The best children's books for the summer

Here are our pick of the best books children will enjoy during the long lazy summer days.


Busy Airport

Book cover for Busy Airport

Perfect for children aged 0 - 2 years

With lots to see and heaps to do, in Busy Airport children really can join in by pushing, pulling and turning the tabs to bring the airport to life. Watch luggage going round the conveyor belt, the helicopter and planes take off, and wave goodbye to the passengers. Children will love playing with this bright and colourful board book with gentle rhyming text and wonderful illustrations.

TIP TAP Went the Crab

Book cover for TIP TAP Went the Crab

Perfect for children aged 0 - 2 years

When a curious little crab tip-taps out of her rock pool to explore the big blue sea, she discovers a world full of wonderful creatures. But after she's counted everything from one noisy seagull and two sleepy sea lions to nine silent sharks at the bottom of the sea, the little crab soon realizes that her very own rock pool is the most amazing place of all. And so she tip-taps happily home.

Dinosaur Roar!

Book cover for Dinosaur Roar!

Perfect for children aged 0 - 2 years

Every dinosaur in Dinosaur Roar! is accurately depicted and the book carries the endorsement of the Palaeontology Department at the Natural History Museum. The rhyming text and eye-catching illustrations are ideal for very youngest of dinosaur fans.

My First London Sticker Book

Book cover for My First London Sticker Book

Perfect for children aged 3 -5 years
Complete with a carry handle, postcards to send and over 250 stickers, My First London Sticker Book is the ideal companion on a trip to London, or for any child to enjoy the excitement of the big city. Packed with activities from colouring to completing London scenes, My First London Sticker Book promises to keep young children very busy while they find out about London's landmarks.


Dick and Dom's Slightly Naughty but Very Silly Words

by Richard McCourt

Perfect for children aged  6 - 8 years

Dobbawoofsinit: A person who has trumped and blamed the dog.

Germ Rain: The little bits of spit that some teachers do when they're talking.

Dick and Dom's Slightly Naughty But Very Silly Words! is a collection of their brilliant made-up words and phrases. Filled with the silliest words and definitions imaginable, and illustrated with glorious line drawings, this is a hilarious book children will come back to again and again.

Llama United

Book cover for Llama United

Perfect for children aged 6 - 8 years

What happens when eleven llamas unknowingly eat the ashes of one of the greatest footballers of all time? They become brilliant at football, of course! Managed by eleven-year-old Tim, his unusual friend Cairo and Scottish World Cup-winner McCloud, Llama United goes on an amazing cup run. But who wants to lose to a team of stupid llamas? Nobody, that's who!

Rival teams will do anything in their power to stop Llama United in its tracks. When the best cup in the world is at stake, football can be a nasty old business...

Lucy Locket: Online Disaster

Book cover for Lucy Locket: Online Disaster

Perfect for children aged 9 - 11 years

It's bad enough having to move house, school and country all at the same time, without making a fool of yourself on the first day of term. But that's just what Lucy's done - and one of her classmates has videoed the whole thing and put it online!

Lucy's so stressed, her stammer's become worse than ever. So when a friend encourages her to create her own videos, she thinks it's a terrible idea! But when Lucy finally gives vlogging a try, she's amazed to find that people actually want to watch...

Spirit of the Jungle

by Bear Grylls

Perfect for children aged 9 - 11 years

After being washed away down the Wainganga River during a flash flood, Mak wakes up alone in the Indian jungle. The jungle is full of danger and every step Mak takes might be his last. Mak finds help and friendship from other jungle creatures, but he will need all his skill and luck to survive and make his way back home.

Spirit of the Jungle is inspired by Rudyard Kipling's classic The Jungle Book, from real-life adventurer Bear Grylls.

The 78-Storey Treehouse

by Andy Griffiths

Book cover for The 78-Storey Treehouse

Perfect for children aged 9 -11 years

Join Andy and Terry in their spectacular new 78-storey treehouse. They've added 13 new levels including a drive-thru car wash, a combining machine, a scribbletorium, an ALL-BALL sports stadium, Andyland, Terrytown, a high-security potato chip storage facility and an open-air movie theatre. This laugh-out-loud story is told through a combination of text and fantastic cartoon-style illustrations.

The Beauty and the Beast Colouring Book

Book cover for The Beauty and the Beast Colouring Book

Perfect for children aged 9 - 11 years

With images of Beauty and her family, the Beast and his magnificent castle, and scenes from this most romantic of fairy tales, this book is full of irresistible patterns and designs that are perfect for colouring in.

Windfall

by Jennifer E. Smith

Perfect children aged 12 years and up

Alice doesn't believe in luck, Alice believes in love. Mostly that she's been in love with her best friend, Teddy, for the last three years.

When she buys him a lottery ticket for his birthday and he wins 32 million dollars, they are thrown together with the world at their feet. Teddy decides that he will spend his money committing random acts of kindness, and who better to go on that adventure with him than Alice? In the process they get to know themselves and each other better than they ever have before, but money can't buy you love...

If Birds Fly Back

by Carlie Sorosiak

Perfect for children aged 12 years and up

Linny has been living life in black and white since her sister Grace ran away, and she's scared that Grace might never come back.

When Linny witnesses the return of Álvaro Herrer, a cult movie star long presumed dead, she is certain it's a sign. Surely Álvaro can tell her why people come back and how to bring her sister home?

Sebastian has come to Miami seeking his father, a man whose name he's only just learned. An aspiring astrophysicist, he wants to know why his father abandoned him, and why it left him in pieces.

As Sebastian and Linny converge around the mystery of Álvaro's disappearance and return, - their planets start to collide. Linny's life is about to become technicolor, but finding the answers to her questions might mean losing everything that matters.

The Square Root of Summer

Book cover for The Square Root of Summer

Perfect for children aged 12 years and up

Last summer, Gottie's life fell apart. Her beloved grandfather Grey died and Jason, the boy to whom she lost her heart wouldn't even hold her hand at the funeral.

This summer, still reeling from twin heartbreaks, Gottie is lost and alone and burying herself in equations. Until, after five years absence, Thomas comes home: former boy next door. Former best friend. Former everything. And as life turns upside down again she starts to experience strange blips in time - back to last summer, back to what she should have seen then...