The best books for siblings to read together

Illustrated by Catherine Rayner

A gorgeous picture book by Julia Donaldson and award-winning illustrator Catherine Rayner, The Go-Away Bird is a tale of friendship and working together, written in Julia’s trademark rhyming verse.

One by one, the other birds fly into her tree, wanting to talk or to play, but the Go-Away bird just shakes her head and sends them all away. But then the dangerous Get-You bird comes along, and she soon realizes that she might need some friends after all . . .

Siblings everywhere will love joining the search for Harriet and her spotty dress in Where Is Your Sister? Packed with eye-catching illustrations (with lots of details for children to spot), an eclectic cast of characters plus lots of twin mischief, this is a brilliantly funny new children's book to add to your bookshelf this year.

Award-winning writer Swapna Haddow and bestselling artist Dapo Adeola bring you a fun story about a boy with a fabulous imagination. Is his mum actually a lioness? She loves her little cubs, she runs faster than anybody and she is ready to pounce at any moment for cuddles. Plus she has a loud roar! And when the cubs are upset, their warm protective mother is there to make them feel better . . . What else could she be but a lioness? This is the fab follow-up to My Dad is a Grizzly Bear.

Down in the sewers, the alligator investigators have a brand new mission. Agent Brash is in a coma and the technicians have replaced him with RoboBrash! Mango and the robot set out to stop giant ants which are rampaging through the city. But the ants aren't the only bugs causing trouble – there are a few bugs in RoboBrash's system, and they are adding to the hilarity and chaos.

Not content with their giant catapult, tank of man-eating sharks and marshmallow shooting machine, in the second book in the Treehouse series Andy and Terry have added thirteen brand-new levels to their treehouse. Join them for a laugh-out-loud adventure, complete with a dodgem-car rink, an ice-cream-serving robot, and lots of unexpected escapades!

There are times when Erika Delgano gets little angry . . . 

Sometimes her brother ruins her play, and sometimes her parents haven't got time to make a fuss of her. One night she falls asleep feeling angry, and gets stuck in a dream where she can't get home and is being chased by the Angermare! To the rescue come the Dream Defenders, top-secret agents who get rid of your worries while you sleep! Can they help Erika defeat the Angermare?

Esha Verma, her snotty apprentice Broccoli and his cunning pet tortoise have a dream. They are going to win the legendary Brain Trophy – the ultimate inventing prize. This year's entry: A TIME MACHINE. But the day before the competition, Esha's IGNORAMUS big sister hijacks the time machine and gets lost in the Cretaceous age. With help from a new recruit for The Office of Time, Esha and Broccoli will have to face hungry dinosaurs, mysterious black holes and malfunctioning inventions to get them back in time . . .

Drawing feels like magic to Peanut Jones. But art can't fix her problems. Her dad has gone missing, and she's stuck in a boring new school where the teachers hate her doodling, St Hubert’s School for the Seriously Scientific and Terminally Mathematic. Everything seems bothersome, until the day she finds a magic pencil and is suddenly pulled into a world packed with more colour, creativity, excitement and danger than she could ever have imagined. And maybe, just maybe, she might find out what happened to her dad.

Allie Esiri brings you 366 of the world's most spellbinding verse writers in this gorgeous anthology. Whether reading aloud or just sharing with loved ones, discover exciting new writers alongside some familiar favourites. Shakespeare, William Wordsworth, Christina Rossetti and Emily Bronte sit alongside Roger McGough, Wendy Cope, Imtiaz Dharker, Leonard Cohen, Sylvia Plath and Ocean Vuong. Each poem sits alongside a small introduction to the writer, providing biographical details and the odd quirky anecdote. A stunning collection to make poetry part of your daily routine.