What Are You Looking For?

A climactic fantasy adventure brings Charlie and his friends together to confront dangerous magic, protect his parents and seek answers about the Red King’s heirs.

Caroline’s early hardship—including smallpox, typhus and being made to work as a scullery maid—forms part of a biography that also follows her achievements in astronomy.

A practical introduction to maths in marine-animal care, combining three work-based stories with problems for readers to solve and a toolbox of examples and exercises.

A straightforward introduction to bulldozers, covering their importance at job sites and what makes them distinctive. Photographs support the text, with extra facts and bolded glossary terms for readers curious about machinery.

This is a comic adventure about three space-minded pets facing separation from their humans, a clinic escape and a secret-laboratory mystery.

Expect a brisk puzzle adventure: children explore a new library, follow book-based clues and compete to find an escape route. The illustrations make the setting and visual puzzles part of the reading experience.

Little Else’s circus acts are a hit, but Ma Calico withholds payment. With the horses tired of pulling Ma and the performers urging Little Else to act, she goes looking for bushranger Harry Blast.

A practical introduction to the music business, covering how bands get started, make recordings, find opportunities and deal with the people and organisations involved.

A practical, hands-on guide to carrying a science-fair project from initial idea through experiment, results, display and oral presentation.

The central pressure is practical: Pierre takes on a long voyageur journey to earn money for his family after his father is injured. The trip is physically demanding and places him among older, teasing brigade members.

The book opens up the workings of video games without asking readers to dismantle a console, moving from code and the console’s decision-making to memory, controls and display.

This is a competition adventure built around mech battles, with Titch facing fierce opponents and pursuing answers about his missing father.

Miki is drawn into Hiro’s delivering work and into the shifting relationships among him, her friend Yumi, and others at school. Hiro’s visits from Reika add another relationship complication.

The story follows Solomon’s efforts to find his own path while his family works towards independence. A cattle drive brings adventure and new sights, alongside tensions at home and the question of how Black settlers will be received.

Ophelia is set a diamond-stealing challenge, while Oscar’s inventions and a rival cousin add complications. The caper combines a mystery-adventure plot with comic illustrations and frequent feline puns.

Follow Sadie, an arson dog whose scent helps investigators find the causes of fires. She also visits schools to share fire-safety teaching. The book centres on her working role and the people who regard her as a hero.

This is a baseball-centred school story about ambition meeting competing responsibilities. Roy wants to impress a future high-school coach, while his academic difficulties, tutoring and strained relations with teammates complicate that goal.

The book follows Charley’s determination to ride and care for horses, then to build a life as a stagecoach driver. Her disguise and pursuit of her ambitions sit within a story of restricted opportunities for girls and women.

A first-person life story follows Aldrin from childhood towards astronaut training and the Apollo 11 Moon landing, connecting personal ambition with the achievement of a team.

This is an action-adventure fantasy about a rescue, animal-inspired powers and friends learning to manage unusual devices. The stakes extend from Charlie’s father to the world, with complications among the group as well as external foes.

A family’s division of labour is disrupted when the mother, who does the household tasks, is suddenly absent. A note and peculiar changes bring fantasy into this family story.

The story follows Derek’s enthusiasm for making videos with friends alongside his effort to find a reason for Frank to remain with his family a little longer.

Anna’s family travels to Canada for seasonal farm work, and Anna imagines what it would be like to have a settled home. The story connects her personal feelings with the wider experience of migrant workers.

A friendly guided tour introduces museum roles and spaces, with Stub meeting characters responsible for protecting and archiving artworks. The combination of artworks, playful characters, fun facts and a glossary gives the story an informational strand.

Five pups have their own morning routines, then go to the park. When a raccoon takes their baseball, they join forces to get it back.

A bilingual introduction to ice hockey, covering the rink, pucks and sticks, the game’s pace, cheering and teamwork.

A bleak, satirical dystopia about a young person entering retail work as corporate power and consumer culture shape everyday life. Zoe’s search for somewhere to live brings the social costs of this imagined world into focus.

A science-fiction adventure brings questions of intelligence, settlement and who may claim a planet into contact with an experienced prospector’s work.

A structured introduction to hornet biology follows the queen, workers and developing young, then compares hornets with other insect architects. Diagrams and a hands-on activity add visual and practical ways into the subject.

A short, illustrated science introduction explains producers, consumers and decomposers as parts of food webs. It also addresses rewilding and human place in the web, with a practical activity to apply the ideas.

A dove, owl and whale set out to help a forest replaced by desert. Animals bring seeds from different parts of the world, and a boy brings water; together they produce a seedling.

A practical introduction to Darwin and evolutionary science, with activities that bring observation and evidence into the reading. It also makes room for discussion of the public debate around evolution.

Expect a fast-moving space adventure: a stolen spacecraft and possible asteroid catastrophe send Neil and his gaming friends on a rescue mission, with comic banter alongside the peril.

The workbook concentrates on the 2, 5 and 10 times tables, combining understanding of these foundations with the goal of faster recall.

Ari wants a different future from the family bakery; meeting Hector brings baking and a developing romance into that conflict. The story also foregrounds decisions and the support loved ones may offer.

A light fantasy mystery sends two friends looking for a missing baby goat amid comic animal mix-ups. The adventure centres on helping at a farm and working together to put things right.

A comic detective adventure follows Sally and Fetch as they tackle mysteries, often getting the wrong end of the stick. Their investigations bring slapstick confusion and unintended destruction.

Anatole turns his interest in cheese into a way to contribute: his tasting notes help the factory, whose workers would like to reward him. The story centres on family provision, useful work and an unusual mouse’s palate.

A science-fiction quest follows Akiko and her companions as they try to rescue a kidnapped prince, facing unusual obstacles on the way.

An adventure set among London’s dark places, where Birdie’s work as bait for monsters draws her into a mystery involving missing pickpockets, folklore and a more dangerous villain.

The book follows Derek Jeter’s efforts to support his community, especially through the Turn 2 Foundation and its programmes for fitness and good values.

A comic mystery pairs Dog Man with a feline sidekick. Petey’s involvement adds another thread to their adventure.

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.

This is a clue-led sister-detective adventure, with a mysterious sculpture, a diamond theft and a suspected raffle scam driving the investigation.

A classic detective adventure with a peculiar mystery at its centre: missing dogs, a reported dragon and a cave to investigate. Suspense and strangeness sit alongside the puzzle-solving.