What Are You Looking For?

A family story about Floss’s choice to live with her father, whose failing café brings financial strain and upheaval. School friendships add another thread, and the ending is open rather than fully settled.

This is a realistic school story in which harassment grows from insults and humiliation into physical attacks. Piddy also faces questions about identity and family, while trying to keep up with school and work.

This is a school-and-family story about coping with upheaval and trying to start afresh.

This is a school-and-friendship story about adjusting to a move and finding a place in an established group, with mysteries and bullying also in the mix.

A child’s attempt to turn gardening into a way to earn money becomes a story about balancing a personal goal with friendship and neighbourhood pressures.

This is a story about friendship and finding confidence while facing difficulties. Hobart’s new friendship with Lettie is presented as a turning point, though how he responds to the bully is not detailed.

A school-year story about wanting to be seen differently, finding a close friend and coping with a parent’s drinking at home.

A story about ambition, friendship and being seen as more than a pretty face, set around Destiny’s secret beauty-contest entry and the challenges that follow.

At its heart, this is a friendship story about two young people pursuing different ambitions while confronting pressures in their lives and community.

This is a story about a teenage online creator coping with bereavement and a changed social world. It brings together family loss, online attention and the uncertainty of starting at a new school.

A supernatural murder mystery combines a deadline, school secrets and Taylor’s effort to secure justice for a former bully. The plot also introduces the possibility of romantic feelings.

This is a friendship story set against coercion and injury, with a fantasy of flying and wartime flying stories in the mix.

A Minecraft-inspired adventure pairs an outsider character with a bullied girl as monsters enter her school. The characters team up under pressure.

This fantasy follows Rage as she tries to protect two worlds from an endless winter linked to a powerful Stormlord and other people’s despair.

This is a supernatural story about friendship and the consequences of joining in when someone is teased. Its central tension combines school relationships with a ghost seeking revenge.

This is a superhero-themed story that pairs a school bullying conflict with messages about friendship across ethnicities and the value of hard work, particularly in school.

A humorous family-and-school story about Calvin trying to manage expectations at home while dealing with changes to his space and social life.

This is a story about confidence and popularity, with a magical object at its centre. Stanley’s change in how other children treat him, and his loss of the stone, set up a question about what makes someone feel cool.

Chester’s canine viewpoint makes the friendship central, while the story also explores how Gus’s behaviours are understood at home and school.

This is a friendship-and-status story with several girls’ perspectives, mixing holiday crush worries with shopping and money problems. Its social conflicts include revenge and a fake-lice scare.

Expect a school-and-basketball story that also follows Pippa's efforts to fit in without feeling ashamed of her family or background.

A child’s excitement about joining a baseball team meets the challenge of sharing it with a bully. The story sets up a practical question about what good teammates do when team life is difficult.

A realistic school-and-family story about a small triplet seeking greater independence, with friendship developing through a butterfly-garden project and factual butterfly material extending beyond the narrative.

A lively fantasy adventure combines school settings, friendship, humour, magic and imaginative creatures. Felix and Betony must use their wits across conflicts involving Rhino, a djinn and the Japegrins, while the story builds towards a threat affecting two worlds.

This is an intense, visually symbolic story about shame, identity and survival. Its painful experiences are balanced by friendship and a hopeful possibility of acceptance, without suggesting that every difficulty has been resolved.

A historical adventure about starting again after disaster, building friendships and trying to protect a new home from moving sand. Expect family upheaval, school conflict and an ending whose precise emotional shape is unclear.

A straightforward mystery with a teenage investigator, a friendship that supports the enquiry, boxing as a recurring motif, and danger that increases as questions are asked. It offers clues, action and school intrigue rather than an unusually experimental structure.

A lively, fast-moving adventure blends slapstick humour with the playful fascination of miniature things. Its central appeal lies in the collision between an ordinary boy’s unusual power and consequences he cannot control, alongside friendship and school tensions.

This is a mission-driven seafaring adventure in which a crew pursues a former rival who has become a pirate and slave trader. Friendship, courage and restored honour shape the action.

This is a short magical football story centred on loneliness, family support and social change. Its central tension comes from Timmy being treated differently before and after demonstrating an unusual ability.

This is a paranormal school adventure about discovering an extraordinary identity, navigating exclusion and questioning rules. It combines dragon lore, friendship, attraction, danger and a determined protagonist who resists simply going along with authority.

This is a school-and-friendship story set around Valentine’s Day. Patti notices a newcomer’s distance, considers whether to send a valentine, and takes part in organising a themed dance, while her brother’s bullying adds a more serious concern.

This is an emotionally charged teen novel about being seen beyond labels. Its central relationship brings together romance, loneliness, grief, bullying, disability-related experience and efforts to reclaim confidence and possibility.

Choose this for a young reader who enjoys fast-moving fantasy but may also value a story that gives anxiety, friendship and practical coping methods a central role.

This is a historical coming-of-age story about how proximity to power can distort a child’s judgement, while friendship, conscience and resistance remain possible responses to injustice.

This is a teenage horror story about arriving at camp as an outsider, facing peer hostility, and encountering a dreamcatcher alongside Louella’s offer of lasting togetherness.

A sports-centred school story broadens into questions about trying unfamiliar activities and supporting a friend. Kyle’s basketball and theatre commitments provide the main conflict, while homophobic bullying is a significant social issue in the story.

Expect a Spanish-language children’s fiction book connected with humour and the Natacha series.

This is a comic dystopian adventure about pupils navigating bullying, cliques, shortages and an unsafe society while trying to use intelligence and teamwork. Expect absurdity alongside ominous circumstances, including bombs, danger, spiders and threatened schoolmates.

This is a faith-centred teenage novel about self-definition, music and difficult social situations. Chloe’s questioning is paired with a strongly Christian direction, while the synopsis presents her individuality and creative ambitions as important parts of her journey.

This is a tense school-set story about coercion, belonging and escalating knife-related danger. Its focus is less on glamour than on how fear, loyalty and pressure can narrow a teenager’s choices.

This appears to offer a coming-of-age fictional framework associated with girls and bullying, but the available details are too limited to show its distinctive plot, voice or resolution.

This is a school story about the harm caused by judging people by appearance. It offers two viewpoints on being teased and also includes a child’s difficult home life.

Expect a warm, humorous story built around Lottie's plan to grow a giant pumpkin with her grandfather. Its comic elements sit alongside school bullying, family strain, bereavement, illness and Lottie's responsibilities at home.

A contemporary fantasy adventure follows Charlee from relocation and social difficulty towards visions, self-discovery and a potentially world-changing responsibility. The mysterious bicycle appears central to how she confronts the danger.