Recommended children's booklists sorted by age or topic

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The Diverse Book Awards

Now in their sixth year, the Diverse Book Awards awards were created by award-winning author Abiola Bello and award-winning publicist Helen Lewis, to highlight the best of the diverse voices published in the UK and Ireland.

We are very excited to share the shortlist for these awards, showcasing the best of the UK and Ireland’s diverse children’s books, and featuring several of our own favourite authors, illustrators and titles.

BooksForTopics favourites among the Picture Books shortlist include a heartwarming journey of learning to love your hair in Me and My Hair, and a mischievous mystery in Priya Mistry and the Paw Prints Puzzle, both of which feature in our Year Group Recommended Reads. The winning title is Maryam Hassan’s debut, Until You Find the Sun.

The Children’s Books category highlights a number of our favourites, including an inter-generational tale of football and friendship in Bobby Bains Plays a Blinder, which is one of our Year 5 Recommended Reads. Also shortlisted are two of our Books of the Year picks: Ramzee’s hilarious and highly illustrated story of friendship and life hacks, The Cheat Book, and Tom Percival’s empathy-building exploration of child poverty, The Wrong Shoes. Category winner Birdie was is a coming-of-age novel set in post-war Britain, described by our Review Panel as “moving and unforgettable”.

The shortlist for the YA Books category includes some exciting titles and authors. BooksForTopics favourite Elle McNicol is featured with YA romance Some Like it Cold, alongside Nathanael Lessore’s award-winning tale of an unlikely friendship, King of Nothing. The winner in this category is Ashley Hickson-Lovence’s verse novel, Wild East.

Check out the full shortlist for the 2025 Diverse Book Awards below!

Light and Sound Topic (KS2)

Recommended children’s books about light and sound

Explore the world of light and sound with this exciting collection of children’s titles which explore how we see and hear the world around us.

Our booklist is designed to help children in KS2 learn about the Science topics of light and sound, and features books packed with colour like Can You Get Rainbows in Space? alongside titles that explore hearing loss, like Can You Feel the Noise and Listen: How Evelyn Glennie, a Deaf Girl, Changed Percussion. Investigating light and sound from many perspectives, this booklist will bring the KS2 Light and Sound topic vibrantly to life!

NB: This booklist is aimed at children in Key Stage 2. For books for younger children, try our Light and Dark KS1/EYFS Booklist.

Kings and Queens Topic Booklist

Best Books for the Kings & Queens Topic

From picturebooks about The King’s Pants to comprehensive fact books like Kings and Queens: Alfred the Great to King Charles III and Everyone In-Between!, we’ve picked out some of our favourite texts suitable for primary school children to help explore the Kings and Queens topic.

Enterprise Topic

Best Children’s Books about Enterprise, Business and Money

Browse our booklist of recommended children’s books about Enterprise.

From stories about bright young entrepreneurs like in Felix Unlimited or Beauty and the Bin to information books about the world of business or finance like Why Money Matters, our booklist aims to feature recommended children’s books about enterprise, business and money.

Richly illustrated fact books introduce key concepts and terms in an engaging and accessible way, while relatable stories of enterprise and biographies of real-life business figures really bring the Enterprise topic to life.

Why not get to business and dive right in? You never know, it might spark an idea for your next big venture!

Light and Dark Topic

Recommended children’s books about light and dark

Explore the world of light and dark with this exciting collection of children’s titles about the people and creatures who wake up when you go to sleep.

Our booklist is designed to help children in KS1 and EYFS learn about the Science topics of light and dark, from recommended books that provide insights into the world of nocturnal animals like Owl Babies or Amara and the Bats, to stories about the getting to grips with the dark like The King Who Banned the Dark or The Rabbit, The Dark and the Biscuit Tin (look out for the fold-out page with guaranteed wow-factor!).With rich illustrations, fascinating facts and thrilling adventures, this booklist will help children to look at the world differently – but they may need a torch!

NB: This booklist is aimed at children aged 4-7. For books for older children, try our Light and Sound KS2 Booklist.

Food & Digestion Topic (KS2)

Recommended children’s books about food

Our KS2 Food & Digestion topic booklist features a rich variety of specially selected children’s books about food, cooking and digestion.

In Key Stage 2 Science, children learn about the topics of nutrition, the digestive system, teeth and the impact of diet. Our booklist is designed to feature the best children’s books about food and digestion for children in KS2, from stories showcasing delicious world foods like Faruq and the Wiri Wiri and World of Food, to books that give children a microscopic look inside the human digestive system like Gut Garden. With rich illustrations and intriguing facts, these titles will bring the Food & Digestion topic to life – but be prepared for some “yuck” moments as well as the “yum” ones!

We also have a separate booklist about Healthy Human Bodies.

This list is aimed at children aged 7 to 11. For books about food for younger children, try our Food Glorious Food Topic booklist.

Food Glorious Food Topic (KS1/EYFS)

Recommended children’s books about food

Immerse yourself in the delicious topic of Food Glorious Food!

This collection of books about food combines rich illustrations and fascinating facts with an array of world cuisine to bring the EYFS Food Glorious Food topic to life. From a curry-loving penguin to a giant jam sandwich, this list of children’s books about food features farm-to-fork fact books alongside a love letter to chocolate cake. So what are you waiting for? Dig in!

This topic booklist is aimed at children aged 3-7. For books about food and digestion for older children, try our Food & Digestion Topic (KS2) booklist.

Diwali Booklist

Best children’s books about Diwali

The Hindu festival of lights is an engaging and colourful topic, which you can bring to life with this hand-picked selection of Diwali stories for children. This list of the best books about Diwali for primary school children features richly-illustrated picturebooks alongside fact-packed non-fiction and activity books.

If you are looking for story books about Diwali showing children enjoying the festivities, try Binny’s Diwali or The Best Diwali Ever, in which young Ariana makes plans to for extra special Diwali celebrations, with yummy sweets, divas around the house, pretty clothes, fireworks and a rangoli competition. We also recommend Christopher Corr’s excellent picturebook retelling of the story of Rama and Sita. For information books for children about Diwali, try Ladybird’s lift-the-flap First Festivals: Diwali or the photo-based information book Celebrate With Me: Diwali.

Add sparkle to your Diwali topic with our list of recommended children’s books about Diwali….

Reading is Magic Festival Books

2023 Reading is Magic Festival: Monday 2nd – Friday 6th October

Back for its fourth year, the Reading is Magic Festival brings a unique programme of free, digital events directly into classrooms around the world. This exciting, inclusive collaboration brings together Europe’s largest dedicated children’s literature festival – Bath Children’s Literature Festival – with literary festivals from around the world.

Here at BooksForTopics, we are delighted to be an official ambassador for the 2023 Reading is Magic Festival, which will present a world-class line-up of best-selling writers – including several who have appeared in our Year Group Recommended Reads lists, like Laura Ellen Anderson, BB Alston, Helen Rutter and Cressida Cowell – whose Children’s Laureate Charter was the inspiration for the Reading is Magic Festival.

Many of our favourite authors, poets and illustrators will be among those featured this year, and this booklist highlights some of their key titles.

The Week Junior Book Awards Shortlist

The range of categories represented in The Week Junior Book Awards is impressive, covering everything from STEM to Wellbeing and Audiobooks to Graphic Novels, alongside Older and Younger Fiction, Book Cover of the Year, and the Breakthrough Book award which celebrates debut titles.

Many of our favourite titles and authors appear in this year’s incredibly varied shortlist, with titles from our 2025 Year Group Recommended Reads, Books of the Year and Books of the Month featuring in most of the award categories, including The Boy to Beat the Gods (Breakthrough), There is a Season (Animals and Nature), Turtle Moon (Older Fiction), Betty Steady (Younger Fiction), Blitz (Graphic Novel), Blue Monster (Picture Book), Out of this World (Poetry) and Scientists in the Wild: Antarctica (STEM).

Congratulations to the 2025 winners: