Toppsta - Childrens Books – Reviews

View all Blogs
Featured Book
Until the Road Ends
Until the Road Ends

BOOK OF THE MONTH - the long-awaited new novel from bestselling author Phil Earle about the unbreakable bond between a girl and a stray dog.

View book
Featured Book
Never Trust a Gemini
Never Trust a Gemini

FEATURED BOOK FOR TEENS/YA - a laugh-out-loud LGBTQ+ romantic comedy from a stellar debut talent

View book

Best books by age

Wintery Children's Fiction

Test
Book pages Placeholder Book

Nevertell

A gorgeous, snowy adventure, set in the wilds of Siberia, full of magic and wonder, for junior readers.

A world of magic is only a whisper away...

Born in a Soviet prison camp, Lina has never seen the world outside until the night she escapes with her best friend, Bogdan. As the pair journey across a snowy wilderness, they are pursued by a vengeful sorceress and her pack of shadow wolves. The children will need every ounce of courage - and a whisper of magic - if they are to survive...

Perfect for fans of Abi Elphinstone, Sophie Anderson and Catherine Doyle.

View Book COMPARE PRICES
Book pages Placeholder Book

The Pearl in the Ice

A thrilling and beautiful new novel from the best-selling author of The Wolf Princess. Marina's father, a naval captain, has been away for most of her life - certainly since her mother died - and yet Marina feels the pull of an ocean she's never known. When sent to boarding school to learn to be a lady, Marina decides instead to stow away on her father's ship. A perilous voyage awaits - but where are they sailing to and why, and what has it to do with the dark shape in the deep that seems to be following them? Praise for The Wolf Princess: 'An engrossing, deeply atmospheric story.' TELEGRAPH '[Constable] knows you have only to give reality a slight push to make it marvellous. A classic winter's tale.' FINANCIAL TIMES 'A very special debut with a spellbinding fairytale ambiance. Contemporary but deliciously nostalgic ...' THE BOOKSELLER

View Book COMPARE PRICES
Book pages Placeholder Book

Star

When Anna borrows a tiny wooden tiger from her Russian grandmother's mantelpiece, little does she realize that it is the start of a magical adventure...
Waking the next day, Anna finds herself in a snowy Russian village, where she hears the news that a tiger cub has been spotted in the nearby woods. Anna knows this is why she must be here - the cub needs her help! But is Anna brave enough to set out in search of a tiger in the forest at night?
An enchanting wintry tale from best-selling author Holly Webb. For fans of Michael Morpurgo and ZOE'S RESCUE ZOO, this is the perfect book to snuggle up with and enjoy this winter.

View Book COMPARE PRICES
Book pages Placeholder Book

Winter Magic

A beautiful and classic anthology of frosty, magical short stories from acclaimed children's writers.

The Dreamsnatcher 's Abi Elphinstone heads up this gorgeous collection of wintery stories, featuring snow queens, frost fairs, snow dragons and pied pipers . . . from classic children's writers Michelle Magorian, Geraldine McCaughrean, Jamila Gavin, Berlie Doherty, Katherine Woodfine, Piers Torday, Lauren St John, Amy Alward, Michelle Harrison and Emma Carroll .

'Captures all the excitement of the season' The Guardian

An unmissable, enchanting treat of a collection that will be enjoyed for years to come, by readers of all ages.

View Book COMPARE PRICES
Book pages Placeholder Book

The Wolf Wilder

Go on an adventure with Katherine Rundell ... From the winner of the Costa Children's Book Prize 'A writer with an utterly distinctive voice and a wild imagination' - Philip Pullman Feodora and her mother live in the snowbound woods of Russia, in a house full of food and fireplaces. Ten minutes away, in a ruined chapel, lives a pack of wolves. Feodora's mother is a wolf wilder, and Feo is a wolf wilder in training. A wolf wilder is the opposite of an animal tamer: it is a person who teaches tamed animals to fend for themselves, and to fight and to run, and to be wary of humans. When the murderous hostility of the Russian Army threatens her very existence, Feo is left with no option but to go on the run. What follows is a story of revolution and adventure, about standing up for the things you love and fighting back. And, of course, wolves.

View Book COMPARE PRICES
Book pages Placeholder Book

Shackleton's Journey

Winner of the 2015 Kate Greenaway MedalA New York Times Best Illustrated Book of 2014Best Children's Book of 2014, Wall Street JournalBest Children's Book of 2014, Brain PickingsA 2015 USBBY Outstanding International BookYoung, up-and-coming illustrator William Grill weaves a detailed visual narrative of Shackleton's journey to Antarctica.Grill's beautiful use of colored pencils and vibrant hues effortlessly evokes the adventure and excitement that surrounded the expedition. His impeccably researched drawings, rich with detail, fastidiously reproduce the minutiae of the expedition.Children will love examining the diagrams of the peculiar provisions and the individual drawings of each sled dog and packhorse. This book takes the academic and historical information behind the expedition and reinterprets it for a young audience.

View Book COMPARE PRICES
Book pages Placeholder Book

The Frozen Sea

'If you can imagine it, it exists ... somewhere.' The second incredible instalment of a spellbinding fantasy adventure from the bestselling, award-winning author of The Last Wild trilogy.

It is 1984 and forty years since Simon, Patricia and Evelyn and Larry first stepped through a magical library door into the enchanted world of Folio. When Patricia's daughter, Jewel, makes a mysterious discovery in an old bookshop, she begins a quest that will make her question everything she thought she knew. Summoned to Folio, she must rescue a missing prince, helped only by her pet hamster and a malfunctioning robot.

Their mission to the Frozen Sea will bring them face-to-face with a danger both more deadly and more magnificent than they ever imagined.

What Jewel discovers will change not just who she thinks she is, but who we all think we are...

View Book COMPARE PRICES
Book pages Placeholder Book

The Polar Bear Explorers' Club

It sounded like a respectable and worthy enough death for an explorer - tumbling from an ice bridge to be impaled upon a mammoth tusk - but Stella really, really didn't want that to happen, just the same. Join Stella Starflake Pearl and her three fellow explorers as they trek across the snowy Icelands and come face-to-face with frost fairies, snow queens, outlaw hideouts, unicorns, pygmy dinosaurs and carnivorous cabbages . . . When Stella and three other junior explorers get separated from their expedition can they cross the frozen wilderness and live to tell the tale? A gorgeously imaginative middle grade fantasy adventure combining the best of Peter Pan, Lemony Snicket, Northern Lights and Alice in Wonderland. 'A magical adventure of friendship, bravery and derring-do in a richly imagined world.' The Bookseller 'A fantastic frosty adventure.' Sunday Express 'Wintry, atmospheric, highly imaginative fantasy.' Metro 'The most huggable book of the year . . . An (iced) gem.' SFX

View Book COMPARE PRICES
Book pages Placeholder Book

Race to the Frozen North: The Matthew Henson Story

Matthew Henson was simply an ordinary man. That was, until Commander Robert E. Peary entered his life, and offered him a chance at true adventure. Henson would become navigator, craftsman, translator, and right-hand man on a treacherous journey to the North Pole. Defying the odds and the many prejudices that faced him to become a true pioneer. This is his incredible and often untold story. Particularly suitable for struggling, reluctant or dyslexic readers aged 8+

View Book COMPARE PRICES
Book pages Placeholder Book

Children of Winter

Catherine and her family are out for a walk when a sudden storm blows up, and they are forced to take shelter in a deserted barn which they have never seen before but which seems strangely familiar. The children find that they have slipped back to the time of the Black Death.

View Book COMPARE PRICES

1st September 2020

Share this read with others...

Tweet Email
Featured Book
Until the Road Ends
Until the Road Ends

BOOK OF THE MONTH - the long-awaited new novel from bestselling author Phil Earle about the unbreakable bond between a girl and a stray dog.

View book
Featured Book
Never Trust a Gemini
Never Trust a Gemini

FEATURED BOOK FOR TEENS/YA - a laugh-out-loud LGBTQ+ romantic comedy from a stellar debut talent

View book