Quick picks: our top recommendations
| Book | Author | Find It |
|---|---|---|
| AFL Game Day | Check on Amazon → | |
| AFL My First Words | Check on Amazon → | |
| AFL My First Numbers | Check on Amazon → | |
| AFL My Little Library | Check on Amazon → | |
| I Love Footy! | Check on Amazon → | |
| Jackson’s Goal | Check on Amazon → |
Below are 16 titles in total — we’ve highlighted our 6 favourites above. Each one links straight through to Amazon AU.
AFL Books for Babies
AFL Game Day
ISBN: 9780143505846
Find AFL Game Day on Amazon AU →
Format: Board Book
Publisher: Puffin Books (Penguin Group)
RRP: $14.99
This is a brilliant book to help parents introduce their babies to the traditions of AFL. It’s a simple board book with textures that allow baby to learn about woolly scarves, orange skins and football leather.
AFL My First Words
ISBN:9780143505785
Find AFL My First Words on Amazon AU →
Format: Board Book
Publisher: Puffin Books (Penguin Australia)
RRP: $9.99
AFL My First Words features stand-alone words and photographic images organised under the headings, Getting There, The Ground, People, Food, Clothes, Positions and Plays. Babies and small children can build their vocabulary and learn about many aspects of the Australian Football League, from train and oval, to scarf and tackle.
AFL My First Numbers
ISBN: 9780143505792
Find AFL My First Numbers on Amazon AU →
Format: Board Book
Publisher: Puffin Books (Penguin Australia)
RRP: $9.99
AFL My First Numbers is a simple concept book that will help children learn to count to 15 with colourful objects that are synonymous with AFL, from boots and footballs to whistles and Brownlow Medals.
AFL My Little Library
ISBN: 9780143505839
Find AFL My Little Library on Amazon AU →
Format: Board Book
Publisher: Puffin Books (Penguin Australia)
RRP: $9.99
The AFL Little Library is made up of four mini board books. Each book has a different focal concept: words, numbers, colours and shapes. Pull all books out of the cardboard case and piece together the puzzle using the images on the back covers.
Sweet Little Magpie
Author: Neridah McMullin
Illustrator: P. Gibbs
Publisher: Collingwood Football Club
Purchase from Collingwood Football Club
This very sweet little book has a gorgeous rhyming text that introduces little Magpies to AFL footy attire, from a footy that’s rough to touch and a scarf that should be worn with pride.
AFL Picture Books
I Love Footy!
By Matt Zurbo
ISBN: 9781922081179
Find I Love Footy! on Amazon AU →
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: Windy Hollow Books
RRP: $25.95
Matt Zurbo celebrate the benefits of football in this energy filled book. A red football brings a young boy’s wild imagination to life- it helps him to run as fast as a mountain lion, charge like a warrior and fly like an angel. Playing football for this boy gives him a sense of safety, pride and satisfaction. He plays in all types of weather and learns the value of team work.
Jackson’s Goal
Author: Dwayne Russell
Illustrator: Donna Gynell
ISBN: 9781921778001
Find Jackson’s Goal on Amazon AU →
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: Slattery Media Group
RRP: $24.95
Footy loving Jackson is back in this follow up to Jackson’s Footy! With the help of his Mum, Jackson practises his marks, handballs, tackles and goal kicking to secure a place in the Bears’ football team.
Jackson’s Footy
Author: Dwayne Russell
Illustrator: Donna Gynell
ISBN: 9780980627480
Find Jackson’s Footy on Amazon AU →
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: Slattery Media Group
RRP: $24.95
Jackson’s footy is always by his side whether he’s eating his breakfast or washing the dog.
Side by Side- In the Beginning
Author: Neridah McMullin
Illustrator: Ainsley Walters
ISBN: 9780980794809
Format: Paperback
Publisher: One Day Hill
RRP: $24.95
Side by Side is set in the Melbourne suburb of Collingwood during the depression. Charlie watches his first game of football from the roof of a worker’s cottage. He learns from his father about the club’s most remarkable players, the early history of Collingwood and its rivalry with Fitzroy and Carlton.
Kick It to Me
Author: Neridah McMullin
Illustrator: Peter Hudson
ISBN: 9780980794861
Find Kick It to Me on Amazon AU →
Publisher: One Day Hill
RRP: $19.99
Set in 1846, this is the childhood story of Tom Wills, considered the pioneer of Australian Rules Football. Tom developed a love for Marn-grook, a ball game played by the indigenous children of the Djab Wurrung Tribe where he grew up. Tom’s love for this game helped him work towards developing a uniform code of football in Australia.
Marngrook- The long ago story of Aussie Rules
Author: Titta Secombe (editor)
Illustrator: Grace Fielding
ISBN: 9781921248443
Find Marngrook- The long ago story of Aussie Rules on Amazon AU →
Format: Harcover
Publisher: Magabala Books
RRP: $24.95
This is the story of Australian Rules’ origins- which began in north western Victoria over 150 years ago. Football lovers will be interested to read that indigenous children would make egg-shaped footballs out of possum skins and emu feathers and use it to pass, kick and leap for the ball in ways that have become renowned techniques in Australian Rules football.
AFL Books for Independent Readers
Specky Magee
Author: Felice Arena and Gary Lyon
Publisher: Puffin Books (Penguin Group)
RRP: $16.95
Specky Magee is a popular series of books that tell the footy adventures of Simon Magee. He is challenged on and off the field and learns a great deal about Australian Rules Football, friendships, injuries and rivalries.
Fox Swift
Author: David Lawrence
Illustrator: Jo Gill
ISBN: 9780987420534
Format: Illustrated Fiction
Publisher: Slattery Media Group
RRP: $16.95
When Fox Swift and his family move from the city, he has to choose which of the town’s two football teams he will join: the rich club that attracts all the best players or the struggling club.
With football tips and drills from AFL superstar, Cyril Rioli, Fox’s team of diverse players work hard to try and win a premiership.
Maxx Rumble: Footy
Author: Michael Wagner
Illustrator: Terry Denton
ISBN: 9781922179067
Find Maxx Rumble: Footy on Amazon AU →
Format: Illustrated Junior Fiction
Publisher: Black Dog Books (Walker Books)
RRP: $19.95
Michael Wagner takes his well-known and energetic character, Maxx Rumble, to the football field where he continues to exaggerate his sporting stories, injuries and achievements.
AFL Activity Books
AFL Mascot Manor
This colouring book features pages of single team mascots, references to infamous players, puns and some humorous pages that see mascots interacting with one another.
ISBN: 9780143505808
Find AFL Mascot Manor on Amazon AU →
$4.99
Publisher: Puffin Books (Penguin Group)
AFL Sticker Activity Book
There are a range of activities to complete in this book, from word searches to mazes. The stickers will help children learn more about team colours, logos and player nick-names.
ISBN: 9780143505815
Find AFL Sticker Activity Book on Amazon AU →
$7.99
Publisher: Puffin Books (Penguin Group)
AFL Doodlepedia
The fun and colourful pages in this activity book will have AFL enthusiasts thinking, problem solving, designing, creating, drawing and colouring as they learn a range of football facts.
$12.99
ISBN: 9780143505860
Find AFL Doodlepedia on Amazon AU →
Publisher: Puffin Books (Penguin Group)
Find the Footy
There are 12 footballs to be found on each page of this book, which takes children on a pictorial tour of the world, from Sydney’s Opera House to the Great Wall of China, and the Grand Canyon in America to Tower Bridge in London.
ISBN: 9781921778469
Find Find the Footy on Amazon AU →
Publisher: Slattery Media Group
RRP: $14.95
BUY BOOKS
Use the ISBN provided to search for these books at Booktopia:
How to use these books with footy-mad kids
Joel barracks for West Coast (badly), and his daughter has been reading footy books since she could turn pages. We’ve tested every angle below at least once.
- Read them on the morning of a game. A picture book about footy, then live footy, then chips at half-time, then more book at bedtime. The book bookends the experience and locks in the emotional memory.
- Use them as the gateway into reading for reluctant readers. A six-year-old who won’t pick up a book about anything else will pick up Specky Magee. Don’t snobbishly insist on “literary” titles — the kid who reads any book becomes the kid who reads.
- Match the team to the book where possible. Some of these books mention specific teams. Pick the book that matches your kid’s allegiance and their loyalty to the book triples overnight.
- Read them around the AFLW games too. The AFLW season has its own books and its own rhythm — reading footy books in March, not just September, signals that footy is more than the men’s grand final.
- For non-AFL kids who like sport in general: the cricket-and-soccer-and-rugby cousins of these books also exist. AFL is the dominant winter code in southern Australia but if you’re reading this in QLD or NSW, ping us via the contact page and we’ll suggest rugby and cricket equivalents.
Why footy books matter
Australian Rules football is one of the few cultural artefacts that genuinely belongs to Australia. Kids who grow up reading about it — not just watching it — develop a deeper relationship with the game and, by extension, with the slice of Australian culture it represents. The books on this list hand kids the vocabulary (mark, kick, banner, MCG, siren) and the lore (the Brownlow, the Norm Smith Medal, the Anzac Day clash) that turns watching the game into actually understanding it.
The wider point: sport is one of the most powerful contexts in which kids choose to read. A child who learns to love books because of footy is reading exactly the same neural circuitry that one day reads novels. The path matters less than the arrival.
Frequently asked questions
Best footy book for a kid who’s never been to a game?
Specky Magee is the gateway book — it explains the game through the story rather than as a textbook. An ABC of Footy-style books cover the basics for younger kids.
Are there AFLW-specific books?
Yes, and the category is growing fast since 2017. We’ll start a separate AFLW-specific shortlist when the publishing catches up.
What about non-Aussie-Rules sports?
This is an AFL-specific list deliberately. For rugby, cricket, soccer, basketball, hockey, surfing — ping us. We can pull together a sport-specific shortlist on request via the contact page.
Best footy book to give a child for Christmas alongside a Sherrin?
The Footy Pyjamas for younger kids, Specky Magee for 8+. Tie a ribbon around both and you’re done.
Shop the full list on Amazon AU
Each link below opens an Amazon AU search for that title’s exact ISBN. We earn a small commission if you decide to buy — thank you, it keeps the lights on at the Bookcase.
- AFL Game Day
- AFL My First Words
- AFL My First Numbers
- AFL My Little Library
- I Love Footy!
- Jackson’s Goal
- Jackson’s Footy
- Side — Side- In the Beginning
- Kick It to Me
- Marngrook- The long ago story of Aussie Rules
- Fox Swift
- Maxx Rumble: Footy
- AFL Mascot Manor
- AFL Sticker Activity Book
- AFL Doodlepedia
- Find the Footy
📚 Looking for more book lists?
We’ve curated 28 picture-book lists across six themes — Family, Christmas & ANZAC, Australian identity, Learning to Read, Gifts & Milestones, and Themes & Activities. Hand-read by the team, age-graded, and ready to use.
