Recommended children's booklists sorted by age or topic

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Starting School Booklist

Best Children’s Books about Starting School

On this booklist, we have picked a selection of recommended books to read to children starting school for the first time. It’s normal for young children to feel all sorts of emotions about starting in Reception, from excitement and anxiety to apparent indifference – and picturebooks can be a great way to open up conversations about those feelings. Our starting school booklist features some of the best children’s books about starting school. The stories we have selected for this starting school booklist can introduce new situations in a fun and familiar way, helping children feel more confident and prepared.

If you are looking for picturebook stories to reassure young children preparing to start school for the first time, you’ll find characters to relate to in Lulu’s First Day and Ollie’s Back to School Bear. For books about classroom life and school routines, try All Are Welcome or Janet and Alan Ahlberg’s classic book Starting School. If you’d prefer a humorous or whimsical take on getting ready for the first days of Reception, try Simon Philip’s worry-busting I Have to Start at School Today or When a Dragon Goes to School.

At BooksforTopics, we’ve carefully curated a list of books to help your child feel prepared and reassured about starting school. These stories explore everything from making new friends, getting used to new teachers and learning new things. With this booklist, you can find the best-recommended stories to make the transition to school a smooth one.

Y6 Transition

Year 6 Transition Booklist

All year round, Year 6 pupils across the country are thinking about the big move to their next school. On this booklist, we have picked a selection of recommended books for children in Year 6 preparing for the transition to secondary school, high school or college. The books cover topics of transition, friendship groups, adjusting to change and dealing with the big emotions associated with settling into a new school. Special thanks to @TheBookWhisper2 for helping us to collate this Y6-7 transition booklist.

Bereavement, Grief & Loss

Best Children’s Books About Bereavement, Grief & Loss

This list includes children’s books that explore the topic of bereavement, with an emphasis on stories that support children and families to talk and think about the loss of a loved one.

Books can help children to empathise with others, explore big emotions and gently open conversations about difficult experiences including the death of a parent, relative, teacher or friend. The stories on this list have been specially selected by the experts at BooksForTopics to cover the topics of grief and loss as well as stories about finding ways to remember beloved friends or relatives after they die. These topics are not always easy to discuss with children, but the stories selected on this list are included because they can provide a suitable stimulus for exploring experiences of bereavement and loss.

From animal tales like Badger’s Parting Gifts and The Memory Tree to stories about the loss of a parent or grandparent like Storm in a Jar and Dadaji’s Paintbrush, these stories are here to help explore experiences of grief for children.

Politics & Democracy

Politics and Democracy Booklist

Discussions about politics and general elections can be confusing for children (and adults!) at the best of times. To help, we’ve put together a list of the best children’s books about politics, including both fiction and non-fiction books that explore themes of parliament, elections, democracy and political systems.

Refugees & Immigration Books KS1

Recommended Children’s Books about Refugees and Immigration

We’ve put together a list of recommended books about refugees for primary school-aged children. The children’s books on this list can help to explore the refugee experience and the topic of immigration in an age-appropriate way.

NB: This recommended booklist is aimed at children ages 4-7 (KS1). If you are looking for older children’s books for this topic, we have a separate KS2 refugee booklist here.

Refugees & Immigration KS2

Refugees and Immigration Booklist (KS2)

We’ve put together a list of recommended texts for primary school aged children on the topic of refugees and immigration. For this community booklist, we asked our community of primary teachers, TAs, children’s authors, librarians and book lovers to nominate their top recommended texts that explore the topic of immigration and the refugee experience.
NB: This booklist is aimed at KS2 (ages 7-11). If you are looking for KS1 books for this topic, we have a separate booklist here.

Growth Mindset

Best Children’s Books About Growth Mindset

The term ‘growth mindset’ has seen a recent trend in education, but the principles behind it are ones that many parents and teachers have tried to cultivate in children for years. We’ve put together a list of recommended books to promote a growth mindset among primary school children.

Teaching children to embrace new challenges, learn positively from mistakes, persevere with difficult tasks and develop resilience in learning are all key parts of having a growth mindset. From stories about never giving up like Tilda Tries Again and Yes You Can, Cow! to books about embracing mistakes as opportunities like Beautiful Oops! and Rosie Revere, Engineer, this booklist features some of the best children’s books for promoting a growth mindset in young learners.

Anti-Bullying Books

Best children’s books with a theme of anti-bullying

On this booklist we have picked a selection of recommended books for primary schools to explore the topic of bullying, including picturebooks, longer texts and non-fiction.

Our list of best children’s books about bullying can be used for Anti-Bullying Week or for PSHE work all year round. Many thanks to primary school librarian Kate Spurrier for working together with us to create this booklist.

Whether you are looking for short picturebooks to discuss anti-buylling like Troll Stinks! or Buster the Bully or longer chapter books about bullying like All the Things that Could Go Wrong or How to Be More Hedgehog, this list of anti-bullying books is here to help.

Emotional Literacy & ELSA Booklist

Best Children’s Books about Emotional Literacy

From mental health first aid to specialist work with Emotional Literacy Support Assistants (ELSA) there’s no doubt that stories can be a key tool in helping children to develop emotional literacy.

Chosen especially for their value in dealing with mental health issues, feelings and emotions, the books on this list can be used with pupils to start conversations that enable children to begin to make sense of their own feelings and understand ways to manage and deal with their emotions.

From books about managing anger like When I See Red to stories about sadness and anxiety like A Shelter for Sadness and The Worry Jar, many of the books on this list explore different ways of recognising and responding to big feelings. We’ve also included stories about identifying different emotions, like The Colour Monster, and books about the importance of friendship and connection like The Hugasaurus.

With thanks to specially trained ELSA Sue Mills at Garway Primary School for helping us to compile this list and for commenting on using these books with her school community. Schools looking to buy full packs of the books featured on this ELSA booklist can purchase whole sets via Peters.

Books About Maths

Maths Picturebooks List

Picturebooks can provide an excellent way of engaging pupils with maths. On this booklist, we have picked a selection of the best maths-themed stories that open opportunities to explore a range of mathematical concepts. Many thanks to Year 1 teacher Dean Boddington for working together with us to create this selection of the best children’s books about maths topics.

The books on the maths booklist cover topics of counting, number concepts, shape, space, measure and problem solving.

This varied booklist includes showstoppers like How Many Jelly Beans?, stories about doubling like Centipede’s 100 Shoes or Double the Fun and stories with big number concepts like How Big is a Million?

We’ve also included stories about counting, like the beautifully illustrated Counting Creatures, shape and measure stories like The Perfect Fit and How Much Does a Ladybird Weigh?, and problem-solving favourites like 365 Penguins.