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This blends a family’s observance of Lent with school-life plots, including a Bigfoot search and a spelling bee. Its events run through the season to Easter Sunday.

This is a competition-centred story that combines equestrian ambition with questions about trust, rivalry and a coach’s past.

A school-and-horses story about ambition, belonging and building trust with a guarded pony. Malory’s hopes for her future at Chestnut Hill are tied to whether she can bring out Tybalt’s potential.

This is a friendship story set alongside Zoey’s interest in fashion and sewing. Its central appeal may be watching her manage creative ambitions while trying to keep two friendships on track.

The central dilemma is whether Caitlin can pursue acting while facing the consequences of lying about her age and hiding her choices from people close to her.

The book combines learning about horse care and showing with friendship and a look at problems in the competition world.

A horse-centred mystery set around training and a major club competition, with friendship and teamwork alongside sabotage and an injured rider.

This is a Halloween mystery built around competition, investigation and adventure.

A light, wintry pageant story combines competition, friendship and romance.

This is a friendship adventure combining pony-camp activities, a magical pony and a dilemma about whether a friend’s team may cheat. It appears suited to readers who enjoy everyday social problems alongside fantasy.

A tea-centred fantasy of competition, palace intrigue and family devotion. Ning’s search for a cure gives the plot emotional urgency, while brewing, tasting and reading ingredients become ways to investigate danger and negotiate power.

A playful magical adventure centred on music, friendship and recovering a stolen instrument.

Choose this for a romance-led story with mystery elements, emotional fallout and social themes. It offers a second-chance relationship alongside questions about scholarships, reputation, secrecy and whether competitive systems genuinely support young people.

A dark, atmospheric thriller combining a competitive K-pop setting with unresolved friendship, grief and supernatural dread. Its strongest appeal is likely the gradual shift from celebrity drama into psychological and body horror.

A tense, twist-led survival mystery for readers who enjoy competing viewpoints, dangerous games and uncertainty about whom to trust. Its strongest pull is the combination of personal desperation and escalating threat.

A gripping island survival thriller combines puzzles, geocaching and competition with escalating horror. It offers capable friends, shifting loyalties and personal revelations, but includes graphic and disturbing material.

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.

A lively illustrated mystery with several interwoven pressures: Nina wants to free a trapped ghost and win class captain, while negotiating friendship, rivalry, family arrangements and questions about social-media personalities.

This is a character-led dystopian thriller in which an apparently helpful happiness project becomes increasingly strange. Its strongest material concerns pressure, identity and the meaning of wellbeing; its ending is abrupt and leaves the story hanging.

A contemporary coming-of-age story about cultural identity and belonging, it follows Kanchana’s creative attempt to unite her Thai and American identities amid family disapproval and complicated feelings about a new teenage housemate.

A horse-centred story about guilt, secrecy and friendship, with competitive pressure and a riding accident driving the conflict. Kate’s return to the barn creates a situation where personal responsibility and trust become closely connected.

This is a character-led school mystery built around a televised spelling bee, with contrasting pupils handling pressure, public attention and a suspected problem involving the principal.

This is a school comedy about labels, belonging and unexpected strengths. Donovan’s practical or unconventional contribution matters alongside academic ability, though the story also involves deception and situations that may invite discussion about consequences.