What Are You Looking For?

This is a magical rescue-and-recovery adventure, with the environmental mission alongside the search for Lily’s wand. Rachel and Kirsty’s involvement makes helping others part of the central journey.

This is a linked-mystery adventure: Nancy follows a coded pigeon message while investigating a strange nighttime signal. The appeal centres on clues, danger and solving how the cases fit together.

This is a coming-of-age story about a young man whose inability to feel physical pain shapes his independence, relationships and understanding of empathy.

A portal-fantasy adventure about three girls tasked with protecting magical animals, with friendship and the natural world among its stated themes.

This is a fantasy adventure centred on two siblings investigating a possible cure for ill dragons. A hatching dragon and a cryptic diary give their quest both a caring purpose and a puzzle to solve.

This is an adventure story set against a family bereavement: Chad, Kate and their father try to build a new life while travelling for their company.

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.

A light-hearted sibling story sets the twins’ drive to outdo one another against Leo’s wish to join in.

A family and their dog try together to pull an exceptionally large turnip from the ground. The story also introduces Grandma Lena’s care in tending her garden.

This is a school-set story about competition and friendship, with a debate partnership at its centre. Tanner’s family responsibilities add a counterweight to the prestige and opportunity of Bannerman.

A warm, humorous friendship adventure follows Humphrey and Og through camp activities, cabin rivalry and unsettling surprises. It offers a small-animal viewpoint on nervousness, helping friends and adapting to unfamiliar experiences.

This is a socially engaged sports novel: football brings two North American teenagers into contact with marginalised local players, while different experiences of race, class and belonging become increasingly difficult to ignore.

A culturally rooted fantasy adventure combining Filipino mythology, humour, friendship and a quest involving a stolen soul key. It places grief and family longing alongside supernatural peril, while presenting courage, empathy, gratitude and teamwork as important values.

A magical theatre rescue story combines an audition, missing talent, fairy helpers and goblin disruption. It may particularly appeal to children interested in performance, imaginative adventure and recurring fairy characters.

A suspenseful family mystery follows Footer as she investigates what happened after a devastating fire. Her mother’s bipolar disorder and Footer’s uncertainty about her own perceptions make the investigation emotionally complicated.

This is a calm, information-rich story about preparing a working farm for winter, with seasonal change shown through chores, crops, animals and richly detailed pictures.

A gentle fantasy adventure about two girls helping fairy allies tackle litter on a beach. Environmental care is central, alongside friendship, teamwork and a search for a missing wand.

This is a tense survival adventure built around separation, environmental danger and competing attempts to reach safety. Its strongest through-line is how young characters organise, protect more vulnerable people and respond to threats.

This is a friendship-centred mystery adventure, combining travel across America with a computer-related problem. It may suit readers who enjoy group investigations, journeys and stories involving programming or video games.

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 historical story about children managing family responsibilities and practical work during a storm, while also facing uncertainty about illness, separation and an immigrant family’s future.

A rescue story about a racer who can no longer race and takes on firefighting instead. Its central premise is the shift from racing to helping protect a national park during a wildfire emergency.

An energetic pony adventure combining horse handling, competitions, a film-set setting and mysteries. Friendship is central to Issie’s attempt to manage lively horses, while a troubled actress and possible danger to ponies add complication.

This is an imaginative fantasy sequel centred on magic, competing loyalties and conflict between magical and anti-magical groups. It offers friendship, compassion, courage and teamwork, but its adventure includes disturbing death imagery and broad comic material.

A tense frontier survival adventure in which three children evade outlaws, endure severe hardship and discover treasure. It offers resourcefulness, loyalty and historical setting alongside frightening danger, bereavement and family separation.

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.

The Ocean Fairies are described as keeping sea creatures safe and happy, while the quest aims to restore peace and safety to the oceans.

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.

An upbeat, personal introduction to farming that follows a working year and explains sheep care alongside stories, humour and reflections on the realities of farm life.

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.

This is an action-led coming-of-age story about a troubled child entering an extraordinary spy-training organisation. It offers perseverance, teamwork and personal change alongside danger, bereavement, coercion and language some families may wish to discuss.

This is a gentle family story built around an everyday journey. Each relative brings a different pace, route and kind of companionship, while Papa’s shoulder ride becomes the child’s especially cherished school-day experience.

This is a socially aware family story with a determined child protagonist. It combines motel life, immigrant family pressures and Mia’s writing ambitions, while presenting difficult injustices alongside friendship, support and attempts to help others.

This is a child-centred detective adventure in which solving a mystery becomes a way to learn about Gran’s life, memory and the importance of understanding people as individuals.

Expect an ambitious illustrated adventure in which two sibling seeds face separation, danger and uncertainty while learning about Earth’s history and living systems. Its emotional centre is family loyalty, alongside a sustained interest in survival, connection and the natural world.

A funny school-and-family story about disrupted routines, fostering and learning to cooperate when two boys must tackle a shared challenge.

This is an adventurous friendship story set around hiking, camping and outdoor survival. Its emotional centre is Vincent’s struggle with school, coordination and belonging, alongside classmates whose different circumstances affect how the group works together.

Expect an imaginative, creature-filled adventure centred on finding sanctuary. Friendship, loyalty, courage and environmental loss sit alongside danger, threatening creatures and occasional insulting language.

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.

This is a lively Greek-myth fantasy where comic gods and a young goddess accompany Elliott through danger. Its emotional centre is a child trying to care for his unwell mother while protecting his family’s home.

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.

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.

A small whale who keeps to himself finds purpose through friendship and action when his brother is in danger. The lively rhyme and colourful sea imagery frame a reassuring story about courage that is not measured by size.

This is an imaginative fantasy adventure about a child pursuing answers about her family in a magical plant world. It offers lively action, inventive world-building and clear conservation themes, while also introducing peril, hostility and loss.

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.