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 bleak but lyrical story about siblings navigating unstable care, homelessness and self-invention. Its poems bring attention to the dreams and difficulties of young people without secure homes.

This is a Christian story about kindness and love, including loving people who are hard to like. Grampa explains these ideas through Little Cub’s questions and relationships.

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

This is a bleak but ultimately hopeful family story: the children’s resourcefulness and the quiet help they receive are set against hardship and cruelty in their community.

A fantasy caper built around a criminal boy’s plan to ransom a fairy, with high-tech opponents and a possible clash between species.

A historical family story about wartime change, German-American prejudice and Carl’s first summer living away from home.

This is a fantasy quest driven by Luka’s effort to save his father. Enchanted companions and perilous challenges shape the journey; family love and mortality are also named as themes.

This family story follows Cassie through a crisis at home, a period away from her family and the difficult possibility of repairing damaged relationships.

A paranormal Jack the Ripper mystery follows Abbie from bereavement and hospital volunteering into visions, murder investigations and a dangerous hunt. A romance also develops alongside the historical setting.

A lively, comic animal adventure, with an eccentric family and a cat whose unusual condition drives the plot. Billy’s collecting hobby and the pet-show challenge add extra strands to the story.

This story brings together a hidden prince with magical powers and Jemma’s ambition to attend stage school, offering both fantasy adventure and a family-centred goal.

This is a horse-centred story about bereavement, caring for a vulnerable foal and Joelle's changing feelings. Her hoped-for show success also matters to her, alongside her attachment to Dance Away.

The story combines a household mystery with whimsical fantasy: Henry tries to discover what Harvey’s unusual work means, while music, poetry and kindness shape the characters’ experiences.

A folk-tale adventure combines a family’s financial hardship with a haunted-house challenge. Thomas’s kindness to a stranger and his encounter with a frightening ghost are central to his attempt to find treasure.

A magical village adventure sits alongside a story about siblings finding a more welcoming home. Expect mysteries and eccentric characters, with the children taking an active part in what happens.

This is a story about a young person who feels unhappy in foster care and uses a new identity to imagine a more confident way of facing the world.

A story of unexpected care and a growing family, with the boy’s unexplained arrival and uncertain future at its centre.

The story follows CC as she considers her future, guided by an ancient book, alongside children from different backgrounds. Its historical notes may add context to the adventure.

This true animal tale follows backyard turkey-raising and the particular personalities attributed to Royal, Snuggles and other animals. Its appeal appears to centre on observing their individual antics rather than on a stated practical guide to animal care.

A teen’s wish for an ordinary family life collides with the corporate control surrounding him. The story also sets personal loyalty against the possibility of exposing wrongdoing.

This is a friendship story about two friends adjusting to change while one faces an eating disorder and possible self-injury.

This is a fantasy adventure about training for a war, but it also puts Evie's ideas about princesshood, family and compassion under pressure.

This fantasy adventure centres on Isra’s effort to protect her sister and understand her newly revealed responsibility. Family loss, visions and a conflict between supernatural factions shape her search for allies.

A grief-centred story about Tiger adjusting to her mother’s death and repeated foster-home moves, with the possibility of a sister offering a new direction.

The premise centres on a young person wishing for the problem-solving certainty of fiction while facing school and family pressures.

Animal rescue drives the story, alongside Stella’s difference of outlook from her hunter grandfather. The episodes include an injured mountain lion, a trapped fawn, an iguana and a colt’s birth.

This is a coming-of-age story about a young man whose inability to feel physical pain shapes his independence, relationships and understanding of empathy.

A dog’s search for a home gives the story a clear emotional focus, while his journey brings both loss and hope. Expect a serious arc rather than an account limited to rescue and comfort.

A fantasy quest puts a timid sister in an unfamiliar role: seeking a cure while facing dangers she feels unready for. Sisterly devotion and the search for courage are central.

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

The book offers a life-and-business biography, covering Monaghan’s early experiences and later work in pizza delivery. Its timeline and glossary may help readers keep track of people, events and terms.

The boys’ choice is not simply about money: they consider whether a possible way to meet personal needs could also send cocaine back into their neighbourhood.

This is a story about a child’s bond with a horse and a dispute over who should have the animal. Emma’s grandmother and the animal sanctuary are part of the setting.

This is a family story about the strain of caring for someone, alongside a question of whether a dolphin’s bond with a person can justify keeping her from her own family.

This combines sisterly family life and growing up with vampire appetites and danger. Its central tension includes the sisters’ effort to avoid feeding on people.

This historical fiction centres on an older brother's responsibility for a younger sibling, while religious conflict and a werewolf belief shape the danger around them.

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

This is a cadet adventure built around a real training mission, with competition and self-doubt alongside a high-stakes decision about responding to danger.

The story pairs Flora’s ambition to become a ranger with fantastical dangers and a threatened city. Her efforts to help a friend and uncover family revelations add personal stakes.

At its heart, this is an adventure about belonging and moral choice, asking whether someone can be defined by their parentage or by their own actions.

A horse-and-school story about a child who cares deeply about art and wants to support her grandmother's effort to benefit the school's arts programme.

A warm family-centred story built around the Baby-Sitters’ effort to give mothers a break.

This blends magical sea creatures with a story about caring for an injured Aquicorn and deciding how a town should live alongside the sea. Family support and Lana's growing independence also matter.