Books Children’s Previews
18th July 2025
Our expert
Charlotte Eyre Charlotte is the children’s previewer at The Bookseller and has been involved in judging several book prizes, including the Costa Book Awards, The Week Junior Book Awards and The British Book Awards. She was children’s editor of The Bookseller for nine years and founded the YA Book Prize in 2014.
Children’s Previews October
Previews
Season’s readings: The festive period beckons
October promises plenty of Christmas reads, plus debut picture books from artist Annie Booker and Keira Knightley, and the third volume in Philip Pullman’s the Book of Dust series
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t is nearly Christmas! In book-buying terms, at least, the festive season is nearly upon us. October is typi- cally the last big month for
Christmas titles (I am anticipating there may be a few more in November, but not many) and this October promises two festive picture books about impatience: Lauren Child’s newest Charlie and Lola and The Great Christmas Tree Race by Naomi Jones (Ladybird). In Charlie and Lola: I Am
Wishing Every Minute for Christmas (Simon & Schuster Children’s), Charlie tries to find ways to occupy Lola when she just simply cannot fathom how far away Christmas is. With a nod to the advent calendar (although Child does not stick to a strict countdown, this is Charlie and Lola
after all), this is a fun festive addi- tion to the iconic series. And in The Great Christmas Tree Race, a new decoration brings a competi- tive aspect to adorning the tree, but the decorations soon learn that desperately racing to the top is not always a good idea. Outside of my Top 10, there are
Christmas books from Sue Hendra and Paul Linnet (We Wish You a Veggie Christmas, part of the always brilliant Supertato series, S&S Children’s); Matt Carr, whose Bauble in Trouble is about a deco- ration who is on a mission to get out of the attic (Hodder Children’s Books); Rebecca Patterson and Luciano Lozano (How Many Sleeps Until Christmas?, Happy Yak); Sarah Reid and Karl West (The Twelve Bums of Christmas, Scholastic), and more.
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