Lovemybooks is for parents, carers, teachers, schools, and early years staff, created by literacy experts. Free and ad free with over 250 activity pages full of creative book-based ideas.
TOP 10 CHILDREN’S BOOKS 2025
Here is our selection of some of the best picture books published in 2025. You will find a range of books, for all ages from 0-11+ and books that children (and adults!) will want to return to. We hope these books will encourage conversations based on the stories and the ideas, inspire story play or an interest in finding out more about the topics they introduce. Read about the our top 10 here. Go to Top 10 on our menu and explore previous years picturebooks and other Top 10s.
ALLAN AHLBERG
We were very sad to hear that Allan Ahlberg has died. An obituary from the Guardian gives a sense of his contribution to children’s literature.
His picture books and poetry, many illustrated by his wife Janet, were groundbreaking works of children’s literature which have delighted generations of children. Do write to us if you have any special memories.
Here are some of the books we feature on our website.
Each Peach Pear Plum The Jolly Christmas Postman
OUR TOP 10 BOOKS FOR BABY’S BOOKSHELF
OUR LATEST FOCUS BOOK
Our latest book in focus is Penguin Huddle by Ross Montgomery and Sarah Warburton
Each night the penguins form a huddle to keep warm and cosy, but one morning they wake up to find themselves stuck together! A crazy adventure follows as the penguins travel the world to try to get unstuck. With lots of humour and lively illustrations, this is a story which needs to be followed with a great big cuddle!
Joan told us about sharing Penguin Huddle with her granddaughter:
‘I looked at this book with my granddaughter Nancy, aged 4 years. Nancy knew that where penguins lived it was very cold. We had a look in the book, and it said penguins lived in the South Pole, so we found out where that was on her globe.’
‘Nancy and Joan did experiments with freezing and melting, made a cityscape with wooden bricks and drew a big map of the penguins’ adventures.’
‘Nancy thoroughly enjoyed reading this story and making up her own stories about the penguins’ adventures. We spent a long time looking at the illustrations and Nancy enjoyed telling me what each penguin was doing. And best of all we were able to finish with a great big cuddle of our own!’
Read more about Joan and Nancy’s exploration of the book and our activity suggestions
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OUR NEW POSTCARD AND POSTER
Download postcard front and back, download poster
MESSAGE TO PARENTS FROM SONIA THOMPSON, BIRMINGHAM HEADTEACHER
Sue McGonigle from Lovemybooks recently interviewed Sonia Thompson, Head Teacher of St Matthews C of E Primary School, Birmingham. See whole video
See Sonia’s message to parents below.
TYGER by SF SAID WINS CHILDREN’S BOOK OF THE YEAR
Congratulations to TYGER by SF Said, illustrated by DaveMcKean, which is winner of Book of the Year: Children’s Fiction at the British Book Awards. All the judges agreed that the book already “felt like a classic”.
SF Said says ‘I put 9 long, hard years of my life into writing TYGER because I believe children’s books are the most important books of all. So it was beyond incredible to see it win Children’s Book Of The Year at the #BritishBookAwards. Thank you @thebookseller @theweekjunior & the judges!!!’
See our Tyger activity page
CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR PATRONS 🧡 🧡 🧡
Award for Michael Rosen
Congratulations to Lovemybooks’ patron Michael Rosen on winning the prestigious Pen Pinter prize for his fearless body of work including his writing for children. Ruth Borthwick one of the judges said Rosen has “championed a way of writing for children which reflects their everyday worlds, using humour and wordplay to validate their imaginative ways of thinking and being”, said judge and chair of English PEN, Ruth Borthwick. Read more here: Author Michael Rosen wins 2023 PEN Pinter prize for ‘fearless’ body of work | Books | The Guardian
The Island of Brilliant
Interested in children’s books? Another of our wonderful patrons Frank Cottrell Boyce has launched a great podcast with author illustrator Nadia Shireen entitled The Island of Brilliant The Island of Brilliant! | a podcast by Frank Cottrell Boyce and Nadia Shireen (podbean.com)
SF SAID
SF was appointed writer in residence at Booktrust in March.
See Writer in Residence at BookTrust: SF Said | BookTrust
DAVID ALMOND
David received an OBE for services to Literature in April. He has also received two international prizes this year, the Nonino International prize one of Italy’s most prestigious literary prizes and the James Kruss prize awarded to a living author of children’s and YA books distinguished by linguistic brilliance originality imaginative storytelling and cosmopolitanism.
Visit our activity page for David Almond’s Tale of Angelino Brown and The Boy who Climbed into the Moon
JOSEPH COELHO
We are utterly delighted to announce that award-winning poet, playwright and author Joseph Coelho is the brand new Waterstones Children’s Laureate! 
JULIAN GRENIER
Julian receives a CBE in the Jubilee Honours list. He is a Headteacher and National Leader of Education and one of our first patrons. Julian is a dedicated pioneer in early years education and has a particular focus on young children’s communication and early literacy. He has a doctorate in education (EdD).
Julian now works as part of Ofsted.
Julian blogs at www.juliangrenier.blogspot.co.uk You can follow him @juliangrenieR
WELCOME TO LOVE MY BOOKS
What people say about Lovemybooks
The activities brought the story to life! Elena, Parent
Lovemybooks is a treasure trove of well researched guidance on books and reading Alex Law, Head teacher
Everything I think is important about Lovemybooks is right there in its name!
SF Said, author
You can search the Lovemybooks website for:
* Topics and themes…
Our specially chosen books are arranged in topics and themes that young children love, with ideas for ways to share the books and lots of exciting things to do Read more…
* Books for different age groups
Find books for children aged 0-3, 3- 5, 5-7, 7-11 Read more
* Our Top 10 book lists
Whether you want to find out about exciting new picture books, alphabet books, folk and fairy tales or story apps you’ll find them here in our Top 10 books sections Read more…
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