Recommended children's booklists sorted by age or topic

Topic: Picturebooks Upper KS2

The Island

This is a powerful picture book suitable for upper KS2. When the inhabitants of an island discover a naked man and his tattered raft washed up on their beach, they are reluctant to take him in because he seems so vastly different. The islanders refuse to give the man a job or treat him as their equal. As their fear and hatred grow and grow, the islanders eventually send the man to death, opting to turn their island into a stark fortress where strangers are not accepted. The Island is a captivating story that serves as a good starting point for discussions about prejudice and how a society can be shaped by the way it deals with people who have physical, spiritual or cultural differences.

Mum’s Jumper

Jayde Perkin

Picturebook

This beautiful picture book is well suited for being in the hands of a child who experiences the loss of a loved one. It is a story of grief that manages to hold the complexity of the feelings of a child and her dad alongside the rawness of those emotions in a simple and perfect way. The child in the story finds comfort in her mum’s jumper. She muses why her mum left it behind, as she loved it so much. The child wears the jumper all of the time – the smell of her mum merging with her own smell. Her dad explains that grief is like the jumper – it stays the same size but she will grow into it – so the grief never goes away or diminishes, it is just that everything else grows around it.

Last: The Story of a White Rhino

Nicola Davies

Picturebook

A rhinoceros remembers his life before grey captivity, one full of colour, with familiar smells and sights. He thinks of his mother being slain by poachers. He has searched the zoo but cannot find another like him. He fears he is the last. He describes a joyless life for all the animals with him, before being rescued and brought back home. The colour is brought back into his life when he realis-es he is not the last.

Last evokes a longing for home from the reader and a sense of hope for the future upon its ending.

In her debut as an illustrator, Nicole Davies effectively and beautifully portrays the differences in mood and surroundings between the rhinoceros’ life before and during captivity through her effective use of colour.

King of the Sky

Laura Carlin & Nicola Davies

Picturebook

A powerful and poignant picture book from the incredible Nicola Davies with expressive, emotive and challenging illustration by the gifted Laura Carlin. The story, nominated for the 2018 Greenaway Medal, tells of a young boy starting a new life in a mining community in Wales having moved from Italy. He befriends Mr Evans who races pigeons, and there follows a sensitive exploration of the boy’s feelings. With a focus on making people welcome and empathising with those in similar situations, this is a fabulous book to use in the classroom. Various teaching notes available from CLPE, Amnesty UK and the publishers Walker will give teachers a springboard with planning too.

Wilma Unlimited

David Diaz & Kathleen Krull

Picturebook

This is the story of perseverance against all odds and power of having a positive attitude of never giving up. At just five years old, Wilma Rudolph was paralysed in her left leg from polio and told that she would never walk again. This book tells the inspirational story of her journey from that point to how she became the first American woman to earn three gold medals in a single Olympiad.

The Arrival

Shaun Tan

Picturebook

A very topical migrant story told through textless images. When a man leaves his family to search for a better life for them far away, he finds himself in a strange city with all sorts of unfamiliar people, bizarre animals and floating objects. Nothing is familiar, and owning only a suitcase and a little bit of money, the immigrant must navigate his way through his sense of deep displacement and find a way of connecting with the people he meets. This compelling book captures the brave act of leaving everything behind and searching for a future in another world.

Belonging

Jeannie Baker

Picturebook

Belonging is a wordless picture book created by Jeannie Baker in her distinctive collage style. The story is told through a series of suburban scenes viewed through a window and starts with the birth of a baby girl following her life up to the birth of her own child. Gradually we watch the re-greening of the landscape and the growth of community spirit as people come together to improve their surroundings. A book to be read on several levels but one that creates a hopeful feel, encouraging readers to think about how they can create a similar improvement in their own environment.

Flotsam

David Wiesner

Picturebook

This award-winning wordless picture book offers endless opportunities for discussion and creative writing. A beach-combing young boy finds a washed-up camera on the shore, and when the film is developed it reveals a fantastic new world of creatures from the ocean. Incredible illustrations that speak for themselves. Read our blog for inspiration from one talented teacher who brought a Flotsam literacy unit to life.

Flood

Alvaro F. Villa

Picturebook

With intensely coloured, gorgeous artwork, Alvaro F. Villa depicts the effects of a devastating flood on a family and their home in this wordless – and startlingly beautiful – picture book.

Radiant Child

Javaka Steptoe

Picturebook

Jean-Michel Basquiat and his unique, collage-style paintings rocketed to fame in the 1980s as a cultural phenomenon unlike anything the art world had ever seen. However, before that, he was a little boy who saw art everywhere: in poetry books and museums, in games, in the words that we speak and in the pulsing energy of New York City. Now, award-winning illustrator Javaka Steptoe’s vivid text and bold artwork echoing Basquiat’s own style introduces young readers to the powerful message that art doesn’t always have to be neat or clean – and definitely not inside the lines – to be beautiful.

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Topic: Picturebooks Upper KS2

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