Recommended children's booklists sorted by age or topic

Author & Illustrators

Grahame Baker-Smith Books

An excellent non-fiction book to accompany a Stone Age topic, with text that concentrates on 18 prehistoric animals.

The stunning illustrations from Grahame Baker Smith are the focal point of each double-page spread, accompanying a wealth of information about each. The information on each page is plentiful, offering an insight into Stone Age animals, their diet, behaviours and appearance, plus a handy comparison to modern-day animals. A fact box is also included on every page with details of scientific names, weight, extinction date and the location the animals lived in.

A must-have book for a Stone Age topic that would appeal to many young readers.

Idris is a child refugee, born into a world of tents and fences. He has known no other life than this. He has no memories of the world outside.

Then the Wisp arrives, floating in on the evening breeze. Everyone who holds it finds their memories reawakened, their hopes of freedom reborn. But what about Idris, who has no memories? What will happen when he holds the magical Wisp?

Storytelling and imagination have the power to offer hope in this extraordinary picture book from the Amnesty CILIP Honour-winning author of The Bone Sparrow, Zana Fraillon, and Kate Greenaway Medal-winning illustrator Grahame Baker Smith.

First man on the Moon Neil Armstrong reveals the adventure of the first Moon landing, and how the Earth and the Moon came to be, in this unique non-fiction picture book.

A young boy sits up in bed and gazes at the distant Moon through his window. He wonders if, one day, a human will stand on its surface and look back at the Earth. But Earth is already being studied from the Moon. An all-seeing Moon rock of almost impossible age, called Bok, has been looking down at our blue and green planet for millennia.

Geologists – people who study rocks – have a saying: ‘Rocks remember’. During his time, Bok has witnessed some truly wondrous things. Created in the Earth-shattering collision 4.5 billion years ago that led to the formation of the Moon, he has seen stars burst into being and meteors streak through the solar system. He has seen his own Moon surface be transformed with craters, and he has watched a fiery, volcanic planet transform into the haven we know today – as mountain ranges rose up, oceans appeared and dinosaurs roamed the Earth.

And he found himself rudely awoken one early lunar morning by a strange creature picking him up and throwing him into a box.

That is how Bok and Neil Armstrong first met, and this is their (true) story.

A young boy, bewitched by his father’s unrelenting passion to fly; a desperate craving that absorbs his every waking minute, finds himself entranced by the dream. When his father goes to war and does not return it seems the spell is broken.

Much later, the boy, now a young man finds himself drawn once more to his father’s drawings and failed experiments. Finally able to make his father’s dream a reality, he flies. Will his own son be visited by this unrelenting passion?

This is a beautiful picture book that explores the remarkable journey of the water cycle. From a few drops of rain in a little boy’s jar to the depths of the vast ocean and back to clouds in the sky above, wonderful water is given centre-stage in this gentle narrative that evokes awe at the sheer beauty and scale of nature’s systems.

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