Recommended children's booklists sorted by age or topic

Topic: Reluctant Readers Lower KS2

Meet Toto: she’s no ordinary cat, and she can’t wait to have an adventure with you! From one of the UK’s best-loved broadcasters, purrfect for fans of The Aristocats, The Secret Life of Pets and Atticus Claw Breaks the Law.

Toto the cat and her brother Silver live footloose and fancy-free in a townhouse in London. Toto is almost totally blind, and learned to trust her senses from a ninja cat-master who taught her back in Italy where they were born. By day, Toto and Silver seem to be ordinary cats, but by night, they love to have adventures!

One evening, news reaches Toto that a king cobra has escaped from London Zoo! Together with help from a very posh cat and two hungry tigers, Toto and Silver must investigate. Can they find the giant snake, before it’s too late?

Ideal for reading aloud or for children to curl up with and read alone, the story features brilliant black and white illustrations throughout. With gentle themes of friendship, inclusivity and winning in the face of adversity, this is a hilarious must-read for all animal-loving kids!

Chapter book

Laugh-out-loud and fully illustrated Ninja Kid is the start of a brand new series from bestselling comedian Anh Do!

Nelson is a nerd! Unfit, uncool…totally awkward! But when he wakes up on his tenth birthday, he discovers he is a NINJA! THE LAST NINJA ON EARTH! How is he going to save the world when he cannot even get his undies on the right way?! With the help of Grandmas inventions and his wild cousin Kenny, can Nelson master his new ninja skills AND save Duck Creek?

This illustrated chapter book about a flying pony is just so endearing and very entertaining. As you’d expect from this author-illustrator dream team that brought us Cakes in Space and Oliver and the Seawigs, this story is amusingly original at every turn and is overflowing with the feel-good factor. Kevin is a flying pony who lives on the Outermost West hills and loves biscuits (especially custard creams). One day, a wild storm brings Kevin roly-polying through the air and crashing into Max’s flat in the town of Bumbleford. Max has always wanted a pet and is delighted by Kevin’s arrival…

An action-packed comic series from best-selling author Guy Bass, perfect for fans of My Brother is a Superhero, The Astounding Broccoli Boy and Astrosaurs
Top spy-entists put the mind of a secret agent inside the body of a dinosaur to create the first ever Super Secret Agent Dinosaur. His codename: Spynosaur. Together with his daughter Amber, this prehistoric hero protects the world from villainy. When Department 6 learn that all-round bad egg-head and criminal mastermind Ergo Ego has created a super-secret weapon known only as the McGuffin, there’s only one person for the job. Can Spynosaur find this weapon of mass mischief and put a stop to Ego’s nefarious plans – preferably without blowing everything up…?

Dog lost in space? Grown an extra head and don’t know why? Pocket money stolen by a green blob? You need the Space Detectives!

Connor and Ethan are spending their summer holidays aboard the world’s first orbiting city, Starville (basically Beverley Hills in space!). The amazing space station is bursting with celebrities and the mega-rich. But Connor and Ethan are too busy selling ice cream to see the sights.

However, neither of our heroes can resist a mystery and when they discover the space station is hurtling on a collision course with the moon (eep!) they know they need to step in. This is a case for the SPACE DETECTIVES!

Can Connor and Ethan find the culprit and save Starville from its impending doom?

If you’ve ever wanted to know what a panda does all day long, how your heart manages to shift all that blood around your body or what makes a rainbow shine, you’ve come to the right book.

A Day in the Life of a Poo, a Gnu and You features the answers to all of these questions and many more, all told in a super-fun comic book format in three awesome sections: Human Body, Animal Kingdom and Earth and Science. A Day in the Life… is packed with facts, laughs and amazing illustrations you can dive into all day long.

Meet your grumpy liver that has to do practically EVERYTHING; your trusty hands that are very, well, handy; the spiky porcupines ready to charge; lonely Mars rovers abandoned on the Red Planet; raging tornadoes ready to rip through the pages of the book and bubbly volcanoes ready to blow.

All entries are told in the fun, friendly and informative style of Mike Barfield, and are brought to life by the colour-explosion of Jess Bradley’s awesome illustrations.

They sound like the Bad Guys, they look like the Bad Guys… and they even smell like the Bad Guys.

But Mr Wolf, Mr Piranha, Mr Snake and Mr Shark are about to change all of that – whether you want them to or not!

Mr Wolf has a daring plan for the Bad Guys’ first good mission. The gang are going to break 200 dogs out of the Maximum Security City Dog Pound. Will Operation Dog Pound go smoothly? Will the Bad Guys become the Good Guys? And will Mr Snake please stop swallowing Mr Piranha?

The Bad Guys next mission? Rescue 10,000 chickens from a high-tech cage farm. But they are up against sizzling lasers, one feisty tarantula, and their very own Mr. Snake…who’s also known as “The Chicken Swallower.” What could possibly go wrong?

Get ready to laugh up your lunch with the baddest bunch of do-gooders in town!

Come with Claude on a smashing adventure! These waggy tales are perfect for new readers, with illustrations on every page. As seen on TV – Claude is the star of his very own TV show!

When Mr and Mrs Shinyshoes set off for work, Claude decides what adventure he wants to have that day. Today he and Sir Bobblysock go to the city for the very first time. They have tea in a cafe, go shopping and visit a museum. It is all very normal until … Claude accidentally foils a robbery and becomes the local hero!

Henry’s got a secret … a big one!
And he doesn’t know what to do with it.
Grandpa suggests he should keep it under his hat – and he’s got just the hat for the job. But when Henry puts it on he discovers that Grandpa has some secrets of his own!
A lyrical and heart-warming story celebrating the magical bond between a child and a grandparent, with full colour illustrations on every page.

Laugh-out-loud school-based fun in two-colour stories, perfect for encouraging independent reading!

Three short stories in each book keep just confident readers engaged while lively two-colour illustrations bring these hilarious early readers to life and perfectly bridge the gap between picture books and chapter books.

Written by the bestselling, Blue Peter award-winning author Pamela Butchart and illustrated by Becka Moor.

Three more stories of primary school mayhem as 2F set out to solve the real mysteries of life. Does the classroom hamster have magical powers? When Lauren swallows a fly, will she ACTUALLY turn into one? And who, or what, is ROBOT BOY?

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