Your Move: Best Children's Books for Kids Who Love Board Games

By Charlotte Carus | Posted: 21st April 2026 | Updated: 29th April 2026

Chess is having a resurgence right now brought home to me by my nieces and nephews - normally glued to a phone or screen - immersed in a highly competitive family chess tournament. Whether it has been infludence by popular by online platforms and apps, YouTuber's like Levy Rozman (aka GothamChess), or the hugely successful Netflix series The Queen's Gambit, chess hasn't been this cool for years.

Seen as an antidote to screen time, playing board games is increasingly popular with young people. From simple luck based games like Snakes and Ladders, to classics like Cluedo and Monopoly, to more intricate world-building games like Catan, kids are enjoying the retro fun of meeting up face-to-face to play a game.

If your children enjoy playing board games we have a expertly chosen selection of books that can help them sharpen their skills, and novels that have inspired their own games and publishing franchises.

Board Game Clubs and the Benefits of Table Top Games

Lucas Maxwell, author, school librarian and LR4K editorial expert, shared with us the popularity and joy of starting a club for pupils for the roleplaying tabletop game Dungeons and Dragons.

"I started it at the high school library I manage in 2018 with five students and since then it has grown so much that I’ve held Saturday events with over 150 people in attendance. It’s a game that relies entirely on the players’ imaginations, and, when run thoughtfully, benefits mental health and wellbeing, self-confidence, public speaking skills, puzzle solving and team-building skills, creativity, time-management and managerial skills.

It creates a huge boost in regards to reading for pleasure. Whether they realise it or not, the students are, through the game, doing a huge amount of reading. Not only that, they are doing a lot of creative writing as they create back stories for their characters, make their own monsters, treasure, dungeons and evil villains."

Board Games inspired by Books, TV and Film

Terry Pratchett's Discworld series is a publishing behemoth with games, toys, activities and a fantasy book series which numbers forty-one books but can be read in any order. You can find a selection below and more on the author's page - as The Guardian says, - ‘If you’ve never read a Discworld novel, what’s the matter with you?’

The Traitors board game was a big Christmas hit this year, based on the global TV phenomenon where players are secretly assigned as Faithful or Traitors. When you're not playing, you could turn your hand to solving some of the puzzles in The Traitors book.

J. R. R. Tolkien's epic novel The Lord of the Rings is regularly voted Britain's best-loved novel. His stories of magic and otherwordliness, continued in the trilogy and inspired by his children's book The Hobbit written in 1937, have grown into a global franchise of films, audiobooks, games amd merchandise. But it all started with a book - you can find a selection of editions below.

Arthur Conan Doyle's fascinating character Sherlock Holmes lends himself well to mystery solving games and there are many. But you might not know that there are lots of children's editions of the Sherlock Holmes stories, with some of our favourites being the Sherlock Bones series written by Tim Collins, and and Ivy and Bearlock Holmes series by Kristyna Litten.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone written by J. K. Rowling was the beginning of an epic journey that introduced the world to Harry Potter, the boy wizard, and his adventures at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. From there the phenomenal success of Harry Potter has seen the publication of numerous books, a major movie franchise, theatre productions, and Harry Potter tourist attractions across the globe. Read the books then play the games - there are lots of board games based upon the books including Hogwarts Battle, The Spell Master and Harry Potter Checkers.

Children's Books Inspired by Board Games

If your kids enjoy playing Cluedo they will love the Cluedle series inspired by the murder mystery solving game. Join the world-famous private detective Hartigan Browne to solve a series of mysteries through fiendish puzzles, codes to crack, and evidence to evaluate. The Cluedle books are a perfect activity for long journeys and encourage logic and lateral thinking too.

Winner of the UKLA Book Awards, Check Mates by Stewart Foster is a heartfelt, humorous, pitch-perfect middle grade gem with mystery, friendships and the odds-defying moves of a chess champ. Felix is struggling at school, and his ADHD doesn't help, but he finds the strategy play of chess compulsive. It's a page-turning read with the thrilling tournament scenes adding real drama.

Whether your kids like quiz games like Trivial Pursuits, word-play games like Scrabble, classic games like Cluedo and Monopoloy, strategy games like Risk and Catan, or traditional games like Backgammon and Chess, we have books for you.