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Best Children’s Books About Bereavement, Grief & Loss

This list includes children’s books that explore the topic of bereavement, with an emphasis on stories that support children and families to talk and think about the loss of a loved one.

Books can help children to empathise with others, explore big emotions and gently open conversations about difficult experiences including the death of a parent, relative, teacher or friend. The stories on this list have been specially selected by the experts at BooksForTopics to cover the topics of grief and loss as well as stories about finding ways to remember beloved friends or relatives after they die.  These topics are not always easy to discuss with children, but the stories selected on this list are included because they can provide a suitable stimulus for exploring experiences of bereavement and loss.

From animal tales like Badger’s Parting Gifts and The Memory Tree to stories about the loss of a parent or grandparent like Mum’s Jumper and Dadaji’s Paintbrush, these stories are here to help explore experiences of grief for children. 

Read for Empathy 2024 Booklist

Science shows that empathy is learnable and that reading is an important empathy-building tool. This collection will help parents and educators to surround children with empathy experiences, inspiring them to understand others better, and tackle societal problems like racism.” EmpathyLab Founder Miranda McKearney OBE.

The aim of the Read for Empathy collection is for schools, libraries, families and community groups to use the books to help raise a generation with strong empathy skills. Chosen by expert judges, the primary collection features 40 books for 4-11 year olds, including picturebooks, novels, poetry, non-fiction and graphic novels, all published within the last three years.

Each title on this list was selected because of its empathy-building job, offering children the opportunity to expand their understanding of different people and life experiences, and helping them to find ways of experiencing and building empathy.

The 2024 Read For Empathy book collection comes at a time when empathising with others has never been needed more. Themes of this year’s collection include: changing society for the better; the world’s big empathy issues (war, climate change, refugees); handling and sharing emotions; the power of empathy in relationships; understanding people’s experience of challenging life circumstances; hope for the future; empathy for characters; and identity.

You can see the full collection here. More information is available on the Empathy Lab website.

Best Children’s Books about Cultural Diversity 

On this booklist we have picked some of the best books for primary schools to help promote cultural diversity. Books can act as both windows through which to see the world and mirrors for readers to see themselves reflected in the pages. The books on this list are selected to help children to see different cultures represented in the stories they read.

You can see our full range of Diverse and Inclusive booklists here.

Best Children’s Books About Growth Mindset

The term ‘growth mindset’ has seen a recent trend in education, but the principles behind it are ones that many parents and teachers have tried to cultivate in children for years. We’ve put together a list of recommended books to promote a growth mindset among primary school children. 

Teaching children to embrace new challenges, learn positively from mistakes, persevere with difficult tasks and develop resilience in learning are all key parts of having a growth mindset. From stories about never giving up like Tilda Tries Again and Yes You Can, Cow! to books about embracing mistakes as opportunities like Beautiful Oops! and Rosie Revere, Engineer, this booklist features some of the best children’s books for promoting a growth mindset in young learners.

Best children’s books with a theme of anti-bullying

On this booklist we have picked a selection of recommended books for primary schools to explore the topic of bullying, including picturebooks, longer texts and non-fiction.

Our list of best children’s books about bullying can be used for Anti-Bullying Week or for PSHE work all year round. Many thanks to primary school librarian Kate Spurrier for working together with us to create this booklist.

Whether you are looking for short picturebooks to discuss anti-buylling like Troll Stinks! or Buster the Bully or longer chapter books about bullying like All the Things that Could Go Wrong or How to Be More Hedgehog, this list of anti-bullying books is here to help.

Best Children’s Books about Emotional Literacy 

From mental health first aid to specialist work with Emotional Literacy Support Assistants (ELSA) there’s no doubt that stories can be a key tool in helping children to develop emotional literacy.

Chosen especially for their value in dealing with mental health issues, feelings and emotions, the books on this list can be used with pupils to start conversations that enable children to begin to make sense of their own feelings and understand ways to manage and deal with their emotions.

From books about managing anger like When I See Red to stories about sadness and anxiety like A Shelter for Sadness and The Worry Jar, many of the books on this list explore different ways of recognising and responding to big feelings. We’ve also included stories about identifying different emotions, like The Colour Monster, and books about the importance of friendship and connection like The Hugasaurus.

With thanks to specially trained ELSA Sue Mills at Garway Primary School for helping us to compile this list and for commenting on using these books with her school community. Schools looking to buy full packs of the books featured on this ELSA booklist can purchase whole sets via Peters

Queen Elizabeth II Topic Booklist

Queen Elizabeth II was the longest-reigning monarch in British history and we were saddened to hear of her passing after 70 years of service as Queen. From coronations and corgis to jewels and jubilees, we’ve put together a list of the best children’s books to help to learn more about Queen Elizabeth II…

Through these thoughtfully selected children’s books, we aim to provide an engaging and educational journey that helps young minds learn more about the history of Queen Elizabeth II and the pivotal moments in her reign. From stories of royal life to inspiring accounts of her steadfast dedication to the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth, these books offer an enriching perspective on Queen Elizabeth II’s remarkable reign and her enduring impact on history. We also have a separate list of children’s books about King Charles III.

This selection of recommended children’s books embraces the Queen’s remarkable legacy, providing an opportunity for young readers to connect with her incredible journey and the enduring significance of her reign.

 

Best Children’s Books About Internet Safety

Step into the digital realm with our carefully curated collection of children’s books about staying safe online.

These handpicked children’s books delve into the essentials of internet safety, cyberbullying, and digital resilience. From the superb picturebook Troll Stinks, which addresses online bullying and is suitable for the whole primary range, to the newer chapter book How to Be More Hedgehog which navigates the intricacies of upper primary children in the online world, these books help children and teachers to open conversations about internet safety.

As we celebrate Safer Internet Day, these stories go beyond rules, weaving lessons in kindness, empathy, and digital responsibility. Schools are vital in equipping today’s children to be safe online, fostering a generation of tech-savvy, compassionate and responsible digital natives, and these books are chosen to help in that role.

Celebrating Science Booklist

We’ve put together a list of our top recommended children’s books that celebrate science! We have hand-picked the best children’s science books that examine key concepts from biology, chemistry and physics – as well as stories that explore scientific thinking and shine a spotlight on famous (and not-so-famous) scientists.

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