Best Books for Ages 6-8 in 2021

Recommended early chapter books and illustrated fiction, ranked by real Amazon UK sales during 2021.

“The Boy Who Grew Dragons (The Boy Who Grew Dragons 1)” by Andy Shepherd was the best-selling book for ages 6-8 in 2021, ahead of “The Day The Crayons Quit” and “Diary of a Wimpy Kid”. 100 of the 100 books below hold an average rating of 4.5 stars or better, led by “Little Leaders” on 4.9 stars from 12,102 reviews.

Ranked by how well each book actually sold on Amazon UK across 2021 — not by our opinion, and not by how they sell today.

← Ages 3-5 Ages 6-8 Ages 9-12 →

2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 2026

The Boy Who Grew Dragons (The Boy Who Grew Dragons 1): The b...

by Shepherd, Andy

4.7 · 5618 reviews

The Day The Crayons Quit: A Funny Picture Book About Express...

by Daywalt, Drew

4.8 · 24398 reviews

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Getaway (Book 12): A hilarious fam...

by Kinney, Jeff

4.7 · 29725 reviews

Dog Man: From the Creator of Captain Underpants (Dog Man #1)

by Pilkey, Dav

4.7 · 29305 reviews

Ruby’s Worry: A Big Bright Feelings Book

by Percival, Tom

4.8 · 3619 reviews

The Explorer: From the author of the internationally bestsel...

by Rundell, Katherine

4.7 · 4569 reviews

The Lost Words: The bestselling, illustrated nature book – a...

by Morris, Jackie

4.8 · 3454 reviews

How To Train Your Dragon

by Cowell, Cressida

4.6 · 7094 reviews

Kay's Anatomy: A Complete (and Completely Disgusting) Guide ...

by Kay, Adam, Paker, Henry

4.8 · 8688 reviews

The Book With No Pictures: A Hilarious Read Out Loud Book fo...

by Novak, B. J.

4.7 · 19997 reviews

Charlotte's Web: The beloved modern classic from the bestsel...

by White, E. B.

4.7 · 32397 reviews

Diary of a Wimpy Kid (Book 1)

by Kinney, Jeff

4.6 · 24093 reviews

Dragons at Crumbling Castle: And Other Stories

4.6 · 3026 reviews

The Naughtiest Unicorn: A magical illustrated adventure book...

by Bird, Pip

4.7 · 2657 reviews

How To Train Your Parents

by Johnson, Pete

4.6 · 2358 reviews

Varjak Paw: An award-winning modern children's classic: 1

by Said, SF

4.7 · 2540 reviews

The 13-Storey Treehouse: The laugh-out-loud adventure, full ...

by Griffiths, Andy

4.6 · 4557 reviews

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe: Journey to Narnia in t...

4.8 · 1461 reviews

The Firework-Maker's Daughter

by Pullman, Philip

4.6 · 1803 reviews

Bunny vs Monkey (a Phoenix Comic Book, from the multi-millio...

by Smart, Jamie

4.8 · 1660 reviews

Julian Is a Mermaid: The ground-breaking and award-winning L...

by Love, Jessica

4.8 · 4436 reviews

The Brilliant World of Tom Gates

by Pichon, Liz, Pichon, Liz

4.6 · 8206 reviews

Toto the Ninja Cat and the Great Snake Escape: Book 1 - Funn...

by O’Leary, Dermot

4.7 · 1546 reviews

Badger's Parting Gifts: 40th Anniversary Edition of a pictur...

4.8 · 1457 reviews

Little Leaders: Bold Women in Black History

by Harrison, Vashti

4.9 · 12102 reviews

National Trust: Tiger, Tiger, Burning Bright!: An Animal Poe...

by Fiona Waters, Britta Teckentrup, Britta Teckentrup

4.8 · 992 reviews

The Girl Who Stole an Elephant

by Nizrana Farook

4.6 · 1337 reviews

The Wild Robot: Now a major DreamWorks animation!

by Brown, Peter

4.7 · 17223 reviews

I Want My Hat Back: "The funniest book ever written" - Guard...

by Klassen, Jon

4.8 · 5380 reviews

The Hodgeheg: 35th Anniversary Edition

by King-Smith, Dick

4.7 · 1108 reviews

Women in Science: 50 Fearless Pioneers Who Changed the World

by Ignotofsky, Rachel

4.8 · 6389 reviews

The Big Book of the Blue

by Zommer, Yuval

4.8 · 2336 reviews

What A Waste: Rubbish, Recycling, and Protecting our Planet ...

by French, Jess

4.7 · 1226 reviews

The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane: A 6-million-copy-se...

by DiCamillo, Kate

4.8 · 10488 reviews

The Invisible

by Percival, Tom

4.8 · 649 reviews

Somebody Swallowed Stanley

by Roberts, Sarah, Peck, Hannah

4.8 · 924 reviews

Malamander: The first in a hugely original and highly popula...

by Taylor, Thomas

4.7 · 1359 reviews

Ada Twist, Scientist (The Questioneers): 1

by Beaty, Andrea

4.8 · 5155 reviews

Beegu

by Deacon, Alexis

4.7 · 836 reviews

Rabbit's Bad Habits: Book 1: The hilarious modern classic an...

by Gough, Julian

4.7 · 902 reviews

You're Called What?

by Gray, Kes

4.8 · 1310 reviews

Michael Rosen's Sad Book: An award-winning picture book to h...

by Rosen, Michael

4.8 · 1044 reviews

Secrets of a Sun King: ‘THE QUEEN OF HISTORICAL FICTION’ Gua...

by Carroll, Emma

4.6 · 1157 reviews

Rain Before Rainbows: An uplifting picture book about optimi...

by Halls, Smriti

4.6 · 1603 reviews

Journey: An award-winning modern classic picture book. The f...

by Becker, Aaron

4.8 · 2145 reviews

Mixed: An Inspiring Story About Colour

by Chung, Arree

4.9 · 3199 reviews

Greta and the Giants: inspired by Greta Thunberg's stand to ...

by Tucker, Zoë

4.7 · 1008 reviews

The Street Beneath My Feet (Look Closer)

by Guillain, Charlotte

4.8 · 556 reviews

Meerkat Mail

4.7 · 785 reviews

Man on the Moon: a day in the life of Bob (Bartram, Simon Se...

by Bartram, Simon

4.7 · 745 reviews

The Sheep-pig: 40th Anniversary Edition

by King-Smith, Dick

4.7 · 742 reviews

The Legend of Podkin One-Ear: 'A spellbinding story full of ...

by Larwood, Kieran

4.7 · 1308 reviews

Traction Man Is Here: 1

by Grey, Mini

4.7 · 743 reviews

Mr Penguin and the Lost Treasure: Book 1

by Smith, Alex T.

4.7 · 634 reviews

Not Now, Bernard

by McKee, David

4.7 · 1194 reviews

The Diary of a Killer Cat: 1 (The Killer Cat, 1)

by Fine, Anne

4.5 · 1073 reviews

Charlie Changes Into a Chicken

by Copeland, Sam

4.7 · 735 reviews

Isadora Moon Goes to School

by Muncaster, Harriet

4.8 · 1044 reviews

The Big Book of the UK: Facts, folklore and fascinations fro...

4.8 · 628 reviews

The Nothing to See Here Hotel: Volume 1

by Butler, Steven

4.6 · 792 reviews

The Borrowers (A Puffin Book)

by Norton, Mary

4.7 · 2623 reviews

Horrid Henry's Cheeky Collection 10 Books Box Set by Frances...

by Francesca Simon

4.8 · 308 reviews

Flat Stanley: the original and classic family adventure, ill...

by Brown, Jeff, Biddulph, Rob

4.7 · 530 reviews

Arthur and the Golden Rope (Brownstone's Mythical Collection...

by Joe Todd Stanton

4.8 · 809 reviews

Leon and the Place Between

by Mcallister/Grahame Baker-Smith, Angela

4.7 · 590 reviews

A Street Through Time: A 12,000 Year Journey Along the Same ...

by DK

4.7 · 918 reviews

FACTopia!: Follow the Trail of 400 Facts [Britannica]

by Kate Hale, Britannica Group, Andy Smith

4.8 · 284 reviews

I Swapped My Brother On The Internet

by Simmons, Jo, Reed, Nathan

4.6 · 1364 reviews

The Tale of Peter Rabbit: Rediscover the classic children's ...

by Potter, Beatrix

4.7 · 14763 reviews

The Tin Forest

by Ward, Helen

4.7 · 779 reviews

Anisha, Accidental Detective (Anisha, Accidental Detective) ...

by Serena Patel

4.7 · 516 reviews

The Queen's Nose

by King-Smith, Dick

4.6 · 608 reviews

The Wild Way Home

by Kirtley, Sophie

4.6 · 706 reviews

Hilda and the Troll (Hildafolk Comics)

by Luke Pearson

4.8 · 1651 reviews

Voices in the Park

by Browne, Anthony

4.6 · 650 reviews

A Day in the Life of a Poo, a Gnu and You (Winner of the Blu...

by Barfield, Mike

4.8 · 458 reviews

Please Mrs Butler: The timeless school poetry collection

by Ahlberg, Allan

4.7 · 727 reviews

Chocolate Cake

by Rosen, Michael

4.7 · 482 reviews

The Giving Tree

by Silverstein, Shel

4.6 · 34135 reviews

You're a Bad Man, Mr Gum!: it’s the 20th anniversary edition...

by Stanton, Andy

4.5 · 1376 reviews

Accidental Trouble Magnet: Book 1 (Planet Omar)

by Mian, Zanib

4.7 · 1266 reviews

The Rhythm of the Rain

by Baker-Smith, Grahame, Baker-Smith, Grahame

4.7 · 595 reviews

Amelia Fang and the Barbaric Ball: The best-selling, spooky ...

4.8 · 730 reviews

The Accidental Prime Minister

by McLaughlin, Tom

4.5 · 1257 reviews

After the Fall: How Humpty Dumpty got back up again

by Santat, Dan

4.7 · 4190 reviews

The Paper Bag Princess (Classic Munsch)

by Robert Munsch

4.7 · 5895 reviews

Vi Spy: Licence to Chill - Book 1 of the laugh-out-loud spy ...

by Evans, Maz

4.7 · 357 reviews

The Pirate Mums

by Lydia Corry

4.7 · 291 reviews

The Truth Pixie

by Haig, Matt, Mould, Chris

4.7 · 1310 reviews

Flotsam: A Caldecott Award Winner

by Wiesner, David

4.7 · 1380 reviews

The Pebble in My Pocket: A History of Our Earth

by Hooper, Meredith

4.7 · 304 reviews

Gorilla: A multi award-winning classic that's sold over one ...

by Browne, Anthony

4.7 · 382 reviews

Michael Rosen's A-Z: The best children's poetry from Agard t...

by Rosen, Michael

4.5 · 331 reviews

A Planet Full of Plastic: and how you can help (Eco Explorer...

by Layton, Neal

4.7 · 356 reviews

Hotel Flamingo: The flamboyantly fun animal adventure!

by Milway, Alex

4.8 · 505 reviews

Krindlekrax (A Puffin Book)

by Ridley, Philip

4.7 · 538 reviews

The Great Chocoplot: a laugh-out-loud funny adventure for fa...

by Callaghan, Chris

4.6 · 530 reviews

100 Best Poems for Children

4.6 · 464 reviews

All the Ways to be Smart: the beautifully illustrated intern...

by Bell, Davina

4.8 · 827 reviews

Ottoline and the Yellow Cat: A Beautifully Illustrated Myste...

by Riddell, Chris

4.7 · 641 reviews

Best Books for Ages 3-5 (2021) Picture books for pre-schoolers and early readers Best Books for Ages 9-12 (2021) Middle-grade fiction for confident readers

FAQs

What were the best books for ages 6-8 in 2021?
The best-selling book for ages 6-8 in 2021 was "The Boy Who Grew Dragons (The Boy Who Grew Dragons 1): The bestselling enchanting illustrated adventure!", measured on real Amazon UK sales rank across 2021. See the full top 100 below.

How is this list ranked?
By real Amazon UK sales rank averaged across 2021 specifically, so it reflects what actually sold to this age group during that year rather than what sells today.