Developed with Science Museum Group, the world's leading alliance of science museums, Gadgeteers will inspire children across the country to feed their imagination over the summer holiday with a reading challenge focused on science and innovation.

The Summer Reading Challenge is delivered in partnership with public libraries across the UK and launches in June and July. Children can take part through their local library or at home through the online platform.

This year's Summer Reading Challenge book collection features 67 inspiring titles for different reading levels encompassing picture books, early readers and middle grade titles, with fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and graphic novels included. The books all engage with the key Gadgeteers themes of everyday science, invention and creation and fun with friends.

About the selection process

The Summer Reading Challenge is supported by publishers from across the UK and Ireland, who submitted over 200 finished books and top-secret early proofs to be considered this year.

The collection was curated by members of our expert readers panel, with librarians, teachers, reading group leaders and their children reviewing the titles to help us find books that resonate with our Gadgeteers themes and offer Challenge participants plenty of variety to choose from. Our advisory panel, consisting of representatives from organisations including Science Museum Group, ASCEL, CILIP, School Libraries Association, Arts Council England's Youth Advisory Board, British Council, and Glorious Reads, used our readers' recommendations to shape the final collection.

The Gadgeteers book collection

View the full book collection online here.

Highlights from this year's collection

The collection is presented in two lists - one for younger children and one for more confident readers - representing exciting contemporary children's fiction, poetry, non-fiction and picture books with science and innovation themes. Many of the books in the collection are newer titles published in 2022. A number of titles will be available to enjoy in additional formats, with eBook and audiobook availability noted where possible.

This year the younger list features a fantastic range of books from 19 different publishers. Families will be dazzled by the picture books in our collection. Gaze at the stars with Ada and the Galaxies by Alan Lightman and Olga Pastuchiv (Walker Books) and further little ones' curiosity with Once Upon a Big Idea by James Carter (Little Tiger). There's plenty of giggles to be had with You Are 25% Banana by Susie Brooks (Farshore) and The Planet in a Pickle Jar by Martin Stanev (Flying Eye Books).

Get ready to be boggled by brilliant facts and inspired by tales of friendship, creativity, and invention. For younger Challenge participants honing their reading skills, the collection includes fun and inspiring early reader titles such as Yasmin the Scientist by Saadia Faruqi (Raintree) and The Tindims of Rubbish Island by Sally Gardner (Head of Zeus). If graphic novels are your thing, you will love Ocean Plastics Problem: A Max Axiom Super Scientist Adventure by Elizabeth Pagel-Hogan (Raintree).

Gadgeteers will encourage readers to explore science and innovation from the past and present. Read about unusual and unique minds in Inventors: Incredible Stories of the World's Most Ingenious Inventions by Robert Winston (DK) and the graphic novel, It's Her Story: Amelia Earhart by Kim Moldofsky (Sunbird Books).

The older list includes a variety of exciting middle grade fiction, poetry, and non-fiction from 24 different publishers. Gadgeteers will love learning about new, exciting, and sometimes quite strange inventions in Beetles For Breakfast...and Other Weird and Wonderful Ways We Could Save The Planet by Madeleine Finlay (Flying Eye Books) and poetry fans will enjoy collections such as Daydreams and Jellybeans by Alex Wharton (Firefly Press).

Embark on thrilling adventures jam-packed with inventions and gadgets in M.A. Bennett's The Butterfly Club: The Ship of Doom (Wellbeck Flame), City of Rust by Gemma Fowler (Chicken House), and Harley Hitch and The Iron Forest by Vashti Hardy (Scholastic).

There's more! Enjoy your very own scientific guide to growing up with Perfectly Weird, Perfectly You by Camilla Pang (Hachette Children's Books) and join BBC presenter and renowned space scientist Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock on an epic journey in Dr Maggie's Grand Tour of the Solar System (Michael O Mara).

These are just some of the brilliant titles waiting to inspire and empower readers this summer and we can't wait for you to join us.

Get involved

Libraries and schools can order this year's books via their usual suppliers. eBook and audiobook versions of some titles are also available.

Find out more about the Challenge with our Summer Reading Challenge Quick Guide

Visit the Summer Reading Challenge website for competitions, book recommendations and activities all year round.