Best Illustrated Series for 7 and 8 year olds

Illustrated chapter books and middle grade series are an excellent tool to help your reader level up their reading skills.

Whether they're full-colour, two-colour or even just a basic black and white, illustrations aid and heighten a child's (and – lets be honest – adult's) reading experience. Illustrations can make a character feel real, a setting tangible and the details come to life. Illustrations are the best.

So, if you agree, we've rounded up some of our personal favourite and top reviewed illustrated series for readers aged 7+. From school stories to fantasy, these books are the ones you will inevitably find yourself coming back to time and time again.

Georgina Atwell

Toppsta

2026-05-31

2024-05-01

Best Illustrated Series for 7 and 8 year olds

...Is NOT My Superpower Series

This is a laugh-out-loud series about all the different ways of being extraordinary, even when you DON'T have superpowers, written by Nathanael Lessore with black-and-white illustrations throughout by Simran Diamond Singh.

In a time before smartphones, an explorer called Valkro Strapp settled in the town of Walsham. He brought a treasure with him that granted the whole town powers. The whole town except for Sara, that is. She is rather powerless, but in each book, she sets to go on a new adventure, from crime-solving to time-travelling, secretly hoping that in doing so she might just discover what her true power is.

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Diary of a Wimpy Kid Series

The hilarious and internationally bestselling Diary of a Wimpy Kid books follow the adventures of wise-cracking middle school student Greg Heffley and his best friend Rowley Jefferson, who must somehow survive the scariest time of anyone's life: middle school. Written and illustrated as engaging and hilarious diary entries, Wimpy Kid is the perfect series for reluctant readers.

View Diary of a Wimpy Kid Books in Order

Murray and Bun Series

A Waterstones Best Children's Book of the Year, this black-and-white illustrated chapter book series is perfect for cat and bunny lovers, and all little ones who love history! Murray is a cat who loves peace and quiet. Bun is a bun who loves being around Murray. They are a dynamic duo, and do a lot together, such as travelling through Murray’s enchanted cat flap. It leads to the garden … but mostly it leads to ADVENTURE! In each book, the two best friends travel to different ages in time, meeting all sorts of characters like vikings, pirates and knights. This is a wonderful series that touches on themes of kindness and friendship, but is also hilariously packed with illustrations throughout that bring each adventure to life.

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Dork Diaries Series

Life is never that simple in the number one, bestselling Dork Diaries series from author Rachel Renée Russell. Nikki Maxwell is not popular, in fact she’s the opposite of popular, she’s a total dork! Follow 14-year-old Nikki’s life through sketches, doodles and diary entries as she starts her new school, meets her arch-nemesis, the school’s queen bee Mackenzie Hollister, and encounters endless dramas and adventures with new BFFs Chloe and Zoey.

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Tom Gates Series

Young readers love this quirky, funny, highly-illustrated, fiction series which follows the ups and downs of the chaotic but loveable Tom, Delia, his old sister, his parents, his best friend Derek and his arch enemy, Marcus. Written by award-winning author and illustrator Liz Pichon, Tom is a master of excuses (especially when it comes to homework), creative storyteller and doodler and middle-school comedian extraordinaire.

Tom Gates Books in Order

Planet Omar Series

Planet Omar is a fantastic illustrated series for readers 7+, in which a boy with a truly unique imagination is our protagonist. The books tackle important issues such as bullying and prejudice in a fun and sensitive way, with diary entries that will make you laugh out loud, featuring a lot of silliness and a very relatable family.

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Marty Moose Series

Marty Moose is not a moose, but a sweet mouse who has the hard job of being his town's PostMouse. Being a PostMouse in Little Ditch is no easy task, and in each book Marty and his (not-so-helpful) sidekick Nibbles Frizzby get lost in a new adventure! We love the funny tone of these stories, the characters and all the fantastic two-colour illustrations throughout, including a detailed map at the very beginning of each book.

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PESTS Series

If you check behind your washing machine or in the nooks and crannies of your house, you might just find Stix – a careful and heroic mouse who has been trained by his grandma never to be seen by humans. Stix is a new member of the notorious PESTS – the Peewit Educatorium for Seriously Terrible Scoundrels! When the lights go off, the pests come out and start their mischief… The hilarious (and disgusting) adventures of Stix and his pesty friends are filled with poo jokes and brilliant black-and-white illustrations. The books even have glow in the dark covers.

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Baby Aliens Series

This is the series for all children whose parents and teachers JUST. WON'T. LISTEN. In each of these totally absurd and utterly hilarious books for ages 7+, children witness teachers get taken over by aliens, dinner ladies turning into demons. Werewolf-infested tents. Yetis on playgrounds. Beasts hiding in basements. Full of danger, adventure and PERIL, these books are also laugh-out-loud and snot-inducingly funny reads with a fast-paced writing style that will have children WHIZZING through them, one by one.

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Peanut Jones Series

Fizzing with magic, danger, friendship and art, this exciting and funny fantasy adventure from superstar illustrator and author Rob Biddulph. The books follow a fun main character called Peanut Jones, who one day finds a unique pencil turbo-charged with special powers and is pulled into a world packed with more colour, creativity, excitement and danger than she could ever have imagined. Throughout the books, she uses her newfound powers to find her father, retrieve missing works of art and save the magical Illustrated City.

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Cookie! Series

Cookie is your average nine-year-old. Full of energy, loud, flamboyant and going through the everyday struggles of a tween: from having to say goodbye to friends moving town and not being allowed to have a pet to wanting to save the planet and playing computer games! In each book, our super funny protagonist faces new challenges, but also grows with each struggle she faces.

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The Awesome Friendly Kid Series

MORE TO EXPLORE:

Chicken Hill by Beccy Blake (Bloomsbury)

Danny Dingle’s Fantastic Finds by Angie Lake (Sweet Cherry Publishing)

Fairytale Woods by Ben Miller and Elisa Paganelli (Simon & Schuster Ltd)

Freddie's Amazing Bakery Series by Harriet Whitehorn and Alex G Griffiths (OUP)

Koalas in Capes by Terrie Chilvers and David O'Connell (Nosy Crow)

Lenny Lemmon by Ben David and James Lancett (Nosy Crow)

Marnie Midnight by Laura Ellen Anderson (Farshore)

Marv by Alex Falase-Koya and Paula Bowles (Oxford University Press)

Mia Mayhem by Kara West and Leeza Hernandez (Simon & Schuster)