The Lottie Brooks books by Katie Kirby are hugely popular with preteen readers. This hilarious illustrated series explores the daily ups and downs of growing up, including facing puberty, navigating friendships, dealing with first crushes and all of the embarrassing moments that come with handling school and family life.
Many readers of the Lottie Brooks series enjoy the laugh-out-humour, the funny doodle-style illustrations and the true-to-life themes covered in the story. Lottie is a relatable character who resonates particularly well with girls in the 9-12 age bracket.
For more similar books, check out our list of books for fans of Lottie Brooks.
All Sam wants is a family of his own, a home instead of a ‘house’ and parents he knows will still be there when he wakes up. Because Sam has been in and out of foster care his whole life and he can’t imagine ever feeling like he truly belongs.
Then his best friend Leah suggests that rather than wait for a family to come to him, he should go out and find one. So begins The Perfect Parent Project … But Sam may just discover that family has a funny way of finding you.
A moving and compassionately-told story from the author of the The Fox Girl and the White Gazelle. Also told through a dual narrative, this is a story with weighty themes including blended families, life with ADHD and the search for acceptance. Hugely relevant for today’s generation, Victoria Williamson writes with a galloping pace packaged at every turn with extraordinary compassion, delivering an enjoyable and empathy-building reading experience. The narrative offers powerful insights into life with ADHD…
If you like Jacqueline Wilson, try these…Jacqueline Wilson’s books remain hugely popular with readers who enjoy stories that explore real-life issues and share themes of family, friendship and growing up.
We’ve put together a list of ten similar books for fans of Jacqueline Wilson. Readers who enjoyed Jacqueline Wilson’s stories about living in foster care or life with blended families might like to try The Perfect Parent Project or The Boy With the Butterfly Mind. For more stories about navigating friendship issues, try Do You Speak Chocolate? or Ella on the Outside.
Some children will look for more stories about girl power after reading Jacqueline Wilson books, and we recommend Jaz Santos vs the World or Vote for Effie. If you’re simply looking for a new read delving into real-life pre-teen issues, try The Mystery of the Colour Thief, which explores the topic of mental health, or Charli Howard’s Splash, tackling the themes of self-consciousness and body positivity.
Browse the full list below of books for children looking for what to read next after Jacqueline Wilson…
A story of family, friendship and mystery from one of the UK’s best-loved writers. When Scarlet’s grandma goes into a retirement home, she must sort through her belongings in the cramped flat above a shop in Crouch End, north London.
Here Scarlet comes across a real treasure: a novel that Gran wrote, imagining the life of a girl just like Scarlet, who once upon a time lived in the flat and worked in a cake shop downstairs.
But as Scarlet reads about Ruby’s life in Victorian London, she begins to realise this is no piece of fiction – Ruby was real!
A real life, facing real danger – and a mystery that unravels to the present day.
This is a beautifully written book with a fascinating story behind it, and an insightful exploration of one girl’s experiences of autism.
The way that the messages of the book about acceptance and self-belief are intertwined with the story of the witches persecuted in Scotland is clever and thought-provoking.
This book will help those children who may feel they are ‘different’, but also challenges all children to think carefully about how they treat those who they see as different to them.
The story has also been televised for CBBC. See our blog interview with author Elle McNicoll for more information.
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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
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Curriculum links (if relevant)
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