What Are You Looking For?

This is an adventure-led historical novel centred on Deaf community, sign language and human dignity, while exploring how inherited prejudice shapes relationships between communities.

A visually rich shared-history book that links humanity’s beginnings in Africa with creativity, discovery and belonging. Poetry invites reflection, while the timeline adds factual context beyond the main narrative.

This is a gentle, realistic story about a child negotiating identity and belonging after moving countries. It offers a clear starting point for discussing names, pronunciation, welcome and cultural pride.

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.

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.

This is an imaginative, politically charged fantasy for readers interested in languages, dragons and morally complicated loyalties. Vivien’s translation work opens onto family upheaval, rebellion, class divisions and a war whose human and dragon costs are visible.

A gentle adventure about curiosity becoming a shared project. Arthur and his father respond to rumours about the forest by building towards a view beyond it, while bread, neighbours, a storm and a dog add warmth, suspense and opportunities to notice how the community responds.

A thoughtful picture book built around one question: different family members offer different answers, while Henry searches for an answer he can grasp. Its colourful illustrations and unusual page orientation invite looking as well as listening.

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 visually led story about a frightened newcomer trying to return home. Its emotional centre is Leaf’s isolation, while the woodland animals’ changing response opens space to discuss fear, curiosity and welcome.

A clue-driven mystery set among gifted students, pairing investigation with questions about grief, friendship and the human cost of treating crime as an intellectual puzzle.

A short, visually expressive story about a newcomer, suspicion and the possibility of belonging. Its emotional centre is the contrast between what the animals assume and what they learn about the stranger’s past.

A gentle, visually playful story about curiosity, invention and noticing nature. Norton and Alpha’s discovery gives children a clear contrast between a mechanical home and the living world outside.

A supernatural horror story rooted in a family homecoming, with queer romance and questions of belonging. It combines frightening events with explorations of Vietnamese American identity, colonialism and family history.

A spooky social-media horror story about amateur ghost hunters pursuing missing vloggers into a dangerous house. Its distinctive video-diary presentation and page progress bar are intended to make the investigation feel immediate.

This is a gentle mystery built around looking, waiting and imagining. Its pleasure lies less in solving the hole’s secret than in noticing how many explanations can coexist.

This offers a lively route into scientific curiosity: invention, robots and jokes are paired with explanations of antimatter, atoms, robotics and the scientific method. It may particularly engage readers who enjoy illustrated, idea-rich adventures.

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 fast-moving, atmospheric slasher mystery built around teenage friendship, investigation and uncertainty about whether a haunting is real. The central appeal is suspense and clue-following rather than realistic crime analysis.

Expect an imaginative fantasy built around ordinary household objects seen from a tiny family’s perspective. Its appeal lies in clever details, family relationships and the contrast between the Borrowers’ hidden life and the human world.

A gentle, episodic story about meeting fear with curiosity. Plop’s conversations introduce several ways of understanding darkness, alongside owl facts and moments of comic mishap as he learns to manage a new experience.

A warm sibling-centred collection in which a very young girl’s curiosity and mischief drive comic family episodes. It offers recognisable domestic situations, while some incidents may invite discussion about consequences and other people’s boundaries.

This is an atmospheric circus fantasy about curiosity, belief and stepping into the unknown. Its strongest features are theatrical build-up, magical transformations and artwork that makes the mysterious Place Between feel vivid and slightly uncanny.