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A hands-on introduction to a working farm, combining a walk through farm places with brief nature facts and more than 40 flaps. It offers opportunities to notice animals, crops and everyday farm work together.

A determined young protagonist moves from harsh workhouse conditions into a competitive school, where inventive technology, friendships and hidden political danger drive a fast-moving dystopian adventure.

A suspenseful children’s adventure about siblings investigating unsettling circumstances in a guarded Cornish house. Expect secrets, danger, teamwork and a wartime political backdrop, alongside melodrama and an intentionally improbable child-led challenge to adults.

This is a high-stakes spy adventure with an animal lead, clues, gadgets and a race against time. Its central appeal is action-led problem-solving, supported by a team of animal allies.

A high-stakes entertainment story follows Candace as stardom, school, relationships and public activism collide. It offers glamour alongside questions about industry reform, self-expression, cultural identity and the cost of standing by one’s beliefs.

Choose this for a child fascinated by vehicles, farming or how machines work. It combines accessible explanations with colourful illustrations, comic characters and small visual details that invite looking closely.

This is a relationship-focused school and family story about donor conception, confidence, friendship and adapting to change. It offers two children’s perspectives as they move from resentment towards working together, though the final resolution is unclear.

This is a bleak, emotionally charged dystopian novel: survival, loyalty and resistance unfold amid child combatants, grief and tightly controlled public narratives. Its literary symbolism and political ideas sit alongside substantial graphic violence.

This is a structured, visual introduction to artificial intelligence, moving from Turing and early systems through rules, neural networks, deep learning, robots and future possibilities.

This is a visually powerful book about how an apparently luxurious purchase can be connected to exploitation and inequality. Its sparse words place substantial interpretive weight on sombre, confronting charcoal images and the reader’s response.

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.

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.

An upbeat, personal introduction to farming that follows a working year and explains sheep care alongside stories, humour and reflections on the realities of farm life.

A hands-on farm-and-tractor book for shared reading, centred on a driver’s working day. Its strongest offer is participation: children can engage with the vehicle theme while noticing jobs that help farmers.

This offers a clear introduction to how milk moves from a cow and farm through processing to everyday foods. Its visual storytelling, facts and activities make the subject suitable for shared exploration.

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 warm, illustration-rich story about rebuilding a neglected hotel through practical work, creative problem-solving and cooperation. Its main tension comes from whether Anna and her team can meet an inspector’s challenge.

Expect a lively rescue adventure centred on Molly’s courage and cleverness. The pirate setting, island peril and treasure chase offer momentum, while Molly’s role gives the story an assertive child protagonist.

This looks best suited to a child who enjoys drawing and wants to build a personal collection of celebrated artworks.

A hands-on museum introduction that turns familiar spaces, artworks and behind-the-scenes jobs into small discoveries. Its strongest appeal is participation: children lift flaps while learning what happens in different museum areas.

This is an action-led coming-of-age story about a troubled child entering an extraordinary spy-training organisation. It offers perseverance, teamwork and personal change alongside danger, bereavement, coercion and language some families may wish to discuss.

This is an energetic, participatory poetry book: poems can be performed aloud, paired with movement, facial expressions and imaginative drawing. Its colourful illustrations provide visual prompts and subjects to talk about together.

A tense survival adventure places young people in a natural disaster and gives Dylan and Louie difficult practical and emotional problems to solve. Its strongest thread appears to be movement from suspicion towards cooperation.

A lively guide for children who enjoy practical discovery, linking real expedition experiences with achievable activities close to home. Its emphasis is on learning by trying: outdoor skills, observation, planning and cooperation rather than simply reading about distant adventures.

Expect an imaginative fantasy built around a dangerous darkness, paired roles and a developing relationship. Its strongest focus appears to be how people resist restrictive expectations while learning to trust someone very different from themselves.

A spooky Cornwall adventure with a mystery at its centre, this book brings together a young conservation-minded protagonist, an unusual dog, family members and a new friend against a curse that poisons and destroys the land.

A classic-style children’s adventure built around a coastal mystery, teamwork and discovery. Expect suspense from dangerous rocks, suspicious night-time signals, local wrongdoing and the children’s determination to investigate without adult direction.

This is a fast-moving historical heist about a teenager challenging wealthy and powerful rulers. Its appeal lies in the team’s contrasting abilities, disguises and audacious objective, but the story also contains substantial violence and references to sexual violence.

This is a hands-on introduction to how money works, moving from its history to earning, saving, spending, cards and judging deals. Lift-the-flap questions make the subject exploratory rather than presented as a continuous narrative.

This is a gentle family story built around an everyday journey. Each relative brings a different pace, route and kind of companionship, while Papa’s shoulder ride becomes the child’s especially cherished school-day experience.

A richly imagined fantasy combines Arthurian legend, secret societies and demons with Bree’s investigation into her mother’s death. Its strongest offering is a Black protagonist navigating grief, power and contested history alongside diverse allies and difficult questions about inherited authority.

This is an action-led fantasy about a trans teen navigating a dangerous divine competition, with friendship and social inequality at its centre. Its imaginative mythology and representation may appeal, while the sacrifice premise and sustained peril make the emotional stakes substantial.

This offers an atmospheric historical fantasy with a strong emotional centre: a grieving girl is drawn into a dangerous magical bargain while working in her family’s sweet shop and seeking a way to repair the past.

This is a clue-led historical mystery with an active young protagonist, a strong seaside setting and a family crisis at its centre. It offers atmosphere, teamwork and a determined character whose limb difference is part of her life, not the whole plot.

A gentle adventure about curiosity becoming a shared project. Arthur and his father respond to rumours about the forest by building towards a view beyond it, while bread, neighbours, a storm and a dog add warmth, suspense and opportunities to notice how the community responds.

This is an informational, community-focused account of turning discarded plastic into purses. Its angle links environmental action with persistence, collective work and economic empowerment rather than presenting rubbish only as a problem.

Expect a darkly funny, morally complicated fantasy heist: Elle rebuilds her crew to pursue a seemingly impossible rescue from the Afterlife while translating a mysterious manuscript and avoiding powerful syndicates.

This is a brisk estate mystery built around literary-themed contests, investigation and shifting family secrets. Derin’s personal reasons for entering give the competition emotional weight, while hidden passages and mysterious notes sustain the puzzle.

This is a focused contemporary family story about children’s privacy online. It offers a plot-led way to consider sharenting, consent and the consequences when a parent’s public identity depends on children’s visibility.

A fast-moving fantasy adventure combines fairy-tale reworking, coding, futuristic inventions and family emotion. Amber’s ordered life is disrupted by a rescue mission, while her father’s past adds a more serious strand.

This is a historically grounded coming-of-age story about a girl pursuing football while working in wartime industry. It offers determination, teamwork and questions about who gets opportunities, alongside setbacks when social and institutional attitudes change.

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.

A football-focused sequel about ambition under pressure, balancing a possible professional opportunity with family work, social relationships and disruptive encounters. It may suit a reader who enjoys sport-centred stories with setbacks.

A football-centred story about pressure, responsibility and learning to co-operate, with Roy juggling his place in the team, college, family duties and coaching. It offers both match-focused excitement and everyday-life concerns.

A lively conservation adventure centred on teamwork among rainforest animals.