Children's Book Club 2025
Each year our panel recommends children’s books on different themes and for different age groups and will feature old favourites, classics, new releases, books you can borrow from the library and books to delight the whole family.
This year we have recommendations from three authors:
Frank Cottrell-Boyce - award-winning author and screenwriter and the current Waterstones Children’s Laureate.
Cressida Cowell - author and illustrator of the bestselling How to Train Your Dragon, The Wizards of Once and Which Way to Anywhere.
Katherine Rundell - award-winning author of Impossible Creatures, Super-Infinite, The Golden Mole, Rooftoppers and more.
Books for babies
Frank:
So Much - Trish Cooke and Helen Oxenbury
Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes - Mem Fox and Helen Oxenbury
What do people do all day? - Richard Scarry
Goodnight Moon - Margaret Wise Brown
Don’t Trust Fish - Neil Sharpson and Dan Santat
Katherine:
The Brambly Hedge books - Jill Barklem
Cockatoos - Quentin Blake
The Good Little Wolf - Nadia Shireen
Heroes and Heroines
Frank:
Anne of Green Gables - Lucy Maud Montgomery
Boss of the Underworld - Tor Freeman
Truckers – Terry Pratchett
Princess Bride - William Goldman
The Night Bus Hero - Onjali Rauf
Cressida:
Orangeboy - Patrice Lawrence
Murder Most Unladylike - Robin Stevens
Pippi Longstocking - Astrid Lindgren
The Lion Inside - Rachel Bright
Families
Frank:
So Much - Trish Cooke, illustrated Helen Oxenbury
Wished - Lissa Evans
Keep Dancing, Lizzie Chu - Maisie Chan
The Jungle Book – Rudyard Kipling
Cressida:
One - Sarah Crossan
Saffy’s Angel - Hilary McKay
Sputnik’s Guide to life on Earth - Frank Cottrell-Boyce, illustrated by Steven Lenton
We’re Going to Find the Monster! - Dapo Adeola and Malorie Blackman
Holidays
Frank:
There’s a Beach in my Pants - Michelle Harrison and David Tazzyman
The Twelve - Liz Hyder
Worst Holiday Ever - Charlie Higson. Illustrated by Warwick Johnson-Cadwell
Cressida:
Meerkat Mail - Emily Gravett
Kofi and the Rap Battle Summer - Jeffrey Boakye and illustrated by Beth Suzanna
The New Famous Five - Chris Smith and illustrated by James Lancett
Journey to the River Sea - Eva Ibbotson
Father Christmas goes on Holiday - Raymond Briggs
Treasured books that stay with you forever
Frank:
Just William series – Richmal Crompton
Naples ’44 – Norman Lewis
I Spy series – Jean Marzollo
The Guinness Book of World Records
Katherine:
The Story of Tracy Beaker – Jacqueline Wilson
The Weirdstone of Brisingamen - Alan Garner
Giovanni’s Room - James Baldwin
The sea
Katherine:
Oona - Kelly Dipucchio, illustrated by Raissa Figueroa
Moominpappa at Sea - Tove Jansson
Moby Dick - Herman Melville
Frank:
Kon-Tiki - Thor Heyerdahl
Kensuke's Kingdom - Michael Morpurgo
The Big Book of the Blue - Yuval Zommer
A Wizard of Earthsea - Ursula K Le Guin
Thrillers
Katherine:
The Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
High Rise Mystery - Sharna Jackson
Not Now Bernard - David McKee
Frank:
My Teacher is a Diamond Thief - Pamela Butchart
The Satsuma Complex – Bob Mortimer
The Wheel Spins - Ethel Lina White
I Want my Hat Back - Jon Klassen
Books for reluctant readers
Katherine:
True Grit – Charles Portis (One for reluctant adult readers – Frank also recommends the audiobook version)
Chronicles of a Lizard Nobody – Patrick Ness
For younger children: Nadia Shireen’s Geoffrey Gets the Jitters
Frank:
Audiobook of Just William (narrated by Martin Jarvis)
The Colour of Magic – Terry Pratchett
Journey Under the Sea – R. A. Montgomery (One of Pushkin Press’s reissued classic Choose Your Own Adventure books)
Biographies
Katherine:
Up in the Old Hotel - Joseph Mitchell (for adults)
Vincent - Barbara Stok (for teens)
Astronauts: Women on the Final Frontier - Jim Ottaviani and Maris Wicks (For any age, both kids 8+ and adults)
Frank:
Catherine Johnson’s Queen of Freedom (for children - all of the Catherine Johnson’s biographies are worth a read)
Corpse Talk - Adam Murphy (for children)
Edith Nesbitt - Eleanor Fitzsimmons (for adults)
Stealing Speed - Mat Oxley (for adults but is out of print. It may be available in libraries)
Books by authors who have crossed from adult to children’s fiction and vice versa
Katherine:
The Lion and the Puppy, and Other Stories for Children - Leo Tolstoy
The Summer Book - Tove Jansson
Little Man, Little Man - James Baldwin
Frank:
Roald Dahl’s books
The Little Prince - Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Winnie The Pooh - A.A.Milne
