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This is a fast-moving historical adventure centred on a young protagonist navigating war, captivity and divided loyalties while trying to protect her family and home.

A suspenseful historical adventure combines a child-led mystery with Tutankhamun’s story. It offers friendship, family loyalty and questions about who has the right to remove cultural treasures, alongside period travel and Egyptian history.

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 character-led teen romance about revenge, filmmaking and changing assumptions. Its strongest appeal may be the tension between Wren’s determined judgement of Beckett and her growing uncertainty about whether she understands him.

Expect a swashbuckling fantasy centred on a young woman trained to protect islands while facing a violent parent. Pirates, ships, political manoeuvring, romance and threatened loyalties shape the central conflict.

A puzzle-led mystery for readers who enjoy secrets, shifting timelines and an atmospheric setting. Marlowe’s self-deprecating humour and developing relationship with Akilah sit alongside family tragedy, present-day danger and questions about how the past shapes the present.

This offers imaginative fantasy alongside sustained questions about Black identity, friendship, prejudice and self-determination. Its dual perspective gives Tavia and Effie distinct forms of identity exploration, though the opening may feel slow before the action intensifies.

Expect fast-moving fantasy adventure: Emily and her friends train, discover powers and attempt a dangerous rescue while war approaches. Family tensions and questions of trust sit alongside battles and emotional uncertainty.

Tug of War is a work of juvenile fiction about mothers and daughters, evacuation of civilians and decision-making.

This is an imaginative, issue-led adventure about environmental collapse, inequality and resistance, balanced by family loyalty and hope. Its vivid language may invite close discussion as much as straightforward plot-following.

Choose this for a high-stakes forbidden romance set against a vivid, drowned future London, especially if a Romeo and Juliet reworking appeals. Expect war, scarcity and a grim atmosphere alongside the central relationship.

A tense survival adventure pairs a fast-moving journey with vivid Australian landscapes, environmental collapse and a close sibling relationship. The dogs are important companions, while family separation and uncertainty keep the emotional stakes high.

This is an ocean fantasy about two siblings seeking their vanished father while discovering a second world and a changing connection to the sea. Mystery, magic and family feeling drive the adventure.

A gripping island survival thriller combines puzzles, geocaching and competition with escalating horror. It offers capable friends, shifting loyalties and personal revelations, but includes graphic and disturbing material.

A warm, humorous coming-of-age story about Joe Morelli’s attempt to save his family café. Alongside business ideas and community life, Joe explores his Italian heritage and the history of Italian immigrants in Wales.

A determined girl enters a spirit world to protect her brother, recover what has been taken from her and address an enchantment threatening human and spirit communities. Folklore, gods and political conflict drive the fantasy adventure.

A high-stakes fantasy about two sisters whose loyalty is tested by liberation, empire, dragons and divine power. Expect complex political and family tensions alongside action, sacrifice and questions about who deserves protection.

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.

This is a teen environmental thriller about a girl caught between family loyalty, new friendships and a campaign against chemical-waste dumping. Its main appeal is the moral pressure placed on Maya as secrets accumulate.

Expect a darkly funny, morally complicated fantasy heist: Elle rebuilds her crew to pursue a seemingly impossible rescue from the Afterlife while translating a mysterious manuscript and avoiding powerful syndicates.

A tense story about girls seeking safety and belonging under Sol’s control. As new relationships and demands unsettle the cabin, the book follows questions of loyalty, selfhood, survival and whether protection can become coercion.

This is a brisk estate mystery built around literary-themed contests, investigation and shifting family secrets. Derin’s personal reasons for entering give the competition emotional weight, while hidden passages and mysterious notes sustain the puzzle.

This offers court intrigue, magic, desert adventure and a relationship shaped by unequal power, betrayal and difficult choices. Its central appeal is the girls’ developing bond and their resistance to a brutal system.

A relationship story becomes a way to examine how inherited political, religious and family divisions shape young people’s choices. The book presents reconciliation as fragile, requiring listening, risk and engagement rather than simple agreement.

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 a war novel centred on a young woman’s divided loyalties: caring for the wounded, protecting family and considering escape. It offers an emotionally intense perspective on civilian danger, responsibility and hope.

Expect an intense crime thriller about grief, anger and the pursuit of revenge. The brothers face secrecy, hostility and danger while investigating their sister’s death, with an unsettling atmosphere and a strongly action-driven climax.

This is an adventurous, suspenseful environmental dystopia about siblings resisting control and learning what the wider world contains. It combines survival challenges with wonder, family loyalty and questions about freedom.

A two-strand adventure contrasts Connor’s life among pirates with Grace’s confinement aboard a vampire ship. The supernatural setting creates mystery, while the twins’ determination to reunite gives the story its emotional centre.

A thoughtful friendship story with a suspenseful edge, this novel explores how exclusion, secrets and personal circumstances can affect relationships. Its three narrators encourage empathy, though bullying and isolation may merit preparation or discussion.

Expect a twisty, atmospheric ghost story with humour, danger and a morally ambiguous central character. Harriet’s pursuit of power drives the tension, while the surrounding friendships and queer romantic thread add warmth and complication.

This is a supernatural survival story grounded in sibling loyalty and Filipino folklore. Its main appeal is the tension between keeping hidden, protecting a community and deciding what to believe when danger makes familiar rules unsafe.

This is a spooky rescue adventure centred on a frightened boy trying to protect his brother. Expect cemetery and crypt imagery, supernatural games, riddles and sustained suspense, alongside friendship and compassion.

A thoughtful historical coming-of-age story about desire, identity, family loyalty and imagined futures. Lily’s romance unfolds alongside Chinese American community life, scientific ambition and the pressures of 1950s racism, homophobia and anti-Communist suspicion.

A brisk historical adventure about a determined young performer entering London’s theatrical world, with family pressure, friendship and danger shaping his efforts to follow William Shakespeare. Its glossary and postscript can support interest in period language and the boundary between invented story and historical fact.

This is a relationship-led YA story where secrecy places friendship under pressure. Its central situation brings authority, loyalty and protection into conflict, while Eden’s family experiences and academic expectations add emotional and social layers.

This is a fast-moving mystery thriller about identity and family, combining Lauren’s search for her origins with puzzles, friendship and threats. Its central appeal is suspense, but the family questions give the adventure emotional weight.

A lively historical-fantasy mystery follows two young detectives through Parisian streets and sewers. Its strongest appeal is the blend of family questions, magical folklore, riddles, danger and a richly used city setting, with Zélie and Jules sharing the adventure.

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 historically rooted survival and migration story, centred on siblings whose loyalty persists through violence, poverty, separation and an unfamiliar culture. It offers substantial scope for thinking about belonging and family responsibility.

A moving wartime narrative seen through a horse’s limited understanding, contrasting battlefield destruction with loyalty, care, and shared humanity. Its emotional force comes from the separation of Joey and Albert and the suffering of horses and people.

This is a high-pressure family and sports story about twins whose ambitions, rivalry and difficult circumstances lead them towards separate dangers. It combines emotional conflict with themes of loyalty, adversity and recovery.

An imaginative rescue adventure that places family devotion and personal difference at the centre of a struggle against mental control. It may particularly suit readers drawn to big moral questions alongside suspense and other-worldly travel.

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 suspenseful story about a teenager carrying adult responsibilities while secret activities and threatening communications pull her into another person’s scheme. Expect twists, uncertainty and a morally complicated power dynamic rather than a straightforward adventure.

Choose this for a reader who enjoys classic mysteries, deduction and a slightly spooky atmosphere. Its strongest appeal is the Holmes-and-Watson partnership, carefully constructed investigation and influential detective-fiction pattern.