What Are You Looking For?

A magical friendship story combines snowy adventures with questions about fear, loneliness, community and letting go. Tasha's bond with Alyana is central, while winter's persistence may affect other people around them.

Expect a vivid underwater fantasy adventure led by a determined engineer, with a submarine expedition, imaginative creatures, perilous conditions and a group learning to trust one another.

Expect an urgent survival adventure in which two children must respond to rising danger after extreme weather separates them from their group. Its environmental focus sits alongside friendship, courage and the pressures of fitting in.

Expect an energetic rescue adventure moving between a rural industrial town and an imaginative jinn world. Nura’s loyalty, resourcefulness and courage drive the story, while friendship, family responsibility and resistance to exploitation shape its emotional centre.

A dark, imaginative adventure for readers who enjoy secret societies, mythological creatures and determined protagonists. Its strongest hooks are the hunter trials, the forest’s threats and Winnie’s effort to reclaim her family’s standing.

A fast-moving fantasy about siblings protecting a rare book while confronting tyranny, imprisonment and loss. Expect mystery, magical adventure and moral decisions, alongside darker material involving death, torture and violence.

Choose this for a child who enjoys eerie folktales, unusual friendships and stories that leave some things to imagine. The visual mood is shadowy, but the skull is presented as polite and friendly rather than simply frightening.

This is a spooky, funny family adventure centred on a child’s fear of a pirate ghost and an older brother’s teasing. Its appeal lies in the uncertainty between an alarming story and a practical joke.

A football-centred mystery with a young investigator, kidnapping and criminal danger.

A gentle intergenerational story combines farm life, family memory and a practical challenge: a grandson helps his grandfather learn to read and write before travelling to Australia.

This is a participatory beach adventure rather than a detailed plot: children help Niko build, move through interactive elements and encounter a small anticipated setback while sharing the rhyming story.

This is a fast-moving historical ghost story that combines football, Iron Age Britain and unsettling visions, with Seth’s family worry and a meeting that helps him find courage.

A lively football story about a struggling team, a supposed cursed kit and Stanley’s efforts to restore confidence. Expect comic superstition, setbacks and team-focused action, with the ending centred on the last game.

A lively read-aloud about a lost dog’s imagined adventures, using rhyme, humour and expressive illustrations to explore survival, landscape, curiosity and the pull of home.

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 an adventurous, emotionally charged animal-led quest. It offers talking animals, friendship and humour alongside a bleak altered world, separated families, imprisonment, disease and threats to survival. The ending appears to open into a continuing story rather than resolving every possibility.

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.

A visually led story about recovery after a frightening fall, with humour, expressive emotion and a clear movement from avoidance towards renewed possibility. Its ending offers hope, while leaving room to discuss different ways of coping.

This is an encouraging, practical exploration of how practice, perseverance, support and learning from mistakes may help people develop skills. Its central message is hopeful, though the emphasis on becoming “awesome” can make achievement feel like the main measure of success.

A family’s fear grows as a huge black dog watches their home. Small Hope faces it, leads it on a chase, and discovers a playful way to bring it inside.

A true, illustrated account of a boy who wonders how things work, teaches himself from old science books and builds a windmill for his drought-ravaged village. The emphasis is on persistence and practical invention.

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.

Readers get a varied set of true survival accounts, from exploration and shipwreck to accidents and medical crises, with illustrations highlighting pivotal moments. The emphasis is on extraordinary ordeals rather than one continuous narrative.

This is an ocean adventure about attempting something others doubt, preparing carefully, coping with difficult conditions and discovering capability. It also brings ocean wildlife and pollution into the story through Lucy’s classmates.

A gentle environmental story about a small, quiet character whose observations are initially overlooked. Whisper’s eventual advocacy involves friends, creativity and persuasion rather than simply becoming louder.

A powerful poetic celebration of African American resilience and achievement, this book moves from historical suffering to cultural, sporting and civic accomplishment, inviting shared reading, recitation and reflection.

A lively introduction to women’s contributions across history and different fields, presented through colourful illustrations, short profiles, facts and quotations. Its page-by-page structure supports dipping in, revisiting individual figures and noticing links between personal achievement and wider social change.

This is a serious, emotionally layered coming-of-age novel about how family difficulties, social media and friendship choices shape Taylor’s life before and after catastrophe.

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.

This is an imaginative, issue-led adventure about environmental collapse, inequality and resistance, balanced by family loyalty and hope. Its vivid language may invite close discussion as much as straightforward plot-following.

A playful, illustrated story that uses rhyme and a small central character to explore dreams, fears and courage. Its chapter structure may support reading aloud in short sittings and revisiting key ideas together.

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.

Follow Nathaniel from a Jamaican plantation to England, where his belief that English soil means freedom is tested. His hopes for escape and his family’s future drive the story.

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.

A comic adventure about an underestimated child confronting a frightening threat, while the adults and children around him face the consequences of past choices. Its imaginative monster story also explores belonging, courage and changing relationships.

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.

This is a serious memoir about a child navigating poverty, school exclusion, racism and violent home relationships. Alongside distressing experiences, it includes friendship, sibling joy, Abuela’s influence and moments of perseverance.

This is an information-led guide to responding to hazards, including dangerous animals, natural disasters, human dangers, navigation, first aid and rescue. It offers preparation-focused content rather than a sustained fictional storyline.

This is a survival adventure centred on resilience, resourcefulness, grief and connection with nature. Karana's growing self-sufficiency drives the story, while her isolation and the treatment of Indigenous characters add weight beyond the adventure.

A fast-moving survival adventure where four children must depend on one another in an unfamiliar rainforest. Alongside practical dangers, it explores courage, trust, fear, friendship and the difficult choices needed to keep going.

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.

This is a survival adventure about dependent pets forced into an unknown, dangerous world. Its emotional centre is the animals’ struggle to cope, cooperate and change when familiar human protection disappears.

This is a quest fantasy that combines a family holiday setting with Arthurian legend, hidden clues and supernatural opposition. Its strongest appeal is likely the gradual shift from ordinary mystery towards mythic adventure.

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.

This is a creepy, atmospheric adventure for readers who enjoy forests, folklore, faerie magic and monsters. Its central appeal appears to be suspenseful discovery, with Pippa investigating what is watching from the trees.