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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 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.

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 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.

This is a relationship-focused school and family story about donor conception, confidence, friendship and adapting to change. It offers two children’s perspectives as they move from resentment towards working together, though the final resolution is unclear.

This is a bleak, emotionally charged dystopian novel: survival, loyalty and resistance unfold amid child combatants, grief and tightly controlled public narratives. Its literary symbolism and political ideas sit alongside substantial graphic violence.

This is a visually powerful book about how an apparently luxurious purchase can be connected to exploitation and inequality. Its sparse words place substantial interpretive weight on sombre, confronting charcoal images and the reader’s response.

A lively circus setting frames a story about a penguin choosing a different role. Poppy’s change from performer to organiser offers a reassuring alternative to following a family tradition.

Expect fast-moving fantasy adventure: Emily and her friends train, discover powers and attempt a dangerous rescue while war approaches. Family tensions and questions of trust sit alongside battles and emotional uncertainty.

An upbeat, personal introduction to farming that follows a working year and explains sheep care alongside stories, humour and reflections on the realities of farm life.

A playful, high-energy quest turns familiar ideas upside down. Its central appeal is the combination of gaming-style adventure, colourful illustrations, unusual allies and a clear goal: return to the real world.

A warm, illustration-rich story about rebuilding a neglected hotel through practical work, creative problem-solving and cooperation. Its main tension comes from whether Anna and her team can meet an inspector’s challenge.

Expect a lively rescue adventure centred on Molly’s courage and cleverness. The pirate setting, island peril and treasure chase offer momentum, while Molly’s role gives the story an assertive child protagonist.

This is an action-led coming-of-age story about a troubled child entering an extraordinary spy-training organisation. It offers perseverance, teamwork and personal change alongside danger, bereavement, coercion and language some families may wish to discuss.

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.

Expect an imaginative fantasy built around a dangerous darkness, paired roles and a developing relationship. Its strongest focus appears to be how people resist restrictive expectations while learning to trust someone very different from themselves.

A spooky Cornwall adventure with a mystery at its centre, this book brings together a young conservation-minded protagonist, an unusual dog, family members and a new friend against a curse that poisons and destroys the land.

This is a fast-moving historical heist about a teenager challenging wealthy and powerful rulers. Its appeal lies in the team’s contrasting abilities, disguises and audacious objective, but the story also contains substantial violence and references to sexual violence.

This is a gentle family story built around an everyday journey. Each relative brings a different pace, route and kind of companionship, while Papa’s shoulder ride becomes the child’s especially cherished school-day experience.

A richly imagined fantasy combines Arthurian legend, secret societies and demons with Bree’s investigation into her mother’s death. Its strongest offering is a Black protagonist navigating grief, power and contested history alongside diverse allies and difficult questions about inherited authority.

This is an action-led fantasy about a trans teen navigating a dangerous divine competition, with friendship and social inequality at its centre. Its imaginative mythology and representation may appeal, while the sacrifice premise and sustained peril make the emotional stakes substantial.

This offers an atmospheric historical fantasy with a strong emotional centre: a grieving girl is drawn into a dangerous magical bargain while working in her family’s sweet shop and seeking a way to repair the past.

A gentle adventure about curiosity becoming a shared project. Arthur and his father respond to rumours about the forest by building towards a view beyond it, while bread, neighbours, a storm and a dog add warmth, suspense and opportunities to notice how the community responds.

Expect a darkly funny, morally complicated fantasy heist: Elle rebuilds her crew to pursue a seemingly impossible rescue from the Afterlife while translating a mysterious manuscript and avoiding powerful syndicates.

This is a brisk estate mystery built around literary-themed contests, investigation and shifting family secrets. Derin’s personal reasons for entering give the competition emotional weight, while hidden passages and mysterious notes sustain the puzzle.

This is a focused contemporary family story about children’s privacy online. It offers a plot-led way to consider sharenting, consent and the consequences when a parent’s public identity depends on children’s visibility.

A fast-moving fantasy adventure combines fairy-tale reworking, coding, futuristic inventions and family emotion. Amber’s ordered life is disrupted by a rescue mission, while her father’s past adds a more serious strand.

This is a historically grounded coming-of-age story about a girl pursuing football while working in wartime industry. It offers determination, teamwork and questions about who gets opportunities, alongside setbacks when social and institutional attitudes change.

A football-centred route into First World War history, this is an emotionally direct story about ambition, enlistment and survival. Its accessible presentation may support readers who want a gripping historical novel without dense prose.

A football-focused sequel about ambition under pressure, balancing a possible professional opportunity with family work, social relationships and disruptive encounters. It may suit a reader who enjoys sport-centred stories with setbacks.

A football-centred story about pressure, responsibility and learning to co-operate, with Roy juggling his place in the team, college, family duties and coaching. It offers both match-focused excitement and everyday-life concerns.

A lively conservation adventure centred on teamwork among rainforest animals.

This is a socially aware family story with a determined child protagonist. It combines motel life, immigrant family pressures and Mia’s writing ambitions, while presenting difficult injustices alongside friendship, support and attempts to help others.

A good fit for readers drawn to eerie fairy-tale retellings, magical quests, mysteries and determined protagonists. Its central journey carries genuine danger, while its romantic thread and unresolved ending may shape the reading experience.

This is a contemporary YA romance about reconnecting with someone changed by fame. Alongside Lulu and Kite’s feelings, it considers friendship, family relationships, celebrity privacy, fandom culture, mental health and bisexual identity.

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.

This is a fast-moving virtual-reality adventure with a capable but vulnerable protagonist, combining tournament gameplay with a mystery about a threatening player and technology’s real-world consequences.

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.

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.

This is a multi-viewpoint historical romance about four young Black women balancing love, work, family expectations and social change in 1910 Chicago. It offers ambitious characters and a setting shaped by racial inequality and restricted opportunities for women.

This is an adventurous wartime mystery centred on Mary’s language work, secret assignments and shifting loyalties. Its suspense comes from the uncertainty surrounding her operation.

A brisk historical adventure about a determined young performer entering London’s theatrical world, with family pressure, friendship and danger shaping his efforts to follow William Shakespeare. Its glossary and postscript can support interest in period language and the boundary between invented story and historical fact.

A richly illustrated autumn adventure combines a young mouse’s separation from home with harvest preparations, changing weather and encounters with helpful communities. Its detailed sensory world may reward unhurried shared reading and close attention to pictures.

This looks like a lively friendship adventure built around contrasting personalities, imaginative inventions and a sudden encounter with a threatening figure. Its strongest appeal may be the trio’s teamwork and playful world-building.

A suspenseful school mystery follows three boys of colour who are treated as suspects after a principal’s murder. Their investigation brings together different perspectives while exploring prejudice, unequal schooling, friendship, determination and the pressure of protecting their futures.