Today the annual Summer Reading Challenge from the Reading Agency, which takes place in public libraries across the country (well, wherever there still are public libraries!), and this year the theme is Circus Stars (the website is well worth checking out)!

Yesterday, our children’s book group had its annual summer family fun day and this year to coincide with the Summer Reading Challenge, we had a circus theme. We are very lucky to have a circus school in Bristol (how cool is that, seriously?), called Circomedia, and one of their performers came to teach the children some circus skills (this is my son practicing juggling). We also read some circus-themed stories and I just thought I’d share the titles we used:

Pre-school
Spot Goes to the Circus ~ Eric Hill (Puffin)
Circus Parade ~ Harriet Ziefert & Tanya Roitman (Blue Apple Books)

Reception & year 1
Paddington at the Circus ~ Michael Bond & R.W. Alley (HarperCollins Children’s Books)

Olivia Save the Circus ~ Ian Falconer (Simon & Schuster Children’s Books)

Year 2 & above
If I Ran the Circus ~ Dr Seuss (HarperCollins Children’s Books)
Leon and the Place Between ~ Angela McAllister & Grahame Baker-Smith (Templar)

There are plenty of others of course and amongst those we considered, those were my favourites:
Up and Down ~ Oliver Jeffers (HarperCollins Children’s Books)
Wolf Won’t Bite ~ Emily Gravett (Macmillan Children’s Books)
My Circus ~ Xavier Deneux (Bloomsbury Children’s Books)

Also a brand new book which I have received to review for Armadillo Magazine:
Enormouse ~ Rebecca Gerlings (Egmont)

If you have not got your children involved in the Summer Reading Challenge, give it a try. If you are lucky enough to have fantastic local library staff who really care about the children and their reading (I do!), it is a really positive experience for the children!

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