Best Books for Ages 6-8 in 2023

Recommended early chapter books and illustrated fiction, ranked by real Amazon UK sales during 2023.

“The Beast Beyond the Fence” by Marcus Rashford was the best-selling book for ages 6-8 in 2023, ahead of “Dog Man” and “Diary of a Wimpy Kid”. 99 of the 100 books below hold an average rating of 4.5 stars or better, led by “Mixed” on 4.9 stars from 3,199 reviews.

Ranked by how well each book actually sold on Amazon UK across 2023 — 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 Beast Beyond the Fence: A fun-filled spooky adventure by...

by Marcus Rashford

4.6 · 1569 reviews

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

by Dav Pilkey

4.7 · 29305 reviews

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

by Jeff Kinney

4.7 · 29725 reviews

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

by Drew Daywalt

4.8 · 24398 reviews

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

by Jamie Smart

4.8 · 1660 reviews

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

by Andy Shepherd

4.7 · 5618 reviews

Diary of a Wimpy Kid (Book 1)

by Jeff Kinney

4.6 · 24093 reviews

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

by Andy Griffiths

4.6 · 4557 reviews

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

by B. J. Novak

4.7 · 19997 reviews

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

by Katherine Rundell

4.7 · 4569 reviews

Ruby’s Worry: A Big Bright Feelings Book

by Tom Percival

4.8 · 3619 reviews

The Brilliant World of Tom Gates

by Liz Pichon

4.6 · 8206 reviews

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

by E. B. White

4.7 · 32397 reviews

InvestiGators: A Laugh-Out-Loud Comic Book Adventure!: 1

by John Patrick Green

4.7 · 4359 reviews

The Wild Robot: Now a major DreamWorks animation!

by Peter Brown

4.7 · 17223 reviews

Grimwood: Laugh your head off with the funniest series you'l...

by Nadia Shireen

4.6 · 580 reviews

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

by Pip Bird

4.7 · 2657 reviews

How To Train Your Dragon

by Cressida Cowell

4.6 · 7094 reviews

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

by Jackie Morris

4.8 · 3454 reviews

Here We Are: The phenomenal international bestseller from Ol...

by Oliver Jeffers

4.8 · 6187 reviews

Diary of an Accidental Witch: 1

by Honor and Perdita Cargill

4.7 · 456 reviews

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

by SF Said

4.7 · 2540 reviews

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

by Jon Klassen

4.8 · 5380 reviews

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

4.8 · 1457 reviews

The Hodgeheg: 35th Anniversary Edition

by Dick King-Smith

4.7 · 1108 reviews

The Firework-Maker's Daughter

by Philip Pullman

4.6 · 1803 reviews

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

by Smriti Halls

4.6 · 1603 reviews

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

4.8 · 1461 reviews

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

by Julian Gough

4.7 · 902 reviews

Isadora Moon Goes to School

by Harriet Muncaster

4.8 · 1044 reviews

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

by Michael Rosen

4.8 · 1044 reviews

You're Called What?

by Kes Gray

4.8 · 1310 reviews

Leonora Bolt: Secret Inventor: 1

by Lucy Brandt

4.6 · 274 reviews

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

by Kate DiCamillo

4.8 · 10488 reviews

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

by Jeff Brown and Rob Biddulph

4.7 · 530 reviews

The Big Book of the Blue

by Yuval Zommer

4.8 · 2336 reviews

Not Now, Bernard

by David McKee

4.7 · 1194 reviews

The Borrowers (A Puffin Book)

by Mary Norton

4.7 · 2623 reviews

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

by Emma Carroll

4.6 · 1157 reviews

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

by Aaron Becker

4.8 · 2145 reviews

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

by Dermot O’Leary

4.7 · 1546 reviews

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

by Simon Bartram

4.7 · 745 reviews

Beegu

by Alexis Deacon

4.7 · 836 reviews

The Street Beneath My Feet (Look Closer)

by Charlotte Guillain

4.8 · 556 reviews

Meerkat Mail

4.7 · 785 reviews

Room on the Broom Halloween Special: The perfect story for H...

by Julia Donaldson

4.8 · 385 reviews

Hotel Flamingo: The flamboyantly fun animal adventure!

by Alex Milway

4.8 · 505 reviews

The Rhythm of the Rain

by Grahame Baker-Smith

4.7 · 595 reviews

Mixed: An Inspiring Story About Colour

by Arree Chung

4.9 · 3199 reviews

And Tango Makes Three

by Peter Parnell

4.8 · 3123 reviews

Coming to England: An Inspiring True Story Celebrating the W...

by Baroness Floella Benjamin

4.7 · 697 reviews

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

by Jessica Love

4.8 · 4436 reviews

The Nothing to See Here Hotel: Volume 1

by Steven Butler

4.6 · 792 reviews

The Bad Guys: Two books in one for twice the laughs: Episode...

by Aaron Blabey

4.6 · 572 reviews

Dragons at Crumbling Castle: And Other Stories

4.6 · 3026 reviews

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

by Beatrix Potter

4.7 · 14763 reviews

Ada Twist, Scientist (The Questioneers): 1

by Andrea Beaty

4.8 · 5155 reviews

Captain Underpants 1: Captain Underpants: Two Pant-tastic No...

4.8 · 434 reviews

The Invisible

by Tom Percival

4.8 · 649 reviews

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

by Thomas Taylor

4.7 · 1359 reviews

After the Fall: How Humpty Dumpty got back up again

by Dan Santat

4.7 · 4190 reviews

Little Leaders: Bold Women in Black History

by Vashti Harrison

4.9 · 12102 reviews

Mr Penguin and the Lost Treasure: Book 1

by Alex T. Smith

4.7 · 634 reviews

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

by Kate Hale, Britannica Group, Andy Smith

4.8 · 284 reviews

The Girl Who Stole an Elephant

by Nizrana Farook

4.6 · 1337 reviews

Poems Aloud: An anthology of poems to read out loud (1) (Poe...

by Joseph Coelho

4.4 · 162 reviews

The Sheep-pig: 40th Anniversary Edition

by Dick King-Smith

4.7 · 742 reviews

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

by DK

4.7 · 918 reviews

The Queen's Nose

by Dick King-Smith

4.6 · 608 reviews

The Tin Forest

by Helen Ward

4.7 · 779 reviews

Traction Man Is Here: 1

by Mini Grey

4.7 · 743 reviews

Somebody Swallowed Stanley

by Sarah Roberts and Hannah Peck

4.8 · 924 reviews

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

by Michael Rosen

4.5 · 331 reviews

The Barnabus Project

by Terry Fan

4.8 · 877 reviews

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

by Mike Barfield

4.8 · 458 reviews

Women in Science: 50 Fearless Pioneers Who Changed the World

by Rachel Ignotofsky

4.8 · 6389 reviews

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

4.8 · 628 reviews

The Giving Tree

by Shel Silverstein

4.6 · 34135 reviews

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

by Fiona Waters, Britta Teckentrup, Britta Teckentrup

4.8 · 992 reviews

The Last Firefox: 1

by Lee Newbery and Laura Catalán

4.8 · 403 reviews

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

by Anne Fine

4.5 · 1073 reviews

Chocolate Cake

by Michael Rosen

4.7 · 482 reviews

Leon and the Place Between

by Angela Mcallister/Grahame Baker-Smith

4.7 · 590 reviews

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

by Andy Stanton

4.5 · 1376 reviews

Please Mrs Butler: The timeless school poetry collection

by Allan Ahlberg

4.7 · 727 reviews

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

4.8 · 730 reviews

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

by Joe Todd Stanton

4.8 · 809 reviews

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

by Kieran Larwood

4.7 · 1308 reviews

The Naughtiest Unicorn: A Hilarious Children’s Story of Magi...

by Pip Bird and David O'Connell

4.7 · 2600 reviews

Charlie Changes Into a Chicken

by Sam Copeland

4.7 · 735 reviews

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

by Zoë Tucker

4.7 · 1008 reviews

Hilda and the Troll (Hildafolk Comics)

by Luke Pearson

4.8 · 1651 reviews

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

by Anthony Browne

4.7 · 382 reviews

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

by Davina Bell

4.8 · 827 reviews

An Alien in the Jam Factory: Illustrated, funny adventure se...

by Chrissie Sains

4.7 · 188 reviews

Pugs of the Frozen North (Reeve and McIntyre Adventures)

by Philip Reeve and Sarah McIntyre

4.7 · 887 reviews

Fortunately, the Milk . . .

by Neil Gaiman and Chris Riddell

4.5 · 3721 reviews

Flotsam: A Caldecott Award Winner

by David Wiesner

4.7 · 1380 reviews

The Pirate Mums

by Lydia Corry

4.7 · 291 reviews

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

by Jess French

4.7 · 1226 reviews

Best Books for Ages 3-5 (2023) Picture books for pre-schoolers and early readers Best Books for Ages 9-12 (2023) Middle-grade fiction for confident readers

FAQs

What were the best books for ages 6-8 in 2023?
The best-selling book for ages 6-8 in 2023 was "The Beast Beyond the Fence: A fun-filled spooky adventure by international footballer Marcus Rashford!: 1 (The Breakfast Club Adventures, 1)", measured on real Amazon UK sales rank across 2023. See the full top 100 below.

How is this list ranked?
By real Amazon UK sales rank averaged across 2023 specifically, so it reflects what actually sold to this age group during that year rather than what sells today.