What Are You Looking For?

A school-and-horses story about ambition, belonging and building trust with a guarded pony. Malory’s hopes for her future at Chestnut Hill are tied to whether she can bring out Tybalt’s potential.

A culturally grounded vampire story pairs supernatural suspense with a teenager’s struggles over home, family, trust and belonging. Its unusual perspective may invite thoughtful discussion as well as emotional preparation.

A horse-focused story about balancing care, ambition and personal priorities. Amy’s dilemma gives the book an emotionally serious centre, while the Heartland setting emphasises trust, responsibility and helping horses recover.

This is a brisk child-centred mystery in which Benjie’s enthusiasm for spying and Pete’s protective actions help uncover burglaries. Suspense comes from the family’s vulnerability and Benjie’s capture, while humour and animal loyalty soften the danger.

This is a short, issue-focused story about a bereaved teenager navigating care, exploitation and attachment. Its strongest offering is a morally unsettled relationship in which practical survival and harming others are kept in tension.

This is a horse-centred story about belonging, trust and protecting someone vulnerable when adults do not believe Cindy. It may particularly engage readers interested in horses while opening difficult questions about care, authority and desperate choices.

A horse-centred story about returning home, changing relationships and deciding whether to remain with a familiar life or pursue an uncertain new opportunity.

A mystery-led magical-school adventure with a distinctive idea: Charlie can hear voices in photographs. Its strongest pull is uncovering hidden histories while deciding whom to trust inside an institution that feels secretive and controlling.

This is a historical horse story about two sisters seeking security while caring for an injured animal. Its emotional centre is Margret’s wish to keep both Flynn and a dependable home.

Caraval offers an immersive fantasy built around uncertainty: Scarlett must find her missing sister while trying to decide what within the game is real. Sisterly protection, escape from control and choosing one’s own path are central strands.

A high-stakes fantasy about a young woman whose lethal magical ability has been controlled by authority. It offers questions about self-definition, freedom, trust and whether power can be used justly, alongside graphic violence and emotional darkness.

This is a puzzle-led mystery with a spooky turn: Elizabeth explores a remote hotel, works with Freddy on codes and wordplay, and encounters curses, unsettling phenomena and an evil ghost. Personal histories include bereavement and mistreatment, while the story stresses kindness, trust and resisting evil.

Expect a supernatural mystery with spring-break travel, stranded characters, unexplained cattle deaths, a stalking predator and an increasing body count. The story also follows Maggie’s psychic abilities and her attempts to understand what is happening.

A fast-moving science-fiction adventure that places a thoughtful robot between fearful children, human survivors and hostile machines. Its strongest offering is a child-accessible route into questions about personhood, loyalty and moral choices during conflict.

This is a fast-moving mystery-romance centred on recovery, guilt and uncertain trust. Its atmosphere combines a summer setting with disturbing discoveries, while journal flashbacks gradually disclose the protagonist’s past.

A gripping wartime adventure built around an unlikely friendship. Robert and David’s shared displacement creates empathy and emotional depth, while espionage, pursuit and cliffhangers provide momentum.

A playful, high-energy quest turns familiar ideas upside down. Its central appeal is the combination of gaming-style adventure, colourful illustrations, unusual allies and a clear goal: return to the real world.

A friendship-focused YA fantasy in which a varied group of young characters face dangerous, action-packed moments. Its emotional emphasis falls on empathy, trust and choosing to stand by one another rather than on graphic or gruesome detail.

A tense story about a young person trying to escape a parent’s extreme survivalist rules while navigating foster care, distrust and the possibility of being found. Its emotional force comes from Amber’s guarded, sharply ironic voice.

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 short, visually expressive story about a newcomer, suspicion and the possibility of belonging. Its emotional centre is the contrast between what the animals assume and what they learn about the stranger’s past.

This is a humorous, emotionally serious story about a guarded young person whose magic, friendship and care for her grandmother bring questions about love, loss and opening up.

A warm, idea-led adventure about friendship across a human–robot divide. Its central relationship invites readers to question inherited beliefs, while action and humour keep the story moving.

This is a character-led story about foster care, adoption, friendship and the effects of introducing an artificial intelligence into school life. Its tone combines humour with poignant circumstances and thought-provoking questions about human–AI relationships.

A playful supernatural mystery about reputation, friendship and suspicion, with a popular witch at its centre. It offers magical-school atmosphere, social drama, a murder investigation and romantic tension rather than a purely cosy school story.

This is a spooky rescue adventure centred on a frightened boy trying to protect his brother. Expect cemetery and crypt imagery, supernatural games, riddles and sustained suspense, alongside friendship and compassion.

A fast-moving historical fantasy that places a child and a growing phoenix inside the Great Fire of London. Maps, historical events and an imagined creature create an adventurous route through danger, trust and responsibility.

A gripping, humane mystery follows Ayrton, Stanley and Sen as family secrets bring them together. Its emotional centre is friendship: the three young people face very different pressures while trying to understand adults and their own identities.

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.

This is an adventure about survival and an unusual cross-generational friendship. Alongside practical danger, it gives substantial space to loneliness, care, learning and the ways a relationship can change someone’s view of the world.

A suspenseful story about a teenager carrying adult responsibilities while secret activities and threatening communications pull her into another person’s scheme. Expect twists, uncertainty and a morally complicated power dynamic rather than a straightforward adventure.

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.

This offers a contemporary child’s perspective on poverty and family difficulty, deliberately read beside Oliver Twist. Its strongest feature is the connection between classroom literature and problems affecting Shona’s life.

A tense historical adventure about separated siblings and Jan, a young thief who joins them. Its strongest qualities are resourcefulness, loyalty and compassion, alongside a serious portrayal of children navigating war’s aftermath.

This is a historical family story about rebuilding after hardship. Ellie’s practical courage, connection with nature and willingness to help others sit alongside grief, difficult choices and uncertainty about what people have experienced.

This is a contemporary survival story about two children carrying adult worries, seeking trustworthy help and finding support in one another. Its central concerns include family instability, homelessness, friendship and the meaning of home.

Expect a fast-moving, imaginative adventure in which time travel connects family relationships, grief and responsibility. The story also makes room for humour, friendship and emotional growth, with Al facing both practical dangers and difficult choices.

This is a tense, fast-moving thriller about displacement, family separation and moral risk. Its speculative time ability creates repeated escape possibilities, while Alex’s search for safety and his father keeps the human stakes central.

This is a fast-moving historical adventure about two young people and an elephant travelling towards safety while others pursue them. Expect suspense, changing loyalties, grief, humour and questions about who has the right to claim an animal.

This is a romance shaped by disability, bereavement and online friendship. Chess lets Juliet and Ronan reveal different parts of themselves, while the wider cast reinforces the idea that appearances can conceal difficult experiences.

This is a nature-centred coming-of-age story about grief, friendship and caring for a wild bird. Will and Omar’s discovery of an osprey nest creates an adventure while reflecting their own unsettled lives.

This is an adventurous, compassionate monster story about belonging, trust and moral judgement. Stitch’s openness meets Alice’s bitterness, while the journey tests how appearances shape people’s responses.

This is a wintry supernatural story centred on fear, hidden knowledge, family responsibility and romantic choice. Its appeal is likely to come from an ominous setting and a heroine drawn into a world she has tried to avoid.

Marya and Georgi set out alone after their parents are arrested and separated. Their route towards Siberia brings danger, uncertainty and encounters with people who may help, while Marya’s narration follows the strain of caring for her younger brother.

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.