Farming books for primary school library

33 replies

babybythesea · 27/09/2026 09:06

Advice please!
I work in a small rural primary school and work hard to promote a love of reading.

One of our children (aged 9) asked if we could get the Jeremy Clarkson Diddly Squat books. I haven’t read them (not my scene!) but a quick google suggests absolutely not in a primary school.
So I’m wondering what alternatives there are. Most of our kids live on farms, this is a world they are comfortable in. We’ve got fiction like Dick King Smith but given the choice they would rather pick up tractor magazines.
A quick hunt suggest Matt Baker (A Year on the Farm) would be suitable.

Does anyone have any other ideas? Non-fiction ideally but anything would do! This is really not my area of interest but I don’t want him to think I didn’t listen, and he’s usually a child who tells me reading is boring and pointless so if he’s asking I want to encourage! We’ve got plenty of picture books for the younger ones. It’s the Y4/5/6 that we are struggling for.

OP posts:

StayCoolLikeAPenguin · Yesterday 00:22

Oh, it's by Michael Morpurgo, but one of his lesser known ones.

StayCoolLikeAPenguin · Yesterday 00:24

There's also a lovely treasury of the James Herriot stories adapted for children. It's more a book to be shared by a teacher reading aloud though.

StayCoolLikeAPenguin · Yesterday 00:27

Sorry, I see I need to work on my reading comprehension - you were asking for non fiction!

Bikenutz · Yesterday 01:25

Dorling Kindersley published a book called Total Tractor that might go down well!

Original poster

babybythesea · Yesterday 18:51

Thank you for all the responses.
I found some books on Vinted which included a Tom Pemberton book. Which would have been amazing had there not been swearing scattered through it! Tried Matt Barkers book - no swearing but more an autobiography than a farming book. We’ve also got some of the Yorkshire Shepherdess books to look at to check suitability before we let the kids loose on them. My reading has taken a new direction!!

We have ordered The Stock so thank you for that recommendation.
We’ve got lots of the stories recommended (Dick King Smith, Roald Dahl). But not the Michael
Morpurgo which I will look for - they know Michael Morpurgo as we do War Horse and they enjoy it so they might be persuaded to read another one by him.

Thank you again.

OP posts:

IbizaToTheNorfolkBroads · Yesterday 18:58

Matildatoldsuchdreadfullies · 27/09/2026 09:26

Did you ever hear the joke about the NQT who was placed in a rural infant school. She was showing flash cards with pictures of farm animals on them. She held up a sheep, and there was silence. “Come on, now, children. You must know what this is?” One child put their hand up and said, “I don’t know if it’s a Suffolk or a Romney.”

Kids from farms know their stuff. Honestly, they’d probably love it if you get in farming magazines (put out a call in the school newsletter).

That was from a Gervase Phinn memoir.

BigBadPotato · Yesterday 19:04

We’re farmers and my boy (5) has a good book called look inside a farm (believe it is usborne?) and that seems pretty good. So often you can tell the author actually has no idea about farming and that’s so off putting for children who DO know all about farming! He also has a book called ‘Total Tractor’ which is packed full of trivia and facts.

tarheelbaby · Yesterday 19:08

Farmer Boy - Laura Ingalls Wilder
A semi-fictional account of her husband's life as a child (9yrs old) on a big farm in upstate NY: merino shearing, potato digging to save the crop and more.
I find Morpurgo books are emotionally wrenching, tragic - rather like The Red Pony - so depressing
Herriot books are a good shout - I read those when I was about 9yrs and loved them; totally put me off vet school though ...
Marguerite Henry books - fictionalised books about famous horses and types of horse.
King of the Wind - the Godolphin Arabian from which nearly all modern flat racing thoroughbreds are descended, including Man O War and Seabiscuit
White Stallion of Lipizza - about the Lipizzaner stallions in Vienna

The Dick Francis library is probably a little too old for them: fag smoking, champagne drinking, steeplechase jockey solves mysteries ...

Flip

1 2

Swipe left for the next trending thread