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This is a multi-character story about young people in a Brooklyn neighbourhood. Gingerbread’s claim that “life is funny” sits beside the difficulties described in the outline.

This is a fantasy romance built around a reimagined fairy tale, with competing survival needs and a relationship that challenges Isra’s inherited beliefs.

A warm-hearted adventure balances the sisters’ humour and imaginative games with their efforts to endure unjust treatment and help others.

This is a story of a family fleeing discrimination and trying to reach a new home, with Desta taking on greater responsibility after a devastating loss.

A light fantasy adventure centred on an imposed responsibility, a puzzle and a changing environment. The story’s interest appears to come from Rani working out what matters most while managing the troublesome clouds.

A witty, humane fantasy about growing into responsibility while facing fear, prejudice and loss. Tiffany’s work as a witch centres on caring for people, while the story also brings darker threats and emotionally difficult relationships.

A lively graphic mystery about music, belonging and friendship, with Chris moving from feeling like the new girl to joining a secret vigilante group. The premise offers humour, action and a hopeful outlook on not having life figured out.

A fantasy novel with an unusual time-based world and a forbidden romance at its heart. It may particularly appeal to readers interested in steampunk-like settings and LGBT protagonists, while its darker content merits advance discussion.

This is a serious, trauma-focused novel in which two sisters face the effects of abuse, family disruption and foster care. It also follows attempts to find support, speak openly and begin recovering.

This is a period mystery adventure built around collaborative problem-solving. Expect several cases, historical technology and questions about honesty, responsibility and justice, with community-minded values prominent in the characters’ world.

This is a horror-thriller built around a fatal-looking crash, moral unease and escalating intimidation. Its central hook is whether the apparent prankster is a witness, a survivor, or someone else.

This offers a plot-led fantasy involving assassination, magic, royal duty, secrets and romance. Its central appeal is the partnership between an ambitious apprentice and a highly dangerous royal agent, while the volume leaves major messages unresolved.

This is a lively historical novel about sisters navigating an emotionally distant mother while encountering Black Panther community work and racial injustice. Its strongest offering is the combination of distinct girl characters, family complexity and a child’s perspective on a changing society.

This is a clue-led children’s adventure about investigating a disappearance after an accusation of theft. Its central appeal is the Secret Seven working together, with a younger sibling presented as a possible complication.

A brisk, atmospheric historical adventure: William searches London for John Diamond while confronting a troubling family secret.

This is a richly imagined sequel where magical danger carries emotional consequences. Alongside romance and wonder, the story examines whether compassion, memory and mercy can interrupt cycles of violence and inherited fear.

A ghostly quest combines danger, memory and moral choices. Riley’s efforts to free her friends and other spirits give the story an emphasis on understanding rather than defeating pain by force.

An imaginative, action-led science-fiction adventure built around odd powers, unusual companions and a dangerous quest. Its elaborate world and mysteries may appeal to persistent readers, though the journey is deliberately expansive.

This is a supernatural mystery with a strongly suspenseful premise: a murdered teenager’s spirit seeks answers.

This is a school-and-survival story about two people misreading each other. Its strongest material concerns how assumptions shape behaviour, while Mark’s growing attachment to the outdoors gives the book a reflective strand alongside its danger.

This is a personal account of rejecting inherited hatred and choosing peace. It offers a way into questions about responsibility, identity and prejudice, while engaging with terrorism and family history rather than treating them as abstract subjects.

This is a playful but pointed reworking of nursery rhymes. Pollution, smoking, oil, logging, food access and over-consumption appear through jokes, reversals and striking black-and-white illustrations rather than straightforward explanation.

A sports-centred school story broadens into questions about trying unfamiliar activities and supporting a friend. Kyle’s basketball and theatre commitments provide the main conflict, while homophobic bullying is a significant social issue in the story.

This offers a lively quest built around an inexperienced performer, an unusual travelling companion and a widening circle of allies. Humour, peril and court intrigue sit alongside questions of courage, usefulness and inherited expectations.

A stark historical journey about a young woman claiming an independent life, while discovering that escape does not remove poverty, danger or responsibility. Its restrained style and unsettled emotional relationships may reward readers who prefer serious, atmospheric fiction over easy comfort.

A fast-moving historical adventure places a young protagonist between friendship, justice and danger. Its Robin Hood setting is paired with questions about hunger, power, reputation and what makes someone a hero.

A playful magical adventure centred on pottery, crafts and recovering a missing object. It offers a straightforward conflict between Rachel and Kirsty and Jack Frost, with creativity forming the story’s distinctive setting.

This is a serious, character-led account of friendship tested by colonial injustice. It offers a personal route into Kenya’s history, showing how fear, racial privilege and silence can damage people across divided communities.

This is a dark, suspenseful Viking voyage to Vinland, blending historical detail, mythology, magic and monsters. Peer and Hilde face deceptive adults, secrets and danger, while the story explores truth, responsibility, maturity, love, loss and longing.

This offers a supernatural murder mystery rooted in Prohibition-era New York, alongside folklore, occult ideas, jazz-club life and vivid secondary storylines. Its horror is central rather than incidental.

Expect an atmospheric historical fantasy centred on a vulnerable boy, an alchemist’s dangerous ambitions, and cats drawn into rivalry over magical inheritance. Its plot combines adventure with grim events and unsettling supernatural ideas.

A tense futuristic fantasy about training, arena combat and revenge, with an imaginative vocabulary and a young protagonist confronting a powerful enemy. Its opening may require patience, and the ending leaves major questions open.

This is a brisk detective adventure built around a mountain-bike race in Costa Rica. Nancy supports her friend while investigating efforts to stop a leading cyclist, with several possible suspects and a time-pressured mystery.

This is a school story about the harm caused by judging people by appearance. It offers two viewpoints on being teased and also includes a child’s difficult home life.

Expect a warm, humorous story built around Lottie's plan to grow a giant pumpkin with her grandfather. Its comic elements sit alongside school bullying, family strain, bereavement, illness and Lottie's responsibilities at home.

This is a politically charged war thriller that gives competing state and federal positions some strength while showing how quickly resistance, loyalty and justice become morally difficult.

A dark, plot-driven fantasy about surviving occupation and reclaiming identity, with court intrigue, resistance and magic. Its central journey from frightened captive to leader is accompanied by graphic brutality and morally difficult choices.

A high-stakes fantasy about a young woman whose lethal magical ability has been controlled by authority. It offers questions about self-definition, freedom, trust and whether power can be used justly, alongside graphic violence and emotional darkness.

A suspenseful historical novel linking a present-day investigation with a teenager’s experience of the 1921 Tulsa race massacre. It combines mystery, racial history and questions about privilege, social inequality, identity and justice.

This is an ensemble fantasy about cats facing leadership uncertainty, personal loyalties and unsettling mysteries. It offers relationship dilemmas, humour and character change, but its later conflict is darker and may feel less clear or controlled.

Choose this for a romance-led story with mystery elements, emotional fallout and social themes. It offers a second-chance relationship alongside questions about scholarships, reputation, secrecy and whether competitive systems genuinely support young people.

This is an emotionally intense, socially engaged story of young people facing bereavement, family instability, discrimination and addiction. Its perspective shifts and layered histories invite sustained attention, while compassion, accountability, faith and hope remain important strands.

A fast-moving supernatural mystery about a teenager searching for her missing mother, then uncovering concealed family history and a strange inheritance. It offers suspense, folklore, friendship and a seaside setting, with the pace reportedly slowing after the opening.

A stranger arrives by sea and is confined, mistreated and expelled as the islanders’ fear becomes hatred. Their final wall leaves a bleak image of exclusion rather than reconciliation.

This is a high-stakes spy adventure with an animal lead, clues, gadgets and a race against time. Its central appeal is action-led problem-solving, supported by a team of animal allies.

A socially engaged teen romance about challenging gendered expectations while navigating popularity, leadership, family pressures and cultural identity. Its central tension asks whether pursuing justice can coexist with fairness, empathy and personal relationships.