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The story centres on three characters whose lives connect through a factory town shaped by scarcity and hardship. It brings together friendship, family ambition and resistance to the town’s rules.

The story follows the consequences of a hit-and-run across four teenagers’ lives, including a choice to conceal what happened and the pressure of protecting a future in sport.

This is a school-set murder mystery about the fallout from a violent clash between two students. Its six boy narrators offer different perspectives as friends and enemies face loss, suspicion and racial tensions.

A family-centred story about two teenagers who leave home for London: Jade is impulsive and angry, while shy Honey is unsure about going. The trip challenges their expectations and changes how Jade thinks about home.

A supernatural adventure follows Sarah as she inherits a demon-hunting mission after her parents die. Her dreams, developing powers and uncertain trust in a newly arrived cousin shape her attempt to face the threat.

The reader chooses paths through a journey west, making decisions about how the separated narrator will survive and try to reunite with family. A Shoshone girl becomes a companion on the way.

A fast fantasy adventure combines hidden power, darkness, a threatened city and family secrets. Its mixed comic-and-narrative form may make the story’s movement between panels, captions and dialogue especially important to follow.

Expect a character-led fantasy adventure with romantic tension, shifting identities and a heroine negotiating personal freedom against obligations to her country. Its appeal lies in pursuit, hidden histories and gradual character change; the ending continues some series threads rather than resolving every larger question.

This offers an imaginative mermaid adventure centred on identity, belonging and contact between sea and land. Its unusual narrators, shifting viewpoints and inventive mythology may appeal to readers who enjoy atmospheric fantasy, though the conclusion has been found confusing or unsatisfying.

This is a compact, suspenseful story about a girl confronting the consequences of indifference. Its animal narrator makes a difficult conflict approachable, while the events invite careful thought about what one person can and cannot change.

This appears to be a children’s book centred, at least by its title, on a choice involving Father Christmas.

Expect a dark fairy-tale origin story rather than a straightforward retelling. The book centres on Gothel’s family, magical inheritance and choices surrounding youth, power and the cost of protecting or possessing others.

A tense, perspective-driven school story that asks what people owe one another when violence is threatened. Its strongest material is the contrast between aggression, unawareness and choosing not to act.

This is a historical adventure about choosing how to help someone in trouble when friendship, family loyalty and political loyalties pull in different directions. Its plantation setting also opens onto slavery, though enslaved people remain in the background of Felicity’s experience.

This is an emotionally charged story about bereavement, guilt and family pressure, with a relationship that draws Amber into trouble. Its suspense and changing impressions of characters may suit readers who welcome difficult feelings and revelations.

This is a wartime story about a child trying to understand occupation, separation and moral choice. Its strongest thread is Marit’s changing view of courage, loyalty and compassion amid danger.

Expect a strongly conservation-focused story in which animals argue for the kapok tree’s survival and a woodcutter must decide whether to act on what he hears. Its central appeal is imaginative, collective persuasion rather than detached environmental explanation.

This is an emotionally tense story about two former friends facing grief and guilt after a tragedy. Its alternating viewpoints offer different perspectives on damaged trust, private struggles and the possibility of moving forward.

A lively, premise-led adventure about a young K-pop fan and her headteacher experiencing each other’s lives. Expect humour from their contrasting ages and personalities, alongside questions about friendship, family relationships, authority and seeing life from another person’s position.

Expect a suspenseful mystery built around unreliable perspectives, teenage status and the question of whether Tasha’s near-drowning was an accident. The investigation gradually exposes strained friendships and hidden motives.

A playful fairy-tale reversal with a wilful child, a dangerous woodland and an angry wolf. Its strongest use is as a shared read about choices, listening and how familiar stories can be turned around.

This is a familiar supernatural romance viewed through Edward’s inner conflict. Readers receive another perspective on the same story, with loyalty and self-sacrifice set beside danger, controlling behaviour and repeated moral hesitation.

Expect a tense mystery built around four teenagers, a crash, a dead driver’s holdall, a million pounds and a gun.

A festive, clue-led murder mystery for readers who enjoy solving puzzles alongside a team. Its emotional centre is a group of five neurodivergent children combining different strengths while trying to protect their out-of-school club.

This offers a tense journey story alongside a close account of sibling care. Clem’s storytelling, memories and uncertain perspective add emotional depth, while the political setting invites reflection on belonging, surveillance, displacement and how families preserve hope under pressure.

This is an intimate survival story centred less on action than on two people’s changing relationship, private memories and the difficult work of rebuilding life after catastrophe.

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 seasonal collection follows Beti through birthday events, a journey to a waterfall, berry picking with Mam, a storm, and winter responsibilities. Friendship, family reassurance, practical problem-solving and living alongside nature shape the book’s gentle world.

This is an emotionally serious, discussion-rich story about a child facing a serious heart problem and a radical, risky proposed treatment. Its strongest offering is access to Cameron’s viewpoint while he weighs personal, family and social pressures.

This is an imaginative coming-of-age fantasy in which Arthur’s education happens through encounters with animals, Merlin and the world around him. Its strongest offering is a warm, humorous exploration of how experience might shape wisdom and leadership.

This is an energetic, funny and sometimes unsettling portrait of childhood, told through Paddy’s immediate perspective. Its loose vignettes reward attention to changing relationships rather than expecting a conventional, steadily plotted story.

This is an intense retelling that gives a traditionally vilified woman an inner voice without excusing her actions. Its folklore, dark magic and shifting emotional perspective make the story morally complicated rather than comforting.

Expect an imaginative fantasy built around ordinary household objects seen from a tiny family’s perspective. Its appeal lies in clever details, family relationships and the contrast between the Borrowers’ hidden life and the human world.

A serious, introspective time-loop novel about responsibility after a classmate’s death. Its repeated-day structure gives Spence opportunities to notice harm, question his loyalties and reconsider how he treats people around him.

This is a character-centred story about a bereaved young person trying to manage ordinary responsibilities while carrying several earlier losses and a turbulent inner life.

A familiar flood story is reframed through Mrs Noah’s quiet choices. It offers a warm, gently humorous read-aloud with striking artwork, while inviting attention to who gets to make decisions and whose actions are noticed.

This is a quiet, visually rich story about wanting to buy something, losing money and discovering that a smile can change how the world feels. It invites looking as much as listening.

A high-stakes fantasy finale about two queens whose choices, powers, and family ties may determine whether their world is saved or destroyed. It offers intricate perspectives, reversals, emotional conflict, and a sustained struggle over agency and redemption.

This is a fast-moving disaster novel about teenagers acting amid a plane-crash rescue. Its strongest pull is immediate suspense: different survivors and helpers face urgent choices while Heidi discovers capability she had not recognised.

This is historical fiction about a child caught in a catastrophic day while trying to reach a trusted firefighter. It combines family disagreement, football, emergency work and a sudden transformation of an ordinary city visit.

This is a historical family-survival story about environmental disaster, migration and responsibility. Its child-authored letters and diary entries offer an intimate route into the Dust Bowl, with Earl’s search for work adding a practical family concern.

Expect a slow-building, twisty fantasy mystery centred on invisibility, secrecy and pursuit. Reuben’s adventure brings suspense, traps and danger, while friendship and trust become increasingly important to how he responds.

This is a family mystery built through letters and remembered events. Its emotional centre is Lynnie’s attempt to understand her parents and grandparents without assuming that a troubled family past fixes her identity.

This is a road-trip story about an inexperienced driver caring for fragile older passengers while discovering the depth and staying power of their friendship. Its emotional centre appears to be connection across generations.

This is a dark, ensemble-led supernatural novel combining school relationships and personal difficulties with witches, magical powers and an ancient threat. Its central appeal is likely the uneasy process of very different teenagers learning whether they can work together.

This is a tense space-survival story centred on a human–Zoid conflict, with York relying on hunting, killing and salvaging to help his endangered community endure.