What Are You Looking For?

The central tension is how a group’s attempts to pursue justice can shift towards revenge, with consequences the friends cannot control.

A three-case detective collection, centred on a group of young investigators. Its hooks are a mysterious fire, a missing cat and secrets surrounding Banshee Towers.

This story brings together a wetland ecosystem, a newcomer’s view of town divisions and a friendship that opens onto Blackfoot culture and stories.

A pony-centred story about Jess’s riding holiday, her hopes of riding a favourite pony and the suspicion that follows a run of trail accidents.

A family’s response to wartime bereavement is entwined with an extraordinary cloning premise and a community’s prejudice towards a Japanese man.

Expect comic mishaps, wordplay and exaggerated solutions to ordinary problems, rather than a realistic account of family life.

This is a wartime story centred on service, family separation and friendship, with the Pacific setting bringing military danger into Hank's life.

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 story about consequences and freedom: one girl regrets cheating and resents a strict punishment, while another’s rare day off takes a risky turn.

The book brings a close friendship into conflict with the changing treatment of Jewish people in pre-war Austria, using a teenager’s journal to tell the story.

A teen story that brings together debating, a first crush and a disagreement at home, with Phoebe facing the challenge of speaking up for herself as well as in competition.

A cross-generational mystery unfolds through Henni’s investigation and emails with Leo. Alongside puzzles and friendship, the book examines migration, prejudice, belonging and the pressure placed on people whose home is questioned.

A reflective coming-of-age novel centred on a teenager waiting for her fisherman father, with family strain, friendship, first love, self-image and prejudice among its stated concerns.

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.

This is a fast-moving Tudor adventure centred on loyalty, injustice and a child’s effort to protect his father. It offers contrasting views of courtly wealth and London poverty, alongside historical detail about power and religious change.

This is an intense, visually symbolic story about shame, identity and survival. Its painful experiences are balanced by friendship and a hopeful possibility of acceptance, without suggesting that every difficulty has been resolved.

A comic fantasy mystery built around unusual weather, an imprisoned uncle and a determined group of friends.

This is a historical diary about a family trying to remain together amid Gold Rush hardship. It offers domestic perspective as well as danger, grief and ethical choices, with a generally bleak atmosphere and attention to friendship over sudden wealth.

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 character-focused story about wanting recognition and facing a sibling’s departure. The pageant provides a lively setting for exploring rivalry, while the family storyline brings a more serious emotional thread.

This is a serious verse novel about friendship under pressure. It offers a close view of BJ’s insecurity, the pull of social acceptance, and how rumours and prejudice can intensify a painful situation.

An energetic race story where the excitement of competition is balanced by moments of empathy. Its strongest message is that a satisfying result can involve kindness, fair choices and sharing, not simply finishing first.

Expect an unusual war fantasy where friendship and chosen family matter amid occupation, bodily vulnerability and shifting loyalties. Its experimental form may reward patient readers, but the story’s violence and sexual exploitation are substantial.

This is a grim historical adventure about unjust punishment, endurance and friendship. Its atmosphere is bleak, but Tom and Midgely’s imagination gives the story a counterweight of resourcefulness and hope.

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.

A sports mystery built around a strained friendship, team pressure and an investigation into threats and sabotage. The buried-treasure connection adds historical intrigue, while danger raises the stakes beyond the football pitch.

This is a character-focused story about friendship, identity and growing independence. Henry’s heritage and Marcus’s emerging self-confidence create different but connected journeys, with humour and affection balancing angry confrontations and social pressure.

This is comic, diary-like young-adult fiction about Georgia Nicolson, whose self-centredness, friendship and romantic uncertainty sit alongside a sense that she has not yet grown up. Its humour includes recurring theatrical and eccentric comic situations.

This is a character-led fantasy about maintaining balance while society modernises. Korra faces political unrest, spiritual conflict and difficult leadership choices, alongside friendships and romance. The storytelling offers more serious emotional and philosophical territory than typical children’s programming, with later seasons carrying greater intensity.

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.

This is a character-led supernatural sequel combining a recovery mission with coven conflict, witch-hunter danger and queer community. Its emotional centre is Sideways’s struggle to function while feeling incomplete.

This is a romantic fantasy about people negotiating marriage, status, belief and social expectations in a fictional world resembling colonial America. Friendship, adventure and intrigue accompany a relationship that becomes a passionate marriage.

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 time-travel adventure centred on friendship, fairness and an orphan’s vulnerability. Its historical setting and Christian-life framing may offer a lively starting point for discussing how stories represent justice and belonging.

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.

This is a humorous but emotionally unsettled school-and-family story about coping when several losses and humiliations arrive together. Camille’s resilience is central, though the path towards it is described as difficult.

A fast-moving mystery-adventure about children building a home together while uncovering secrets around a missing billionaire, a threatening uncle and a possibly real sword-wielding protector.

This is a family-and-community story about cultural identity, belonging and resilience. Its period details, family interactions and humour sit alongside racism, economic pressure and the difficult work of translating between languages and expectations.

This is a friendship adventure combining pony-camp activities, a magical pony and a dilemma about whether a friend’s team may cheat. It appears suited to readers who enjoy everyday social problems alongside fantasy.

A lively story about a wronged schoolgirl choosing increasingly risky ways to recover her future. Its strongest discussion point is the gap between understanding Bernetta’s predicament and approving of her solution.

This is a visually rich wartime memoir about service, segregation, friendship and artistic persistence.

This is a supernatural thriller about a transgender teen whose post-operative recovery is interrupted by a werewolf attack. Friendship, bodily change, prejudice and the pull of revenge sit alongside the horror premise.

Expect a vivid underwater fantasy adventure led by a determined engineer, with a submarine expedition, imaginative creatures, perilous conditions and a group learning to trust one another.

A warm, unusual story about an orphan girl and a gorilla forming a family, while facing official scrutiny and prejudice. Its humour and tenderness sit alongside uncertainty about belonging and justice.

A character-led teen romance about revenge, filmmaking and changing assumptions. Its strongest appeal may be the tension between Wren’s determined judgement of Beckett and her growing uncertainty about whether she understands him.