Children's Picks - Summer 2026

Here are our children's picks for summer 2026! Have a browse through to help find the perfect books for your summer reading list!

Tadpole Summer (Catherine Bruton)

Frog has always known her younger brother Tad is unwell. He has Spinal Muscular Atrophy (called SMA-PME for short) but that has never been an obstacle for their unbreakable bond.

They share a room and do everything together, Frog happy to do whatever Tad needs. But when Tad is taken into hospital, Frog finds it difficult to be in their bedroom alone and starts camping in the garden. She only plans to be there while Tad is away but she finds an unexpected calm amongst the sounds and smells of nature and a space of her own that she's never had before.

When Tad comes up, their bedroom has to change to accommodate all his hospital equipment and Frog isn't sure where she fits in their family anymore. She retreats back into the garden, using the excuse of a sponsored camp out for charity. But as Tad's condition worsens, Frog needs to face the truth that she may not have much longer with him.

Working to bring the small wonders of the natural world to Tad, can Frog find a way to make this last summer together unforgettable?

Shorelines (Ruth Ennis)

Muireann is a mermaid – fierce, curious and proud of the body that keeps her warm beneath the waves. But life in the ocean is becoming impossible. The merfolk are at war with the human ramifications of climate change: food is scarce, and her twin sister has been killed in a mass-fishing net. With her mother lost in grief and her world falling apart, Muireann longs to escape to the surface to find some answers. But the human world isn’t the haven she hoped for. It’s colder, crueller – and here, her large body is seen not as strength, but as something to be ashamed of.

In this beautiful novel-in-verse, Muireann must find her voice and fight for where she belongs – whether that be beneath the waves, or above them.

Impossible Creatures (Katherine Rundell)

Christopher is stunned when he discovers a Way-Between from our world to the Archipelago: a cluster of magical islands where all the creatures of myth still live and breed and thrive in their thousands. There he meets Mal: a girl from the islands, who is in possession of a flying coat and a baby griffin, and who is being pursued by a killer.

 Together they embark on an urgent quest to discover why the creatures are suddenly perishing, voyaging across the wild splendour of the Archipelago, where sphinxes hold secrets and centaurs do murder, in a bid to save both the islands and the world beyond them from a rising evil – before it's too late.

We Were A Two (Eoin McLaughlin and Emma Chichester Clark)

The caravan was in a field behind a hedge.

And beyond the hedge was the sea. The caravan smelled old and damp. The caravan smelled like you were on holiday .

. . Eoin lives with his Nana, and every year they make their way to their caravan for the whole of the summer .

. . There Eoin has the freedom to go off with his friends for hours on end, and to roam the beach.

One day the waves come up really high - will they get through to the other side?A warm, cosy story full of laughter and adventure about one epic summer spent in a caravan. An homage to alternative families, based on the author's own childhood.

The Seal on the Beach (Mara Bergman and Brita Granstrom)

Little Maggie is on holiday with her aunt and uncle.

Meanwhile her mum waits for Maggie’s baby brother to come home from hospital. On a walk across the wild Norfolk shoreline, Maggie finds a seal pup stranded on the beach, all alone. She is the sweetest thing Maggie has ever seen.

But without her mum, how will the seal survive? Who will rescue her and will she ever be returned to the sea, and find her family again? Expressed through her vivid dreams and thoughtful actions, Maggie longs for the rescue and survival of this dear little seal pup. And, all the while, she hopes with all her heart to be reunited with her own mum and baby brother again.