key stage 3 gcse reading list

Key Stage 2, Key Stage 3 and Key Stage 4 Recommended Reading Lists

It cannot be said enough: Reading is key. Reading will benefit every stage of learning and beyond. Here at Fox Tale, we love nothing more than falling into a good book.

Below are just a few recommendations of the stories we’ve loved for Key Stage 2, Key Stage 3 and Key Stage 4 children and will help with their curriculum.

Fox Tale Recommended Reading

Adventures

  • Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

  • Hacker by Malorie Blackman

  • Kensuke’s Kingdom by Michael Morpurgo

  • Millions by Frank Cottrell Boyce

  • Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren

  • Shadow Jumper by J. M. Forster

  • Stormbreaker by Anthony Horowitz

  • Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome

  • The Boy Who Biked the World by Alastair Humphries

  • The Demon Headmaster by Gillian Cross

  • The Railway Children by E. Nesbit

  • The 13-Storey Treehouse by Andy Griffiths

Recommended Reading Lists

Key Stage 2

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Key Stage 2 📚

Historical Twist

  • Carrie’s War by Nina Bawden

  • Aquila by Andrew Norris

  • Cogheart by Peter Bunzi

  • Goodnight Mister Tom by Michelle Magorian

  • Horrible Histories by Terry Deary

  • Once by Morris Gleitzman

  • Private Peaceful by Michael Morpurgo

  • The Eagle of the Ninth by Rosemary Sutcliff

  • The Other Side of Truth by Beverley Naidoo

  • The Wheel of Surya by Jamila Gavin

  • The Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken

Animals

  • Black Beauty by Anna Sewel

  • Cat in the Hat by Dr Seuss

  • Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White

  • Mrs Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O’Brien

  • One Hundred and One Dalmations by Dodie Smith

  • The Last Wild by Piers Torday

  • The Sheep Pig by Dick King Smith

  • Watership Down by Richard Adams

Mysteries

  • Coraline by Neil Gaiman

  • Emil and the Detectives by Erich Kästner

  • Framed by Frank Cottrell Boyce

  • Holes by Louis Sachar

  • Moondial by Helen Cresswell

  • Skullduggery Pleasant by Derek Landy

  • The Boy in the Tower by Polly Ho-Yen

  • The Girl of Ink and Stars by Kiran Millwood Hargrave

Christmas Reads

  • A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

  • Father Christmas’s Fake Beard by Terry Pratchett

  • Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

  • Mistletoe and Murder (5th book in the A Murder Most Unladylike series) by Robin Stevens

  • The Box of Delights by John Masefield

  • The Christmasaurus by Tom Fletcher

  • The Girl Who Saved Christmas by Matt Haig

People

  • Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfield

  • Billionaire Boy by David Walliams

  • Boy by Roald Dahl

  • Flour Babies by Anne Rice

  • Pig Heart Boy by Malorie Blackman

  • Stig of the Dump by Clive King

  • The Iron Man by Ted Hughes

  • The Story of Tracy Beaker by Jacqueline Wilson

  • The Twits by Roald Dahl

  • Wonder by R.J. Palacio

Science Fiction and Fantasy

  • The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper

  • The Dog Runner by Bren MacDibble

  • The Dreamsnatcher by Abi Elphinstone

  • The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

  • The Hobbit by J.R.R Tolkien

  • The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis

  • The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery

  • The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster

  • The Secret Lake by Karen Inglis

  • The Witches by Roald Dahl

  • The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum

  • The Worst Witch by Jill Murphy

  • Tom’s Midnight Garden by Philippa Pearce

  • Truckers by Terry Pratchett

  • The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau

  • A Girl Called Owl by Amy Wilson

  • A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness

  • A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L’Engle

  • Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer

  • Beast Quest Series by Adam Blade

  • Dragon Rider by Cornelia Funke

  • Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by J. K. Rowling

  • His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman

  • Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones

  • Matilda by Roald Dahl

  • Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie

  • Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief by Rick

  • Riordan Skellig by David Almond

  • The Borrowers by Mary Norton

Year 6 into year 7

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Year 6 into year 7 📚

Shakespeare

  • The Shakespeare Stories by Andrew Matthews and Tony Ross

  • Read these short story versions to understand the storyline before tackling the play)

  • Romeo and Juliet

  • Macbeth

  • Twelfth Night

  • A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Poetry

  • Life Doesn’t Frighten Me by Maya Angelou

  • Funky Chickens by Benjamin Zephaniah

  • A-Z: The best children's poetry from Agard to Zephaniah by Michael Rosen

  • A Poem for Every Day of the Year by Allie Esiri

  • Let in the Stars: New Poetry for Children by Mandy Coe

  • Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson

  • Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by TS Eliot

  • The Boy at the Back of the Class by Onjali Rauf

  • The Nowhere Emporium by Ross Mackenzie

  • Time Travelling with a Hamster by Ross Welford

  • The Girl of Ink and Stars by Kiran Millwood Hargrave

  • SeaBEAN by Sarah Holding

  • Eren by Simon P Clark

  • Kensuke’s Kingdom by Michael Morpurgo

  • Silverfin by Charlie Higson

  • Oranges in No Man’s Land by Elizabeth Laird

Non Fiction

  • Absolutely Everything by Christopher Lloyd

  • The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind by William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer

  • Amelia Lost by Candace Fleming

  • How We Got to The Moon by John Rocco

  • Kay’s Anatomy by Adam Kay

  • Lion Boy by Zizou Corder

  • The Machine Gunners by Robert Westall

  • My Swordhand is Singing by Marcus Sedgwick

  • The Other Side of the Truth by Beverley Naidoo

  • Tell Me No Lies by Malorie Blackman

  • The Wheel of Surya by Jamila Gavin

  • Raspberries on the Yangtze by Karen Wallace

  • A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness

Fiction

Key Stage 3 & 4

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Key Stage 3 & 4 📚

Shakespeare

  • A Midsummer Night’s Dream

  • Macbeth

  • Romeo and Juliet

  • The Tempest

  • Merchant of Venice

  • Much Ado About Nothing

  • Julius Caesar

  • Twelfth Night

  • Othello

  • Henry V

Gothic and 19th Century Fiction

  • Dracula by Bram Stoker

  • Frankenstein by Mary Shelly

  • Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

  • The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

  • The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving

  • The Sign of Four by Arthur Conan Doyle

  • A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

  • Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë

  • Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

  • War of the Worlds by HG Wells

Modern Prose

  • Coram Boy by Jamila Gavin

  • Boys Don’t Cry by Malorie Blackman

  • Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

  • Lord of the Flies by William Golding

  • The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene

  • To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee

  • Animal Farm by George Orwell

  • Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

  • Ash on a Young Man’s Sleeve by Danni Abse

  • How Many Miles to Babylon? by Jennifer

  • Pigeon English by Stephen Kelman

  • Anita & Me by Meera Syal

  • Woman in Black by Susan Hill

  • Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

  • Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha by Roddy Doyle

  • Heroes by Robert Cormier

  • About a Boy by Nick Hornby

  • Resistance by Owen Sheers

  • I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelo

  • Oranges are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson

  • Chanda’s Secrets by Allan Stratton

Additional Modern Prose

  • Black Flamingo by Dean Atta

  • Homefire by Kamila Shamsie

  • Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

  • A House for Mr Biswas by VS Naipaul

  • Face by Benjamin Zephaniah

  • I’m the King of the Castle by Susan Hill

  • Monday’s Not Coming by Tiffany D Jackson

  • Internment by Samira Ahmed

  • Indigo Donut by Patrice Lawrence

  • Killing Honour by Bali Rai

  • Who Put This Song On? by Morgan Parker

  • The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy

  • Darkness Falling by Patrick MacDonald

  • The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

  • Death and the King’s Horseman by Wole Soyinka

  • Catching Teller Crow by Ambelin Kwaymullina and Ezekiel Kwaymullina

  • Boy meets Boy by David Levithan

  • The Color Purple by Alice Walker

  • The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

  • On the come up by Angie Thomas

  • Swing by Kwame Alexander and Mary Rand Hess

  • The Lonely Londoners by San Selvon

  • You’re Not Proper by Tariq Mehmood

  • Native Son by Richard Wright

  • Beloved by Toni Morrison

  • The Girl in the Broken Mirror by Savita Kalhan

Non-Fiction

  • Notes from a Big Country by Bill Bryson

  • Cider with Rosie by Laurie Lee

  • Chinese Cinderella by Adeline Yen Ma

Textbooks and Study Aids

  • How to Read Literature by Terry Eagleton

  • How Fiction Works by James Wood

  • A Brief History of English Literature by John Peck and Martin Coyle

  • Once Upon a Time by Marina Warner

  • Shakespeare by Bill Bryson

  • Literary Devices by Amy Jones

  • The Penguin Dictionary on Literary Terms and Literary Theory

  • The Elements of Style by William Strunk

  • Eats, Shoots and Leaves by Lynn Truss

  • Woe is I by Patricia T O’Connor

Poems

Love & Relationships

  • When We Two Parted by Lord Byron

  • Love’s Philosophy by Percy Bysshe Shelley

  • Porphyria’s Lover by Robert Browning

  • Sonnet 29 – ‘I think of thee!’ by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

  • Neutral Tones by Thomas Hardy

  • Letters from Yorkshire by Maura Dooley

  • The Farmer’s Bride by Charlotte Mew

  • Walking Away by Cecil Day-Lewis

  • Eden Rock by Charles Causley

  • Follower by Seamus Heaney

  • Mother, any distance by Simon Armitage

  • Before You Were Mine by Carol Ann Duffy

  • Winter Swans by Owen Sheers

  • Singh Song! By Daljit Nagra

  • Climbing My Grandfather by Andrew Waterhouse

Power & Conflict

  • Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley

  • London by William Blake

  • Extract from, The Prelude by William Wordsworth

  • My Last Duchess by Robert Browning

  • The Charge of the Light Brigade by Alfred Lord Tennyson

  • Exposure by Wilfred Owen

  • Storm on the Island by Seamus Heaney

  • Bayonet Charge by Ted Hughes

  • Remains by Simon Armitage

  • Poppies by Jane Weir

  • War Photographer by Carol Ann Duffy

  • Tissue by Imtiaz Dharker

  • The Emigrée by Carol Rumens

  • Checking Out Me History by John Agard

  • Kamikaze by Beatrice Garland

Poetry Collections

  • And Still I Rise by Maya Angelou

  • Telephone Box by Wole Soyinka

  • The Book of Traps and Lessons by Kate Tempest

  • Answering Back by Carol Anne Duffy

  • The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo

  • Solo by Kwame Alexander

  • Beauty is a Verb: The New Poetry of Disability by Sheila Black and Jennifer Bartlett

  • Light Filters In by Caroline Kaufman

  • Poetry Speaks Who I Am by Elise Paschen

  • Poisoned Apples: Poems for You My Pretty by Christine Heppermann

  • Unheard Voices by Malorie Blackman

“That’s the reason they’re called lessons... because they lessen from day to day”

- Lewis Carroll