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 lively visual story about making a home from mishaps. Its strongest pleasures are comic accidents, inventive machinery, expressive illustrations and the animals’ growing community.

This is an emotionally intense survival story about grief, anxiety and changing relationships. Its suspenseful wilderness episodes sit alongside Case’s uncertain understanding of his brother and the difficult process of living after loss.

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.

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 lively fantasy about an ordinary child entering an extraordinary school, balancing comic invention with peril, uncertainty and the discovery of friendship. Its invented gods and visual humour are central attractions.

A forceful historical adventure about enslaved people resisting plantation rule. Moa’s choice to join Tacky’s uprising brings friendship, courage and hope into direct conflict with coercion, danger and the possibility of death.

A playful friendship story about celebrating what makes someone unusual. Its comic dog, park setting, missing pets and rescue premise offer opportunities for shared laughter, anticipation and noticing how a difference can become a strength.

A lively story about a child whose entrepreneurial idea grows rapidly, testing friendships and responsibilities. It offers an engaging way to think about ambition, persistence and the consequences of taking risks.

This is an emotionally tense story about two former friends facing grief and guilt after a tragedy. Its alternating viewpoints offer different perspectives on damaged trust, private struggles and the possibility of moving forward.

Expect an energetic rescue adventure moving between a rural industrial town and an imaginative jinn world. Nura’s loyalty, resourcefulness and courage drive the story, while friendship, family responsibility and resistance to exploitation shape its emotional centre.

This is a gentle story about staying emotionally connected when physical contact is not possible. It offers several concrete, non-touching ways to show affection, while keeping the reason and duration of separation unexplained.

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.

This is a myth-influenced fantasy adventure about friends mounting a rescue, confronting an ancient foe and relying on one another. Its emotional centre appears to be loyalty, belonging and the pressure of trying to save someone.

A coastal mystery combines shell collecting, friendship and bereavement with wartime and present-day danger. The story may suit a child who enjoys clues and adventure but benefits from space to discuss Alice’s loss.

A lively, premise-led adventure about a young K-pop fan and her headteacher experiencing each other’s lives. Expect humour from their contrasting ages and personalities, alongside questions about friendship, family relationships, authority and seeing life from another person’s position.

This is a colourful, humorous graphic-novel adventure about Berry finding a companion, Terry causing havoc, and Berry trying to prevent his departure. It offers playful fantasy, energetic visual storytelling and a friendship-centred problem to follow.

This is a richly illustrated mermaid adventure about protecting a home from development. Its diary format, playful language and underwater world may invite shared reading, visual exploration and discussion.

This offers a school-start story about friendship and belonging, with a particular focus on how Pelly’s difference affects her relationships with Tangle and Eno.

This is a colourful, surreal graphic-fantasy adventure about belonging, friendship and trust. Its comic situations and unusual magical community sit alongside a possible trap, anxious feelings and a conflict that may slow the story’s momentum.

This is a war-and-refugee coming-of-age novel: Kateryno leaves Kharkiv with her mother and brother, settles with a British host family, and navigates separation, new relationships and the emotional aftermath of invasion.

This is a richly layered historical coming-of-age novel about a book-loving girl negotiating family duty, education, friendship and romance while a murder’s consequences reach into her community.

Choose this for a child who enjoys eerie folktales, unusual friendships and stories that leave some things to imagine. The visual mood is shadowy, but the skull is presented as polite and friendly rather than simply frightening.

This is a character-led environmental mystery about two young people who feel different or guarded. It combines wildlife protection, a beach discovery, family secrets and friendship, while giving Ivy’s difficult earlier experiences meaningful emotional weight.

Expect a suspenseful mystery built around unreliable perspectives, teenage status and the question of whether Tasha’s near-drowning was an accident. The investigation gradually exposes strained friendships and hidden motives.

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 determined young protagonist moves from harsh workhouse conditions into a competitive school, where inventive technology, friendships and hidden political danger drive a fast-moving dystopian adventure.

A lively, first-person school story combines farcical problem-solving and slow-burn romance with serious family instability. Its emotional centre is Aideen’s habit of helping others while struggling to address her own circumstances.

A contemporary coming-of-age story about queer identity, family ties and friendship, told in verse through Kai’s perspective. Its social concerns sit alongside romance and everyday school life, while the ending’s handling of these strands remains only partly clear.

A twist-led English manor mystery follows Stevie’s investigation of two 1995 killings. Alongside clues and alternating time periods, it explores friendship, romance, trust and the pressures of senior year.

Blip’s routine changes when a power cut disconnects her. Outside, she finds colour, play and companionship with a fawn, duck and rabbit, then faces the question of returning home and reconnecting.

A thoughtful verse novel about the upheaval of starting secondary school. Nate encounters friendship, rules, family change, anger and conflict, while a returning figure from the past makes life more complicated.

A high-stakes entertainment story follows Candace as stardom, school, relationships and public activism collide. It offers glamour alongside questions about industry reform, self-expression, cultural identity and the cost of standing by one’s beliefs.

Expect a trope-rich teen romance centred on an online fake relationship, a Korean café, fandom and belonging. Its stated interests also include multicultural identity, friendship heartbreak and representation of queer characters.

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.

This offers atmospheric supernatural suspense, a mystery to unravel and a protagonist forced to face personal and communal secrets. It may suit readers who enjoy eerie settings, countdowns, twists and psychologically unsettling dilemmas.

A lively football story about a struggling team, a supposed cursed kit and Stanley’s efforts to restore confidence. Expect comic superstition, setbacks and team-focused action, with the ending centred on the last game.

A frank, humorous YA novel about Rose’s difficult first sexual experience, a medical complication, relationship pressure and the shame surrounding bodies. It also follows friendship, online support and uncertainty about the future.

A lively detective adventure centred on sisters, friendship and a tightly connected high-rise community. The mystery moves through clues, suspects and reversals, balancing comic sibling exchanges with the seriousness of murder and its effects.

This is an urgent science-fiction adventure with horror elements: invasive plants threaten communities, while three young people investigate why they are unaffected. Alongside survival, the opening gives attention to illness, self-image, friendship and family relationships.

This is an emotionally direct school-and-family story about being misread, finding ways to communicate and learning to recognise a person beyond appearance or speech. Harriet’s perspective gives disability, irritation, humour and courage a central place.

A dark, atmospheric thriller combining a competitive K-pop setting with unresolved friendship, grief and supernatural dread. Its strongest appeal is likely the gradual shift from celebrity drama into psychological and body horror.

This is a fast-moving horror adventure built around a familiar childhood game becoming strange and threatening. Its unusual file-based presentation adds mystery, while the friendship between Adam and Sol gives the frightening situation an emotional centre.

This is a colour-rich magical quest about a child seeking companionship, forming a close bond with a dog, and responding when that relationship no longer fits her home. It offers a gentle framework for discussing change and belonging.