March is traditionally a month when publishers are offering a large range of titles across the board, and the third month of 2026 is shaping up to be no different. What is interesting this time around, however, is how strong the offering is in baby and toddler books.

Simon & Schuster is making its first foray into this area with the launch of Little Simon. It will be publishing Nik-Nak Bunny, a narrative-led novelty series about a bunny trying different jobs, written by Carys Bexington and illustrated by Jenny Wren. In March, two books in the series will be available: Nik-Nak Bunny: Doctor and Nik-Nak Bunny: Train. Nosy Crow is launching a new series about Frog Town by Alberto Lot, and Fiona Lumbers is kicking off an adorable new series with Little Tiger about a mouse named Mo, with the first installment Mo’s Stick. Chloé Alméras’ Josephine (Gecko), about a young giraffe enjoying the world around her, is also very cute.

When it comes to picture books, it was hard to make the selection for my Top 10. In the end, I opted for Monkeypig by Huw Aaron (Puffin), The Magic Feather by Julia Donaldson and Catherine Rayner (Macmillan Children’s Books), Poonam Mistry’s The Bear and the Seed (Templar Books) and The Lost Robot by Joe Todd-Stanton (Flying Eye Books). All fantastic books, but there are many more to look out for in this preview. A complete manuscript for Michael Rosen and illustrator Gill Smith’s Where Are You, Eddie? (Walker) was not available, but this promises to be an important and moving story about loss and acceptance.

Tick-Tock Around the Clock by Ruth Brown (Scallywag Press) is a warm and cosy picture book for the very young about what a cat gets up to in a day, and Joy Cowley and illustrator David Barrow’s My Tiger (Gecko) made me laugh. With dark humour that will appeal to fans of Not Now, Bernard, the latter is a revenge fantasy imagining what would happen to a dentist if they asked a tiger to stop eating cake. To boost your stock of books by neurodivergent authors and illustrators, there is My Little Drummer from Sian Radford and Gwen Millward (Farshore), which is about living with ADHD.

Readers who are over five but not yet ready for full-length chapter books will be happy there is another Jamie Smart series coming to print, starting with Megalomaniacs: The Invasion Begins! (DFB Phoenix), and will also enjoy The Gumdrops: Quest for Bravery by Elissa Elwick, the
first of a Little Tiger series about the adorable guardians of a mag-ical land who need help. Little Tiger is also publishing Love Ssega’s The Elementals, an eco-series with some Famous Five-style adventuring, illustrated by Erika Meza.

In the nine to 12 age group, the books that did not quite make my Top 10 because of stiff competition include Catherine Doyle’s Scare B’n’B (Bloomsbury) – imagine the BBC comedy Ghosts in book form with step-sibling rivalry – and Andersen Press’ Will Shakespeare Mysteries by Kaz Penney and illustrator Sammy Elgie, which imagines the Elizabethan writer as a young detective. Firmly in the 21st century is Birdie, the heroine of The Overthinkers’ Club: Happy List by Nat Luurtsema (Usborne), while Monsters by Stéphane Servant and illustrator Nicolas Zouliamis (Pushkin) is set in an alternative world where a young boy meets his monster contemporary.

Fantasy still reigns in YA, and First Ink is excited about Midnight on the Celestial by Julia Alexandra, although there is some dystopia too, namely Caryl Lewis’ The Danger of Small Things (S&S Children’s Books) and Burn the Water by Billy Ray (Scholastic).

A quick note about reissues: I do not always have space for these, but there are two coming that will be prominently stocked in bookshops. The 25th anniversary edition of Malorie Blackman’s Noughts & Crosses is on its way with a foreword by Stormzy, and there will be renewed interest in The Magic Faraway Tree by Enid Blyton because of the upcoming film. Hachette’s tie-in edition publishes in March.

Children’s Previews: March 2026