What Are You Looking For?

A child-centred fantasy adventure about friendship across very different ways of life, with a final episode that invites readers to decide what really happened.

A fantasy caper built around a criminal boy’s plan to ransom a fairy, with high-tech opponents and a possible clash between species.

A funny school-and-family story about disrupted routines, fostering and learning to cooperate when two boys must tackle a shared challenge.

Expect a brisk, high-stakes science-fiction adventure built from movie-like set pieces: secret hideouts, monsters, lost cities and missions. Its emotional centre is the friends’ changing reliance on friendship, loyalty, trust and teamwork.

A thoughtful time-slip adventure about two boys separated by centuries but connected by hardship. Its mystery framework brings contemporary housing insecurity and Victorian workhouse life together, while the boys’ friendship gives the story an emotionally hopeful centre.

This imaginative story offers a memorable giant, a child’s difficult change of heart, and a large-scale struggle between technology, nature and destructive forces.

Expect children’s fantasy involving the named protagonists. Its appeal lies in lively family exchanges, problem-solving and events shaped by the children’s decisions.

This is an adventurous friendship story set around hiking, camping and outdoor survival. Its emotional centre is Vincent’s struggle with school, coordination and belonging, alongside classmates whose different circumstances affect how the group works together.

This is an adventure about two young people from opposing populations whose friendship brings hidden injustice into view. Its imaginative giant-built city provides a route into questions about prejudice, power, exploitation and environmental responsibility.

A lively fairy-tale reimagining where three heroines encounter magic, danger and friendship. Its central movement is from Rumaysa’s enforced confinement towards escape, shared adventure and protagonists who act as their own rescuers.

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.

This is an action-led story about a young aspiring journalist and friends using a newspaper to investigate a threatened slum. Its strongest appeal is the combination of friendship, initiative and social stakes.

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.

Expect an imaginative, creature-filled adventure centred on finding sanctuary. Friendship, loyalty, courage and environmental loss sit alongside danger, threatening creatures and occasional insulting language.

A choice-driven story about finding a voice when other people control the decisions. Fred’s move to a new school brings pressure, friendships and opportunities to pursue his art, while each reader’s choices shape a different route.

This is an emotionally attentive story about a child whose secluded woodland life is abruptly disrupted. It explores unfamiliar family relationships, different ways of experiencing the world, and the possibility of connection without requiring October to become someone else.

A child navigating a new life, missing family and friendship encounters a magical garden whose promises lead towards adventure and a darker fairy-tale atmosphere.

Expect a lively quest shaped by comic reversals: a gullible scarecrow and clever Jack search for home while facing legal pursuit and a plan to industrialise Spring Valley. Kindness and ingenuity help them resist the threat.

This is an imaginative, unsettling quest about two dependent beings trying to build a home rather than achieve isolation. Expect comic absurdity alongside menace, moral complexity and sustained questions about freedom, family and survival.

This is a thought-provoking premise about a child encountering expectations attached to gender. The school setting gives the story a concrete way to explore fairness, behaviour and assumptions.

A family-centred adventure mystery with imaginative airships and a dangerous journey. Its main appeal is likely the twins’ attempt to discover the truth about their father and the disputed accusation surrounding his expedition.

This is a thoughtful survival adventure in which Roz learns by watching, earns trust through helpfulness and cares for an orphaned gosling. Its accessible episodic structure supports shared reading, while the island’s dangers and losses may prompt pauses.

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 myth-rich adventure that joins friendship, cultural detail and care for the natural world. Its imaginative journey gives children an active role in responding to environmental damage.

A fast-moving school thriller that turns familiar rules, routines and adult authority into a mechanism of control. Its central tension is whether individuality and independent judgement can survive pressure to comply.

Expect an eerie, imaginative timeslip story in which Minty investigates a mysterious garden and tries to help two children from different historical periods. Its suspense is closely connected with family distress and compassion.

A child’s perspective makes refugee experience, antisemitism and changing countries personal and discussable. Family solidarity and curiosity sit alongside historically grounded accounts of persecution and loss.

A fast-moving mystery about a child trying to clear her father’s name, with computer crime, family pressure and danger. Victoria’s intelligence, courage and persistence drive the investigation.

Expect a fast-moving fantasy adventure built around a race, inventive magical creatures and a quest to help family. Its emotional centre is a quiet child learning to recognise his own capabilities.

This is a visually expansive migration story that links a child, a swift and distant places. It offers a gentle narrative alongside ideas about seasons, wind, landscapes and the continuity of life.

A vivid island adventure about two grieving girls whose hostility gradually becomes friendship. It combines mystery, ocean danger and village traditions with sustained attention to apology, forgiveness, cultural understanding and learning to live with loss.

This looks like nature-centred fiction that invites children to wonder about trees and the wider living world.

A lively supernatural adventure pairs comic disruption with curiosity about local history, memory and the passage of time. It may appeal to children who enjoy ghostly mysteries where the unexplained is explored through investigation rather than treated only as frightening.

This is an action-led historical mystery about resilience, friendship and justice. Vita’s perilous journey through Roman London and the gladiatorial world combines family upheaval, betrayal, disguise and vivid historical atmosphere.

Expect a comic treasure mystery driven by Aisha and her unusually capable dog. Its appeal lies in brisk adventure, puzzles, archaeology and playful language, though some readers may find the opening slow or the pace uneven.

Expect an entertaining ghost adventure with intersecting storylines: kindly ghosts seek a home, while an orphaned heir faces a frightening scheme involving deliberately terrifying spirits.

This is a tense, compassionate story about a child taking responsibility in a dangerous society. It combines family survival, Afghan history, women’s restricted freedoms and moments of hope, while leaving Parvana’s immediate future unresolved.

A warm, strongly moral story about an orphaned girl, changing homes and the relationships she forms. Its emotional centre is the contrast between Heidi’s mountain life and her unhappiness in Frankfurt.

A tense, emotionally serious survival story follows Ade through a collapsing city while his mother withdraws and neighbours become an unexpected support network. Its strongest offering is a child-centred exploration of vulnerability, responsibility and collective care.

This is a lively Greek-myth fantasy where comic gods and a young goddess accompany Elliott through danger. Its emotional centre is a child trying to care for his unwell mother while protecting his family’s home.

Choose this for a reader who enjoys atmospheric mysteries, eccentric characters, supernatural adventure and comic wordplay. Its central appeal is following clues through an unusual seaside world while Herbie and Violet face escalating danger.

A lively Nigerian boarding-school adventure foregrounding friendship, cultural setting and fair access to education. Jummy’s new experiences offer both familiar school-story pleasures and a perspective shaped by different routines and expectations.

A high-stakes fantasy about two young people facing an oppressive society, dangerous magic and threats to their families. Its strongest focus is courage joined with cultural pride and resistance to injustice.

A richly atmospheric mystery for readers who enjoy eerie settings, puzzles and gradually revealed secrets.

This is a suspenseful historical story about family separation and friendship under political pressure. The documentary-style sections let readers see events through children’s eyes while gradually revealing the risks surrounding their attempts to stay connected.