What Are You Looking For?

Expect a warm family adventure built around four sisters with distinct personalities, their father, and Jeffrey, a boy they meet during a summer stay at Arundel estate.

This is a school-set murder mystery with a stroppy, humorous central voice, a satisfying investigation and emotionally weightier material beneath its mischief. It may particularly suit readers who enjoy puzzles, crime references and lively ensemble characters.

A choice-driven story about finding a voice when other people control the decisions. Fred’s move to a new school brings pressure, friendships and opportunities to pursue his art, while each reader’s choices shape a different route.

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.

Expect an Amazon-set adventure centred on a boy and a girl, with opportunities to discuss character, friendship, choices and ideas about living a “big life”.

A morally serious Gothic novel about creation, abandonment, responsibility and revenge, with opportunities to discuss scientific power and the treatment of outsiders alongside unsettling violence.

A fast-moving story about being misunderstood, facing an oppressive future and deciding whether individual actions can make a difference. It offers suspense, moral pressure and a strong focus on justice and responsibility.

A twist-led mystery about friendship under pressure, this novel combines murder investigation, school life and family responsibilities. It may suit readers who enjoy multiple viewpoints, concealed information and consequences that unfold quickly.

This is a story about two children affected by maternal absence, whose connection brings their painful pasts into contact. Expect family-focused drama involving longing, secrecy and potentially strong feelings.

This is a visually striking verse retelling with Scottish literary roots, fantasy, transformation and questions about responsibility. The combination of narrative poetry, illustrations and contextual material gives readers several ways into the work.

This is an energetic eco-adventure combining world travel, time travel, friendship and environmental questions. It may suit readers who enjoy quest-driven stories, imaginative devices and child protagonists facing mysteries with animals alongside them.

Expect a fast-moving, imaginative adventure in which time travel connects family relationships, grief and responsibility. The story also makes room for humour, friendship and emotional growth, with Al facing both practical dangers and difficult choices.

A fast, mischievous story about a child’s homemade medicine, comic disorder and rebellion against an unpleasant adult. Its humour depends on exaggeration, grotesque imagery and the reversal of adult authority rather than on model behaviour.

A brisk family adventure centres on Beans, her gadget-inventing father and a dangerous invention. Its main appeal is likely the combination of imaginative technology, a rescue mission and children taking determined action with friends.

This is a comic political adventure about an ordinary boy whose public speech propels him into national leadership. Its appeal comes from absurd ideas, fast-changing circumstances and the contrast between childhood imagination and adult political power.

Expect a playful search-and-spot read in which hidden dinosaurs cause supermarket chaos. The illustrations carry much of the fun, while rhyme, dinosaur names and the final reveal support lively shared reading.

This is a thoughtful, wistful fantasy about a child resisting change. Its strongest appeal may be the combination of village detail, imaginative uncertainty and emotional honesty, while its pace and melancholy mood may suit readers who enjoy reflective stories.

A warm sibling-centred collection in which a very young girl’s curiosity and mischief drive comic family episodes. It offers recognisable domestic situations, while some incidents may invite discussion about consequences and other people’s boundaries.

A traditional-style story contrasts two sisters: Manyara behaves harshly while Nyasha treats people and creatures kindly. Their journeys towards a king’s choice turn this contrast into a fable about pride, kindness and consequences.

A playful, visually driven friendship story that uses repeated shapes, deadpan humour and reciprocal pranks. It offers opportunities to notice triangles and squares while inviting discussion about teasing, fear and unintended consequences.

A funny, brisk story about two reluctant readers whose library visit becomes an adventure. It offers comic exaggeration, sibling banter, a vivid librarian and a clear change in how the boys view books.

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.

A playful fantasy adventure combines a damaged family business, an apologetic young ogre and a kingdom facing an attempted takeover. Its pleasures include imaginative names, chocolate-cake humour and characters working together to repair harm and restore stability.

A playful nursery-rhyme sequel becomes a tale of ambition, financial collapse, crime, punishment and renewed hope. The illustrations invite close looking, while Spoon’s narration gives the adventure a distinctive, world-weary voice.

A funny, contemporary story about a teenager using an online identity to gain attention offline. Its central appeal is the tension between belonging, performance and accountability, with serious online and social issues handled through humour.

Expect a humorous, performance-friendly story in which cake, sounds and expressive illustrations create a playful appeal.

This is a friendship-led adventure in which quiet river life contrasts with Toad’s impulsive fascination with vehicles. The animal society supports journeys, humour and episodes of danger, while responsibility gradually becomes important.

A fairy-tale romance in which a promise made to an immortal power becomes increasingly dangerous. Evangeline must navigate heartbreak, enchanted beings and uncertain motives while seeking the happy ending she has always believed in.

This is a relationship-focused speculative story about seeing possible futures and changing them through present choices. Its strongest appeal is likely the accessible time-and-technology premise, rather than richly developed character detail.

This is a fast-moving fantasy sequel built around a prison rescue, a dangerous pursuit and competing loyalties. Its world combines imperial oppression, rebellion and magic, while three viewpoints explore freedom, power, friendship and the personal cost of resistance.

A high-stakes fantasy finale about two queens whose choices, powers, and family ties may determine whether their world is saved or destroyed. It offers intricate perspectives, reversals, emotional conflict, and a sustained struggle over agency and redemption.

This is an interactive time-and-magic adventure: the reader’s decision about one box determines the route. Its strongest appeal is agency and replayability, rather than a single fixed plot.

This is a historical school story combining basketball, friendship and a risky practical joke. Manny’s wish to stay connected to his friends leads to invented sports reporting, while wartime uncertainty affects family conversations and everyday choices.

This is an imaginative, peril-filled fantasy about a brother’s disappearance, a sister’s rescue effort and a widening conflict between dragons and opposing forces. Its strongest thread is Seth’s struggle to decide who he is without his memories.

Expect a brisk sequence of cautionary tales in which everyday situations become grotesque or magical. Misbehaving children frequently face ironic, frightening or absurd consequences, with dark humour inviting readers to laugh, gasp and squirm.

A comic school story about Faith navigating Year Ten, friendship difficulties and a choir project involving boys.

Expect playful fantasy centred on schoolchildren and naughty gargoylz.

Expect a playful quest presented through a very cheerful setting, with five heroes facing frozen lands, dungeons and frightening creatures while searching for stolen crystals.

This is a character-led story about feeling overlooked, performing confidence and discovering that other people’s expectations do not define your worth. Its emotional focus is Mia’s changing understanding of herself and her relationships.

A character-led boarding-school novel about Willa’s attempt to belong and her consuming friendship with Remy. Its witty, direct voice sits alongside serious material about depression, suicidal thoughts, drugs and addiction, with the emotional direction becoming increasingly troubling.

This is a camp story about belief, prediction and uncertainty. Its central question invites readers to weigh apparent supernatural success against coincidence, while Alyssa’s attachment to the stone drives the story.

This is an adventure about a child’s loyalty to a troubled parent. Billie’s determination drives the story, while the family situation creates suspense and moral uncertainty.

This is a school-centred relationship story about Gemma balancing an important journalism opportunity with her wish to help classmates romantically through her Jessica Jupiter persona. Expect overlapping social and romantic complications.

This is a domestic adventure about Paddington and a visitor connected with his past. Its central interest appears to be how a familiar family home is affected by questions of belonging.

Expect a fast-moving graphic adventure built around Otto’s search for Georgie. Humour comes through mishaps, disguises and visual gags, while the journey also brings imprisonment, abduction, animal smuggling and humans’ treatment of animals.