What Are You Looking For?

This is a high-stakes fantasy adventure built around a group of morally complicated outsiders, a dangerous magical object and uneasy cooperation.

This historical fiction places a young Pueblo character under Spanish rule, with imposed demands on his work, worship and resources at its centre.

A maritime survival adventure follows Fable’s effort to leave an island and seek a place with her father, while building a working alliance with West.

Expect fantasy adventure centred on a team effort to confront a dangerous, shadowy threat, with spirit animals bound to the human characters.

This fantasy mystery combines a missing-person investigation with a city divided over the loss of magic. Mary Elizabeth’s close relationships are also drawn into the case.

A witty, humane fantasy about growing into responsibility while facing fear, prejudice and loss. Tiffany’s work as a witch centres on caring for people, while the story also brings darker threats and emotionally difficult relationships.

A historical adventure about starting again after disaster, building friendships and trying to protect a new home from moving sand. Expect family upheaval, school conflict and an ending whose precise emotional shape is unclear.

An imaginative, action-led science-fiction adventure built around odd powers, unusual companions and a dangerous quest. Its elaborate world and mysteries may appeal to persistent readers, though the journey is deliberately expansive.

A gentle but emotionally serious story about a child’s promise, a friendship interrupted by war, and the experience of someone’s absence. Its focus is care and loyalty rather than action.

A fast-moving survival adventure places Sam and Delphy in immediate danger from wildfire while their developing friendship becomes central to their effort to reach safety.

A tense frontier survival adventure in which three children evade outlaws, endure severe hardship and discover treasure. It offers resourcefulness, loyalty and historical setting alongside frightening danger, bereavement and family separation.

This is a gentle woodland story about preparing for a storm, helping neighbours and recovering after Badger’s home is damaged. Detailed illustrations and a hopeful rebuilding sequence support shared reading and discussion.

This is a character-led friendship story about two girls confronting assumptions shaped by place, money and family life. It offers gradual mutual understanding across sharply contrasting circumstances.

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 an outdoor adventure about a child investigating her grandmother’s disappearance, helping eagles in difficulty and discovering a stronger sense of belonging in the mountain community.

A tense, emotionally serious science-fiction mystery about desperate choices, hidden exploitation and sibling love. Its strongest appeal is the combination of a threatening facility, ethical questions and contrasting prose and poetry voices.

A fast-paced adventure follows Ollie into The Haven, a child-run refuge and investigation network. The story combines criminal danger, missing children, bereavement and a threat to London, with friendship developing between Ollie and Dodge.

A tense political-disaster adventure about a servant suddenly given public power, with shifting accounts of events and difficult choices about trust, responsibility and survival.

A lively conservation adventure centred on teamwork among rainforest animals.

A poetic picture book follows a girl whose ordinary school day is shattered by war. Alone, she travels through dangerous displacement before encountering a school that initially excludes her. The story presents destruction, bereavement and possible drowning indirectly, then turns towards welcome, solidarity and hope through children’s practical kindness.

Expect a richly illustrated, surreal story rather than a straightforward cosy tale. The Greenling brings abundance and connection, yet its arrival and departure carry an ominous, folkloric atmosphere.

This is a queer romantic fiction about a self-assured young man whose matchmaking project unsettles his rules about friendship, sex and love. It combines social observation with relationships shaped by shared communities and personal loss.

A serious, emotionally charged story about a bereaved child facing prejudice, instability and threats to her bond with Joe. It may invite empathy, but its portrayal of rescue and belonging appears partly sentimentalised.

Louie’s grief after his brother’s death unfolds alongside parental separation and a community’s devastation. The story uses ghosts and Endlander mourning traditions to explore how people remember the dead, communicate loss and begin rebuilding.

This is a direct, emotionally serious story about a child living through her mother’s death. It offers language for grief, shows that support can coexist with loneliness, and uses a familiar garment to represent continuing love and memory.

A thoughtful speculative story about whether a digital recreation can be treated as a person. Its emotional centre is Isla’s changing relationship with her returned sister, alongside family disagreement and the island community’s divided response.

A dark supernatural mystery combines witchcraft, ghosts, grief and romance. Viola’s investigation is supported by friendships and a search for justice, while the story also builds suspense through murder, dangerous spirits and unsettling deaths.

A dark, atmospheric story for readers who enjoy ghosts, folklore, natural magic and narratives that connect across time. Three girls face danger and loss while their stories gradually converge around a threatening presence in the woods.

Expect an imaginative, creature-filled adventure centred on finding sanctuary. Friendship, loyalty, courage and environmental loss sit alongside danger, threatening creatures and occasional insulting language.

This is a gentle family story about adapting to hearing loss without losing closeness. Jacki and her mother use sign language, while Jacki discovers that music can also be shared through vibration, movement and visual communication.

This is a coming-of-age story in which Scout and Jem encounter racism, inequality and adult moral choices. Its child’s-eye perspective presents these difficult social realities, but does not make its language or events gentle.

This is a supernatural family drama about a dead teenager’s unexpected return and its consequences. It offers emotionally serious reflection on grief, regret, identity, memory and the possibility of repair.

This is a demanding, historically grounded family story that combines severe hardship with compassion, solidarity and social criticism. Its emotional force comes from people trying to preserve dignity and connection while facing displacement, hunger and injustice.

A formally varied, emotionally serious story about friendship and recovery. Its urban green space, ravens, artwork and shifting voices give the characters’ grief, exclusion and difficult choices a layered setting.

This is a lively but grief-heavy coming-of-age story: boarding-school camaraderie, pranks and desire give way to questions about guilt, responsibility, idealisation and how little one person may know about another.

This is a fast-moving fantasy adventure built around three young characters with different goals. It offers magical creatures, peril and hidden truths about the island and the beliefs surrounding its beasts.

Expect atmospheric Gothic fantasy: a boy investigates unsettling events in a cold, impoverished village while family history and vampire folklore shape the mystery. The tone is menacing, symbolic and sometimes visceral.

A sweeping fantasy adventure centred on two young people, a hidden magical world and the struggle to preserve disappearing magic. Expect imaginative creatures, perilous quests and emotionally significant losses alongside companionship, ingenuity and moral responsibility.

A magical, atmospheric fairytale retelling centred on Red’s curiosity, a threatened relationship between village and woodland, and questions about who is treated as dangerous. It combines mystery, grief, disability representation and collective strength.

This is a historical coming-of-age romance centred on a young woman entering Lowell’s mills. Its strongest interest appears to be the pressures of work, solidarity and self-determination, with romantic uncertainty running alongside them.

A story collection about Clan cats facing loss, troubling visions, revenge and responsibility. Each novella stands alone, so readers encounter three different emotional journeys rather than one continuous plot.

This is a dual-timeline adventure about a girl’s search for a lost family object and her discovery of an older generation’s wartime story. Its focus falls on loyalty, memory, courage and helping others in crisis.

This is a multi-character story about lives meeting in a threatened home, with Sunday and Rosa’s experiences bringing questions of refuge, Britain and belonging into focus.

This is an action-led fantasy about three teenagers drawn into danger, mystery and Greek-mythological ideas. Alongside battles and peril, it explores memory, loyalty, family fears and the importance of trusting companions.

A reflective story about a young person navigating embarrassment, family responsibilities and first love while her community faces forced relocation. Expect character-focused writing, social tension and a strong sense of place rather than constant action.