KS3 English - suggestions for independent reading

This list is just to start you looking. Ask your teacher, the librarian or your friends to help you chose a book. Not too easy, not too difficult - a kind of story that's just right for YOU.

(1) Getting Started

John Talbot Our Toilet's Haunted Betsy Byars The Eighteenth Emergency Various authors, The Goosebumps series Morris Gleitzman Bumface Pete Johnson 'How to Train Your Parents', 'Ghost Dog' Lemony Snicket The Bad Beginning Jeff Kinney Diary of a Wimpy Kid

(2) Books on a Common Theme

Childhood and Growing Up Siobhan Dowd A Swift Pure Cry Bertie Doherty Street Child Neil Gaiman The Graveyard Book Anita Desai The Village by the Sea Malorie Blackman Boys Don’t Cry Anne Cassidy Looking for JJ (older readers) Elizabeth Laird Red Sky in the Morning Siobhan Dowd The London Eye Mystery Gaye Hicyilmaz The Frozen Waterfall Anthony Mc Gowan Henry Tumour Meera Syal Anita and Me Gillian Cross Where I Belong Faiza Guene Just Like Tomorrow Guus Kuijer The Book of Everything Timothee de Fombelle Toby Alone Frank Cottrell Boyce Framed Mildred D. Taylor Roll of Thunder, Hear my Cry Frank Cottrell Boyce Millions Anne Fine David Almond Kit’s Wilderness Malorie Blackmail Tell Me No Lies Lesley Beake A Cageful of Butterflies Louis Sachar Holes Benjamin Zephaniah Face Gaye Hicyilmaz Against the Storm Melvyn Burgess Junk Sharon Creech Walk Two Moons Gennifer Choldenko Al Capone Does my Shirts Nicky Singer Feather Boy Graham Gardner Inventing Elliott Sharon Creech Love That Dog

Political Situations Michelle Magorian Goodnight Mr. Tom Lesley Beake A Cageful of Butterflies Elizabeth Laird A Little Piece of Ground Bernard MacLaverty Cal Benjamin Zephaniah Refugee Boy Jan Needle Piggy in the Middle Wreck of the Zanzibar Morris Gleitzman Once Bali Rai What's Your Problem? Jason Wallace Out of the Shadows (older readers) Jennifer Johnston Shadows on Our Skin John Boyne The Boy in Striped Pyjamas James Watson Talking in Whispers Bernard Ashley Little Soldier Gudrun Pausewang The Final Journey Harper Lee To Kill a Mockingbird Alan Gibbons An Act of Love

War

Robert Swindells Brother in the Land Robert O'Brien Z for Zachariah Anne Frank The Diary of Anne Frank Nina Bawden Carrie's War Michael Morpurgo Private Peaceful Michael Morpurgo War Horse J. G. Ballard Empire of the Sun The Machine Gunners Marcus Zusak The Book Thief

Adventure Cristy Burne Takeshita Demons Eva Ibbotson M G Harris The Joshua Files: Invisible City Tim Bowler River Boy Jack London The Call of the Wild Ian Serraillier The Silver Sword Eoin Colfer The Artemis Fowl Series Mal Peet Exposure Mal Peet Keeper Geraldine McCaughrean The Death- Defying Pepper Roux

Love Angela Jariwala Pardesi Maggie Stiefvater Shiver Karen McCombie My Funny Valentine Julie Bertagna The Opposite of Chocolate Bali Rai Rani and Sukh

Survival Meg Rosoff How I Live Now Russell Evans Survival James Vance Marshall Walkabout Gary Paulsen Hatchet William Mayne Drift Rachel Anderson Asylum

Myths and Legends Kevin Crossley-Holland The Seeing Stone (trilogy) Zizou Corder Halo Madhur Jaffrey Seasons of Splendour Adele Geras Troy Rick Riordan- Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief

Fantasy Joan Aiken The Wolves of Willoughby Chase Eoin Colfer Artemis Fowl China Mieville Un Lun Dun Cornelia Funke Inkheart Patrick Ness The Knife of Never Letting Go Philip Reeve Fever Crumb J.R.R. Tolkien Lord of the Rings Susan Cooper Over Sea, Under Stone J.R.R. Tolkien The Hobbit Geraldine McCaughrean The Kite Rider Philip Reeve Mortal Engines

Historical Fiction Celia Rees Sorceress Henrietta Branford Fire, Bed and Bone Celia Rees Witch Child Philip Reeve Here Lies Arthur Kevin Crossley-Holland, trilogy on the story of Arthur Michael Morpurgo Arthur, High King of Britain Theresa Breslin Prisoner of the Inquisition

Graphic Novels Charles Higson Silverfin: the graphic novel Dean and Shannon Hale Calamity Jack Tony Lee Outlaw: The Legend of Robin Hood Shaun Tan Tales From Outer Suburbia Sir Arthur Conan Doyle The Hound of the Baskervilles: Graphic Novel John Harris Dunning Salem Brownstone: All Along the Watchtowers

Thrillers and Chillers and Crime

Malorie Blackman The Stuff of Nightmares Anthony Horowitz Stormbreaker Kate Cann Leaving Poppy Charlie Higson The Enemy F. E Higgins The Black Book of Secrets Anne Fine Darren Shan Cirque Du Freak Neil Gaiman Coraline Darren Shan Lord Loss Kevin Brooks Martyn Pigg Celia Rees Truth or Dare Melvin Burgess The Ghost Behind the Wall Chris Priestley Uncle Montague’s Tales of Terrors Philip Pullman The Ruby and the Smoke (trilogy) Marcus Sedgwick My Swordhand is Singing Robert Swindells Abomination Robert Muchamore The Killing (part of a series)

The Future Robert Westall Futuretrack 5 Aldous Huxley Brave New World Ursula Le Guin The Lathe of Heaven Julie Bertagna Zenith Ursula Le Guin The Left Hand of Darkness The Ennead Rebecca Stead When You Reach Me Alex Scarrow Time Riders

Johnny O’Brien The Day of Deliverance Julie Bertagna Exodus

Short stories David Almond Counting Stars Jan Mark A Can of Worms Beverley Naidoo Out of Bounds New Windmill Book Classic Short Stories ed. Marion Dane Bauer Am I Blue? ed. David Kitchen Don't Make Me Laugh (funny Ray Bradbury The Golden Apples of the Sun short stories) Leon Garfield Six Shakespeare Stories

Poetry

Malorie Blackman Cloud Busting ed. Peters & Fusek Poems With Attitude ed. Kaye Webb I Like this Poem ed. Wendy Cope Is That the New Moon? Benjamin Zephaniah Too Black, Too Strong ed.Chatterjee & Frazer Rainbow World: Poems Talking Turkey from Many Cultures Funky Chickens ed. Seamus Heaney & Ted Hughes The Rattlebag Wicked World Jan Mark A Jetblack Sunrise: Poems about War... Michael Rosen & Roger McGough You Tell Me Allan Ahlberg Friendly Matches ed. Grace Nichols Poetry Jump Up Sharon Creech Heartbeat

We also recommend the website Lovereading4Kids, www.lovereading4kids.co.uk , to get other ideas for book choices. Don’t forget, you can also go to your local library and borrow a book for free from there. Below are a list of libraries in Camden.

Belsize Library Library Library Heath Library Library Library Library Centre Queens Crescent Library Regents Park Library St Pancras Library Central Library West Library