Recommended reading books for primary & secondary aged children in the UK
Ella Dove is a journalist, novelist, inspirational speaker and amputee. She is Features Editor at Woman and Home and Woman’s Weekly, and she previously worked as deputy features editor on Good Housekeeping, Red and Prima, where she also compiled and edited Red’s book section. Her interviewing work has included Idris Elba, Fearne Cotton and Jacqueline Wilson. In 2023, she was a judge for the Nero Book Prize.
Her debut novel, Five Steps to Happy, was published in 2019 and is based on her true story. She later moved into children’s fiction with How To Roller-Skate with One Leg, a middle-grade novel published on 27 February 2025 about twelve-year-old Maya after the loss of her leg. Ella Dove followed it with How to do Paris with One Leg, published on 12 March 2026.
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.
Children’s book news for May 2026: Reading Rights, the Children’s Booker, Michael Rosen at 80, the Klaus Flugge and Branford Boase shortlists, BookTrust winners, LitUp results and shared reading data.
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