About Us

About the School Reading List

The School Reading List website recommends children’s and young adult books to teachers, parents, schools and librarians in the United Kingdom and around the world. Our team of highly experienced and highly qualified children’s literature experts, English teachers, teacher training academics, and specialist children’s librarians are highly skilled at curating fiction and nonfiction suggested reading lists and writing reviews of the latest children’s and YA books.

We specialize in curating age group and genre-based booklists for children, teens and young adults, something we’ve done since 2011. We pride ourselves on producing consistently high-quality original content, writing from diverse perspectives and delivering consistently professional curation.

Welcome to our website, which we hope will become your go-to resource for encouraging reading for pleasure and promoting lifelong learning through literacy. We are an online platform committed to inspiring and enriching the literary experiences of children and young adults across the United Kingdom and worldwide.

Our mission

At the School Reading List, our mission is to empower teachers, parents, schools, libraries, and home educators by providing a comprehensive array of children’s and young adult books, writing competitions, children’s publishers, literacy blogs, teaching resources, home learning courses, audiobooks, revision guides, graphic novels, chapter books, nonfiction, activity books, and much more. Our purpose is to instil a profound love for reading, learning, and creativity in the hearts of the next generation.

What we offer:

1. Book Recommendations: Our carefully curated age group lists, genre book lists, new term previews and new book reviews encompass a wide range of themes, catering to the diverse interests and needs of young readers. From enchanting picture books to gripping young adult novels, we ensure that there’s something for everyone.
2. Literacy Resources: Find a wealth of literacy and English teaching resources, offering valuable support for educators and parents in promoting reading and language skills.
3. Writing Competitions: Encourage young writers to hone their skills and showcase their creativity through our recommended writing competitions.
4. Children’s Publishers: Discover renowned children’s publishers and stay up-to-date with the latest releases in children’s literature.
5. Literacy Blogs: Explore our pick of a treasure trove of informative and engaging literacy blogs that offer insights, advice, and recommendations on fostering a love for reading and learning.
6. Home Learning Courses: Access our expertly curated lists of home learning courses to facilitate the educational journey from the comfort of your home.
7. Revision Guide recommendations: Prepare students for academic success with revision guides and study materials that support their learning objectives.
8. Graphic Novel lists: Dive into the world of graphic novels, an engaging medium that combines art and storytelling to captivate young readers.
9. Children’s Literature Podcast: Tune in to our children’s literature podcast, where we discuss literary trends, author interviews, and insightful commentary on the world of children’s and young adult books.
10. Monthly Book Club: Join our monthly book club for primary and secondary students, where readers can explore new books, engage in discussions, and connect with fellow book enthusiasts. There are also free resources to help you start your own book group.
11. Topic and Genre Guides: Navigate the literary landscape with our topic and genre guides, designed to help you discover books that align with specific interests and educational goals.

Our children’s book list curation process – how we choose new titles

Only children’s books that we have read to children or road-tested with classes are reviewed, suggested or recommended. We listen to our authoritative panels which comprise over 100 children’s and YA literature experts including experienced primary and secondary school teachers, specialist children’s and YA librarians, children’s literature academics and lecturers, education senior leaders and home educators when we compile and refresh our collections of year group lists, genre booklists, niche suggestions and books for gifts.

Using this wealth of professional experience and expertise, we include a range of classics, new books, diverse fiction and non-fiction and poetry across the breadth of our site, and you can be assured that all the books our panel selects have received excellent feedback from young readers, school librarians and teachers.

Our panel members are experts at selecting high-quality children’s books by age, topic, and genre. They take great care to ensure age appropriateness, relevant educational value, and pure entertainment value when curating new titles for booklists.

We champion diverse perspectives, representation, inclusivity and accessibility and we strive to produce booklists that will be useful and valuable both at school and at home. Our reading-for-pleasure booklists are a one-stop shop to cover term time, classroom demands, special occasions, school holidays and back-to-school transition.

The School Reading List has clear policies and transparent information about how we select and curate content to ensure a breadth of content and powerful representation. You can view our policies here. We welcome contact from users and feedback from teachers and schools, and you can contact us here. Our core reading booklists are reviewed, updated and revised monthly and our genre booklists are reviewed termly.

We also decide on fiction, nonfiction and picture Books of the Month which are updated at the start of each month. These titles tend to be recently published books.

The children’s books we recommend in our age group and genre reading book lists are almost always bought from bookshops – both on the high street and online. Sometimes publishers provide us with pre-release copies via national and local booksellers, authors, agents, or publishers, but you can rest assured that all the titles we select for booklists have been road-tested in schools or children’s libraries. For us, it’s important to reflect, resonate and replicate our readers’ experiences.

We also showcase the best fiction, nonfiction and picture books in our Books of the Month feature which is updated at the start of each month. These titles tend to be recently published children’s and YA books or new editions of children’s and YA books.

We are often approached by authors, agents or publishers asking us to consider a new title for a list. Do have a look at our submission page which includes full details of the submission process.

You can view the qualifications, children’s literature expertise and professional education experience of our team here.

Our commitment to diversity, inclusivity and accessibility:

We are dedicated to promoting diversity, inclusivity and accessibility in children’s and young adult literature, ensuring that our recommendations reflect a wide variety of cultures, lived experiences, and minority perspectives in the UK. Read more about this in our diversity policy.

Our vision

At the School Reading List, we believe that literacy is the key to knowledge, empathy, creativity, and personal growth. We are here to support and inspire the individuals responsible for nurturing young minds, and we invite you to join us on this literary journey. Together, even if only in a small way, we can help shape a brighter and more literate future for the next generations of children and young adults in the UK.

Our history

The School Reading List website was created by Tom Tolkien in 2011. See our timeline.