What Are You Looking For?

This is a concise, visually bold introduction to the idea that people associated with toughness can feel and show emotion. Its repeated examples make it well suited to shared reading and noticing feelings.

This is a warm read-aloud about a child who can be lively, quiet, bold, cuddly, imaginative or unsure. Its central reassurance is that individuality can include seeming contradictions.

A supportive, practical exploration of sadness, anger, anxiety and other feelings, linking emotions with bodily responses and coping ideas. Its illustrations, rhyme and activities invite shared reading rather than a single uninterrupted sitting.

This is a practical, explanatory guide that combines information about anxiety with activities and coping ideas.

Choose this for a fast-moving dystopian horror story built around survival, undead threats, a televised contest and a relationship under pressure. Its central hook is spectacle made from danger.

A gentle adoption story that acknowledges frightening beginnings, uncertainty about change and lingering sadness or anger, while offering comfort through foster carers, social-worker support and a loving adoptive family.

A warm, comic sibling story about loving someone while also needing space. Nano and Felix’s disagreement grows through exclusion, bad weather and hurt feelings, then moves towards repair.

Choose this for a reflective shared read about sunlight, living things and big questions. Its strongest experience is visual: children can trace connections across scenes and wonder aloud rather than follow a conventional plot.

A quiet story of making something beautiful in a neglected place, then finding connection through it. Its focus is on patient care, creative action and the gradual opening of a friendship.

This is a contemporary YA romance about reconnecting with someone changed by fame. Alongside Lulu and Kite’s feelings, it considers friendship, family relationships, celebrity privacy, fandom culture, mental health and bisexual identity.

This is a gentle beach adventure about a character whose plans repeatedly go wrong, then improve through friendship and a calming activity. Its central interest is recognising strong feelings and responding with compassion.

A hopeful, character-focused magical-realism story about friendship, grief and coming of age, combining tender romance with secrets, mystery and the pressure of a strictly limited second chance.

This is a humorous contemporary fantasy-romance about luck, self-knowledge and changing feelings. Its appeal lies in Jude’s creative interests, playful narration and a central magical question that gradually becomes a question about personal responsibility.

A tender but emotionally weighty story about losing someone special. Its strongest feature is the storm-in-a-jar image, which gives Arlo’s sadness and anger a concrete visual form before the story turns towards remembering Nana.

This is a school-based story about first romantic feelings, friendship, creative ambition and self-acceptance. Astrid’s changing emotions are central, while her relationships and disappointments give readers opportunities to consider identity and resilience.

A creepy, energetic adventure that combines frightening creatures and suspense with banter, humour and an emphasis on four unlike students learning to support one another.

Lara balances football training with her friends’ ideas for a school business competition. The book follows her effort to pursue sporting ambitions while managing friendship, feelings, competition and apparent pressure from people who enjoy seeing her struggle.

A funny, expressive story about facing the unknown. Pigeon’s objections make school worries visible, while the playful presentation may help a child recognise nervousness without making the situation feel overwhelming.

This is a reassuring school-transition story: a frightening unknown becomes more understandable through companionship and familiar activities. Its emotional focus may help children name nervousness while imagining what a school day could involve.

A thoughtful verse novel about a child facing an unwanted move and gradually finding steadiness. Its imaginary-friend narrator gives Ray’s worries a distinct voice while the story broadens towards kindness, refuge and understanding others.

This is chiefly a playful poetry experience: children can enjoy saying rhymes aloud, spotting puns and meeting unfamiliar words, while some later poems introduce absence, grief and more serious feelings.

A lively historical adventure follows Lily as she travels unexpectedly through time while managing friendship drama, a feud, a first crush and the challenge of being separated from home.

This is a grief-centred novel with a supernatural frame, offering a serious exploration of contradictory feelings rather than a light adventure. Its short, spare narration contrasts with the monster’s larger, ambiguous tales.

Expect a lively read-aloud built from twelve crayons’ letters, each with a distinct complaint and personality. Illustrations extend the written messages, while Duncan’s response invites playful experimentation with colour.

A playful, visually driven friendship story that uses repeated shapes, deadpan humour and reciprocal pranks. It offers opportunities to notice triangles and squares while inviting discussion about teasing, fear and unintended consequences.

A suspenseful fantasy about discovering identity and belonging, with a resourceful protagonist, dragon lore and a friendship shaped by loneliness. It offers emotional themes alongside danger, loss and a history of conflict between humans and dragons.