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Paul and his family try to protect Henri and help him reach safety, while Paul takes on responsibilities at home and joins the Resistance. The story follows their choices amid occupation and suspicion.

This is a fantasy adventure built around the power of reading aloud and the bond between Meggie and her father. Its central magic carries a cost: a character entering the real world means someone real disappears into fiction.

This is a family-focused story about a teenager carrying substantial responsibilities while imagining a future beyond her home town. Her sister's pregnancy adds pressure to an already demanding household situation.

This is a high-stakes fantasy about a family divided by imprisonment and a rescue mission, with dragons, demons and a mysterious past secret. The teenage characters face dangers in a military compound.

This is a coming-of-age story about a teenage artist negotiating family strain, online belonging and a chance to pursue creative ambitions. Furry identity and community are central to Maeve’s friendships and self-expression.

The book aims to help children understand a discipline system their parents will use, rather than simply presenting rules from an adult’s perspective.

This is a multi-character story about young people in a Brooklyn neighbourhood. Gingerbread’s claim that “life is funny” sits beside the difficulties described in the outline.

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

Expect a tense wartime adventure centred on a boy whose loyalty is unsettled by family revelations and encounters with Nazi brutality. Its main appeal is the combination of suspense, historical setting and moral awakening rather than light-hearted adventure.

This is a compact, straightforward adventure about caring for wildlife when family work and personal convictions pull in different directions. Mystery and pursuit keep the story moving, while Maya’s choices centre responsibility, trust and competing needs.

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.

A good choice to explore alongside a reader who enjoys imaginative fantasy with an emotionally unsettled protagonist. Its strongest interest appears to lie in how magical danger intersects with loneliness, family belonging and friendship.

A school-based friendship story with a comic, consequence-focused episode. EllRay’s attempt to secure companionship creates an awkward situation, making the book useful for discussing how a plan can affect another child.

A brisk, atmospheric historical adventure: William searches London for John Diamond while confronting a troubling family secret.

This is a character-led story about a child whose unusual familiarity with funerals does not protect her from grief, friendship strain or difficult choices. Its tone combines humour with sadness and emotional upheaval.

A warm, historically grounded account of how a rescued bear became connected with Winnie-the-Pooh. Its layered storytelling, photographs and family records offer both an engaging animal story and an introduction to memory, wartime history and literary origins.

This offers a faith-centred historical-fiction story in which a teenager’s convictions meet plantation life, unfamiliar relatives and the question of how to understand slavery beyond stories heard at home.

This is a thoughtful, atmospheric fantasy about mortality, responsibility, and coexistence. It offers layered world-building and several interconnected viewpoints, with more emphasis on conversation, ideas, and relationships than on continuous action.

This is a varied speculative-fiction collection rather than one continuous story. Its appeal lies in imaginative settings, changing moods and morally pressured situations, but the individual stories may differ considerably in intensity and subject matter.

This is an adventure-led environmental story in which children respond to pollution, encounter wildlife and learn about protecting habitats.

This is a faith-centred coming-of-age story in journal form, tracing Katherine from sixteen into later life. It focuses on spiritual development, self-discipline, family ties and the ideal of serving others.

This is a warm, adventurous story about two siblings trying to protect a peach tree while dealing with a local gang and connecting with nature, faith and family roots.

Expect a relationship-focused supernatural story in which Lindsay weighs a publicly declared mate against an intense attraction to someone else. Her decision is complicated by expectations from her family and community.

A clear, child-centred novel about a girl whose education and future are threatened by family expectations and coercive power. It offers determination, moral courage and hope alongside serious social injustice.

This is a fantasy about an underestimated boy who confronts a threat to his family’s protected magic, alongside a girl investigating a mystery that links her to him.

This is a coming-of-age story about an adopted teenager unexpectedly confronting her origins. It combines family questions with school relationships, sexuality, belief, illness and emotionally difficult family circumstances, while presenting Simone’s perspective as humorous, searching and sometimes self-absorbed.

This is a historical adventure about choosing how to help someone in trouble when friendship, family loyalty and political loyalties pull in different directions. Its plantation setting also opens onto slavery, though enslaved people remain in the background of Felicity’s experience.

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.

Kate Ferris works towards establishing a riding stable, faces disruption before a show, and must decide how to respond when Melissa’s horse is injured. The story is character-led and centres on Kate’s changing attitude.

A lively story about a wronged schoolgirl choosing increasingly risky ways to recover her future. Its strongest discussion point is the gap between understanding Bernetta’s predicament and approving of her solution.

This is an evidence-led look at children’s activities and responsibilities in several past societies. Its distinctive angle is archaeology: artefacts, drawings and other material traces are used to ask how children lived.

Its emotional centre is the search for a new meaning of home.

This is an imaginative rescue adventure about two brothers whose shared dreams become dangerous. It follows Malky’s efforts to understand what has happened to Seb and to act despite fear, while family change and friendship shape his choices.

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.

This is an environmentally focused adventure about an outsider seeking friendship and a place to belong, with dolphins, Scottish legend and a family mystery adding emotional and imaginative interest.

This is a humorous but unsettling story about whether an android’s fear, jealousy and desires indicate genuine feeling. Ivy’s viewpoint makes ordinary human behaviour seem strange, inviting empathy and close attention.

A funny robot-double premise gradually becomes a thoughtful exploration of what makes a person unique. The book offers visual detail, imaginative problem-solving and a gentle way into questions about self-knowledge.

Expect a twisty, atmospheric ghost story with humour, danger and a morally ambiguous central character. Harriet’s pursuit of power drives the tension, while the surrounding friendships and queer romantic thread add warmth and complication.

A dark, imaginative fantasy about a teenager navigating homelessness, fractured relationships and a dangerous supernatural bargain. Its central appeal is the collision between recognisable adolescent difficulties and a modern vision of Hell.

This is a brisk time-slip adventure with a strong historical backdrop, combining moon-landing excitement with an intimate story about family, memory, change and the emotional effects of loss.

A warm, lively story about an isolated child finding companionship, then helping her family reconsider a wild animal. Its historical setting and concluding information extend the story into an introduction to prehistory and domestication.

A humorous diary novel about starting a new school, managing friendship changes and feeling self-conscious while family life also shifts. Drawings and comic mishaps give Lottie’s worries a light, accessible presentation.

This is a child-centred book about the hidden work of young carers, their fears and hopes, and the kindness that may surround them. It foregrounds empathy, family, friendship and community rather than providing a full plot outline.

A coming-of-age story rooted in family life, rural work and affection for animals. Jody’s bond with Flag provides the central personal relationship, while the family’s livelihood connects the story to the land and its demands.

A fast-paced dystopian adventure about a gamer sent from a controlled, hyper-connected city into the older world beneath it. Its strongest offering is a clash between comfort and control, and between synthetic certainty and messy experience.