28 November 2024
Reading is one of the great joys of life. It’s informative, uplifting, entertaining, and yes, fun. Even better, research has found that children who read for pleasure are likely to be healthier and happier, to develop creativity and empathy and to do better at school.
As the festive season approaches, we have come up with a selection of books to buy for children this Christmas – from a story about a set of unruly crayons to a life-affirming tale about a girl with a stammer. Some titles are newly published, others are much-loved classics – but our choices are a delightful mix of adventure, inventiveness, mischief, positive role models and most important of all, readability. In other words, there’s something to suit every taste.
Picture books for nursery and pre-school children
Discovering the magic of books at this age can set children on the path to being avid readers later on. Pre-schoolers love sharing pictures and stories, the funnier the better.
The Day the Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt and Oliver Jeffers is one of our favourites – the tale of a little boy who opens his crayons box one day to discover a bundle of letters. The notes are from the crayons themselves – and they’re not happy. Beige reckons Brown gets all the best colouring work (like bears, ponies and puppies), White is fed up with only colouring in snow and Blue is ‘short and stubby’ from being used too much. It’s an absolute hoot.
Don’t miss the hilarious Dogs Don’t Do Ballet, Anna Kemp and Sara Ogilvie’s story of a small dog with a big personality. Biff doesn’t scratch his fleas or wee on lampposts. He’s far more interested in gazing at the moonlight, listening to music and dreaming about ballet. To put it bluntly, he doesn’t think he’s a dog!
Emily Sutton is one of our most talented illustrators and she’s teamed up with Jonathan Freedland to create King Winter’s Birthday, a fairy tale of the four seasons inspired by an unpublished story by the German novelist Ulrich Alexander Boschwitz. It’s stunning to look at but it’s also a great way of explaining the four reasons to young children.
Books for primary school children
This is the age when children are discovering books for themselves – and there’s a wealth of absorbing reads to choose from.
Newly confident readers should definitely read The Tiger who Came to Tea, Judith Kerr’s timeless classic. First published in 1968, it’s the tale of a little girl called Sophie, who’s sitting down to tea with her mum when a large stripy tiger arrives at the front door to join them. But is there enough food in the house for everyone?
When the Stammer Came to Stay is novelist Maggie O’Farrell’s third children’s book, a powerful and life-affirming story based on her own experience of living with a stammer. Sisters Bea and Min couldn’t be more different – Bea neat and tidy, Min messy and chaotic. Then one day Min can’t articulate her words anymore and the only person who can help her is Bea.
We’re big fans of the enchanting Little People, Big Dreams series for children. Written by Maria Isabel Sanchez Vegara and aimed at five to eight-year-olds, these beautifully illustrated books tell the stories of famous people who achieved remarkable things. More than 100 have been published so far, including Mozart, Anne Frank, Stephen Hawking and Amelia Earhart. The latest, on Vincent Van Gogh, is a beauty, relating how he grew up in a Dutch village, preferred painting outside and was mostly unrecognised until after his death.
Children in the upper years of primary school will love Cobweb, the latest animal adventure from the ultra-prolific Michael Morpurgo. Set in 1815 and inspired by the true story of the French Drummer Boy at the Battle of Waterloo, it’s a heartwarming tale of the bond between a girl and her dog, with a dollop of history thrown in for good measure.
Stories for secondary school children
Robin Stevens’s bestselling murder mysteries have been described as Enid Blyton meets Agatha Christie. The first in the series, Murder Most Unladylike, sees two pupils at Deepdean School for Girls (loosely based on Cheltenham Ladies’ College, the author’s old school) setting up their own secret detective agency. There’s also a companion volume, The Most Unladylike Puzzle Book, for budding sleuths to test their mystery solving and code cracking skills.
Do you remember The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett’s story of an orphaned girl who is sent to England after living in India all her life? Now writer Anthea Simmons has updated the tale to mark the centenary of Hodgson Burnett’s death. In the new version - The Secret Garden Rewilded - spoilt young Mia loses her parents in a helicopter crash and is whisked to a remote Dartmoor mansion to live with her uncle and cousin but finds an unexpected love of nature and wildlife.
Allie Esiri is passionate about poetry and has compiled a host of fabulous anthologies. This year she’s produced A Poem for Every Day of Christmas, a collection of poems for each day of December. From TS Eliot’s Journey of the Magi to Benjamin Zephaniah’s Talking Turkeys, it’s a feast of delights that will enchant children of all ages.
Novels for teenagers
Teens of 13 and up will enjoy The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Muriel Spark’s celebrated story of an outspoken teacher whose unconventional ideas put her at odds with staff at an Edinburgh school. Written more than 60 years ago, it’s a book that still resonates. Publisher Barrington Stoke has produced an edition in a dyslexia-friendly format that is accessible for all readers.
I Capture the Castle, Dodie Smith’s captivating novel about an impoverished, bohemian family who live in a crumbling castle in the middle of nowhere, was first published in 1949 but has definitely stood the test of time. ‘I write this sitting in the kitchen sink' – how can anyone resist a first line like that?
When Anthony McGowan started writing Brock, his gritty account of two teenage brothers whose father turns to drink when their mother walks out, he never envisaged he’d produce three more books about the siblings. ‘But each time I typed “The End” I had a feeling that somehow Nicky and Kenny’s story was unfinished,’ he says. The Truth of Things is a collected edition of the first three novellas in one volume, a moving account of brotherly love, sharing adventures and appreciating the natural world.