LOWER SCHOOL – SUGGESTIONS FOR READING IN
YEARS 7 AND 8 or Key Stage 3 (KS3)
Adventure Stories
Troy by Adele Geras
Chinese Cinderella by Adeline Yen Mah
Survival – Alpha Force 1 by Chris Ryan
Hornblower by CS Forester
Journey to the River Sea by Eva Ibbotson
One Thousand-and-One Arabian Nights by Geraldine McCaughrean
Coram Boy by Jamila Gavin
Stratford Boys by Jan Mark
The 39 Steps by John Buchan
Moonfleet by John Meade Faulkner
Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne
The God Beneath the Sea by Leon Garfield
Holes by Louis Sachar
The Great Pyramid Robbery by Margaret Mahy
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Kensuke’s Kingdom by Michael Morpurgo
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
The Adventures of Robin Hood by Roger Lancelyn Green
Beowulf
Dragonslayer by Rosemary Sutcliff
Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Salman Rushdie
King of Shadows by Susan Cooper
Fantasy Stories and Science Fiction
The Owl Service by Alan Garner
The Weirdstone of Brisingamen by Alan Garner
Shadow of the Minotaur by Alan Gibbons
Aquila by Andrew Norris
Dragonquest by Anne McCaffrey
Storm Breaker by Anthony Horowitz
Witch Child by Celia Rees
The Doomspell by Cliff McNish
Skellig by David Almond
Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer
The Secret of Platform 13 by Eva Ibbotson
Sabriel by Garth Nix
Harry Potter series by JK Rowling
The Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aitken
The Box of Delights by John Masefield
The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham
The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkein
Children of the Dust by Louise Lawrence
Hacker by Malorie Blackman
The Book of Dead Days by Marcus Sedgewick
The Changeover by Margaret Mahy
The Never-ending Story by Michael Ende
His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman
Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve
Tom’s Midnight Garden by Phillippa Pearce
Z for Zachariah by Robert C O’Brien
Brother in the Land by Robert Swindells
The Dark is Rising Trilogy by Susan Cooper
The Sterkarm Handshake by Susan Price
The Earthsea Trilogy by Ursula Le Guin
Earthfasts by William Mayne
The Wind Singer by William Nicholson
War Stories
The Diary of Anne Frank by Anne Frank
I Am David by Anne Holm
Little Soldier by Bernard Ashley
The Endless Steppe by Esther Hautzig
The Silver Sword by Ian Serraillier
Hitler’s Daughter by Jackie French
Across the Barricades by Joan Lingard
When Hitler Stole The Pink Rabbit by Judith Kerr
POW by M Booth
The Wave by Morton Rhue
Carrie’s War by Nina Bawden
Blitzed by Robert Swindells
The Machine Gunners by Robert Westall
Zlata’s Diary by Zlata Filipovic
Murder Mystery and Detective Stories:
And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
The Falcon’s Malteser by Anthony Horowitz
The Roman Mysteries by Caroline Lawrence
Nancy Drew by Carolyn Keene
The Thief Lord by Cornelia Funke
Emil and the Detectives by Erich Kastner
Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh
The Ruby in the Smoke Trilogy by Philip Pullman
The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Horror Stories
Goodbye Tommy Blue by Adele Geras
Marianne Dreams by Catherine Storr
The Haunting of Alaizabel Cray by Chris Wooding
Cirque du Freak by Darren Shan
The Clock Tower Ghost by Gene Kemp
Moondial by Helen Cresswell
The Haunting by Margaret Mahy
The Ghost Behind the Wall by Melvin Burgess
The Hounds of the Morrigan by Pat O’Shea
The Ghost of Thomas Kempe by Penelope Lively
Goosebumps by RL Stine
Room 13 by Robert Swindells
The Stones of Muncaster Cathedral by Robert Westall
The Whitby Witches by Robin Jarvis
The Boggart by Susan Cooper
Books about animals
Black Beauty by Anna Sewell
The Midnight Fox by Betsy Byars
Redwall by Brian Jacques
The Animals of Farthing Wood by Colin Dann
The Sheep Pig by Dick King Smith
Charlotte’s Web by EB White
National Velvet by Enid Bagnold
My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell
Tarka the Otter by Henry Williamson
Doctor Doolittle by Hugh Lofting
The Peppermint Pig by Nina Bawden
Jennie by Paul Gallico