Recommended Reads for Reception: New Additions for 2025

Martha loves making maps and readers will love exploring them!

Starting in space, zooming down to street level and then inside a home, Martha Maps it Out is a great introduction to finding your way around. In standard picture book story format, it’s also fact-filled and informative. The book certainly suits curious minds who will enjoy exploring the detail to find facts on each double page. We particularly liked the clear labelling and use of colour throughout. The presentation is fun with an illustration style reminiscent of Lauren Child’s collages. There are even interactive mazes in the end-papers!

This geography-themed children’s book would be a great addition to any school library or reading corner and is ideal for children to explore alone, or in small groups as a discussion starter. It could be used to support KS1 topics in geography and maths, such as local area mapping, towns and cities, geographical scale and as a general introduction to map work. A really fun book for young readers.

Evie is desperate for a dog. She finds a dog that she absolutely loves – Mr Long Dog. Evie’s parents tell Evie, if she can guess how long he is, then she can keep him. Evie spends the rest of the book comparing Mr Long Dog’s length to other things. By the time she thinks she knows how long he is, someone else has taken him home, but the story doesn’t end there.

This book is a wonderful picture book that you could discuss with younger children (EYFS or KS1). The use of the word ‘long’ is repeated throughout the book. This is a great teaching point – how one word can have many different meanings, as well as a way into maths lessons about length and measure.

The book is full of bright and vibrant pictures to tell Evie’s story, except when Mr Long Dog is gone and the pictures become dark, reflecting Evie’s emotions.

A fun dog-themed story for pet lovers and language lovers alike!

We absolutely love Barry Falls’ rhyming and joyful picturebook, Tiny McToot. It tells the fun tale of Tiny McToot, a surprisingly small giant who demonstrates that even the littlest can make a big impact.

The story’s vibrant rhythm and engaging illustrations make it an entertaining read-aloud, sure to bring smiles to EYFS and KS1 classrooms.

This book also carries an empowering message. It champions the idea that size doesn’t determine strength or significance, making it a brilliant choice for boosting confidence among the youngest children in the school. Tiny McToot is simply a really fun and uplifting story that children will want to revisit again and again.

‘Mama Car’ is a beautifully illustrated and wonderfully written story. This story is perfect for children of all ages and helps represent families with members with disabilities. The story follows the Mama Car, detailing the fun had around the house and the park. This book would be perfect to read in KS1 or KS2 to help children see wheelchair users positively represented in a story. It was great to see a ‘Dear Adults,’ message at the back and get to hear from Lucy, the author, who puts it brilliantly about how wheelchairs can provoke strong feelings, not all of them positive and how important it is for children to see how the child in the story plays with the wheelchair, is comforted and is so used to being around it they call it Mama Car.

This is such a fun story that will have children letting their imagination fly and remembering to punctuate their sentences correctly!

Frank is a full stop who never exclaims or questions and likes sentences and stories to come to a succinct end. So when a dragon appears and refuses to let the story end, Frank is not pleased and decides to leave. Cue chaos, carnage, food fights, fire and lots of exclamation marks and ellipsis! When Frank saves the day and swiftly ends the story, Dee the Dragon definitely learns the importance of a full stop, but Frank also learns that sometimes it can be fun to let creativity and imagination loose too.

This book is such a great concept and shows punctuation in such a fun way.

Meet the Mubbles is a bright, funny graphic novel by Tom Gates creator Liz Pichon, and is perfect for younger readers.

It tells the story of the Mubbles, who are quirky creatures living in their own land. From colourful creatures to strange sounds and silly behaviour, this book is packed with surprises and giggles.

What makes this story extra fun is its format. As a graphic novel, it uses colourful illustrations, speech bubbles, and playful fonts to help tell the story. The pictures are bold and full of energy, making it a great comic-style choice for children who enjoy visual storytelling or are just getting into reading longer books.

Liz Pichon’s trademark humour shines through on every page, with silly jokes, quirky characters, and a fast-paced plot that keeps readers engaged. There is also a Youtube channel for readers to find additional Mubbles-themed content, including songs and crafts.

Meet the Mubbles is a fantastic, easy-to-read book that encourages creativity and imagination. Its humour and colourful style make it especially appealing to children who love to laugh and explore fun, silly stories.

‘The Super Skeleton’ is an engaging and accessible non-fiction book that’s perfect for younger children learning about the human body. While many books on the subject are often aimed at older readers, this book presents the fascinating world of skeletons in a way that’s simple, fun, and easy to understand for primary school children.

The book is a fantastic resource for the human body topic, offering clear, colourful pictures and diagrams that bring the skeleton to life. The simple yet effective text introduces key scientific vocabulary, helping young learners build their knowledge in an approachable way. Brief definitions of important terms on some pages further enhance the learning experience, making this a great resource for reinforcing core concepts.

Overall, ‘The Super Skeleton’ is a wonderful, child-friendly introduction to the world of bones and bodies, making it an ideal choice for teachers and parents looking to introduce children to science in a fun and informative way.

Anna Llenas’s The Colour Monster is a popular picture book that helps young children understand and sort their emotions. When the Colour Monster feels mixed-up, a little girl guides him to associate feelings with different colours.

This book has become a firm classroom favourite for emotional literacy and there is also a downloadable resource pack available to use with the book. The fun character concept, vibrant illustrations and clear narrative make it an invaluable tool for discussing feelings and an enjoyable story in its own right.

Highly recommended!

Hank the Goose is a character with whom many of us will be familiar; he can upset others and struggles to deal with his impulsivity. Finding himself lonely, we see him try to manage his big emotions and start afresh, but that isn’t always easy for our goose. Thanks to the kindness and tolerance of others, Hank learns to reflect on his behaviour and make positive changes.

This book carefully delivers powerful messages to its readers in a fun and amusing way. Children will laugh out loud with Hank while learning about tolerance and respect for others, building those core values, as well as the importance of being kind.

With wonderful illustrations and a story that interweaves simplicity with adventurous language, you cannot help but love Hank – flaws and all!

This simple story, of a favourite dish first eaten in India and later recreated to perfection by Monica’s father, is as much a delight to the eye as butter chicken is to all those who share it (Cousin Anya, Uncle Jai, Grandma, Jiya and Hadi, and the neighbours too). And it’s not sickly sweet: Anya struggles, as would many, young or old, with the prospect of sharing: she wanted to keep what was so special between her and Papa. But it becomes clear to her and us that “beautiful things do happen when you share food like this.”

Hospitality doesn’t diminish the experience; it enhances it, like spices in a pan. Each guest adds a new flavour to the mix; each has something to bring to the occasion.

A heartwarming and celebratory tale which could well prompt other children to delve into their own family’s culinary and/or cultural history. There could well be some lively discussion around food and family life as a result.

Although aimed at younger children, this book would be a perfect way to introduce the basics of Rocks and Soils, also with references food chains, mini beasts, different biomes and microbes!

Jam-packed full of knowledge and bright and colourful illustrations, this book is a perfect read for those wanting to know more about what is underground beneath our feet. It would be great to read aloud to challenge and extend fact-hungry children.

The book is written with the younger reader in mind, but doesn’t shy away from using scientific vocabulary, with key words and information in bold font so they stand out to the reader. I can see lots of opportunities for reading across the curriculum, as well as learning opportunities that could be inspired by this captivating text.

Picopaco is a sweet picturebook about a woodpecker who, instead of making o-shaped tree holes to nest in like her peers, builds a unique and quirky house of her own design, even though she is laughed at by the other birds. When a storm destroys most of the nests, Picopaco’s wisdom is required to help rebuild what has been lost.

Illustrated in spring-like tones that sing of new beginnings, this story beautifully champions the power of community, subtly highlighting how working together builds a stronger world.

A great choice for nature lovers and gentle storytimes with young children.

This is a delightful book – both the story and the illustrations are joyous. While the story is a simple one, it gives a powerful message of kindness and acceptance.

Mr Norton, the book’s main character, is endlessly patient as each part of his person and home is taken over by a variety of animals. The language is gentle and engaging, with the use of alliterative descriptions of the animals that find their way into Mr Norton’s clothing, bike and home. The cumulative storytelling will encourage children to join in, with each page adding a new creature to the list of creatures that inhabit Mr Norton’s life. The story would welcome children’s predictions of what might next appear and where it might decide to take up residence!

Corey Egbert’s illustrations capture so well the emotions of Mr Norton and the many animals and birds in the story – I particularly liked the ‘selection of stoats in his satchel’! Each page is used differently by the illustrator, either filling the page with detail or using the white spaces around the images to emphasise the clear drawings with muted and subtle colours. It is a super addition to any bookshelf.

A delightful picturebook with a lovely surprise for young readers to enjoy at story time.

With homage to the Odyssey, this is about how Rabbit puts a raincloud in his bag so that his day out fishing can be filled with only sunshine. But when Duck comes along and scolds that rain is necessary, Rabbit is somewhat downcast. Until Duck shows him the magic of the rainbow, and also…puddles!

This delightful picture book not only contains a pop-up rainbow, but also delights in the focus on the action – the backgrounds are white or simply that – background, whereas the action lies in reading the expressions of the characters and the actions they take. Simple and effective, this explores big emotions, how actions have consequences for others, and has excellent use of onomatopoeia throughout.

Readers of Nicola O’Byrne’s works may be familiar with the Rabbit, and will now see him in an outside landscape, while new readers will be won over by details such as the grumpy frog. An excellent early exploration of empathy, weather and the joy of the outdoors.

We love this primary picturebook about a tiny spark discovering its place. As Little Glow observes various festivals and celebrations, it witnesses diverse traditions and finds itself able to join in radiating light and community joy.

This book offers wonderful classroom opportunities for exploring community festivals and celebrations, especially celebrations of light. The warm narrative and luminous illustrations lean into different traditions positively and encourage discussions about community and belonging.

Mikey the Dinosaur absolutely does not want to share his donuts, but they keep going missing and he cannot work out where they’re disappearing to. He suspects and then challenges the reader –  Did you steal them? Can you turn the page without touching the donuts? Or the crumbs? Or the frosting? Whose shadow is that in the background, anyway?

Poor old Mikey goes through all the emotions until he finally figures out all his friends have been sneaking the donuts…it wasn’t you after all! So you can share his last donut (and another plateful, if you’re lucky!).

Donut Touch is a delightful read-aloud suitable for EYFS and KS1 classes, and would be brilliant shared between parent and child. Lots to giggle at with the opportunity to make silly faces and voices; but with a nice message about not jumping to conclusions and how nice it is to share. Highly recommended. Cheerfully illustrated without being garish, I think this will be a firm favourite for story times.