What Are You Looking For?

The appeal is in a lively, wayward hero whose choices propel a string of comic and perilous adventures. The book also offers a clear thread of advice about behaviour and responsibility.

A warm, lightly playful set of stories about a young bear and his mother, mixing everyday family moments with a fanciful journey.

This is presented as a comic story of mismatched impressions and eccentric circumstances, bringing two teenagers together in a residential home for older people.

This is an animal-character adventure that pairs challenges and friendship with reflection on helping others. It also includes love, loss, fear and loneliness.

This is a contemporary thriller about craving adventure, taking a risk and discovering that a promising escape may be dangerous.

This adventure novel centres on Johnny, Kaspar and Johnny’s new friendship with Lizziebeth, an American heiress.

This is a family-and-adventure story about teenage werewolf siblings balancing school and sibling relationships with a threat to the woods they secretly use.

This is an adventure story set against a family bereavement: Chad, Kate and their father try to build a new life while travelling for their company.

This is a story about two siblings hoping for a stable, loving home while unsure whom to trust. Its focus is their invitation into new experiences and the possibility of belonging.

This is an imaginative animal quest centred on a missing mapmaker, an unlikely travelling group and encounters beyond home. It offers adventure alongside ideas about kindness, cooperation, friendship and following one’s own heart.

Expect a fantastical sea adventure centred on friendship, magical beings and a rescue mission. The clearest tension comes from a mysterious curse, a whirlpool and the protagonists’ stated fear.

A pet’s stay at the Puppy Inn creates the story’s central situation: Tuckerbean is apart from his owner and her mother while they travel. Expect an adventure-led read, with the exact events and resolution left open.

Expect a playful fantasy built around journeys, magical settings and friendship. The two linked adventures offer imaginative escapism, with Mollie and Peter repeatedly encountering strange places and helping their pixie companion.

Choose this for a participatory story: children can help search for Patch, follow verbal prompts and enjoy rhyme, clues and playful pirate imagery. It combines an unfolding quest with a wind-down-to-bedtime framing.

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 magical historical-fantasy adventure about identity, family and friendship, with mysteries uncovered through flashbacks. Expect spells, Fairyland, talking animals, shapeshifting and a curse rather than a realistic everyday setting.

Found offers a warm, imaginative seaside adventure centred on a close grandparent–grandchild relationship. The rescue of a seal pup brings excitement and peril, while the artwork shifts from realistic beach details towards strikingly fanciful scenes.

This offers a warm, satisfying fairy tale with magical transformations, unusual characters and artwork rich in small visual details that create an intimate, familiar feel.

A gentle family story about love, loss and renewal: a child learns about Grandad and Gramps’s life together, then helps Grandad move towards new adventures while keeping shared memories alive.

This is an adventurous friendship story set around hiking, camping and outdoor survival. Its emotional centre is Vincent’s struggle with school, coordination and belonging, alongside classmates whose different circumstances affect how the group works together.

A whimsical, suspenseful fantasy about escaping ordinary life and confronting danger, with a bittersweet focus on childhood and growing up. Its imaginative appeal sits alongside language and attitudes that require historical distance.

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.

A warm, imaginative school mystery combining animal shapeshifting with friendship, sensory overwhelm and family pressures. Alice’s investigation offers adventure while bringing several pupils’ struggles with belonging into the story.

Expect a horse-centred friendship story with Bonnie and Sam sharing adventures in a country town. The circus and trick-riding episode provide the clearest sense of excitement, while the girls’ attentiveness to horses shapes the emotional centre.

This is a war story centred on women’s practical support: feeding, nursing-related work and driving ambulances. Midge’s changing understanding of courage moves the narrative from imagined adventure towards demanding service and confronting wartime consequences.

This is a friendship-led camp adventure built around trying to help a distressed counsellor. Expect a puzzle, secret planning, a magical element and an escapade involving another camp.

This is a child-centred adventure about adapting when a summer is unexpectedly restricted. Paddy’s companionship with Fenway and imaginative journeying appear to provide the story’s main movement, while the broken arm creates the initial change in circumstances.