Spring Term Highlights

Transform your school library into an irresistible bookshop with our 2025 Spring Term Highlights. These carefully selected books create a captivating whole-school library display that will draw pupils in and spark their love of reading. They can also be used to keep classroom libraries relevant and exciting for pupils, and contain our top recommendations for class reads for this term. With two hand-picked fiction titles and one non-fiction book for every year group, alongside an outstanding poetry book for each key stage, there is something for everyone here.

Fiction for Reception:

10 Dogs: A Funny Furry Counting Book by Emily Gravett

Ten gorgeous dogs chase, hide and play with ten juicy sausages in this funny counting book by the multi-award-winning, bestselling Emily Gravett. Bursting with energy and fun, young children will love to count the dogs and the sausages, as well as looking out for all the funny details on each page. The book explores numbers from one going up to ten, and ten going down to zero, touching on several simple concepts like half, all, more and less along the way.

Moggie McFlea: The Witch’s Cat by Anna Kemp

When Magic Magda takes in villainous Moggie McFlea, things do not go well as Moggie tinkers with Magda’s every spell, resulting in cream in every fountain and a tabby on TV. Mags is in despair! But even Moggie McFlea doesn’t want to make poor Magda cry, so will they find a way to get the most out of being both naughty and nice? Discover tricks and treats galore in this funny and affectionate story from the bestselling author of Dogs Don’t Do Ballet, with irresistibly spiky illustrations from Adam Beer.

Non-Fiction for Reception:

Animals in the Undergrowth by Susie Williams

Forests are full of life and fun to investigate! Find out about the animals that live in a forest. Learn how they find food and make shelters. See how the changing seasons affect them. Then do a fun nature activity to find out more! Connecting animals with life processes, children can find out about seasons, animal homes, micro-habitats and life cycles.

Fiction for Year 1:

King Lion by Emma Yarlett

A delightful, funny story about making friends and learning to communicate from award-winning and bestselling author–illustrator, Emma Yarlett. The lion is King and everyone in his kingdom is happy. Everyone, that is, except King Lion himself. The king feels lonely and decides he needs a friend. He tries everything: roaring “hello”, waving his paws, flashing a smile and even cracking a joke. But everyone just runs away. Then, feeling lonelier than ever, the king climbs up the tallest tower in his kingdom and roars and roars and ROARS! Now no one in the kingdom is happy. Until a little girl sees the king and comes up with a very brave plan to help him. A joyful, touching and vibrantly illustrated story.

The Wild by Yuval Zommer

Once upon a time, somewhere not far away, was the Wild. The Wild was huge and giving, and everything from insects, to birds, to humans made their home in it. At first, people lived lightly and took what they needed, but when they started to take more, the Wild suffered. For the Wild to be healthy, someone must be brave enough to raise their voice . . .

Yuval Zommer’s lyrical modern fable has a hopeful and powerful message about how our environment needs us just as much as we need it.

Non-Fiction for Year 1:

Our Oceans by Louise Spilsbury

An exquisitely illustrated picture book that explores our relationship with the oceans and looks at how climate change is changing the picture. Oceans are amazing! These huge areas of saltwater cover two-thirds of our world and are home to countless animals and plants. They offer us rich natural resources, places to work and beautiful surroundings where we can have fun, spot nature and relax. But the oceans are under threat from climate change and pollution. Find out how we can all help to look after our precious oceans, as well as enjoy them.

Fiction for Year 2:

Gina Kaminski Saves the Wolf by Gina Kaminski

This popular, twisty fairy tale featuring an autistic heroine is now available in paperback — and it’s definitely one you want on your bookshelf! Gina Kaminski is here to share three facts: 1. Little Red Riding Hood is full of BIG mistakes. 2. She’s heading to fairy tale land to fix them. 3.  She WILL save the wolf. Gina is a vivid and appealing character whose unique perspective on the world and use of emojis to express her feelings proudly celebrates neurodiversity.

A Sea of Stories by Sylvia Bishop

A range of simple stories, with beautiful colour illustrations. Whenever Roo visits Grandpa, she loves exploring the seaside cove near his cottage. But on her latest stay, Grandpa explains that he can’t go down there any more — the path is too steep and overgrown for him to manage. Instead, Grandpa tells Roo the stories behind the many objects that fill his house. All of Grandpa’s stories feature the cove and Roo realises that now, even though they’re so close to the sea, Grandpa is cut off from it. She wonders how she can bring Grandpa back to the place he loves the most.

Non-Fiction for Year 2:

Ice Journey of the Polar Bear by Martin Jenkins

It snowed last night. The first fall of the season. More is on its way. For this polar bear, this is a sign it’s time to make a den, a safe place to sleep through the harsh Arctic winter and to give birth to her cubs. But the Arctic is changing; familiar landscapes are melting. What kind of world will her cubs grow up in? This beautifully illustrated picture book gently explores the effects of climate change on polar bears, along with information on how we can all make a difference and protect the planet for these majestic animals.

Fiction for Year 3:

The Hotel Balzaar by Kate DiCamillo

Kate DiCamillo is a double Newbery Medal winning author, and this superb short book for younger readers is written with the same care and exquisite use of language as her longer novels. The Hotel Balzaar draws on fairy-tale themes and presents a variety of magical stories, like a trail of clues, within a larger story. The overarching story of the daughter of a maid living in poverty in an extravagant hotel, waiting for her father to return from a war, is reminiscent of Frances Hodgson Burnett’s classic A Little Princess. It is a beautiful and comforting exploration of loss, the tragedy of war, love, and reunion that uses repeated patterns of language and rhythms to bewitch the reader. It is extraordinarily rich and satisfying to read and would make an excellent class text.

The Incredible Adventures of Gaston le Dog by Michael Rosen

Gaston le Dog longs to return to the beautiful beach he remembers from years ago. So, he sets off on an adventure — but mystery and danger lurk at every turn, and Gaston will need all the help he can get from the friends he meets along the way. But can they all be trusted? And will Gaston’s odyssey bring him everything he hoped for? This playful new tale from national treasure Michael Rosen sprinkles myth, magic and fairy tale to create a brilliant story, illustrated by award-winning artist Viviane Schwarz, perfect for fans of the Grimwood series.

Non-Fiction for Year 3:

The Animals of the Frozen North by Jane Burnard

This is the Arctic. It sits on the top of the world — a frozen sea in a circle of land. This beautiful book brings together a spellbinding narrative, breathtaking illustrations and fascinating facts about one of our planet’s most precious environments. On a journey to the North Pole and back, and from autumn to spring, the story begins and ends with the extraordinary wood frog, a tiny creature that freezes for the long Arctic winter. On the way we meet polar bears, an Arctic fox, narwhals and many other animals, discovering how each one is perfectly adapted for life on the tundra, in the ocean and on the ice. With lyrical text by Jane Burnard combining with Kendra Binney’s evocative illustrations to show readers the awesome beauty of the Arctic, this is a story sure to inspire wonder in the natural world.

Fiction for Year 4:

The Night Bigfoot Stole my Pants by Tom Mclaughlin

A monster has broken into Jack’s garden and stolen his favourite yellow underpants. The cheek! Jack sees his chance to flex his new fairy skills and embark on his first ever solo mission. Unfortunately, in chasing the creature across town and leaving a trail of chaos in his wake, Jack breaks every rule in the fairy rule book (you must keep the magical kingdom a secret from humans, no one can know you are really a fairy, and you must NEVER EVER cause a lorry to crash into a take-out restaurant shop, creating a ketchup spillage across the high street whilst in pursuit of a magical creature who has your pants). Read this book to find out if Jack gets his wand back, tracks down the monster, and makes everything right again before he’s kicked out of the magical kingdom for good!

Oscar’s Lion by Adam Baron

This outstanding book about a boy who wakes up to discover that his parents have left him in the care of a hungry lion is destined to become a modern classic. Captivating from page one, it unfolds some sensitive themes, including grief, the loneliness of children with busy parents, social exclusion, and wartime, in an entertaining and subtle way. Beautiful and enjoyable in equal measure, this thoughtful book is the perfect class read, especially when paired with the topic of remembrance.

Non-Fiction for Year 4:

The Wow & How of Space by Amelisa Marshall

Space is amazing, it stretches for millions of kilometres and is full of planets and bright stars! Discover amazing facts with The WOW and HOW of Space — some which might challenge what you thought you already knew. For example, did you know that The Milky Way eats other galaxies?! Packed with facts and supported by science, The WOW and HOW series will intrigue and entertain children in Year 4.

Fiction for Year 5:

The Beanstalk Murder by P.G. Bell

Trainee meadow witch Anwen is having a bad day — which gets much worse when a dead giant falls from the sky and destroys her village. But when she examines the body, she discovers something interesting. This giant was murdered, which means a killer is on the loose! Tasked with sending a message to the giant kingdom via beanstalk, Anwen and her nemesis, trainee sorceress Cerys, accidentally find themselves whipped up into the sky and deposited in the giants’ royal palace — where the king is missing. Using their perfect spy-size and witchy skills, the girls must track down his killer. But how can you investigate a murder mystery when you risk being stepped on by your suspects?

Maisie vs Antarctica by Jack Jackman

Filled with humour, heart and a touch of the supernatural this first book in a brilliant new series takes you on a non-stop adventure in Antarctica, perfect for the most intrepid of readers! Maisie thinks her dad is the most boring person in the world. For fun he likes to do origami (but only basic triangles) or jigsaw puzzles of a cloudless sky (yes, every piece is blue). He writes cool-sounding books like How to Wrestle a Crocodile and How to Defuse a Bomb, but he’s never actually done any of the awesome things he writes about.

But Maisie has to admit, weird things happen around Dad. Unexplainable things…Maisie is determined to find out the truth about her dad. What she doesn’t realise is that she’ll discover some things about herself and what it really means to be a hero along the way. One thing is for sure — it’s going to be the adventure of a lifetime!

Non-Fiction for Year 5:

Planet Earth by Mike Barfield

Discover the amazing story of our home planet — as told by Earth itself — by award-winning duo Mike Barfield and Jess Bradley. Welcome to Earth — the planet we call home. From its very earliest beginnings 4.5 billion years ago to the birth of life, rise of biodiversity and the myriad creatures and lush landscapes that cover its surface — it’s ALL here! Planet Earth: My Life So Far is a comic-style, first-person account by Earth itself of its own life story. It includes the formation of Earth and the Moon, Earth’s geographical and geological features, its habitats, life forms past and present, and the challenges it faces today. Planet Earth is written in Mike Barfield’s hilarious style and accompanied by Jess Bradley’s quirky and colourful comic-strip illustrations.

Fiction for Year 6:

Shipwrecked by Jenny Pearson

Three children face shipwrecks, survival and pirates in the latest adventure from bestselling and award-winning author Jenny Pearson. Sebastian Sunrise and his two best friends, Lina and Étienne, are in a bit of trouble. They are stranded on a desert island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, after a rowing race went very, very wrong. The friends have no idea how long they might have to stay on the island, so they make a plan. They will try to survive, look after the island’s baby turtles, and have fun, if they can. But Sebastian’s life has never gone to plan, and they quickly face jellyfish stings, burnt bums and an out-of-control goat. And when a boat arrives, bringing pirates who want to hunt the island’s baby turtles, the friends face their greatest danger yet…

The Worlds We Leave Behind by A.F. Harrold

This beautiful, powerful, dramatic, and gripping short read, with stunning Carnegie-shortlisted illustrations, is breathtakingly good! The writing is poetic, timeless, and powerfully evocative of childhood. The story is layered and elegantly simple, with a sense of real depth. It thoughtfully explores why we do what we do and how much of our lives are dictated by circumstance. It is packed with beautifully written scenes of a small group of children in their summer holidays, an earthy mix of joy, sadness, exhilaration, loneliness, camaraderie, and conflict. These experiences and relationships turn and shift as a witch snips children out of the world, as if they had never been there, and the world adjusts. She can only take a victim if another child wishes to seek revenge on them. The witch is very persuasive and convinces angry, hurt children that it will not harm anyone to remake the world without their enemy. Only they will remember the missing child, and all they need to do is crush a magic acorn. Friendships, families, and personalities shift, divide, and reform in unpredictable ways each time an acorn is crushed, and the tension is palpable. The world reforms one last time when a boy with an unhappy home life foils the witch, and the story ends with him opening his front door and stepping into the unknown.

Non-Fiction for Year 6:

The History of Information by Chris Haughton

A journey through the evolution of knowledge, communication, and information. The debut non-fiction book by best-selling author Chris Haughton. History, as it is often taught, is a list of kings and queens and treaties and events. It presents the what and when, but it rarely asks why. The answers all come down to the same thing: information. The striving to share information, and — at the same time — the striving to undermine it, explains so much of today’s world and connects so many seemingly unconnected things: the rise of religions, states, science, democracy, the west, militarism, racism, fascism, consumerism, big tech, polarisation, and AI. This history of information is closely connected to the history of visual communication — and as these two are largely the same — it makes sense to tell this story visually: a history of graphics told through graphics. The History of Information, through a mix of timelines, graphics, and illustrations, clearly breaks down and explains each concept for children in Year 6.

Poetry for KS1:

Water Songs by Mandy Ross

“Water for life! That’s what we need!” A true cascade of poems. Following on from the success of Tree Whispers, Mandy Ross has turned her attention to the diverse voices of water. Beautifully illustrated by Sam Rudd, this is her collection of its haunting and lyrical songs. Our relationship with water is celebrated in its many forms — playful, industrious, productive, life-giving — and many more. With a strong environmental message, this book will be a source of fascination and inspiration for young readers.

Poetry for KS2:

Let Sleeping Cats Lie — Pet Poems by Brian Bilston

A hilarious collection of pet poems by wordplay wizard Brian Bilston. When you’ve got a bad case of the ‘mews’ and are in desperate need of a ‘pup’-lifting read, this book is the ‘ulti-mutt’ remedy. Stars include Wilf, the hypnotist Labracadabrador, a philosophically inclined goldfish penning a profound haiku, a hen named Barbara receiving an adoring tribute, and an ‘octopussy’ cat that seems to have all its paws in plenty of odd little pies.