Recommended Reading List Year 5 and 6
Dear Parents/Carers,
Reading is an important part of everyday life. The more our children read, the better readers they will be and the better writers they will become.
Read a selection of books from the recommended book list attached:
Parents and family members play an important role in building successful readers. Hearing your child read is vital to your child retaining and building on the skills he or she has learned in school. But most importantly, this is a time for children to engage their imaginations, find amusement in books, and to learn to love reading. We ask that your child read for at least 15 minutes a day. Books can be of any genre or on any subject that is of interest to your child.
I have attached a reading list of books for your convenience. I don’t expect your child to read all of the books on the list but you may find some useful suggestions here to help when you are choosing books together.
Here are some quick tips to encourage your child’s love for reading.
- READ! READ! READ! Make reading important. Be a role-model for reading. Let your child see you reading throughout the day and use daily routines as reading opportunities. Cooking, reading TV listings, looking for information on-line, reading directions, or following a map all provide authentic reading experiences.
- Give your child the power of choice. Having reading materials available, such as: books, magazines, comics, etc… is key to helping children love to read, and the reading materials they choose themselves are best. Help your child find texts that appeal to his or her interests, yet are age appropriate and ‘just right’ in difficulty.
- Find opportunities to read aloud to your child. Read your favourite childhood book aloud, read signs while driving in the car, read at stores, and read while you’re on holiday!
- Take frequent trips to the library.
- Read a great story over and over again to help your child with fluency and reading with expression.
- Talk it up. Talking about books during and after reading helps improve comprehension. Encourage your child to share their ideas and opinions by asking open-ended questions. Talk about what you read to let them know that reading is an important part of your life. Tell them why you liked a book, what you learned from it, or how it helped you— soon they might start doing the same.
We hope you and your family will read many stories and reap all of the wonderful benefits that reading has to offer!
I look forward to hearing all about the exciting books you have read.
Happy reading!
Traditional Tales – Legends
Sir Galwain and the Loathly Lady - Selina Hastings
Don Quixote - Marcia Williams
Arthur: The Seeing Stone, Kevin Crossley-Holland
Beowulf – K. Crossley-Holland
The Story of Robin Hood – R. Leeson
Athur, High King of Britain – Michael Morpurgo
The Tale of Tales – Tony Mitton
Myths and Legends – Anthony Horrowitz
Arion and the Dolphin – Vikram Seth
Just So Stories – Rudyard Kipling
Suspense and Mystery
Snow horse and other stories – Joan Aiken
Snaggletooth’s mystery – Gene Kemp
Shock forest and other stories – Margaret Mahy
Room 13 – Robert Swindells
The London Eye Mystery – Siobhan Dowd
No Such Thing as Dragons - Written and illustrated by Philip Reeve
Cosmic - Written by Frank Cottrell Boyce
Flood Child - Written by Emily Diamand
Fiction from our Literary Heritage
Narnia Stories – CS Lewis
Harry Potter series – JK Rowling
Billy the Kid – Michael Morpurgo
Why the Whales Came – Michael Morpurgo
Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens
Kensuke’s Kingdom – Michael Morpurgo
A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens
Stig of the Dump – Clive King
Snow Spider – Jenny Nimmo
Macbeth for Kids, Louis Burdett
The Wolves of Willoughby Chase – Joan Aiken
Peter Pan – J. M. Barrie
A Christmas Carol (Eyewitness classics) – Charles Dickens
The Hound of the Baskervilles – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (adapted by Chris Mould)
The Wind in the Willows – Kenneth Grahame
The Jungle Book – Rudyard Kipling
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll
Mary Poppins – P.L. Travers
Stories from Dickens (ed Blishen)
Stories from Shakespeare (ed. Geraldine McCaughrean)
Tom’s Midnight Garden - Philippa Pearce
Fiction Genres
Fantasy
Skellig – David Almond
The Various – Steve Augarde
Artemis Fowl – Eoin Colfer
The Bag of Bones – Vivian French
Inkheart trilogy – Cornelia Funke
Coraline – Neil Gaiman
The Weirdstone of Brisingamen – Alan Garner
Pure Dead Magic – Debi Gliori
Wolf Brother – Michelle Paver
Truckers – Terry Pratchett
The Spiderwick Chronicles – Lynne Reid Banks
Goblins series – Philip Reeve
Wonderstruck – Brian Selznick
The Amulet of Samarkand – Jonathon Stroud
The Hobbit – J.R.R. Tolkien
The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making – Catherynne M. Valente
Tanglewreck – Jeanette Winterson
Science Fiction
Supernaturalist – Eoin Colfer
Grinny: Grinny and You Remember Me – Nicholas Fisk
Among the Hidden – Margaret Peterson Haddix
Double Identity – Margaret Peterson Haddix
Maphead – Lesley Howarth
The Giver – Lois Lowry
Other Worlds: 10 Amazing Sci Fi Stories – Rick Riordan ed.
Timesnatch – Robert Swindells
Hydra – Robert Swindells
Chilling Stories
The Graveyard Book – Neil Gaiman
Uncle Montague’s Tales of Terror – Chris Priestley
Horowitz Horror – Anthony Horowitz
Breathe – Cliff McNish
At the Firefly Gate – Linda Newberry
Chill – Alex Nye
Tales from the Tunnel’s Mouth – Chris Priestley
Tales of Terror From the Black Ship – Chris Priestley
Marianne Dreams – Catherine Storr
Real Life
Pig Heart Boy – Malorie Blackman (science/ethics)
Tangerine – Edward Bloor (blindness)
The Eighteenth Emergency – Betsy Byars (bullying)
The 10PM Question – Kate De Gold (worry/anxiety)
Running on Cracks – Julia Donaldson (running from home – mature themes)
Step By Wicked Step – Anne Fine (step parenting)
Dead End in Norvelt – Jack Gantos (boredom, friendship)
Love, Aubrey – Suzanne LaFleur (family)
Hangman - Julia Jarman (bullying)
The View from Saturday – E.L. Konisburg (friendship)
The Other Side of Truth – Bevery Naidoo (refugee)
Wonder – R.J. Palacio (appearance)
Adventure
Noah Barleywater Runs Away – John Boyne
Ruby Holler – Sharon Creech
Danny: the champion of the world – Roald Dahl
The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane – Kate DiCamillo
Stormbreaker – Anthony Horowitz
The Devil and his Boy – Anthony Horowitz
Journey to the River Sea – Eva Ibbotson
From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler – E. L. Konigsburg
Outlaw: the Legend of Robin Hood – Tony Lee
The Ghost of Thomas Kempe – Penelope Lively
Mortal Engines – Phillip Reeves
Varjak Paw – S. F. Said
The Invention of Hugo Cabret – Brian Selznick
Wonderstruck – Brian Selznick
War
Warboy – Michael Foreman
Once – Morris Gleitzman
Goodnight, Mr Tom – Michelle Magorian
War Horse – Michael Morpurgo
At the Firefly Gate – Linda Newberry
Johnny and the bomb – Terry Pratchett
My Friend the Enemy – Dan Smith
The Machine Gunners – Robert Westall
Carrie’s War – Nina Bawden
Doodlebug Summer – Alison Price
Soldier Dog – Sam Angus
Mysteries
Chasing Vermeer – Blue Bailliett
The Crossroads – Chris Grabenstein
Silver Fin – Charlie Higson
The Case of the London Dragonfish – Joan Lennon
The Sign of the Black Dagger – Joan Lingard
Magnus Finn and the Selkie Secret – Janis Mackay
Out of the Depths – Cathy MacPhail
Flood and Fang – Marcus Sedgwick
Humour
How to Train Your Dragon - Cressida Cowell
How to speak dragonese - Cressida Cowell
The Meanwhile Adventures – Roddy Doyle
Boom! – Mark Haddon
Ribblestrop – Andy Mulligan
Goblins series – Philip Reeve
Holes – Louis Sachar
There’s a Boy in the Girls’ Bathroom – Louis Sachar
A Boy and a Bear in a Boat – Dave Shelton
Gangsta Granny – David Walliams
Ratburger – David Walliams
Animals
The Midnight Fox – Betsy Byars
The Tale of Despereaux – Kate DiCamillo
Charlotte’s Web – E.B.White
Flush – Carl Hiaasen
One Boy and His Dog – Eva Ibbotson
A Coyote in the House – Elmore Leonard
The Call of the Wild – Jack London
Going Home –Cliff McNish
Why the Whales Came – Michael Morpurgo
The Amazing Story of Adolphus Tips – Michael Morpurgo
War Horse – Michael Morpurgo
Catscape – Mike Nicholson
Wolf Brother – Michelle Paver
The Outlaw Varjack Paw – S.F. Said
Black Beauty – Anna Sewell