Story Garden – Summer Reading Challenge 2025

Explore the official Story Garden book collection!

The 2025 Summer Reading Challenge book collection features 59 captivating titles for different reading levels, including picture books, early readers, and middle grade titles, as well as dyslexia-friendly titles. With a mix of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and graphic novels, the collection has been carefully curated to engage young minds with the wonders of the great outdoors with the input of reading specialists and an expert reading panel. The books will be available to borrow for free from public libraries.  

Picture Books  

• The Ocean Gardener – Clara Anganuzzi (Little Tiger) 
• Wild – Katya Balen, illustrated by Gill Smith (Walker Books) 
• Lulu Meets the Bees – Anna McQuinn, illustrated by Rosalind Beardshaw (Alanna Max) 
• Is it a Seed? – Emily Ann Davison, illustrated by Adriena Fong (Flying Eye Books) 
• Into The Wild – Thomas Docherty (Oxford University Press) 
• My Path – Jana Curll (Nosy Crow) 
• Ava and the Acorn – Lu Fraser, illustrated by Paddy Donnelly (Hachette – Hodder Children’s Books) 
• I Hear You, Forest – Kallie George, illustrated by Carmen Mok (Greystone Kids) 
• Little Rhino Lost – Candy Gourlay, illustrated by Jamie Bauza (Otter Barry Books) 
• Bear and Bird: Find A Footprint – Jonny Lambert (DK Children’s) 
• The World to Come – Robert Macfarlane, Johnny Flynn, illustrated by Emily Sutton (Magic Cat Publishing) 
• Rajiv’s Starry Feelings – Niall Moorjani, illustrated by Nanette Regan (Lantana) 
• Farah Loves Mangos – Sarthak Sinha (Flying Eye Books) 
• By the Beaver Pool – Catherine Ward, illustrated by Phoebe Roze (Floris Books – Kelpies) 
• Leave the Trees, Please – Benjamin Zephaniah, illustrated by Melissa Castrillon (Magic Cat Publishing) 

Early Readers  

• Finding Hope – Nicola Baker (Simon & Schuster Children’s Books) 
• Boing! – James Carter, illustrated by Neal Layton (Otter Barry Books) 
• SuperQuesters Mission: River Crest Rescue – Paul Ian Cross, illustrated by Katie Kear, Cherie Zamazing (QuestFriendz) 
• Keisha Jones is a Force of Nature – Natalie Denny, illustrated by Chante Timothy (Little Tiger) 
• From Plant to Plate – Darryl Gadzekpo and Ella Phillips (DK Children’s) 
• Rabbit & Bear: The Lake is Fake – Julian Gough and Jim Field (Hachette – Hodder Children’s Books) 
• Slug Life – Moesha Kellaway (Rocket Bird Books – HarperCollins) 
• Lots of Things To Know About Bugs – Sarah Hull, illustrated by Hannah Abbo (Usborne) 
• Wonder World: Earth – Ben Lerwill, illustrated by Xuan Le (Nosy Crow) 
• Robin Hood Aged 10 3/4 – Ben Miller, illustrated by Elisa Paganelli (Simon & Schuster Children’s Books) 
• Hilda and Twig – Luke Pearson (Flying Eye Books) 
• Watch Me Bloom – Krina Patel-Sage (Lantana) 
• Beastie Bros: The Cabbage Juice Crime – David O’Connell (Scholastic) 
• Superhero Plants – Chris Packham, illustrated by Jake Williams (Farshore – Redshed) 
• Maggie Sparks and the Camping Chaos – Steve Smallman, illustrated by Esther Hernando (Sweet Cherry Publishing) 
• Baller Boys vs The Bulldozers – Venessa Taylor, illustrated by Kenneth Ghann (Hashtag Press) 
• The Children’s Book of Wildlife Watching – Dan Rouse (DK Children’s) 
• Hamza’s Wild World – Hamza Yassin, illustrated by Louise Forshaw (Macmillan Children’s Books) 

Middle Grade  

• Magicalia: Race of Wonders – Jennifer Bell (Walker Books) 
• Bird Boy – Catherine Bruton (Nosy Crow) 
• Moonshifter – Penny Chrimes (Hachette – Orion Children’s Books) 
• The Observologist – Giselle Clarkson (Lerner Publishing Group) 
• Everything You Know About Minibeasts is Wrong – Dr. Nick Crumpton, illustrated by Gavin Scott (Nosy Crow) 
• Open Wide! Jaw-Dropping Mouths of the Animal World (What on Earth!) – Dr. Letizia Diamante, illustrated by Ed J. Brown
• The Last Dragon – Polly Ho-Yen, illustrated by Charis Loke (Knights Of) 
• Tidemagic: The Many Faces of Ista Flit – Clare Harlow, illustrated by Karl James Mountford (Penguin Random House) 
• Green Kingdom – Cornelia Funke and Tammi Hartung, illustrated by Melissa Castrillón (DK Children’s) 
• Pocket Book of Pocket Poems – A.F. Harrold, illustrated by Jack Viant (Bloomsbury Education) 
• Adia Kelbara and the Circle of Shamans – Isi Hendrix (Usborne) 
• The Whisperwicks: The Labyrinth of Lost & Found – Jordan Lees, illustrated by Vivienne To (Penguin Random House) 
• Wildlands – Brogen Murphy (Penguin Random House) 
• Bigfoot Island – Roderick O’Grady (Firefly Press) 
• Pirates and Sea Monsters – Gill Lewis, illustrated by Irina Avgustinovich (Barrington Stoke) 
• Super Happy Magic Forest and the Distant Desert – Matty Long (Oxford University Press) 
• Bigfoot and the Wild Boys – Jenny Pearson, illustrated by Aleksei Bitskoff (Barrington Stoke) 
• Shipwrecked – Jenny Pearson, illustrated by Nick East (Usborne) 
• Angel of Grasmere – Tom Palmer (Barrington Stoke) 
• King Coo: The Secret in the Woods – Adam Stower (David Fickling Books) 
• Supersized Squirrel and the Great Wham-o-Kablam-o! – Luke Seguin-Magee (Oxford University Press) 
• Land of the Last Wildcat – Lui Sit, illustrated by David Dean (Macmillan Children’s Books) 
• Jakub’s Otter – Coral Rumble (Troika) 
• The Edge of the Silver Sea – Alex Mullarky (Floris Books – Picture Kelpies) 
• Hedgewitch -Skye McKenna, illustrated Tomislav Tomic (Hachette Children’s – Welbeck Children’s Books) 
• Marnie Midnight and the Moon Mystery – Laura Ellen Anderson (Farshore)