The Himalayas are probably the most magical place on Earth. About 50 million years ago, a colossal clash between India and Asia resulted in the tallest landform on earth, with 14 peaks reaching over 8,000 meters above sea levels as it journeys through Nepal, India and Tibet.
This book helps you discover the towns that inhabit its rugged lands, its legends and colours in an extraordinary way and features information on the culture and spirituality that lies in this beautiful part of the world.
A highly illustrated fiction series about a determined young inventor, from award-winning author Vashti Hardy.
Join Harley, her robot dog Sprocket and best friend Cosmo for problem-solving adventures and mysteries in Inventia, a world where science rules and technology grows in the forest; and where exploding science projects, giant slugs and runaway robots are all part of a normal school day.
The Iron Forest near Harley’s home is unlike any other – plants and trees grow cogs and hinges and other mechanical parts – and all of Inventia depends on it. So when a strange fungus is discovered, there’s a race to find a solution. Without essential parts for inventions, the town is quickly falling apart…
But just who or what is behind the mysterious infestation? Harley decides it’s up to her to save the day – with chaotic results!
Perfect for fans of Amelia Fang and Isadora Moon, this is a rollicking adventure that celebrates STEM learning!
Heavily illustrated with lively, humourous illustrations by George Ermos.
Vashti Hardy is an award-winning author of children’s books. Her novel Wildspark won the Blue Peter Book Award for Best Story 2020, and Brightstorm was shortlisted for the Waterstone’s Children’s Book Prize.
Author of My Name is Sunshine Simpson and Sunshine Simpson Cooks Up a Storm
Stories of HeritageThe Sunshine Simpson series tells the fictional story of one young girl’s quest to find her voice, celebrating the Windrush legacy and exploring themes of identity, community, belonging and self-belief. It is a story that has been strongly influenced by my own upbringing.
I grew up in a home filled with rich Jamaican culture. My mum was a great cook, both my parents were expert entertainers. Music and stories and laughter and delicious food filled our family home. My parents used to sit in the front room of the house they lived in, for almost sixty years, and tell my siblings and me tales of life “back home” in Jamaica, and what it was like when they first travelled to England.
I will not say I took this for granted. I was just used to this way of life. We (my siblings and I) always used to say, “We need to write Mum and Dad’s stories down.” Truth is, I did not log their stories until well into my adult years. Yet, still, many of their adventures lived firmly in my heart.
One of the main aims of the Sunshine Simpson series is to celebrate and honour this special generation of people, who are now sadly passing from living memory, by celebrating their rich and colourful stories of the past.
The impact of the Windrush scandal gave me a new urgency to contemplate and complete the first Sunshine Simpson story, My Name is Sunshine Simpson. If nothing else, with my parents getting older, I wanted to draft a story that would always connect my children to them, even if the book was never published.
I set out for this to be a joyful story, not one of tough times and struggle; the books have an underlying message of positivity and optimism, even in the face of some sadness. Writing a fictional story of a Black British child, who shares a special relationship with her Jamaican-born grandfather, I felt was the best way for me to connect today’s children with yesterday’s past – and I knew I would be able to tell the story authentically.
There is so much to celebrate in the lives of the Windrush generation; they have given so much to the UK. My mum, for example, was an NHS nurse for thirty-five years. My dad was a carpenter, building homes and motorway networks we live in and use today. Having grown up in a nurturing environment, and directly being a child of Windrush parents, I wanted to offer a narrative that highlighted their efforts, their wisdom, their humour, their courage, and their dignity, to younger generations. My one sadness is that my parents did not get to hold the Sunshine Simpson books in their hands. They both died before the first book published. But after darkness, light must follow – and my hope is that their memory and legacy stays alive for new generations of children through reading these stories.
I also hope the books encourage children to celebrate and take pride in their own heritage, no matter what that might be – and even inspire them to write stories of their own grandparents, as a reminder of the past and bridge to the future.
I would have loved characters in books that reflected something close to my experience when I was growing up. Let us hope a new generation of children find themselves in characters that remind them of home – or characters that enable them to see the world from new and exciting perspectives.
My Name is Sunshine Simpson and Sunshine Simpson Cooks Up a Storm by G.M. Linton are both out now in paperback from Usborne.
We also have more children’s books about Black British History on our booklists to use during Black History Month and all year round.
Where next?
> Visit our Reading for Pleasure Hub
> Browse our Topic Booklists
> View our printable year group booklists.
> See our Books of the Month.
The ancient Egyptian myths are some of the oldest and most famous stories in the world. This striking new comic book collection will be the perfect introduction to the world of the ancient Egyptians – containing six tales full of mythical creatures, gods, pharaohs and adventure.
With striking illustrations by Núria Tamarit, this retelling of the Egyptian myths will delight readers of all ages.
A joyful exploration of family life, written by one of the most outstanding contemporary authors of our generation.
Jacki’s mama has a rare condition. She is slowly losing her hearing. Together, they are learning Sign Language so that they’ll always be able to tell each other everything. But as Mama’s world becomes quieter, Jacki’s remains full of sound, especially on Music Appreciation Fridays. How can Jacki enjoy listening to music when her mama can no longer hear it? A heartfelt story, inspired by the author’s childhood, about a young girl coming to terms with her mother’s hearing loss and finding new ways to experience the world, together.
A joyful celebration of food, family and the magic of cooking together.
It’s easy to feel lost in the flood of so many new children’s books available. Each month, our review panel reads scores of new books and we highlight five of our recently published favourites.
Check out our Review Panel’s top books for you to read in October 2023.
If you ask a group of adults what comes to mind when they think of poetry, they will be likely to draw on their own classroom experiences. Episodes of learning or reciting classic poems may come to mind. Some may quote Wordsworth’s Daffodils, recite a Shakespearean sonnet or recall a text from an old GCSE anthology. Some – the lucky few – will enjoy the chance to share the treasures of poetry they love with you, while others are likely to perform a playground rhyme or funny limerick. Many more, however, will not claim to find memories of school poetry in any way joyful.
Like it or not, people’s responses to poetry as adults have been shaped by school experiences that too often fail to tap into the diverse energy, wordplay, emotion and connection to the human experience that poetry is able to offer.
As busy schools, when we explore poetry with primary pupils it’s easy to overlook the potential of poetry to reach far beyond the English lesson or the planned one-day celebrations of National Poetry Day. Poetry has a way of sticking in the mind, as do memories of the experiences of encountering the poetry – along with feelings associated with those memories. Done well, the sparks of enjoyment and connection that children experience in primary poetry experiences can last for a lifetime. With a superb range of modern children’s poetry available to schools today, how should primary schools set about to ignite a love for poetry and bring the poetic experience to life for children?
Here are five tips for teachers looking to amplify the impact of poetry in their school and a few suggestions for poetry texts, many of which are included in our Primary Poetry Book Pack.
The freedom of poetry as a literary form invites language play in a way that lends itself brilliantly to creating humour. The double hit of a poem that describes something funny and one that sounds funny when read out loud often makes poetry a big winner for entertaining children.
A little while ago we consulted with teachers and school librarians about the most popular books in their libraries. We were aiming to find out the most enjoyed books for each year group as part of the research for our 50 Recommended Reads lists, and one response that came up again and again was Joshua Seigal’s funny poetry collections – which, teachers reported, flew off library shelves like hotcakes when readers in Key Stage 2 were around. Subsequently, Joshua won the 2020 Laugh Out Loud Book Awards with his collection I Bet I Can Make You Laugh, which was voted for entirely by children.
Seigal’s poems are categorised by his love of language and humorous insights into all aspects of life (including poems that offer some very useful advice for all situations, like Don’t Forget Your Trousers). Many of the poems are brilliant to read aloud – filled with a perfect concoction of onomatopoeia and alliteration that just make them funny to listen to. Others hold a visual appeal that makes them best for experiencing straight off the page (like super-alliterative shape poems or poems that fill the page with one big visual pun).
Give pupils time to explore funny poems by including them in your read-aloud anthologies and making sure that humorous collections like Joshua Seigal’s I Don’t Like Poetry and Roger Stevens’ I am a Jigsaw – both of which have been selected for our Primary Poetry Booklist – are available to browse as reading-for-pleasure choices. These poetry collections present the opportunity for pupils to explore silly poems, witty poems, wise advice and even a poem made up entirely of numbers – simply inviting children to enjoy poetry’s unique ability to be – like children – boundlessly playful, and to entertain through words and sounds.
Poetry can capture experiences, moments and abstract thoughts in a unique way. Reading poems that relate to family life, classroom escapades and the essence of childhood can be received by children as an invitation into the poetic experience. Similarly, introducing children to a diverse range of poets from various cultures and backgrounds gives a clear signal that poetry connects all different people, with no need for exclusions or barriers to entry.
One of the most popular collections from our Primary Poetry booklist is Overheard in a Towerblock by children’s laureate Joseph Coelho. Through the collection, the poet shares relatable real-life experiences – from simple everyday memories like the time he was given a special pair of trainers from his dad and the feeling of getting into trouble at school to life events like dealing with parental separation and receiving exam results. Children in Upper KS2 will find much to connect with here, with moments and memories expressed through rich language, rhythm and lyrical description in a range of different poetic formats.
As pupils are introduced to a diverse range of poems, give space to let them look for connections, discuss with peers, pose questions and explore parts of the poems that link to their own experiences. Some schools achieve this by displaying poems in shared areas for pupils, staff and parents to discover and discuss at their leisure.
Another way to invite children into the world of poetry is to make performance an essential part of their poetry experiences. Allow pupils to hear a wide range of poetry being performed. The Authors Aloud website lists poets who offer school visits, and there are also many videos available online of poets
performing their own work.
Michael Rosen’s video bank is a phenomenal resource and for me, watching Michael perform Chocolate Cake or No Breathing in Class will never, ever grow old. Karl Nova’s hip-hop style performances will also be a sure-fire hit with older children. Ask pupils to consider how each performance brings the poem alive, drawing out the way the rhythm of the voices and dialects adds a new dimension to the poem or how facial expression and body language accentuate the meaning of the words.
Pupils also need time to enjoy being the performers of poetry themselves. Give pupils space and freedom to be as creative as they wish as they bring the words off the page, and organise an audience to give the performance purpose. Anthologies that provide great perform-out-loud options for your class include Smile Out Loud and A Ticket to Kalamazoo! for younger pupils and Belonging Street for older children. Termly poetry performance assembles or ‘poetry slam’ events can be a successful way of encouraging the joy of performance poetry across the school.
Poetry can evoke powerful emotive responses and it can be wonderful to watch the reaction of pupils when you share poems on topics that children deeply care about. It is often difficult to put the strongest emotions into words, and poetry has an incredible power to communicate those just-out-of-reach thoughts and emotions that children have not yet found a way to vocalise.
Be The Change: Poems to Help You Save the World is an anthology from National Poetry Day Ambassadors Liz Brownlee, Matt Goodfellow and Roger Stevens, who come together to create a collection of positive poems about looking after the planet. The collection explores the theme of sustainability without the doom and gloom that can too easily dominate conversations about climate change – instead encouraging positive steps that make an impact on the world around us. For pupils who care deeply about climate change and want to find a way to make their feelings heard, why not try memorising some of the poems as a class and putting together campaign videos?
By leveraging the power of poetry to evoke a response to big topics, pupils are likely to make connections with the literary form and enjoy the opportunities it presents to give a voice to what really matters to them.
Build on the enthusiasm sparked by your National Poetry Day activities by aiming to create a poetry-friendly school all year round. This means cultivating an ethos where sharing poetry is an everyday occurrence in classrooms and intentionally giving opportunities for children to hear, see and share a range of poems in informal ways. Keeping an anthology on teachers’ desks makes it easy to pick up a relevant poem when they have a spare minute at the end of a session or just after lunch. We recommend anthologies like I Am the Seed That Grew the Tree: A Nature Poem for Every Day of the Year to make it really easy to find a new poem for each day.
Make space for children to discover poems for themselves from your classroom libraries and to share what they love by reading them aloud, or by copying poems into a combined class book or display area. School leadership teams can assist by establishing a Whole School Poetry Plan and encouraging teachers to develop subject knowledge by sharing poems in staff meetings and making a diverse range of poetry available for teachers to explore for themselves. Look for ways to connect with professional poets who can support the love of poetry across the school or find a resident poet or Patron of Poetry who can work with you to develop your Whole School Poetry Plan. Consider getting involved in annual poetry awards or join the CLiPPA Shadowing Scheme as a school, which is a fantastic way for children and staff to be part of celebrating newly published poetry.
When someone asks your pupils in 20 years what they think of poetry, let’s hope that the spark in their eyes reflects memories of laughing out loud at funny poems, of finding themselves reflected between the lines, of exuberant performances, of hip-hop or poetry slams, of personally sharing poetry that moves others to respond and of being surrounded by a rich diversity of poems in all their forms.
Browse our list of primary poetry recommendations for more inspiration!
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Where next?
First Week Junior Book Award CeremonyThis week, The Week Junior children’s magazine celebrated the outstanding achievements of the inaugural The Week Junior Book Awards 2023. These awards, sponsored by Bookily from National Book Tokens and in partnership with The Bookseller and World Book Day, were presented at a ceremony held at London’s County Hall, which we had the honour of attending.
The event brought together luminaries from the UK’s children’s publishing industry to celebrate the impact of books on children’s lives and to recognize the remarkable talent in today’s children’s book landscape. Among the winners were SF Said, Serena Patel and Rob Biddulph, and a number of the winning books will be familiar to the BooksForTopics community from their appearances on our primary school booklists.
Established in 2023, The Week Junior Book Awards were created to address the need for critical discourse around children’s literature and to spotlight the remarkable work of both emerging and established children’s authors. The awards were given to the winners of nine different categories and you can read about the full shortlist here.
Anna Bassi, Editorial Director of The Week Junior and chair of the awards, said:
“Our wonderful – and thoroughly deserving – winning titles represent a broad and fascinating spectrum of topics, genres and voices, but what they all have in common is their absolute power to captivate, entertain and inform young readers. The judges were unanimous in their decisions and I feel privileged to celebrate the success of the authors, illustrators and publishers whose brilliant books bring such pleasure to children, and help form a love of reading that will have benefits for the rest of their lives.“
Audiences will have the opportunity to meet some of the award-winning authors, including Breakthrough winner J. T. Williams and Younger Fiction winner Serena Patel, at The Week Junior Book Festival, scheduled during the school half-term on October 24th in London. They will be joined by best-selling authors like Michael Morpurgo, Michael Rosen, and Jenny Pearson, promising a memorable literary experience for young readers and their families.
Children’s Book Cover of the Year – Peanut Jones and The Twelve Portals written and illustrated by Biddulph (Macmillan Children’s Books).
Children’s Book of the Year: Younger Fiction 6-9 – Anisha, Accidental Detective: Holiday Adventure by Patel and illustrated by Emma McCann (Usborne)
Children’s Book of the Year: Older Fiction 9-12 – Tyger by Said, illustrated by Dave McKean (David Fickling Books)
Children’s Audiobook of the Year – Audio Adventures: Natural Wonders of the World by Sidra Ansari and narrated by Ben Bailey-Smith (Ladybird)
Children’s Book of the Year: Breakthrough – The Lizzie and Belle Mysteries: Drama and Danger by J T Williams and illustrated by Simone Douglas (Farshore)
Children’s Illustrated Book of the Year – Frankie’s World, written and illustrated by Aoife Dooley (Scholastic).
Children’s Book of the Year: Older Non-Fiction 9-12: Real Life Dragons and Their Stories of Survival by Anita Ganeri and illustrated by Jianan Liu (Wayland)
Children’s Book of the Year: STEM: 24 Hours in Time and Space by Rob Lloyd Jones and illustrated by Laurent King (Usborne)
Children’s Book of the Year: Younger Non-Fiction 6-9: The Extraordinary Book That Makes You Feel Happy by Poppy O’Neill and illustrated by Caribay M Benavides (Weldon Owen Children’s Books).
You can see the full Week Junior Book Award shortlist here.
Further information can be found on The Week Junior Book Awards website.
Where next?
> Visit our Reading for Pleasure Hub.
> Browse our Topic Booklists.
> See our Books of the Month.
> View our Year Group booklists
© BooksForTopics 2015-2024
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