We are often asked to recommend books that are popular with children and have a good literary content. Here are some suggestions but we would welcome your views and any others that you think should be added to the list.
Richard Adams | Watership Down |
Joan Aiken | The James III Sequence |
David Almond | * Skellig |
Neil Arksey | Playing on the Edge |
Linda Aronson | Kelp |
Bernard Ashley | * Little Soldier |
Sherry Ashworth | What’s Your Problem? |
Joyce Annette Barnes | Amistad Junior Novelization |
Joan Bauer | Squashed |
Nina Bawden | * Carrie’s War |
Leslie Beake | Song of Be |
Malorie Blackman | Hacker |
Thomas Bloor | The Memory Prisoner |
Judy Blume | Are you there God? It’s Me, Margaret |
Martin Booth | Music on the Bamboo Radio |
Tim Bowler | * River Boy |
Elinor M Brent-Dyer | The Chalet School Series |
Melvin Burgess | * Billy Elliot |
Betsy Byars | * The Pinballs |
Peter Carey | The Big Bazoohley |
Lewis Carroll | Alice’s Adventure in Wonderland |
G K Chesterton | The Puffin Father Brown Stories |
Agatha Christie | And then there were none |
John Christopher | The Guardians |
Ann Coburn | Worm Songs |
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle | The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes |
Susan Cooper | * The Dark is Rising Sequence |
Yvonne Coppard | Bully |
Sharon Creech | * The Wanderer |
Helen Cresswell | Moondial |
Gillian Cross | Wolf |
Kevin Crossley-Holland | Beowulf |
Annie Dalton | Angels Unlimited |
Nicola Davies | Tangled Webs |
Daniel Defoe | Robinson Crusoe |
Anita Desai | The Village By The Sea |
Charles Dickens | A Christmas Carol |
Berlie Doherty | * Granny was a Buffer Girl |
Gerald Durell | My Favourite Animal Stories |
T S Eliot | Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats |
Deborah Ellis | The Breadwinner |
Anne Fine | * Up on Cloud Nine |
Catherine Fisher | * The Empty Hand |
Nicholas Fisk | * A Rag, a Bone and a Hank of Hair |
Anne Frank | The Diary of a Young Girl |
Jackie French | Hitler’s Daughter |
Paul Gallico | * Jennie |
Leon Garfield | * Black Jack |
Alan Garner | The Weirdstone of Brisingamen |
Carlo Gebler | August ‘44 |
Jean Craighead George | * Julie and the Wolves |
Adèle Geras | A Candle in the Dark |
Rosa Guy | The Friends |
Cynthia Harnett | The Wool-Pack |
Libby Hathorn | Way Home |
Esther Hautzig | The Endless Steppe |
Nat Hentoff | The Day They Came To Arrest the Book |
Odo Hirsch | Antonio S and the Mystery of Theodore Guzman |
Anne Holm | I am David |
Polly Horvath | Everything on a Waffle |
Janni Howker | * Badge on the Barge |
Norman Hunter | The Incredible Adventures of Professor Branestawn |
Brian Jacques | The Redwall Series |
Robin Jarvis | * The Deptford Mice Trilogy |
Catherine Jinks | Eye to Eye |
Reinhardt Jung | Dreaming in Black & White, translated by Anthea Bell |
Erich Kastner | Emil and the Detectives |
Elizabeth Kay | The Divide |
Gene Kemp | The Turbulent Term of Tyke Tiler |
Dick King-Smith | The Crowstarver |
Madeline L’Engle | A Wrinkle in Time |
Elizabeth Laird | * Secret Friends |
Charles & Mary Lamb | Tales FromSkakespeare |
C.S. Lewis | The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe |
Joan Lingard | The Guilty Party |
Penelope Lively | The Ghost of Thomas Kempe |
Michelle Magorian | * Back Home |
Margaret Mahy | * The Ghost of Thomas Kemp |
Jan Mark | Stratford Boys |
John Masefield | The Box of Delights |
William Mayne | Cuddy |
Geraldine McCaughrean | Gold Dust |
Karen McCombie | Allys World: The Past, the Present and the Loud Loud Girl |
Ian McEwan | The Daydreamer |
L M Montgomery | Anne of Green Gables |
Michael Morpurgo | * Out of the Ashes |
Beverley Naidoo | The Other Side of Truth |
Bill Naughton | The Goalkeeper’s Revenge |
Linda Newbery | Blitz Boys |
Jenny Nimmo | * Griffin’s Castle |
Mary Norton | The Borrowers |
Alfred Noyles | The Highwayman |
Robert C O’Brien | Z for Zachariah |
Judith O’Neill | So Far From Skye |
Pat O’Shea | The Hounds of the Morrigan |
Kenneth Oppel | The Silverwing Saga |
Ruth Park | Playing Beatie Bow |
Katherine Paterson | * Bridge to Terabithia |
Jill Paton-Walsh | * The Dolphin Crossing |
Gary Paulsen | Hatchet |
Gudrun Pausewang | * Fall-Out |
Philippa Pearce | * Minnow on the Say |
Susan Price | The Ghost Drum |
Willard Price | Cannibal Adventure |
Philip Pullman | Northern Lights |
Christine Purkis | Paddlefeet |
Arthur Ransome | Swallows and Amazons |
Morton Rhue | The Wave |
Hans-Peter Richter | * Friedrich |
Philip Ridley | * Zinderzunder |
James Riordan | The Prisoner |
Katherine Roberts | The Great Pyramid Robbery |
Marcus Sedgwick | * Floodland |
lain Serrailier | Silver Sword |
Robert Louis Stevenson | Treasure Island |
David Lee Stone | The Ratastrophe Catastrophe |
Rosemary Sutcliff | * Sword Song |
Robert Swindells | * Hurricane Summer |
Mildred D Taylor | * Let The Circle Be Unbroken |
Alfred Lord Tennyson | The Lady of Shallot |
Ruth Thomas | * Hideaway |
Colin Thompson | The Paradise Garden |
Flora Thompson | Lark Rise To Candleford |
Kate Thompson | Switchers |
J R R Tolkien | The Hobbit |
Theresa Tomlinson | * Child of the May |
Geoffrey Trease | Cue for Treason |
Mark Twain | The Adventures of Tom Sawyer |
Jules Verne | Around the World in 80 Days |
Sylvia Waugh | The Menyms |
Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman | * Dragonlance Chronicles |
Robert Westall | * Blitz Cat |
Henry Williamson | Tarka the Otter |
Diana Wynne Jones | * Black Maria |
Adeline Yen Mah | Chinese Cinderella |