What Are You Looking For?

Expect a grim, disorientating fairy tale rather than a reassuring adventure: Otto is often frightened and uncertain, while magic offers power without straightforward control.

A lively premise brings Greek-myth-inspired supernatural danger into modern Perth, with Sadie taking an active role rather than waiting to be rescued. The adventure may appeal to readers who enjoy action and mythological creatures.

A fantasy adventure combines a mystery about sick sea dragons with Emily’s effort to develop as a healer. The overview also promises peril, magical discovery and companionship, without revealing how the quest ends.

This is a fast-moving supernatural mystery built around codes, riddles and island secrets. It offers an emotionally involved teenage viewpoint, with investigation intertwined with isolation, family conflict and danger.

A poetry collection about young people using classic and spoken-word forms to explore identity, relationships, belonging and social issues, with personal narratives connecting poems to lived experience.

This is a supernatural horror adventure about a timid child facing ghostly control. Its central appeal is escalating suspense: a Halloween visit becomes dangerous when The Haunter's instructions grow increasingly threatening.

This is a crime story centred on witnessing a killing and trying to identify a serial killer while working with temporary FBI authority.

Choose this for a spooky, participatory adventure rather than a linear story. Its main appeal is agency: the reader travels through a perilous historical setting, makes decisions and may reach one of many endings.

A warm story about a child meeting a frighteningly energetic dog on his own terms. Its emotional movement is clear, though the friendship’s final turn is presented very quickly.

This is a child-centred horror adventure built around a frightening dummy, sibling behaviour and uncertainty about whether Slappy has become alive. It offers suspense without establishing the full outcome.

This is a participatory scary adventure: the reader faces a beastly babysitter, chooses between dangers, and reaches one of many spooky endings. Its main appeal is playful suspense and the feeling that choices shape what happens next.

A school-based detective adventure follows two sisters as they investigate a threatening note, pursue puzzling clues and confront danger surrounding a newly acquired bronze fountain.

This is a brief, metaphorical story about a sad bird who has stopped flying. A surprising horse offers companionship and a question, while the illustrations and open ending invite readers to imagine what happens next.

This is an action-led fantasy centred on a young woman resisting an oppressive marriage system. Magic, court danger, loyalty and romantic tension drive the story, with freedom and protection shaping Kalinda’s choices.

A visually imaginative story about fear, self-soothing and growing independence. Toby’s rescue of Henry shifts bravery from something supplied by an object to something he begins to practise himself.

A horror-comedy sequel with a strongly supernatural setting, school friendships and a continuing threat from Charley’s past. Its appeal lies in combining eerie atmosphere with genre-aware humour and a central relationship marked by betrayal.

A suspenseful children’s adventure about siblings investigating unsettling circumstances in a guarded Cornish house. Expect secrets, danger, teamwork and a wartime political backdrop, alongside melodrama and an intentionally improbable child-led challenge to adults.

A lively circus setting frames a story about a penguin choosing a different role. Poppy’s change from performer to organiser offers a reassuring alternative to following a family tradition.

A spooky fantasy adventure about a girl who enters a dangerous forest to understand what happened to her sister, with the story’s central mystery challenging simple ideas of bravery and rescue.

A tense story about a young person trying to escape a parent’s extreme survivalist rules while navigating foster care, distrust and the possibility of being found. Its emotional force comes from Amber’s guarded, sharply ironic voice.

A dark, atmospheric fantasy for readers who enjoy folklore, mystery and psychological unease. Alice’s search for her mother carries questions about trust, belonging and who has the right to shape a story.

This is a school and family drama about a quiet teenager confronting public lies, persistent bullying and a frightening home atmosphere. It also follows her growing connections with Elijah, Aunt Polly and the mysterious ‘red pen’ correspondent.

A creepy, energetic adventure that combines frightening creatures and suspense with banter, humour and an emphasis on four unlike students learning to support one another.

A lively child-led detective adventure: Emil responds to theft by following the suspected criminal through Berlin and working with other children. Its appeal lies in pursuit, teamwork and the contrast between a small town and a large, exciting city.

A strongly atmospheric folk-horror story about a community’s inherited bargain with a river. Its central appeal is the tension between belonging and personal choice, while its gruesome supernatural danger may make it an intense read.

Expect a survival adventure driven by resourcefulness, solitude and danger. Its interest also lies in Crusoe’s changing relationship with fear and faith, alongside troubling material involving captivity, slavery and colonial power.

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 poignant science-fiction novel about two teenage boys spending their final day together, balancing grief and danger with friendship, love, family ties and attempts to live deliberately.

A fast-moving dark fantasy about vigilance, ingenuity and family loyalty, with comic grotesquerie alongside genuine suspense. Its imaginative premise may appeal to confident readers who enjoy frightening stories with a strong emotional centre.

A gentle, episodic story about meeting fear with curiosity. Plop’s conversations introduce several ways of understanding darkness, alongside owl facts and moments of comic mishap as he learns to manage a new experience.

A magical, atmospheric fairytale retelling centred on Red’s curiosity, a threatened relationship between village and woodland, and questions about who is treated as dangerous. It combines mystery, grief, disability representation and collective strength.

This is a fast-moving fantasy adventure about a dangerous supernatural challenge, a search across time, and magical self-discovery. It may particularly suit readers who enjoy continuing quests, strange places and ensemble characters.

A fantasy adventure about sibling independence and protection, with Fergus’s autism central to his experience. It combines familiar Neverland elements with mystery, danger and a broader cast of Lost Boys and Lost Girls.

This is a strange, fast-moving fantasy sequel centred on divided loyalties and self-definition. Expect peril, magical conflict, family tensions and a relationship tested by fear, mistakes and attempts to regain independence.

A game-based adventure about friendship, exploration and danger, centred on Mike's encounters with other players and the mystery of a destroyed village.

A dark, high-concept thriller about bodily change, fear and the search for answers. The opening promises urgent medical horror, while the story later becomes more character-driven and ends with disturbing violence.

A fast-moving surf-and-road adventure about friendship, risk and growing up. Its appeal lies in vivid action and changing landscapes, while its dangerous encounters may make the journey feel intense.

This is a dark survival fantasy about young people managing hunger, danger and power without adults. Its central pressures are scarcity, conflict between powered and unpowered children, murderous behaviour, and influence from a threatening supernatural presence.

Ari’s search for her origins combines a strong mystery with unsettling fantasy: a warning from her dead mother leads her towards New 2, where frightening creatures fear her and her own identity becomes the central puzzle.

A choice-driven horror adventure built around dangerous toys: one path leads into a toy factory and a hostile living doll, while another brings a destructive robot into the home.

This is an 18-book horror-arc collection built around a theme park becoming increasingly frightening.

This is a supernatural mystery-adventure built around lost identity, eerie local rumours and missing children. Its strongest offer is a forward-moving search: Christopher must recover his memories while uncovering what is happening in the community.

Expect a spooky supernatural adventure centred on young investigators, haunted objects and an outbreak threatening London. Alongside ghost cases, the book raises questions about how a society responds when danger is visible only to children.