What Are You Looking For?

A teen romance is set against a school-wide disagreement about whether basketball-team money should be shared. Romantic choices become part of the girls’ attempt to pressure the boys towards compromise.

A character-focused story about wanting recognition and facing a sibling’s departure. The pageant provides a lively setting for exploring rivalry, while the family storyline brings a more serious emotional thread.

This is a school-and-survival story about two people misreading each other. Its strongest material concerns how assumptions shape behaviour, while Mark’s growing attachment to the outdoors gives the book a reflective strand alongside its danger.

This is an emotionally engaging school story centred on a bright child whose thoughts are overlooked because she cannot communicate conventionally. It offers sustained attention to dignity, family advocacy, friendship and the consequences of assumptions.

A sports-centred school story broadens into questions about trying unfamiliar activities and supporting a friend. Kyle’s basketball and theatre commitments provide the main conflict, while homophobic bullying is a significant social issue in the story.

Expect a warm, humorous story built around Lottie's plan to grow a giant pumpkin with her grandfather. Its comic elements sit alongside school bullying, family strain, bereavement, illness and Lottie's responsibilities at home.

A lively school-election story about finding allies, challenging unfairness and turning strong feelings into action. Its campaign plot combines humour, friendship and political participation with a developing lesson about listening and working constructively with opponents.

A football-focused school story about friends responding to a playground ban by creating a secret club.

This is a serious story about racial injustice, bereavement and responsibility. Its supernatural viewpoint lets Jerome observe the consequences of his death while the historical connection to Emmett Till broadens the story beyond one family.

This is a visually contrasting, rhyming story about a boy who loves the natural world, faces homophobic bullying at school, and develops a plan to reclaim his school through creativity and nature.

A supernatural friendship story follows Suzy as she lives with bereavement, self-consciousness and uncertainty about Rhiannon. Its emotional centre is the possibility of reconnecting with life while learning that friendship can change.

A lively monster-school adventure combines comic rule-breaking, inventive creatures and investigation. Eddie’s friendships become central as she learns more about herself and tries to protect others from danger.

A coming-of-age story about identity, belonging and disclosure, balancing painful social pressures with friendship, family love and romantic possibility. It offers a queer Mexican American protagonist whose choices are shaped by school, faith and immigration-related family separation.

A suspenseful school mystery follows three boys of colour who are treated as suspects after a principal’s murder. Their investigation brings together different perspectives while exploring prejudice, unequal schooling, friendship, determination and the pressure of protecting their futures.

A story about facing prejudice while navigating family worries, friendship and uncertainty about identity. It combines painful school experiences with warmth, music, LGBTQ+ history and a hopeful sense of personal agency.

A lively school-and-family story about handling change, friendship and unfair treatment through humour and imagination. Omar’s Muslim identity is part of everyday life, not a separate lesson.

This is a school drama about disability prejudice, bullying and self-worth. Billy and Mia’s friendship provides a counterpoint to classmates’ treatment of Billy and to a football hero who proves disappointing.

This is a character-led family and school story about two unlike teenagers learning to live together. It offers humour, emotional change and questions about status, difference and what makes relationships dependable.

This is a thought-provoking premise about a child encountering expectations attached to gender. The school setting gives the story a concrete way to explore fairness, behaviour and assumptions.

A lively Nigerian boarding-school adventure foregrounding friendship, cultural setting and fair access to education. Jummy’s new experiences offer both familiar school-story pleasures and a perspective shaped by different routines and expectations.

A culturally rooted historical story about a boy finding confidence through football while negotiating family expectations and hostility at school. It offers a child’s perspective on belonging, tradition and personal freedom.

A lively school-camp adventure centres on friendship, frightening folklore and a difficult peer relationship.

This is a historical family story about fitting in, responding to school teasing and deciding whether to challenge unfair blame directed at Japanese-American friends. Its central interest lies in personal choices made amid wider wartime uncertainty.

This is a school-based ethical conflict with comic narration: Karl resists organised cheating while severe institutional discipline escalates the stakes. Expect attention to peer pressure, authority and competing ideas of fairness rather than a straightforward rule-following lesson.

This is a fast-moving dark fantasy about judgement, punishment and sibling loyalty. Its imaginative school setting supports comic invention, while death, hell-inspired imagery and frightening authority figures give the adventure a darker edge.

This is a school story centred on a new disciplinary rule and the mystery surrounding its Suspension Room.

A relationship-centred story that places family expectations and a school exercise about class and racial prejudice in direct tension. Amy’s decision to challenge the exercise appears to drive the central conflict.

A school-year story about Gabriela navigating friendship changes, hurtful attention towards her stutter, intimidating classmates and a potentially difficult election campaign.

This is a mystery about belonging, memory and fairness: a newcomer follows a disturbing clue, questions the story a community tells about Wil, and becomes involved in putting a past wrong into perspective.

A determined girl challenges unfair access to school football while adjusting to bereavement, remarriage, a new home and difficult relationships. Her campaign sits alongside rebellion and a mystery involving adults around her.

This is a school-and-family story about loneliness, self-expression and belonging. Dennis's passion for fashion becomes publicly difficult when wearing a dress leads to expulsion, threatening both his friendships and his place in football.