Ancient Egyptian topic books for Key Stage 2, including titles by David Long, Emma Carroll, Emily Bone, David Weitzman, Marcia Williams, Joe Todd-Stanton, Laura Wood and Terry Deary.
Children’s nonfiction and topic books RSS feed for this section
Are you looking for great books to support your primary KS1 or KS2 topic teaching?
Below are our recommended books for topics, genres, and cross-curricular projects. These book list suggestions aim to cover all curriculum subjects, themes and topics and include poetry, reading for pleasure fiction and narrative nonfiction. We’re adding new topics every week and we hope these lists of quality texts will help teachers and librarians to find useful books for classrooms and school libraries.
The lists are updated and revised regularly to make sure books are up-to-date and relevant to the National Curriculum. Each recommended book includes a description and suggestions for classroom use. For each topic, there’s also a hand-picked selection of useful resources, links and free downloadables.
For more nonfiction ideas, see our list of magazines for children and teens.
Human body books for children
Human body books for children in EYFS, KS1, and KS2 suitable for cross-curricular topics. Including titles by Charlotte Markey, Robert Winston, Adam Kay, Yumi Stynes, Emma Quay, Nick Fisher, and Elizabeth Verdick.
Vikings topic books
Vikings topic books for children aged 7-11 in KS2. This list includes nonfiction books and stories by Tony Bradman, Jane Chisholm, Michael Morpurgo, Cressida Cowell, Terry Deary, and Neil Gaiman.
Resilience topic books
Children’s books about resilience, perseverance, and grit, including titles suitable for KS1 and KS2 by David Long, Cece Bell, Matthew Syed, Julie Murphy, Esther Pia Cordova, and Barney Salzberg.
Transport topic books
Transport topic books for children aged 5-11 in KS1 and KS2. This list includes nonfiction books and stories by Uijung Kim, Emily Hawkins, Giles Chapman, Vivian French, Vashti Hardy, and Ian Fleming.
Autumn books for children
Autumn books for children in EYFS, KS1, and KS2 suitable for cross-curricular topics. Including titles by Sam Usher, Lois Ehlert, Ruth Symons, Hazel Maskell, Dianna Aston, Jessica Courtney-Tickle, and Emily Gravett.
Exploration topic books for KS2
Exploration topic books for KS2, including fiction and nonfiction novels, picture books and real life stories by writers including Sally Walker, William Grill, Libby Jackson, Nellie Huang, Catherine Johnson, Katherine Rundell, Alexandra Stewart and Joe Todd-Stanton.
Science fiction and STEM topic books
Science fiction and STEM topic books for Key Stage 1,2 & 3, including fiction and nonfiction titles by Amy Bond, Christopher Edge, David Wiesner, Jane Wilsher, Ross Welford, SF Said and Margaret Wild.
Anglo-Saxons topic books
Anglo-Saxon topic books for children aged 7-11 in KS2. This list includes nonfiction books and stories by Tony Bradman, Rosemary Sutcliff, Terry Deary, Karen Wallace, Robert Fowke and Anita Ganeri.
Australia topic books
Australia topic books by a diverse range of Australian children’s authors and illustrators, including books by Margaret Wild, Armin Greder, Lian Tanner, Dianne Bates, Aunty Joy Murphy, Kate Grenville and Paul Jennings.
Teaching diversity through reading in primary schools
Books to help teach diversity to children in KS1 and KS2 in primary schools – with characters and settings to introduce age-appropriate discussions of the diversity of culture, race, ethnicity, gender, education, disability, identity, nationality, religion, sexuality, neurodiversity, social background, and beliefs.
Christmas topic books for EYFS, KS1 & KS2
Christmas topic books with fiction and nonfiction suitable for children in EYFS, KS1 & KS2 including titles by Raymond Briggs, Fiona Watt, Dawn Casey, Kate Saunders Graham Oakley and Catherine Doyle.
Children’s books for Christmas
Our 20 great children’s books for Christmas – spectacular picture books to surprise, bewitch and survive longer than one holiday season.
Books for bored children
Books for bored children! This list of unusually interesting books for children and teens aged 5-14 includes titles by Andy Seed, Robert Muchamore, Colin Furze, Liz Pichon, Jo Simmons and Enid Blyton.
Children’s books about war and remembrance
Remembrance and war topic books for children in KS1 and KS2 suitable for literacy, research, and cross-curricular topics. Including titles by Michael Rosen, Lois Lowry, Tom Palmer, Kate Saunders, Martin Impey, Bali Rai, and Judith Loske.
Easter topic books for EYFS, KS1 & KS2
Easter topic books with fiction and nonfiction suitable for children in EYFS, KS1 & KS2 including titles by Roger Hargreaves, Fiona Watt, Charlotte Zolotow, Emily Gravett, Brian Wildsmith and Kes Gray.
20 great activity books for children
Activity books for children – this list of books to keep children and teens aged 3-13 occupied includes titles by Fiona Watt, Dawn Isaac, Julia Donaldson, Thomas Pavitte and Miro Tartan.
20 young adult books to read in summer 2020
Our YA summer reads for 2020 list includes a healthy mix of thrillers, prescient CLI-FI, atmospheric coming of age stories, empathy novels, adventures, teen romances, and fantasy for 12-16 years olds – and maybe parents as well.
20 pirate books for children
20 pirate books for children interested in life on the high seas and primary schools looking for pirate books for cross curricular topics. Authors include James Davies, Celia Rees, Neil Gaiman, Lindsay Eagar, Derek Keilty, Cornelia Funke, and Philip Ardagh.
Adoption and families topic books
Children’s books about adoption and families for children aged 2-11 in EYFS, KS1 & KS2 – including stories by Samuel Langley-Swain, Jamie Lee-Curtis, Todd Parr, Phoebe Koehler, Frank Cottrell Boyce and Justin Richardson.
Romans topic books
Romans topic books for children aged 7-11 in KS2. This list includes nonfiction books and stories by Tony Bradman, Christina Balit, Andy Stanton, Theresa Breslin, Gary Northfield, and Marcia Williams.
Children’s nonfiction books about castles
Here’s our selection of great nonfiction books and topic books for children about castles. These reading suggestions contain a range of books suitable for primary aged children aged 5-11 in KS1 and KS2.