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Phil Earle
A warm football adventure uses Pickles’s humorous viewpoint to explore a family trying to stay together while money problems and housing insecurity affect everyday life.
Margaret Wild
This is a visually dark but hopeful tale about caring for something precious rather than possessing it. Its symbolic feather and uncertain ending offer room for different readings.
Kerry Drewery
This is a serious historical novel about Hiroshima’s bombing and its long aftermath for one family. Its movement between prose, poetry and haiku gives the story a distinctive shape, while the paper cranes connect grief, promises and hope.
Wendy Meddour
This is a tender story about finding comfort amid displacement, then recognising another child's loneliness. Its emotional centre is Lubna's difficult decision about a treasured object.
G.R. Gemin
This is a warm, socially grounded adventure about two girls whose friendship grows after an initially hostile meeting. A herd of cows, family difficulties and community problems combine humour, feeling and an unexpectedly hopeful direction.
Michael Morpurgo
This is a poignant historical family story about isolation, hardship and perseverance. Its emotional centre is Laura’s longing to help, belong and reunite her family, alongside compassion for a vulnerable turtle.
Katie Cottle
This is a hopeful environmental story in which small actions become more effective through cooperation. Its imaginative ocean encounter gives practical choices—such as reducing plastic and reusing bottles—a narrative setting.
Phil Cummings
A reflective nature journey that links attention, breathing and wonder with responsibility for the environments and living things around us. It offers encouragement to care for the Earth without presenting protection as effortless.
Francesca Sanna
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.
Catherine Bruton
This is a tender but potentially painful story about a child living alongside a seriously ill sibling. Nature, friendship and imaginative activity offer connection, while the family faces worsening illness and possible bereavement.
Emma Chichester Clark
A warm picture-book story about welcoming a mysterious, vulnerable stranger, forming attachment, experiencing sudden separation and extending hospitality to others like him. Its imaginative setting leaves room to discuss belonging without explaining everything about Mister Toots.
Frank Cottrell Boyce
A lively, twist-filled family adventure built around magic shows, vanished landmarks and a journey to Las Vegas. Middy’s practice contrasts with Nathan’s showmanship, giving the cousins different ways to face trouble and uncertainty.
John Steinbeck
This is a compact, serious story about two migrant workers pursuing work and a shared dream. Its strongest elements are loyalty, loneliness and the pressures placed on vulnerable people when hopes collide with harsh circumstances.
Jess Butterworth
This is a grief-focused wilderness adventure in which two young people pursue a hopeful but dangerous mission. Expect emotional recovery to matter alongside physical survival and friendship.
David Almond
This is a mysterious, emotionally serious novel about a child helping a strange being while his family faces a baby’s dangerous illness. Its imaginative uncertainty and lyrical language may appeal to readers who enjoy stories that leave some questions open.
Morris Gleitzman
This is a historical novel about friendship under Nazi persecution, combining Felix’s optimism and humour with fear, loss and moral danger. Its child’s-eye viewpoint may make a vast history feel immediate, while keeping the human cost in view.
Coral Rumble
This is a thoughtful story about a child carrying adult responsibilities who finds friendship, creativity and adventure while visiting Italy. An injured otter and the people Jakub meets help broaden his sense of who he is.
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