Designed to appeal to children with a love of gaming, Ant Clancy: Games Detective is a fast-paced adventure story that could be enjoyed by any reader who likes an action-packed mystery story. Ant is the only person in Westford Abbey who can’t get into playing Ray-Chay, the new virtual reality game that everyone else is obsessed with. Soon something goes very wrong with the game, which somehow spills over into real life, and Ant is the person who will get to the bottom of what’s happening and try to put things right. As the story unfolds, the line between the gaming world and reality is blurred even further in the race to uncover the truth.

Georgie Santos loves dogs more than anything in the world. Soon, Georgie is no longer allowed to see her beloved pet Mr Mash after he becomes sick with a deadly and highly contagious disease that threatens the life of every dog in the country. The only thing distracting Georgie from the pain of not being able to see Mr Mash is her new friendship with Dr Pretorius, an eccentric old scientist who is developing a curious virtual reality project inside a domed room. As time goes on and the deadly disease becomes even more serious, Georgie begins to wonder whether Dr Pretorius might hold the key to changing the future and, together with her beloved Mr Mash, embarks on a hair-raising virtual adventure to save the world.

This Top Gear spin-off is a fast-paced action story featuring cars, computer games, an evil billionaire, racing tournaments and of course, The Stig. The appeal will be obvious to some readers, but even readers with no experience of Top Gear can quickly become absorbed in this page-turning adventure full of twists and turns.

Sam Wheeler is new to his town, and nobody else seems to notice the strange goings-on there because adults and children alike are addicted to a mysterious new computer game called Xenon. Together with his new friends Mini Cooper and Ford Harrison, Sam begins to investigate the strange happenings and save his town from disaster.

Press Start! is a series of books aimed at readers who are ready for their first chapter books or those who feel overwhelmed by longer chapter books.

‘Game On, Super Rabbit Boy’ is set in the game of Super Rabbit Boy Land, a platform game that is activated when the boy in the story presses start. For this book, Super Rabbit Boy has to save Singing Dog who has been captured by the game’s main enemy, King Viking. Once he starts the rescue, he is faced with the challenge of successfully completing six levels of increasing difficulty with only limited lives. As the game progresses, failure occurs and Super Rabbit Boy has to learn from his errors as he restarts a level. He has to remember what he has learned, apply his new knowledge, overcome his fears and go for the win. Not only must Super Rabbit Boy not give up, but nor should the boy who is playing the game – the theme of resilience and perseverance is very strong and would suit classroom conversations about not giving up.

Children who love gaming would very likely be attracted to the book – it reflects the visual style of Minecraft of Roblox, but it will appeal to a wide audience because of the level of detail, bright colours and range of illustrations page after page. The speech bubbles, relatively simple sentences, repetition and short paragraphs will make this work well as an independent reader for the more confident, as well as a shared reader.

Agent Asha is a clever and engaging story that weaves computing knowledge – such as how the internet works and if/then logic – into the story. Asha is from an Indian family in Brent and her family are delighted when she visits the library – supposedly to study. Little do they know that she is actually getting involved in a secret spy mission! She triumphs in this secret mission with wit, intelligence and a little dash of disobedience.

​Part of the ‘Computers and Coding’ non-fiction series designed for ages 5-9, this visually appealing information text looks at the difference between computer languages including Scratch, HTML and Python. You may also like the other books in this recommended series too, such as How Computers Work, Staying Safe Online and What is Coding?.

Suitable for Upper KS2/Lower KS3, this is a verse novel about an American girl called Emmy who tries to figure out the ups and downs of life while balancing her two separate passions; coding and music. As the book progresses, Emmy’s two worlds begin to interweave, showing how notes, beats and rhythms overlap with code, language and algorithms.

A laugh-out-loud chapter book that will appeal to anyone who has ever wished they could upgrade their sibling for a better model. Johnny is fed up of being picked on by older brother Ted, so when he stumbles across a website called SiblingSwap.com, he turns to the internet to solve his problems. What follows is a hilarious series of not-quite-perfect alternative siblings. There is also an accompanying activity pack available to go with this book.

A laugh-a-minute story about overnight internet success. Ollie and Hector dream of being rock stars, but unfortunately they have very little musical talent. One day, as they are making their own music video in Ollie’s room, a twist of fate shoots them to overnight success online. Before they know it, they become the biggest stars in the world – even though it was actually Ollie’s pet cat Nigel who is responsible for their music going viral.

This is a great choice of book for exploring the topic of e-safety and cyberbullying with young children. Billy the Goat and his friend Cyril are playing with a phone when they decide to send mean messages to the troll living under the bridge. Soon the two friends discover that their online actions have had a big impact on troll’s feelings and that their messages were not such a fun idea after all. For more on online safety, you may also like Chicken Clicking and #Goldilocks by the same authors.

This book is full of intertwining facts and illustrations and is a dip-in book that will keep readers entertained for hours. The author summarises the long and complex history of computing, not starting with the obvious first machines of the twentieth century, but with ancient civilisations when maths and symbols were developed to enable people to calculate. Important inventions and influential people on the journey to modern computers are explained – the impact of WW2 and the race to develop technology, such as the radar or Turing’s code-breaking machine, brings us to computing in its more modern guise. The internet, social media, gaming, retailing and AI are all described and then predictions for the future are explored. The book is divided into clear chapters, each with timelines, inventions, people and computing stories but for those who are not sure of the basic terms and functions, the introduction covers that also. Overall, this will keep older children and adults busy while thinking, ‘I didn’t know that!’ or, ‘I remember that!’ as they flick through an extremely well-researched and appealing book.