Spring is in the air, and it’s the perfect season to grow a love of reading! This April, we’ve gathered a fresh collection of kids’ books that’s as colourful and varied as a wildflower field. From action-packed adventures and magical fantasies to laugh-worthy graphic novels and calming yoga-inspired picture books, there’s something here for every young reader. Journey through far-off lands, explore big emotions, or just curl up with a fun story, these titles are sure to spark joy and curiosity. Read ahead to dive into a world of imagination, colour, and storytelling this spring!

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang: The Magical Car by Ian Fleming
Illustrated by John Burningham
Ian Fleming Publications | Ages 7-10; Key Stage 3 | 9781915797544 | HB | £30 | 24th April 2025

MEET THE WORLD’S MOST FAMOUS MAGICAL FLYING CAR! Meet the Pott family: Caractacus, Mimsie, Jemima and Jeremy — the family of crackpots who just invented an incredible whistling sweet. Their next project? Fixing up their new car — a very, very special car… Buckle up for a journey over the sea and through the sky, into the clutches of a group of villainous gangsters. Join the Potts for the adventure of a lifetime! In celebration of the 60th anniversary of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, this reissued classic hardback features the original, iconic artwork and cover by John Burningham.

Together by Mona Damluji
Illustrated by Innosanto Nagara
Seven Stories Press | Ages 4-8; Key Stages 1-2 | 9781644212691 | HB | £14.99 | 24th April 2025

In Together, social justice kids book pioneer Innosanto Nagara teams up with poet and activist Mona Damluji for a stunningly tender and pitch-perfect visual feast that juxtaposes individual action with the power of people acting together. Each of the ten free-verse couplets in the poem is spread across four pages of imagery, to make a unique and different kind of board book for young kids to discover with their families. The first illustrated book in which Nagara applies his extraordinary visual imagination to words not his own, Together is simplicity itself a poem about the transformational change that happens when people stop acting alone and start doing things together. Together is Nagara’s third board book, following the immensely popular social justice board books A is for Activist and Counting on Community.

Little Sanctuary by Randy Boyagoda
Tradewind Books | Ages 11-16; Key Stages 3-4 | 9781990598203 | HB | £9.95 | 17th April 2025

Little Sanctuary is the story of children from the global south living in a world that is falling apart, wracked by war. They are sent to a school serving as refuge on a distant island by their affluent parents, where they harbour growing suspicions and grave concerns about the people caring for them. After teenaged Sabel and her siblings witness unexpected violence, they must rally the others and plot an escape.

The Self-Regulation Workbook for Children Ages 5 to 8 by Kahlila Robinson
In collaboration with Sarah Gerstenzang
Ulysses Press | Ages 5-8; Key Stages 1-2 | 9781646047604 | PB | £16.99 | 15th April 2025

Written by experienced child therapists who are parents themselves, this workbook uses the foremost knowledge and methods to help both caregivers and children build strong relationships and instil useful regulation tools in their everyday lives. Activities and guidance include: How to use play and connection as a baseline approach; naming and noticing feelings; guidance for building emotional resilience and reflection; emotion regulation strategies for the caregiver; strengths and limits of a child’s brain and nervous system; using parent reflection to respond to challenging behaviours; how to set limits and repair ruptures; guidance from enduring theory and research on child emotion regulation. The Self Regulation Workbook for Children Ages 5 to 8 can be used as a family activity, a child-caregiver activity, a caregiver-only intervention, and a child-only activity that fosters confidence in those striving to provide an emotionally supportive environment for children.

The Yoga Game by Kathy Beliveau
Illustrated by Farida Zaman
Simply Read Books | Ages 4-8; Key Stages 1-2 | 9781772290660 | HB | £15.99 | 24th April 2025

The Yoga Game invites children of all ages to play with the words, guess the riddles and enjoy an actual yoga practice, while introducing the concepts of balance, breath and focus. Entertaining rhymes, enchanting riddles and vibrant illustrations create a rich, multi-layered experience.

The Best Witch in Paris by Lauren Crozier
Text Publishing | Ages 8-12; Key Stages 2-3 | 9781922790880 | PB | £7.99 | 17th April 2025

Luna rides a battered old broom that keeps crashing itself into the school pond. She has a witch’s hat and wand and sometimes she’s quite good at magic, but she isn’t completely sure that she’s a real witch. She doesn’t have a familiar for one thing, and she doesn’t know where she came from — only that she was found by three witches who she now calls her aunts. When she swaps her moonstone ring for an Australian boobook owl in the Lost Forest, the mysterious bird seller makes her promise to keep the bird hidden for as long as she can. This is not easy when you live with very inquisitive aunts. And it’s not easy when you find out that the fearsome Madame Valadon, the Best Witch in Paris, is missing her boobook owl and she’s sure that Luna knows something about it. Could it be that Luna has Madame Valadon’s boobook? Why then did the mysterious bird seller give it to Luna? Why did she say the bird belonged to her? A familiar can only belong to one witch, after all. Luna has lots of questions-the biggest one of all is who she really is. Fun and funny and full of life, The Best Witch in Paris is a delightful story of courage and self-belief, with colourful characters, fabulous magic and a puzzling mystery at its core.

Jules, Penny & the Rooster by Daniel Pinkwater
Tachyon Publications | Ages 4-8; Key Stages 1-2 | 9781616964320 | PB | £8.99 | 1st April 2025

Jules McShultz was promised a dog. Supposedly, she’d get one once her family moved from the city to the suburbs. But then her parents decided it still wasn’t the right time. So Jules does what any intelligent girl would do. Instead of sulking, she enters an essay contest and wins first prize: A purebred Collie. And no one — not even Jules’ parents — can resist Penny, who is clearly Jules’s perfect new canine pal. Jules and Penny are ready to spend the summer exploring the woods by the house. But the woods are not at all what they seem to be. Magic and adventure await them just on the other side of an old stone wall.

The Colors of the Sea: Alea Aquarius 2 by Tanya Stewner
Translated by Matthew O. Anderson
Arctis | Ages 10-14; Key Stages 2-3 | 9781646908165 | PB | £8.99 | 8th April 2025

Alea has found out she is a mermaid! She finally knows why she always felt so strange. But what happened to her mother more than ten years ago? And why does the entire underwater world seem almost extinct? Alea can’t possibly be the last of her Sea People in the world. She sets off with her friends, the Alpha Cru, to a mysterious lake. Alea isn’t the only one hoping to find answers there. Lennox wonders whether he is a merman. Is that why he and Alea both feel magically attracted to one other?