Listen to your next favourite book!
Hello from the Lit in Colour team at Penguin!
We have put together the below books for you to explore whenever you feel like it.
You can learn more about each book, listen to snippets and even buy the book if you want to read more! You can also listen to the whole book if you have a Spotify account.
Whether you’re listening on the way to school, at home or with friends, we hope you can relax, escape and enjoy. Just click on the age range you think best describes you and allow yourself to get lost in a story.
Please note that the recommended ages below are a guide. We realise this will vary from one individual young person to another, this is more of a starting point for familiarising yourselves with what is available!
Books For Ages
3-7
Listen Up!
A brand new audio bundle following Rocket on her adventures! Including the stories, Look Up!, Clean Up!, and Speak Up!
Love in Every Language
A companion picture book to Anoosha Syed’s critically acclaimed debut, That’s Not My Name!, about expressing love across language barriers and the universal message that actions speak louder than words.
Sulwe
Sulwe's skin is the colour of midnight. She's darker than everyone in her family, and everyone at school.
Weirdo Goes Wild
Maud - a judo-suit wearing guinea pig and proud weirdo - is off into the wild, as is Kit, her owner.
Books For Ages
7-9
Secret Beast Club: The Unicorns of Silver Street
The first book in a BRILLIANT new series brimming with adventure, friendship and an amazing array of magical creatures!
The Adventures of Billy and Other Stories
Join Billy on her missions to defeat the Terrible Beast, to save Fatcat from a fire-breathing dragon and to escape Captain Howl and his gang of pirates!
Ace and the Animal Heroes
Join Ace and the Farm Squad in their next magical adventure by award-winning farmer, TV presenter and performer JB Gill!
Yasmin Bandara Levels Up!
Yasmin Bandara has NO IDEA what she wants to be when she grows up. Her parents want her to become a doctor and focus on school, they won’t even let her play computer games unless it’s an educational one called Monkey House.
Books For Ages
9-11
Pig-Heart Boy
All Cameron wants is a 'normal' life - friends, swimming, school, family. But most normal thirteen-year-olds don't desperately need a new heart because theirs doesn't work properly.
Bim Blake's Hot Takes
Hi bestie! My name’s Bím Blake. I've just started high school and here’s my hot take on it...
Jamaal Target: PHANTOM Agent
Alex Rider meets Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse in this fast-paced, action-packed middle-grade series about a ‘normal’ boy who discovers he has superpowers and is destined to join an elite yet secret organisation.
Little Badman and the Game of Nightmares
Humza’s life finally feels ... normal. Aliens aren’t trying to kill him, zombies aren’t trying to eat him, there are no crazy spy missions on the horizon and certainly no mutant hamsters. So why does he still feel stressed?
We also encourage you to go on your local library’s website, as most libraries have a digital library where you can listen to whole books for free!
Lit in Colour is a programme from Penguin Books that aims to make the study of English more inclusive of authors of colour and to connect more children and young people to books by authors of colour to read. Take a look at our (incomplete) book lists for more recommendations!
For parents and carers, we recommend taking a look at the National Year of Reading website for guidance on reading with babies and toddlers, as well as with children aged 5-11.