Recommended children's booklists sorted by age or topic

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KS3 PE & Sport

Recommended Books to Support PE & Sport at KS3

If you are looking for recommended books to support PE & Sport at KS3, this BooksForTopics expertly curated reading list is here to help!

This booklist features a range of themes and formats, including how-to-play books like Sports Academy: Netball, real-life stories like Becoming Muhammad Ali, and books that use sports to inspire all young people, like You Are a Champion and You Have the Power.

There’s also a great choice of chapter books exploring a range of themes through sport, including refugees in Home Ground, family relationships in Tall Story, racial discrimination in Black Brother, Black Brother and growing up in Booked.

From real-life sporting stories to fast-paced on-the-track fiction, this sports booklist has something to offer all KS3 readers.

Mythology Books for Children

Recommended Mythology Books for Children

This hand-picked list of the best children’s mythology books features everything from information books and collections of age-old legends, to contemporary chapter books and graphic novels inspired by the rich mythology of ancient civilisations.

This booklist includes anthologies featuring myths from a range of civilisations, such as South Asian Folktales, Myths and Legends, Celtic Myths, Legends of Norse Mythology, Viking myths in The Dragon’s Hoard, myths and legends of Britain in Storyland, Egyptian Myths and Greek mythology in She Speaks.

Mythology-inspired graphic novels such as Marcy and the Riddle of the Sphinx, Arthur and the Golden Rope and Luna and the Treasure of Tlaloc feature themes of adventure and heroism, along with chapter books like Adventures of Odysseus, How to be a Hero and Cameron Battle and the Hidden Kingdoms.

For historical heroes, mythical monsters and richly illustrated retellings, look no further than our list of the best mythology books for children!

KS3 Science Reading List

Recommended Books to Support Science at KS3

If you are looking for recommended books to support secondary Science in Years 7, 8 and 9, this BooksForTopics expertly curated reading list is here to help!

This booklist features a range of themes and formats, including inspiring true-life stories like Women in Science and Reaching for the Moon, and quirkily illustrated non-fiction like The Element in the Room and The Observologist.

There’s also a great choice of chapter books exploring a range of scientific themes, including sci-fi titles like Orion Lost, real-life inspired stories like Lightning Mary, fast-paced adventures like 21% Monster and thought-provoking, topical reads like Pig Heart Boy.

From atomic adventures to real-life experiments, this booklist has something to offer every budding KS3 scientist.

KS3 Geography Reading List

Recommended Books to Support Geography at KS3

If you are looking for recommended books to support Geography in Years 7, 8 and 9, this BooksForTopics expertly curated reading list is here to help!

This geography booklist for 11-14 year olds features a range of themes and formats, including map books like UK in Maps, books about our planet and its future like Bright New World and true-life stories like Great Adventurers.

There’s also a great choice of chapter books exploring a range of geographical themes, including natural disasters in Tsunami Girl and Floodland, migration in Boy 87 and Welcome to Nowhere, and journeys in The Girl of Ink & Stars and Mexikid.

With something for all budding geographers, the titles on this booklist will open up the world of Key Stage 3 Geography.

KS3 History Reading List

Recommended Books to Support History at KS3

If you are looking for recommended books to support secondary History in Years 7, 8 and 9, this BooksForTopics expertly curated booklist is here to help!

This Key Stage 3 history reading list features a huge range of themes and formats, including well-known true-life stories like The Diary of a Young Girl, fiction that crosses historical time zones like The Buried Crown, and discussion-starting non-fiction gems like Normal Women.

Among the featured titles, there’s poetry in Poems from the Second World War, mythology in Norse Myths, and a picture book account of a real-life escape from an Auschwitz convoy in One Day. The non-fiction picks include the visually stunning Medicine and an illustrated edition of Peter Frankopan’s The Silk Roads, which offers a truly original history of the world. There’s also a host of exciting historical fiction, including the Elizabethan-era adventure Cue for Treason, Benjamin Zephaniah’s powerful real-life inspired Windrush Child, and Jasbinder Bilan’s gripping Victorian mystery, Nush and the Stolen Emerald.

With something for all budding historians, the titles on this booklist will bring topics from across KS3 history to life.

Cricket

Recommended Children’s Books About Cricket

Get bowled over by a good book with this children’s booklist about cricket!

From life stories of cricketers like Ben Stokes and Virat Kohli to fact books about learning to play the game, there’s plenty to explore in our collection of children’s books about cricket!

Alongside biographies and non-fiction titles, there are also chapter books about cricket, such as the story of Maya and her cricket coach mum in Going to Bat, and the award-winning Indian adventure, Ajay and the Mumbai Sun.

These and the other titles on our list of brilliant cricket books for children are sure to inspire a generation to step up to the crease!

Bikes and Cycling

Recommended Children’s Books About Bikes and Cycling

Whizz through this children’s booklist about bikes and cycling – but don’t forget your helmet!

From inspiring life stories of cyclists like Chris Froome and Bradley Wiggins, to fact books that teach children all about bike design and maintenance, there’s plenty to explore in our collection of children’s books about bikes and cycling!

This isn’t just a non-fiction list – for younger readers, reassuring picturebooks such as The Wobblysaurus and I Love My Bike will help to build confidence in aspiring cyclists, while for older children, there’s adventure aplenty in chapter books like The Boy Who Biked the World and Hero on a Bicycle.

These and the other titles on our list of brilliant biking books for children are sure to get them pushing those pedals!

Swimming and Diving

Recommended Children’s Books About Swimming and Diving

Dive into a good book with this children’s booklist about swimming!

From life stories of Olympians like Tom Daley to fact books that support children to learn to swim themselves, there’s plenty to explore in our collection of children’s books about swimming and diving!

For younger readers, Animal Swim School is a fact-packed picturebook that brings essential swimming skills to life with the help of some favourite animals. Fans of graphic novels will love the hilarious adventures of wannabe synchronised swimmers Team Pom in Squid Happens, while for older readers, Fig Swims the World is a quirky chapter book story about a non-swimmer who sets out to swim around the world.

These and the other titles on our list of brilliant swimming and diving books for children are sure to make a splash in classrooms and at home!

Tennis

Recommended Children’s Books About Tennis

From life stories of tennis players old (like Billie Jean King) and new (like Emma Raducanu) to books that explain the rules of the game, there’s plenty to explore in our collection of books about this fast-paced sport that’s synonymous with summer!

For young readers, this booklist covers tennis-themed children’s books from the Early Years – such as Busy Tennis – to first chapter books like Lottie The Little Wonder. Showcasing the best books for children about tennis, this list also features recommended chapter books for older primary readers, like Knowing the Score and Tennis Term at Trebizon.

These brilliant tennis books for children are sure to serve up excitement and inspire young tennis fans to love reading as much as they love racquets!

Indie (Books are My Bag) Book Awards

Curated entirely by independent bookshops, The Indie Book Awards showcase the best paperbacks to read over the summer. The awards include two categories for children’s books: Picture Book and Children’s Fiction, and here at BooksForTopics we were delighted to see so many of our favourite titles and authors among the shortlisted titles for both categories.

Duncan Beedie and Maudie Powell-Tuck, whose hilarious Hank Goes Honk was one of our 2024 Books of the Year, feature in the Picture Book shortlist with an equally anarchic follow-up, Hank Meets Frank. Category winner Fox and the Mystery Letter is a witty and whimsical mystery by Alex G Griffiths.

The Children’s Fiction shortlist includes two previous BooksForTopics Books of the Month: the chaotic, history-inspired graphic novel Tiny Hercules, and category winner Finn’s Epic Fails, Phil Earle’s hilarious year 7 transition story.

For more information about the Indie Book Awards click here, or check out the full shortlist below!