are central companions, while Feo’s journey brings danger, humour and a friendship that develops under pressure.

A historical adventure rooted in the early-20th-century Philippines, following Amihan and Mariposa as they respond to official policy and try to return to Culion. Its emotional centre is family love and friendship.

This offers a brisk supernatural mystery rooted in London, drama, museum history and identity. Its appeal lies in clues, red herrings and links between attacks across time, alongside Niamh’s new friendships and possible romance.