As the summer stretches before us, what could be better than lazing away a few days with new books? It’s certainly how I used to spend my summers as a child, still do in fact! Which is why today I wanted to share with you these five books, from the team at Puffin, Ladybird and Penguin, that we have been reading and enjoying here, along with the chance to win them all!
Diary of an Awesome Friendly Kid by Jeff Kinney
Rowley’s best friend Greg Heffley has chronicled his middle-school years in thirteen Diary of a Wimpy Kid journals. Now it’s Rowley’s turn to give his side of the story. But Rowley has agreed to tell Greg’s story along the way, too. (After all, Greg says one day he will be rich and famous and the world will need to know how he managed it). But Rowley’s stories about Greg might not be quite what his friend had in mind . . .
Age range: 8+ years
The Racehorse Who Learned to Dance by Clare Balding
Charlie’s racehorse has certainly earned the name Noble Warrior: he won the Derby against all odds and bested a bunch of nasty kidnappers.
But now Noddy is facing his greatest challenge yet . . . Charlie’s best friend Polly is still recovering from an accident that left her almost paralysed. But Polly has a real talent with horses – and she and Charlie are determined not to let it go to waste. Can the two best friends find a way to make Polly’s equestrian dreams come true?
Age range: 7+ years
Dancing the Charleston by Jacqueline Wilson, illustrated by Nick Sharratt
In a little cottage on the edge of the grand Somerset Estate, Mona lives with her aunt – a dressmaker to the lady of the house. Even though Mona never knew her mother and father, she knows Aunty tries to give her the best life she can. When Lady Somerset dies and a new member of the family inherits the house, life changes drastically for Mona. Suddenly she’s invited to dazzling balls, dines on delicious food and plays with wild new friends. But with these changes come secrets that Mona can’t dance away from…
Age range: 9+ years
Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer
Just twelve years old and already he’s a criminal genius, plotting to restore his family’s fortune with a spot of corruption and kidnapping. Kidnapping a fairy for ransom, to be precise.
Artemis Fowl has discovered a world below ground of armed and dangerous – and extremely high-tech – fairies. But he may have underestimated their powers. They will fight back. Is the boy about to trigger a cross-species war? Let the misadventure begin.
Age range: 9+ years
Charlie Turns into a T-Rex by Sam Copeland
When dad’s business takes a sudden turn for the worse, the McGuffin family face the terrible prospect of having to sell their house and move in with Aunt Brenda and her seventeen cats. Only Charlie and best friends Flora, Mohsen and Wogan can save the day.
Trouble is, the pressure is getting to Charlie, making it harder for him to control when he changes into an animal – and harder still to change back. Can Charlie’s friends help him master his powers once and for all, or will he end up stuck as a pigeon forever?
Age range: 7+ years
Our Thoughts
The children and I are loving reading these books. Some are new authors to us and some are familiar favourites.
Boo read Diary of an Awesome Friendly Kid first, and she devoured it within a few hours. She’s read all of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books and tells me that this one is just as brilliant as those. She flew through and enjoyed The Racehorse Who Learned To Dance and she’s currently reading Dancing the Charleston, which is her fourth Jacqueline Wilson book. She likes these as she has read several of her books set in different times and she is learning about the social history as much as she is enjoying the characters and the story-line.
We are reading Artemis Fowl together, after school each afternoon. I have to say, I am loving it! What a great character he is, and the kids are both alternating between laughing and gasping at his antics! We have Charlie Turns into a T-Rex on the list next.
Competition Time!
Now it’s your chance to win books! One of my readers will win these five books, and all you need to do to enter is use the rafflecopter below. The competition is open to over 18s, UK only, and it closes at 12am 9th August 2019. Good luck!
Which of these books appeals to you the most and why?
Artemis Fowl – full of intrigue and wonderful for the imagination.
Dancing the Charleston by Jacqueline Wilson because I love the author and I love ballroom dancing and Strictly Come Dancing!
Dancing the Charleston by Jacqueline Wilson as it’s my 8 year olds favourite author thanks for chance
Diary of an awesome friendly kid for my son. He loves the diary of a wimpy kid books so this will appeal to him
Charlie Turns into a T-Rex by Sam Copeland, my grandson Alexander would think this is hilarious!
Charlie turns into a t- rex ! Will capture my nephews imagination
Artemis Fowl has been on my radar for so long – I should really pick it up!!
My daughter loves Jacqueline Wilson’s books and Strictly-so Dancing the Charleston looks like a winner to me!
My Charlie loves the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books so I’d love to let my girls try them too – and he won’t share!
Dancing the Charleston by Jacqueline Wilson my daughter loves jacqueline books x
We don’t have any of these books at home – how I don’t know! But would love to win!
We would love to win The books and Diary of an Awesome Friendly kid sounds great, we loved reading the Diary of a wimpy kid series by the same author.
Charlie turns into a t- rex
Dancing the Charleston-by Jacqueline Wilson. I would love for my 8yr old to get into Jacqueline’s books, they were a childhood favourite of mine. Also of course I then get to share them with her ?
My daughter loves Jacqueline Wilson and Dancing the Charleston seems like a great read xxx
my youngest son would love Charlie Turns into a T-Rex, his big brother is charlie x
Charlie Turns into a T Rex because my son really likes dinosaurs, he loves reading to himself before bed, I think he’d enjoy that
Dancing the Charlston, my daughter loves Jacqueline Wilson
The Artemis Fowl book as we are big fans of the nancy drew and hardy boys mystery tv show + books.
Diary of a awesome friendly kid ,my son has always like them
Charlie Turns into a T-Rex because my son loves dinosaurs.
Hello! I think the book that appeals the most to me is probably ‘Diary of an Awesome Friendly Kid’ by Jeff Kinney. I used to enjoy reading the ‘Diary of a Wimpy Kid’ to my daughter and I bet these are just as funny! If I was lucky enough to win then I would these books give them to a local families charity. Thank you.
Got to be Charlie turns into a t-Rex – my son loves dinosaurs so it would be perfect
Diary of an awesome friendly kid would appeal to my sons as they love the dairy of a wimpy kid books. It would be good to see it from Rowley’s perspective ?☺️
Charlie Turns into a T-Rex sounds a wonderfully imaginative story that I am sure my grandson would love.
The Racehorse Who Learned to Dance sounds like a great read that my kids would enjoy ❤️
We absolutely love Artemis Fowl but don’t own any of the books yet.
Diary of an Awesome Friendly Kid, my son loves the Diary of a Wimpy kid series.
I’ve always loved Jacqueline wilson books! I’d love to see my son read it and see what he thinks
My 7 year old loves Jaqueline Wilson after reading Wave me Goodbye with his class this year, so he would love to read this one.
I like fun & educational books. Thanks for the chance.
The Artemis Fowl book Looks great x
Charlie Turns into a T-Rex by Sam Copeland as the first book is brilliant and so funny!
My Daughter loved Diary of a wimpy kid, so Diary of an Awesome Friendly Kid by Jeff Kinney looks amazing!
Diary of an awesome friendly kid because it just sums up my little girl
Diary of an awesome friendly kid as my boy already finished all the diary of a wimpy kid !
The Artemis Fowl books are very popular with the kids
The Racehorse Who Learned to Dance by Clare Balding because the other books have been really good.
Charlie turns into a t rex because my son loves dinosaurs and this sounds really imaginative! Xx
Charlie Turns into a T-Rex by Sam Copeland as my granddaughter adores dinosaurs.
Dancing the Charlston as I grew up reading Jaqueline Wilson so would love to pass on my love of this author to new generations
Dancing the Charlston as Jaqueline Wilson always writes good books
Dancing the Charleston by Jacqueline Wilson as I have read quite a few of her other books when I was younger, I think they will appeal to my daughters
Artemis Fowl – sounds like an interesting read
Diary of an awesome friendly kid
Artemis Fowl, fantastic character which kids love
Artemis Fowl because it’s the book I would love to read to my grandchildren. It sounds to have a strong central character who is up against high tech fairies. What’s not to like.
Our niece would love The Racehorse Who Learned to Dance. She loves to dance, and always shoes an interest when we go to Aintree as a family
Charlie Turns into a T-Rex. My nephew is obsessed with dinosaurs and has really gotten into books this last six months.
Charlie turns into a T-Rex my daughter loves these kind of stories
The new Jacqueline Wilson book, my daughter has read most of her books, so I’m sure she would love to read this one first
The Racehorse Who Learned to Dance as my daughter is horse mad!
The Jacqueline Wilson one as my daughter loves her books
Charlie Turns Into a T-Rex! My youngest loves anything to do with dinosaurs
Diary of an Awesome Friendly Kid because my kids have read almost all of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books and they really enjoyed them.
Charlie turns into t rex sounds like lots of fun!
Diary of an awesome friendly kid because it looks funny!
Diary of an awesome friendly kid as my daughter has read the Wimpy kid books before and really enjoyed them
Artemis Fowl I like the cover the most
Charlie turns into a t rex.
Artemis Fowl, as it’s a book I read as a kid and absolutely loved!
Artemis Fowl, as it sounds like a really exciting and imaginative read
Have been meaning to pick up Artemis Fowl for a while
Diary of an Awesome Friendly Kid sounds good~!
The Racehorse Who Learned to Dance by Clare Balding. We all love horses in this house, and it sounds like a really uplifting tale.
Dancing the Charleston for the dancing elements….
The The Racehorse Who Learned to Dance sounds cool and have not read any by that author before
Artemis Fowl – this sounds like just the sort of children’s book that I like xx
The Racehorse Who Learned to Dance by Clare Balding because Amelia really wants to learn dressage after she has finished her horse riding training
Charlie Turns Into A T-Rex because I know it would be the one my son loved most as he loves dinosaurs
Charlie turns into a T-rex because I love dinosaurs!
The Jaqueline Wilson one appeals to me the most as she was my favourite author about 10 years ago. I read all her books and enjoyed the tv adaptation of her book ‘The Story of Tracy Beaker’ so I am sure this book would be amazing too!!
Charlie turns into a T Rex because my son has always loved Dinosaurs and I think he would enjoy a book on the subject. Especially where a boy turns into one.
Dancing the Charleston by Jacqueline Wilson, My daughter is a huge Jacqueline Wilson fan and would love this
I remember reading Artemis Fowl as a teenager. Would love to share that stories with the young children I have in my life now.
I have heard lots of good things about Clare Baldings books so I would be most interested in The Racehorse Who Learned to Dance x
Charlie turns into a T Rex, my daughter is obsessed with dino’s at the moment and would love to read this with me 🙂
We like the look of The Racehorse Who Learned to Dance by Clare Balding!
Diary of an awesome friendly kid. My little ones love the wimpy kid series, so I’m sure this would go down a treat
Artemis Fowl as it sounds a cool name
‘Charlie turns into a dinosaur’, because my 7 year old LOVES dinosaurs and his best friend is called Charlie.
Charlie turns into a t-Rex sounds fun
Diary of an Awesome Friendly Kid I think would really appeal to my eldest son as he’s both awesome and friendly!
Charlie Turns into a T-Rex, exactly the sort of thing my son would want to read!
Artemis Fowl as it is different to the books my daughter normally read
Charlie turns into a T Rex, right up my little mans street!
Diary of an awesome friendly kid… I love the Diary of a wimpy kid series so this sounds great!! Would be interested to see what Rowley has to say lol x
Dancing the Charleston appeals to me. We love Jacqueline Wilson’s books, especially those set in a different period of history 🙂
Thank you for a great giveaway!
I would love to read Charlie turns into a TRex, as I really liked Charlie turns into a chicken.
Charlie Turns into a T-Rex, sounds great to me
Jacqueline Wilson as my daughter is a huge fan of this author
Clare Balding’s The Horse Who Learned To Dance is our favourite, such a sweet theme.
Diary of an Awesome Friendly Kid by Jeff Kinney its a book my daughter would love, but i think she would enjoy reading them all
Artemis Fowl because it sounds like a great story!
Diary of an Awesome Friendly Kid by Jeff Kinney because we are big fans of the author
Dancing the Charleston by Jacqueline Wilson as we are currently enjoying reading other Jaqueline Wilson books at the moment
Dancing the Charleston by Jacqueline Wilson because we love anything to do with dance inthis house!
The Racehorse who Learned to Dance, sounds great for my animal loving, dance crazy, daughter.
Charlie turns into a T-rex
Charlie turns into a T-Rex
Because we love dinosaurs and this sounds roartastic
Definitely the Jacquline Wilson book. Takes me right back to when I was younger getting so excited for all of her new books!
Charlie Turns into a T-Rex as my daughter loves anything to do with dinosaurs.
Charlie turns into a t-Rex sounds good
Dancing the Charleston sounds fab, my daughter loves Jacqueline Wilson
The racehorse that learned to dance would amused my grandson
Charlie turns into a T-Rex! It looks wonderful doesn’t it?!
Charlie turns into a t-Rex, it sounds like it’ll be a good imagination story!
Charlie Turns into a T Rex because my son loves dinosaurs 😀
Dancing The Charleston haven’t read any Jacqueline Wilson books and every one is raves about her
Dancing the Charleston – it sounds like a lovely story
Jacqueline Wilson dancing the Charleston as my daughter collects her books but does not have this one.
Charlie Turns into a T-Rex is definitely one that would have my nephew hooked
Charlie turns into a t- rex ! My niece loves all things dinosaur at the minute . I know she’d be thrilled if I won a copy.
My eldest son loves diary of the wimpy kid he enjoys watching the movies and has read a couple of the stories this would be a great prize for him thank you
My son loves dinosaurs. I think that he would really enjoy Charlie Turns Into A T-Rex
Charlie turns into a t-Rex sounds like fun
Diary of an Awesome Friendly Kid by Jeff Kinney because I’ve read and enjoyed all the “Wimpy Kid” books and I would like to read this one from Rowley’s point of view.
Dancing the charleston by Jacqueline Wilson because I used to love her books when I was growing up.
Dancing the Charleston, Jacqueline Wilson is a fabulous writer and we all very much enjoy her books
Dancing the Charleston because I always loved Jacqueline Wilson when I was a little girl!
Charlie Turns into a T-Rex because it sounds great fun
Diary of an awesome friendly kid as we loved the diary of a wimpy kid books
Diary of an Awesome Friendly Kid by Jeff Kinney as my daughter loves the Wimpy Kid books so I think she would really enjoy reading this.
Diary of an Awesome Friendly kid because it’s the type of book my grandson loves to read
The Jacqueline Wilson book, I’ve always loved her books and now my daughter does too!
Diary of an awesome friendly kid, one of my sons is dyslexic and he finds the pictures in the book hold his interest enough for him to work his way through – thank you
I love them all especially Jacqueline Wilson
Diary of an awesome friendly kid. My children have read all the wimpy kid books and seen the films and really enjoy them!
The Racehorse who learned to Dance. Sounds like fun. We are fond of animals, and also like some easy listening jovial music ( nothing loud). Cheery stories can be so entertaining.
I’d love the Artemis Fowl book because there are some adult themes about restoring justice which is something we try to instil in him. We’re way too political in our family.
Diary of an Awesome Friendly Kid as we like the Diary of a Wimpy kid books
Dancing the Charleston as it sounds fun adn Jackie Wilson is susch a great author
Dancing the Charleston, my children loved reading Jacqueline Wilson and now my grandchildren do.
Dancing the Charleston – Jacqueline Wilson was my favourite when I was a kid. 🙂
The race horse who learned to dance – it covers two of my niece’s hobbies – riding horses and dancing.
Artemis Fowl it would be and because it looks more action and fun from the cover. Looks like something I would enjoy reading.
The Racehorse Who Learned to Dance by Clare Balding appeals to me the most because I like a fantasy that has lots of imagination.
The Racehorse Who Learned to Dance looks a good story
The Racehorse Who Learned to Dance, My kids granddad used to be a jockey, they have heard all sorts of stories from the stables but never one about a dancing horse
Charlie turns into a t-rex, my son loves dinosaurs and sounds lots of fun
The Claire balding as we haven’t read any of hers
I think the Clare Balding book appeals the most because both Piper and Daisy love horses so I think they would really get into this one
Jacqueline Wilson book as she is my granddaughter’s favourite author.
Diary of an awesome friendly kid my girls love stuff like this, i find it hard buying enough books to keep up with their reading!
Diary of an Awesome Friendly Kid,story sounds like something my daughter would love
Dancing the Charleston-by Jacqueline Wilson, my daughter loves her.
Diary of an Awesome Friendly Kid sounds fun, my nephew would love it 🙂
Charlie turns into a Dinosaur, for my nephew who’s dinosaur mad
Definitely Dancing the Charleston by Jacqueline Wilson, she is both my Daughter’s and my own favourite author 🙂
I’d love to read the Claire Balding book as I loved her autobiography and loved horse stories as a child but think my son will want to read Diary of an awesome friendly kid as he loves all the Wimpy Kids books.
Dancing the Charleston by Jacqueline Wilson. It is my niece’s favourite author!
The Jacqueline Wilson novel as that’s what the girls in my class love to read.
Artemis Fowl – my little boys imagination would be sparked by it
The racehorse that learned to dance my daughter would enjoy this one
willy wonka and the chocolate factory
They all sound fantastic but I know both of my two love and my niece love the wimpy kid series so it would be Diary of an Awesome Friendly Kid by Jeff Kinney for us!
The racehorse that learned to dance! I think my 6 year old daughter would like to read this
The racehorse that learned to dance, its sound and looks like the kind of books I lived as a child.
I’m a primary school teacher, who arranges book clubs so these would all be fantastic for me.
Charlie turns into a T-Rex my grandson tommy would love it
My daughter is excited about the Jacqueline Wilson book, but as my kids are aged 8 and 10, the whole bundle would be perfect.
Artemis Fowl I think my son would LOVE. All my kids are book worms
Artemis fowl looks great and I have heard a lot of good things about it.
Artemis Fowl, It has everything, a baddie, fairy, and crime.. just the kind of book I am always looking out for for the kids and myself.
The Jacqueline Wilson book as my youngest has been reading her books for a few months now. Although she’s already read the first 4 Artemis Fowl books and really enjoyed them
The diary of an awsome friendly kid sound like a really happy feel good book xx
Dancing the Charleston as i’ve always loved anything dance related
The Wimpy Kid one as my girls both love that series!
Charlie turns into a T-Rex ? the story would really appeal to my grandson
The Racehorse Who Learned to Dance by Clare Balding. My friend’s little girl loves horses and I think this book in particular would appeal to her. Thank you!
Dancing the Charlestown sounds great – Jacqueline Wilson is such an incredible storyteller.
Charlie turns into a T-Rex as my niece adores dinosaurs at the moment.
Dancing the Charleston by Jacqueline Wilson because my daughter loves this author.
My little bookworms would LOVE, LOVE, LOVE to read Dancing the Charleston as Jacqueline Wilson is one of their favourite writers. Soooo lovely.
Diary of an Awesome Friendly Kid because my kids love Diary of a Wimpy Kid books!
Diary of an awesome friendly kid by daughter loves the wimpy kid books
i like caharlie likes a t rex as my kids are into dinos
Artemis Fowl as I think my daughter would really like it
Diary Of An Awesome Friendly Kid – Very honest and very funny
Dancing the Charleston by Jacqueline Wilson I grew up loving jacqueline wilson and now my stepdaughters have grown up loving her too this would enhance their collection of books and perhaps give them a new favourite
Awsome Friendly Kid its rare to get kids like that round my area and and is a great read with my daughter most books are
My 9 year old has earmarked the Artemis Fowl books as his next series to read so I think that would appeal most
Charlie Turns into a T-Rex – Perfect for my son George
Diary of an awesome friendly kid – we loved reading the wimpy kid books
Charlie turns into a T. rex because I know my son would love it.
Dancing the Charleston by Jacqueline Wilson. JW is always a good read.
My son would love Charlie turns into a t rex as he loves dinosaurs
The Racehorse Who Learned to Dance by Clare Balding because my daughter loves horses.
The Racehorse Who Learned to Dance as my neices love horses.
The racehorse who learnt to dance we loved horses and own then ourselves xx
Dancing the Charleston by Jacqueline Wilson
Artemis Fowl sounds fab 🙂
Dancing the Charleston
The Racehorse who Learned to Dance sounds brilliant. My daughter loved the first two books in the series and she is passionate about dancing, so i think she will enjoy the latest instalment.
Dancing the Charleston by Jacqueline Wilson-because we love all of her books
Diary of an awesome friendly kid for my grandson
Diary of an Awesome friendly kid. Perfect for both my kiddies.
Dancing the Charleston as my daughters like to read Jacqueline Wilson books.
Charlie turns into a T-rex my grandaughter loves everything Dinosaur so she would love that!
Diary of an Awesome Friendly Kid by Jeff Kinney, we would love to hear the other side of the story.