What Are You Looking For?

A moving wartime narrative seen through a horse’s limited understanding, contrasting battlefield destruction with loyalty, care, and shared humanity. Its emotional force comes from the separation of Joey and Albert and the suffering of horses and people.

A family mystery with a strong relationship thread: Ani and Riri are trying to stay connected across separated households when a killing turns their theme-park visit into an investigation.

Ben’s OCD is represented through counting, tapping, blinking, colour rules and fears that dreadful things will happen. The story also follows friendship, school transition and family strain, with support beginning to help him regain control.

This is a serious, emotionally intense survival story about two boys whose very different family circumstances bring them into the same vulnerable community. Friendship and mutual dependence are central, alongside stark social hardship.

A football-centred adventure that places Budi’s ambitions beside poverty, exploitative work and criminal pressure. Friendship and family support offer warmth, but the story also asks readers to confront limited choices and difficult social conditions.

This is a comic, art-centred adventure in which a boy’s curiosity opens up a struggling Welsh community. It offers family relationships, local change and many real paintings.

This is an imaginative, unsettling science-fiction story about cloned people, social control and the meaning of a ‘real’ life. Its strongest appeal is likely its unusual premise and willingness to leave difficult questions unresolved.

This is an imaginative coming-of-age story about a friendship that crosses from invention into reality. Its strongest appeal is the playful magical premise alongside Laurie’s efforts to become more confident and understand what friendship means.

A school story about August’s first experience of mainstream education, Wonder explores friendship, prejudice, family relationships and self-acceptance. Its difficult incidents are set alongside reconciliation, supportive adults and acts of kindness.

Katniss volunteers to replace her sister in a televised fight to the death. Alongside survival, the book examines government control, inequality, media spectacle and the costs of violence, with family loyalty and compassion providing important counterweights.

This is a comic, time-pressured friendship adventure: two estranged boys must complete an unusual delivery while facing increasingly alarming obstacles. The story appears to balance humour, quarrelling and suspense, though its resolution is not known.

This is an adventure about recovering honour without simply restoring the past. Marcus’s journey gives space to consider loyalty, friendship across unequal status, physical limitation, and whether belonging can be rebuilt after defeat.

A lively historical adventure follows Lily as she travels unexpectedly through time while managing friendship drama, a feud, a first crush and the challenge of being separated from home.

A richly imagined fantasy adventure built around pursuit, magic and peril. Its strongest features are atmospheric landscapes, caves, folklore-like creatures and energetic action; ideas matter less than the unfolding adventure.

This is a family-centred journey through Harlem and African American heritage, with Amara trying to understand her roots while adults confront an old estrangement. Expect warmth and humour alongside grief, family tension and moments of uncertainty.

Expect a tense, psychologically charged story about a teenager confronting withheld family truths. Its interest lies in fear, responsibility and changing interpretations of danger, rather than simply solving a sequence of clues.

This is an adventure about cousins facing separation, institutional hardship and an adult’s deceptive scheme. Their escape becomes a journey towards help, with danger from both human wrongdoing and wolves along the way.

This is a tense contemporary story about a Muslim teenager responding to terror, Islamophobia and school bullying. Its central interest is how identity, friendship and collective action can challenge prejudice without making the surrounding hostility feel trivial.

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.

This is a mystery about a boy facing an unfair punishment and trying to understand a suspicious institution. The curse adds a generational dimension, while the buried secret gives Stanley a reason to question what he is told.

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