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Dungeon Runners: Hero Trial

Chapter book

An action-packed new adventure series from Blue Peter Award-winning author Kieran Larwood and Waterstones Children’s Book Prize winner Joe Todd Stanton. Young readers will love discovering the world of the Dungeon Runners!

CALLING ALL DUNGEON RUNNERS – There’s space for a new team of heroes. This is your chance to enter the leagues and fight your way to the top!

Kit has dreamed of being a Dungeon Runner all his life, although being a gnorf (part gnome, part dwarf) means he’s much smaller than the other competitors.

But when a space opens up for a new team in the Dungeon Running League, Kit doesn’t want to miss this chance to try out! With his new friends Sandy and Thorn, they’re ready to take on anything – mazes, puzzles, monsters, treasure and most of all adventure!

Are you ready for the games to begin? Welcome to the Dungeon!

So You Think You’ve Got It Bad? A Kid’s Life in a Medieval Castle

Non-fiction

Part of Nosy Crow’s list of publishing in collaboration with the British Museum, developed in consultation with some of the world’s leading experts on medieval history.

A kid’s life in a medieval castle might sound like fun, what with all those cool battles and massive feasts, but actually life for kids could be pretty hard. In this hilarious book, written by award-winning author Chae Strathie, children will learn just how tough life really was, from getting stuck in a siege and living next to a poo-filled moat to having teeth yanked out with pliers… and even eating live blackbird pie!

Probably the first book about medieval times to feature talking cats and bottom burps, this is a must read for kids with a passion for horrible history!

Brought to life with rich, humorous illustrations by super-talented Marisa Morea.

Other titles in the series include: Ancient Egypt, Ancient Rome, Ancient Greece, Aztec Age, and Prehistoric Times.

Poppy Field

Chapter book

A new illustrated story celebrating the poppy’s history.

Michael Morpurgo and Michael Foreman have teamed up with the Royal British Legion to tell an original story that explains the meaning behind the poppy.

In Flanders’ fields, young Martens knows his family’s story, for it is as precious as the faded poem hanging in their home. From a poor girl comforting a grieving soldier, to an unexpected meeting of strangers, to a father’s tragic death many decades after treaties were signed, war has shaped Martens’s family in profound ways – it is their history as much as any nation’s.

They remember. They grieve. They honour the past.

This book also includes a full-colour, illustrated afterword that explains the history that inspired the story.

50p per paperback from the sale of POPPY FIELD in the UK will be paid to Royal British Legion Trading Limited which gives its taxable profits to The Royal British Legion (Charity no. 219279)

Empathy-Boosting Books: Victor, The Wolf With Worries

Empathy Collection Discovery Tour 2024

What is EmpathyLab?

EmpathyLab is the first organisation to build children’s empathy, literacy and social activism through a systematic use of high-quality literature. Their strategy builds on new scientific evidence showing the power of reading to build real-life empathy skills, driven by a belief that empathy is a beacon of hope in a divided world.

This month, Empathy Lab has launched the 2024 Read for Empathy collection of children’s books to build empathy. The primary and secondary collections include picture books, novels, poetry, non-fiction and graphic and verse novels. Read more about the launch of this year’s empathy collection here.

Free Guides to the primary and secondary collections are available here https://www.empathylab.uk/RFE

Empathy-Boosting Book Choice: Victor, the Wolf with Worries

The team at Empathy Lab invited us to choose one of the titles in the collection to showcase as a brilliant empathy-boosting recommendation as part of their Discovery Tour. We’ve selected Victor the Wolf With Worries by Catherine Rayner, which was chosen by our Review Panel as one of our Books of the Month back in August and also features on our list best children’s books of 2023.

Victor the Wolf With Worries tells the story of a wolf cub who finds himself carrying worries about everything. Our Review Panel said, “Victor the Wolf With Worries is a charming and thoughtful book. Beautifully presented, with exquisite artwork by the author, it is a feline take on ‘The Huge Bag of Worries’ and will, I’m sure, become a classic to draw upon both in the KS1 classroom and at bedtime. Victor has three all-encompassing worries which he feels are insurmountable, until his friend Pablo comes to the rescue.

Pablo’s solutions are simple and magically effective and many a teacher and parent up and down the country will find themselves incorporating these strategies into practice.”

The wolves in the story, despite being idealised as brave, big and fierce, look rather like shy, dignified puppies. Children will delight in naming them and considering the real characteristics that lie behind their grey coats and pointed noses. The conclusion of the story – that ‘everybody worries!’ and that ‘worries come and go’ – is a delightful drawing together of the narrative, leaving even the shyest little one feeling safe and comforted.

More ideas for exploring the book:

Dealing with Worries: Pair the book with other stories about worries, like Ruby’s Worry, What If, Pig?, Small Stanley’s Big List of Scary Stuff or The Worry Jar. Make a bank of tools that different characters use to deal with their worries and display it for children to use as a reference. For more ideas, browse our Emotional Literacy booklist.
Activity Sheets: Print the accompanying activity sheets available from the publisher, with a colouring activity and a space to make a list of things that make you happy.
Illustrator Processes: Find out more about Catherine Rayner’s artistic processes. There is a lovely Q&A on the illustrator’s website and you might also be interested to read about her work in screenprinting.
Big Bad Wolves: Start a project about wolves as story characters. Why do people consider wolves to be fierce, and how does this affect how Victor expects others to view him? You could dig into other storybooks about wolves to compare the character roles they play, such as Mr Wolf’s Pancakes, The Wolf’s Story, There is No Big Bad Wolf in This Story, and Emily Gravett’s Wolves. There’s also a wonderful fold-out wolf page in Inside the Villains. Challenge children to write a story with a wolf main character who doesn’t want to conform to stereotypes. For more twisted fairytale character inspiration, have a browse of our Fairytale booklist.
Explore the Empathy Collection: Take some time to explore the rest of the books in the 2024 Read for Empathy primary collection. More of our favourites include Gina Kaminski Saves the Wolf, To The Other Side, My Heart is a Poem, Finding My Voice, Cosima Unfortunate Steals A Star, Finding Bear, How To Be More Hedgehog and The Final Year.

Victor the Wolf With Worries is available to purchase online from Amazon or from Bookshop.org.

For more information about the Read for Empathy collection, please visit the EmpathyLab website.

Where next?
> Visit our Reading for Pleasure Hub
> Browse our Topic Booklists
> View our printable year group booklists.
> See our Books of the Month.

Croaky: Search for the Sasquatch

Chapter book

LEAP INTO THIS NEW ADVENTURE-PACKED CHAPTER BOOK SERIES FROM SUPER HAPPY MAGIC FOREST CREATOR MATTY LONG!

Croaky Hopper isn’t like other little frogs. His head is filled with thoughts of wild adventures. He dreams of hopping across crocodile-infested waters, or being chased by a giant boulder, just like the famous TV explorer Tennessee Toad. But where can an energetic amphibian like Croaky find real-life adventure? When his Aunt Lilly signs him up for the Woggle Scouts, he expects to spend his time crafting with pinecones and selling cookies, but he soon discovers there’s much more in store, as scout leader, Winston the Puffin, takes the scouts on a dangerous expedition to search for a sasquatch.

Stitch Head: The Graphic Novel

Graphic Novel

Enter the darkly funny world of Stitch Head, as he steps out of the shadows into the adventure of an almost-lifetime. Deep in the maze-like dungeons of Castle Grotteskew, eccentric Professor Erasmus created Stitch Head, a small, almost-human creature. His experiments continued, filling the castle with creations so fabulously monstrous that Stitch Head was long forgotten. Until a travelling circus ringmaster knocks at the castle door, promising to make Stitch Head a star. Is this Stitch Head’s chance to venture beyond the castle walls? Or could he be making a terrible mistake…?

The Book of Blast Off!: 15 Real-Life Space Missions

Non-fiction

We look out of our window at the dark and twinkling sky.

It’s full of stars and planets and there’s comets whooshing by.

We want to go and see them, there’s so much to explore.

So let’s count down and blast off – then we can find out more!

Journey through space with 15 of the most iconic missions of all time, including the moon landing, Voyager 1’s journey into interstellar space and Perseverance’s exploration of Mars.

Ramadan and Eid al-Fitr

Picturebook

Join Raya and her mama and aba as they enjoy iftar, bake Ramadan cookies, do good deeds around their community and visit the mosque.

Raya is celebrating Ramadan and Eid al-Fitr with her family and inviting you along to learn more! It’s a time full of fun activities and celebrations, and a great opportunity to get closer to Allah.

Learn about this special time as Raya makes Ramadan mubarak cards for her friends and has her hands decorated with henna!

And when the month of Ramadan is over, Raya, her mama and aba, aunts, uncles and cousins have a magical Eid celebration, playing games, opening presents and eating delicious food.

This bright and engaging picture book is the perfect way to introduce little ones to Ramadan and Eid al-Fitr. Author Sara Khan brings the celebrations to life, drawing on her own experiences with her daughter, also named Raya! This book also offers fun activities that parents and children can do together in the lead-up to the celebration, such as making a pop-up card and cookies. A fun fact file and colourful quiz follow the story, giving kids the opportunity to learn more about Allah, worship and the lunar calendar.

Part of the Celebrations & Festivals series, you are invited into a family’s celebrations as you explore the magic and excitement of religious festivals around the world.

Children’s Book Awards and Special Collections

Children’s Book Awards

This list features book awards that celebrate children’s literature, spotlighting books of exceptional quality.

Here at BooksForTopics we are big fans of children’s books awards, which catapult noteworthy authors into the spotlight and bring the children’s book market the wider recognition it deserves. We are often asked to lend a hand in shortlisting and judging for children’s book awards, including the Lollies (Laugh Out Loud) Book Awards, the Diverse Book Awards, the Graphic Novel Prize and the Alligator’s Mouth Award for short illustrated fiction – as well as our very own Books of the Year award, voted by teachers.

Below we’ve featured a range of children’s book award shortlists that teachers might find useful to follow. Exploring the shortlisted titles offers a great way to broaden your knowledge of children’s books. Prize lists also serve as handy starting points for discovering noteworthy reads from previous years or books that might have become otherwise forgotten. We’ve also included some special collections curated by expert panels from across the industry, like the Read for Empathy collection and the Reflecting Realities recommendations.

Awards for authors and illustrators prove invaluable in identifying talented contributors to the world of children’s books on both national and international scales, as well as bringing children’s books into the news. These recognitions not only honour individual talents but also serve as useful guides for finding impactful voices in the world of children’s literature.

NEWS: Read for Empathy 2024 Collection Announced

Read for Empathy 2024 Book Collections Announced

Thursday 8th January, 2024

This Year’s Read for Empathy Collections Unveiled

read for empathy collection Today, EmpathyLab has announced its 2024 Read for Empathy book collection of 65 books for 3-16-year-olds. It features major authors including Neil Gaiman, Jeffrey Boakye, Children’s Laureate Joseph Coelho, Hannah Gold, Phil Earle and Nadia Shireen.

There are 40 recommended books for 3-11-year-olds, and 25 for 12-16-year-olds. The Read for Empathy collection is part of a unique and growing UK empathy education movement, using literature as a tool to develop this transformative life skill.

EmpathyLab’s work is based on scientific research showing that empathy is learnable, and that books help to build it: identifying with fictional characters’ feelings helps build real-life empathy. The 2024 collection includes picture books, novels, poetry, non-fiction, graphic and verse novels. Each book offers young people different ways of experiencing, understanding and building empathy.

Take a look at the primary read for empathy collection booklist here.

Free Guides to the 2024 Read for Empathy collection can be downloaded from the Empathy Lab website.

The Empathy Collections

The 2024 Read for Empathy collection will be used by parents, carers, teachers and librarians to boost young peoples’ empathy skills year-round and particularly in the run-up to Empathy Day. Teachers using EmpathyLab’s approach report that using empathy-rich texts builds mutual understanding. Impacts include improved behaviour and a culture with less racism and in which children themselves help resolve disputes.

The books in the collection cover powerful real-world themes. Finding Bear focuses on empathy for the earth’s creatures faced by climate change. Eight powerful picture books are included to help young readers understand their own and other people’s emotions, with Blue exploring feelings of sadness and Geoffrey Gets the Jitters exploring anxiety. Changing society for the better is explored in Nour’s Secret Library, which shows child activists in Syria building a secret library to sustain their community. Fight Back viscerally illuminates the refugee experience and the main character in How to be More Hedgehog struggles with a stammer

The full lists are as follows:

Read for Empathy books for children aged 3–11

Understanding & sharing emotions

Be More Dog Caroline Crowe & Carlos Velez Floris Books
Beneath Cori Doerrfeld Scallywag Press
Blue Sarah Christou Faber
Geoffrey Gets the Jitters Nadia Shireen Puffin
I Will Swim Next Time Emily Joof & Matilda Ruta Floris Books
The Spaces In Between Jaspreet Kaur, illustrated by Manjit Thapp Big Picture Press
Victor, the Wolf with Worries Catherine Rayner Macmillan
When I Feel Surprised Illustrator Paula Bowles Child’s Play

Picture Books

Gina Kaminski Saves the Wolf Craig Barr-Green, illustrated by Francis Martin Little Tiger
Grandpa and the Kingfisher Anna Wilson, illustrated by Sarah Massini Nosy Crow
I Am Nefertiti Annemarie Anang Natelle Quek Five Quills
My Baba’s Garden Jordan Scott, illustrated by Sydney Smith Walker
Nour’s Secret Library Wafa’ Tarnowska Vali Mintzi Barefoot
To the Other Side Erika Meza Hodder

Early Readers

Bear and Bird –The Picnic and Other Stories Jarvis Walker
Budgie Joseph Coelho Barrington Stoke
Dimple and the Boo Pip Jones, illustrated by Paula Bowles Barrington Stoke
The Girl Who Became a Fish Polly Ho Yen Illustrator Sojung Kim-McCarthyKnights Of

Novels

City of Stolen Magic Nazeen Ahmed Pathak Puffin
Cosima Unfortunate Steals a Star Laura Noakes Flavia Sorrentino HarperCollins
Fablehouse E.L. Norry Bloomsbury
Finding Bear Hannah Gold HarperCollins
Glitter Boy Ian Eagleton Scholastic
How to Be More Hedgehog Anne-Marie Conway, illustrated by Raahat Kaduji UCLan
Jamie L.D. Lapinski Orion
Kofi and the Rap Battle Summer Jeffrey Boakye Faber
My Life on Fire Cath Howe Nosy Crow
The Mystery of the Missing MumFrances Moloney Pushkin Press
Until the Road Ends Phil Earle Andersen Press
Where the River Takes Us Lesley Parr Bloomsbury

Verse Novels

The Final Year Matt Goodfellow, illustrated by Joe Todd-Stanton Otter-Barry
The Way of Dog Zana Fraillon Chicken House

Poetry

My Heart is a Poem Various Little Tiger
What You Need to Be Warm Neil Gaiman, illustrated by Various Bloomsbury

Graphic Novels

Finding My Voice Aoife Dooley Scholastic
It’s Her Story: Irena Sendler Margaret Littman, illustrated by Sara Luna Sunbird

Non-fiction

A Child Like You Na’ima B. Robert, illustrated by Nadine Kaadan Otter-Barry
All Bodies are Wonderful Beth Cox, illustrated by Vicky Barker b small
Lift-the-flap Questions and Answers about Refugees Katie Dayne & Ashe de Sousa, illustrated by Oksana Drachkovska Usborne
Our Story Starts in Africa Patrice Lawrence, Magic Cat

Read For Empathy books for young people aged 12–16

Novels

All the Pieces of Me Libby Scott Scholastic
Away With Words Sophie Cameron Stripes
Boy Like Me Simon James Green Scholastic
Crossing the Line Tia Fisher Hot Key
Different For Boys Patrick Ness, illustrated by Tea Bendix Walker
Hazel Hill is Gonna Win This One Maggie Horne Firefly Press
Kicked Out! A. M. Dassu Old Barn Books
One More Mountain Deborah Ellis, illustrated by Shamsia Hassani Oxford University Press
Promise Boys Nick Brooks Macmillan
Quiet Storm Kimberly Whittam Usborne
Safiyyah’s War Hiba Noor Khan Andersen Press
Sing If You Can’t Dance Alexia Casale Faber
SOLD: What Will It Take to Find Freedom? Sue Barrow Cadence
Stand Up Ferran Burke Steven Camden Macmillan
Swimming on the Moon Brian Conaghan Bloomsbury
The Climbers Keith Gray Barrington Stoke
The First Move Jenny Ireland Penguin
The Piano at the Station Helen Rutter, illustrated by Elisa Paganelli Barrington Stoke
What the World Doesn’t See Mel Darbon Usborne
Wild Song Candy Gourlay David Fickling
You Think You Know Me Mohamud Ayaan Usborne

Verse Novels

Crossing the Line Tia Fisher Hot Key
Stand Up Ferran Burke Steven Camden Macmillan

Poetry

Choose Love Nicola Davies & Petr Horácek Graffeg
You Are Not Alone Shauna Darling Robertson Troika

Graphic Novels

Global Eoin Colfer & Andrew Donkin, illustrated by Giovanni Rigano Hodder
Oxygen Mask Jason Reynolds Faber

Head to our Empathy booklist to find out more about the books in the primary collection, or visit the Empathy website to explore all of the selected books and related resources.

Sets of the books can also be purchased via Bookshop or Peters.

Empathy Day is on Thursday 6 June 2024 and is open to all to get involved and inspired. Schools and libraries can now register for the free Mission Empathy resources at www.empathylab.uk/empathy-day.

Everyone can also enjoy a free online Festival, featuring live events with many of the amazing authors and illustrators included in the book collection. More details announced 14 March 2024.

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Where next?

Head to our Empathy booklist to find out more about the books in the primary collection,

> Visit our Reading for Pleasure Hub.

> Browse our Topic Booklists.

> See our Books of the Month.

> View our Year Group booklists

Recommended children's booklists sorted by age or topic

Booklists by Child's Age

Resource Available: No resources

Empathy Collection Discovery Tour 2024

What is EmpathyLab?

Empathy-Boosting Book Choice: Victor, the Wolf with Worries

More ideas for exploring the book:

Children’s Book Awards

Read for Empathy 2024 Book Collections Announced

This Year’s Read for Empathy Collections Unveiled

The Empathy Collections

Read For Empathy books for young people aged 12–16

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