What Are You Looking For?

A forceful historical adventure about enslaved people resisting plantation rule. Moa’s choice to join Tacky’s uprising brings friendship, courage and hope into direct conflict with coercion, danger and the possibility of death.

A fast-moving science-fiction adventure that places a thoughtful robot between fearful children, human survivors and hostile machines. Its strongest offering is a child-accessible route into questions about personhood, loyalty and moral choices during conflict.

This is a war-and-refugee coming-of-age novel: Kateryno leaves Kharkiv with her mother and brother, settles with a British host family, and navigates separation, new relationships and the emotional aftermath of invasion.

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.

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.

Expect a brisk, comic fantasy in which an ancient Egyptian pharaoh becomes an unexpected household guest. Its appeal lies in absurd situations, family reactions and a light adventure involving grave robbers.

This is a serious, emotionally intense story about forced movement, family separation and trying to belong in an unfamiliar country. Its unhappy ending may matter to readers who need preparation for difficult material.

A brisk school-football story turns one costly mistake into a problem about friendship and blame.

A focused, dual-narrative historical novel about displacement, survival and access to water. Its language is spare, but the experiences include war, deaths and severe deprivation, balanced by perseverance and collective problem-solving.

A lively circus setting frames a story about a penguin choosing a different role. Poppy’s change from performer to organiser offers a reassuring alternative to following a family tradition.

A gentle story about moving from a very small comfort zone into wider experiences. Mabel’s journey offers opportunities to discuss fear, curiosity, confidence, changing seasons and supporting someone who is hesitant.

A fast-moving London quest places a blind heroine at the centre of a supernatural crisis. Its strongest offering is Ella’s practical experience of blindness, alongside friendship, family tensions, mythology and a high-stakes struggle against darkness.

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.

A visually rich, wordless migration story about leaving danger, navigating unfamiliar systems and building a life through help from strangers. Its invented world conveys alienation and uncertainty without relying on spoken language.

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

This is an imaginative animal adventure with two contrasting protagonists: a calf escaping slaughter and a rejected boy pursuing him. The journey opens questions about compassion, human treatment of animals and how relationships can change thinking.

A gripping wartime adventure built around an unlikely friendship. Robert and David’s shared displacement creates empathy and emotional depth, while espionage, pursuit and cliffhangers provide momentum.

A child’s-eye memoir about displacement, family love and survival, moving from wartime adventure-like discoveries towards the realities of bombing, Bergen-Belsen, starvation, illness and bereavement.

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.

This is a character-led wartime coming-of-age story: relationships and growing up receive sustained attention before and during the conflict. Its view extends beyond the front to family life, nursing and shortages in England.

A gentle adoption story centred on Mia’s questions about family resemblance and her mixed feelings. It can open discussion of belonging without requiring every part of a child’s own experience to match Mia’s.

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 a gentle family story about caring for the coast, responding to pollution and encountering marine life. Aaron’s hesitation about going underwater is treated through patience, encouragement and personal readiness.

A thoughtful picture book built around one question: different family members offer different answers, while Henry searches for an answer he can grasp. Its colourful illustrations and unusual page orientation invite looking as well as listening.

This is an imaginative adventure combining friendship, mystery and a robot with a society changed by water scarcity. It also gives sustained attention to Auden’s experience of achromatopsia and his changing relationship with that difference.

This is a fast-moving wartime escape story combining orphanhood, sibling loyalty and espionage. Its child characters repeatedly make difficult choices while trying to survive danger, loss and separation.

This is a historical mystery about a child navigating wartime separation, an unwelcoming household and unanswered questions. Gardens, hothouses and a Suffolk estate provide a vivid setting for secrets, suspicion and friendship.

Expect a large-scale space adventure with mythic elements, unusual worlds and questions about identity. The illustrations are an important part of the experience, adding atmosphere rather than simply depicting events.

This is a school-set novel about how a group experiment changes relationships, authority and public debate. Its central interest is the tension between belonging and independent judgement, with the school newspaper representing a challenge to growing conformity.

A football-centred route into First World War history, this is an emotionally direct story about ambition, enlistment and survival. Its accessible presentation may support readers who want a gripping historical novel without dense prose.

This is a personal investigation into relatives who vanished during the Holocaust. Rosen follows clues, disappointments and discoveries, while poems and family materials give emotional and historical shape to what happened.

A poetic picture book follows a girl whose ordinary school day is shattered by war. Alone, she travels through dangerous displacement before encountering a school that initially excludes her. The story presents destruction, bereavement and possible drowning indirectly, then turns towards welcome, solidarity and hope through children’s practical kindness.

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.

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 fast-moving wartime escape story centred on protecting horses and people. Its strongest features are peril, courage and companionship, while the historical setting gives the adventure serious emotional weight.

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.

Expect an energetic fantasy quest combining Caribbean-inspired folklore, spirits, gemstones and magical battles with a warm friendship story. The central characters face fear, grief, abandonment and morally difficult decisions while trying to protect their island.

This is a richly illustrated journey through British myth and landscape, balancing magical stories with explanations of their historical and cultural context rather than presenting them as straightforward history.

This is an emotionally focused story about adapting to sudden deafness while holding on to music, friendship and ambition. Sophie’s route is not simply about returning to her old life: it involves discovering different ways to experience music and confidence.

This is a fast-moving virtual-reality adventure with a capable but vulnerable protagonist, combining tournament gameplay with a mystery about a threatening player and technology’s real-world consequences.

This is a lively university romance built around an advice column: Mary-Elizabeth gives relationship guidance while navigating attraction, questionable choices, shaken confidence and changing views of the people around her.

A supernatural horror story rooted in a family homecoming, with queer romance and questions of belonging. It combines frightening events with explorations of Vietnamese American identity, colonialism and family history.

This is a horror mystery about survivors confronting a copycat killer who turns local legends and their past trauma into staged crimes. It offers suspense, friendship, queer romance and questions about who controls a traumatic story.

This is an adventurous wartime mystery centred on Mary’s language work, secret assignments and shifting loyalties. Its suspense comes from the uncertainty surrounding her operation.

This is a gritty coming-of-age story that challenges fashion’s glamorous surface. Jana’s rapid rise brings money and opportunity, but also pressures that affect her independence, wellbeing and connections with people she loves.

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.