What Are You Looking For?

Expect an imaginative underwater adventure with a determined heroine, a strong sibling bond, unusual creatures and a richly developed river community. The story combines quest tension with questions about trust, belonging and changing long-held assumptions.

This is a richly imagined fantasy adventure about searching for a missing parent while navigating a hidden botanical world. It offers magical danger, family revelations, environmental stakes and questions about belonging.

This is a cricket-centred story about belonging and persistence. Kerry-Ann’s love of the game, family connection to Jamaica and grandfather’s history sit alongside a conflict over who is welcomed at the club.

A warm but potentially emotionally charged story about a neurodivergent teenager responding to unfairness, protecting her sister and challenging a culture in which bullying can be enabled by silence.

This appears to be children’s fiction shaped partly by the author’s experience of meeting young people in the youth justice system.

This is a contemporary YA novel about students resisting school book bans. It combines activism and community conflict with Noor’s relocation, family strain, Muslim identity, friendship, grief and tentative romantic feelings.

A lively school-camp adventure centres on friendship, frightening folklore and a difficult peer relationship.

This is a spooky, emotionally charged mystery with a determined heroine, supernatural elements and a strong justice thread. It may suit readers who enjoy suspense while thinking about fairness, truth and growing up.

This is a socially focused YA novel about racism, Muslim identity and belonging, balancing painful conflict with family, friendship, faith and Somali community. Its central movement is from enforced quietness towards speaking up.

Expect a fast-moving science-fiction adventure built around giant mechanical beings, survival and shifting loyalties. Alongside danger and suspense, Coll’s journey explores belonging, disability, identity and whether inherited beliefs deserve questioning.

A moving historical war story about Stephen and Danny, whose growing love unfolds amid trench warfare, bereavement and hostility towards gay men. Expect both tense action and quieter attention to vulnerability, friendship, identity and the emotional costs of conflict.

A suspenseful fantasy about discovering identity and belonging, with a resourceful protagonist, dragon lore and a friendship shaped by loneliness. It offers emotional themes alongside danger, loss and a history of conflict between humans and dragons.

A playful family story turns everyday sharing into a mathematical puzzle. Equal portions are often manageable, but people, accidents and affection resist neat calculation, making fairness both a practical challenge and an emotional one.

A promising discussion choice for a reader interested in fairness and resisting other people's expectations.

A discussion choice for a reader interested in friendship and unfairness, with care around debt and criminal choices.