Recommended children's booklists sorted by age or topic

Author & Illustrators

Bethany Walker Books

Walker’s hilarious story of an angry and bold twelve year old called Meddy Gordon will be passed around the hands of classroom children repeatedly.

When Meddy Gordon is condemned to a series of very bad schooldays after angering the goddess Athena, she does nothing but rant into her diary, a place she thinks her anger and her emotions are safe. Siblings argue, sisters bicker, problems with classmates come and go, disagreements with teachers are the worst! But Meddy has more than her fair share of troubles; dealing with owls, swarms of snakes and a random dog. All this, alongside the small problem of her snake hair that appears if she doesn’t control her anger!

Combining the mythical powers of ancient Greece with modern twenty-first century humour, Walker’s brilliantly written middle grade novel will be gratefully received by youngsters aged 8+. Why? Because what happens when the goddess of war is on the warpath? You get a bad day. And everyone has bad days, especially preteens. Super fun and relatable.

A funny art heist mystery from the duo behind Chocolate Milk, X-Ray Specs and Me. One day, the Royal Family announces a £25 million reward for a painting that has been missing for about 200 years – a second version of The Mona Lisa. As the hunt is on for the missing painting, criminals start to think that it might be hidden at Mia and Jake’s school.

The layout of the book is fun and really appealing with different size fonts and small illustrations around the writing. The story is mainly told through emails between Mia and her granny but there is occasionally a newspaper article, blog, or notes between the characters.  A great medium-length book for Year 4 and up, and one that will appeal to fans of Liz Pichon, Danny Wallace or Sam Copeland.

This story is told in the form of letters, from Freddy and his parents and also some of the other characters. What the reader knows, but Freddy remains clueless about, is that his parents are not actually sprout farmers but secret agents on the tail of the mastermind criminal Dr Alpha Bett. This is the joke of the book, that Freddy never realises what is going on and yet somehow manages to save the day by accident. The book is delightfully doodled and illustrated by Jack Noel in much the same way as Freddy would have done and this adds to the joy of the letters and postcards he sends…

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