What Are You Looking For?

Expect playful pirate adventure, repeated rhyme and a secret shared by a grandson. The colourful artwork adds humorous details, while the narrative pairs Granny’s swashbuckling exploits with ordinary home life.

Expect a vivid underwater fantasy adventure led by a determined engineer, with a submarine expedition, imaginative creatures, perilous conditions and a group learning to trust one another.

Choose this for a reader who enjoys high-seas adventure, mermaids, treasure hunts, riddles and brisk action. The story also offers a character-led exploration of identity, friendship, prejudice and belonging.

A lively read-aloud about a lost dog’s imagined adventures, using rhyme, humour and expressive illustrations to explore survival, landscape, curiosity and the pull of home.

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 brisk supernatural football mystery with three friends, secret overnight exploration and mounting suspense. Its short chapters and cliff-hangers may suit readers who want an exciting story without a long, slow build.

A spooky Cornwall adventure with a mystery at its centre, this book brings together a young conservation-minded protagonist, an unusual dog, family members and a new friend against a curse that poisons and destroys the land.

A classic-style children’s adventure built around a coastal mystery, teamwork and discovery. Expect suspense from dangerous rocks, suspicious night-time signals, local wrongdoing and the children’s determination to investigate without adult direction.

This is a mystery adventure built around exploration, hidden places and a group of children acting together. Its strongest appeal is likely the remote coastal setting, animal companions and escalating danger.

A magical historical-fantasy adventure about identity, family and friendship, with mysteries uncovered through flashbacks. Expect spells, Fairyland, talking animals, shapeshifting and a curse rather than a realistic everyday setting.

A mythic rescue adventure centred on Marcy’s fear, determination and relationship with her father. Egyptian gods, the Sphinx and a legendary book create a vivid fantasy setting, while the illustrations carry substantial visual detail and action.

Expect a curiosity-led city adventure built around an unlikely friendship. Its main appeal lies in the contrast between Catherine’s orderliness and Big Cat’s wild, chaotic nature, alongside detailed artwork and discoveries hidden in familiar places.

This is a fast-moving, illustrated adventure about a vulnerable robot trying to recover its past and return to Beth. Friendship, fear, memory and the treatment of discarded things sit alongside danger and humour.

Expect inventive comic mishaps, misunderstandings and an eccentric central character rather than a serious science story. The humour often comes from failed inventions and Branestawm’s difficulty with everyday social situations.

This offers a warm, satisfying fairy tale with magical transformations, unusual characters and artwork rich in small visual details that create an intimate, familiar feel.

This is a family-and-identity story with two children whose experiences overlap but are not identical. It brings donor conception, LGBTQIA+ life, attraction, Jewish traditions and online research into one household and school setting.

This is an emotionally engaging family story about a child trying to understand separation, a parent’s newly disclosed sexuality and the limits of fixing adult problems. Friendship, humour and Pride’s community provide energy and hope.

This is primarily a visual, hands-on activity book: readers colour Sogumi and Soso in fanciful settings, using coloured reference pages for inspiration. Its appeal lies in gentle imaginative play and making pictures, while the role and extent of any written storyline are unclear.

This is a grief-centred family adventure in which letters and puzzles connect Brie with memories of her mother. Its emotional movement includes loss, uncertainty, support from relatives and friends, and a developing understanding of herself.

A gentle family story about love, loss and renewal: a child learns about Grandad and Gramps’s life together, then helps Grandad move towards new adventures while keeping shared memories alive.

Expect a fast-moving fantasy mystery rooted in a Nigerian village, Yoruba myths and family relationships. Its atmosphere shifts between joy and dread, with danger often suggested rather than directly shown.

This looks like a lively friendship adventure built around contrasting personalities, imaginative inventions and a sudden encounter with a threatening figure. Its strongest appeal may be the trio’s teamwork and playful world-building.

This is a magical forest adventure centred on Hilda and Twig’s partnership. Its distinctive offer is a more active role for Twig, alongside storm sheltering, mysterious surroundings and a rescue-shaped challenge.

Expect a brisk, high-stakes science-fiction adventure built from movie-like set pieces: secret hideouts, monsters, lost cities and missions. Its emotional centre is the friends’ changing reliance on friendship, loyalty, trust and teamwork.

Expect children’s fantasy involving the named protagonists. Its appeal lies in lively family exchanges, problem-solving and events shaped by the children’s decisions.

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.

A lively fairy-tale reimagining where three heroines encounter magic, danger and friendship. Its central movement is from Rumaysa’s enforced confinement towards escape, shared adventure and protagonists who act as their own rescuers.

Expect a playful fantasy adventure centred on an unusual hotel, magical visitors and comic world-building. The story appears designed for momentum and imaginative enjoyment, with short chapters, action and humour rather than a complex plot.

Expect a warm family adventure built around four sisters with distinct personalities, their father, and Jeffrey, a boy they meet during a summer stay at Arundel estate.

Expect an Amazon-set adventure centred on a boy and a girl, with opportunities to discuss character, friendship, choices and ideas about living a “big life”.

A brisk family adventure centres on Beans, her gadget-inventing father and a dangerous invention. Its main appeal is likely the combination of imaginative technology, a rescue mission and children taking determined action with friends.

Expect imaginative, episodic fantasy: children explore changing magical lands, meet memorable inhabitants and encounter both treats and danger. The story’s cosy, conversational narration sits alongside distinctly old-fashioned social assumptions.

Expect a nature-centred adventure in which Nim’s resourcefulness and relationships with animal companions matter.

This is a thoughtful story about a child carrying adult responsibilities who finds friendship, creativity and adventure while visiting Italy. An injured otter and the people Jakub meets help broaden his sense of who he is.

This is chiefly a shared, performative reading experience: the repeated refrain and playful sounds make participation easy, while the outward journey builds anticipation before the family’s fast return.

A gentle imaginative search story, pairing a missing teddy button with a moonlit garden, animal encounters and the comfort of putting something right. Its appeal appears to lie in wonder, visual discovery and companionship.

A comic-gothic adventure built around illness, family upheaval, eccentric relatives and quirky situations. Its humour comes particularly from puns, ambiguity, exaggerated characters and illustrations with a darkly comic appearance.

This is a fantastical animal adventure about longing, travel and uncertain friendships. Its mix of myth, magic and fairy tale may offer an imaginative journey, though the precise challenges and resolution are not known.

A lively bedtime adventure turns a stormy house into an imaginary ship. The story offers surreal play, colourful illustrations and a comic creature encounter, while ending with breakfast and family help.