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.
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 for reluctant readers
Katherine Rundell:
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 Cottrell-Boyce:
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)
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 by Michelle Harrison and David Tazzyman
The Twelve by Liz Hyder
Worst Holiday Ever by Charlie Higson and illustrated by Warwick Johnson-Cadwell
Cressida:
Meerkat Mail by Emily Gravett
Kofi and the Rap Battle Summer by Jeffrey Boakye and illustrated by Beth Suzanna
The New Famous Five by Chris Smith and illustrated by James Lancett
Journey to the River Sea by Eva Ibbotson
Father Christmas goes on Holiday by Raymond Briggs
