Recommended children's booklists sorted by age or topic

Home > Books

Age Group: KS1

Picturebook

A moving tale of grit, endurance and self-belief to inspire young explorers and dreamers from a stunningly talented debut.

Dr Morley is about to embark on a quest to the northernmost tip of the world, to discover a creature that everyone talks about but nobody has ever seen: The Giant Arctic Jellyfish. After years of research and hard graft, she gathers together a highly trained crew and a boat full of specialist equipment, and sets sail for the vast icy scapes of the Arctic. Will she find what she is searching for? Or will it find her?

From debut author-illustrator Chloe Savage comes a beautifully detailed adventure into the unknown, sure to captivate the imagination of young explorers.

Graphic Novel

Brand new adventures for Barry Loser in this new series of full colour graphic novels – perfect for fans of DogMan, Bunny vs Monkey and Kitty Quest.

Celebrating Barry Loser’s 10th birthday with a new series of graphic novel adventures!

The bestselling, award-winning Barry Loser series is ten years old and Barry, Bunky, Nancy and the gang are off on a series of new adventures – in full colour graphic novel format and with ‘how to draw’ sections to help you make your own comic books!

Three amazekeel stories, including one where Barry’s dad turns into a vending machine, and all Barry has to do is ‘press his buttons’ to get exactly what he wants, and another where hearing the most boring story in the world has a disastrous effect of Barry’s mind and body…

Short story collection

Stories and poems from a galaxy of authors and poets, highlighting a range of children’s rights from the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, including:

The right to life, survival and development
The right to protection from violence, abuse and neglect
The right to education, to reach full potential
The right to be raised by or have a relationship with parents
The right to express opinions and be listened to
Jake Hope, a leading authority on contemporary children’s literature, has chosen stories from Cathy Cassidy, Maisie Chan, Joseph Coelho, AM Dassu, Anne Fine, Paul Jennings, Chitra Soundar and Elizabeth Laird; and poems from Valerie Bloom, Sita Brahmachari, Dom Conlon, Nicola Davies, Jamila Gavin, Maurice Gleitzman, CG Moore, Jackie Morris, Beverley Naidoo, RR O’Neill, Rashmi Sirdeshpande, Jordan Stephens and Benjamin Zephaniah.

The illustrators are Ruthine Burton, Chih-An Chen and Habiba Nabisubi, who have just graduated from the Pop-Up Pathways project, a national initiative sponsored by the Arts Council, that develops emerging illustrators from under-represented groups.

Chapter book

When ordinary boy Marvin wears his super-suit, he becomes MARV. A superhero with infinite powers . . .

In this story, Marvin and his school friends are tending to the school garden when supervillain Violet Vine appears and uses her powers to make the plants grow out of control. Before long, the garden and school are covered in snaking vines, and kid-eating Venus flytraps!

It’s time for Marvin to swap his gardening gloves for his superhero suit and become MARV-unstoppable, invincible, and totally MARVellous! Only then can Marv get the garden, and Violet Vine, under control.

Picturebook

Mirabelle’s mum is a witch, her dad is a fairy, and she is a bit of both! A big football star is coming to Mirabelle’s school to watch them play, and Mirabelle is determined to impress her. With a sprinkling of magic on her shoes, and a little bit of potion on the ball, she’s bound to be the best! But things don’t quite go to plan, and with flying footballs, out-of-control shoes, and upset teammates, Mirabelle’s dreams of glory don’t look like they’re about to come true. Can Mirabelle discover that there’s more than one way to feel like a winner?

A magical and mischievous Mirabelle story with a football twist, perfect for enjoying during half time of the Women’s World Cup 2023!

Picturebook

Join the Digits for another action-packed adventure!

When the Digits start squabbling over whether odd or even numbers are best, Ten challenges everyone to a football match to settle the argument. Ideal for understanding odds and evens – you can count on the Digits to make numbers fun! This playful picture book series about a group of number friends is ideal for developing early maths skills.

Picturebook

When night falls and the shadows get longer and darker, Mouse is scared. How will he find his way home? Luckily he meets a firefly who reassures him, ‘I’m Ray and I’ll light your way.’

On their starlit walk, however, it can seem that every shadow is lurking danger. And the meerkat, chickens, frogs and squirrels who join them agree-until Ray flies close with his light and shows what the shadows really are.

But sometimes, just sometimes, the shadows might be just what they look like . . .

Picturebook

Sunny and his family have recently moved to a new country in this evocative story about adjusting to life in a new place. His dad is struggling to see their new house as home, and Sunny can tell that he is yearning for his old life, where collared doves cooed in the soft morning light and swallows swooped in the sunset. So Sunny comes up with a plan to help his dad find joy in his new home.

An evocative story about belonging from the author of Lubna and Pebble.

Picturebook

Start Small, Think Big is a series that sets young readers on a journey of discovery, beginning from the small and familiar to new areas of knowledge where they really have to think big!

Little Brown Nut starts small, with a large, weighty fruit falling from the tallest tree in the Amazon rainforest. Inside is a little brown Brazil nut, surrounded by 19 others. It sits and waits for an agouti, a rodent with teeth so strong that it can free the nut from its hard casing. The story of the Brazil nut tree and the agouti is told clearly and carefully, with facts about germination, photosynthesis, seed dispersal. The narrative progresses in a way that builds understanding and the gorgeous illustrations bring the story and the science to life.

Thinking BIG, the book shows why the rainforest is important to local people and the wider world. A big fold-out has a world map, an at-a-glance lifecycle, and a Rainforest I-Spy of the animals to take children back into the book.

Picturebook

You Can Do Anything, Tyrone! is a fantastic fun tale of imagination and adventure from the award-winning comedian and actor Sir Lenny Henry.

Tyrone is going to build a brilliant rocket ship out of building blocks and go on an adventure to the moon! There’s just one problem . . . the blocks won’t work, and Tyrone quickly loses his temper. Luckily, Grandad Cleveland is on hand to show him that with self belief, a bit of determination and a lot of imagination, there’s nothing Tyrone can’t do. In fact, why stop at the moon when there’s the rest of the world and a whole universe to explore!

A highly entertaining rhyming story full of love, family and fun – brilliantly brought to life by illustrator Salomey Doku.

Subscribe to our newsletter

Your Review

Stone Girl Bone Girl

review

Year group(s) the book is most suitable for:

Year group(s) the book is most suitable for:

Does the book contain anything that teachers would wish to know about before recommending in class (strong language, sensitive topics etc.)?

Does the book contain anything that teachers would wish to know about before recommending in class (strong language, sensitive topics etc.)?

Would you recommend the book for use in primary schools?

yes

Curriculum links (if relevant)

Curriculum links (if relevant)

Any other comments

Any other comments