This summer, we have put together a range of offers to encourage kids to read more over the holidays. We hope that, after another term of online learning, they can spend a little less time with screens and enjoy a good book instead.
Our Recommended Summer Reads include award winning books often found on school reading lists, and selected titles by some brilliant authors. What's more, all recommended reads are 10% off!
1. Auggie & Me: three wonder stories - R. J. Palacio
“Not only a companion to Wonder, but a wonder in itself.”
~ Kirkus Reviews
The multi-million-copy bestseller WONDER showed how choosing kindness and empathy can change the lives of those around you.
Now, in AUGGIE & ME, you can discover a new side to the WONDER story in three new chapters from three different characters:
Julian: Auggie's classroom bully
Christopher: Auggie's oldest friend
Charlotte: Auggie's classmate
These three stories are heartbreaking, surprising, funny and hopeful. Just like WONDER, AUGGIE & ME will make you laugh, cry and try to choose kind.
Recommended reading age:
8 - 12 years
Author:
R. J. Palacio, author of Wonder - New York Times' Best Seller since 2012, over 5 million copies sold worldwide. So impactful was the book's message about kindness and empathy that it led to the global #ChooseKind movement.
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2. A Wrinkle in Time - Madeleine L'engle
A WRINKLE IN TIME is a classic sci-fi adventure for children by bestselling US author, Madeleine L'Engle and is now major new motion picture from Disney films.
When Charles Wallace Murry goes searching through a 'wrinkle in time' for his lost father, he finds himself on an evil planet where all life is enslaved by a huge pulsating brain known as 'It'. How Charles, his sister Meg and friend Calvin find and free his father makes this a very special and exciting mixture of fantasy and science fiction, which all the way through is dominated by the funny and mysterious trio of guardian angels known as Mrs Whatsit, Mrs Who and Mrs Which.
Recommended reading age:
Read aloud: 7 - 8 years; Read yourself: 10 - 14 years; Highly enjoyable read for older teens and adults as well.
Notes about the Author:
Madeleine L'Engle. Madeleine L'Engle lived in New York and wrote over 60 books for children, including A WRINKLE IN TIME, the first in her Time Quintet series and winner of the highly prestigious Newbury Medal.
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3. The Book Thief - Markus Zusak
It is 1939. In Nazi Germany, the country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier - and will become busier still.
By her brother's graveside, Liesel's life is changed forever when she picks up a single object, abandoned in the snow. It is The Gravedigger's Handbook, and this is her first act of book thievery. So begins Liesel's love affair with books and words, and soon she is stealing from Nazi book-burnings, the mayor's wife's library . . . wherever there are books to be found.
But these are dangerous times, and when Liesel's foster family hides a Jew in their basement, nothing will ever be the same again.
Recommended reading age:
Ages 12 years+
Author:
Markus Zusak, winner of Margaret A. Edwards Award. The Book Thief was published in 2005 and has since been translated into more than 40 languages. In superbly crafted writing that burns with intensity, award-winning author Markus Zusak has given us one of the most enduring stories of our time.
Watch Markus Zusak's TED talk about his drafting process and experience writing the book here:
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4. The Skylarks' War - Hilary McKay
The Skylarks' War is a beautiful story following the loves and losses of a family growing up against the harsh backdrop of World War One, from the award-winning Hilary McKay.
Clarry and her older brother Peter live for their summers in Cornwall, staying with their grandparents and running free with their charismatic cousin, Rupert. But normal life resumes each September – boarding school for Peter and Rupert, and a boring life for Clarry at home with her absent father, as the shadow of a terrible war looms ever closer.
When Rupert goes off to fight at the front, Clarry feels their skylark summers are finally slipping away from them. Can their family survive this fearful war?
Recommended reading age:
Ages 12 years+
PanMacmillan's notes about the Author:
Hilary McKay is a critically acclaimed award-winning author. She won the Guardian Fiction Prize for The Exiles, and the Smarties and the Whitbread Award for The Exiles in Love and Saffy's Angel respectively. Hilary McKay's Fairy Tales was her first book with Macmillan Children's Books and is a critically acclaimed collection of clever retellings. Her 2018 title, The Skylarks' War, marks the centenary of the end of the First World War and was the winner of the Costa Children's Book Award 2018. It is a classic in the making.
Picking up a book by Hilary McKay is like slipping on bed socks on a chilly night. She knows how to look after her readers by ensuring that her characters are interesting and loveable from the start . . . McKay’s cleverness is that she makes it all fresh and new while making these beautifully drawn characters feel like old friends. ~The Times, Children’s Book of the Week
This belongs among the classic of children’s literature . . . Funny, sad, warm, it is about growing up and finding what you love, intellectually and emotionally. ~The Sunday Times, Children’s Book of the Week
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5. Straw Into Gold - Hilary McKay
Straw into Gold: Fairy Tales Re-Spun is a classic fairy tale collection to treasure. Featuring Hilary McKay's imaginative retellings of key favourites, this ten-story collection includes the much-loved tales of Rapunzel, Cinderella, the Princess and the Pea, Rumpelstiltskin, the Pied Piper of Hamelin, the Swan Brothers, Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, Red Riding Hood, the Twelve Dancing Princesses and Hansel and Gretel.
Recommended reading age:
Ages 8 - 12 years
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6. Holes - Louis Sachar
Stanley Yelnats' family has a history of bad luck, so when a miscarriage of justice sends him to Camp Green Lake Juvenile Detention Centre (which isn't green and doesn't have a lake) he is not surprised. Every day he and the other inmates are told to dig a hole, five foot wide by five foot deep, reporting anything they find. Why? The evil warden claims that it's character building, but this is a lie. It's up to Stanley to dig up the truth.
Witty, inventive and completely unique, this is a masterpiece of storytelling that combines sly humour with irresistible, page-turning writing.
Recommended reading age:
Age 9 - 12 years
Bloomsbury's notes about the author:
Louis Sachar lives in Austin, Texas, where he writes his novels and plays quite a lot of bridge. His novel Holes has sold over 1.5 million copies in the Bloomsbury edition alone and Louis is the recipient of many of the world's most well-regarded book prizes, including the National Book Award and the Newbery Award.
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7. Refugee Boy - Benjamin Zephaniah
Acclaimed performance poet and novelist Benjamin Zephaniah's honest, wry and poignant story of a young refugee left in London is of even more power and pertinence today than when it was first published.
Life is not safe for Alem. His father is Ethopian, his mother Eritrean. Their countries are at war, and Alem is welcome in neither place.
So Alem is excited to spend a holiday in London with his father - until he wakes up to find him gone. What seems like a betrayal is in fact an act of love, but now Alem is alone in a strange country, and he must forge his own path ...
Brilliantly written and with a real ear for dialogue, fans of Angie Thomas and Malorie Blackman will love Benjamin Zephaniah's novels for young adult readers.
Recommended Reading Age:
Ages 9 - 12 +
Bloomsbury's notes about the Author:
Benjamin Zephaniah is a high-profile international author, with an enormous breadth of appeal, equally popular with both adults and children. He is most well known for his performance poetry with a political edge for adults and ground-breaking performance poetry for children, and his novels for young people include Face, Refugee Boy, Gangsta Rap and Teacher's Dead. As well as poetry and novels, he writes plays and music.
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8. Hoot - Carl Hiaasen
Hilarious, touching and thought-provoking, Hoot is a modern classic, now celebrating its fifteenth anniversary. Winner of the Newbery Honor award and a New York Times bestseller, Carl Hiaasen's first novel celebrates the natural world with his trademark wit and warmth.
Roy Eberhardt never wanted to move to Florida. In his opinion, Disney World is an armpit.
Roy's family moves around a lot so he's used to the new-kid drill - he's also used to bullies like Dana Matherson. And anyway, it's because of Dana that Roy gets to see the mysterious running boy who runs away from the school bus and who has no books, no backpack and, most bizarrely, no shoes.
Sensing a mystery, Roy starts to trail the mystery runner - a chase that will introduce him to many weird Floridian creatures: potty-trained alligators, cute burrowing owls, a fake-fart champion, a shoeless eco-warrior, a sinister pancake PR man, new friends and some snakes with sparkly tails. As the plot thickens, Roy and his friends realise it's up to them to save the endangered owls from the evil Mother Paula's pancake company who are planning to build a new restaurant on their home . . .
Recommended Reading Age:
Ages 9 - 12 +
The Author
It is presumably Carl Hiaasen's experience as a journalist that has helped him take a step back from reality to appreciate its humour without losing touch of the gravity of its chaos. His novel Hoot was awarded the prestigious Newbery Honor from the Association for Library Service to Children.
“It seems unlikely that the master of noir-tinged, surrealistic black humor would write a novel for young readers. And yet, there has always been something delightfully juvenile about Hiaasen’s imagination; beneath the bent cynicism lurks a distinctly 12-year-old cackle. In this thoroughly engaging tale of how middle schooler Roy Eberhardt, new kid in Coconut Cove, learns to love South Florida, Hiaasen lets his inner kid run rampant, both the subversive side that loves to see grown-ups make fools of themselves and the righteously indignant side, appalled at the mess being made of our planet. The story is full of offbeat humor, buffoonish yet charming supporting characters, and genuinely touching scenes of children enjoying the wildness of nature. He deserves a warm welcome into children’s publishing.”—Booklist
“A rollicking, righteous story.”—The Miami Herald
“You don’t have to be a young adult to enjoy it.”—The New York Times Book Review
Genres: Crime fiction, thrillers, satirical fiction
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9. Squirm - Carl Hiaasen
Squirm is a funny, wildly entertaining adventure about the great outdoors and protecting the environment, from New York Times bestselling author Carl Hiaasen, author of modern classic, Hoot.
Some facts about Billy Dickens:
* He once saw a biker swerve across the road in order to run over a snake.
* Later, that motorcycle somehow ended up at the bottom of a canal.
* Billy isn't the type to let things go.
Some facts about Billy's family:
* They've lived in six different Florida towns because Billy's mum insists on getting a house near a bald eagle nest.
* Billy's dad left when he was four and is a total mystery.
* Billy has just found his dad's address - in Montana.
This summer, Billy will fly across the country, hike a mountain, float a river, dodge a grizzly bear, shoot down a spy drone, save a neighbour's cat, save an endangered panther, and then try to save his own father.
Recommended Reading Age:
Ages 9 - 12 +
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10. Malkin Moonlight - Emma Cox
Malkin Moonlight is an animal adventure story destined to become a classic alongside the likes of The Aristocats, Gobbolino the Witch's Cat and Varjak Paw.
Every journey begins with one paw step ...
Malkin is a small black cat with a magnificent tail, and he's destined to be a hero. He just doesn't know it yet.
On his third life, Wild Malkin falls in love with Roux, a Domestic cat who likes the comforts of home. Together they explore the night and have adventures. And when Roux's owners decide to move away, she chooses to become a Wild too and live with Malkin.
Setting out to find a new home, they stumble across a recycling centre full of cats - at war. Can Malkin realise his destiny and find a way to bring peace to the land? An extraordinary adventure awaits ...
Recommended Reading Age:
Ages 7 - 9 years +
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Bonus Read: The Ottoline Series - Chris Riddell
Ottoline and the Yellow Cat
Introducing Miss Ottoline Brown, an exceptionally inquisitive Mistress of Disguise, and her partner in crime, Mr. Munroe. No puzzle is ever too tricky for the two of them to solve . . .
Ottoline lives in a stylish apartment in Big City with a small hairy creature called Mr. Munroe. Together they look after the Brown family's eclectic collections - and dabble in a spot of detective work. So they are the first to the scene of the crime when a string of high-society dog-nappings and jewel thefts hits Big City. Ottoline (who luckily has a diploma from the Who-R-U Academy of Disguise) and Mr. Munroe go undercover - and expose an ingenious scam masterminded by furry feline crook, the Yellow Cat.
Ottoline and the Yellow Cat is a quirky mystery-adventure from star author/illustrator, Chris Riddell. Winner of the Nestle Prize, and crammed with black and white illustrations, Ottoline and the Yellow Cat is perfectly packaged and highly collectable.
Ottoline goes to School
Meet Ottoline and her hairy, helpful friend Mr. Munroe. Ottoline is off to the Alice B. Smith School for the Differently Gifted, but she is rather worried that she doesn't have a special gift. Mr. Munroe is more worried about the ghost who is said to haunt the school halls at night. Does Ottoline discover her hidden talent and can they expose the spook?
This book is full of gorgeous, intricate black and white illustrations, Ottoline Goes to School is the second exciting Ottoline adventure from the award-winning Chris Riddell, author of Goth Girl and the Ghost of a Mouse.
Ottoline at Sea
Ottoline and Mr. Munroe do everything and go everywhere together. That is, until the day Mr. Munroe mysteriously disappears, leaving a strange clue written in string . . . Armed with her Amateur Roving Collectors' travel pass, Ottoline sets off on a journey over, under and on top of the sea to find her hairy best friend - and bring him back home.
Ottoline at Sea is the third enchanting Ottoline adventure from Kate Greenaway award winner, Chris Riddell. With his appealing illustration style, Riddell's humorous details make this a book to pore over and adore.
Ottoline and the Purple Fox
Ottoline is back in Ottoline and the Purple Fox, a beautifully illustrated adventure from former Children's Laureate, Chris Riddell.
Ottoline and Mr Munroe love puzzles, clues and mysteries. One day, they meet an enigmatic purple fox, who offers to take them on a night-time urban safari. The fox shows them all the hidden animals of the city and Ottoline makes notes on them in her field notebook. Mr Munroe is making notes too - on the anonymous poems he finds stuck to lampposts on their journey. Who is the secretive poet, and how can he and Ottoline help them mend their broken heart?
Recommended Reading Age:
11 years +
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