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A thoughtful migration story combines everyday hardship with magical realism. Leelu’s loneliness, her brother’s difficulties and the family’s uncertainty make belonging feel complicated rather than instantly solved.

A visually led story about migration, courage and belonging, with no written narration to settle meaning. Its animals and expressive images invite readers to infer what leaving, travelling and arriving might involve.

A warm, busy story about making something together when home and family security are under pressure. Its strongest appeal is the blend of theatre-making, farm life, friendship and practical determination.

A playful, high-energy quest turns familiar ideas upside down. Its central appeal is the combination of gaming-style adventure, colourful illustrations, unusual allies and a clear goal: return to the real world.

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 whimsical quest combines magical characters, tongue-in-cheek humour and determined friendship with a strong longing for home. Its imaginative surface is interrupted by abrupt, casually narrated violence that may surprise readers expecting gentler fantasy.

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 reflective picture book about leaving home and adjusting to an unfamiliar journey. Its mother’s reassuring voice offers steadiness, while the illustrations and repeated questions leave room to notice uncertainty, loss, hope and the child’s perspective.

This is a visually led story about forced movement, family resilience and the search for safety. It may help children consider refugees as people with fears, relationships and hopes, rather than as an abstract issue.

This is a wartime survival adventure combining danger, horses and displaced children. Its central appeal is resourceful young protagonists protecting vulnerable beings, while the historical setting brings serious questions about war, loss and responsibility.

A tender story of Waverley the cat and Donald’s separation, set alongside illustrations of a homeless war veteran. Its emotional focus is friendship, waiting and the contrast between kindness and people being overlooked.

This is a character-led story about foster care, adoption, friendship and the effects of introducing an artificial intelligence into school life. Its tone combines humour with poignant circumstances and thought-provoking questions about human–AI relationships.

This is a serious, emotionally focused novel about returning home, confronting painful memories and imagining a future beyond harmful family dynamics. Flooding and climate danger provide an urgent backdrop, while romantic love adds another strand.

This is a refugee journey told through Sami’s changing circumstances: a familiar life in Damascus gives way to displacement, danger and attempts to rebuild in England. Family bonds, guilt, anxiety, kindness and discrimination shape the experience.

This is a lively, comic adventure about identity, family and belonging. Film-making, mistaken identity and celebrity create the fun, while Rafa’s disrupted home life and concern for Cillian give the story a more serious emotional thread.

A gripping, humane mystery follows Ayrton, Stanley and Sen as family secrets bring them together. Its emotional centre is friendship: the three young people face very different pressures while trying to understand adults and their own identities.

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.

Mandy’s recorded account combines humour with sadness as she faces a chaotic family life, school trouble, and worries about whether the adults around her can care for her properly.

This is a personal and historical account of migration, family separation, reunion and racism. Its emotional movement includes joy, fear, sadness and determination, with illustrations or presentation contrasting Trinidad and England.

This is an emotionally attentive story about a child whose secluded woodland life is abruptly disrupted. It explores unfamiliar family relationships, different ways of experiencing the world, and the possibility of connection without requiring October to become someone else.

This is an adventure about survival and an unusual cross-generational friendship. Alongside practical danger, it gives substantial space to loneliness, care, learning and the ways a relationship can change someone’s view of the world.

This is a substantial historical fiction work about foundlings, family, and orphan care in England.

Expect a lively quest shaped by comic reversals: a gullible scarecrow and clever Jack search for home while facing legal pursuit and a plan to industrialise Spring Valley. Kindness and ingenuity help them resist the threat.

This is an imaginative, unsettling quest about two dependent beings trying to build a home rather than achieve isolation. Expect comic absurdity alongside menace, moral complexity and sustained questions about freedom, family and survival.

Expect an entertaining ghost adventure with intersecting storylines: kindly ghosts seek a home, while an orphaned heir faces a frightening scheme involving deliberately terrifying spirits.

A warm, strongly moral story about an orphaned girl, changing homes and the relationships she forms. Its emotional centre is the contrast between Heidi’s mountain life and her unhappiness in Frankfurt.

This is a contemporary survival story about two children carrying adult worries, seeking trustworthy help and finding support in one another. Its central concerns include family instability, homelessness, friendship and the meaning of home.

This is a tender story about settling somewhere new while carrying memories of the past. It combines sadness with hope, showing how familiar relationships and community support can matter during change.

Expect a comic, episodic adventure in which children help gentle yetis seek refuge. The story combines absurd details and rescues with sharper material about captivity, animal cruelty, hunting and threatened communities.

A gentle story about a tarantula moving from loneliness and boredom towards a new home, with the central challenge of helping people see spiders as beautiful and brave.