What book should I read?

Reading offers children access to worlds they may never see; perspectives they may never have encountered; vocabulary that opens new doors in their writing and ideas that spark their imaginations and lust for life.

There are some truly wonderful books for children aged 8-14 but sometimes it is difficult to know what to read and even harder for parents to decide what is a 'high quality text' book. 

Our school reading scheme is designed to develop the children's reading skills and expose them to a wide range of genre and vocabulary but it doesn't mean they can't read anything else! Here are some of my favourites - you will find some of them in the reading scheme or in our class library.

You can find tips for the best children's books at these websites

http://www.booktrust.org.uk/books/children/100-best-books/ 

http://schoolreadinglist.co.uk/

http://www.lovereading4kids.co.uk/

Here are my other suggestions:

I'm currently loving all the books by the incredible Katherine Rundell including Rooftoppers, The Explorer, The Girl Savage and The Wolf Wilder. The vocabulary in these books is incredible.

- Wonder by R J Palacio

- The Messenger Bird by Ruth Eastham.

- The Memory Box by Ruth Eastham.

- Holes by Louis Sacher.

- Itch by Simon Mayo.

- Sky Hawk by Gill Lewis.

- My name is Mina by David Almond.

- Skelleg by David Almond.

- Trash by Andy Mulligan.

- The Other Side of the Truth by Beverley Naidoo.

- Illegal by Eoin Colfer

- Broken Glass by Sally Grindley.

- Five Children on the Western Front by Kate Saunders.

- Fortunately the Milk by Neil Garmin.

- A boy and a bear in a boat by Dave Sheldon.

- Malamander by Thomas Taylor

- Wolf Brother by Michelle Paver

- Toby Alone by Timothee de Fombelle

- The Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken

- Clever Polly and the Stupid Wolf by Catherine Storr

- Pax by Sara Pennypacker

Some great book series

- Alex Rider

- Charlie Bone

- Harry Potter

- How to train your dragon (The original book is completely different to the film)

- Spy Girl

- Flying Fergus

- A series of unfortunate events

- Percy Jackson

- In 30 seconds (non-fiction books about Space, Earth, Inventions, Science and much more)

Brilliant picture books that offer lots of opportunity for discussion as well as quality text

- The lost happy endings

- Cloud tea monkeys

- Leon and the place between

- The man who walked between the towers

- Black dog

- Wolves in the wall

- How to live forever

- Tell me a dragon

- Way Home

- The Wonder

- The Promise

Gorgeous picture books without text that will spark discussion and imagination

- Flotsam by David Weisner (he has many other wonderful books)

- Journey, Quest, Return by Aaron Becker

- The Arrival

- Imagine by Norman Messenger

and finally some authors who have written lots of brilliant books

- Michael Mopurgo

- Roald Dahl

- Philip Pullman

- Sally Grindley

- David Almond

- Ruth Eastham

- Katherine Rundell

- Gill Lewis