Recommendations and answers to the reading-life questions parents ask — from an English teacher who curates every book in the Little Reads library.
If you’ve ever sat at 10pm Googling the best book apps for kids in the UK and ended up with 14 tabs open, this one’s for you. There’s a lot out there. Too much, honestly. And when there are too many options, decision fatigue kicks in fast. You worry you’ll pick the wrong one. Burn […]
The fondest memories most of us have of reading aren’t of reading. They’re of being read to. For me, it’s the bunk bed. When I was six or seven I got a bunk bed and, even though I could read to myself by then, I still insisted on a bedtime story. So every night my […]
Bedtime stories for 6, 7 and 8 year olds that end on time. Nine short chapter books, one chapter then lights off, picked by a former English teacher.
To get straight to it David Walliams is the closest like-for-like swap, Mr Gum is the one for kids who loved the pure silliness of Dahl, and The Terrible Two is the one for the kid who loves a bit of scheming. The full list below matches each one to what your child actually loves […]
Raise your hand if you’ve got a comfort show (I’m proud to say I could probably recite seasons 1-10 of Friends off by heart). Or a meal you return to when your brain has left the chat (tuna jacket potato with cheese). Your child re-reading the same book over and over is the equivalent of […]
I know i’m biased here but there’s nothing like a British summer. School fete, 99p (that’s no longer 99p) ice cream and fresh strawberries. Most of us have a memory of those long days as a kid. And for me, I always had a stack of books ready to keep me company. Three or four […]
Every bookworm has the same dilemma: how do you balance your ‘want to read pile’ with your bank balance? If you’re anything like me, the two don’t always go together. It feels impossible to keep up with all the brilliant books out each year, doesn’t it? So how often do you actually stop and think […]
If it’s the doodles and comic-style pages they love, The Bad Guys and the Treehouse books are the best swaps. If it’s Greg’s voice they like, My Brother Is a Superhero has another kid narrator with a bigger story. The picks below are sorted by which half of Wimpy Kid your child actually misses. There’s […]
So i’m one of those people who really enjoys a rainy day. And i also relish the autumn / winter months. I think because i love the lack of expectation to ‘do things’. But i’m also a cold weather gorrrrl (don’t come for me). So this is my pick of books for a rainy day, […]
“If it ain’t broke…” a saying that’s heard a lot in this house. As someone who’ll happily hyperfixate (hello buzzword) on things, I relate hard to this topic. For example: So we’ve all got things we stick with. (Some of us more than others, hold your judgement please.) Why your child only reads one author […]
“Are we there yet?” A question banned on long car journeys up to Scotland when I was a kid. We were one of those families where the only person allowed to talk was the radio. Everything else was banned. Thank goodness I had my Walkman, a stack of books, and a generous supply of cheese […]
Butterbeer. The Hogwarts Express. Quidditch. Hedwig. Privet Drive. Honestly, even just typing those words has set off a wave of childhood nostalgia. If you’re here looking for what to read after Harry Potter, you’re in good company. I’m of the age where we queued outside WHSmith for the next book. I’d dodge certain people at […]
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