What Are You Looking For?

Poems and paintings show a child observing his father’s prayers and reflecting on their relationship. Prayer is presented as a recurring part of family life, and the collection centres on Christian faith.

A warm picture-book story about a cat with two homes, and two sisters whose family life also spans households.

A gentle friendship story about trying to fit in and finding company. Its upside-down illustrations make Batty’s unusual point of view part of the reading experience.

A playful, offbeat tale that pairs an unusual word sequence with colourful illustrations; its story may feel deliberately odd rather than neatly explained.

A fast fantasy adventure combines hidden power, darkness, a threatened city and family secrets. Its mixed comic-and-narrative form may make the story’s movement between panels, captions and dialogue especially important to follow.

Expect a lively, absurd animal adventure built around friendship, danger and rescue. Its distinctive appeal lies in comic names, playful language, a fantastical setting and illustrations intended to invite shared noticing.

This is a concise, illustrated Christian biography combining life events with Calvin’s writings, ministry, theology and sixteenth-century setting. It includes personal relationships, bereavement and illness, while presenting Calvin within a distinctly Reformed understanding of church history.

A warm story about a child meeting a frighteningly energetic dog on his own terms. Its emotional movement is clear, though the friendship’s final turn is presented very quickly.

A lyrical, illustrated account of Henry Brown’s life under slavery, his family’s forced separation, and his dangerous escape in a box.

A reflective, image-led book for readers who enjoy dipping into stories rather than following a tightly plotted journey. Its strongest appeal is atmosphere: dreams, animals, wildness, hope and space for private interpretation.

This is a richly illustrated mermaid adventure about protecting a home from development. Its diary format, playful language and underwater world may invite shared reading, visual exploration and discussion.

A child’s-eye memoir about displacement, family love and survival, moving from wartime adventure-like discoveries towards the realities of bombing, Bergen-Belsen, starvation, illness and bereavement.

This is a lively shared-reading book centred on noticing who lives in a building, what each neighbour enjoys and how separate activities become a collective celebration.

A reflective picture book about leaving home and adjusting to an unfamiliar journey. Its mother’s reassuring voice offers steadiness, while the illustrations and repeated questions leave room to notice uncertainty, loss, hope and the child’s perspective.

A poetic picture book follows a girl whose ordinary school day is shattered by war. Alone, she travels through dangerous displacement before encountering a school that initially excludes her. The story presents destruction, bereavement and possible drowning indirectly, then turns towards welcome, solidarity and hope through children’s practical kindness.

A tender but emotionally weighty story about losing someone special. Its strongest feature is the storm-in-a-jar image, which gives Arlo’s sadness and anger a concrete visual form before the story turns towards remembering Nana.

This offers a lively route into scientific curiosity: invention, robots and jokes are paired with explanations of antimatter, atoms, robotics and the scientific method. It may particularly engage readers who enjoy illustrated, idea-rich adventures.

This is an atmospheric picture-book journey in which a child navigates an intimidating city and offers practical-sounding advice about danger, warmth and food. Its central emotional effect comes from seeing a small person try to make sense of a large world.

A compact, imaginative fantasy about a child’s anger and imaginative escape. Max’s journey towards and away from the Wild Things gives the book energetic movement, while his return home brings the story back to family.

A funny, offbeat family portrait told through Clarice’s sharp commentary. The visual design is part of the reading experience: fonts, collage and stray dialogue help convey voices, moods and relationships.

This is a reflective story about ordinary family and community life alongside the demanding work of mining. Its quiet rhythm and contrasting imagery invite attention to what the boy notices, remembers and wonders about.

This is most useful as focused reading practice rather than a book whose storyline or subject can be judged in advance. Its main purpose is practising a short-vowel pattern within a child-friendly reading programme.