What to look for in a summer reading list for kids<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
When you’re packing the ‘kids activity’ bag, the books need a bit of thought too. Here’s what to look for:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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- Plot-driven.<\/strong> The kind where chapter one ends and your child says ‘just one more’. Some books lean harder on world-building or character. Those are great. But not for the back of the car or a sun lounger. You want momentum.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Standalone over mid-series.<\/strong> A one-shot the safer bet. If you bring book five of something, they’ll need books one to four first. And if they fall hard for a book one of a ten-book series, you’ll be panic-buying the sequel by Wednesday.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Easy on the eyes, big on the story.<\/strong> They shouldn’t be asking what a word means every two pages. But they should still want to tell you what happened at chapter 3 over dinner.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Variety.<\/strong> The spice of life (or the sprinkles on your ice cream). A 7-year-old’s mood swings with the weather. One afternoon they’ll want adventure. The next morning they’ll want something silly. Bring a mix and you’ve covered every flop on the sofa.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
Seven books for the school holidays <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
A couple of these you might recognise…The Sheep-Pig especially. I worked through it so many times as a kid that I spent most of my school years quietly pining for a pet pig (it didn’t happen, my mum drew the line). <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The classics turn up here for a reason. They’re still the right shape for a 7- or 8-year-old in the holidays. The rest are newer and worth knowing about if you don’t already.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Train to Impossible Places (P G Bell<\/a>)<\/h3>\n\n\n
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<\/div>The Train to Impossible Places<\/p>
P G Bell<\/span><\/span>Age 9<\/span><\/span>Fantasy<\/span><\/div><\/div>›<\/span><\/a>\n\n\n\nThis is the one your child will disappear into.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Suzy is a kid bored at home until an enormous magical train arrives at her front door one night. It runs on impossible rails through troll-built tunnels and delivers parcels across worlds. The crew talk her into joining as a junior postie before sunrise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Her first delivery is a snow globe with a boy trapped inside. From there things spiral.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Your child will come down to breakfast still mid-chapter and announce that postage in the multiverse is more complicated than you’d think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It’s chunky enough to last most of the holiday. And if it lands (it will), The Great Brain Robbery <\/a>and Delivery to the Lost City pick the story straight back up from there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cogheart (Peter Bunzl)<\/h3>\n\n\n
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<\/div>Cogheart<\/p>
Peter Bunzl<\/span><\/span>Age 8<\/span><\/span>Fantasy<\/span><\/div><\/div>›<\/span><\/a>\n\n\n\nIf they liked Murder Most Unladylike<\/a> but wanted more action, this is the one to hand them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lily Hartman is at boarding school when she’s pulled out and told her father, an inventor, has died in an airship crash. She’s pretty sure he hasn’t. With her mechanical fox Malkin and the clockmaker’s son Robert, she goes on the run across Victorian London to find him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mechanical animals, gas-lit streets, hidden workshops, silver-eyed villains on their tail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Your child will tell you about the airships before they tell you what actually happens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It’s got the same feel as a proper mystery but with chase scenes and a few moments where they’ll forget to chew their sandwich. Four books in the series too!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Charlotte’s Web (E B White)<\/h3>\n\n\n
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<\/div>Charlotte’s Web<\/p>
E B White<\/span><\/span>Age 6<\/span><\/span>Animals<\/span><\/div><\/div>›<\/span><\/a>\n\n\n\nSome books a child reads once and carries around for years. This is one of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fern, a girl on a farm, rescues a runt piglet called Wilbur from being killed at birth. He’s sent to live in her uncle’s barn, where the only animal he properly befriends is Charlotte, a spider who lives in the doorway. When Wilbur finds out he’s going to be killed for Christmas dinner, Charlotte starts spinning words into her web to save him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The funny bits are properly funny. The sad bit is properly sad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And it’s short enough that a 7- or 8-year-old can read it in one rainy afternoon and come back to it the next year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some shelves pitch this one younger but would work great as a read aloud or shared.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For long summer afternoons when everyone’s in the room, see also our pick of family read aloud books that everyone will love<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Sheep-Pig (Dick King-Smith)<\/h3>\n\n\n
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<\/div>The Sheep-Pig<\/p>
Dick King-Smith<\/span><\/span>Age 7<\/span><\/span>Adventure<\/span><\/div><\/div>›<\/span><\/a>\n\n\n\nIf your house has watched Babe on a rainy bank holiday, this is the book it came from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Farmer Hogget wins a runt piglet called Babe at the village fair. He’s brought home and raised by the farm sheepdog, Fly, who treats him like one of her pups. Babe decides he wants to be a sheepdog too. He works it out by asking the sheep politely instead of barking at them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It builds towards the local sheepdog trials. Babe enters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gentle, funny, very British countryside and definitely one for all the family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Short enough to finish in one long afternoon in the garden. If they fall for it, King-Smith wrote a whole shelf of others, including A Mouse Called Wolf<\/a> and The Fox Busters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Attack of the Demon Dinner Ladies (Pamela Butchart<\/a>)<\/h3>\n\n\n
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<\/div>Attack of the Demon Dinner Ladies<\/p>
Pamela Butchart<\/span><\/span>Age 7<\/span><\/span>Friendship<\/span><\/div><\/div>›<\/span><\/a>\n\n\n\nThis is the one your child will read at the bus stop, in the bath, and out loud to a sibling whether they wanted it or not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Izzy and her gang at primary school notice that the new dinner ladies are behaving suspiciously. They’re eating the children’s chips. They look strange. After consulting one another at considerable volume, the gang concludes that the dinner ladies are, in fact, actual demons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The rest of the book is them trying to prove it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Izzy narrates the whole thing with the kind of paranoid logic a 7-year-old recognises instantly. Thomas Flintham illustrates throughout so the pages move fast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Butchart’s written about half a dozen others in the same shape, including Baby Brother From Outer Space and A Monster Ate My Packed Lunch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Time Travelling with a Hamster (Ross Welford)<\/h3>\n\n\n
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<\/div>Time Travelling with a Hamster<\/p>
Ross Welford<\/span><\/span>Age 9<\/span><\/span>Sci Fi<\/span><\/div><\/div>›<\/span><\/a>\n\n\n\nProperly funny, properly moving, often within the same chapter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Al is twelve. On his birthday he gets a letter from his dad, who died four years ago in a go-kart accident. The letter explains there’s a working time machine in the shed and gives him specific instructions: go back in time and stop the accident before it happens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He takes the hamster with him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Things go wrong almost immediately. Your child will read it in big gulps and probably come and ask you a couple of questions afterwards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Welford keeps writing this kind of story. The Dog Who Saved the World<\/a> and The 1,000-Year-Old Boy are the next two to reach for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pippi Longstocking (Astrid Lindgren)<\/h3>\n\n\n
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<\/div>Pippi Longstocking<\/p>
- Standalone over mid-series.<\/strong> A one-shot the safer bet. If you bring book five of something, they’ll need books one to four first. And if they fall hard for a book one of a ten-book series, you’ll be panic-buying the sequel by Wednesday.<\/li>\n\n\n\n