Ages two to five
Dear Zoo
Author: Rod Campbell.
What: A child writes to the zoo for a pet. The zoo sends a series of unsuitable pets, revealed behind flaps in the form of crates and packing cases. These animals are all sent back for different reasons, except the last one which is perfect. Dear Zoo is 25 years old and is still as popular as ever.
The four-year-old says: My granny and grandpa have this book in their house in London and they always read it to me when I am there so it reminds me of them. It has fun flaps you can lift up. I’d like a pet tiger, I think that would be fun – as long as he didn’t eat me.
What’s your Favourite Animal?
Author & illustrator: Eric Carle.
What: Everyone has a favourite animal and in this book fourteen famous picture book artists draw their own favourite animals
and explain what it is about them that they love. What is your favourite animal? Can you draw it?
The four-year-old says: My favourite animal is a unicorn, nobody says a unicorn in the book, but one person says a horse and I like those too. Mummy and I have read this about 180 times and I love it because the pictures are pretty and I like animals a lot. I have tried to draw some of them and they are nearly as good as the ones in the book.
The Giant Jumperee
Author: Julia Donaldson.
Illustrator: Helen Oxenbury.
What: Julia Donaldson’s charming tale, beautifully illustrated by Helen Oxenbury, is destined to become a classic. This non-rhyming text is a change for the talented author but the story will hold young bookworms spellbound and begging for more.
The four-year-old says: This is my new favourite book. I am going to take it into school to share with my friends in my class because I think my teacher will like reading it to us all. And we can all shout ‘I’m the giant jumperee and I’m as scary as can be!,’ which will be fun. I thought that the animal in the cave might be scary like the Gruffalo, but he is very cute and clever and also funny. The drawings of the animals are nice because they have sweet faces. I would like to meet the bunny one day.
There’s a monster in your book
Author: Tom Fletcher.
Illustrator: Greg Abbott.
What: This is a great book to read aloud and really holds youngsters attention until the very end. An interactive picture book that invites children to spin, tilt and shake the book, scare the monster by shouting “boo”, tickle his foot and help him off to sleep by stroking his head. Perfect for bedtime.
The four-year-old says: There really is a little monster in my book. Don’t worry though because he is a very friendly, happy monster who won’t hurt you. He is blue, very funny and very cute, but he is a little bit naughty. The book tells me to get rid of the monster, but then he will end up in my bedroom and I’m not sure that I want him there either.
Ages five to eight
The Dinky Donkey
Author: Craig Smith.
What: The laugh-out-loud follow-up to the viral sensation The Wonky Donkey is finally here. The Wonky Donkey has a daughter in this hilarious picture book sequel to the runaway hit. Wonky Donkey had a child, it was a little girl. Hee Haw.
The six-year-old says: I like rhyming books, and this one is really funny. When mummy reads me and my sister the story, we get to shout out Hee Haw in the right bits on lots of the pages.
Mr. Penguin and the Lost Treasure
Author & Illustrator: Alex T. Smith.
What: Mr. Penguin is an adventurer and a hero. Indiana Jones meets Hercule Poirot in this new series packed with slapstick humour, mystery and adventure. Striking illustrations throughout.
The six-year-old says: I have just started reading proper chapter books at school because I went up a level in my reading. This book is about an adventurer penguin and his assistant, Colin the spider. It’s a chapter book, so I can read it myself now, but it also has lots of funny pictures too, which I also like. I giggled a lot when I was reading this book to my mummy and she giggled a lot too.
The Magic Faraway Tree
Author: Enid Blyton.
What: Beloved author Enid Blyton wrote over 500 children’s books selling over 600 million copies in 40 languages and becoming one of the most popular children’s authors of all time. The Faraway Tree is the first in a series of five books about three siblings who discover a community of strange and mystical creatures who live in a magical tree. The adventures of the different lands they encounter when they climb to the very top branches are exciting and will have kids gripped.
The six-year-old says: I had read Malory Towers by Enid Blyton and mummy said I should try reading this one too. It is a great book full of magical things. It has funny characters like Moon-Face, Saucepan Man and Silky the Fairy I wish I could try pop cakes and toffee shocks.
Matilda
Author: Roald Dahl.
What: Roald Dahl›s Matilda won the Children’s Book Award shortly after it was published in 1988, and it has continued to delight little readers ever since. Matilda is a child prodigy inexplicably born to the uncouth Wormwoods. At school, she encounters the perfect teacher Miss Honey – who immediately recognises her gifts – and the tyrannical headmistress Miss Trunchbull. Matilda conspires to bring down the evil headmistress using her new-found telekinetic powers.
The six-year-old says: This is the first ever Roald Dahl book I read and I love it so much I’ve read it about ten times. I also love the film, which really does the book justice. Matilda is brilliant and Mrs Trunchbull is so mean, but the things she does make me laugh a lot.
Ages ten and over
Bloom
Author: Nicola Skinner.
What: Sorrel Fallowfield is so good at being good that teachers come to her when they need help remembering the school rules – and there are LOTS.
Luckily, Sorrel doesn’t have any trouble following them, until the day she discovers a faded packet of Surprising Seeds buried under a tree in her backyard.
Now she’s hearing voices, seeing things, experiencing an almost unstoppable urge to plant the Seeds in some very unusual places… and completely failing to win her school’s competition to find The Most Obedient Child of the School. And all that’s before flowers start growing out of her head…
The eleven-year-old says: I love the writing style, it just flows really well. I just couldn’t stop reading it because I had to know what would happen to the seeds, and to find out how it would all end. I would definitely recommend it, it’s a fun book about magic, friendship, and nature, oh and with a couple of baddies thrown in, too.
Malamander
Author: Thomas Taylor.
What: This delightfully spooky fantasy series opener for big kids and tweens drips with charm and chills, thanks to sprinklings of magic, humour, and mystery along with a dash of steampunk.
The eleven-year-old says: These kinds of books are my favourite, they are a little bit spooky and quite funny. I would say maybe don’t read it at night if you get scared easily. The characters are so cool and have great names like Herbert Lemon (like sherbert), Miss Violet Parma and Ambergriss. The settings in the hotel and the eerie seaside town are brilliant too. Discovering all about the mystery of the terrifying legend of the Malamander is made even better by a boat hook man, a mermonkey and a talking cat. Love this book.
The Boy at the Back of the Class
Author: Onjali Rauf.
What: Told with heart and humour, The Boy at the Back of the Class is a child›s perspective on the refugee crisis, highlighting the importance of friendship and kindness in a world that doesn›t always make sense. The author highlights the importance of friendship and kindness in a world that makes little sense and it leaves the reader full of hope that goodness will always triumph.
The eleven-year-old says: I really enjoyed the fact that the story is told from the point of view of a child, especially as he is the pretty much the same age as me. I thought that made it engaging and I couldn’t put it down. I finished it in two days. I like how a group of kids in Ahmet’s class become his friends and then try to help him. He isn’t the person they all think he is going to be, which teaches us that we can’t make an assumption based on just seeing someone for the first time.
The Many Worlds of Albie Bright
Author: Christopher Edge
What it’s about: Like many comedies this book is based around a tragedy. Albie’s mother, a particle-physicist, died two weeks before the start of the book, and he is searching for a world where can talk to her again.
The ten-year-old says: A friend at school told me to read this as he said I would really enjoy it and he was right. The boy who tells the story is ten, the same age as me. Both of the boy’s parents are scientists, which is why he is called Albert Einstein. It is a sad book as the little boy’s mummy has died so when his daddy starts talking about parallel universes he decides to carry out an experiment that uses a rotten banana, his mummy’s computer, a box and the neighbour’s cat. As well as being a fun story, it also teaches kids a lot about science.
