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Copyright © 2023 All rights reserved. Charity No. 1093858. Registered No. 4336052

The Poetry Archive is a not-for-profit organisation with charitable status.

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Listen to the world's best poetry read out loud. Explore 100s of poems read by the poets themselves. Read along or listen distraction free.

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The Best Children's Box Sets - Great Gift Ideas for Young Readers this Christmas

Knowing how challenging it can be to encourage some children to read, we know the deep joy that comes with them finding a character or a story that really speaks to them, that they grow to love, and they want more, more, more of.

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Buy a Book. Support a School. Make a Difference | LoveReading4Kids UK

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LoveReading4Kids exists because reading matters, and books change lives. Support local schools through the LoveReading4Kids bookshop. 10% off RRPs, and 25% of the cover price will be given to a school of your choice. Sharing book love with children's book reviews and book recommendations right across the ages, from toddlers to teens.

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Early years

Resources and tools for early language development and parental engagement.

Primary

Deliver outstanding literacy provision at primary school stage.

Secondary

Help students develop the literacy skills they need to succeed at school and in their future lives.

We empower parents and families

Parents - you're not alone! Discover a wealth of practical tips to help your child's literacy journey, fun activities to try together as well as reassuring support and guidance on our Words for Life website. We have plenty of creative ways to nurture your child's reading, speaking, listening and writing development at home.

We collaborate with communities and local areas

We work collaboratively in 20 areas of the UK that face the biggest challenges with literacy and where we can make the most difference. We work alongside teachers and football coaches, to librarians and youth leaders - to create bespoke solutions that support literacy at home, in school and in the community.

We are 30!

This is a significant year for us at the National Literacy Trust as we celebrate our 30th birthday. Over the past three decades, we have been supporting families and children to change their life stories through the power of literacy and we are ready to celebrate!

News

How we are helping get a library into every primary

On Wednesday 8 November, we welcomed over 100 authors, partner organisations, funders, fellow charities, MPs, peers, and supporters, to Portcullis House in Westminster, to celebrate the anniversary of our Libraries for Primaries campaign.

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News

Celebrating the first of 25 amazing Coronation Libraries

On Wednesday 1 November, we celebrated the opening of the first of 25 Coronation primary school libraries, at a special event at Harris Primary Academy Croydon.

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News

Wicked Writers: Be the Change competition will launch in January 2024

Open to all UK schools and launching on 29 January 2024, Wicked Writers: Be the Change asks 9 to 14-year-olds to harness the power of persuasive writing to think about any environmental issue they feel passionately about.

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National Literacy Trust | UK Literacy Charity

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We are an independent charity working with schools and communities to give children the literacy skills to succeed in life.

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BookTrust transforms lives by getting children and families reading. We are the UK’s largest children’s reading charity. Each year we reach 3.4 million children across the UK with books, resources and support.

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Latest Issue

BfK 263 November 2023

This issue's cover illustration is from The Snow Girl by Sophie Anderson, illustrated by Melissa Castrillón. Thanks to Usborne for their help with this Christmas cover.

View Latest Issue

Book of the Week

Based on the five Tiffany Aching books written by Terry Pratchett, which include his final novel The Shepherd's Crown, this illustrated and practical guide to being a witch in Discworld, covers everything readers have ever wanted to know from telling the bees to magical cheese, working with other wi ...

Based on the five Tiffany Aching books written by Terry Pratchett, which include his final novel The Shepherd's Crown, this illustrated and practical guide to being a witch in Discworld, covers everything readers have ever wanted to know from telling the bees to magical cheese, working with other witches to dealing with elves, tending flocks to fending off forces from other worlds. It's ostensibly written by witch Ti ...

Based on the five Tiffany Aching books written by Terry Pratchett, which include his final novel The Shepherd's Crown, this illustrated and practical guide to being a witch in Discworld, covers everything readers have ever wanted to know from telling the bees to magical cheese, working with other witches to dealing with elves, tending flocks to fending off forces from other worlds. It's ostensibly written by witch Tiffany herself, but is in fact the work of Terry Pratchett's daughter Rhianna, ably assisted by author Gabrielle Kent, with multiple, detailed illustrations by Paul Kidby, Pratchett's 'artist of choice' (and no wonder). It is a thing of beauty that will delight fans of the series. Treats include an introduction to the Nac Mac Feegle or Wee Free Men - forewarned is forearmed as they say, though Tiffany advises any arm ...

View Book of the Week

Featured Author

A.M. Dassu won acclaim and attention with her debut novel, Boy, Everywhere which was shortlisted for the Waterstones Children's Book Prize and won the Little Rebels Award for Radical Fiction. Her new book, Kicked Out, continues the story of the characters in Boy, Everywhere. Fen Coles spoke to her for Books for Keeps. Az Dassu never intended to write a novel. She saw herself as a picture book auth ...

View Full Interview

Recent Articles

It's a happy tenth birthday to Flying Eye Books, a publisher consistently bringing us intriguing, original and distinctive books. Sam Arthur, Co-Founder/Creative Director looks back, and forward. The story I tell ab ...

TikTok, mystical beasts, romantasies (no, us neither), it's been another busy and exciting year in children's publishing. Fads aside, which are the books that really stood out and which are the books we'll be readin ...

From the origins of life to the mysteries of the unexplained, Sue McGonigle selects recently published non-fiction that could find a place under the Christmas tree. The Natural World What's Wild Outside your Door? b ...

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Books For Keeps - The Children's Book Magazine Online

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BfK 263 November 2023 This issue's cover illustration is from The Snow Girl by Sophie Anderson, illustrated by Melissa Castrillón. Thanks to Usborne for their help with this Christmas cover.

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Are you looking for a book?

Our reviews are divided by topic rather than by age to help you find the right book to interest a particular child or class.

Are you looking for an author?

You can find authors willing to give talks and interviews, run workshops and visit schools at contactanauthor.co.uk

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Welcome to our book review site - Children's Books

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Are you looking for a book? Our reviews are divided by topic rather than by age to help you find the right book to interest a particular child or class. Are you looking for an author? You can find authors willing to give talks and interviews, run workshops and visit schools at contactanauthor.co.uk Do you want ...

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Ethical Guidelines for Educational Research, fifth edition (2024)

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Contents Letter from the President Fundamentals Aspirations of educational researchers Guidelines Responsibilities to participants Consent Transparency Right to withdraw Incentives Harm…

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This is a list of children's classic books published no later than 2008 and still available in the English language.

Books specifically for children existed by the 17th century. Before that, books were written mainly for adults - although some later became popular with children. In Europe, Gutenberg's invention of the printing press around 1440 made possible mass production of books, though the first printed books were quite expensive and remained so for a long time. Gradually, however, improvements in printing technology lowered the costs of publishing and made books more affordable to the working classes, who were also likely to buy smaller and cheaper broadsides, chapbooks, pamphlets, tracts, and early newspapers, all of which were widely available before 1800. In the 19th century, improvements in paper production, as well as the invention of cast-iron, steam-powered printing presses, enabled book publishing on a very large scale, and made books of all kinds affordable by all.

Scholarship on children's literature includes professional organizations, dedicated publications, and university courses.

Title

Author

Year published

References and Brief Introduction

Panchatantra Vishnu Sharma
Ancient Indian inter-related collection of animal fables in verse and prose, in a frame story format. Similar stories are found in later works including Aesop's Fables and the Sindbad tales in Arabian Nights.

Kathasaritsagara
Somadeva

11th Century AD

Collection of Indian legends, fairy tales and folk tales as retold by a Saivite Brahmin named Somadeva. Generally believed to derive from Gunadhya's Brhat-katha, written in Paisachi dialect from the south of India.[citation needed ]

A Token for Children. Being An Exact Account of the Conversion, Holy and Exemplary Lives, and Joyful Deaths of several Young Children James Janeway
1672

One of the first books specifically written for children which shaped much eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century writing for children.[citation needed ]

1. ^ Nesbit, Eva Marie. "Classic novels". Cullinan & Person 2003. pp. 171-175.

2. ^ Vijay Bedekar (27 December 2008). "Seminar on 'Suhbashita, Panchatantra & Gnomic Literature in Ancient & Medieval India'". Institute for Oriental Study, Thane.

3. Pickering, Samuel F., Jr. ^ John Locke and Children's Books in Eighteenth-Century England. Knoxville: The University of Tennessee Press, 1981. ISBN 0-87049-290-X.

4. Darton, F. J. Harvey. ^ Children's Books in England: Five Centuries of Social Life. 3rd ed. Rev. Brian Alderson. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (1982), 146.

5. ^ Irving, Washington (1990). The legend of Sleepy Hollow. Introduction, afterword by Charles L. Grant] (1st Tor ed.). New York: Tom Doherty Associates. ISBN 978-0-8125-0475-0.

6. Nesbit gave an incorrect date of 1863 for the publication. See, for example, ^ Robert L. Patten (1978), Charles Dickens and His Publishers, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 288-293, ISBN 0198120761

7. ^ Secret Gardens: A Study of the Golden Age of Children's Literature by Humphrey Carpenter, 1985, Part II, Chapter 1: "It seemed to open the door to a new way of writing for, and about, children"

8. ^ Baskin, Barbara H.; Harris, Karen. "Classics". Silvey 1995, pp. 140-142.

9. ^ Journal of American Folklore, Vol.34, p. 143; by J. Alden Mason & Aurelio M. Espinosa, ed.; 1921 Retrieved 2013-05-31.

10. ^ Introducing Children's Literature: From Romanticism to Postmodernism by Deborah Cogan Thacker, Routledge, 2002, page 123

11. ^ 100 Best Books for Children by Anita Silvey, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2004, page 131

12. ^ "Doris Buchanan Smith". St. James Guide to Young Adult Writers. Gale Biography In Contex.

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List of children's classic books - Wikipedia

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This is a list of children's classic books published no later than 2008 and still available in the English language. Books specifically for children existed by the 17th century. Before that, books were written mainly for adults - although some later became popular with children.

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This is our list of the 100 best books for children from the last 100 years: a suggestion of titles to read before you're 14.

In 2015, a team of experts put together this list: broken down into four age groups, with 25 books in each.
Please note: This list was published in 2015. We are currently working on a revised and more up-to-date list which more adequately reflects the brilliant diversity of children's literature over the last 100 years. Please take a look at Books We Love for our reviews of current brilliant books. How many have you read? Take our quiz

100 best books for children: see what made the list

Read our reviews for all of the books, split up into age range.

Thank you!

A big thank you to everyone who donated to the BookTrust appeal. With your amazing support, we have sent surprise book gifts to over 12,250 vulnerable children to bring joy and brighten their Christmas.
Help support BookTrust in 2020 and get books to more children

Great Books Guide

Your guide to our favourite children's books from the past year: download as a PDF or find online booklists split by age group.

New books we love

We review lots of new books every month, and here's where you can find the ones we liked best of all.

100 Best Books poster

Want to keep track of all the stories you've read and enjoyed? Download our poster showing our 100 best children's books.

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This is our list of the 100 best books for children from the last 100 years: a suggestion of titles to read before you're 14. In 2015, a team of experts put together this list: broken down into four age groups, with 25 books in each. Please note: This list was published in 2015.

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hen I was about seven, my dad and I - having gambolled happily through innumerable Ladybirds, all of Milly-Molly-Mandy's adventures (I yield to no one in my love of the little girl in the pink and white striped dress) and a fair proportion of William Brown's - embarked on the weightier matter of Ian Serraillier's The Silver Sword together.

This is the story of the three Balicki children who must fend for themselves in occupied Poland after their parents are taken away by the Nazis. They become friends with an orphan called Jan. Or, as Dad kept calling him, "Yan". Eventually I had to stop him and explain politely that, actually, "J" was pronounced "jay", not "wye". Whereupon he explained, that the vagaries of the Polish language were such that, in fact, a J could be a Y and this is how Jan's name would have been spoken. I forgot all about that until about 13 years later when a university lecturer was trying to teach me about semiotics. He had been talking about signifiers and signifieds for several minutes and then, suddenly, the memory of Jan/Yan popped up and brought the various fragments of knowledge I was gleaning into focus like a twist on a kaleidoscope tube. Nothing is innately or immutably attached to anything. You only have to have a system. As long as A is different from B and Y is different from J and everybody is aware of this, all works smoothly.

It was a tiny but gratifyingly tangible example of the usually amorphous benefits of reading aloud to a child.

Latest research reveals that increasing numbers of children are starting school without ever having been read to at home. Pie Corbett, educational adviser to the government, says: "This isn't just an economic thing - it's across the whole of society. You get a lot of children coming from very privileged backgrounds who've spent a lot of time in front of the TV and not enough time with a good book. The TV does the imagining for you - and it doesn't care whether you're listening or not."

There is an argument to be made in favour of TV's role as a failsafe babysitter, giving frazzled parents restorative breaks, and we should also be wary of characterising the TV as something that injects noxious substances directly into children's brains, and of books as something that are universally capable of transforming the dustiest mental landscape into a lush and verdant pasture.

But perhaps after the revelation that the average adult in the UK watches nearly four-and-a-half hours' TV a day, it is time to remind ourselves of some of the best books out there for our young people.

The following - a combination of personal recommendations, enduring classics and currently popular borrowings from school and public libraries - are suggestions and starting points only, of course (and the age ranges attached even more so), but hopefully there will be something, somewhere for everyone.
Best books: 0-2 year-olds Best books: 2-4 year-olds Best books: 5-7 year-olds Best books: 8-12 year-olds Best books: 12-years-old and over

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hen I was about seven, my dad and I - having gambolled happily through innumerable Ladybirds, all of Milly-Molly-Mandy's adventures (I yield to no one in my love of the little girl in the pink and white striped dress) and a fair proportion of William Brown's - embarked on the weightier matter of Ian Serraillier's The Silver Sword together.

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Materials that concentrate on activities to promote speaking and listening skills, phonological awareness and oral blending.

This was published under the 2005 to 2010 Labour government

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This pack outlines an approach for practitioners and teachers to help children with word reading skills and spelling.

Please note: the DVD which accompanied this document is no longer available.

More information about teaching phonics in schools is available.

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We use cookies to collect information about how you use GOV.UK. We use this information to make the website work as well as possible and improve government services. Brexit Check how the new rules affect you Materials that concentrate on activities to promote speaking and listening skills, phonological awareness and oral blending.

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ICT EMA website

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This Barefoot Computing activity for upper primary goes deeper into the concept of algorithms, using logical reasoning and debugging to find errors and to improve accuracy and efficiency. By following instructions, children create diagrams constructed from simple shapes. They are asked to identify errors in the...

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STEM Learning Ltd offers the largest collection of learning resources for teachers and educators of science, technology, engineering, computing and mathematics in the UK.

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ICT EMA website

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Welcome to Barefoot, the home of fun, cross curricular primary and Early Years learning based on Computational Thinking!

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EXPLORE creative, high quality resources for primary school teachers to help teach computing to children supported by Barefoot Computing.