New books: Summer 2026

Four times a year, we select 10 new books for each year group. These collections are carefully selected for class libraries to support reading for pleasure.

The purpose of the book collections

Creating readers for the future means developing children who can read, but just as importantly, children who want to read. Research indicates that freedom of choice is critical to that endeavour, and we need to meet children where they are. That doesn’t mean that we have no investment in opening up the world of reading to lay before them the many riches that reading has to offer.

How the books are selected

Reading Journey collections are selected with this in mind. You will find high-interest choices informed by the trends in children’s reading as recorded in The Reading Journey, along with a few ‘not to be missed’ books that will expand children’s horizons, ensuring that your class libraries are well balanced

While predominantly fiction, the lists include some poetry and high-interest nonfiction. Visual texts, short reads, and graphic novels are included along with some longer books to cater for the needs of children with different levels of reading attainment and reading stamina.

We take account of the need to reflect children’s lives, providing books that represent different needs, backgrounds and cultural heritage.

Introductory videos

Accompanying the book lists is a short introductory video for each year group. These provide teachers with information about authors and illustrators, and there are sneak peeks inside the books. These videos are intended to provide information that you will find useful when talking about the books with your readers.

Slide Presentations

We’ve also added a slide presentation for each book list. You can use this when introducing the books to the class before you add them to the class library. You might choose to introduce one book at a time over 10 days to pique children’s interest or introduce the entire collection in one booktalk lesson.