Eight books to get your eight-year-old excited about reading

Times

a day ago

The National Literacy Trust (NLT) has published the results of its largest survey of young people's book habits — and it does not make for happy reading. A mere 32 per cent of young people (aged 8-18) admitted to enjoying reading in 2025 (the figure in 2005 was 68 per cent). And only 18 per cent of them are reading daily in their free time, half the amount that were doing so 20 years ago.
There are gender disparities too, with the sharpest drop-off recorded in boys aged 11-18. And children eligible for free school meals report lower levels of enjoyment than their peers. The NLT described the findings, based on a poll of 114,970 children, as 'deeply concerning'.
I would add more adjectives to that. Utterly depressing — and completely unsurprising. It would be simplistic to blame all of this on tech but just as rates of childhood depression, anxiety and self-harm have dramatically worsened since the wide adoption of digital technology, so too has children's ability to concentrate. It's extremely difficult to persuade a child to sit down with a book when there is Netflix, YouTube and Disney+ within easy reach, to say nothing of TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat, or Roblox, Minecraft, Fortnite, Mario Kart World and the rest. The most powerful companies in the world have trained their finest minds on the destruction of our children's attention spans.
• How to game safely with your kids, by a dad who started aged 4
Meanwhile, the remorseless drive to improve Britain's education metrics has severely damaged English as a subject. It's more about fronted adverbials and box-ticking comprehension exercises than it is about expression, ideas and creativity. It has put my 11-year-old right off — and I'm sure he's not the only one.
Publishing has also played its part. There's a formulaic quality to the children's books I see arrayed in Waterstones, which seem to fall into the eat-your-greens category — lots of virtue signalling and moral didacticism — or rely on overfamiliar tropes of dragons and spells, which I'm sure only appeal to a minority of children. I'd love to see some books that meet children where they are now.
As the parent of a reluctant 11-year-old reader who only wants to read manga, I believe the drop-off in engagement happens at about eight years old so that's where I've aimed my recommendations. Here are eight thoroughly enjoyable novels that prioritise fun. I've chosen books where the language is playful enough to entertain adult reading companions too, because no child wants a grown-up putting a dampener on their pleasure.
• Children's books are getting shorter — here is the proof
A laugh-out-loud story about a family secret, a Welsh adventure and an onion-eating competition with three boy protagonists and a guy called Big Trev. Freddie and his two best mates are on a mission that turns into a wild goose chase that lands them on the news in superhero costumes. There are brilliant Rob Biddulph illustrations that perfectly capture Freddie's doubts as he attempts to board a boat or mistakes his granny's knickers for a hanky. The wealth of visual gags makes it ideal for anyone trying to wean their child off David Walliams books — this is funnier and more imaginative.
If you need to break out of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid cycle (nothing wrong with it, the latest is a hoot) this book by the polymath Richard Ayoade is similarly full of surreal wit and deadpan jokes, as well as silly pictures. It's a story about a talking book, and is narrated by the neglected book itself, which unloads all its grievances about bent spines and fickle readers who require fire-breathing dragons on the cover. My son was given it by his godmother to get him through my mother's funeral when he was eight years old. It worked a treat and he has since reread it many, many times.
Bored Milo finds everything a waste of time: 'I can't see the point in learning to solve useless problems, or subtracting turnips from turnips, or knowing where Ethiopia is or how to spell February.' But then he receives a mysterious package containing 'one genuine turnpike tollbooth'. Next thing he knows, he's 'speeding along an unfamiliar country road' in a colourful new world. This daft masterpiece, adored by Maurice Sendak, has been described as a children's Ulysses. It seized my son's imagination so dramatically that I dream of discovering that Norton Juster turned it into an epic series (come on, Juster estate!).
A gripping, inventive series of speculative fiction novels and novellas set in a dystopian Britain where society is segregated by race. In this imagined world, the dark-skinned Crosses are the ruling class while the light-skinned Noughts are like slaves. Against the odds the main characters — Sephy (a Cross) and Callum (a Nought) — fall in love across the divide, which leads them into danger. Often described as a dystopian Romeo and Juliet, it's chewy and funny with complex characters.
I've yet to meet anyone, adult or child, who can't be won over by Mark Haddon's ingenious murder mystery about a 15-year-old boy with Asperger syndrome who is investigating the death of a dog. When Christopher from Swindon finds his neighbour's mutt, Wellington, with a garden fork through his chest, he doesn't expect to stumble upon a secret about his dead mother. Like his hero Sherlock Holmes, Christopher — a maths genius — is driven by logic rather than emotion. But what he discovers transforms his ideas about his life and his family, as well as his understanding of love. Haddon's very witty novel is so suspenseful that I heard my son gasp at the twist.
This book, much cherished in our house, is so evocative of being a child. It's also written with a real ear for how children talk and think. Gene Kemp was a schoolteacher and clearly an amazing listener. It's about a daring and energetic 12-year-old, Tyke, who fights in class, steals watches, cheats and turns up sheep skeletons. Tyke subverts gender expectations. It was published in 1977 so is nostalgic for parents — but to our son the sheer freedom the children enjoyed back then was amazing. It also has an incredibly perspective-spinning twist at the end. A good one for boys to get their heads round.
This dark allegory about Stalinist Russia is still shocking, funny and heart-rending 80 years after its publication. Set in a society where animals are much cleverer than in real life, the pigs start a revolution against their human farmer, Mr Jones. All the animals are supposed to be equal in this new system but the power-hungry pigs, particularly Napoleon and Snowball, quickly gain power and exploit it. My son was moved by the tragic fate of the hard-working horse, Boxer, betrayed by the ideals of Animalism.
The first book in the mega-selling trilogy of dystopian novels is catnip for reluctant readers. It's fast-paced, intelligent and cleverly crafted, with plenty of suspense, mystery and romance. The heroine at the centre is the rebellious Katniss Everdeen, who lives in the poorest district of a post-apocalyptic land called Panem, which is supposed to be what's left of America. She finds herself competing in a televised battle royale, the Hunger Games, where teenagers from the 12 districts fight to the death. It paints a pretty bleak picture of a war-ravaged future but it will help children to understand totalitarianism, as well as propaganda.