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A family faces bereavement, a makeshift home and difficulty getting enough to eat. Alongside those hardships, the children find fun in nature and the family grows closer to its new home.

Victor’s search for work becomes a struggle to survive, shaped by his responsibility to his family and his friendship with Rico. The journey brings him into contact with smugglers and the risks of crossing the border.

A fantasy adventure follows Pong, marked as a fugitive after escaping prison, and Nok, who sets out to capture him. Their paths raise questions about inequality and whether law is always just.

Expect a high-action fantasy about survival, loyalty and choosing what sort of person to become, rather than a romance-led story. Aina’s assassin role and the consequences of her choices are prominent.

The story follows Harry’s effort to build a life through work, with his resolve and moral judgement tested along the way.

A family story about Floss’s choice to live with her father, whose failing café brings financial strain and upheaval. School friendships add another thread, and the ending is open rather than fully settled.

A young girl’s search for work and food provides a personal route into the Great Depression. Molly’s experiences bring attention to unemployment and poverty, while the story’s fictional framing means her journey is not a full account of everyone’s experience.

This is a historical story of a divided society and a personal return to danger, with Darnay’s choices set against injustice and revolution in France.

At its heart, this is a story of an unlikely friendship sustained through hardship, with music and Christian faith connected to a movement from despair towards hope.

This is a story of hardship and changed fortunes, centred on Sara’s efforts to keep her hopeful outlook despite difficult treatment.

A broad historical introduction, moving from traditional cultures and specific Native groups to colonisation, US expansion and Native groups today. It combines photographs and historical images with maps, fact boxes and reference sections.

This is Christian historical fiction centred on bereavement, sibling estrangement and encounters with Jesus. Its premise brings religious belief into the characters’ responses to loss.

A fairy-tale-like meeting of peasant children and a royal household, set in motion by a mysterious pouch. The chapter headings suggest several intertwined encounters and story threads.

This blends a family’s observance of Lent with school-life plots, including a Bigfoot search and a spelling bee. Its events run through the season to Easter Sunday.

The boys’ choice is not simply about money: they consider whether a possible way to meet personal needs could also send cocaine back into their neighbourhood.

A fairy-tale-style identity swap drives a story of lost status, a threatened marriage and a mystery. Magdalen and a shepherd must uncover what is happening before two realms are endangered.

A short social story combines a child’s discoveries in Varanasi with a serious encounter involving an abandoned newborn. Stylised black-and-white illustrations are mentioned.

A brisk, playful fairy-tale mash-up centres on a resourceful girl whose petty theft has consequences. Expect magic, mischief, action and uncertainty about which characters can be trusted.

A wishful, fantastical premise leads into a story about poverty, children’s work and exclusion. Nemo’s longing to play and learn is set against the pressures faced by children living on the streets.

This is a high-stakes historical adventure about a teenager caught between hopes of wealth and the violence surrounding diamond mining. It offers sustained emotional intensity alongside questions about family, freedom, exploitation and recovery.

This is a fast-moving Tudor adventure centred on loyalty, injustice and a child’s effort to protect his father. It offers contrasting views of courtly wealth and London poverty, alongside historical detail about power and religious change.

A disadvantaged horse moves from failed racing to carriage work, learning about history, reading, languages and different political systems. His later involvement in a crisis gives the story an adventure arc, but the precise resolution is unclear.

This is a gritty coming-of-age novel about Manny’s family, identity and desire for respect. It combines hardship with affection, humour and tenderness, using striking language to portray a Mexican-American teenager’s world.

This is a grim historical adventure about unjust punishment, endurance and friendship. Its atmosphere is bleak, but Tom and Midgely’s imagination gives the story a counterweight of resourcefulness and hope.

A playful premise drives a story about wishes producing unexpected results.

A reflective coming-of-age story about discovering family roots and negotiating more than one sense of home. Its strongest elements are relationships, vivid place-writing, cultural encounter and questions of identity.

A poetic, emotionally serious story about two traumatised teenagers seeking connection and truth. Its unusual voices and recurring poems offer rich interpretation, while difficult experiences and contested ideas about healing require thoughtful engagement.

A reflective picture-book story about Eva’s connection to Ethiopia after adoption. It contrasts difficult access to water and food with practical comforts in her new home, while holding memory, loss and belonging together.

A warm, episodic family story in which each child encounters a different mishap or opportunity. It combines humour and adventure with working life, financial constraint and the affection holding a large family together.

A coming-of-age story about choosing one’s own direction when sport, family and community expectations pull strongly. Its remote landscape and hockey culture provide an intense setting for questions about loyalty and independence.

A stark historical journey about a young woman claiming an independent life, while discovering that escape does not remove poverty, danger or responsibility. Its restrained style and unsettled emotional relationships may reward readers who prefer serious, atmospheric fiction over easy comfort.

A fast-moving historical adventure places a young protagonist between friendship, justice and danger. Its Robin Hood setting is paired with questions about hunger, power, reputation and what makes someone a hero.

A gritty coming-of-age story about a Mexican American teenager navigating school, neighbourhood pressures and competing futures. Eddie’s relationships and private reading help him reconsider the identity he has built and the choices available to him.

A coming-of-age novel combining stage magic and family strain with serious mental-health, financial and bereavement themes. Ellie’s efforts to help her father create a fast-moving story, while the subject matter can become emotionally heavy.

This is a direct, encouraging guide to goals, fear, discipline, habits, leadership and personal change. Its approach centres on determination and initiative, using the author’s life experiences alongside quotations, stories, examples and visual material.

This is a suspenseful historical fantasy combining Victorian London, faerie politics, street survival and a contested magical object. It offers a determined heroine, an improvised family and frequent crises, though some readers may find events implausible or the plot difficult to follow.

This is a historical coming-of-age story about disrupted education, factory work, family hardship, artistic ambition and women’s rights, with love and the looming First World War shaping Opal’s experience.

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 fast-moving historical crime novel with alternating viewpoints, moral uncertainty and romantic tension. Caitlin’s determination drives a search through sharply unequal New York, while William’s divided loyalties complicate ideas of justice and personal change.

A warm football adventure uses Pickles’s humorous viewpoint to explore a family trying to stay together while money problems and housing insecurity affect everyday life.

A lively, first-person school story combines farcical problem-solving and slow-burn romance with serious family instability. Its emotional centre is Aideen’s habit of helping others while struggling to address her own circumstances.

A thoughtful migration story combines everyday hardship with magical realism. Leelu’s loneliness, her brother’s difficulties and the family’s uncertainty make belonging feel complicated rather than instantly solved.

A tense, twist-led survival mystery for readers who enjoy competing viewpoints, dangerous games and uncertainty about whom to trust. Its strongest pull is the combination of personal desperation and escalating threat.

A sweeping fantasy sequel about friends divided by danger and prejudice, with witches, magic, political responsibility and a developing romance. It offers an immersive world, tense escapes and battles, while leaving parts of the journey open for a later book.

A fast-moving dystopian adventure combines a family search with uncertain alliances, a lottery camp and an environmental mystery. Its central pull is whether belonging means escaping Earth or helping protect it.