What Are You Looking For?

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.

A forceful historical adventure about enslaved people resisting plantation rule. Moa’s choice to join Tacky’s uprising brings friendship, courage and hope into direct conflict with coercion, danger and the possibility of death.

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 an energetic, emotionally serious story about being understood. Iris’s efforts to connect with Blue 55 combine Deaf experience, whale science, sound technology and a suspenseful journey.

This is a tender family-centred story about hair, care and pride. Its imaginative comparisons and references to hairstyles connect personal appearance with African-American identity and cultural history.

A fast-moving futuristic spy thriller follows Augusta as she lives under a secret identity and confronts a violent hostage situation. Alongside action and humour, it explores family separation, responsibility after a fatal mistake, surveillance and the costs of technological progress.

This is a richly illustrated mermaid adventure about protecting a home from development. Its diary format, playful language and underwater world may invite shared reading, visual exploration and discussion.

This is a richly layered historical coming-of-age novel about a book-loving girl negotiating family duty, education, friendship and romance while a murder’s consequences reach into her community.

Choose this for a visually supported introduction to Black British history that connects overlooked people and communities with larger questions about slavery, migration, war and how national histories are made.

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.

This is a literary mystery built around reconstruction rather than straightforward answers. Its fractured voice, fairy-tale patterns and shifting interpretations invite close attention to what Cadence notices, misunderstands or cannot remember.

Choose this for a child who enjoys eerie folktales, unusual friendships and stories that leave some things to imagine. The visual mood is shadowy, but the skull is presented as polite and friendly rather than simply frightening.

This is a spooky, funny family adventure centred on a child’s fear of a pirate ghost and an older brother’s teasing. Its appeal lies in the uncertainty between an alarming story and a practical joke.

A warm, unusual story about an orphan girl and a gorilla forming a family, while facing official scrutiny and prejudice. Its humour and tenderness sit alongside uncertainty about belonging and justice.

A richly imagined mystery combines Ghanaian mythology with advanced technology and a Black diaspora community in future San Francisco. Akoma’s investigation centres on family loyalty, ancestral power and trust, while the story also includes tense magical danger and morally difficult decisions.

A contemporary coming-of-age story about queer identity, family ties and friendship, told in verse through Kai’s perspective. Its social concerns sit alongside romance and everyday school life, while the ending’s handling of these strands remains only partly clear.

A twist-led English manor mystery follows Stevie’s investigation of two 1995 killings. Alongside clues and alternating time periods, it explores friendship, romance, trust and the pressures of senior year.

This is an emotionally direct school-and-family story about being misread, finding ways to communicate and learning to recognise a person beyond appearance or speech. Harriet’s perspective gives disability, irritation, humour and courage a central place.

This is a fast-moving horror adventure built around a familiar childhood game becoming strange and threatening. Its unusual file-based presentation adds mystery, while the friendship between Adam and Sol gives the frightening situation an emotional centre.

A mysterious, emotionally focused time-travel adventure about disappearance, family connection and an unusual friendship. It may suit readers who enjoy gradually unfolding puzzles and shifting perspectives, while readers wanting every mechanism explained may find parts frustrating.

This is a character-led coming-of-age romance about uncertainty rather than a straightforward love story. Ellie’s relationships, creative ambitions, family life and friendships overlap, offering humour, emotional complication and culturally specific family tensions.

This is a tender story about finding comfort amid displacement, then recognising another child's loneliness. Its emotional centre is Lubna's difficult decision about a treasured object.

A brisk school-football story turns one costly mistake into a problem about friendship and blame.

A focused, dual-narrative historical novel about displacement, survival and access to water. Its language is spare, but the experiences include war, deaths and severe deprivation, balanced by perseverance and collective problem-solving.

This is an ocean adventure about attempting something others doubt, preparing carefully, coping with difficult conditions and discovering capability. It also brings ocean wildlife and pollution into the story through Lucy’s classmates.

A focused biography about curiosity, family support and persistence: Louis Braille loses his sight, encounters inadequate books and develops a six-dot system to make reading and writing more accessible by touch.

A gentle story about moving from a very small comfort zone into wider experiences. Mabel’s journey offers opportunities to discuss fear, curiosity, confidence, changing seasons and supporting someone who is hesitant.

This is an emotionally serious coming-of-age novel about love, forgiveness and family connection. Its shifting possibilities invite readers to consider how different choices might change relationships, while the central family situation gives the romance additional weight.

Choose this for a creepy, atmospheric mystery centred on horror-film culture, a disturbing small-town setting and escalating suspense. Its appeal lies in eerie world-building and supernatural uncertainty rather than gentle or reassuring storytelling.

This is a serious, emotionally layered coming-of-age novel about how family difficulties, social media and friendship choices shape Taylor’s life before and after catastrophe.

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 warm, illustration-rich story about rebuilding a neglected hotel through practical work, creative problem-solving and cooperation. Its main tension comes from whether Anna and her team can meet an inspector’s challenge.

This is a lively choice for a child who enjoys mischief, silly bodily humour and action. Its Viking setting, school episodes and group problem-solving provide variety, while the short, episodic structure can support shared reading or growing independence.

This is an outdoor adventure about a child investigating her grandmother’s disappearance, helping eagles in difficulty and discovering a stronger sense of belonging in the mountain community.

This is a high-stakes historical pirate adventure centred on Kemosha’s determination to regain freedom and help people she loves. It offers action, survival, romance and a Black heroine confronting slavery and racial cruelty.

Follow Nathaniel from a Jamaican plantation to England, where his belief that English soil means freedom is tested. His hopes for escape and his family’s future drive the story.

A comic family-and-school story about a child navigating ambitious parents, a new school and competing ideas about attention. Its main appeal is the child’s perspective on adult expectations and the awkward question of whether independence can become neglect.

A comic adventure about an underestimated child confronting a frightening threat, while the adults and children around him face the consequences of past choices. Its imaginative monster story also explores belonging, courage and changing relationships.

A calm picture book about Alex moving between Mum’s and Dad’s homes, showing ordinary pleasures in both places rather than treating one household as the only home.

A tense survival adventure places young people in a natural disaster and gives Dylan and Louie difficult practical and emotional problems to solve. Its strongest thread appears to be movement from suspicion towards cooperation.

A suspenseful historical mystery set around Pompeii, combining a children's investigation with vivid historical detail and the looming eruption of Vesuvius. Expect friendship, curiosity and adventure, but also sorrow and frightening material near the conclusion.

A contemporary teen story about a party that brings friendship, romance, family expectations and risky behaviour into collision. Its interest lies in showing how ordinary pressures can lead to impulsive choices, and how those choices affect relationships and public reputation.

A fast-moving survival adventure where four children must depend on one another in an unfamiliar rainforest. Alongside practical dangers, it explores courage, trust, fear, friendship and the difficult choices needed to keep going.

A tense, twist-led survival mystery for readers who enjoy competing viewpoints, dangerous games and uncertainty about whom to trust. Its strongest pull is the combination of personal desperation and escalating threat.

A sweeping fantasy sequel about friends divided by danger and prejudice, with witches, magic, political responsibility and a developing romance. It offers an immersive world, tense escapes and battles, while leaving parts of the journey open for a later book.