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A comic ghost story built around Frissella's unexpected inability to pass through walls, her doctor's proposed explanation and her stay among unusual fellow ghosts.

This is a socially engaged sports novel: football brings two North American teenagers into contact with marginalised local players, while different experiences of race, class and belonging become increasingly difficult to ignore.

A culturally grounded vampire story pairs supernatural suspense with a teenager’s struggles over home, family, trust and belonging. Its unusual perspective may invite thoughtful discussion as well as emotional preparation.

This offers an imaginative mermaid adventure centred on identity, belonging and contact between sea and land. Its unusual narrators, shifting viewpoints and inventive mythology may appeal to readers who enjoy atmospheric fantasy, though the conclusion has been found confusing or unsatisfying.

This is a determined sibling-rescue adventure rooted in a little-known historical episode. It combines family loyalty and questions about adoption with travel, danger and prejudice, while inviting readers to notice how institutions and communities treat vulnerable children.

A lively comic adventure that may make reading feel playful and social, especially through visual storytelling, absurd humour and drawing prompts. Its energetic action and deliberately rough language sit alongside kindness, loyalty and forgiveness.

This is a historical horse story about two sisters seeking security while caring for an injured animal. Its emotional centre is Margret’s wish to keep both Flynn and a dependable home.

A focused introduction to anteaters, covering their unusual physical features, insect-eating, species differences, protection from enemies and mothers’ care of their babies.

This is a rhyming picture-book story about an established dog adjusting to an older rescue dog who is not the companion he expected. It combines comic characterisation with ideas about patience, family and care.

This book offers a broad, direct introduction to sexuality and reproduction, with body care and health alongside relationships, diversity and family discussion. It is designed to prompt questions rather than close them all.

This is an outward journey that becomes a test of belonging. The apprentices bring practical skills to another community, but the story questions whether competence gives outsiders the right to decide what help should look like.

A fast-moving science-fiction adventure that places a thoughtful robot between fearful children, human survivors and hostile machines. Its strongest offering is a child-accessible route into questions about personhood, loyalty and moral choices during conflict.

Expect atmospheric Cornish tales where folklore, ghosts and magic meet farms, the sea and family life. The collection includes linked stories, including one about William, whose disability brings exclusion and cruelty from others.

This is a character-led environmental mystery about two young people who feel different or guarded. It combines wildlife protection, a beach discovery, family secrets and friendship, while giving Ivy’s difficult earlier experiences meaningful emotional weight.

A lively, first-person school story combines farcical problem-solving and slow-burn romance with serious family instability. Its emotional centre is Aideen’s habit of helping others while struggling to address her own circumstances.

A stranger arrives by sea and is confined, mistreated and expelled as the islanders’ fear becomes hatred. Their final wall leaves a bleak image of exclusion rather than reconciliation.

A visually led story about migration, courage and belonging, with no written narration to settle meaning. Its animals and expressive images invite readers to infer what leaving, travelling and arriving might involve.

A friendship begins when two boys meet during a beach trip. The story makes room for difference, uncertainty and everyday kindness, alongside questions, frustrations and confusions.

This is an imaginative animal adventure with two contrasting protagonists: a calf escaping slaughter and a rejected boy pursuing him. The journey opens questions about compassion, human treatment of animals and how relationships can change thinking.

A gentle read-aloud about children whose lives may look different but who share feelings and everyday experiences. It pairs direct, simple wording with colourful paintings that invite children to look closely.

A gentle family story centred on two male penguins who care for an egg and raise Tango. Its main emphasis is belonging, parenting and adoption, with wider questions about what makes a family.

A friendship-focused YA fantasy in which a varied group of young characters face dangerous, action-packed moments. Its emotional emphasis falls on empathy, trust and choosing to stand by one another rather than on graphic or gruesome detail.

A warm, nature-focused story about belonging and care. Roz learns by observing the island’s animals, while raising Brightbill gives the story a family relationship and a reason to explore migration, instincts and seasonal change.

Expect a richly illustrated, surreal story rather than a straightforward cosy tale. The Greenling brings abundance and connection, yet its arrival and departure carry an ominous, folkloric atmosphere.

A grief-centred verse novel combining letters, school and home life, and cryptid mystery. Its emotional focus is Noah’s search for connection and belonging while navigating loss and identity.

A warm picture-book story about welcoming a mysterious, vulnerable stranger, forming attachment, experiencing sudden separation and extending hospitality to others like him. Its imaginative setting leaves room to discuss belonging without explaining everything about Mister Toots.

A warm, idea-led adventure about friendship across a human–robot divide. Its central relationship invites readers to question inherited beliefs, while action and humour keep the story moving.

This is a character-led story about foster care, adoption, friendship and the effects of introducing an artificial intelligence into school life. Its tone combines humour with poignant circumstances and thought-provoking questions about human–AI relationships.

This is a socially engaged Manchester story about three Black teenagers whose lives become connected after a stabbing. Its central interest lies in contrasting viewpoints, unequal experiences and the friendships formed in the aftermath.

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 warm, quietly observant set of linked stories about friendship across generations, loneliness after moving, and animals needing care. Its emotional force comes from vulnerability balanced by companionship and hopeful outcomes.

This is a socially focused story about a child whose poverty makes him feel visibly different. Its central movement is from feeling conspicuous and socially different towards confidence, friendship and empathy.

Expect an imaginative, creature-filled adventure centred on finding sanctuary. Friendship, loyalty, courage and environmental loss sit alongside danger, threatening creatures and occasional insulting language.

This is an emotionally focused verse novel about a teenager balancing school, friendships, violin performance and a changing home life. Its short, varied pieces concentrate on feelings and key moments rather than extended conventional narration.

This is an adventure about survival and an unusual cross-generational friendship. Alongside practical danger, it gives substantial space to loneliness, care, learning and the ways a relationship can change someone’s view of the world.

A school story about August’s first experience of mainstream education, Wonder explores friendship, prejudice, family relationships and self-acceptance. Its difficult incidents are set alongside reconciliation, supportive adults and acts of kindness.

This is an emotionally serious, discussion-rich story about a child facing a serious heart problem and a radical, risky proposed treatment. Its strongest offering is access to Cameron’s viewpoint while he weighs personal, family and social pressures.

This is an emotionally serious friendship story rather than a straightforward adventure. Its imagined kingdom, school conflicts and family pressures lead into an unsoftened account of bereavement.

This is a thoughtful survival adventure in which Roz learns by watching, earns trust through helpfulness and cares for an orphaned gosling. Its accessible episodic structure supports shared reading, while the island’s dangers and losses may prompt pauses.

A fast-moving dark fantasy about vigilance, ingenuity and family loyalty, with comic grotesquerie alongside genuine suspense. Its imaginative premise may appeal to confident readers who enjoy frightening stories with a strong emotional centre.

A myth-rich adventure that joins friendship, cultural detail and care for the natural world. Its imaginative journey gives children an active role in responding to environmental damage.

This is a historical family story about rebuilding after hardship. Ellie’s practical courage, connection with nature and willingness to help others sit alongside grief, difficult choices and uncertainty about what people have experienced.

This is a contemporary survival story about two children carrying adult worries, seeking trustworthy help and finding support in one another. Its central concerns include family instability, homelessness, friendship and the meaning of home.

A gentle but serious rural story in which Spider’s connection with animals gives him purpose and belonging. It presents difference, kindness and courage through a character whose strengths are recognised by those who care for him.

Seed combines family difficulty and bullying with magical gardening, an unlikely adventure, friendship and dreams of escape. Its emotional material is presented alongside humour, wonder and suspense rather than as a purely realistic story.