Key Stage 3 Recommended Reads
Year 7 Outline
If you are in Year 7 then we recommend these books to try. You can always read the books further in the list if you want to, no point letting the Year 8s and 9s have those wonderful books to themselves.
A Series of Unfortunate Events – Lemony Snicket
The Weirdstone of Brisingasmen – Alan Garner
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
The Princess Bride – William Goldman
The Other Side of Trugh – Beverly Naidoo
Overboard – Morris Gleitzman
I Coriander – Sally Gardner
The Chocolate War – Robert Cormier
Harry Potter series – J.K. Rowling
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time – Mark Haddon
Flambards – K.M. Peyton
The Wind in the Willows – Kenneth Grahame
The Jungle Book – Rudyard Kipling
Charlotte’s Web – E.B. White
The Magician’s Nephew – C.S. Lewis
The Railway Children – E. Nesbit
Treasure Island – Robert Louis Stevenson
Year 8 Outline
If you are in Year 8 then we recommend these books to try. You can always read the books further in the list if you want to, no point letting the Year 9s have those wonderful books to themselves; there is nothing wrong with those books in the Year 7 list either, so go pinch one or two of them.
The Hobbit – J. R.R. Tolkien
Artemis Fowl – Eoin Colfer
Half Brother – Kenneth Oppel
Black Beauty – Anna Sewell
The Dark is Rising – Susan Cooper
The Last Unicorn – Peter Beagle
Peter Pan – J.M. Barrie
The Wolves of Willoughby Chase – Joan Aiken
Howl’s Moving Castle – Diana Wynne Jones
The Book Thief – Markus Zusak
The Day of the Triffids – John Wyndham
Stormbreaker series – Anthony Horowitz
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer – Mark Twain
The Call of the Wild – Jack London
The Little Prince – Antoine De Saint-Exupery
Coram Boy - Jamila Gavin
Anne of Green Gables – L.M. Montgomery
Private Peaceful – Michael Morpurgo
Year 9 Outline
If you are in Year 9 then we recommend these books to try. There is nothing wrong with the books in the Year 7 and 8 lists, so go pinch one or two of them.
Flip – Martyn Bedford
A Kestrel for a Nave (Kes) – Barry Hines
Hidden – Miriam Hallamy
Framed – Frank Cottrell Boyce
Northern Lights Trilogy – Phillip Pullman
Watership Down – Richard Adams
The Star of Kazan - Eva Ibbotson
When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit – Judith Kerr
Wild Child, Wild Boy – David Almond
How I Live Now – Meg Rosoff
The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams
Between Shades of Grey – Ruta Sepetys
Lord of the Rings – J. R.R. Tolkien
Lord of the Flies – William Golding
To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
1984 – George Orwell
The Flame Trees of Thika – Elspheth Huxley
Goggle Eyes – Anne Fine
The Woman in Black – Susan Hill
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea – Jules Verne
Diskworld series – Terry Pratchett
The Wind Singer – William Nicholson
Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll
Emma – Jane Austen
Little Women – Louisa May Alcott
Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz – Frank Baum
The Outsiders – S.E. Hinton
Guantanamo Boy – Anna Perara
Words Last Forever – Malorie Blackman
The Other Side of the Truth – Beverley Naidoo