Best children's books - Best Books This Month

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 excite young readers.

With the evenings drawing in, those wishing to curl up with a longer read will love Krystal Sutherland and Martin Seneviratne’s intriguing tale of time-travelling twins, Time Lions and the Chrono-Loop, or Katya Balen’s powerful story of an unexpected friendship in Letters from the Upside.

Those seeking a shorter read will welcome the return of the Hotel Flamingo series with Frosty Fiesta, the story of the snowiest hotel in town! And Dave Pigeon is also back with Turkey Dinner!, another hilarious adventure for our favourite pigeon duo.

The Start Small, Think Big series has delivered some lovely non-fiction titles for younger readers, including Small, Speckled Egg, Little, Brown Nut and Tiny, Floating Coral. This month’s list features another brilliant book from this series: Small, Shiny Dung Beetle, which looks at this tiny creature’s essential role in tidying up!

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

Letters from the Upside

Katya Balen

Chapter book

Con’s in trouble . . . again. Since his dad left, he doesn’t seem to be able to control his temper and this time someone has been hurt. Suspended from school for three days and in danger of losing his best friend, something has to change.

After accidentally locking himself out of his flat, Con is invited to the Upside, a rooftop garden he didn’t know existed, by old Mr Williams. And there’s a further surprise – Mr Williams’ pigeons. Con quickly develops a love for these gentle, intelligent birds. So much so that Mr Williams leaves him in charge of them for a few days. But then, disaster strikes . . . Will Con let his anger continue to burn and consume him and everything around him? Or will he find the true Upside to life?

This book is, at times, difficult to read. Con is lost and confused, and burning with an inner rage. Watching the impact of a kind neighbour and his beloved birds on him is heart-warming, as is seeing the power of positive action on a whole community. As you would expect from Katya Balen, another beautifully written, well-told story.

Hotel Flamingo: Frosty Fiesta

Alex Milway

Chapter book

This early chapter book is part of the wonderful Hotel Flamingo series. The gorgeous colours and shimmery snowflakes on the front cover are enough to draw anyone’s attention.

The workers at the hotel are preparing for a quiet winter, the temperatures are dropping, and Mrs Turpington – the hotel’s resident tortoise – needs to hibernate. Then, it snows more than anyone could have imagined, and the hotel becomes overrun with guests. What follows is how the hotel’s community comes together to help many of its guests in so many different ways at a time when the hotel is full to the brim. First, a party (Frosty Fiesta) with some very wise words from Mrs T the tortoise (‘We are nothing without each other) and the White-Out Games with bunnies performing record-breaking stunts. Then, the birth of a polar bear cub and an external ice hotel for some guests.

This truly is a fiesta of fun, and who could resist a stay at Hotel Flamingo, even if Madame Le Pig seems terrifying?

Dave Pigeon (Turkey Dinner!)

Swapna Haddow

Chapter book

Our favourite-pigeon-duo, Dave Pigeon and Skipper, are back in another hilarious adventure.

In this book, Dave and Skipper are looking forward to the Big Dinner Day (aka Christmas Day) and even more so to eating the delicious scraps of the main meal… That is, until their neighbour lets them in on what humans eat on Christmas Day – BIRD. Then you can look forward to another not-so-foolproof plan from Dave and Skipper and their new friend Robbie the Robin.

I’ve been a big fan of Swapna’s writing since her first Dave Pigeon book. She has taken a creature we see every day and turned it into a lovable character in her laugh-out-loud series. With beautiful illustrations from Sheena Dempsey and a well-written, hilarious text by Swapna Haddow, this is sure to be a treat for young readers who love animal stories and funny adventures. Swapna is also the author of the fabulous Bad Panda series. This is the seventh book in the series, but Turkey Dinner can be read alone.

Small, Shiny Dung Beetle

Hannah Bailey & Mary Auld

Non-fiction

The story begins with a small, green dung beetle on a fresh pile of soft elephant poo. From here we see her form a small ball of poo which she seeks a mate to help her roll. Together they roll it to a soft patch of earth where they bury it. She lays an egg in the middle of the soft ball of poo. Then they start again until there are several buried balls of poo, each with an egg inside. The book then follows the life cycle of the dung beetle through all the stages until it hatches and then repeats the cycle itself.

This book is jam-packed with facts and information not just about the dung beetle but about the African Savannah and the animals who live there. The illustrations are beautiful with lots of elements for children to spot, aided by an eye-spy on the large, fold-out page at the end. The fold-out page also includes a map showing the distribution of dung beetles around the world and illustrates clearly the life-cycle of the beetle.

This book would be a beautiful addition to any classroom or school library. Valuable both as a reading for pleasure book as well as when teaching about Africa, animal life-cycles or food chains.

Time Lions and the Chrono-Loop

Krystal Sutherland & Martin Seneviratne

Chapter book

This is an intriguing twist on the time travel genre. The main protagonists are genius twelve-year-old twins – Pearl and Patrick – who are about as far from being ‘normal’ children as possible, although they hide their abilities well from their peers. Pearl is an engineering whizz with a host of mind-blowing inventions to her name, and Patrick has an unsurpassed knowledge of the whole of history. They have engaged in a variety of illegal behaviours using Pearl’s inventions, for example, stealing a diamond from the Crown Jewels in the Tower of London or removing part of a stealth plane from Area 51, and are being watched by MI5!

Then Pearl invents a time machine which relies upon the acquisition of historical items that are originally from the era to which you wish to travel. Despite believing that they have made a successful initial jump back to Ancient Egypt, there is a nasty surprise in store from a secret society which shows just how much damage their little jaunt has done.

There are many interesting themes woven in: the twins’ family has Sri Lankan heritage, which becomes inextricably linked to the storyline further on; Pearl is a fierce advocate for women’s contributions to science to be recognised; and school dynamics where friendship needs to transcend race, culture and ability. Bullying is an issue too and Pearl’s sometimes self-aggrandising motives could provoke interesting discussions.

You can tell that the author has previously written YA books as some of the twins’ achievements may require some explanation to younger readers e.g. breaking into Fort Knox or trying to win the Nobel Prize, and Pearl’s inventions would be ground-breaking sci-fi concepts for this age group. It all makes for an exciting and fast-paced read with likeable characters – I’d love to read more in this series.