School Reading List podcast hosted by Tom Tolkien

Season 1: Episode 41

For transcripts, resources & show notes: https://schoolreadinglist.co.uk/podcasts/series-1-episode-41/

Part 1
Book post

• Dead Straight Line by Malcolm Duffy
• How to Question Everything by Susan Martineau and Vicky Barker
• The Dream by Gideon Sterer and Nik Henderson
• Camping in the Wild by Nicholas Oldland
• We Can Be Mermaids by Lanisha Butterfield
• Moon’s Lullaby by Júlia Moscardó
• Nico the Donkey’s New Home by Elena Mannion and Erin Brown
• Glam & Beardy by Ruby Clyde and Rachel WD
• SPYGLASS by David Solomons
• The House with Chicken Legs Runs Away by Sophie Anderson
• Peregrine Quinn and the Battle for Olympus by Ash Bond
• The Protectors by Victor Kloss
• A Million Tiny Missiles All At Once by Lucas Maxwell
• The Last Death Poet by Stephen Daly
• The Escape Game by Marissa Meyer and Tamara Moss

Rundown - top 30 children's and YA books in May 2026

• Astrophysics for Supervillains by Matthew Bothwell
• The Hospital for Mythological Creatures by Cathy Evans & Ed Brown
• Dragonflare by Jamie Hammond
• This Boy I Hardly Know by Lisa Heathfield
• The Ice Cream Crocodile by Mariesa Dulak
• Koroba: The Case of the Missing Kolo by Alaba Onajin
• Marcie and Giraffe by Kim Gregory
• Princess Pete by Zoey Allen
• Max and Ella, Stuck Together by Kristina Rahim
• SuperQuesters Mission: Desert Danger by Paul Ian Cross
• Aardvark Day by Victoria Gatehouse & Kate Lucy Foster
• Buzz by Richard Jones
• Reach In! by Hervé Tullet
• Rise of the Goblin Queen by Francesco Bedini & Stefano Tambellini
• In the Theatre by Tove Jansson
• Stormbringer by Tig Wallace
• The Little Cook's Handbook by Lizzie Mabbott
• A Sister Like You by Sarah Hagger-Holt
• Like A Brother by Nathanael Lessore
• Lies We Told This Summer by Emily Barr
• All in the Mind by Gill Arbuthnott
• Goldenborn by Ama Ofosua Lieb
• Tadpole Summer by Catherine Bruton
• If the Invader Comes by Tom Palmer
• Your Murder Next by Ravena Guron
• Where the Tide Lines Lead by Sophie Cameron
• Lily Tripp by Amelia Tait
• What If?: Grow Your Imagination by Tom Schamp
• Broken by X. Fang
• I Want by Ziggy Hanaor
• The Ministry of Manners by David Solomons

May 2025 books of the month

• Fiction: A Sister Like You by Sarah Hagger-Holt
• Nonfiction: Nature is the Answer by Chris Packham
• Picture book: Koroba: The Case of the Missing Kolo by Àlàbá Ònájìn

Part 2
Piper at the Gates of Dusk by Patrick Ness

New book pitches: A Poem A Day by Tara Ali, Dyrne Hill by Chris Dewar & Sally the Spider’s new shoes by Clodagh Ryan

Part 3
Will the government's new reading assessments undermine the National Year of Reading?

Credits & licensing
Sounds are licensed. Audit: https://bit.ly/3TFkwsl

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