What Are You Looking For?

A comic-spirited business scheme sits alongside a story about friendship, bereavement and learning to express feelings.

This is a child-centred historical story about family work, community strain and changing social relationships. Its central challenge is how a small act of welcome might matter when prejudice and hardship affect a whole town.

This is a clue-led children’s adventure about investigating a disappearance after an accusation of theft. Its central appeal is the Secret Seven working together, with a younger sibling presented as a possible complication.

This is a school-set mystery with five clever outsiders at its centre.

A sports mystery built around a strained friendship, team pressure and an investigation into threats and sabotage. The buried-treasure connection adds historical intrigue, while danger raises the stakes beyond the football pitch.

This offers a lively quest built around an inexperienced performer, an unusual travelling companion and a widening circle of allies. Humour, peril and court intrigue sit alongside questions of courage, usefulness and inherited expectations.

A fast-moving mystery-adventure about children building a home together while uncovering secrets around a missing billionaire, a threatening uncle and a possibly real sword-wielding protector.

This is a brisk detective adventure built around a mountain-bike race in Costa Rica. Nancy supports her friend while investigating efforts to stop a leading cyclist, with several possible suspects and a time-pressured mystery.

This is a high-stakes spy adventure with an animal lead, clues, gadgets and a race against time. Its central appeal is action-led problem-solving, supported by a team of animal allies.

Expect an imaginative fantasy built around a dangerous darkness, paired roles and a developing relationship. Its strongest focus appears to be how people resist restrictive expectations while learning to trust someone very different from themselves.

This is an action-led fantasy about a trans teen navigating a dangerous divine competition, with friendship and social inequality at its centre. Its imaginative mythology and representation may appeal, while the sacrifice premise and sustained peril make the emotional stakes substantial.

This is a multi-viewpoint historical romance about four young Black women balancing love, work, family expectations and social change in 1910 Chicago. It offers ambitious characters and a setting shaped by racial inequality and restricted opportunities for women.

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 visually rich introduction to detective fiction, offering a contained mystery, recurring animal friends and clues for readers to inspect. It combines suspense about a theft and suspected parents with humour, friendship and collaborative problem-solving.

A clue-heavy ensemble mystery for readers who enjoy solving puzzles alongside characters. Its appeal lies in twists, red herrings, humour and changing partnerships, while its many characters and social tensions may require patient attention.

A lively child-led detective adventure: Emil responds to theft by following the suspected criminal through Berlin and working with other children. Its appeal lies in pursuit, teamwork and the contrast between a small town and a large, exciting city.

This is a compact, serious story about two migrant workers pursuing work and a shared dream. Its strongest elements are loyalty, loneliness and the pressures placed on vulnerable people when hopes collide with harsh circumstances.

A child’s perspective makes refugee experience, antisemitism and changing countries personal and discussable. Family solidarity and curiosity sit alongside historically grounded accounts of persecution and loss.

A light fantasy adventure about dance and recovering a missing magical object, with Rachel, Kirsty and Jessica opposed by Jack Frost’s goblins. Its main appeal is likely the combination of movement, friendship and a simple quest.

This is a lively, comic Western adventure built around revenge, treasure-hunting and friendship. Its exaggerated action, shifting locations and ceremonious narration may suit readers who enjoy tall tales and dramatic storytelling.

Choose this for a young reader who enjoys brisk adventure, teamwork and high-stakes missions. Its central appeal is action: a television project becomes a dangerous situation involving a terrorist, hostages and a bushfire.

A historically grounded story about fear, racial prejudice and divided loyalties, centred on Shad’s choice as his community responds to emancipation and economic insecurity.

This is a friendship story set against seasonal migrant work, with dogs, family involvement and a local pageant providing the setting for encounters with prejudice and unequal social experiences.