The best new children's books

Telegraph

28-05-2025

It's often said that we're living in a Golden Age of children's literature. There are 10,000 or so new titles published each year in the UK, accounting for an astonishing one in three books sold.
And as the numbers have boomed, the genres have multiplied – a change particularly evident in the last 10 years, since I began reviewing children's books for The Telegraph. Whereas once a novel might simply have been labelled a 'fantasy', today the sub-divisions range from 'eco-fantasy' to 'romantasy' and all things in between.
Emerging authors have never faced so much competition. While the first Golden Age of Children's Fiction, which took off in the 1850s, was dominated by a handful of authors (JM Barrie, Robert Louis Stevenson and Lewis Carroll among them), today there are hundreds of household names in the field. With dozens of stunning new novels and picture books appearing each week, it's only frustrating that we can't give even more of them the coverage they deserve.
So, with apologies for any omissions, here's our list of the essential new books to buy for today's young reader.
The Scream of the Whistle ★★★★☆
by Emily Randall-Jones
Any child who has raced through Roald Dahl 's The Witches, waiting to see if the Grand High Witch will succeed in her plan to turn all the children in England into mice, will tell you that young readers have a healthy appetite for the macabre. And Emily Randall-Jones will not disappoint them. Her first novel, The Witchstone Ghosts (2023), told the story of a young girl who can see the ghost of every dead soul, save for that of her father.
Now comes The Scream of the Whistle – which may sound like a chapter from Malory Towers, but is being billed by Randall-Jones's publishers as a terrifying tale of 'paranormal horror'. Crikey, you might think. Will it be suitable for the recommended reading age of nine-plus?
The heroine of the story is Ruby, who is miserable following her parents' separation. Until recently, the family lived in a house with sheet glass kitchen doors and a 'games cupboard that stretched to the ceiling'. But now Ruby and her mother and her older brother Sam have to move in with their grandmother, 'Gram', who lives in a cramped cottage in the run-down village of Melbridge. The local station is long closed, and the houses resemble 'ghosts of the long-dead railway village, made from stone as grey as storm clouds… The heart had long gone. Melbridge was a ruined shrine to something dead. The houses were its mourners.'
Ruby longs to escape – and when she discovers that the disused railway line runs from Melbridge to her old home in Little Hampton, she decides to follow it on foot. An ancient steam train appears out of the mist, and a benevolent-looking Conductor offers her a free ride. ('Come along, miss. The Green Lady is waiting.') Ruby cannot resist. But The Green Lady is not all it appears – and no sooner has Ruby stepped on board than she finds herself transported on a ghostly journey back in time, where she's forced to confront her family's long-buried secrets. Was Gram's grandfather really to blame for the fatal train crash in 1925 that resulted in Melbridge's station's closure? And can Ruby turn back the curse that has shrouded the village ever since?
One of the pitfalls of children's ghost stories is that the supernatural elements are so fantastic that they overwhelm the plot. But there's no such danger here. The action is brisk, and Randall-Jones keeps the focus firmly fixed on our nervous young narrator, ensuring that every ghoulish image is filtered through her eyes. ('In the dim light, the Conductor's eye sockets seemed to sink into themselves. As if they were empty. As if his head were only a skull… [then his] bony face turned human again. It did funny things, darkness.') The result is that this is more a story of derring-do than 'paranormal horror' – and all the better for that.