Year 6 Reading List
Book Description
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Lewis Carroll, Michael Irwin
With an Introduction and Notes by Michael Irwin, Professor of English Literature,
University of Kent at Canterbury This selection of Carroll's works includes Alice's
Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel, Through the Looking-Glass, both containing
the famous illustrations by Sir John Tenniel. No greater books for children have ever
been written. The simple language, dreamlike atmosphere, and fantastical characters
are as appealing to young readers today as ever they were.
Black Beauty
Anna Sewell
Black Beauty is a young black colt and loves roaming Farmer Gray's fields with his
mother. As Black Beauty grows into a handsome stallion, he is trained into the use of
a saddle and whip and sold to Squire Gordon of Birtwick Hall. Here, he makes many
friends including the angry Ginger, the well-meaning Merrylegs and the elderly Sir
Oliver, as well as stablehands James and John. When Squire Gordon has to move
abroad to improve his wife's ill health, Black Beauty is sold again to Earlshall Park. So
begins a hard and unsettled life for Black Beauty who is always at the whim of his
human owners. Often he is whipped and made to wear blinkers or the bearing rein, at
other times he must work as a cab horse on the busy London streets. Will Black
Beauty ever be able to roam the fields again as he did in his childhood? What has
become of his friends Ginger and Merrylegs?
Blitzcat
Robert Westall
She made her way down the cliff, and on to the beach. At the edge of the waves, she
stopped, shaking her wet paws. She knew that somewhere ahead was her person, but
far, far away. She miaowed plaintively; stood staring at the moving blur of
uncrossable sea. She led the way to safety, out of the blazing hell of blitzed Coventry.
People touched her for luck; feared her as an omen of disaster. Wherever she went,
she changed lives
Collins Classics White Fang
Jack London
HarperCollins is proud to present its new range of best-loved, essential classics. '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. As
White Fang learns that civilisation is every bit as vicious and violent as nature - and
that survival is only awarded to the fittest - we too see how instinct, sensation and
emotion drive every one of us.
Goodnight Mister Tom
Michelle Magorian
Young Willie Beech is evacuated to the country as Britain stands on the brink of the
Second World War. A sad, deprived child, he slowly begins to flourish under the care
of old Tom Oakley - but his new-found happiness is shattered by a summons from his
mother back in London ...
Holes
Louis Sachar
Stanley Yelnats' family has a history of bad luck, so when a miscarriage of justice
sends him to Camp Green Lake Juvenile Detention Centre (which isn't green and
doesn't have a lake) he is not surprised. Every day he and the other inmates are told
to dig a hole, five foot wide by five foot deep, reporting anything they find. The evil
warden claims that it is character building, but this is a lie and Stanley must dig up the
truth.
Kensuke's Kingdom
Michael Morpurgo
Kensuke's Kingdom is a true children's classic by former Children's Laureate Michael
Morpurgo, the creator of War Horse. I heard the wind above me in the sails. I
remember thinking, this is silly, you haven't got your safety harness on, you haven't
got your lifejacket on. You shouldn't be doing this ...I was in the cold of the sea before
I could even open my mouth to scream. Washed up on an island in the Pacific,
Michael struggles to survive on his own. With no food and no water, he curls up to
die. When he wakes, there is a plate beside him of fish, of fruit, and a bowl of fresh
water. He is not alone ...
Northern Lights
Philip 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...
Once
Morris Gleitzman
Once by Morris Gleitzman is the story of a young Jewish boy who is determined to
escape the orphanage he lives in to save his Jewish parents from the Nazis in the
occupied Poland of the Second World War. Everybody deserves to have something
good in their life. At least Once. Once I escaped from am orphanage to find Mum and
Dad. Once I saved a girl called Zelda from a burning house. Once I made a Nazi with a
toothache laugh. My name is Felix. This is my story
Pig Heart Boy
Malorie Blackman
You're thirteen. All you want is a normal life. But most normal kids don't need heart
transplants. So there's this doctor. He says there's a chance for you. But he also says
it's experimental, controversial and risky. And it's never been done before.
Point Blanc
Anthony Horowitz
The second mission in the number one bestselling Alex Rider series. In the second
book in the number one bestselling Alex Rider series by Anthony Horowitz, teenage
spy Alex is sent by MI6 to infiltrate the exclusive Point Blanc Academy. But the
academy hides a deadly secret. Can Alex alert the world to the truth before it's too
late?
Skellig
David Almond
The beautiful and haunting novel that launched David Almond as one of the best
children's writers of today When a move to a new house coincides with his baby
sister's illness, Michael's world seems suddenly lonely and uncertain. Then, one
Sunday afternoon, he stumbles into the old, ramshackle garage of his new home, and
finds something magical. A strange creature - part owl, part angel, a being who needs
Michael's help if he is to survive. With his new friend Mina, Michael nourishes Skellig
back to health, while his baby sister languishes in the hospital. But Skellig is far more
than he at first appears, and as he helps Michael breathe life into his tiny sister,
Michael's world changes for ever ..
Stormbreaker
Anthony Horowitz
The first book in the number one bestselling Alex Rider series. In the first book in the
number one bestselling Alex Rider series by Anthony Horowitz, fourteen-year-old Alex
is forcibly recruited into MI6. Armed with secret gadgets, he is sent to investigate
Herod Sayle, a man who is offering state-of-the-art Stormbreaker computers to every
school in the country. But the teenage spy soon finds himself in mortal danger.
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas
John Boyne
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 this book, you will go on a journey
with a nine-year-old boy called Bruno. And sooner or later you will arrive with Bruno
at a fence. We hope you never have to cross such a fence.
The Diary of a Young Girl Definitive Edition
Anne Frank
First published over sixty years ago, Anne Frank's Diary of a Young Girl has reached
millions of young people throughout the world. In July 1942, thirteen-year-old Anne
Frank and her family, fleeing the occupation, went into hiding in an Amsterdam
warehouse. Over the next two years Anne vividly describes in her diary the
frustrations of living in such close quarters, and her thoughts, feelings and longings as
she grows up. Her diary ends abruptly when, in August 1944, they were all betrayed.
The Hobbit
J. R. R. Tolkien
The Hobbit is the unforgettable story of Bilbo, a peace-loving hobbit, who embarks on
a strange and magical adventure. A timeless classic. Bilbo Baggins enjoys a quiet and
contented life, with no desire to travel far from the comforts of home; then one day
the wizard Gandalf and a band of dwarves arrive unexpectedly and enlist his services as a burglar - on a dangerous expedition to raid the treasure-hoard of Smaug the
dragon. Bilbo's life is never to be the same again.
The Nowhere Emporium
Ross MacKenzie
Winner of the Blue Peter Best Story Award 2016 and the Scottish Children's Book
Award 2016, and the North East Book Award 2015 (so far...). When the mysterious
Nowhere Emporium arrives in Glasgow, orphan Daniel Holmes stumbles upon it quite
by accident. Before long, the 'shop from nowhere' -- and its owner, Mr Silver -- draw
Daniel into a breathtaking world of magic and enchantment. Recruited as Mr Silver's
apprentice, Daniel learns the secrets of the Emporium's vast labyrinth of passageways
and rooms -- rooms that contain wonders beyond anything Daniel has ever imagined.
But when Mr Silver disappears, and a shadow from the past threatens everything, the
Emporium and all its wonders begin to crumble. Can Daniel save his home, and his
new friends, before the Nowhere Emporium is destroyed forever?
The Unforgotten Coat
Frank Cottrell Boyce
This is a stunning magical story of a summer of friendship with darker undertones of
refugees. Two refugee brothers from Mongolia are determined to fit in with their
Liverpool schoolmates, but bring so much of Mongolia to Bootle that their new friend
and guide, Julie, is hard-pressed to know truth from fantasy as she recollects a
wonderful friendship that was abruptly ended when Chingis and his family were
forced to return to Mongolia.
Tom's Midnight Garden
Philippa Pearce
When Tom is sent to stay at his aunt and uncle's house for the summer, he resigns
himself 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 ...
Wonder
R. J. Palacio
'My name is August. I won't describe what I look like. Whatever you're thinking, it's
probably worse.' 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?