What Are You Looking For?

A gentle, affirming story pairs ocean exploration with a message about self-trust. Its distinctive promise is that following one’s own path does not cancel the security of a loving family relationship.

This looks best suited to a child who enjoys drawing and wants to build a personal collection of celebrated artworks.

A warm school-start story about friendship, self-expression and the pressure to seem interesting. Its central contrast is between Monty’s unwanted performance and Dot’s gradual willingness to be more open.

This is a poignant historical family story about isolation, hardship and perseverance. Its emotional centre is Laura’s longing to help, belong and reunite her family, alongside compassion for a vulnerable turtle.

A structured introduction to everyday money matters, moving from saving and investment to borrowing, insurance and budgeting. Its practical examples connect financial knowledge with university, college, starting work and travel.

A spooky fantasy adventure about a girl who enters a dangerous forest to understand what happened to her sister, with the story’s central mystery challenging simple ideas of bravery and rescue.

This offers a contained lunar mystery with clues, suspects, suspense and humour. Its appeal lies in Dash’s investigation, the unusual space setting and the contrast between boredom, danger and intellectual challenge.

A lively school-election story about finding allies, challenging unfairness and turning strong feelings into action. Its campaign plot combines humour, friendship and political participation with a developing lesson about listening and working constructively with opponents.

A dark, fast-moving faerie adventure that combines monsters, romance and town danger with more reflective questions about self-invention, family secrets, community complicity and whether apparent gifts or beauty can conceal coercion.

A practical, playful invitation to turn found and recycled materials into animals, insects and habitats, while noticing details of the natural world. Its strongest offer is creative freedom: children are encouraged to experiment, display their work and value connection over perfect results.

A contemporary YA romance about an art-loving teenager whose secret travel plans, difficult partnership and online attraction create competing pressures. Venice provides the setting for artistic work, cultural experiences and shifting romantic feelings.

This is a character-led story about a Deaf teenager using graffiti and art to express herself while navigating exclusion, friendship and the expectations of hearing people.

This is an adventurous wartime mystery centred on Mary’s language work, secret assignments and shifting loyalties. Its suspense comes from the uncertainty surrounding her operation.

This is a contemporary YA thriller about online fame, human creativity and AI’s expanding influence. It combines humour and drama with a dark turn, while following Mikah’s increasingly consequential mukbang success.

A vivid, culturally rooted coming-of-age novel about Sheba discovering power, heritage and responsibility while facing a threatening parent. It offers imaginative magic, close family care, friendship and an intimate portrayal of hair as connected with identity and inner life.

This offers a lively, personal story about cultural and family pressures, school belonging and wanting independence. Humour sits alongside increasingly serious material, so the emotional experience may change notably as Jo grows older.

Expect a quiet, imaginative story in which painted scenes become a route into experiences Madurer cannot have outside. Its emotional centre is the growing creative partnership between a confined child and the artist who works for him.

A choice-driven story about finding a voice when other people control the decisions. Fred’s move to a new school brings pressure, friendships and opportunities to pursue his art, while each reader’s choices shape a different route.

This is a reflective historical fantasy combining medieval life with an Arthurian story seen through a magical stone. Its strongest appeal is Arthur’s search for identity, belonging and a future of his own.

A tense, idea-led story about an AI-created relationship, shaped by grief, family rupture and revenge. It offers momentum, twists and ethical questions, while character development and some connections may feel less fully developed.

This is a coming-of-age story about leaving home, making a new life and navigating first love while music gives Marty a route towards independence. It foregrounds identity, trust, relationships, friendship and found family.

A tense, imaginative adventure follows Varjak from sheltered privilege into an unfamiliar city, where friendship, danger and dream-teaching reshape his understanding of himself and other cats.

Expect a gently comic adventure in which a boy, a dragon and St George confront expectations about what dragons and heroes should be. The story makes room for poetry, friendship and a staged solution rather than presenting fighting as the only answer.

A collaborative, idea-led picture book about children imagining and planning a better world. It offers hopeful prompts around kindness, environmental responsibility, safety and inclusion, while inviting children’s own ideas into the conversation.

A fast-moving mystery-adventure about a girl investigating her father’s disappearance, with clockwork inventions, pursuit and an unusual animal companion at the centre of the journey.