Resources
September 2019 Children's and Young People booklist - Back to School Books
Our September booklist for children and young people is a selection of our favourite books either set in a school or about starting a new academic year. It includes picture books, guides for teenagers, a graphic novel and some amazing stories. You can join in with the conversation online using #BackToSchoolBooklist and tagging us using @readingagency on Twitter and @SummerReadingChallengeUK on Facebook.
Don't Worry, Little Crab by Chris Haughton - book trailer
From the multi award-winning picture book maker of A Bit Lost, Oh No, George!, Shh! We Have a Plan and Goodnight Everyone comes a bold new picture book about building up the courage to try something new. In the rockpool above the sea, live two crabs: Big Crab and Little Crab. Today, they’re going for a dip in the sea. “This is going to be so great!” says Little Crab. But then Little Crab catches a first glimpse of the water… Oh. The waves! They’re ENORMOUS. “JEEPERS!” Will Little Crab be...
Comics and Graphic Novels Chatterbooks Pack
In this Chatterbooks activity pack you’ll find some great suggestions for comic books and graphic novels for your group to explore, read and enjoy together. We hope you enjoy them, together with all the discussion and activity ideas, and further reading suggestions.
Take it Back by Kia Abdullah Reading Group Guide
A reading group guide to Take it Back by Kia Abdullah including discussion questions and further reading.
The Truth Pixie Goes to School by Matt Haig - resources pack
The Truth Pixie Goes to School is Matt Haig’s follow-up to last year’s heart-warming bestseller The Truth Pixie and is for little pixies everywhere aged 5 and over. Going back-to-school can be a scary time but The Truth Pixie and friends are here to help children feel more themselves in their new school uniform. With delightful illustrations by Chris Mould, The Truth Pixie Goes to School should be in every backpack this year. ’Don’t try to be something You really are not. Your one true...
The Sea Book by DK - Activity pack
Featuring fascinating fishy facts accompanied by bright, bold, and beautiful illustrations, this book takes children on a journey through the sea and all its zones. Touching on mammals, fish, invertebrates, and reptiles, The Sea Book explores a wealth of incredible marine animals and their habitats, from up on the ice, down to colourful coral reefs, underwater forests, and right down to the deepest darkest depths where the weird and wonderful lurk. Following on from The Bee Book, Charlotte...
Space!
To tie in with this month’s launch of Space Chase, the theme for the 2019 Summer Reading Challenge, we are bringing you some of our favourite books about outer space. From brain-bending books on physics to comic tales from the furthest edges of the universe, there’s something for everyone.
Train to Impossible Places - Letter writing resource
The Train to Impossible Places All aboard for a magical journey… When Suzy hears a strange rattling noise in the middle of the night, she creeps downstairs to find a train roaring through her house. But this is no ordinary train. This is the magical delivery express for The Union of Impossible Places. Whisked onboard by a troll boy called Wilmot, Suzy’s world is turned upside down when she’s given the job of delivering a cursed package to the fearsome sorceress, Lady Crepuscula. Except when...
The Usborne Book of the Moon - Resource Pack
This Resource Pack is based on The Usborne Book of the Moon – the beautiful new illustrated book all about the story of our moon. Each lesson included uses extracts from the book, giving you beautiful text and illustrations to share with children (from KS1 through to KS2, at the teacher’s discretion), and to ignite their sense of wonder. The activities have a literacy focus; they are aimed at developing creative writing skills via STEM subjects.
Timmy Failure by Stephan Pastis - Detectives in Training activity and POS packs
Attention: Detectives in Training Meet Timmy Failure, founder of the “best” detective agency in town – Total Failure, Inc. With the help of his polar bear, Total, the clueless, comically self-confident Timmy already has plans for world domination. Plans that will make his mother rich and unpaid bills a things of the past. And plans that will defeat Corrina Corrina, “The One Whose Name Shall Not Be Uttered.” Described by Philip Argagh as a “fabulously fun read … original and quirky, with...
I will not be erased by gal-dem
Fourteen joyous, funny and life-affirming essays from gal-dem’s talented writers gal-dem, the award-winning online and print magazine, is created by women and non-binary people of colour. In this thought-provoking and moving collection of fourteen essays, gal-dem’s writers use raw material from their teenage years – diaries, poems and chat histories – to explore growing up. gal-dem have been described by the Guardian as “the agents of change we need”, and these essays essays tackle important...
June 2019 Children's and Young People booklist - Kablam! (graphic novels and comics)
We absolutely love these comics and graphic novels that our team have selected for this month’s booklist Kablam! London Film & Comic Con takes place in July so we hope that this list can help to build up excitement.
Changemaker Reads
To celebrate National Reading Group Day on 15 June, we asked reading groups which books inspire them to change the world. Tackling themes of identity, discrimination and equality, these are some of the books that make you want to make a difference.
Funny Books activity pack
In this Funny Books activity pack we are celebrating those wacky and hilarious books that make your sides split with laughter! This pack is bursting with activities guaranteed to make you chuckle, including word searches, inventing your own marvelous medicine, and write your own silly poems.
Boot by Shane Hegarty - Teachers' notes
When toy robot, Boot, wakes up at a scrapyard, it has no idea how it got there and why it isn’t with its owner, Beth. It only has two and a half glitchy memories, but it knows it was loved, which means something important to humans. Boot soon realises its emotions make it different to other robots, who just function and don’t think. Boot is scared but tries to be brave, which is hard when its screen keeps showing a wobbly, worried face. Luckily Boot meets Noke and Red – other ‘advanced’...
Evie and the Animals by Matt Haig - Activity pack
A talent that can let her HEAR the thoughts of an elephant, and make friends with a dog and a sparrow. The only problem is, this talent is dangerous. VERY dangerous. That’s what her dad says. So when she frees the school rabbit from its tiny hutch, she vows to keep her talent a secret. But after a face-to-face encounter with a lion, things start to go very wrong. Her dad – and every animal in town – is now in danger. Evie is determined to save them. And to find the truth of her own past. To...
DK Science Booklet - Activity pack
DK publishes a wide range of books for KS1, KS2 and beyond to get children excited about science and engineering. In this booklet, DK pulled together a selection of activities which can easily be recreated in your classroom – or, for keen pupils, at home.
The Secret Starling by Judith Eagle - activity sheets
Faber and Faber Children’s have created activity sheets based around The Secret Starling. More about the book Clara has lived a life of solitude, home schooled under her mean uncle’s strict regime . . . until now! The day that Uncle abandons Clara, leaving her with nothing but a wedge of ‘guilt money’ and a half empty, crumbling manor house, she is determined to do things her way for a change. And when streetwise Peter turns up, with his rescue cat and a surprising array of knowledge, she is...
The Lost Man by Jane Harper Extract
Read an extract from the gripping new novel from the author of the Sunday Times top ten bestsellers, The Dry and Force of Nature.
HarperCollins Spring Storytime Packs
HarperCollins Children’s Books are celebrating the arrival of Spring with a gorgeous pack of picture books and activities for little ones featuring eggs, bunnies and tadpoles from an array of amazing picture book creators! Follow Tad, the littlest almost-a-frog in the whole wide pond, in the new picture book from Benji Davies, creator of The Storm Whale and Grandad’s Island. Meet the formidable Imelda and her favourite soft toy, Bunny Wunny, in Emma Chichester Clark’s wickedly funny modern...
David Walliams Chatterbooks Pack
Since the publication of his first novel, The Boy in the Dress (2008), illustrated by the iconic Sir Quentin Blake, David Walliams has celebrated more than ten years of unprecedented growth with global sales exceeding 30 million copies, and his books have been translated into 53 languages. David’s titles have spent 138 weeks (non-consecutive) at the top of the children’s charts – more than any other children’s author ever. This month’s Chatterbooks pack has discussion questions and fun...
Side-splitting stories for children booklist - middle grade books
This month we have created a booklist of our favourite side-splitting stories that will have children laughing loudly! There are plenty of chapters that’ll make them chortle and sentences that will have you in stitches. Here are 15 of our absolute favourite funny middle grade books! You can see our list of picture books here. You can find our picks for books to make young people smile on the Reading Hack website.
Side-splitting stories for children booklist - picture books
This month we have created a booklist of our favourite side-splitting stories that will have children laughing loudly! There are plenty of chapters that’ll make them chortle and sentences that will have you in stitches. Here are 12 of our absolute favourite funny picture books! You can see our list for middle grade books here. You can find our picks for books to make young people smile on the Reading Hack website
Side-splitting Stories
This month we’re bringing you chapters to make you chortle and sentences that will have you in stitches. Including novels, essays and poetry, these books will have you laughing all day long.
The Handmaid's Tale Reading Guide
A reading guide to The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood. The Handmaid’s Tale went back into the bestseller charts with the election of Donald Trump, when the Handmaids became a symbol of resistance against him; and the 2017 release of the award-winning Channel 4 TV series. Sales of the English language edition have now topped 8 million copies worldwide. About the book It is the world of the near future, and Offred is a Handmaid in the home of the Commander and his wife. She is allowed out...
National Reading Group Day 2019 - logo
This year, National Reading Group Day will take place on Saturday 15 June, the start of Independent Book Week. We have a downloadable logo that you can use on your materials. Just click on the link below to download.
National Reading Group Day 2019 - poster
This year, National Reading Group Day will take place on Saturday 15 June, the start of Independent Book Week. We have a downloadable poster that you can use in your library. Just click on the link below to download.
The Silence of the Girls Readers' Guide
Download a free readers’ guide for The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker, one of the shortlisted books for the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2019.
Ordinary People Readers' Guide
Download a free readers’ guide for Ordinary People by Diana Evans, one of the shortlisted books for the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2019.
The Sister, the Serial Killer Readers' Guide
Download a free readers’ guide for My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite, one of the shortlisted books for the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2019.
