Recommended children's booklists sorted by age or topic

Home > Books

Archives: Books

Picturebook

From the inimitable O’Hara sisters, Once Upon a Fairytale is a story where the reader gets to decide on the adventure – the possibilities are endless.

Did you ever wish to feast with fairies, live in a tree, or ride a unicorn across the sun-lit sky? Here, in this magical world, you can. You can choose to be a clever princess, or a curious gingerbread man, or perhaps a gentle knight. Maybe you’ll live in a tree, or a tower on a hill. You can eat fresh-buttered sunbeams with fairies, or newt pie and pigtail pudding with ogres. Everywhere you look, you will find a new adventure. Just pick the one you like best.

A captivating book where the child chooses the story they want to tell – empowering children to become storytellers and weave their very own fairytale.

Picturebook

In this monstrously funny and original lift-the-flaps adventure, a child finds hiding places in three famous fairy tale houses before turning on their hide-and-seek pursuers—from the creator of international sensation Inside the Villains.

“Quick, hide!” Chased by monsters, each hairier and stinkier than the one before, a child finds shelter in the most famous fairytale houses—the three little pigs’ brick home, Sleeping Beauty’s palace and Hansel and Gretel’s gingerbread mansion. Each house is full of hiding places for the reader to explore, with flaps big and small and curious places to discover on the search for the child’s hiding place. And when the hero of our story finally stands up to the monsters, they may be the ones to flee, because this child has read the tales before and knows how to vanquish a villain!

A villianously funny hide-and-seek game in a fairytale world.

Chapter book

Yusuf has messed up big time… AGAIN. He needs to defend his family’s honour. What better way to do that than by running for class president?

Expect more chaotic mishaps, more mayhem, and even more laughter!

The second book in the My Laugh-Out-Loud Life series.

Chapter book

Another side-splitting story packed with hilarious illustrations from Sue Cheung, winner of the Diverse Book Award.

The Easter holidays are about to get a lot more exciting! Maddy and her best friend Dev have lucked out and are heading to the seaside where the brand new roller coaster, the Mega Beast, is about to open. This will literally be life-changing! One problem: Maddy has to bring her annoying little brother Oli and her cheeky grandad Agung along for the weekend. With seaside hazards such as terrifying seagulls, stinky pickled eggs and a giant candyfloss-mad dog to deal with, will Maddy ever get to loop-the-loop on the best ride ever?

Chapter book

The fifth fast-paced fantasy adventure starring Aru Shah!

Aru only has until the next full moon to stop the Sleeper from gaining access to the nectar of immortality, which will grant him infinite power. Her quest will have the Pandavas calling on old friends, meeting new allies, and facing fearsome trials, like…performing in a rock concert? When the moment of confrontation finally arrives, it’s up to Aru to decide who deserves immortality, the devas or the asuras. The most unexpected answer will come from a most unexpected place…

Pacy, page-turning storytelling with charm and humour

– movie rights optioned by Paramount. For fans of Jasbinder Bilan, Kwame Mbalia and the Percy Jackson series

Aru Shah and the End of Time (book 1) is a New York Times bestseller. In 2020, it made TIME’s 100 Best Fantasy Books of all Time

Chapter book

There’s a spooky mystery at school, in the sixth hilarious case in the award-winning Anisha, Accidental Detective series!

It’s Halloween and everyone is excited about the school disco. It’s a bit much for me – all that dressing-up and dancing. I’d rather cosy up with a good book, but Milo, Mindy and Manny are all super excited.

Or at least, they were excited, until all these strange things started happening – messages appearing on the whiteboard, lights flickering on and off, books flying off the library shelves… Some of the other kids have been whispering that the school is haunted, but Mr Graft says that if the spooky mischief doesn’t stop, then the disco will be cancelled.

Looks like a mission for me, Anisha, accidental ghost detective!

Chapter book

Agent Asha is back in the second installment of this action-packed spy adventure series.

Top-secret Children’s Spy Agency newest recruit, Asha Joshi is back with a brand new mission. Asha is suspicious when evil teenage trillionaire Shelly Belly proposes to cut down all the trees in Asha’s favourite park to make room for CyberOaks: the new tech trees. Asha’s a top coder and super spy so she should be able to face robot security parrots, navigate a suspicious internship and travel to Shelly’s super-confidential base in Scotland to crack the case. Will Asha and her robo-hamster sidekick Tumble be able to protect the park and save the day?

The story is a great way to engage young readers in coding and critical-thinking as it combines STEM with exciting adventures. It is mapped onto key National Curriculum Computing KS1 and KS2 concepts including algorithms, conditionals and debugging.

Short story collection

A hugely entertaining, fully colour-illustrated collection celebrating joy, perfect for children age 8 to 12 (and beyond!). Curated by Laugh Out Loud Awards winner Dapo Adeola, with a foreword by the acclaimed Patrice Lawrence. Joyful, Joyful is a book to sing about!

A large hardback packed full of colourful illustrations, Joyful, Joyful: Stories Celebrating Black Voices is the perfect gift to spread joy.

Featuring both exciting new talents and globally renowned creators – every poem and story is individually illustrated by an amazing artist.

With stories featuring a mythical whale, a message from the future, a Halloween dance competition, a talking book, a miraculous discovery in a moment of lost hope, the joy of jollof rice and so much more. The creators hail from around the world, from the UK and US, to Uganda, the Netherlands, Nigeria and more.

Colourful and beautifully illustrated, with artwork from an array of talented illustrators including Ken Wilson Max, Dapo Adeola, Dorcas Magbadelo, Odera Igbokwe and Denzell Dankwah, alongside stories and poems by the likes of Malorie Blackman, Alex Wheatle, Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé and Dorothy Koomson.

Contributors include: Adejoké ‘Joké’ Bakare, Alex Wheatle, Arantza Peña Popo, Ashley Evans, Awuradwoa Afful, Camilla Sucre, Camryn Garrett, Charis JB, Dapo Adeola, Denzell Dankwah, Dorcas Magbadelo, Doreen Baingana, Dorothy Koomson, Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé, Funmbi Omotayo, Hannah Lee, Jeffrey Boakye, Jess Nash, Kelechi Okafor, Ken Wilson-Max, Kofi Ofosu, Koleka Putuma, Maame Blue, Malorie Blackman, Matilda Feyisayo Ibini, Michael Kennedy, Nathan Bryon, Odera Igbokwe, Ojima Abalaka, Olu Oke, Patrice Lawrence, Rahana Dariah, Robyn Smith, Rosaline Tella, Sharna Jackson, Snalo Ngcaba, Terrence Adegbenle, Tomekah George, Tracey Baptiste, Trish Cooke, Yasmin Joseph and Zaïre Krieger.

Chapter book

It’s Lunar New Year and Nian the Lion Beast is terrorising the Jade Kingdom – and our world is next. Nian is the creature of Jack’s nightmares, and he can’t help feeling afraid. Somehow he must master another zodiac creature’s power – but can he master his fear…?

With a brilliant cast of troublesome animal zodiac creatures, deadly demons and spine-tingling spirits, this series is for fans of Adam Blade and Percy Jackson.

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