KS3 English - suggestions for independent reading
This list is just to start you looking. Ask your teacher, the librarian or your friends to help you
chose a book. Not too easy, not too difficult - a kind of story that's just right for YOU.
(1) Getting Started
John Talbot Our Toilet's Haunted
Betsy Byars The Eighteenth Emergency
Various authors, The Goosebumps series
Morris Gleitzman Bumface
Lemony Snicket The Bad Beginning
Pete Johnson 'How to Train Your Parents', 'Ghost
Dog'
Jeff Kinney Diary of a Wimpy Kid
(2) Books on a Common Theme
Childhood and Growing Up
Siobhan Dowd A Swift Pure Cry
Bertie Doherty Street Child
Neil Gaiman The Graveyard Book
Anita Desai The Village by the Sea
Malorie Blackman Boys Don’t Cry
Anne Cassidy Looking for JJ (older readers)
Elizabeth Laird Red Sky in the Morning
Siobhan Dowd The London Eye Mystery
Gaye Hicyilmaz The Frozen Waterfall
Anthony Mc Gowan Henry Tumour
Meera Syal Anita and Me
Gillian Cross Where I Belong
Faiza Guene Just Like Tomorrow
Guus Kuijer The Book of Everything
Timothee de Fombelle Toby Alone
Frank Cottrell Boyce Framed
Mildred D. Taylor Roll of Thunder, Hear my Cry
Frank Cottrell Boyce Millions
Anne Fine Flour Babies
David Almond Kit’s Wilderness
Malorie Blackmail Tell Me No Lies
Lesley Beake A Cageful of Butterflies
Louis Sachar Holes
Benjamin Zephaniah Face
Gaye Hicyilmaz Against the Storm
Melvyn Burgess Junk
Sharon Creech Walk Two Moons
Gennifer Choldenko Al Capone Does my Shirts
Nicky Singer Feather Boy
Graham Gardner Inventing Elliott
Sharon Creech Love That Dog
Political Situations
Michelle Magorian Goodnight Mr. Tom
Lesley Beake A Cageful of Butterflies
Elizabeth Laird A Little Piece of Ground
Bernard MacLaverty Cal
Benjamin Zephaniah Refugee Boy
Jan Needle Piggy in the Middle
Michael Morpurgo Wreck of the Zanzibar
Morris Gleitzman Once
Bali Rai What's Your Problem?
Jason Wallace Out of the Shadows (older readers)
Jennifer Johnston Shadows on Our Skin
John Boyne The Boy in Striped Pyjamas
James Watson Talking in Whispers
Bernard Ashley Little Soldier
Gudrun Pausewang The Final Journey
Harper Lee To Kill a Mockingbird
Alan Gibbons An Act of Love
War
Robert Swindells Brother in the Land
Robert O'Brien Z for Zachariah
Anne Frank The Diary of Anne Frank
Nina Bawden Carrie's War
Michael Morpurgo Private Peaceful
Michael Morpurgo War Horse
J. G. Ballard Empire of the Sun
Robert Westall The Machine Gunners
Marcus Zusak The Book Thief
Adventure
Cristy Burne Takeshita Demons
Eva Ibbotson Journey to the River Sea
M G Harris The Joshua Files: Invisible City
Tim Bowler River Boy
Jack London The Call of the Wild
Ian Serraillier The Silver Sword
Eoin Colfer The Artemis Fowl Series
Mal Peet Exposure
Mal Peet Keeper
Geraldine McCaughrean The Death- Defying Pepper Roux
Love
Angela Jariwala Pardesi
Maggie Stiefvater Shiver
Karen McCombie My Funny Valentine
Julie Bertagna The Opposite of Chocolate
Bali Rai Rani and Sukh
Survival
Meg Rosoff How I Live Now
Russell Evans Survival
James Vance Marshall Walkabout
Gary Paulsen Hatchet
William Mayne Drift
Rachel Anderson Asylum
Myths and Legends
Kevin Crossley-Holland The Seeing Stone (trilogy)
Zizou Corder Halo
Madhur Jaffrey Seasons of Splendour
Adele Geras Troy
Rick Riordan- Percy Jackson and the Lightning
Thief
Fantasy
Joan Aiken The Wolves of Willoughby Chase
Eoin Colfer Artemis Fowl
China Mieville Un Lun Dun
Cornelia Funke Inkheart
Patrick Ness The Knife of Never Letting Go
Philip Reeve Fever Crumb
J.R.R. Tolkien Lord of the Rings
Susan Cooper Over Sea, Under Stone
J.R.R. Tolkien The Hobbit
Geraldine McCaughrean The Kite Rider
Philip Reeve Mortal Engines
Historical Fiction
Celia Rees Sorceress
Henrietta Branford Fire, Bed and Bone
Celia Rees Witch Child
Philip Reeve Here Lies Arthur
Kevin Crossley-Holland, trilogy on the story of Arthur
Michael Morpurgo Arthur, High King of Britain
Theresa Breslin Prisoner of the Inquisition
Graphic Novels
Charles Higson Silverfin: the graphic novel
Dean and Shannon Hale Calamity Jack
Tony Lee Outlaw: The Legend of Robin Hood
Shaun Tan Tales From Outer Suburbia
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle The Hound of the Baskervilles: Graphic Novel
John Harris Dunning Salem Brownstone: All Along the Watchtowers
Thrillers and Chillers and Crime
Malorie Blackman The Stuff of Nightmares
Anthony Horowitz Stormbreaker
Kate Cann Leaving Poppy
Charlie Higson The Enemy
F. E Higgins The Black Book of Secrets
Anne Fine The Tulip Touch
Darren Shan Cirque Du Freak
Neil Gaiman Coraline
Darren Shan Lord Loss
Kevin Brooks Martyn Pigg
Celia Rees Truth or Dare
Melvin Burgess The Ghost Behind the Wall
Chris Priestley Uncle Montague’s Tales of Terrors
Philip Pullman The Ruby and the Smoke (trilogy)
Marcus Sedgwick My Swordhand is Singing
Robert Swindells Abomination
Robert Muchamore The Killing (part of a series)
The Future
Robert Westall Futuretrack 5
Aldous Huxley Brave New World
Ursula Le Guin The Lathe of Heaven
Julie Bertagna Zenith
Ursula Le Guin The Left Hand of Darkness
Jan Mark The Ennead
Rebecca Stead When You Reach Me
Alex Scarrow Time Riders
Johnny O’Brien The Day of Deliverance
Julie Bertagna Exodus
Short stories
David Almond Counting Stars
Jan Mark A Can of Worms
Beverley Naidoo Out of Bounds
New Windmill Book Classic Short Stories
ed. Marion Dane Bauer Am I Blue?
ed. David Kitchen Don't Make Me Laugh (funny
Ray Bradbury The Golden Apples of the Sun
short stories)
Leon Garfield Six Shakespeare Stories
Poetry
Malorie Blackman Cloud Busting
ed. Peters & Fusek Poems With Attitude
ed. Kaye Webb I Like this Poem
ed. Wendy Cope Is That the New Moon?
Benjamin Zephaniah Too Black, Too Strong
ed.Chatterjee & Frazer Rainbow World: Poems
Talking Turkey
from Many Cultures
Funky Chickens
ed. Seamus Heaney & Ted Hughes The Rattlebag
Wicked World
Jan Mark A Jetblack Sunrise: Poems about War...
Michael Rosen & Roger McGough You Tell Me
Allan Ahlberg Friendly Matches
ed. Grace Nichols Poetry Jump Up
Sharon Creech Heartbeat
We also recommend the website Lovereading4Kids, www.lovereading4kids.co.uk , to get other ideas for
book choices.
Don’t forget, you can also go to your local library and borrow a book for free from there. Below are a list of
libraries in Camden.
Belsize Library
Camden Town Library
Chalk Farm Library
Heath Library
Highgate Library
Holborn Library
Kentish Town Library
Kilburn Library Centre
Queens Crescent Library
Regents Park Library
St Pancras Library
Swiss Cottage Central Library
West Hampstead Library