50 books like Chocky

J.R.R. Tolkien's masterful storytelling is unmatched, and The Lord of the Rings weaves together moral dilemmas and profound philosophical ideas seamlessly, encouraging me to contemplate the nature of power, the importance of preserving the natural world, and the significance of individual choices.

The book's themes of heroism, friendship, sacrifice, and the struggle between good and evil resonate deeply. In addition, each of his characters feels like an aspect of oneself; the introspection it inspires is brilliant!

The Lord of the Rings instills a sense of wonder, ignites the imagination, and imparts timeless wisdom, which heavily transformed my perspective on life, my values, and my understanding of the human condition.

Thomas Covernant is a leper shunned by society but finds himself in the Land where some herald him as the one who’ll save them from an evil sorcerer, Lord Foul. He is not always a sympathetic character, but being on society’s edge where all and sundry openly shun him can do that to anyone.

What I loved the most was the captivating Land with its many peoples and inhabitants, such as the sentient woods and the Forestals that ward them, the Elohim, a benign people with special powers, the Giants and the evil Viles, Waynhim, and ur-viles.

Outside being exotic, the world feels credible and immersive, especially the “wild magic” Covernant begins to wield. I ended up caring passionately about what happened to the Land and wanting Covernant to acknowledge his worth.

Clarke is the master of the sci-fi short stories in my view, and this collection is a great example of his genius. My dog-eared paperback is over forty years old, and I pick it up often for both nostalgic and professional reasons. With evocative titles such as "The Nine Billion Names of God," "No Morning After," and "If I Forget Thee, Oh Earth," these stories were just what my young, curious mind needed. In just a few pages, Clarke had an amazing ability to pull you into the world of the character and make you care. Both my children have read and enjoyed this book. Brilliant collection.

I picked this up in a bookshop due to the cover as it stirred my curiosity. And when I read the first line, "I had reached the age of six hundred and fifty miles," I found myself walking to the cashier to buy it. This is quite an unusual premise by a quite unusual and versatile writer. It breaks a number of rules by switching from first to third person, but I found it worked. I found myself constantly trying to guess what was happening, and where it was going. That may not sound like a recommendation, but I found I couldn’t put it down without knowing why. And when the last chapter delivers the big twist, I turned back to page one and started it all over again! It then becomes a different book and is still enjoyable.   

This book stands as one of the last great paper encyclopedias created for children in this day and age of digital searches, and that is what I love about it. As you leaf through its pages, it is reminiscent of turning the stone pages of our own planet’s 4.6 billion-year-old story, featuring the evolution of life, culminating in us! This beautifully illustrated and written encyclopedia presents the most up-to-date information about planet Earth in a style and format designed for children, but which will appeal to a wide range of readers. With hundreds of photographs, illustrations, diagrams, and maps, it presents an impressive overview of our globe—beginning with the history of the universe and ending with today's conservation issues. A truly spectacular reference. 

I love the beautiful illustrations in this picture book about mother nature. The artwork lends itself to mindful observation of our wonderful earth and appreciation for the environment without being pedantic, showing rather than telling.

The pages also feature creative interactive elements like cutouts and flaps that create an experience of exploration and discovery for young readers. I’ve found that there are not too many mindfulness picture books with really gorgeous art, and this is one of them.

This book is a little more Space Opera than Sci-fi as it focuses more on the adventure than the impossibility of the technology. It takes place thousands of years in the future when man kinds had spread out across the galaxy and forgotten about Earth, for the most part. The characters are not deep, and the story relies more on action than complexity, but it’s fun. It moves from one event to another, the main character is a bit of a rogue that you can’t help but like and his female counterpart is smarter, faster, and deadlier than he will every be, so it's good she is on his side. One of the reasons I like these books (10 book series with some spin-offs) is because it is very different from my style. If my books were Angus Steaks, these would be an Ice-cream Sunday.   

As with my other recommendations, I am making this one based on the impact the book had on me. From this novel, as well as the others that Jerry wrote, I learned how important it is to build a comprehensive world-universe when planning a book. And, when I sat down to pen the first book in what would become the Legion of the Damned series, I attempted to build a reality as fully realized as the CoDominium universe is.  

This gorgeously illustrated coffee-table volume draws on Black’s expertise in science writing and paleontology. She begins with the Big Bang that created the universe 13.8 billion years ago, then moves in short chapters through milestones of the rise of life on Earth. Prehistoric plants harden into coal in the Carboniferous Period, 359 million years ago; dinosaurs roam the Morrison Formation of the western US, 156 million years ago; and small blobs of molten glass from Laos reveal a powerful meteorite impact 790,000 years ago. You’ll never see the timeline of life the same way again. 

A comprehensive natural world storytelling collection comprising ten chapters, organised by themes such as Earth, Fire, Water, Plants, Animals, and Stewardship.

A page of 'Lessons'  at the end of every chapter helps you explore the environmental meaning within the stories. Plus an 'Activities' section at the end of the book. The stories are from over forty countries, retold sensitively by Caduto, an ecologist and master storyteller.

Amongst my favourite stories are: Earth Words from France, about a secret language hidden in fern roots and what is lost when we become separated from nature; The First Bats from Guatemala and Mexico, a funny tale which can be adapted to any place on Earth that has bats, and The Seven Sisters an Aboriginal story which introduces the origin of the Pleiades constellation.