Donhead
Suggested Reading List
Years 3-6
I had just taken to reading. I had just discovered the art of leaving my body to sit impassive
in a crumpled up attitude in a chair or sofa, while I wandered over the hills and far away in
novel company and new scenes... My world began to expand very rapidly,... the reading
habit had got me securely.
H. G. Wells
"The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more you learn, the more
places you'll go."
Dr. Seuss, I Can Read With My Eyes Shut!
The following lists contain a wide range of books for all ages. Depending on reading ability
and maturity, your son might like to read books from other years. The book should be
sufficiently demanding, yet readily understood and- most importantly- enjoyed by your son
and stimulate his imagination.
Also try other books, and look out for new books, by authors listed here.
Alan Ahlberg
Joan Aiken
Phyllis Arkle
Betty G. Birney
Tony Bradman
Jeff Brown
Humphrey Carpenter
Rob Childs
Helen Cresswell
Roald Dahl
Lucy Daniels
Berlie Doherty
Anne Fine
Adele Geras
Kenneth Grahame
Shirley Hughes
Ted Hughes
Laura Ingalls Wilder
Mick Inkpen
Terry Jones
Dick King-Smith
Sam McBratney
Geraldine McCaughrean
A. A. Milne
Rita Phillips Mitchell
Jill Murphy
Linda Newbery
Philippa Pearce
Alf Prøysen
Francesca Simon
Lesley Sims
Jessica Souhami
Catherine Storr
Jeremy Strong
Robert Swindells
Sandy Toksvig
Jill Tomlinson
Dennis Whelehan
E.B. White
Hazel Willard
Jacqueline Wilson
YEAR 3
It was a Dark and Stormy Night
Tale of Arabel’s Raven
The Railway Cat
The Humphrey series
Dilly the Dinosaur
Flat Stanley series
Mr Majeika series
The Big Star
A Gift from Winkelsea
Whatever Happened at Winkelsea
Fantastic Mister Fox, The Magic Finger, The Twits
Animal Ark series
Willa and Old Miss Annie
Diary of a Killer Cat, Bill’s New Frock
Picasso Perkins
The Reluctant Dragon, The Wind in the Willows
Here Comes Charlie Moon
The Iron Man, The Iron Woman
Little House in the Big Wood
Nothing
Nicobobinus
All Because of Jackson, Golden Goose
Jimmy Zest
Daedalus and Icarus
Winnie the Pooh
Hue Boy
Worst Witch series
A Family Like Mine
Mrs Cockle’s Cat
Mrs Pepperpot series
Horrid Henry series
Skull Island
Rama and the Demon King
Polly and the Wolf
Beware! Killer Tomatoes, and others
Jacqueline Hyde
Unusual Day
The Owl Who Was Afraid of the Dark
The Dad Library
Charlotte’s Web
Odysseus and Polyphemus
Cliffhanger
Allan Ahlberg
Nick Arnold
B.B.
J.M. Barrie
Nina Bawden
Jill Bennett
Malorie Blackman
Lucy Boston
Henrietta Branford
Betsy Byars
Pauline Clark e
Cressida Cowell
Helen Cresswell
Gillian Cross
Roald Dahl
Terry Deary
Michael Foreman
Eve Garnett
Morris Gleitzman
Pippa Goodheart
Anthony Horowitz
Harry Horse
Ted Hughes
Pat Hutchins
Terry Jones
Clive King
Dick King-Smith
Robert Leeson
Penelope Lively
Patricia MacLachlan
Margaret Mahy
Michael Morpurgo
Jill Murphy
Philippa Pierce
Philip Pullman
John Scieszka
Lemony Snicket
R. L. Stevenson
Martin Waddell
Jacqueline Wilson
YEAR 4
The Clothes Horse
Wild Lives
The Little Grey Men
Peter Pan
The Peppermint Pig
A Pot of Gold
Operation Gadget Man
The Children of Green Knowe
Spacebaby
The Eighteenth Emergency
The Twelve and the Genii
The Adventures of Hiccup H.H.III
The Sea Piper
The Demon Headmaster series
The Twits, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Spark File series
War Boy
The Family from One End Street
Blabbermouth
Flow
Diamond Brothers mystery series
Last Castaways
The Iron Man, The Iron Woman
The House that Sailed Away
The Knight and the Squire
Stig of the Dump
The Sheep-Pig
Smart Girls, The Third Class Genie
The Ghost of Thomas Kempe
Sarah, Plain and Tall
The Haunting
The Butterfly Lion, Kensuke’s Kingdom
The Worst Witch series
Way to Satin Shore
The Firework-Maker’s Daughter
The True Story of the Three Little Pigs
Series of Unfortunate Events series
A Child’s Garden of Verse
Little Obie and the Flood
The Suitcase Kid
Natalie Babbit
Malorie Blackman
Judy Blume
Sheila Burnford
Lewis Carroll
John Christopher
Richmal Crompton
Gillian Cross
Kevin Crossley-Holland
Roald Dahl
Terry Deary
Jack Dillon
Siobhan Dowd
Anne Fine
Michael Foreman
Margaret Haddix
F.E.Higgins
Russell Hoban
Anthony Horowitz
Eva Ibbotson
Madhur Jaffrey
Geraldine Kaye
Gene Kemp
Dick King-Smith
Rudyard Kipling
Caroline Lawrence
C.S. Lewis
William Mayne
Michael Morpurgo
E. Nesbit
Andrew Norris
Mary Norton
Jill Paton Walsh
K.M. Peyton
Philip Pullman
Philip Ridley
J.K. Rowling
Ian Serraillier
Lemony Snicket
Rosemary Sutcliff
Henry Treece
Sylvia Waugh
YEAR 5
Tuck Everlasting
Hacker
Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing
The Incredible Journey
Alice in Wonderland
The White Mountain
Just William
The Demon Headmaster
The Green Children
Danny the Champion of the World, Boy
Horrible Histories series
Survive series
The London Eye Mystery
Charm School
War Game
Amongst the Hidden
The Black Book of Secrets
The Mouse and His Child
Alex Rider series
The Secret Platform
Seasons of Splendour
Comfort Herself
The Turbulent Term of Tyke Tyler
The Sheep Pig
Just So Stories
Roman Mysteries series
Narnia series
A Swarm in May
Out of the Ashes, Wreck of the Zanzibar
The Railway Children
Aquila
The Borrowers
Gaffer Samson’s Luck
Who Sir? Me Sir?
I Was a Rat, Clockwork
Krindlekrax
Harry Potter series
The Silver Sword
Series of Unfortunate Events series
The Capricorn Bracelet
Viking’s Dawn
The Mennyms
Joan Aiken
Vivien Alcock
David Almond
Rachel Anderson
Nina Bawden
Malorie Blackman
Tim Bowler
Eoin Colfer
Susan Cooper
Frank Cottrell Boyce
Helen Cresswell
Gillian Cross
Gerald Durrell
Stephen Elboz
Anne Fine
Paul Gallico
Leon Garfield
Charlie Higson
Anne Holm
Janni Howker
Brian Jacques
E.L. Konigsberg
Ursula Le Guin
Michelle Magorian
Geraldine McCaughrean
Anne Merrick
Michael Morpurgo
Jenny Nimmo
Michelle Paver
Philippa Pearce
Anne Pilling
Jan Mark
Robert O’Brien
Terry Pratchett
Willard Price
Philip Pullman
Louis Sacher
Darren Shan
Rosemary Sutcliff
JRR Tolkien
Mark Twain
Robert Westall
TH White
Diana Wynne-Jones
YEAR 6
Wolves of Willoughby Chase series
The Sylvia Game
Skellig, The Fire Eaters
The Poacher’s Son
Carrie’s War
Pig Heart Boy, Hacker
River Boy, Storm Catchers
Artemis Fowl
The Dark is Rising
Millions
Beachcombers, The Night-Watchmen
Wolf
My Family and Other Animals
House of Rats
Madame Doubtfire, Flour Babies
The Snow Goose
Devil in the Fog
Silverfin, and others in the Young Bond series
I am David
The Nature of the Beast
Redwall series
The Mixed-Up Files of Mrs Basil E. Frankweiler
A Wizard of Earthsea
Henry, Goodnight Mister Tom
A Little Lower Than the Angels
Someone Came Knocking
War of Jenkin’s Ear
Midnight for Charlie Bone
Chronicles of Ancient Darkness series
Tom’s Midnight Garden
Black Harvest
Hairs in the Palm of Your Hand
Mrs Frisby and the Rats of Nimh
Truckers, Diggers, Wings
Arctic Adventure
Sally Lockhart series
Holes
Cirque du Freak/ Demonata series
The Eagle of the Ninth
The Hobbit
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
The Machine Gunners
The Sword in the Stone
The Lives of Christopher Chant
Douglas Adams
Richard Adams
David Almond
Bernard Ashley
Malorie Blackman
Judy Blume
Theresa Breslin
Arthur Conan Doyle
Susan Cooper
Gillian Cross
Charles Dickens
Peter Dickinsin
Berlie Doherty
Gerald Durrell
Leon Garfield
Alan Garner
Jamilla Gavin
Alan Gibbons
Philip Gross
Mark Haddon
Nick Hornsby
Joan Lingard
Stephanie Meya
William Nicholson
Garth Nix
Kenneth Oppel
Katherine Paterson
Tamora Pierce
Terry Pratchett
Philip Pullman
George Orwell
Jill Paton-Walsh
Robert Rankin
Arthur Ransome
RC Sheriff
Ivan Southall
RL Stevenson
Geoffrey Trease
Cynthia Viogt
HG Wells
YEAR 6 +
Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
Watership Down
Kit’s Wilderness, Heaven Eyes
The Trouble with Donovan Croft
Noughts and Crosses
Tiger Eyes
Whispers in the Graveyard
The Hound of the Baskervilles
The Dark is Rising series
Born of the Sun
Oliver Twist, and others
The Devil’s Children
Street Child
My Family and Other Animals
Smith
The Weirdstone of Brisingamen
Coram Boy
Shadow of the Minotaur
Going for Stone
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night
(children’s edition)
Fever Pitch
The Twelfth Day of July
Twilight series
The Wind Singer
Lirael/ Sabriel
Silverwing
Bridge to Terabithia
Lioness series
Discworld series
His Dark Materials trilogy
Animal Farm
The Dolphin Crossing
The Brentford trilogy
Swallows and Amazons
Journey’s End
Ash Road
Treasure Island
Bows Against the Barons
Homecoming
The Time Machine
USEFUL WEBSITES
The websites below contain reviews of many of the books from our list, as well as
sample pages. They also recommend other similar books to enjoy.
All books can be bought online, either directly from these websites or through
associated links.
http://www.achuka.co.uk
http://www.booksforkeeps.co.uk
http://www.booktrustchildrensbooks.org.uk
http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk
http://www.lovereading4kids.co.uk
http://www.lovereading4schools.co.uk