Recommended children's booklists sorted by age or topic

Publisher: HarperCollins

For readers who loved Wonder and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time this extraordinary debut will make you laugh and cry.

A story that crosses time and generations, for adventure-loving readers young and old.

“My dad died twice. Once when he was thirty nine and again four years later when he was twelve.”

On Al Chaudhury’s twelfth birthday his beloved Grandpa Byron gives him a letter from Al’s late father. In it Al receives a mission: travel back to 1984 in a secret time machine and save his father’s life.

Al soon discovers that time travel requires daring and imagination. It also requires lies, theft, setting his school on fire and ignoring philosophical advice from Grandpa Byron. All without losing his pet hamster, Alan Shearer…

Time Travelling With a Hamster is a funny, heart-warming race-against-time – and across generations – adventure that you will won’t be able to put down.

A universal story of friendship, falling out and unforgettable characters that will resonate with all readers of 9 and up – from the authors of Slay in Your Lane

Ade is about to start at a new school. She is NOT happy with her stepdad for making them move here. Shanice has been at the school for a year already. Since her mum died, she’s been living with her dad and annoying older brother, spending most of her time outside school in her dad’s hair salon.

When Ade and Shanice meet in the salon, and spot each other’s diaries, an instant friendship is formed, and they start to chat online… but offline is a whole other story!

The Offline Diaries is a fresh, funny and contemporary story of friendship, told in the captivating voices of Ade and Shanice – two utterly unforgettable Year 8 girls who will seize the hearts and imaginations of readers everywhere.

MAGIC KNOWS MAGIC.

With an incredible story, a stunning, richly detailed world, and a wonderful cast of characters, Crow: Thief of Magic is an unputdownable, exciting and hugely ambitious fantasy adventure.

Twelve-year-old Crow is a thief.

Scraping a living on the winding streets of Starsgard, Crow works for the leader of the criminal underworld, stealing from the city’s wealthy ruling class. But when a routine job takes Crow to the home of a mysterious sorcerer, his whole life is turned upside down – and after a planned heist goes wrong, leaving Crow alone and with nowhere to turn, he finds himself a new position as the sorcerer’s apprentice.

Before long, Crow is introduced to the ancient art of dream magic – catching dream essence and using it to create dreams for the rich citizens from whom he once stole. But when Crow learns of an ancient strain of nightmare magic that threatens to unleash devastation on Starsgard, he must make a terrible choice… and decide who he can really trust.

With a stunning, richly-detailed world, an incredible story, and a wonderful cast of characters, Crow: Thief of Magic is an extraordinarily exciting fantasy debut – perfect for fans of Impossible Creatures, His Dark Materials, and Skandar and the Unicorn Thief.

Gorgeously illustrated in Emma Chichester Clark’s signature style, this gentle and comforting tale of friendship is the perfect bedtime story.

A fairy-tale adventure full of dangerous magical creatures, perfect for fans of Sophie Anderson and Michelle Harrison.

In the village of Greeth-Under-Edge, magical creatures are causing chaos. A green-toothed hag lurks in the river, a nest of gnomes are up to no good and a scatter of salamanders threaten to set everything on fire.

Creirwy and Morfran, trainee sorcerers, have been sent to banish the creatures by brewing an almost impossible potion. To collect the ingredients, they’ll need to go on an adventure with dangers at every turn.

But as the twins journey through a moon fairy forest, into a hag’s watery lair and to the top of a giant’s beanstalk, they find that the most powerful magic is not always where you’d expect…

Monsters from mythology finally get to tell their side of the story, in this hilarious illustrated series for fans of Loki, Horrible Histories and Pamela Butchart.

When people hear Polyphemus is a cyclops, they always assume he’s a big scary MONSTER with one huge eye who EATS PEOPLE.

The truth is, YES, he is big, and he does have one huge eye, and ok he does OCCASIONALLY eat people… but THAT’S NOT THE WHOLE STORY!

All he ever wanted was to throw THE GREATEST PARTY OF ALL TIME! But then Odysseus arrived, and it all went very, VERY, wrong…

Your favourite duo are back… MURRAY AND BUN!

Murray is a cat. Murray loves snoozing, fluffy blankets, and peace and quiet.

Bun is a bun. Bun loves… EVERYTHING!

And together they are unstoppable!

SOMETIMES Murray’s enchanted cat flap leads to the garden… but mostly it leads to ADVENTURE!

And when Murray and Bun travel through the cat flap and find themselves in a land of PIRATES, they’re quickly thrown into their biggest adventure yet!

Kidnapped by the dread pirate Captain Patch of the feared pirate ship the Lurchin’ Urchin, Murray and Bun discover a secret map which leads them to MONSTER ISLAND, where they must find BURIED TREASURE… or be made to walk the plank!

Perfect for newly independent readers and fans of Bunny vs Monkey, Dog Man, Adventure Mice and Claude, this funny, exciting, and hugely loveable story – brilliantly illustrated throughout – will delight adventure-lovers young and old.

A vibrant, evocative and magical debut which centres a positive, empowered disabled character at the heart of a reimagining of Little Red Riding Hood.

The woods are hiding a secret… but then so is Red…

Red is not allowed to go into the woods. Everyone knows that they are dangerous – because of their strange magic and the wolves that lurk there… But Red finds herself increasingly drawn to the woods and the place where her grandmother disappeared without a trace three years ago. When the woodcutter fails to return home one night and wolves are spotted close to the village boundary, fear drives a deep and dangerous divide between the villagers and the nature they live alongside.

Only Red seems to hold the key – but she has a secret, and exposing it could ruin her family forever …

If you (and your children!) struggle with setting a nighttime routine, staying up for countless hours, and regretting it the day after—this picture book is for you!

Whirby the robot is all systems go for his favorite school activity: bot battles! All that clinking, clanging, beeping, and banging makes Whirby so excited.

So excited that he forgets to recharge at night. He stays up practicing his best moves and building the coolest contraptions before the big battle.

But when it’s finally his turn to compete…BWOMP! BZZZ! ZZT!

With his battery on 0%, will Whirby find a way to still be the bot battle champion? Find out in this funny new offering from The Big Squeeze author, Molly Harris, and the illustrator of Big Bike, Little Bike, Jacob Souva!

You’ll love Whirby if you:

need a reminder to rest and recharge
enjoyed Robobaby, Clink, Boy + Bot, Love Z and Lou
are a fan of stories that are pure fun and impart important life lessons
love robots, robotics, robot battles, and anything robo-related

This highly recommendable book would be a very worthwhile addition to the school library alongside Olivia Wakeford’s first novel, My Dog.  It could be used as a class read, too, in Year 5 or 6, if not considered too long.  There are links to history and mining, for schools where the curriculum covers these topics, and the links to Wales will make it particularly popular in Welsh schools.

The lives of quite a disparate group of characters intertwine with imagination and skill, focused around main character Evan, his family, school friends and dog. Evan’s Grandad has dementia (the word isn’t used, but ‘sundowning’ is and it’s clear he lives with this condition) and he does not like to talk about his memory of being a miner along with pit ponies who were put to work in the mines.

We begin to inhabit their world; the world of school museum visits and classroom bullies; of Welsh mining history, auras and ghostly apparitions; of grown-ups struggling to balance work and family; of arguments and reconciliations. There lives are sometimes disturbing, sometimes mundane, sometimes difficult and sometimes puzzling. This is fiction at its best; storytelling which deals sensitively with pertinent issues while still being enjoyable. The inclusion of a ghost pony introduces a magical element.

This is an engrossing read: eye-opening, heart-warming and memorable.

Subscribe to our newsletter

Your Review

Stone Girl Bone Girl

review

Year group(s) the book is most suitable for:

Year group(s) the book is most suitable for:

Does the book contain anything that teachers would wish to know about before recommending in class (strong language, sensitive topics etc.)?

Does the book contain anything that teachers would wish to know about before recommending in class (strong language, sensitive topics etc.)?

Would you recommend the book for use in primary schools?

yes

Curriculum links (if relevant)

Curriculum links (if relevant)

Any other comments

Any other comments