Recommended children's booklists sorted by age or topic
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We love seeing our printable resources being used in schools and libraries around the world.
From our popular Year Group Recommended Reads checklists and display-ready Branching Out posters to summer bingo activities and Christmas gift guides, there’s plenty of reading inspiration to download and share with your community.
Our top three popular printables include:
From festive favourites and glorious gift books to timeless bedtime stories and curious information books, we’ve selected our top recommendations of children’s book gifts grouped by age. The 2025 gift guides include free, downloadable PDF versions for you to share.
Download our new topic book posters, covering top fiction and non-fiction book choices for curriculum topics like the Vikings, Stone Age to Iron Age, Romans and World War II. We’ve added posters for a handful of core history topics. Look out for more topics to come, too!
For each year group from Preschool to Year 6, the BooksForTopics team has created a booklist of 50 recommended reading books. These free downloadable posters feature all 50 titles recommended for each age group, offering age-appropriate quality text recommendations for children in each primary year group.
The BooksforTopics Recommended Read selections are the most popular primary school booklists on our site. Some schools choose to display the posters and others hands out copies or share the link on their website.
To download the PDF files, click to open and print, or right-click the link and select ‘Save as…’ to save each file to your device, or download all year groups in one file.
The popular primary school reading lists containing 50 recommended books also come with free printable checklists. Some schools choose to use the lists to manage stock (remember – full packs of the books can be ordered via Peters) and other schools use them as class or individual reading logs. You can also hand these lists to parents looking for recommendations.
You can also download all year groups in one file.
The popular primary school reading lists containing 50 recommended books also come with free printable bookmarks which you can hand to parents looking for recommendations.
You can download all year groups in one file.
Our 2025 summer reading bingo challenge is designed to keep children motivated to read over the summer holidays.
Our Summer Reading Bingo is an activity that keeps the focus on reading for pleasure experiences rather than specific texts, with activities like make a den and read inside, read in the dark using a torch and read to a pet or a soft toy. Children can choose what they read for the challenges, although we have included some Summer 2025 recommended reads for those looking for new ideas.
Our Branching Out booklists and posters are designed to help readers find their next favourite read after finishing a particular series or children’s book they love.
Whether it’s newly independent readers who need more early chapter books after reading Wimpy Kid or graphic novel fans looking for what to read after Dog Man, we know the search for new books to keep the reading-for-pleasure momentum going can sometimes be a tricky one. We’ve got you covered with our Branching Out booklists and free, printable display posters.
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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
