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Best Books This Month – December 2025

It’s easy to feel lost in the flood of so many new children’s books available. Each month, our Review Panel reads scores of new books and we highlight five of our recently published favourites.

This month, our panel of experienced teachers, librarians and children’s book experts has carefully selected five outstanding titles for you to read, with a mixture of fiction and fact, and longer and shorter reads to engage and excite young readers.

With Christmas on the horizon, there’s a really festive feel this month’s Book of the Month selections, with four of the picks having a Christmas theme, and the fifth focusing on a land of ice and snow!

Andy Shepherd’s A Christmas Delivery, a picturebook illustrated by Sarah Warburton, sees favourite characters from the Boy Who Grew Dragons series in a merry, magical Christmas adventure which will appeal to younger readers.

Ideally suited for lower KS2, Adam Baron’s The Very Last Christmas Present follows Father Christmas and his loyal pup on a magical adventure, while there’s a mince-pie-related murder-mystery in Alexandra Benedict’s The Merry Christmas Murders. Upper KS2 and early KS3 readers are in for a very different Christmas in Emma Read’s mysterious thriller Silent Night.

For non-fiction fans, All About Antarctica offers a journey south to the coldest place on the planet. Packed with facts and fabulous illustrations, this title invites young explorers to learn all about this endangered environment before it disappears forever.

Read on to discover our Review Panel’s top new children’s books for you to read in December 2025.

Schools can also take advantage of our Books of the Month subscription service, enabling schools to receive regular bundles of our Books of the Month selections.

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The Boy Who Grew Dragons: A Christmas Delivery

Andy Shepherd & Sarah Warburton

Picturebook

If you have read ‘The Boy Who Grew Dragons’ or any of the books in the series, you will love this Christmas adventure with favourite characters from Andy Shepherd’s series and, obviously, lots of dragons. If the series is new to you or your class, then this book would be a good ‘taster’ and introduction to the charming and popular series.

Tomas’ problem-solving has to take centre stage when the car and then the wheelbarrow become snowbound, threatening the delivery of presents. The team of Tomas, Lolli, Grandad and the dragons have to work together as well as use a good a handful of dragon magic!

The illustrations by Sarah Warburton provide a real Christmas feast to explore – each page is crammed with detail from the different dragons to the snow scenes and the inside of Grandad’s shed. If you are reading this book aloud (and this book cries out to be read aloud), you’ll find that the book captures the festive spirit of giving alongside a good dose of dragon mischief and charm.

This offers lots of opportunity for a class to discuss the nature of cooperation, the need to overcome problems and a chance to talk about children’s own experiences of this time of year.

All About Antarctica

Marc Martin

Non-fiction

Stunning watercolour images bring Antarctica to life whilst bite-sized information gives children a feel for what it would feel like to stay in Antarctica as a research scientist.

Find out about what clothes to wear, what the research stations are like, the transportation, different types of icebergs and glaciers, the types of research that take place, how the scientists relax in their downtime, the food they eat, the species of animals you will find there, fossils, famous Antarctic explorers and much, much more.

A perfect read for any pupils learning about the coldest place on earth, animals and their habitats or climate change.

Silent Night by Emma Read

Emma Read

Chapter book

On Christmas morning, Masen, his younger brother Jos and their cousin Connor wake to find the rest of their family is missing from their holiday cottage on the Gower, Wales. All that is left behind is a small, peculiar Christmas tree with a mushroom-like fungus growing on it but even that has shrivelled and turned black.

Masen, Jos and Connor set out to find out what has happened to their family and other local people, and seek shelter and safety from the winter storm that has blown over South Wales. On their travels, they meet different groups of young people and soon Masen has a difficult choice to make: head for the safety of the Friary with Jos or leave to seek help with Connor. His decision will impact them all.

A fantastically paced, thrilling story that combines the genres of horror, adventure and sci-fi that will keep you questioning who can be trusted throughout. If you are looking for a dark Christmas story with plenty of twists and turns, this fits the bill perfectly.

The Merry Christmas Murders

Alexandra Benedict

Chapter book

Brooke has always struggled to fit in, but her worries that this school will be the same as the last disappear when she meets The Neurokind Club at Wood Dean Secondary. Just as she is beginning to feel like she may have found a place where she belongs, disaster strikes and Dr Buxted, the headteacher, is found dead, murdered by mince pie with a promise of more to come!

Brooke and her new friends join forces and use their individual skills to try to find a motive and solve the mystery before anyone else gets hurt. Soon, one body turns into two and many of the teachers are looking highly suspicious.

Diverse characters with a range of neurodivergence are represented in this fast-paced, festive fiction, and it is filled with hidden clues and puzzles along the way that you can choose to solve as an add-on to the main narrative. The story touches on themes of friendship, belonging, overwhelm and social recovery, whilst celebrating the characters’ skills and achievements that make them all so unique. A ‘cracker’ of a mystery and great ‘I see me’ read for neurodivergent pupils and their peers.

The Very Last Christmas Present

Adam Baron & Benji Davies

Chapter book

The Very Last Christmas Present is a gentle, heartwarming festive tale that captures the magic, wonder and warmth of Christmas. Written by Adam Baron and beautifully illustrated by Benji Davies, this story introduces Kado, Father Christmas’s loyal, but very junior, pup who suddenly finds himself with an enormous responsibility: delivering the one present Santa accidentally forgot!

The adventure that follows takes children on a vivid, globe-spanning journey. From icy landscapes with prowling polar bears to sweeping African plains and deep blue oceans, each setting is brought to life through Davies’s atmospheric illustrations.

Kado himself is a particularly endearing character. His determination, loyalty and courage offer valuable themes for classroom conversations about responsibility, having a go when something feels daunting, and the importance of helping others. Children will enjoy following his journey from uncertain beginner to confident hero, and the surprise waiting inside the final present adds an uplifting twist that reinforces the book’s message about love, belonging and the true meaning of Christmas.

This is a story with wide appeal – It’ll make a lovely class story for KS1 teachers to read aloud over time, as I’m sure it would older pupils in lower KS2. It’s a wonderful a magical adventure wrapped in kindness, courage and festive cheer.