Year 6 Recommended Reading List No. Book Title Image Author Blurb 1 A Monster Calls Patrick Ness from an Connor's mum has cancer and life is changing. There is the nightmare, then there is school, idea by Siobhan where people avoid him, or persecute him. And then there is the immense, mythic Monster. Dowd 2 Holes Louis Sachar Stanley Yelnats' family has a history of bad luck, so he is not entirely surprised when a miscarriage of justice sends him to the Camp Green Lake Juvenile Detention Centre 3 Truckers Terry Pratchett The first title in the Bromeliad trilogy, this is an enchanting fantasy from favourite author Terry Pratchett. 4 The Lion, the Witch C S Lewis When Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy - step through a wardrobe door in the strange country and the Wardrobe house where they are staying, they find themselves in the land of Narnia. 5 Ballet Shoes Noel Streatfeild First published in the 1930s, this classic story of three very different girls who work hard to master their talents has captivated children's imaginations for decades 6 Swallows and Arthur Ransome It's the summer holidays, and the Walker children are excited to set sail on their boat Amazons Swallow and camp on Wild Cat Island. 7 Goodnight Mister Tom Michelle Magorian Willie Beech, a lonely and deprived child, is evacuated to a tiny English village just before the Second World War, and finds himself living with reclusive widower Thomas Oakley. 8 Harry Potter and the J K Rowling After the misery of life with his ghastly aunt and uncle, Harry Potter is delighted to have the Philosopher's Stone chance to embark on an exciting new life at the Hogwart's School of Wizardry and Witchcraft. 9 Carrie's War Nina Bawden Inspired by Nina Bawden's own experiences of living as an evacuee in a Welsh mining valley as a child, Carrie's War is now considered a modern classic. Funny, sad and thought- provoking. 10 Artemis Fowl Eoin Colfer Twelve-year-old criminal mastermind Artemis Fowl hatches an ingenious plot to steal all the gold in fairy land. 11 Skellig David Almond Exploring a ramshackle garage with his new-found friend Mina, Michael discovers a strange, magical creature who needs his help. A contemporary classic. 12 Mortal Engines Philip Reeve An imaginative blend of past and future technologies sets the scene for this feast of fantasy in which wheeled cities chase each other along the dried-out sea bed, in search of smaller settlements in a world ruled by "municipal Darwinism". Orphan Tom Natsworthy, a third- class apprentice in the Guild of Historians, has the adventure of his life after he sets out to learn what has happened to his parents. 13 Inkheart Cornelia Funke A headlong roller coaster of an adventure in which the imagined becomes dangerously real. Meggie's father has the ability to bring characters alive from books – and two murderous characters are still abroad from the last time he read aloud, nine years before. Meggie is thrown into an adventure that she will need all her courage to survive. A delightful and daring fantasy. 14 Wolf Brother Michelle Paver A richly imagined world in which humans, animals and spirits from the past coexist. Forest- born Torak knows his childhood is over the day his father dies in his arms, killed by a bear possessed by an evil spirit. Now he must fulfil his destiny to kill the bear with the help of the world spirit. Trusting no one and finding himself tricked, trapped and betrayed at almost every turn, Torak finds comfort in the support of a wolf cub. 15 Alice’s Adventures in Lewis Carroll It's a warm summer's afternoon when young Alice first tumbles down the rabbit hole and Wonderland into the adventures in Wonderland that have kept readers spellbound for more than 150 years. Following the white rabbit into his warren, Alice falls into a world where croquet is played with hedgehogs and flamingos, a baby turns into a pig, time runs amok at a the Mad Hatter's tea-party, a chaotic game of chess makes Alice a Queen and the Mock Turtle and Gryphon dance the Lobster Quadrille. 16 Black Beauty Anna Sewell Black Beauty is a perennial children’s favourite, one which has never been out of print since its publication in 1877. It is related through the eyes of the creature. In taking this anthropomorphic approach, the author Anna Sewell broke new literary ground and her effective storytelling ability makes it very easy for the reader to accept the premise that a horse is recounting the exploits in the narrative. 17 Treasure Island Robert Louis One of the best-loved adventure stories ever written, Treasure Island's timeless tale of Stevenson pirates, lost treasure maps, mutiny and derring-do has appealed to generations of readers ever since Robert Louis Stevenson penned it in 1881 with the claim: "If this don't fetch the kids, why, they have gone rotten since my day." But more than just a children's classic, the novel is considered to be one of the greatest feats of storytelling in the English language. 18 The Railway Children E. Nesbit The Railway Children is a children's book by Edith Nesbit, originally serialised in The London Magazine during 1905 and first published in book form in 1906. It has been adapted for the screen several times, of which the 1970 film version is the best known. The story concerns a family who move to "Three Chimneys", a house near the railway, after the father, who works at the Foreign office, is imprisoned after being falsely accused of spying. 19 The Famous Five (any) Enid Blyton Five On A Treasure Island A shipwreck off Kirrin Island! But where is the treasure? The Famous Five are searching for clues - but they're not alone ... Someone else has joined the treasure hunt. 20 The Jungle Book Rudyard Kipling Composed of seven tales, each one accompanied by a poem, The Jungle Book is a coming of age fantasy that introduces a lush, colorful world full of adventure and danger. The first three tales include some of the most charming and unforgettable characters in literature— the man-cub Mowgli, the black panther Bagheera, the wise brown bear Baloo, the ruthless tiger Shere Khan, and the hypnotic python Kaa. 21 The Secret Garden Hodgson by Burnett Mary Lennox has grown up in India, surrounded by colour and life, and people who always do exactly what she wants. When her parents die, she is sent to her uncle's cold and lonely manor on the Yorkshire moors. There she finds the house and the gardens full of secrets. And unearthing them might just lead to the greatest discovery of all. 22 Anne of Green Gables L. M. Montgomery 'Oh, it seems so wonderful that I'm going to live with you and belong to you. I've never belonged to anybody - not really' When a scrawny, freckled girl with bright red hair arrives on Prince Edward Island, Marilla and Matthew Cuthbert are taken by surprise; they'd asked the orphanage for a quiet boy to help with the farm-work at Green Gables. But how can you reject a child like an unwanted parcel, especially when she tells you her life so far has been a 'perfect graveyard of unburied hopes'? 23 Tom's Midnight Phillipa Pearce When Tom is sent to stay at his aunt and uncle's house for the summer, he resigns himself Garden to endless weeks of boredom. As he lies awake in his bed he hears the grandfather clock downstairs strike . .eleven . twelve . thirteen . Thirteen! Tom races down the stairs and out the back door, into a garden everyone told him wasn't there. In this enchanted thirteenth hour, the garden comes alive - but Tom is never sure whether the children he meets there are real or ghosts . 24 The Story of Doctor Hugh Lofting Doctor Dolittle likes animals. In fact, he likes them so much he fills his house with every kind Dolittle of creature imaginable and even learns to talk their language. And when the Doctor hears of a terrible sickness among the monkeys in Africa, soon he and his animal friends are setting off on the most unforgettable adventure . 25 Watership Down Richard Adams A phenomenal worldwide bestseller for over forty years, Richard Adams’ spellbinding classic Watership Down is one of the best-loved novels of all time. Set in the beautiful English countryside of the Berkshire Downs, a once idyllic rural landscape, this stirring tale of adventure, courage, and survival follows a band of very special rabbits fleeing the destruction of their home by a developer. Led by a stout-hearted pair of brothers, they leave the safety of Sandleford Warren in search of a safe haven and a mysterious promised land, skirting danger at every turn. 26 The Northern Lights Phillip Pullman "Without this child, we shall all die." Lyra Belacqua and her animal daemon live half-wild and carefree among scholars of Jordan College, Oxford. The destiny that awaits her will take her to the frozen lands of the Arctic, where witch-clans reign and ice-bears fight. Her extraordinary journey will have immeasurable consequences far beyond her own world... 27 White Fang Jack London ‘Fear urged him to go back, but growth drove him on…‘ Set in the frozen forests of the Yukon Territory, Canada, during the Klondike Gold Rush of the 1890s, ‘White Fang’ tells the story of a young wolf-dog’s journey from the wild into human territory.