What Are You Looking For?

This is a legend retelling centred on a princess and a warrior, with love, a challenge, a false report and an unresolved awakening at its heart.

A school-set romantic story built around playful exchanges and a difference in what Alisa and Masachika know about their conversations.

This is a hockey team story about a player’s frustration, peer pressure and a shift towards more honest communication. The overview suggests that Steven’s place on the B team becomes less troubling to him.

The story brings together Rebecca’s interest in acting and her concern for her cousin Ana.

A cross-generational mystery unfolds through Henni’s investigation and emails with Leo. Alongside puzzles and friendship, the book examines migration, prejudice, belonging and the pressure placed on people whose home is questioned.

This is a comic teen story about friendship, flirting, misunderstandings and the difficulty of managing a situation that keeps expanding. Jess’s plan involving Fred, together with Flora and the visiting French students, contributes to the complications.

This is an unusual, structurally adventurous story about a refugee rebuilding his life while several other narratives unfold around him. It combines science fiction, historical material, dark humour and emotionally serious questions about survival and disclosure.

This is a character-led story about a teenager’s self-image and changing relationships, set alongside Cassie’s disability and her family’s circumstances. Its several viewpoints invite readers to consider how people’s inner lives may differ from what others can see.

A warm, episodic coming-of-independence story: Kiki builds a life through useful work, new relationships and repeated problem-solving. Magic sits alongside ordinary concerns about fitting in, missing home, trusting others and discovering what she can do.

A supernatural mystery about a young artist whose disturbing visions become real, combining friendship and family tensions with bloodshed, possible powers, and the uncertainty of whether an ally is the killer.

This is a warm, mystery-led story about wanting to belong while pursuing an unusual ambition. Its seaside setting, humour, family secrets and theme of self-acceptance may particularly suit readers drawn to determined protagonists and magical possibilities.

This is a warm but perilous time-slip adventure about a child coping with frightening family circumstances. Its emotional centre is the growing trust between two boys who must care for one another while trying to return home.

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.

Choose this for a character-led, humorous romance centred on awkward feelings, friendship and self-discovery. Its appeal appears to come from Patch’s dramatic voice alongside a more vulnerable concern about being “too much”.

This is a slow-burning, atmospheric thriller for readers who enjoy uncertainty, dreamlike fantasy and family mysteries. Its strongest interest lies in how Shelby’s changing understanding of herself reshapes the story around her.

A character-led YA novel about Deaf identity, changing schools and deciding how far to trust new people. It offers a perspective on agency, communication and inclusion, alongside friendship and romance.

A contemporary coming-of-age romance about Simon’s identity, friendships and first relationship, told alongside anonymous email exchanges. It offers LGBTQ+ representation, humour and emotional growth, while placing personal discovery alongside school conflict and online communication.

This offers a relationship-focused, humorous story in which two guarded people test their assumptions about compatibility. The appeal lies in watching their deliberate attempts to put one another off, alongside the possibility that persistence may reveal something more complicated.

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

A contemporary family story that brings mystery, romance and social pressures together. Its emotional centre is the siblings’ struggle with grief, secrecy, anxiety, poverty and the possibility of finding joy and support.

This is a verse novel about a teenager living with family secrecy and the effects of her mother’s mental illness. Its central movement is towards understanding, while school, friendship, romance and art remain part of Laura’s everyday world.

A wide-ranging fantasy mystery about diplomatic danger, family power and personal agency. Its imaginative world places telepathic animals and unusual technology alongside political conflict, environmental questions and the effects of coercive family relationships.

This is an animal-centred survival and friendship story, balancing Ratchet’s dangers with Mike’s patient attempt to understand her. It also brings animal behaviour and overlooked urban nature into the foreground.

This is an ensemble survival and mystery story about young people adapting to an evacuation camp, then investigating the threat behind it. Its changing forms invite attention to how different voices record events and make sense of uncertainty.

A colourful, imaginative fantasy finale about connection, courage and upheaval. It offers an intricate alternate world, escalating danger and emotional relationships, while its unusual language and many plot developments may reward close, patient reading.