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This offers a historical account of Jewish communities and cultural encounters across several periods and regions.

A family move opens Kathryn’s eyes to struggles in her Métis relations’ lives, alongside a local mystery involving a Highwayman. The story combines family discovery with an apparent attempt to pin a crime on him.

A useful introduction to video games as an industry rather than simply a pastime, showing the many specialised workers, skills and educational routes involved in making them.

This is a dark historical-fantasy adventure centred on a young servant confronting a powerful villain. Its strongest features are menace, an unusual supernatural premise and a friendship group helping one another through difficult circumstances.

This is a Victorian-set steampunk mystery combining deduction, action, supernatural danger and an international dispute. The central partnership contrasts Mina’s reasoning with Evaline’s practical, vampire-slaying approach.

A broad, structured introduction to New York City’s history, linking people, places, politics, geography, conflict and change. It suits a reader who enjoys learning through chronological chapters and visual material, with optional hands-on activities alongside the historical account.

Expect a gentle, rhythmic family story centred on preparing a Thanksgiving feast. Its appeal lies in repeated rhyme, shared household work, period details and the anticipation of everyone gathering at the table.

A fact-rich investigation of rubbish as a cultural, economic and environmental problem, combining statistics and history with vivid people and practical examples of communities reducing waste.

This is a child-centred historical mystery about uncovering a town’s African-American past. It combines cemetery restoration, family stories, community reticence, and Raisin’s personal consequences after she sneaks out.

This is a fast-moving supernatural mystery about trust, responsibility and courage under pressure. Will must investigate his apparent involvement in the theft while confronting escalating threats to his community.

A richly imagined coming-of-age fantasy that joins Cromwell’s England to a fairy-tale realm. Coriander is curious, persistent and resilient, but the story also brings bereavement, coercion, danger and moral conflict into her journey.

This offers a supernatural murder mystery rooted in Prohibition-era New York, alongside folklore, occult ideas, jazz-club life and vivid secondary storylines. Its horror is central rather than incidental.

A good choice for discussing how an apparently exciting journey can become exhausting and dangerous, while relationships and shared celebrations help people endure prolonged hardship.

A compact introduction to a major protest, using quotations and photographs to connect historical events with different viewpoints rather than presenting only a familiar Rosa Parks narrative.

A fast-moving supernatural mystery about a teenager searching for her missing mother, then uncovering concealed family history and a strange inheritance. It offers suspense, folklore, friendship and a seaside setting, with the pace reportedly slowing after the opening.

This is a contained, high-pressure murder mystery with horror elements: an isolated theme park, a stalking mascot, successive deaths and a buried history that the protagonists must unravel.

This is an illustrated adventure that uses a boy’s encounter with Stone Age life to introduce practical processes and archaeological curiosity. Its open-ended dream-or-time-travel premise invites discussion rather than a single definite explanation.

Choose this for a creepy, atmospheric mystery centred on horror-film culture, a disturbing small-town setting and escalating suspense. Its appeal lies in eerie world-building and supernatural uncertainty rather than gentle or reassuring storytelling.

This is a lively choice for a child who enjoys mischief, silly bodily humour and action. Its Viking setting, school episodes and group problem-solving provide variety, while the short, episodic structure can support shared reading or growing independence.

A tense survival adventure places young people in a natural disaster and gives Dylan and Louie difficult practical and emotional problems to solve. Its strongest thread appears to be movement from suspicion towards cooperation.

A richly imagined fantasy combines Arthurian legend, secret societies and demons with Bree’s investigation into her mother’s death. Its strongest offering is a Black protagonist navigating grief, power and contested history alongside diverse allies and difficult questions about inherited authority.

This is a coming-of-age novel that combines personal stories with substantial exploration of Deaf culture, language and rights. It may suit readers interested in how identity, communication and community shape one another.

This is a child-centred detective adventure in which solving a mystery becomes a way to learn about Gran’s life, memory and the importance of understanding people as individuals.

A dark, atmospheric story for readers who enjoy ghosts, folklore, natural magic and narratives that connect across time. Three girls face danger and loss while their stories gradually converge around a threatening presence in the woods.

Expect an imaginative underwater adventure with a determined heroine, a strong sibling bond, unusual creatures and a richly developed river community. The story combines quest tension with questions about trust, belonging and changing long-held assumptions.

A thoughtful choice for readers interested in history, family secrets and how stories preserve identity. Expect a serious, emotionally demanding account of enslavement alongside a slower contemporary mystery that becomes more absorbing as the connections emerge.

Expect atmospheric Gothic fantasy: a boy investigates unsettling events in a cold, impoverished village while family history and vampire folklore shape the mystery. The tone is menacing, symbolic and sometimes visceral.

A lively historical mystery about two girls investigating danger at a theatre, with friendship at its centre. It also introduces Black history, family relationships and the slave trade through an adventure narrative.

A historically focused story that foregrounds Muslim efforts to rescue Jews in wartime Paris, offering young readers a perspective on the Second World War that is described as little known.

This is an emotionally serious historical story that helps readers encounter Partition through three children’s friendships and families. Expect cultural and religious detail, danger and loss, alongside courage, human connection and an unresolved sense of what may happen next.

A family mystery and coming-of-age story set around a Cambodian funeral, offering an opening into heritage, migration, memory and the complicated ways families protect or withhold their past.

A chaptered fantasy adventure about investigating a group that trades promises of protection for wealth. It combines suspense, political danger, action and questions about trust, leadership and the use of fear.

A varied historical-fiction collection following protagonists through moments of cultural encounter, disaster, illness, family upheaval and racial hardship in Canadian history.

This is a reflective true story about a child encountering a forest fire and witnessing people and animals shelter together. It offers historical atmosphere, vivid nature imagery and a striking picture of shared vulnerability during disaster.

This is a historical novel about a newly freed Black family confronting the gap between legal freedom and lived opportunity. Matty’s story combines fear, discouragement and community life with an eventual movement towards hope.

This is a serious coming-of-age story about recognising cruelty, judging people by their actions and choosing whether to speak when others remain silent. Its moral questions are emotionally weighty rather than neatly resolved.

A mythology-centred thriller about friendship, loss and responsibility, with riddles, physical and mental challenges, a secret sisterhood and competing claims over ancient artefacts. Its appeal may depend on how comfortably a reader follows its sometimes confusing action.

This book offers a personal, question-led route into Ancient Greek society rather than only a summary of rulers or events. Its range of voices can help readers compare work, status, religion and community life.

This is an adventure about trying to save a den by recovering lost title deeds through time travel. Its mystery unfolds alongside friendship, disappearing companions and the approach of World War One.

This is a story centred on a child who feels sidelined by her family, then becomes involved in an unusual public confrontation connected with a local historical commemoration.

A historical ghost mystery with strong atmosphere: Remi and Niya investigate a repeated murder, a missing child and a house connected to an old crime, while confronting a dangerous supernatural world.

This offers an expansive adventure about children navigating an unfamiliar island, with suspense, secrets, strange companions and a strong sense of place. Its appeal lies in combining recognisable family life with mythic fantasy and an unfolding mystery.

A family move becomes a lens for exploring belonging, cultural identity and relationships across a divided setting. Liyana’s viewpoint connects private family change with wider tensions involving Jews and Palestinians.

A dark fantasy adventure built around mistaken identity, hidden power and an ancient object. Parallel storylines gradually point towards Dullitch, promising mystery and a larger rescue quest rather than a straightforward standalone confrontation.

Expect a lively superhero adventure balancing comic ideas with genuine peril: friendship, empathy and clever problem-solving sit alongside threats to Earth, altered history and an uncertain attempt to avert catastrophe.