Brilliant books to get kids reading for pleasure
Eight recommended reads for toddlers to teenagers from Frank Cottrell-Boyce, the current Children's Laureate.
Recent research by the National Literary Trust has shown that two in three children and young people don’t enjoy reading – and that they're missing out on the opportunity to build vital skills as a result, as well as just the sheer joy of reading a great book. 'We know that children who read for pleasure, and children who are read to, gain all kinds of benefits. From increased vocabulary to vastly improved mental wellbeing,' says Children’s Laureate and author Frank Cottrell-Boyce, who has made it the mission of his laureateship to start a national conversation about the role books and reading can play in transforming children’s lives.
A great way to encourage the reading habit in children is by introducing them to some really good books. Here are eight brilliant recommendations from Frank Cottrell-Boyce himself to help get the child in your life reading for pleasure.
Dear Zoo
by Rod Campbell
You can’t start too early! A great picture book isn’t a meal, it’s a recipe. And Dear Zoo is a cordon bleu recipe for fun. If you do all the noises and movements you can make it last for hours. Under all the fun is a book about patience and frustration (the zoo just keeps on sending the wrong animal).
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Read moreSo Much
by Trish Cooke and Helen Oxenbury
For ages 1 – 4
Another one for younger readers. They weren’t doing much, Mum and the Baby. . . but then, bit by bit, the whole family – cousins, aunts, uncles, grandmas – gathers to hug, kiss and squeeze the baby. A song of a book. We first read it to our kids twenty-five years ago but still find phrases from it dropping into our conversation like favourite tunes. Helen Oxenbury's illustrations are gorgeous and full of character.
The Skull
by Jon Klassen
5 - 9 years
When it comes to getting children to enjoy reading, I can absolutely promise you that this one works. I read it to a particularly rambunctious class of boys, who sat in rapt silence while I read the first chapter, then got happily vociferous about what they though might happen next. Then they went very quiet again while I read on. It’s based on an old, very macabre, folk tale about a runaway girl and a skull. It’s twisty, dark, funny and beautifully illustrated.
Baby Aliens Got My Teacher
by Pamela Butchart
ages 7 - 9
Pamela Butchart writes short funny books that are ideal for children starting to enjoy books on their own. This one is part of a series about a girl called Izzy and her friends. You only need to look at the titles in the series to see that they’re nothing but fun. Who could resist with a title like “To Wee or not to Wee” (it’s about the school play) or Attack of the Demon Dinner Ladies.
The 13-Storey Treehouse
by Andy Griffiths
Books with lots of illustrations are great for reluctant readers. There are many brilliant ones around now – for instance Bunny vs Monkey or the Loki books – but the Treehouse books are the grandaddies of them all. A good book can whisk you off to a new world and the treehouse is surely one of the most attractive and original of all fictional worlds. Like an arboreal TARDIS, it’s bigger on the inside. A treehouse with a bowling alley, a shark tank, an underground laboratory, and a marshmallow machine that shoots marshmallows into your mouth when it sees that you are hungry. And that was when it was humble thirteen storeys. Now it’s 169 (at the last count)!
Hamza's Wild World
by Hamza Yassin
You don’t have to love fiction to enjoy books. When I was a child some of my favourite books were books of information – whether that was about history, the natural world, rockets or football. Hamza is a familiar figure from children’s TV (and from Strictly!) but he started out as a wildlife cameraman, so he really knows what he’s talking about when he writes about meeting a cheetah or a polar bear face to face.
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
by Lewis Carroll
Make time to read a classic. Ideas and images, and puzzles and puns from Alice in Wonderland pepper our culture. But go back to the source and see where they first popped into life. Alice is a dizzying crash course in different ways to think. It’s also funny, wise, scary and unforgettable. There is nothing else in the world like it.
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Illustrated Edition)
by Chris Riddell
The first grown-up book you fall in love with stays with you forever, so make sure you fall in love with the right one. The Hitchhiker series is arguably the funniest, most brain teasingly brilliant series of books ever written. They’re bursting with ideas that you’ll find yourself going back to years after you’ve read them. Chris Riddell's illustrations are of course funnier, stranger and more beautiful than even the biggest brain in the universe could imagine.
Don't miss the latest book from Frank Cottrell-Boyce
The Blockbusters!
by Frank Cottrell-Boyce
Lights, camera, chaos! The Blockbusters! is a laugh-out-loud adventure bursting with heart and Hollywood hijinks. When new boy Rafa and his friends stumble onto the set of a blockbuster movie, Rafa’s uncanny resemblance to a famous star catapults him into the spotlight – complete with VIP treatment and unlimited doughnuts! But amidst the glitz and glamour, Rafa has a mission: to find his missing brother, Cillian, who’s left a mysterious clue. Illustrated by Steven Lenton, this action-packed, warm-hearted tale is perfect for readers who love adventure, comedy, and a touch of movie magic!
