FORGET ABOUT CAMPS, courses, computer games. Who can forget those endless holidays lying on grass or sand, absorbed in a story? For glitter on every page, get Sharing a Shell (Macmillan, £8.99, offer £8.54) by Julia Donaldson, the genius who wrote The Gruffalo. With its bouncy verses about a hermit crab in search of a shell and bright illustrations by Lydia Monks, this is a must-have for all small beach boys and girls.

Aspiring sailors have a flotilla of books about boats, from Sarah McConnell’s Don’t Mention Pirates (Hodder, £10.99, offer £9.89) for 3+, to a gorgeous, full-blown romantic French epic for 10+ in Anne-Laure Bondoux’s The Princess and the Captain (Bloomsbury, £12.99, offer £11.69). The funniest, as far as infants are concerned, is The Three Fishing Brothers Gruff, by Ben Galbraith (Hodder, £ 11.99, offer £10.79), for 4+. Three mean brothers live in Poverty Bay, fearing only the minke whale. When they outwit her, they are free to fish all they like — with disastrous ecological results. This will not please fishing communities.

In complete contrast are Cressida Cowell’s tales about Hiccup the Useless and his dragon Toothless. Far away on the bleak isle of Berk, the Viking boy uses brains against brawn and smallness against size in his comic adventures, the most recent featuring Ancient Romans in How to Speak Dragonese (Hodder, £5.99, offer £5.69). The jokes and drawings will inspire 6+, and are a godsend. Another perfect partnership for 7+ has an airing in Joshua Doder’s Grk and the Pelotti Gang (Andersen, £4.99, offer £4.74) about timid Tim and his brave dog Grk, hot on the trail of Brazilian criminals. Kids of 9+ will clamour for Dragon Keeper (Macmillan, £8.99, offer £8.54), Carole Wilkinson’s moving tale about how a Chinese peasant girl and the Emperor’s last dragon escape together to exchange wisdom and trust. Girls will devour Kate Saunders’s The Little Secret (Macmillan, £9.99, offer £9.49), about a magical box leading to the insanely funny world of Eck, and Cassandra Golds’s heart-rending fairytale about a lonely ballerina and a dancing mouse, Clair de Lune (Orchard, £4.99, offer £4.74).

There are more adventures for Paul Shipton’s deliciously witty Gryllus the Pig and Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson. Gryllus is one of Odysseus’ crew who, in The Pig Scrolls, was transformed by Circe and decided he rather liked pigging it until he encountered pretty Sibyl. Now Gryllus must again be The Pig Who Saved the World (Puffin, £5.99, offer £5.69). Percy Jackson is a dyslexic American teenage demi-god who has to do the same thing here and now in Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters (Puffin, £10.99, offer £9.89). Deeper into the sea is Helen Dunmore’s Ingo (HarperCollins, £5.99, offer £5.69), about a sister and brother who can breathe under water thanks to their Mer blood.

Their father has been lured away by a mermaid, but Sapphy wants to bring him back, even if it risks her life. Powerful, poetic and suffused with sea-magic, this is for 11+. The sequel, The Tide Knot (HarperCollins, £12.99, offer £11.69), is just published.

Teenagers have a glut of great reads, from Ally Kennen’s Beast (Marion Lloyd, £6.99, offer £6.64), about a boy who must keep a monstrous pet secret, to Pretties (Simon & Schuster, £6.99, offer £6.64) the latest instalment of Scott Westerfeld’s Uglies trilogy, set in a dystopia where everyone gets plastic surgery at 16. Jeanette Winterson’s first novel for children, Tanglewreck (Bloomsbury, £12.99, offer £11.69), plays with the concept of time-travel, as does Linda Buckley-Archer’s equally brilliant Gideon the Cutpurse (Simon & Schuster, £12.99, offer £11.69), in which two kids inadvertently go back to Dr Johnson’s London.

For the classiest chills and thrills, Anthony Horowitz’s Matt Freeman is again up against the evil Old Ones in Evil Star (Walker, £6.99, offer £6.64), and Tom Ward is back in the third of Joseph Delaney’s Wardstone Chronicles, The Spook’s Secret (Bodley Head, £8.99, offer £8.54), battling boggarts like Harry Potter’s older brother. The third of Darren Shan’s chess-inspired Demonata series, Slawter (HarperCollins, £12.99, offer £11.69), is revoltingly gripping, as is Robin Hobb’s Forest Mage (Voyager, £18.99, offer £16.99), part of the Soldier’s Son trilogy with its struggle between military and primitive magics.

Meg Rosoff’s Just In Case (Puffin, £10.99, offer £9.89), published in August, has no magic other than wit, style and a gorgeously dysfunctional hero who is almost as captivating as Daisy in How I Live Now. At the end of the summer, two favourite teenagers are back in Michelle Paver’s Soul Eater (Orion, £9.99, offer £9.49), published in September, about a Bronze Age boy and his wolf, and Eoin Colfer’s Artemis Fowl and The Lost Colony (Puffin, £12.99, offer £11.69), published in August, which has the young criminal genius encountering not just kick-ass fairies but . . . demons. Each of these books will make your summer memorable. You have only eight weeks.

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