YEAR 7 READING LIST
RECOMMENDED READS
COMPILED BY THE ENGLISH DEPT
AND LEARNING RESOURCE CENTRE
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes is a collection of twelve stories written
by Arthur Conan Doyle, featuring his famous detective. Venture back in time
to Victorian London to join literature's greatest detective team — the
brilliant Sherlock Holmes and his devoted assistant, Dr. Watson — as they
investigate a dozen of their best-known cases.
Maurice, a streetwise tom cat, has the perfect money-making scam. He’s
found a stupid looking kid who plays a pipe and he has his very own plague of
rats and rats who are strangely educated, so Maurice can no longer think of
them as ‘lunch’. Everyone knows the stories about rats and pipers….. But
when they reach the stricken town of Bad Blintz, the little con suddenly goes
down the drain, for someone is playing a different tune.
Mr Jones of Manor Farm is so lazy and drunken that one day he forgets to
feed his livestock. The ensuing rebellion under the leadership of the pigs
Napoleon and Wellington leads to the animals taking over the farm. Vowing
to eliminate the terrible inequalities of the farmyard, the renamed Animal
Farm is organised to benefit all who walk on four legs. Ba as time passes, the
ideals of the rebellion are corrupted, then forgotten, and something new and
unexpected emerges….
The story of The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas is very difficult to describe.
Usually we give some clues about the book on the cover, but in this case we
think that would spoil the reading of the book. We think it is important that
you start to read without knowing what it is about. If you do start to read,
you will go on a journey with a 9 year old boy called Bruno. Sooner or later
you will arrive with Bruno at a fence. Fences like this exist all over the
world. We hope you never have to cross such a fence.
Dicken’s classic tale centres on bad-tempered miser, Ebeneezer Scrooge. A
cold Christmas Eve finds him in his counting house, refusing offers to join in
festive merriment and forcing his long-suffering clerk, Bob Cratchit to work in
freezing conditions. A visitation from the chain-bound ghost of his dead
colleague, Jacob Marley, warns him that he will soon be visited by three
spirits. The events of the next three nights are set to show Scrooge who he
really is; but will it be enough to move his stubborn soul?
A tale of two cities, Gloucester and London. A tale of two boys, Toby, saved
from an African slave ship; Aaron, the illegitimate son of the heir to a great
estate. A tale of fathers and sons. Otis, dealing in the vilest trade of all, and
his son Meshak, not quite of this world; Sir William Ashbrook, landowner, and
Alexander, the son he disinherits. An epic journey fraught with every danger
and excitement, until love triumphs over hatred and corruption.
Pepper Roux has his whole life ahead of him. If he’s lucky, that’s 14 hours by
the hall clock. Without wanting to annoy, he would much prefer not to die.
But can you sidestep Fate? Step sideways into a different life? Join him on
the run – if you can keep up.
’12 June 1942: I hope I will be able to confide everything to you as I have
never been able to confide in anyone, and I hope you will be a great source of
comfort and support.’
In Amsterdam, in the summer of 1942, the Nazis forced teenager Anne Frank
and her family into hiding. For over 2 years, they, another family and a
German dentist lived in a ‘secret annexe’, fearing discovery. All the time,
Anne kept a diary. An intimate record of tension and struggle, adolescence
and confinement, anger and heartbreak.
In a sleepy village in the Shire, a young hobbit is entrusted with an immense
task. He must make a perilous journey across Middle-earth to the Cracks of
Doom, there to destroy the Ruling Ring of Power – the only thing that
prevents the Dark Lord’s evil dominion.
Willie Beach is evacuated to the countryside as the Second World War breaks
out. A sad, deprived child, he slowly begins to flourish under the care of old
Tom Oakley. But then his mother summons him back to war-torn London…….
Will he ever see Mister Tom again?
Nobody Owens, known to his friends as Bod, is a perfectly normal boy. Well,
he would be perfectly normal if he didn’t live in a graveyard, being raised and
educated by ghosts, with a solitary guardian who belongs to neither the
world of the living, nor the world of the dead. There are dangers and
adventures for Bod in the graveyard; a gravestone entrance to a desert that
leads to the City of Ghouls; friendship with a witch and so much more.
Bilbo Baggins is a hobbit who enjoys a comfortable, unambitious life, rarely
travelling further than the pantry of his hobbit-hole in Bag End. But his
contentment is disturbed when the wizard, Gandalf, and a company of 13
dwarves arrive on his doorstep to whisk him away on a journey ‘there and
back again.’ They have a plot to raid the treasure hoard of Smaug the
Magnificent, a large and very dangerous dragon…..
In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem,
a shining Capitol surrounded by 12 outlying districts. The Capitol is harsh and
cruel and keeps the districts in line by forcing them all to send one boy and
one girl between the ages of 12 and 18 to participate in the annual Hunger
Games, a fight to the death on live TV. 16 year old Katmiss Everdeen regards
it as a death sentence when she steps forward to take her sister’s place in the
Games. If she is to win, she will have to start making choices that weigh
survival against humanity and life against love.
Haoyou’s father is dead – his spirit lives among the clouds above Ancient
China. Feeling powerless when the man responsible for his father’s death
demands to marry his mother, Haoyou determines to follow in his father’s
footsteps and joins a travelling circus. The Jade Circus offers him the chance
to escape his enemies and perform: strapped to a kite, he takes to the skies,
and soon amazes audiences across the land – including the infamous Kublai
Khan himself. But is the circus master leading him into even greater danger?
Jennifer Jones was 10 years old when she killed her friend Michelle. Now
renamed Alice Tully, she is being prepared to join society again. She is now
17 and working in a coffee shop until she can go to university. Affectionate
and eager to please, all Alice wants is a quiet life. When news of her release
breaks, certain sections of the press want to find her and the hunt for JJ is on.
When Ted & Kat watched their cousin Salim get on board the London Eye, he
turned and waved before getting on. After half an hour it landed and
everyone trooped off – but no Salim. Where could he have gone? How on
earth could he have disappeared into thin air? Since the police have no luck
finding him, Ted & Kat become sleuthing partners. Despite their prickly
relationship, they overcome their differences to follow a trail of clues across
London in a desperate bid to find their cousin. Ultimately it comes down to
Ted, whose brain works in its own very unique way, to find the key to the
mystery.
Conor has the same dream every night, ever since his mother first fell ill, ever
since she started the treatments that don't quite seem to be working. But
tonight is different. Tonight, when he wakes, there's a visitor at his window.
It's ancient, elemental, a force of nature. And it wants the most dangerous
thing of all from Conor. It wants the truth.
In a terrifying and brutal future world, cities are mounted on giant wheels.
They hunt each other to the death. Aboard London, lowly apprentice Tom
Natsworthy longs to be part of the next attack. When he saves his chief
from a mad assassin, he is suddenly flung from the speeding city with a
mysterious scar-faced girl. They must run for their lives through the
wastelands, tracked by an unstoppable cyborg programmed to kill them……..
Sephy is a Cross – a member of the dark-skinned ruling class. Callum is a
nought – a ‘colourless’ member of the underclass who were once slaves to
the Crosses. The two have been friends since early childhood. But that’s as
far as it can go. Until the first steps are taken towards more social equality
and a limited number of Noughts are allowed into Cross schools… Against a
background of prejudice and distrust, intensely highlighted by violent
terrorist activity by Noughts, a romance builds between Sephy and Callum –
a romance that is to lead both of them into terrible danger.
A young boy seeks his fortune on the streets of London. Until the age of nine,
Oliver has spent his life in a workhouse orphanage. Frustrated and hungry, he
runs away to London, where he falls into the company of a gang of clever
pickpockets, including Fagin, Bill Sykes and the Artful Dodger.
What will become of poor Oliver Twist?
It all begins with the scratching in the ceiling. From the moment Alison
discovers the dinner service in the attic, with its curious pattern of floral owls,
a chain of events is set in progress that is to affect everybody’s lives.
Something old and powerful is stirring in the Welsh valley. Alison, Roger and
Gwyn can all feel it, but only Huw seems to understand it. Inevitably, forces
from the past overwhelm the present. Will any of them be strong enough to
forestall the fate that threatens?
Heroism or cowardice? A stunning story of the First World War from a master
storyteller. Told in the voice of a young soldier, the story follows 24 hours in
his life at the front during WW1, and captures his memories as he looks back
over his life. Full of stunningly researched detail and engrossing atmosphere,
the book leads to a dramatic and moving conclusion.
As the family lay sleeping, soldiers kicked down the door of the house and
entered waving their rifles erratically……Life is not safe for Alem. His father is
Ethiopian, his mother Eritrean and with both countries at war, he is welcome
in neither place. So his father does an astonishing thing, which at first
appears callous, but is in fact the ultimate gift of love from a parent to their
child….
Before the name became a legend. Before the boy became a man. Meet
Bond. James Bond. There's something in the water at Loch Silverfin.
Something deadly. Something that must be kept secret...
It's James Bond's first day at Eton, and he's already met his first enemy. This is
the start of an adventure that will take him from the school playing fields to
the remote shores of Loch Silverfin and a terrifying discovery that threatens to
unleash a new breed of warfare.
Alone and fending for themselves in a Poland devastated by World War Two,
Jan and his three homeless friends cling to the silver sword as a symbol of
hope. As they travel through Europe towards Switzerland, where they believe
they will be reunited with their parents, they encounter many hardships and
dangers. This extraordinarily moving account of an epic journey gives a
remarkable insight into the reality of a Europe laid waste by war.
Michael was looking forward to moving house. It was all going to be
wonderful. But now his baby sister’s ill, his parents are frantic and Doctor
Death has come to call. Michael feels helpless. Then he steps into the
crumbling garage…… What is this thing beneath the spiders’ webs and dead
flies? A human being, or a strange kind of beast never seen before? The only
person Michael can confide in is Mina. Together, they carry the creature out
into the light and Michael’s world changes forever……..
Stig’s nice. He’s my friend. Nobody believes Barney when he says he’s
discovered a boy living wild in the dump. But for Barney, Stig is totally real.
They become great friends, learn each other’s ways and embark on a series of
exciting adventures.
The Walker children – also known as Captain John, Mate Susan, Able Seaman
Titty and Ship’s Boy Roger – set sail on the Swallow and head for Wild Cat
Island. There they camp under open skies, swim in clear water and go fishing
for their dinner. But their days are disturbed by the Blackett sisters, the fierce
Amazon pirates. The Swallows and Amazons decide to wage war and so
begins a summer of unforgettable discoveries and incredible adventures.
Heady tale of a treasure map, a perilous sea journey across the Spanish
Main, a mutiny led by the infamous Long John Silver, and a lethal scramble
for buried treasure as seen through the eyes of cabin boy Jim Hawkins.
In the deadly chaos of the First World War, one horse witnesses the reality of
battle from both sides of the trenches. Bombarded by artillery, with bullets
knocking riders from his back, Joey tells a powerful story of the truest
friendships surviving in terrible times. The bedlam of battle had begun. All
around me men cried and fell to the ground, and horses reared and
screamed in an agony of fear and pain. The shells whined and roared
overhead, and every explosion seemed like an earthquake to us. One horse
has the seen the best and the worst of humanity. The power of war and the
beauty of peace. This is his story.
‘We’ve got to go away before it’s too late.’
Fiver could sense danger. Something terrible was going to happen to the
warren – he felt sure of it. So did his brother Hazel, for Fiver’s sixth sense was
never wrong. They had to leave the warren. And so a small band of rabbits
began a long and perilous journey.
Long ago, at a time in history that never happened, England was overrun with
wolves. But as Bonnie and her cousin Sylvia discover, real danger often lies
closer to home. Their new governess, Miss Slighcarp, doesn't seem at all nice.
She shuts Bonnie in a cupboard, fires the faithful servants and sends the
cousins far away from Willoughby Chase to a place they will never be found.
Can Bonnie and Sylvia outwit the wicked Miss Slighcarp and her network of
criminals, forgers and snitches?
Auggie wants to be an ordinary ten-year-old. He does ordinary things - eating
ice cream, playing on his Xbox. He feels ordinary - inside. But ordinary kids
don't make other ordinary kids run away screaming in playgrounds. Ordinary
kids aren't stared at wherever they go. Born with a terrible facial abnormality,
Auggie has been home-schooled by his parents his whole life. Now, for the
first time, he's being sent to a real school - and he's dreading it. All he wants is
to be accepted - but can he convince his new classmates that he's just like
them, underneath it all?