What Are You Looking For?

This is a family drama about belonging, resentment and difficult choices. Keysha’s move to her previously unknown father’s household and her involvement with a rough crowd place her past and present circumstances in tension.

This is a fast-moving disaster story centred on children confronting a hurricane’s danger, while also carrying family worries, illness and efforts to reach or help people and animals.

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 horse-centred story about returning home, changing relationships and deciding whether to remain with a familiar life or pursue an uncertain new opportunity.

A mystery-led magical-school adventure with a distinctive idea: Charlie can hear voices in photographs. Its strongest pull is uncovering hidden histories while deciding whom to trust inside an institution that feels secretive and controlling.

A caring grandmother confronts a strong storm while trying to protect animals and her grandchildren. The story’s appeal appears to lie in determined action, family care and a challenge presented through weather.

This is a character-led story about a teenager’s self-image and changing relationships, set alongside Cassie’s disability and her family’s circumstances. Its several viewpoints invite readers to consider how people’s inner lives may differ from what others can see.

Expect a brisk, creepy fantasy balancing frightening school imagery with jokes and determined sibling teamwork. Its emotional pressure comes from abandonment, captivity and mind control rather than realistic school life.

Expect a comic supernatural adventure in which an ordinary boy faces an intrusive demon, difficult bargains and dangerous consequences. Beneath the jokes, the book raises questions about good intentions, evil and moral responsibility.

This is a wartime story about a child trying to understand occupation, separation and moral choice. Its strongest thread is Marit’s changing view of courage, loyalty and compassion amid danger.

This is an animal-focused coming-of-age story balancing rescue efforts with friendship, family strain and questions about judging people fairly. It appears emotionally warm but includes difficult situations rather than being purely light-hearted.

A warm football adventure uses Pickles’s humorous viewpoint to explore a family trying to stay together while money problems and housing insecurity affect everyday life.

A thoughtful migration story combines everyday hardship with magical realism. Leelu’s loneliness, her brother’s difficulties and the family’s uncertainty make belonging feel complicated rather than instantly solved.

This is a spooky rescue adventure centred on a frightened boy trying to protect his brother. Expect cemetery and crypt imagery, supernatural games, riddles and sustained suspense, alongside friendship and compassion.

Expect an ambitious illustrated adventure in which two sibling seeds face separation, danger and uncertainty while learning about Earth’s history and living systems. Its emotional centre is family loyalty, alongside a sustained interest in survival, connection and the natural world.

This offers a tense journey story alongside a close account of sibling care. Clem’s storytelling, memories and uncertain perspective add emotional depth, while the political setting invites reflection on belonging, surveillance, displacement and how families preserve hope under pressure.

A moving wartime narrative seen through a horse’s limited understanding, contrasting battlefield destruction with loyalty, care, and shared humanity. Its emotional force comes from the separation of Joey and Albert and the suffering of horses and people.

A vivid, music-centred coming-of-age story for readers interested in identity, friendship and emotional overload. Its energetic visual form may feel immersive, but the rapid, interrupted presentation can require sustained attention.

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.

A brisk environmental adventure about a reluctant visit becoming a relationship with a grandad, a local stream and its wildlife. Kyle’s growing responsibility gives the story an encouraging focus on courage, care and standing up for a place.

This offers an atmospheric supernatural mystery centred on mortality, family loyalty and a young woman questioning restrictive social expectations. Its emotional appeal lies in Gothic tension, romance and Signa’s developing self-understanding.

A tense, emotionally serious survival story follows Ade through a collapsing city while his mother withdraws and neighbours become an unexpected support network. Its strongest offering is a child-centred exploration of vulnerability, responsibility and collective care.

This offers a contemporary child’s perspective on poverty and family difficulty, deliberately read beside Oliver Twist. Its strongest feature is the connection between classroom literature and problems affecting Shona’s life.

This is a warm, funny story about a child finding purpose and companionship through an alphabet project with her grandmother and other residents. It balances playful language with the emotional reality of memory loss and a pressured family life.

This is a horse-centred mystery about persistence: Casey faces pressure to sell Limelight while investigating unsettling events during a summer stay. Friendship, horsemanship, family secrets and a gentle romantic thread share the focus.

This is a wartime coming-of-age story about a young girl who forms a significant connection with a German prisoner who has escaped. It brings personal empathy, divided loyalties and family pain into a dangerous historical setting.

This is a family-and-belonging story with adventure elements: Thunder’s life is shaped by rejection, care and a divided community, while a forest fire creates a serious test. Its central choice concerns whether long-built loyalty can outweigh blood ties.

This is an imaginative adventure about twins caring for an unusual school pet whose transformation creates secrecy, practical problems and suspense. Its appeal lies in the playful dragon premise and the question of how the twins respond.

This is a child-centred mystery involving whale strandings, a potentially endangered baby whale and a foster relationship marked by uncertainty. Its central investigation appears to connect environmental danger with the need to gain trust.