What Are You Looking For?

A faith-centred life story about prayer, service and responsibility towards orphaned children. It may work especially well as a read-aloud for families wanting to discuss how beliefs shape practical care for others.

A portrait of Chanel’s rise in fashion sits alongside discussion of poverty, prejudice, self-invention and wartime controversy. The book offers achievements and faults together rather than presenting an uncomplicated style icon.

A gentle introduction to Laika, space and the historical setting, combining a dog’s personal voice with factual material. Its bilingual presentation and illustrations may invite shared reading, while the real history gives the story emotional weight.

Expect a football-centred childhood story rather than an account of Burglar Bill. Its unofficial team, friendships and setbacks provide comic energy, while the reflective voice gives the book a poignant, nostalgic dimension.

A raw addiction memoir that offers an unflinching account of relapse, drug-seeking and recovery attempts. Its strongest material is candid and confronting; the reading experience may feel relentless as crises accumulate.

This is a brisk detective adventure led by an inventive young protagonist. It offers missing-person puzzles, disguises, sibling tension and eventual cooperation, with humour and suspense rather than an informational or realistic treatment.

Expect a visually led, imaginative space story rather than a reliable account of Laika’s life.

A suspenseful historical adventure combines a child-led mystery with Tutankhamun’s story. It offers friendship, family loyalty and questions about who has the right to remove cultural treasures, alongside period travel and Egyptian history.

This is an imaginative animal adventure with a clear home-and-exploration shape, enriched by detailed wildlife imagery and factual material about a real rat and its rainforest habitat.

A lively, irreverent introduction to pirate history, this book mixes historical information with jokes, illustrations and deliberately gruesome stories. Its central angle is corrective: pirates are presented as far less heroic than popular legends suggest.

This is a structured historical introduction to slavery, combining broad chronology with accounts of enslaved people’s lives, journeys and escapes. Its contemporary coverage may help connect past systems with slavery that still exists.

This is an emotionally candid memoir about depression, coming out and survival. It offers a first-person account of painful experiences alongside reflection on identity, social messages, relationships, memory and the gradual work of finding self-acceptance.

A gently suspenseful wartime adventure with a strong historical setting. It combines a secret mission and possible betrayal with village tensions, friendship, refugee experience, and the practical importance of art, music and community.