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 plenty of options to ignite imaginations at the start of the new school year.

With the evenings drawing in, those wishing to curl up with a longer read have plenty to choose from in this list. Christopher Edge delivers terror and suspense in Fear Files: Hide and Seek – a thriller that even our reviewer “did not dare to read at bedtime”, while Emma Carroll’s Dracula & Daughters delivers gruesome fantasy in a historical setting.

For adventure-lovers, The Girl Who Raced the World is a reimagining of Around the World in Eighty Days. Our Review Panel loved this well-paced story of an orphan who accompanies Mr Fogg on his famous journey, and found it equally suited to independent or group reading.

The Museum of Shapes invites younger readers to explore a unique collection, guided by its curator. Inspired by a real-life museum, this is an imaginative and interactive picturebook that brings play and exploration to early years maths.

For older non-fiction fans, There Was a Roman in Your Garden imagines the opening of a time capsule buried by a Roman child, using the objects inside it to explore different aspects of the Roman world while considering how archaeologists work, and how to critically evaluate historical sources.

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

Dracula & Daughters

Emma Carroll

Chapter book

This is the start of a new gothic adventure series, in which three cousins who are descendants of Dracula form a vampire healing company.

In true Emma Carroll fashion, this story has the reader on tenterhooks throughout, with chases through the dark streets of Temstown, the spine-tingling threat of attack from vengeful creatures and the need for the three brave heroines to complete their dangerous mission before the new moon deadline.

It’s all the more gripping because the identity of trustworthy good guys and shifty villains is obscured. What’s more, as the plot thickens, the readers’ perception only gradually clears, spotting connections between different characters. The way Carroll weaves numerous strands together is extremely satisfying: there’s the scene-setting, which has the reader picturing London in the late 19th Century; the kinship felt by the main characters; the power plays of ambitious, dangerous men; and the knowledge that might lead to both cure and restoration for the wronged.

This is a book that will be devoured by those with an appetite for gruesome fantasy with a historical flavour. Librarians will not need to recommend it for copies to quickly fly off the ‘horror’ shelf.

The Girl Who Raced the World

Nat Harrison

Chapter book

Maggie is an orphan who has recently escaped from a workhouse after losing her mum. Her mum had given her a letter to deliver to a Monsieur Passepartout and said that he would help her.

In tracking down Monsieur Passepartout, Maggie also finds Mr Fogg, a gentleman who has made a wager that he can travel around the world in only eighty days. She also discovers that Mr Fogg is believed to have stolen a lot of money from a bank in London.

Maggie accompanies Mr Fogg and Monsieur Passepartout on their journey around the world and tries to prove Mr Fogg’s innocence along the way. Their journey is not a straightforward one – they encounter lots of people along the way, some helpful and some not so helpful. Not everyone wants Mr Fogg to succeed in his endeavour.

‘The Girl Who Raced the World’ is a fantastic reimagining of ‘Around the World in Eighty Days’. Maggie and Monsieur Passepartout are both incredibly likeable characters, and I like how their relationship develops as they get to know each other better. Mr Fogg is mysterious but perhaps not as stern as he first appears. The story moves at a pace and is a fantastic adventure for Y4 and up. It would make a great read-aloud in the classroom or a good independent read.

There Was a Roman in Your Garden

Bettany Hughes

Non-fiction

The underpinning idea is that an imaginary time capsule has been buried by a Roman child and dug up in the reader’s garden. By taking objects as a starting point, Hughes can roughly mirror the processes followed by archaeologists. The book encourages children to think about sources in a critical way, rather than accepting facts on trust.

The objects themselves are carefully chosen to enable explanations of different aspects of the Roman world and explore connections and differences between then and now. A typical chapter on an incense burner explains how the tree resin was harvested, traded and used by the Romans (they thought it helped them to communicate with the gods). There’s a little bit of etymology, and then links are made to other (much less fragrant) Roman smells and the use of incense today.

Bettany Hughes has deep knowledge of the ancient world, and there is a richness of information here that is often missing from other books about the Romans aimed at this age group.

The book is designed to be accessible, with black and white illustrations and typographical effects breaking up the text. The tone is generally chatty, with liberal use of the first and second person, questions and exclamations. It would be an excellent Romans-themed addition to the class library.

The Museum of Shapes

Sven Volker

Picturebook

A core part of any early years teaching would be to make maths fun, part of play time and exploration and the Museum of Shapes is a perfect encapsulation of this principle.

From its perfect front cover, reminiscent of wooden building blocks found in a playroom, Volker introduces the reader to our curator (what a great word to start building early vocabulary), Alma. The book simply explains what she does and the illustration uses simple shapes to show Alma, complete with a square handbag, bowl haircut, her line lead and her dog, Max, a triangular tag hanging from his collar.

Each page is an introduction to the different shapes that Alma curates, both in text and illustration, from the simplest point to the blobby and wacky shapes of a leaf, a splat of ink and an amoeba. The reader is asked to identify shapes, choose shapes, mix shapes, arrange shapes, and spot shapes. This is a playful and interactive book with a real museum posited as its inspiration – the Museum of Concrete Art and Design in Germany.

An informative and playful book about maths.

Fear Files: Hide and Seek

Christopher Edge

Chapter book

This story makes you rethink the simple game from your childhood (even adulthood) of ‘Hide and Seek’- who knew it could be so frightening?

You are greeted immediately with the suspense in this book with the sharing of the category ratings for the Fear Files. The one you are about to read is deemed as a Level 4 Rated File-which is a ‘Beyond Fear’ category. This is enough to make you realise that you are in for a thrill. The layout of the book is a mixture of written case notes and short chapters. You will find phrases circled and notes made for evidence, making it feel like you are investigating this case yourself.

Who thought the phrase ‘Ready or not, here I come.’ would instil such terror in someone? This is a book that I did not dare to read at bedtime, yet I loved being terrified by the storyline. In particular, a statue is found with its hands covering its eyes, which reminded me of an episode of Doctor Who, in which statues move when you are not looking-a shiver certainly went down my spine! I cannot wait for the next instalment…