Books! For! Kids!

That everyone will like and will be fun to read again (and again).

My kids middle-grade book¹, Lydia Marmalade and the Christmas Wish, is out now in paperback! I’m very pleased it’s now in paperback, firstly, as a parent I know how bloody expensive hardback books can be, and secondly, because the paperback version has been re-titled to Lydia Marmalade and the Christmas Wish, a much more mouth friendly title than it was in hardback (Formerly known as The Christmas Wish-tastrophe). No one realises how hard a word ‘wish-tastrophe’ is to say, until you find yourself having to repeatedly say it whilst being interviewed on Sunday Brunch, after a Christmas whisky tasting section.

I am spending the next few weeks visiting book shops and schools around the country to talk about it. I’ve been having a very nice time chatting and signing my books… but I can’t help but recommend other kids books to parents - a long time ago, in a London borough far away, I worked for WH Smiths as a kids bookseller. I actually loved working in kids books - wasn’t so keen on being forced to offer a discounted bag of Minstrels every time another Barnet resident bought a copy of the Daily Mail - but hanging out in picture books and magical stories definitely eased my pain.

So, Christmas is coming up, there’s a lot of kids books out there, here’s some recommendations from me (apart from my own) for picky (yet discerning) readers…

The Graphic Novel-tarian

Only consumes stories told in boxes where the characters are outlined with thick black pen? My 9 year-old is one of these, if it isn’t funny and visual, she won’t pick it up. Obviously the usual big hitters are out there. A new Bunny vs. Monkey came out in October, and (my personal love), a new Dogman is out this week too. I love both of these franchises, but I get frustrated that like big tech, world leaders and podcast hosts - kids graphic novels seem to be dominated by white men. If you have any more diverse recommendations, please do leave them in the comments, but here are a few others, that you might not have heard of yet.

Boss of the Underworld - Tor Freeman

This is very funny - and more crucially, it’s weird. In a very accessible way. It reminded me of Daria meets Alice in Wonderland. Come on, that’s a great combo. I found it funny, she found other bits funny and we got into a chat about sarcasm and ennui. This is the first one in the series, and the second one is out next year.

Unfairies - Huw Aaron

She didn’t want to read this one. Singularly based on the cover, kids are so unashamedly judgemental, it really makes you miss being under 10. But a good trick I have found with the reluctant reader, is to buy the book - claim it’s not for them, but being posted to a friend’s child and then watch them try and sneak a read. I did exactly this, she read it sneakily and pronounced it surprisingly good.

Nina Peanut - Sarah Bowie

Nina Peanut is 1) very funny, 2) very colourful with great illustrations and 3) manages to talk about school in a way that feels relevant to kids today. I’ve read a lot of the ‘kids in school’ genre and often I’m surprised that an author will mention blackboards, sporty girls being popular or cycling freely to a wasteland.² Sarah Bowie manages to talk about school, friends and making stupid videos to go online without being patronising, but enough moral messaging to make it clear being an influencer may come with downsides.

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The Word-Phobe

Show them a chapter book and they start shouting, hiding under the duvet and crying that they won’t read that stupid book? This is my nearly 6-year-old. What we’re learning is, guess what the children of two writers aren’t keen on? Words! That is our karma, and each day we pray a plumber and an accountant are being fired in the kiln of our parental pressure of being word-lovers.

But for now, here are some great picture books that have a bit more story to them, but won’t make a wordphobe try to fart on your head. (Just mine? Very skunk like energy.)

Roald Dahl - Colour editions

No, obvs Roald Dahl isn’t new, but have you seen the big paperback colour editions? They’ve got Quentin Blake’s original drawings and made them bigger and more colourful, and much easier to read. My 6 year-old shouts if you show him the originals but seems to think these are different books. Also, there is a new Netflix film of The Twits, and David Byrne does the music and it’s a sort of sequel and yet also funny. Combine with the book to get an afternoon nap for yourself.³

Arthur and the Golden Rope - Joe Todd-Stanton

This has sort of baby-tintin vibes. Definitely still a picture book with amazing illustrations, but with a much longer (epic) story. This is one of a series of Brownstone’s Mythical Collection stories, that all look great. Also when it’s a meatier story, I argue this counts as two picture books, so we cut down on some of the reading-before-bed-negotiating number of books that seems to happen to me every night.

Hotel Flamingo - Alex Milway

Officially a chapter book, but with LOADS of illustrations to soothe the word-phobe. It’s a series, and the new one Frosty Fiesta is out now. A girl inherits a hotel, it’s run by animals, in one of the books, a new wave style punk band turns up with a bad manager who’s exploiting them (who’s also a Honey Badger). The hotel chef is a pig, called Madame La Pig, who has anger issues. And yet, it’s extremely low peril, nothing scary happens, everything works out and they all (eventually) live happily ever after.

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Silence! Bring back my books. Please do let me know in the comments if you have any other suggestions or feel free to describe your difficult customer and I’ll see what I can recommend. And… a small favour, if you’ve liked any of my books (or indeed any of these), please leave a review in the usual places, makes a huge difference to the authors (and the algorithm). Thank you!

1. Middle grade just basically means it’s suitable for 8-12 year-olds roughly. But you could by all means read it to a 6-year-old and I don’t think they’d be particularly confused. We don’t tend to recommend books for 20-25 year-olds, if your kids like adventure stories with lots of heart and sausage dogs in them, they should like this one too.

2. A wasteland? In London? Mate, that’s flats now. It’s all flats.

3. Although I just googled it to find the YouTube link and there’s lots of very bad reviews for it. But honestly, should you be allowed to review a kids film without a kid sitting next to you? And, if you are going to review it, then you should be forced to watch it weekly for two months straight, as that is what a kid will do and I bet, under those conditions you will pull a different opinion than your adult brain gave you originally.