Author & Illustrators

Tom Palmer Books

Tom Palmer is an English author of children’s books, celebrated for his works that often centre on history and sport. A reluctant reader in his childhood, Tom Palmer has openly credited articles about football as the material that aided his interest in reading. This experience has informed his writing, leading to books that are particularly popular with reluctant readers.

Tom Palmer’s chapter books, generally aimed at readers aged 9-14 (Key Stage 2 and Key Stage 3), include popular titles such as Angel of Grasmere, Foul Play, Resist and the Football Academy series. His books often focus on history and sport, and many are published in a super-readable format through Barrington Stoke so that even more readers can access and enjoy them.

Palmer’s significant contribution to literacy in the UK has been recognised with the National Literacy Trust’s Ruth Rendell Award. His books have also received numerous other honours, including the Historical Association Young Quills Award for Resist and the FCBG Children’s Book Award for both D-Day Dog and Armistice Runner. After the War was longlisted for the Carnegie Medal, and Arctic Star was awarded the BooksForTopics Book of the Year award in 2023 for Upper KS2 Best Curriculum Support.

Tom Palmer’s well-researched books frequently appear on recommended reading lists, including BooksForTopics recommended Year Group booklists, Second World War booklist, history booklists, books about WW1, KS3 History Reading List, children’s books about football, dyslexia-friendly books and KS3 sports and PE booklist.

If you are looking for historical and sports-themed children’s novels or shorter accessible reads for KS2 and KS3, explore the highly recommended world of Tom Palmer.

Author’s Website: https://tompalmer.co.uk/.

If you are new to Tom Palmer’s books for children, we recommend Armistice Runner as a good book to start with.

Front Foot

Robin Boyden & Tom Palmer

Chapter book

Azeem lives near Nottingham with his dad, and loves his new home and school, although he misses his mom and youngest sister, Saeeda, who are stuck in a Pakistani refugee camp, awaiting a move to England. Dad still has nightmares from assisting the British army in Afghanistan, but is very positive and believes in making the best of every situation – hence the ‘front foot’ from the title. Azeem is keen to introduce his friends to playing his beloved game – cricket; he yearns to realise his dad’s dream of playing on an English cricket pitch, maybe even for the Afghanistan national team. Despite his friends’ reluctance, Azeem encourages some older boys to play with them and this elicits an offer to let them join in with training for a newly established youth cricket team.

This is a very short and accessible read, but there’s a lot crammed into it – all sorts of different themes that are outlined simply and leave plenty of ideas for discussion. For example, Azeem is originally taken aback because the cricket coach is female – his initial instinct is that women can’t possibly teach cricket due to his experiences of how women and girls are treated in Afghanistan. Then an abandoned car being torched overnight reminds him of the fires back in his homeland, and obviously there’s the matter of the refugee family having been split up as they free a war zone. The story is the second in a series, but it isn’t necessary to have read the first book prior to this one. Very suitable for young sports fans with a thoughtful introduction to big issues.

If the Invader Comes

Tom Palmer

Chapter book, Dyslexia-friendly

A book by Tom Palmer is a guarantee of quality. He is well known to write exciting historical adventures and makes them easy to read and genuinely accessible.

This latest book, the first of a series, is no exception. It takes place in 1940 in Cornwall and involves three children from very different backgrounds, getting to know each other and working together In the war effort and, as always, is meticulously researched. Slightly chunkier than the usual Barrington Stoke offering, it allows the story and the characters to develop nicely and for the reader to become very invested in the adventures. It is not without the horrors of war and includes a death scene which readers should be aware of.

The cover and inside illustrations, by Paul Blow, capture the danger and the excitement perfectly. The book also includes a map by James Innerdale and as I love a good map, this was a great addition. I have also visited Falmouth so some of the places mentioned were easily brought to mind as I read. Whilst the readability is probably Yeat 4 up, I would say that this would work best for Year 6 and fit in very well with the already large numbers of stories about World War 2, offering a different setting and perspective on this well known topic.

War Dog

Carolina Rabei & Tom Palmer

Picturebook

A beautifully captivating look at one dog’s bravery during the war Judy is a dog who lives on a ship called HMS Grasshopper.

As the ship’s mascot, Judy has many duties.

She catches rats, watches out for soldiers who may fall overboard, and she listens out for danger.

Judy loves her crew, and they love her.

She knows that she brings comfort to the men, making her job very important during these hard times.

But when her soldiers are taken prisoner and she is separated from her beloved Frank, she must find the strength to keep going.

She is their only hope.

This beautiful picture book is a testament to the love and loyalty of dogs and the importance of animal companions.

Football Academy Striking Out

Tom Palmer

Chapter book

Striking Out: the second book in the Football Academy series by Tom Palmer

Yunis can’t believe that he’s United leading scorer. It should be the happiest time of his life, but his father wants him to give up football and work hard at school. Can Yunis convince his dad that he can do both, or will he have to hang up his boots forever?

Stay on the ball this season with all the action from Football Academy.

As well as being a huge football fan, Tom Palmer has an international reputation in reader development. He is a coordinator of the Reading Partners consortium, works with The Reading Agency, Booktrust and the National Literacy Trust, and has been the official writer for the Premier League Reading Stars scheme for five years. He is the author of the Football Detective series, also for Puffin Books. Tom lives in West Yorkshire with his wife and daughter.

Own Goal

Tom Palmer

Chapter book

Meet Danny Harte.
Football fan and crime detective.

Danny loves supporting his local team, City FC. So when everyone starts supporting the Italian team Forza FC, Danny is angry. His club is in jeopardy and needs their support. Danny decides to investigate the sudden popularity of the new team – starting with Forza’s billionaire owner – and that’s when the danger really kicks off. . .

Can Danny uncover the sinister reasons behind Forza’s success – and save City at the same time?

Angel of Grasmere

Tom Palmer

Chapter book, Dyslexia-friendly

Tom Palmer creates a compelling historical story set in the Fells of the Lake District during World War II.

Dealing with issues such as PTSD and desertion, this book could have been a very difficult read, and yet it never strays into that. Almost instantly, the reader cares about Tarn, the main character and what life was like in the North during the War. The story also captures the hardships of farming communities as well as the suspicions and fears of the time.

Palmer always researches his stories meticulously, and this shows. Barrington Stoke books might be an accessible read, but this is not less of a story or indeed less of anything. The simplicity of the text makes it all the more impressive that this story is a compelling and interesting read that is hard to put down.

It is a book full of kindness and shows village life in the past clearly for us city dwellers. Above all, it is a book about humanity and what it means to be part of a war and a village.

Rugby Academy

David Shephard & Tom Palmer

Chapter book

Celebrate the buzz of the Rugby World cup with this action-packed, globe-trotting rugby adventure from top-selling author Tom Palmer.

Borderlands First XV have their sights set on becoming the best school rugby team in the world. But while the boys focus on their matches, many of their parents are serving overseas in the armed forces, and everyone is worried as conflict grows in the Central Asian Republic. New pupil Woody is a footballer by nature and must decide if he’s prepared to give rugby his all. Rory feels like he’s losing his focus, distracted by thoughts of his parents in danger. And Owen finds himself a t the centre when conflict breaks out within the team. With so many hurdles to face along the way, how far will they get in the rigorous schools’ tournament?

Football’s Greatest Moments

Tom Palmer

Non-fiction

The Ultimate Football Heroes books score big with football-loving children in Key Stage 2. With over 50 books in the collections, these biographies often tell the life story of a famous footballer, covering the journey from each player’s earliest childhood moments to their latest successes on the pitch and beyond.

Some of the books in the series bring together stories from different footballers or teams into one book. This new book by popular children’s author Tom Palmer brings together a hundred key moments from footballing history – from well known moments like the magic of Pele at the World Cup and the more recent Lionesses’ victories to more surprising moments like the significance of the first goal after the end of World War 1.

A winner for football fans!

Wings: Spitfire

David Shephard & Tom Palmer

Chapter book, Dyslexia-friendly

Greg is only happy when he’s active – on the pitch or on his phone, it doesn’t matter. But as soon as training’s over or his host parent Steve takes the phone away, he’s on edge. Steve suggests that Greg do something quiet with him, like making one of Steve’s beloved Airfix kits. And the next thing Greg knows, he’s in the cockpit of a Spitfire, being forced out of the sky by a German pilot! Particularly suitable for struggling, reluctant and dyslexic readers aged 8+

Resist: One Girl’s Fight Back Against the Nazis

Tom Clohosy Cole & Tom Palmer

Chapter book, Dyslexia-friendly

Edda lives in the occupied Netherlands in the 1940s. It is a scary time, as German soldiers are taking young men from the streets and forcing them into hard labour in Germany. Edda has already lost an uncle to this brutality, and she has two brothers, one already in hiding to avoid being taken by the Nazis. Edda is also secretly working for the Resistance, at great personal risk. She even wonders if it is worth it, until things in her hometown get much, much worse.

The story of Edda is based on the early life of the film star Audrey Hepburn, who was half British and half Dutch. Whilst fictional, it contains many true events in Audrey Hepburn’s life, including the killing of her uncle, actually mentioned in Anne Frank’s diary. Aged only fifteen Audrey/Edda worked for the Resistance and showed incredible courage in the face of unimaginable cruelty and horror. As the war dragged on, people were slowly starving to death, as well as facing brutality on the streets of their towns. According to the information at the end of the book, more than 22,000 Dutch people died of starvation during this period, something I never knew.

Teachers teaching about World War 2 will find this book an invaluable resource to add to the plethora of books written about the period.