Kings and Queens Topic Booklist

This picturebook featuring a familiar favourite bear captures the experience of visiting Buckingham Palace as a tourist, watching the Changing of the Guard and seeking to get a glimpse of the Queen at her home.

A miniature guide to the life and legacy of Queen Victoria, complete with colour illustrations and photographs.

This book covers the various stages of Victoria’s life and reign as well as additional details about everyday life during the Victorian reign.

Recommended for ages 7-11.

This is a beautifully illustrated book, as you would expect from Lydia Monks. Unlike so many other books out there about the wives of Henry VIII, this one features the skills and accomplishments of each of the wives, so they are not simply remembered by the old rhyme of ‘divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived.’

Each wife is given around 10 dedicated pages to their story. Explaining clearly how they came to marry the King, the things they achieved while married to him (and after for the survivors), with a mixture of small, appealing fact boxes and more detailed paragraphs about different aspects of their life and marriage.

This is an easy Tudor-themed read which could be devoured in one sitting or revisited time and again.

An apt royalty-themed book for this special coronation year!

Julia Golding’s history of royal animals is a fascinating and educational collection of true stories of animals associated with British royalty since 1066. Julia Golding is an award-winning author whose past work is often historical, and this book continues this theme.

At the beginning of the book, the Royal family timeline is a helpful reference and sets some context for the following stories. This book is full of wonderful facts and amazing true stories, most of which are quite a surprise – like learning that there were giraffes in Windsor Great Park and that royals were given elephants and thought they should be given wine to drink!

It is such a fascinating alternative history of our nation with insights into royal life that look beyond the obvious facts and biographies. Each story is set within one double page, which the talented Emily Sutton beautifully illustrates. Each page is rich in colour and patterns and is a joy to look over in detail. The very final picture was particularly heartwarming, a lovely image of our recently passed Queen riding one of her beloved horses through the woods. This tender image is particularly poignant after she passed away not long before this publication.

A thoroughly enjoyable book of short stories children will enjoy very much and that will help young readers to find relatable links to royal life through stories of the creatures they love.