Inspiring Books for Children

Imagine a world where everyone is kind - how can we make that come true?

With gorgeous pictures by a host of top illustrators, Kind is a timely, inspiring picture book about the many ways children can be kind, from sharing their toys and games to helping those from other countries feel welcome.

The book is endorsed by Gruffalo illustrator Axel Scheffler, and £1 from the sale of each printed copy will go to Three Peas, a charity which gives vital help to refugees from war-torn countries.

• Author: Green, Alison
• Publisher: Scholastic
• Format: Hardback
• Publication Date: 20/03/2019
• ISBN: 9781407194561
• B-Code: B042706
• Illustrated: colour illustrations
• Pages: 48
• Dimensions: 287x235mm

What a Waste: Rubbish, Recycling and Protecting our Planet By Jess French

As more and more children are becoming aware of waste and recycling, this book is the perfect introduction for young children.

Did you know that every single plastic toothbrush ever made still exists? Or that there's a floating mass of rubbish larger than the USA in the Pacific Ocean? It's not all bad news though. Some countries are implementing schemes that are having a positive impact, and our waste can be turned into something useful.

Everything young ecologists need to know about what we're doing to our environment, good and bad, from pollution and litter to renewable energy and plastic recycling.

This hardback book features 72 full colour pages, with fun illustrations.

• Author: French, Jess
• Publisher: Dorling Kindersley Publishers
• Format: Hardback
• Publication Date: 01/04/2019
• ISBN: 9780241366912
• B-Code: B041232
• Dimensions: 276x216mm

Want to be EXTRAORDINARY?

This book will inspire you with the real-life stories of extraordinary people, showcasing a total variety of personalities and talents. Whoever you are, and whoever you want to be, read about the extraordinary stories of these 15 people, and decide how YOU can be extraordinary too!

From around the world and throughout history, discover unsung heroes - and some well-known faces - brought to life with astonishing story-telling and illustration.

Meet an artist, scientist, medic, environmentalist, musician, activist, writer, politician, and even a spy . . . above all, discover that there are MANY ways to be extraordinary and to make a real difference in the world.

Featuring the real-life stories of: Aeham Ahmad, David Attenborough, Mo Farah, Keiko Fukuda, Stephen Hawking, Frida Kahlo, Abdul Kalam, Judith Kerr, Wangari Maathai, Nelson Mandela, David Nott, Michelle Obama, Krystyna Skarbek, Alan Turing, Sau Lan Wu

• Imprint: Puffin
  
• Published: 01/08/2019
• ISBN: 9780241385401
• Length: 32 Pages
• Dimensions: 250mm x 3mm x 250mm
• Weight: 199g
  

** WINNER OF THE ORDNANCE SURVEY CHILDREN'S TRAVEL BOOK OF THE YEAR 2019 **

A colourful showcase of daring feats and journeys undertaken by some of the most heroic explorers who ever lived, as hand-picked by Alastair Humphreys (National Geographic Adventurer Of The Year)

It features a wide-spread selection of explorers from young to old, male to female who crossed land, sea and sky in the name of adventure and it may just inspire readers aged 7+ to do the same.

• Author: Humphreys, Alastair
• Publisher: Bonnier Publishing
• Format: Paper Back
• Publication Date: 16/08/2018
• ISBN: 9781787416260
• Pages: 96
  
• Dimensions: 280x216mm

Why do we need friends? How do we make friends? And what makes a good friend?

This beautifully illustrated book explores how wonderful it is to have friends, looking at different types of friendships, and what happens when friends fall out and make up.

Includes helpful notes for grown-ups on talking to children about friendships, dealing with conflicts and imaginary friends.

Age: 3+
Hardback
ISBN: 9781474968386
32 pages
290 x 240mm
Written by: Felicty Brooks
Illustrator: Mar Ferrero

This treasure trove of boredom-busting inspiration will keep children entertained for hours on end, whatever the weather.

Stage a shadow puppet show, make musical instruments, fly a kite and lots more, then stimulate your brain with riddles, word games and memory puzzles. The book even includes links to fun websites with even more things to do.

• Author: Usborne
• Publisher: Usborne Publishing Ltd
• Format: Paperback
• ISBN: 9781474922579
  
• Illustrated: Illustrated
  
• Pages: 128
• Dimensions: 247x196mm

This 96-page, hardback illustrated write-in book by by Alice James is an 'unworry toolkit' for children. Helping distract them from any anxieties, calming them down, and providing a place to sort through their worries and thoughts.

Aimed at 10 years plus, but it can help any child who is competent at writing.

It offers a variety of activities, from things to write, colour and design, to calm-down tactics and relaxation exercises and includes internet links to websites that offer support to young people and parents or carers of worried children, along with details of charities that can help.

• Author: James, Alice
• Publisher: Usborne Publishing Ltd
• Format: Hardback
• Publication Date: 10/01/2019
• ISBN: 9781474950770
• B-Code: B040143
• Dimensions: 240x188mm

Superheroes have always been around, from legendary gods with mighty powers to human heroes who use a disguises to save the day . . .

Join six iconic mythic and legendary heroes from around the world in this colourful, illustrated collection of Ladybird Tales.

Meet tricksters, fighters, shape-shifters and even people who save the day with just the power of speech:

• Anansi the Spider-Man
• Loki and the Magical Hammer
• Hanuman, Demon Fighter
• Inanna in the Underworld
• Shahrazad the Storyteller
• The Legend of Hua Mulan

Perfect for bedtime, to read aloud or enjoy alone, these gripping tales breathe marvellous life into ancient art of storytelling. Includes a special introduction from award-winning author David Solomons.

Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
ISBN: 9780241381946
Number of pages: 96
Weight: 553 g
Dimensions: 255 x 185 x 15 mm

Activities and Tips to Make The World a Better Place

Packed with over 100 puzzles, games, activities, experiments and tips, Little Book for Big Changes offers fun, educational and creative ways to bring young people together to help change the world.

This innovative activity book encourages them to become responsible global citizens, develop understanding, empathy and a sense of responsibility, empowering them to protect the environment and to make the world fairer. Includes tips on how to recycle and reduce plastic waste.

This paperback contains 64 full-colour illustrated pages. 

• Author: Ng, Karen & Liepmann, Kirsten
• Publisher: Templar Publishing
• Format: Paperback
• Publication Date: 15/11/2018
• ISBN: 9781787414808
• B-Code: B040157
• Dimensions: 235x190mm

This handy-sized Usborne paperback book is packed with 50 fun, step-by-step experiments and activities for young scientists.

Activities include creating a light and shadow show, separating colours in a fascinating ink experiment, creating a foaming monster using chemical reactions and lots more!

Each page gives step-by-step instructions for how to complete the activity as well as a simple explanation of the science behind it.

An excellent book to introduce children to scientific concepts in a fun and interactive way.

"...to be revisited again and again...The candy-colored pages and straightforward stories are hard to resist..." -The New York Times

Meet 52 icons of colour from the past and present in this celebration of inspirational black achievement. This is a collection of stories about change makers to inspire and empower the next generation.

Jamia Wilson has carefully curated this range of black icons and the book is stylishly brought together by Andrea Pippins' colourful and celebratory illustrations.

Inspired by Nina Simone's song "To Be Young, Gifted, and Black," this beautiful book is a perfect introduction to both historic and present-day heroes.

Meet figureheads, leaders and pioneers such as Martin Luther King Jr., Nelson Mandela and Rosa Parks, as well as cultural trailblazers and athletes like Stevie Wonder, Oprah Winfrey and Serena Williams.

All children deserve to see themselves represented positively in the books they read. Highlighting the talent and contributions of black leaders and changemakers from around the world, readers of all backgrounds will be empowered to discover what they too can achieve. Strong, courageous, talented and diverse, these extraordinary men and women's achievements will inspire a new generation to chase their dream... whatever it may be.

The 52 icons:

Mary Seacole, Matthew Henson, Ava Duvernay, Bessie Coleman, Barack Obama, Michelle Obama, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Cathy Freeman, George Washington Carver, Malorie Blackman, Harriet Tubman, Mo Farah, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Jesse Owens, Beyonce Knowles, Solange Knowles, Katherine Johnson, Josephine Baker, Kofi Annan, Langston Hughes, Toni Morrison, Brian Lara, Madam C.J. Walker, Yannick Noah, Maurice Ashley, Alexandre Duma, Martin Luther King, Jr., Maya Angelou, Nina Simone, Simone Biles, Stevie Wonder, Esperanza Spalding, Sidney Poitier, Oprah Winfrey, Pele, Nelson Mandela, Louis Armstrong, Rosa Parks, Naomi Campbell, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Muhammad Ali, Shirley Chisholm, Steve McQueen, Zadie Smith, Usain Bolt, Wangari Maathai, Mae Jemison, W.E.B. Du Bois, Nicola Adams, Serena Williams, Venus Williams, and Misty Copeland.

• Paperback
• Publisher: Wide Eyed Editions
• ISBN: 9781786039835
• Number of pages: 64
• Dimensions: 276 x 235 mm

This fun and empowering guide to making the world a better place is packed with inspiring ideas and tips for kids who want to make a difference.

Full of positive encouragement to find things they're passionate about and how to get started on making a big difference through small actions, this brilliant fact book for kids is a treasure trove of information and great advice.

There's a lot that can be changed by just one person, if you know what to do.

If you are a kid with big dreams and a passion for what is right, you just might be a world-changer in the making! Through ideas as small as creating a neighbourhood lending library to as important as public speaking and how to talk about politics, How to Make a Better World is a practical guide to activism for children.

Brightly illustrated inclusive art makes this fact book as visually appealing as its message. 

If you want to create a better world that is equally awesome for everyone, this book is for you.

Authored by Kelly Swift, the Managing Editor of First News, an award-winning weekly newspaper for children.

Author: Swift, Keilly
Publisher: Dorling Kindersley Publishers
Format: Hardback
Publication Date: 27/02/2020
ISBN: 9780241412206
Illustrated: illustrated
Pages: 96
Dimensions: 276x216mm

Meet kids - just like you - taking action against climate change.

Learn about the work they do and discover how the future of our planet starts with the small changes you can make, inspire and provoke.

Foreword by the leaders of the school strike for climate change.

• Age 4-7
• Author: Taylor, Anna & Lirius, Adelina & Kirby, Loll
• Publisher: Abrams & Chronicle Books Ltd
• Format: Hardback
• ISBN: 9781916180529
  
• Illustrated: Colour illustrations
  
• Pages: 32
• Dimensions: 280x240mm

This book looks back at 15 important science ideas and more than 50 ingenious thinkers who have helped shape our understanding of the world - whether they were right or wrong.

It examines ideas from atoms, electricity, and the solar system, right up to recent discoveries like AI and genetics.

Thinkers include, Louis Pasteur, Marie Curie, Charles Darwin, Aristotle, Isaac Newton, Grace Hopper, Alan Turing, and Ada Lovelace.

• Author: Hardy, Freya & Mulvanny, Sara
• Publisher: Aurum Press Imprints
• Format: Paperback
• ISBN: 9781782407386
  
• Illustrated: 200 illustrations
  
• Pages: 80
• Dimensions: 279x216mm

This deck of 52 affirmation cards is a powerful and positive tool to help your child’s confidence blossom.

With positive statements and mood-boosting mantras that can be displayed anywhere, this collection of bright and inspiring pick-me-ups will empower your child to feel ready for anything!

The pack comes with a wooden display stand for your chosen card for the day.

• Pick one each morning, for a little boost.
• When children are feeling anxious or sad, find a card that will ease their anxieties.
• Display them in their bedroom, so they can always see a positive message

Card size: 16.5 x 11 cm

The beautifully illustrated book from Usborne helps children learn all about families and all the differences that may exist.

What do families look like? Who’s in your family? And how can families change?

With  illustrations by Mar Ferrero, this delightful book celebrates family diversity, talks about lone-parent families, adoptive, foster, divorced, remarried, and mixed race families, and lots, lots more, showing little children that families come in all shapes and sizes.

A great way to help children understand and appreciate diversity.

• Age: 3+
• Hardback
• ISBN: 9781474949071
• 32 pages
• 290 x 240mm
• Written by: Felicty Brooks
• Illustrator: Mar Ferrero

From the heroes familiar to everyone, such as Malala Yousafzai, to the amazing activists you might not have heard of, like Baruani Ndume, the teenager who gave a voice to fellow refugee children in Tanzania, discover the incredible true stories of child activists.

An inspirational and moving book from beloved author-illustrator Marcia Williams, providing the perfect introduction to an important subject and marking the 30th anniversary of the Rights of the Child.

• Author: Williams, Marcia
• Publisher: Walker Books Ltd
• Format: Hardback
• Publication Date: 23/08/2019
• ISBN: 9781406384109
• B-Code: B045473
• Illustrated: illustrated
• Pages: 40
• Dimensions: 316x253mm

‘Humans are very adaptable: We can still fix this. But the opportunity to do so will not last for long. We must start today. We have no more excuses’ – GRETA THUNBERG

Follow in the footsteps of the Swedish teenage activist and Nobel Peace Prize candidate in We Are All Greta and join the global mission to save our planet from climate change.

Greta Thunberg, author of No One is too Small to Make a Difference, has directed the attention of adults and her peers alike to issues crucial to the future of the planet, and the heads of even the youngest children have been filled with questions.

Global warming, the greenhouse effect, fossil fuels – what do they all mean? What are biodiversity and sustainable development? Who is studying the changes that are taking place here on Earth? Which sources are reliable? What action can I take?

We Are All Greta sets out the basic ideas required to understand climate change, explained in a scientific and accessible way and drawn from the most authoritative sources. It is for young people, for parents, for grandparents and anyone having to answer direct and urgent questions about what must be done to protect our world.

With in-depth text and data, this necessary and timely book will answer readers’ questions on what climate change means, what its consequences will be, and what must be done to protect our world.

This book is an older read, but perfect for teens or parents wanting to inform and educate their children.

• Author: Giannella, Valentina
• Publisher: Laurence King
• Format: Paperback
• Publication Date: 24/09/2019
• ISBN: 9781786276131
• B-Code: B044962
• Illustrated: Illustrations
• Pages: 128
• Dimensions: 210x170mm

A unique card deck which brings yoga, meditation, and movement to children and families in a fun and playful way.

The deck includes 50 stand-alone cards, each featuring one pose with an illustrated child on the front and instructions on the back.

The deck also includes a fold-out piece with 50 uniquely customized flows for combining cards - to wake up, calm down, make a wish, fight the fidgets, and sleep tight.

These cards are great for mildfulness, destressing and soothing anxiety.

• Ages 4 plus
• Card size: 184x134mm