The leaves have started turning red, the days are getting shorter and Christmas decorations are being put up. The cold weather is creeping in and people just want to stay home, curl up in bed and read books. This is why we wanted to make a selection of our top picks for books to read when it is cold outside. Make yourself a cup of hot chocolate, put on your warm socks and go sit in your reading chair. Enjoy!
For kids
What screams cold weather more than the winter season and snow? Both stories are level 2 books, part of the “Redstarts” series, part of the “Reading Path” series. They are rhyming stories for beginning readers about Joe and Tuva living in those challenging winter temperatures.
Old Joe Rowan – Christine Moorcroft & Élisabeth Eudes-Pascal
Old Joe Rowan lives alone in a home
made of stone. “I am not on my own,”
says Joe. “Close by are a goat,
a stoat, a sparrow and a foal.”
When the wintry weather closes in, Joe looks after his
animal friends. But who is there to look after Joe?
Tuva – Mick Gowar & Tone Eriksen
Tuva, the sledge dog, is brave and bold.
He pulls the packed sledge through snowy blizzards
and across mountains of ice, protecting his master and
the other dogs in the pack from danger – even when
a great polar bear challenges him to a fight!
For Teens
Halloween is a big part of the fall season: pumpkins, ghosts and mystery. Those are key themes of spooky season. What could be better than reading a spooky novel under your warm bed covers while it is getting cold outside? Take your flashlight and be ready to meet vampires and solve mysteries!
The Vampire Quest – Simon Cheshire
James is an ordinary boy, but his best friend Vince is a bit...odd. For one thing, it turns out that Vince is a vampire. His parents are vampires, too. And soare the people who live at Number 38. There are vampires all over the place, it seems, but there’s nothing to worry about. They like humans, and they’d never, ever do anything horrible to them. Unless...the world runs out of Feed-N-Gulp, the magical vegetarian vampire brew. Which is exactly what's just happened....
Nightmare Island – Alex Woolf
On a trip to Mexico, Rory is forced to share with his strange new step-sister, Itzel. He can’t believe it when she tells him about Nightmare Island, a place where your worst fears come true. To prove it’s just a myth, he agrees to go there with her. And so begins a thrilling, unforgettable adventure! What will happen on Nightmare Island?
For Young Adults
Family, kindness and gratefulness are important keywords for these colder days. Fall and winter are both seasons that stress the importance of being surrounded by friends and family. This is why we would recommend A Christmas Carol and Little Women, both retellings of the important classics written by Charles Dickens and Louisa May Alcott.
A Christmas Carol – Retold by Hilary Burningham
Ebeneezer Scrooge is a mean miser who lives alone and is nice to no one. One Christmas Eve, however, he is visited by the ghost of his old business partner, Marley, and is given a very important warning. Is it enough to persuade Scrooge to change his ways?
Graphic Dickens is a series of favourite Dickens titles retold in graphic format, with speech bubbles and a simplified text. Ideal for drawing in readers who struggle with Dickens in the original form. The titles in this series use all the drama and excitement of the comic whilst introducing the storylines and characters from the Dickens stories.
Little women – Retold by Pauline Francis
The beloved story of the March girls is a classic American novel, telling the story of four sisters. The charming story of these four "little women" and their wise and patient mother Marmee enduring hardships and enjoying adventures in Civil War New England was an instant success when first published in 1868 and has been adored for generations.
This title is part of a wonderful series, Express Classics, offering a quick way into a range of exciting stories. Fast-moving and accessible, each story is a shortened, dramatically illustrated version of the classic novel, which loses none of the strength and flavour of the original. Express Classics include biographical details of the original author and an 8 page glossary.
We hope that you can find what interests you amongst these top picks. If not, you can always check out the selection of our books on the ReadZone website!
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We hope to see you soon!
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