Topic: Reading for Pleasure

It’s easy to feel lost in the flood of so many new children’s books available. Each month, our Review Panel reads scores of new books and we highlight five of our recently published favourites.

This month, our panel of experienced teachers, librarians and children’s book experts has carefully selected five outstanding titles for you to read, with a mixture of fiction and fact, and longer and shorter reads to engage and excite young readers.

With Christmas on the horizon, there’s a really festive feel this month’s Book of the Month selections, with four of the picks having a Christmas theme, and the fifth focusing on a land of ice and snow!

Andy Shepherd’s A Christmas Delivery, a picturebook illustrated by Sarah Warburton, sees favourite characters from the Boy Who Grew Dragons series in a merry, magical Christmas adventure which will appeal to younger readers.

Ideally suited for lower KS2, Adam Baron’s The Very Last Christmas Present follows Father Christmas and his loyal pup on a magical adventure, while there’s a mince-pie-related murder-mystery in Alexandra Benedict’s The Merry Christmas Murders. Upper KS2 and early KS3 readers are in for a very different Christmas in Emma Read’s mysterious thriller Silent Night.

For non-fiction fans, All About Antarctica offers a journey south to the coldest place on the planet. Packed with facts and fabulous illustrations, this title invites young explorers to learn all about this endangered environment before it disappears forever.

Read on to discover our Review Panel’s top new children’s books for you to read in December 2025.

Schools can also take advantage of our Books of the Month subscription service, enabling schools to receive regular bundles of our Books of the Month selections.

Top New Non-Fiction Books For Children

A guide curated by the experts at BooksForTopics

National Non-Fiction November 2025 (NNFN) is here! This annual month-long celebration of children’s non-fiction books is the perfect time to stock up your classroom library with high-quality factual texts.

At BooksForTopics, we know reading for pleasure isn’t just about fiction. High-quality children’s non-fiction helps pupils better understand the world around them, supports the curriculum and genuinely feeds their love of learning across science, nature, history and biographies.

The Federation of Children’s Book Groups’ theme for NNFN 2025 is Past Puzzles and Timeless Treasures, which offers a brilliant starting point for exploration this month. You’ll notice in this collection some new non-fiction books exploring past puzzles – like There Was a Roman in Your Garden and The Secret Lives of Women Spies. We’ve also included some of the non-fiction choices that our review panel of experts, teachers and librarians have highlighted as the top choices from the past year – including Small, Shiny Dung Beetle and A Day in The Life of Fossils, Fire and Preshistoric Finds – both treasures in their own right.

To celebrate, we’ve pulled together a list of our nine favourite recently published non-fiction releases for UK primary schools. Whether you’re looking for a brilliant book to get a child hooked on a new topic, support a curriculum subject, or simply find a captivating read for a reluctant reader, these are the must-have new non-fiction titles to share with your primary class this Non-Fiction November. We’ve also produced a free, downloadable poster for you featuring this year’s Non-Fiction picks.

You can find more recommendations on our Top-Notch Non-Fiction booklist.

It’s easy to feel lost in the flood of so many new children’s books available. Each month, our Review Panel reads scores of new books and we highlight five of our recently published favourites.

This month, our panel of experienced teachers, librarians and children’s book experts has carefully selected five outstanding titles for you to read, with a mixture of fiction and fact, and longer and shorter reads to excite young readers.

With the evenings drawing in, those wishing to curl up with a longer read will love Krystal Sutherland and Martin Seneviratne’s intriguing tale of time-travelling twins, Time Lions and the Chrono-Loop, or Katya Balen’s powerful story of an unexpected friendship in Letters from the Upside.

Those seeking a shorter read will welcome the return of the Hotel Flamingo series with Frosty Fiesta, the story of the snowiest hotel in town! And Dave Pigeon is also back with Turkey Dinner!, another hilarious adventure for our favourite pigeon duo.

The Start Small, Think Big series has delivered some lovely non-fiction titles for younger readers, including Small, Speckled Egg, Little, Brown Nut and Tiny, Floating Coral. This month’s list features another brilliant book from this series: Small, Shiny Dung Beetle, which looks at this tiny creature’s essential role in tidying up!

Read on to discover our Review Panel’s top new children’s books for you to read in November 2025.

Schools can also take advantage of our Books of the Month subscription service, enabling schools to receive regular bundles of our Books of the Month selections.

It’s easy to feel lost in the flood of so many new children’s books available. Each month, our Review Panel reads scores of new books and we highlight five of our recently published favourites.

This month, our panel of experienced teachers, librarians and children’s book experts has carefully selected five outstanding titles for you to read, with a mixture of fiction and fact, and longer and shorter reads to excite young readers.

With the evenings drawing in, those wishing to curl up with a longer read will love The Last Bard from Maz Evans. This welcome return from the author of Who Let the Gods Out tells the fictional story of Shakespeare’s last living relative, who brings to life the characters created by his ancestor. For a shorter read, Alastair Chisholm’s sci-fi mystery Blitzers is a super readable and gripping story which will appeal to fans of any gaming platform.

Equally suited to KS2 independent reading or sharing in class, Stella Caldwell’s Amazing Book of World Mythology is a beautifully illustrated compendium of short, accessible retellings of mythical stories from around the world – also featured on our brand new  Mythology for Children Booklist.

For younger readers, The Mushroom of Doom is described by our reviewer as “a remarkably sophisticated picture book”. This story of (failed) revenge is packed with humour that will appeal to young readers and their grown-ups alike!

A great non-fiction pick for readers of all ages, A Day in the Life of Fossils, Fire and Other Fantastic Finds is the latest in this ever popular comic book style series, following titles such as A Day in the Life of an Astronaut, Mars and the Distant Stars and A Day in the Life of a Caveman, a Queen and Everything In Between.

Read on to discover our Review Panel’s top new children’s books for you to read in October 2025.

Schools can also take advantage of our Books of the Month subscription service, enabling schools to receive regular bundles of our Books of the Month selections.

It’s easy to feel lost in the flood of so many new children’s books available. Each month, our Review Panel reads scores of new books and we highlight five of our recently published favourites.

This month, our panel of experienced teachers, librarians and children’s book experts has carefully selected five outstanding titles for you to read, with plenty of options to ignite imaginations at the start of the new school year.

With the evenings drawing in, those wishing to curl up with a longer read have plenty to choose from in this list. Christopher Edge delivers terror and suspense in Fear Files: Hide and Seek – a thriller that even our reviewer “did not dare to read at bedtime”, while Emma Carroll’s Dracula & Daughters delivers gruesome fantasy in a historical setting.

For adventure-lovers, The Girl Who Raced the World is a reimagining of Around the World in Eighty Days. Our Review Panel loved this well-paced story of an orphan who accompanies Mr Fogg on his famous journey, and found it equally suited to independent or group reading.

The Museum of Shapes invites younger readers to explore a unique collection, guided by its curator. Inspired by a real-life museum, this is an imaginative and interactive picturebook that brings play and exploration to early years maths.

For older non-fiction fans, There Was a Roman in Your Garden imagines the opening of a time capsule buried by a Roman child, using the objects inside it to explore different aspects of the Roman world while considering how archaeologists work, and how to critically evaluate historical sources.

Read on to discover our Review Panel’s top new children’s books for you to read in September 2025.

It’s easy to feel lost in the flood of so many new children’s books available. Each month, our Review Panel reads scores of new books and we highlight five of our recently published favourites.

This month, our panel of experienced teachers, librarians and children’s book experts has carefully selected five outstanding titles for you to read, with plenty of options to read on holiday! There’s something for all young readers in this list, including poetry, a picturebook and three chapter books.

Beautifully illustrated by Junli Song, Zaro Weils’s new poetry collection, I Hear the Trees, is sometimes serious, sometimes whimsical, with enchanting, nature-inspired poems which explore a range of emotions and themes. Our reviewer recommended this collection as “a springboard for… activities that engage children in literature and nature.”

For younger readers, Peter Brown’s bestselling The Wild Robot has been adapted into an accessible, colour picture book, The Wild Robot on the Island. With atmospheric illustrations which bring the island and its creatures vividly to life, our Review Panel highly recommended this book, describing it as “a rare find: an emotionally intelligent, wildly imaginative, and quietly powerful book that sparks both conversation and curiosity.”

There’s plenty of choice for KS2 and KS3 readers in this month’s list. Fans of intrigue and adventure will love Jasbinder Bilan’s gothic musical mystery, Naeli and the Secret Song, and Marie-Louise Fitzpatrick’s fast-paced fantasy, The Museum of Lost Umbrellas. Abena Eyeson’s story of athletics, family relationships and resilience, Running My Own Race, is recommended by our reviewer as “an engaging yet easy read from start to finish and will inspire young readers to stand up for what they want and to follow their dreams.”

Discover our Review Panel’s top new children’s books for you to read in August 2025.

It’s easy to feel lost in the flood of so many new children’s books available. Each month, our Review Panel reads scores of new books and we highlight five of our recently published favourites.

This month, our panel of experienced teachers, librarians and children’s book experts has carefully selected five outstanding titles for you to read, with something for all young readers including two picturebooks – one of them a non-fiction title – alongside three chapter books.

This month’s list features plenty of options to read on holiday! Best friends Sandy and Lily join forces to save Sandy’s seaside home in Martin Stewart’s brilliantly illustrated Sandy Fin: Operation Splash Landing, described by our Review Panel as a “seaside-pun-filled page-turner, perfect for reading on a summer holiday”. Andy Shepherd’s The Wood Where Magic Grows – a brilliant new story from the Boy Who Grew Dragons author – is praised by our reviewer as a “gentle, magical story that… inspires discussion and encourages children to never stop being curious”. And while these two titles are best suited to a KS2 audience, older readers will love Shadow Thieves, a new fantasy adventure from Peter Burns set in an alternative-timeline London.

For younger readers, this month’s selection includes two picturebooks. Fact-packed and colourfully illustrated, our Review Panel love The Great Pollination Investigation for its “great mix of scientific detail and engaging story-telling”. Vibrant illustrations also feature in I’m Going to Make a Friend, a thought-provoking discussion-starter about friendships and change.

Discover our Review Panel’s top new children’s books for you to read in July 2025.