Recommended children's booklists sorted by age or topic

Author & Illustrators

DK Books

The Egg Book: See How Baby Animals Hatch, Step By Step!

Non-fiction

Learn about the remarkable beginnings of life with this adorable book of baby animals hatching from their eggs.

Find out all about how eggs hatch step by step in this fascinating baby animal book for children. Many animals start life inside eggs and this book explores these magical capsules in detail, with stunning photographs of the moment the creatures emerge.

Featuring more than 20 animals – including a penguin, a tortoise, and even a slug – this book documents the moment of hatching in detail. Children aged 5-7 can learn how birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, and invertebrates hatch from their eggs, as well as what happens inside an egg’s shell.

DKfindout! Maya, Incas, and Aztecs

Non-fiction

Find out about the incredible ancient civilizations of the Americas, right up until the Spanish conquest. Discover the monumental pyramids and mountain cities of the Maya, Inca, and Aztec people. Explore the sites of Chichen Itza, Machu Picchu, and Tenochtitlan, learn the pictures of the Mayan language, unearth the history of chocolate, and find out how naughty children were punished with chillis!

Peer into the past with amazing illustrations, see some of the most impressive ancient structures in the world, and stock up on facts to amaze your friends with. Packed with information, artefacts, and colourful illustrations, DKfindout! Maya, Incas, and Aztecs brings their worlds to life.

365 Things to Do with LEGO Bricks

Non-fiction

Hundreds of creative LEGO (R) building ideas, activities, games, challenges and pranks!

Winner of the Best Book category Creative Play Awards 2016, this superb LEGO (R) building book inspires you to look at your LEGO bricks in new and exciting ways.

Go on a LEGO treasure hunt. Create and perform LEGO magic tricks. Make a LEGO stop-motion movie. Build your own LEGO pet. Challenge your family to build the tallest LEGO tower. And much, much more!

Featuring imaginative play and building ideas, from LEGO games that take just a few minutes and require a handful of bricks, to inspirational build ideas and activities to keep you occupied for hours.

How Everything Works

Non-fiction

Discover an all-in-one encyclopedia that takes you on an explanatory tour of the world from your own body to outer space.

Have you ever wondered how an email gets to someone on the other side of the world in just a few seconds or why it’s a bad idea to stand under a tree during a thunderstorm?
Discover the answers to all these questions and more with this mind-boggling books of facts

Each page of this mind-blowingly detailed and ambitious encyclopedia will guide you through the natural world and the technology that surrounds you. Giant, page-filling illustrations take objects apart – or take the roofs and walls off buildings – to show you how they work, explaining both basic principles (such as photosynthesis) as well as broader concepts (like how all the living things in a rainforest interact).

Timelines of Science

Explore spectacular visual timelines that tell the story of science, from fossils to quantum physics, and discover exactly how science has changed the world – one discovery at a time.

Timelines of Science takes you on an astonishing journey through history, showing how dedication, disasters, and eureka moments have brought us antibiotics, electricity, space exploration, and so much more!

Packed with fascinating facts, amazing images, and some seriously staggering science, this science history book shows how thousands of years of human endeavour have expanded our knowledge and shaped our lives. Find out why the fruitless search for a potion of eternal life led to the birth to chemistry. See how the invention of magnifying lenses opened new windows into the cosmos and micro-cosmos. And learn how happy accidents led to the discovery of X-rays, batteries, pulsars, and even the big bang.

My Encyclopedia of Very Important Oceans

Non-fiction

A charming children’s encyclopedia that takes you on a journey into the deep blue to discover the wonders of the world’s oceans!

The world is so much bigger than young minds can fathom and there is always more to learn.
My Encyclopedia of Very Important Oceans is a vibrant encyclopedia for curious 5-9 year olds, who want to know everything there is to know about life on and under the waves. Easily accessible to young readers through a balance of striking images and conversational, age-appropriate text, this ocean encyclopedia will tap into every child’s natural curiosity and answer all their biggest questions about this amazing world under the water.

Bursting with up-to-date facts and discoveries, this exciting kid’s encyclopedia includes everything from the spectacular seabirds soaring over Earth’s vast oceans, to the tiny creatures lurking on the ocean floor.
Dive in and explore forgotten shipwrecks, swim with fabulous fish and other awesome underwater animals, and weave your way through secret deep sea homes. You’ll travel back in time to meet plundering pirates, scientists, and explorers who changed the course of history, then it’s time to learn about lots of very important underwater jobs and how you can help to protect Earth’s precious oceans.

Real Superheroes

DK & Julia Seal

Non-fiction

Some superheroes have capes and trusty sidekicks too, but how many of these superheroes have ever rescued you?

A heartwarming thank you to the essential workers who help us every day. From supermarket staff and firefighters to doctors and nurses, this charming picture book celebrates the brave, everyday heroes who keep our world turning through difficult times.

Who are the real superheroes that keep our world safe?

– A charming picture book by author-illustrator Julia Seal celebrating the brave, everyday heroes who keep our world turning
– Simple, rhyming text to share and read aloud with young children
– A beautiful celebration of key workers, and the important roles they play every single day and night

Some superheroes have shiny capes, super-strength, and trusty sidekicks, but how many of these superheroes have ever rescued you? Perfect for children aged 3-7 years, this wonderful picture book is dedicated to brave front-line workers – the real heroes who look after us!

Covering a diverse range of professions and characters, Real Superheroes pays tribute to the incredible jobs that key workers are doing around the world so we can stay home and stay safe. Little ones will love seeing pictures of other children dressed up to do different jobs, including a teacher, a delivery worker, and a shopkeeper!

First Facts Dinosaurs

Non-fiction

A simple information text bursting with clear photographs and fun facts about prehistoric creatures. This is great for reading aloud but young children will also enjoy looking through the pages independently.

My Encyclopedia of Very Important Sport

A vibrant encyclopedia that combines facts and figures with the inspiring stories of sporting legends and icons.

This exciting book for children is packed with fun facts about a range of popular sports such as football, karate, badminton, and skiing, as well as ones you might never have heard of like biathlon or cheese rolling. Whether you’re a fan of team sports, winter sports, water sports, extreme sports, and even board games such as chess and go, this reference book has it all!

My Encyclopedia of Very Important Sport also celebrates the unique talents, lives, and careers of sporting heroes such as Usain Bolt, Serena Williams, Yuna Kim, Lin Dan, and Donald Bradman, and chronicles the most celebrated stories in sporting history, such as breaking the Four-minute mile, Nadia Comaneci’s Perfect 10, and Jesse Owens at the 1936 Olympics. Featuring everything from obscure rules and strange equipment, to moments of triumph and sporting events like The World Cup, Superbowl, Olympics, Paralympics, and more – this is the perfect compendium for budding superstars everywhere.

My Very Important World

Non-fiction

This children’s encyclopedia of discovery will inspire little learners to wonder about the world around them.

Our world is an amazing place. It’s full of rivers, mountains, forests, and too many other amazing places to count – but that’s not all. There’s also families, friends, animals, music, technology, language, games, and all other things that make life wonderful. My Very Important World is a celebration of our world and what it’s like to live in it.

On one page children will read about their body and brain, on another they’ll learn about sporting events from around the globe, and on others, they can marvel at wonders of the Earth including The Great Wall of China, awe-inspiring Giant’s Causeway, and the beautiful Rainbow Mountains of Peru.

My Very Important World makes a beautiful gift book with a padded jacket and colourful illustrations and images.

Discover where the coldest place on Earth is, how many languages there are, why we sometimes feel scared, and much, much more.

There’s a big wide world out there – so turn the pages to explore it.

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