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This combines sibling bickering and mysterious happenings with a fantasy battle. The brothers’ rivalry becomes a practical obstacle when danger calls for them to act together.

A dark fantasy about belonging and survival, with magic woven into a village’s superstitions. Kate’s carving skill and unusual appearance make her a target, while a bargain offers escape at a personal cost.

A horse-centred school story combines Ash's recovery and changing relationship with Lightning with friendship, riding ambitions and efforts to keep a local riding club going.

This is a magical-creature adventure built around a hidden sanctuary, family ties and rules that can be broken. Its central conflict grows from a threat to the refuge and Kendra’s need to face her fears.

This is a supernatural fantasy centred on Clementine’s attempt to make sense of her past and her town’s troubles, with a mystery, local politics and a complicated attraction shaping the story.

This historical fiction centres on an older brother's responsibility for a younger sibling, while religious conflict and a werewolf belief shape the danger around them.

A school-and-friendship story centred on Lucy’s place in her group, with her friends’ public exploits providing a contrast to her private fear.

A superhero adventure built around a political bid, a destructive invention and heroes combining forces to protect Gotham.

This combines school-theatre rivalry with a creepy-house Christmas setting.

Expect a cat-centred adventure that combines fear, monsters, friendship and comic mischief.

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.

This is a grief-centred thriller about vulnerability, belonging and coercive influence. Ruby’s attraction to Fox’s community develops gradually, shifting the atmosphere from apprehension towards horror as its rules and secrets become more troubling.

A fast-moving horror mystery places two newcomers inside a cheerleading squad beset by danger. Its central appeal is suspense: the sisters must work out what is happening while the threat to the team escalates.

A playful Halloween adventure follows Blanche’s attempt to balance fun with responsibility. Magic, friendship, trick-or-treating and a time-sensitive flight meeting shape the story, with a period setting reflected in its treats and Halloween customs.

This is an energetic animal-fantasy adventure about belonging, travel and collective resistance. Its lively cast, music and narrow escapes may appeal to readers who enjoy high-stakes action alongside playful invention.

A dark, atmospheric supernatural story combines family mystery, a dangerous isolated community, visions and romance. Its imaginative premise may appeal to readers who enjoy intense paranormal fiction, though the plot and character motivations may feel difficult to follow.

A gentle but emotionally serious story about a child’s promise, a friendship interrupted by war, and the experience of someone’s absence. Its focus is care and loyalty rather than action.

A richly imagined coming-of-age fantasy that joins Cromwell’s England to a fairy-tale realm. Coriander is curious, persistent and resilient, but the story also brings bereavement, coercion, danger and moral conflict into her journey.

This is a gentle woodland story about preparing for a storm, helping neighbours and recovering after Badger’s home is damaged. Detailed illustrations and a hopeful rebuilding sequence support shared reading and discussion.

This is a supernatural camping adventure centred on two siblings confronting a frightening creature. Its strongest offer is atmosphere: mountains, forest, a loch and an ancient cave frame mystery, family interaction and danger.

A tense, atmospheric mystery about responsibility and taking action, with an underground workplace, a threatening diary and a close friendship group balancing the darker material with humour.

A magical friendship story combines snowy adventures with questions about fear, loneliness, community and letting go. Tasha's bond with Alyana is central, while winter's persistence may affect other people around them.

A dark, imaginative adventure for readers who enjoy secret societies, mythological creatures and determined protagonists. Its strongest hooks are the hunter trials, the forest’s threats and Winnie’s effort to reclaim her family’s standing.

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.

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 public mistake changes how she sees herself, with humour and acceptance easing the pressure to perform flawlessly.

Choose this for a creepy, atmospheric mystery centred on horror-film culture, a disturbing small-town setting and escalating suspense. Its appeal lies in eerie world-building and supernatural uncertainty rather than gentle or reassuring storytelling.

A tense survival adventure places young people in a natural disaster and gives Dylan and Louie difficult practical and emotional problems to solve. Its strongest thread appears to be movement from suspicion towards cooperation.

This is a survival adventure about dependent pets forced into an unknown, dangerous world. Its emotional centre is the animals’ struggle to cope, cooperate and change when familiar human protection disappears.

This is a fantasy adventure combining K-pop performance culture, martial-arts action and supernatural danger. Its emotional centre is a friendship group learning to work together while facing fears that affect them and others.

A true story follows Jennie from childhood through meeting Abram, love, his death and her search for courage. It links fear and bravery while showing grief as part of continuing life.

A horror premise places Charity and her friends inside a frightening version of the attraction they work in. Expect slasher suspense, dark humour, romance, disappearances and graphic violence, alongside questions about survival and familiar genre roles.

This offers a tense zombie-survival story alongside a developing romance between two boys. Its distinctive appeal lies in combining wilderness adventure with questions about belonging, prejudice, fear and how communities respond to outsiders.

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 suspenseful historical coming-of-age story about friendship, fear and noticing injustice. Its child’s-eye investigation opens onto difficult adult realities, while humour, community details and emotional relationships give the darker subject matter human texture.

Choose this for a reader who enjoys horses, richly imagined landscapes, folklore and a slowly tightening mystery. Its emotional centre is a complicated family whose love and resilience coexist with absence, suspicion and uncertainty.

A playful animal story centred on making and sharing pancakes. Its appeal lies in comic trouble, recognisable characters and the contrast between refusing help and wanting the finished food.

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 fast-moving rescue adventure about courage, loyalty and learning to trust. Wolves are central companions, while Feo’s journey brings danger, humour and a friendship that develops under pressure.

This is a sustained post-apocalyptic survival story in which blindness, predatory plants and human power struggles reshape everyday life. It offers danger, moral choices and competing ideas about how society might be rebuilt after catastrophe.

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.

This is an emotionally serious coming-of-age story about three teenagers whose relationships are shaped by AIDS, queer identity, family, activism and prejudice. It offers historical context alongside romance, friendship and moments of community, hope and self-acceptance.

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 magical adventure about a reluctant heroine whose new powers arrive alongside political danger. Its strongest offering is a culturally distinctive fantasy centred on Aya’s courage, relationships and growing responsibility.

This is a fast-moving fantasy adventure built around three young characters with different goals. It offers magical creatures, peril and hidden truths about the island and the beliefs surrounding its beasts.

Expect atmospheric Gothic fantasy: a boy investigates unsettling events in a cold, impoverished village while family history and vampire folklore shape the mystery. The tone is menacing, symbolic and sometimes visceral.