What Are You Looking For?

A fast-moving dystopian adventure combines a family search with uncertain alliances, a lottery camp and an environmental mystery. Its central pull is whether belonging means escaping Earth or helping protect it.

A folklore-rich quest about a girl protecting her home and family. Its imaginative setting, magical companions and nature imagery sit alongside questions about self-belief, inherited responsibility and whether the past can be repaired.

This is a warm but perilous time-slip adventure about a child coping with frightening family circumstances. Its emotional centre is the growing trust between two boys who must care for one another while trying to return home.

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.

This is a brisk gateway to interconnected Greek myths rather than a single narrowly focused war story. Its sweep includes the war’s background, the conflict itself and the difficult returns of several heroes.

This is a school and family drama about a quiet teenager confronting public lies, persistent bullying and a frightening home atmosphere. It also follows her growing connections with Elijah, Aunt Polly and the mysterious ‘red pen’ correspondent.

A dark, imaginative fantasy about a teenager navigating homelessness, fractured relationships and a dangerous supernatural bargain. Its central appeal is the collision between recognisable adolescent difficulties and a modern vision of Hell.

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 story about displacement, responsibility and belonging, with ballet providing a meaningful connection between Aya’s past and her emerging life in England. Friendship and practical kindness sit alongside worry about family, paperwork and whether home can be rebuilt.

A portal-like magical shop gives Daniel a route from hardship into wonder, responsibility and danger. The story combines bullying, orphanhood, inventive fantasy and a clear save-the-Emporium quest, with creative possibilities beyond the plot.

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.

A lively, voice-led coming-of-age novel combining humour and friendship with family strain, social pressure and gang-related danger. Lemar’s art and relationships offer warmth, but the story also reaches a killing and difficult choices.

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 a family adventure involving financial uncertainty, threatened property and a long journey from rural India towards the city and across the Himalayas.

A thoughtful adventure about losing home, feeling misunderstood and building trust across profound differences. The sea-world premise supports curiosity about biology and communication, while Ginika’s family situation gives the story emotional weight.

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 wartime story about a child whose ordinary village life is disrupted by evacuation, military preparations and a missing cat. It combines danger, friendship and a later family connection across generations.