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 |