Your weekly digest about what's going on in the world of children's literature.
Hi there,
Children tend to welcome a New Year with excitement, but maybe 2026 brings a degree of trepidation, especially if they are exposed to the news. Anxiety about world affairs affects many children.
As you’ll know, helping them read from reliable sources, like The Week Junior or First News, can address this. In the classroom, it can lead to better-informed discussions based around fact, not hyperbole.
A poor segue, but as a former mathematician, for me, 2026 is a "happy number", because when you repeatedly sum the squares of its digits, the sequence eventually reaches 1 - a defining characteristic of happy numbers in number theory. This is demonstrated by the trail: 2026 → 44 → 32 → 13 → 10 → 1. Whether you like the maths or not, I sincerely hope 2026 is a happy year for you.
Tom (co-founder) and the Pageticker Team.
PS If you like what you read, click here to subscribe regularly to our weekly round-ups.
In the News/Useful Links
5 Things You Need to Know about the National Year of Reading
• Authorfy is free for the National Year of Reading
• Jenny McLachlan is running a free weekly Friday Book Club on Fridays until 13th February 2026
• Blue Peter has started a Book Club for Children
Insights From Our Data
2026 brings new resolutions for all of us but how does it affect our reading habits? We took a look at the goals and targets feature in Pageticker. How many parents set a reading target in the first week of January?
In the autumn term, aside from a spike in the first week of September, an average of 1.8% of parents set a ‘books read’ target for their child on a weekly basis. Across the first seven days of January, this leapt to 5.9% - an over 3x increase. Interestingly, on a daily basis this has increased every day in January so far, suggesting that New Year’s reading resolutions aren’t just confined to 1st January, either!
Monthly Giveaway
Watch this space, we'll be launching a new giveaway shortly.
Inspiring Initiatives
Tom Griffiths the Headteacher at Cheswick Green Primary School ran an inset for 9 local primary schools to prepare for the National Year of Reading. He has a large following on social media - see checkemoutbooks.
As part of this they explored research around reading for pleasure.
- They looked at the amazing resources on the OU/UKLA website
- Which educational professionals & authors/illustrators he finds really useful to follow online
-Asked questions around what reading for pleasure looks like in each school. How is it interweaved into our school life?
-Time to share best practice with each other and look at what we are doing to support the National Year of Reading.
Handpicked Seasonal Suggestion
This time of year, we often find ourselves wanting to surround ourselves with things that make us laugh. So this week, we’ve chosen a book that will do just that. This week it’s a pick for younger children Stuck by Oliver Jeffers is ideal for pupils in Nursery and Reception.
Stuck is a book that in Oliver Jeffers own words is about trying to solve a problem by throwing things at it.
In the book Floyd gets his kite stuck in a tree and he tries pulling and swinging it loose but it won’t become unstuck. So he starts to throw more things at the tree from his favourite shoe, to a duck to many more things.
This book is sure to make children laugh as more and more objects are thrown at the tree.
Notable New Release
This week we are choosing a series finale released in September 2025. The Fate of Podkin One-Ear is the ninth book in the Podkin-One Ear series and it doesn’t disappoint! This is great for Year 5 and Year 6 upwards.
Podkin and his friends have tracked down all the gifts from the goddess and when these gifts are brought together they melt, twist and shimmer, forming a suit of armour that will only fit a rabbit with just one ear.
Podkin and Uki face their biggest challenge. Rallying everyone, including armies from the five realms, every tribe and species. In the hope that they can finally defeat Gorm once and for all.
Sunday Times Children's Bestsellers
1. Diary of a Whimpy Kid: Partypooper by Jeff Kinney (20,195)
2. Dog Man 14: Big Jim Believes by Dav Pilkey (13,700)
3. Minecraft Joke Book (11,960)
4. The Christmasaurus and the Night Before Christmas by Tom Fletcher and Shane Devries (11,825)
5. Santa and Son by David Walliams and Adam Stower (11,410)
Pageticker Booklist
Most-read annuals over the Christmas holidays:
Beano Annual 2026
Numberblocks Annual 2026
Match Annual 2026
Guinness World Records 2026
Minecraft Annual 2026
Hotwheels - The Official Annual 2026
The 2026 Children’s Almanac
Upcoming Dates
• 15 January - National Year of Reading Introductory Webinarfor schools
• 19 January - National Year of Reading Primary Webinar
• 20 January - Early Years Webinar for the National Year of Reading
• 21-23 January - Bett Show (come and visit us on stand FS37)
• 2-8 February- National Storytelling Week
5 March - World Book Day
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Pageticker is the UK's top-rated digital reading diary designed to help children develop habits that will fuel their curiosity and learning for life. Find out more.
