Year 7
Recommended Reading List
ACTION AND ADVENTURE
Bradford, Chris
Colfer, Eoin
Cooper, Susan
Young Samurai Series
Airman
Ghost Hawk
Dickinson, Matt
Easton, Tom
Gavin, Jamila
Mortal Chaos
Haven
Coram Boy
Gordon-Smith, Alex
Grant, Michael
The Fury
Bzrk
Hale, Nick
Higson, Charlie
Horowitz, Anthony
Horowitz, Anthony
The Striker Series
Silverfin Series
Alex Rider Series
Power of Five Series
Klavan, Andrew
McNab, Andy
The Last Thing I
Remember Series
The Medusa Project
Series
DropZone Series
Muchamore, Robert
Cherub Series
Paulsen, Gary
Hatchet Series
Shelton, Dave
A Boy and a Bear in a
Boat
Special Operations
Series
Montmorency Series
McKenzie, Sophie
Simpson, Craig
Updale, Eleanor
An English boy marooned in Japan in 1611 learns the ways of the Samurai
In future Ireland, a rebel boy has to escape from prison to clear his name
Little Hawk goes deep into the forest where he must endure a three-month
test of solitude and survival which will turn him into a man
Fast-paced adventure on how the Butterfly Effect can make worlds collide
The story of the only community remaining after a killer virus strikes
A tale of tradition, corruption and growing-up from the award-winning
author
The Fury is an unexplained urge to kill that takes over people
Thriller from the author of the Gone series in which futuristic nano
technology is used as a weapon
International spies and top-flight football combine in this action novel
The teenage years of James Bond at Eton College
Teenage spy Alex embarks on several missions for MI5
Matt has always known he has unusual powers. He is sent to a rehab
programme, only to find himself in the midst of sinister goings-on
“Bourne Identity for Kids” – Charlie loses a year of his memory and
discovers that he has been convicted for murder
Teenagers with psychic powers form a crime-fighting force
Fast moving thriller about a teenage sky diver recruited to a secret
government anti-terrorist organisation
CHERUB agents are aged between ten and seventeen. They live in the
real world, getting information that sends criminals and terrorists to jail
The adventures of a 12 year old boy following a plane crash in remote
Canada
Two unlikely friends battle through a grand marine adventure lasting weeks
at sea
WW2 thrillers following the adventures of the Wolf Squadron
Crime thriller series set in Victorian London
GROWING UP, RELATIONSHIPS, LIFE & DEATH
Crossan, Sarah
The Weight of Water
Dahl, Roald
Doyle, Roddy
Going Solo
A Greyhound of a Girl
Palacio, RJ
Pitcher, Annabel
Wonder
My Sister Lives on the
Mantlepiece
Ketchup Clouds
Pitcher, Annabel
Plaised, Caroline
Sacher, Louis
Sutcliffe, William
No Way Am I Living With
Her
There’s a Boy in the
Girls’ Bathroom
Bad Influence
Armed with a suitcase and an old laundry bag filled with clothes, Kasienka
and her mother head for England. A moving coming-of-age story
Dahl’s memoir recounting his voyage to Africa
A perfectly-pitched, funny and tender tale about four generations of an Irish
family and the special bonds between mothers and daughters
Touching story of August, a boy born with a facial deformity
Moving tale of bereavement as a family struggles to recover from the loss
of their daughter in a suicide bombing
I’ve done something terrible. And do you know the worst thing? I got away
with it
Well-written tale of two step-sisters forced to live together when their
parents marry
An unpopular boy at school is invited to his first ever birthday party
Dealing with the theme of peer pressure, this story follows Ollie who is
influenced by his dangerous bully of a best friend, Paul
GIRL TALK
Cassidy, Cathy
Day, Susie
Indigo Blue
My Invisible Boyfriend
Hopkins, Cathy
Ibbotson, Eva
Mates, Dates.. Series
Journey to the River Sea
LaFleur, Suzanne
Picoult, Jodie
Eight Keys
Between the Lines
A mum with a secret and a reason to leave her family
Heidi invents an online boyfriend to impress her friends, but lie upon lie
creates an embarrassing mess!
A series that follows Lucy and her friends through their teenage years
An orphaned school girl journeys to South America with her tough-as-oldboots nanny
A moving read about friendship and starting a new school
Fictional characters trapped in a book come to life in a fantasy romance
CLASSICS
Alcott, Louisa
Bach, Richard
Burnett, Frances
Conan Doyle,
Arthur
Dickens, Charles
Dickens, Charles
Ransome, Arthur
Shakespeare,
William
Stevenson, Robert
Louis
Twain, Mark
Little Women
Jonathan Livingston
Seagull
The Secret Garden
Sherlock Holmes (any)
A Christmas Carol
Oliver Twist
Swallows and Amazons
Macbeth
Treasure Island
Adventures of…
Classic novels of four sisters growing up in 1860s America
Uplifting short read about a young seagull’s bid to live its life as freely as
possible
Which little girl can turn a whole household upside down and breathe new
life back into a strange, old manor? Mary Lennox
Classic detective stories
The story of Scrooge
An orphaned boy, a life of crime and a quest to escape
The ultimate children's classic - long summer days filled with adventure
A dark and powerful tragedy that dramatizes the effects of choosing evil as
a means to power
Upon finding a map in his parents' inn, young Jim Hawkins joins a crew on
route to the Caribbean to find buried treasure
Adventure novels set in the American deep south during the Great
Depression
FANTASY
Almond, David
Skellig
Colfer, Eoin
Ende, Michael
Artemis Fowel Series
The Neverending Story
Evans, Lissa
Small Change for Stuart
Flanagan, John
Rangers Apprentice
Series
Brotherband Series
Flanagan, John
Gordon, Roderick
Landy, Derek
Lewis, CS
Tunnels Series
Skullduggery Pleasant
Series
Narnia Series
Nicholson, William
Paolini, Christopher
Wind on Fire Trilogy
Inheritance Trilogy
Patterson, James
Maximum Ride Series
Paver, Michelle
Pratchett, Terry
Reeve, Philip
Wolf Brother Series
Nation
Mortal Engines
A tender story of a young boy living in fear of death and coming to terms
with life
A 12 year old criminal mastermind kidnaps a fairy
Through the pages of an old book Bastian discovers a mysterious world of
enchantment - but a world that is falling into decay
Stuart gets caught up in his great-uncle's lost workshop - a workshop
stuffed with trickery and magic
Superb series set in Castle Redmont, as Will and his friends choose their
destinies
Boys fight against other Brotherbands to become a Warrior and survive on
the deadly seas
Two boys discover a dark underworld beneath Chester
Meet the great Skulduggery Pleasant: wise-cracking detective, powerful
magician, master of dirty tricks and burglary – and dead
The ultimate battle between good and evil follows children trying to awaken
an animal world from eternal winter
A society governed by exams – but what happens when you rebel?
When Eragon finds a polished stone in the forest that brings a dragon
hatchling, he stumbles upon a legacy nearly as old as the Empire itself
A group of teenagers are genetically engineered to be 1% bird as part of
an experiment
An exciting series about the adventures of early man
The survivors of a tidal wave create a new world for themselves
Moving cities trawl the globe. Tom and Hester are thrown from London and
battle to get back on board
Riordan, Rick
Percy Jackson Series
Riordan, Rick
Heroes of Olympus
Trilogy
Harry Potter Series
The Hobbit
Blood Red Road
Rowling, JK
Tolkien, JRR
Young, Moira
A teenage boy living in modern day America finds out that he is the son of
an ancient God
A summer camp for children of Greek Gods who are sent on quests
Perhaps the most famous stories of wizardry the world has seen
The story of Bilbo Baggins’ adventures in Middle-Earth
Post-apocalyptic thriller about a girl searching for her stolen brother
HORROR
Blackman, Malorie
Gaiman, Neil
Gaiman, Neil
Gatward, David
Gatward, David
Higson, Charlie
Hill, Will
MacPhail, Cathy
Richardson, EE
Stuff of Nightmares
Coraline
The Graveyard Book
The Dead Trilogy
Doom Rider
The Enemy Series
Department 19 Series
Underworld
The Intruders
The small, irrational fears that affect our dreams
A warped alternative universe hidden behind a door
A horror/fantasy take on the Jungle Book
A teenage boy on a life-saving quest is stalked by vicious demons
Seth has lived 1000 lives, and in each he has been killed before he is 13
A sickness turns all adults into flesh-eating zombies
A strange government department fights supernatural beings
A chilling novel set in a collapsed tunnel
A terrifying, traditional haunted house story
THRILLERS
Bedford, Martin
Flip
Bowler, Tim
Sea of Whispers
Cassidy, Anne
Innocent
Gardner, Sally
Maggot Moon
Gibbons, Alan
Grant, Michael
Green, Caroline
Malley, Gemma
McKenzie, Sophie
Shadow of the Minotaur
Trilogy
Gone Series
Cracks
The Declaration Trilogy
Girl Missing Trilogy
Mulligan, Andy
Ness, Patrick
Scarrow, Alex
Trash
A Monster Calls
Time Riders Series
Sedgwick, Marcus
Sedgwick, Marcus
Revolver
Midwinterblood
Sutcliffe, William
The Wall
Westerfeld, Scott
Leviathan Trilogy
Tom wakes up one morning and discovers he is in the body of someone
called Philip
Hetty has disturbing visions in the broken pieces of old bottles she collects
from the beach – but no one will listen
Charlie tries to prove the innocence of her older brother who she thinks
has been set up
When his friend Hector is taken away, Standish Treadwell realises that it is
up to him to confront and defeat the forces of the Motherland
A computer geek discovers that a virtual reality game has the power to
suck you into the game world
Adults disappear into thin air and children battle to survive on their own
A boy wakes up from a coma and finds that his life isn’t quite what it seems
Drugs allow people to live for 100s of years and having children is banned
Excellent thrillers about a girl who thinks she might have been snatched as
a baby
Three boys take on the world in this fast paced dark future story
Connor has nightmares that seem to be real
Teens are recruited by a secret organisation to travel into the past to
change time
Gripping thriller set in the Arctic in 1910 around a search for stolen gold
The story of Eric and Merle who have loved and lost one another and who
have been searching for each other ever since
A boy loses his football in a plot of land that no one must enter, and no one
ever leaves. Crawling through a tunnel he emerges into an unfamiliar world
Alternative history novel set in 1914
COMEDY
Brindley, John
Rhino Boy
Bush, Penelope
Diary of a Lottery
Winner’s Daughter
Millions
Cottrell Boyce,
Frank
Limb, Sue
Zoe and Chloe Series
The school bully develops a spot on his forehead that grows into a rhino
horn
3.7M is won by the family of a Year 7 girl. How does it change them?
With Britain about to join the Euro, 2 boys find 250K and have 10 days to
spend it before it becomes obsolete
Funny books about the adventures of two teenage girls
Pratchett, Terry
Johnny Maxwell Trilogy
Sachar, Louis
Holes
Snicket, Lemony
A Series of Unfortunate
Events
The Boy in the Dress
Walliams, David
Johnny has special powers that help him see the world in different ways to
other boys
Stanley is in a juvenile prison as a result of a miscarriage of justice and
ends up on a mission to dig holes for lost treasure
The story of the woeful Baudelaire siblings and the unfolding of their
luckless lives
A laugh out loud book that also deals with gender roles
WARS AND HISTORY
Amery, Heather
Children’s Bible
Bawden, Nina
Carrie’s War
Boyne, John
French, Jackie
Gleitzman, Morris
The Boy in the Striped
Pyjamas
Hitler’s Daughter
Once Series
Hartnett, Sonja
Holm, Anne
The Midnight Zoo
I am David
Hooper, Mary
Kerr, Judith
Landman, Tanya
By Royal Command
When Hitler Stole Pink
Rabbit
Apache
Lawrence, Caroline
Mitchell, Barbara
Morpurgo, Michael
Reeve, Philip
Riordan, James
Serraillier, Ian
Roman Mysteries Series
Run Rabbit Run
War Horse
My Name is Arthur
The Sniper
The Silver Sword
A good summary of the essential Bible stories that are drawn upon in
much of British literature
Carrie and her little brother are evacuated to Wales and billeted at the
home of the bullying Mr Evans and his timid sister Lou
A World War II friendship between Bruno and Shmuel that takes the boys
from innocence to revelation
What if Hitler had had a daughter? A thought-provoking read
The story of two childhood friends growing up in Nazi occupied Poland and
trying to escape the war
Children discover an abandoned magical zoo in the middle of a war zone
David escapes from the concentration camp where he has spent his entire
life and flees across Europe. He is utterly alone – who can he trust?
Lucy is a teenage spy for Elizabeth I
Partly autobiographical, this is the unforgettable story of a Jewish family
fleeing from Germany at the start of the Second World War
A novel on the theme of revenge – Siki vows to become an Apache warrior
and avenge the deaths of her dead family
Follows the adventures of four amateur child detectives in ancient Rome
A WW2 adventure story about a girl whose father is a pacifist on the run
The life of a horse during WW1 battles
An exciting retelling of the King Arthur legend
WW2 adventure tale about young Russian snipers
The classic tale of four friends’ journey through war-torn Europe
SPORTS STORIES
Breslin, Theresa
Divided City
Freedman, Dan
Hayden, Peter
Rigby, Robert
Kick Off Trilogy
And Smith Must Score
Goal Trilogy
Scottish novel that tackles the religious divide in Glasgow through the
Celtic and Rangers football rivalry
A school football team in which Jamie is desperate to be the star
Funny modern take on the story of football
Santiago makes his name at Newcastle
BOOKS ABOUT ANIMALS
Adams, Richard
Campbell-Johnston,
Rachel
Sewell, Anna
Watership Down
The Child’s Elephant
White, EB
Charlotte’s Web
Black Beauty
The perilous journey of a small band of rabbits in search of a safe home
When a baby elephant is left orphaned, Bat takes her home and cares for
her. But Bat's grandmother knows that Meya cannot stay with them forever
Tells the story of a horse's own long and varied life and deals with animalhuman relationships
The tale of how a little girl named Fern, with the help of a friendly spider,
saved her pig Wilbur from the usual fate of nice fat little pigs