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best pe and sport books for ks3

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.

best childrens books about cricket

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!

best childrens books about bikes and cycling

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!

best childrens books about swimming and diving

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!

best childrens books about tennis

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!

the secret hen house theatre

The Secret Hen House Theatre

Chapter book

I love family stories, and this is a real cracker.

Hannah lives on a rundown farm with her dad and three siblings. When the farm is threatened with closure, Hannah, who loves drama and writing, decides it is time to act. With the help of her best friend Lottie, and her brother and sisters, The Secret Hen House Theatre is born. Can Hannah’s dreams bring the farm back from the brink of disaster?

A really lovely read which brings both the countryside and the thrill of performing alive.

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into the spotlight

Into the Spotlight

&
Chapter book

I love reading books that connect to other books: prequels, sequels, spin offs etc; In this book, the Pebble children, Mabel, Morris and Marigold have lived their whole lives in the Pebble Theatre. But times are hard, and the theatre is threatened with closure, and so the three decide they will do whatever it takes to save it. When they discover a secret from the past that is connected to the Fossil sisters (the very same sisters that featured in Ballet Shoes) they are inspired to rescue their theatre in a very special way.

You, the reader, are in good hands:  the author, Carrie Hope Fletcher is an actress who has starred in several West End shows!

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Thursdays child

Thursday’s Child

Chapter book

Thursday’s Child is one of my all-time favourite books because it contains some of my favourite story ingredients: a cracking plot, an immensely brave and plucky orphan, a dreadful orphanage and an even more dreadful villain, in the form of Matron.

There is a brilliant scene when the heroine, Margaret Thursday stumbles across the Fortescue travelling theatre company. She is quickly given a starring role in their latest production – as Little Lord Fauntleroy – and discovers, almost by accident, that she is a natural actress. Or as Mr Fortescue says, ‘born to the theatre. Talent in her little finger.’

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A Drop of Golden Sun

A Drop of Golden Sun

Chapter book

It’s 1973, and Jenny has been chosen from hundreds of hopefuls to jet off to the South of France and star in a major Hollywood movie.

 Here she meets cast and crew, including fellow child actors Belinda and John. But life on set turns out to be far from straightforward. The cast are harbouring more than a few secrets. And as the cameras roll, tangled lives and mysterious pasts begin to unspool.

A deliciously heart-warming story that is happy and sad and very rewarding.

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The Diamond of Drury Lane

The Diamond of Drury Lane

Chapter book

This rollicking story is set in Georgian London, and follows the daring adventures of orphan and actress Cat Royal.

Cat has lived in the Sparrows Nest above the costume department on the top floor of The Theatre Royal since she was a baby. But when she is entrusted with a secret treasure, her life suddenly takes a very dangerous and thrilling turn.  Can she survive the rogues and the villains?

A truly exciting, unputdownable read!

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Stone Girl Bone Girl

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