The Active Encouragement of Reading for Pleasure Should Be a Core

Platt Church of England (VA) Primary School
Maidstone Road, St. Mary’s Platt, Nr Sevenoaks, Kent, TN15 8JY

Tel: 01732 882596

Email:

19th March 2015

Dear Parents / Guardians,

In response to recent parent consultations, I have compiled some information to offer guidance on supporting your child’s learning at home.

“The active encouragement of reading for pleasure should be a core

part of every child’s educational entitlement, whatever their

background or attainment, as extensive reading and exposure to a

wide range of texts make a huge contribution to students’

educational achievement.”

Christine Blower, General secretary, NUT

A few parents asked about what kind of books would constitute a ‘high quality’ read for upper KS2 pupils. This list is a selection of books which may offer challenge to readers who would like to try something new, or engage those who are reluctant to read. I have read many of them myself, and researched others from various sources. Although they are classified as ‘age appropriate’, I cannot advise parents about their content, and would suggest that if you had concerns about any of them, that you read them first.

One off books/classics

Author / Title / Genre
Charles and Mary Lamb / Tales from Shakespeare / Tells of the tales of Shakespeare in a short, child friendly version. You could read one, or all. Also useful if you’re going to see the plays!
Catherine Storr / Marianne Dreams / Ghostly story of a child convalescing and how her dreams about another ill child become a dream story. Beautifully written.
Philippa Pearce / Tom’s Midnight Garden / Tom is staying with elderly relatives due to illness. He is very bored. One night he hears the grandfather clock strike 13. He sets off to investigate and meets the ghost Hatty.
Franz Kafka / Metamorphosis / Gregor Samsor wakes up to find he has turned into a cockroach in his flat. It is actually an analogy about a nervous breakdown but you possibly wouldn’t know from reading it. Would probably need to discuss with an adult after. However it is a classic and worth attempting for advanced readers.
Judith Kerr / When Hitler stole Pink rabbit / Semi-autobiographical from the author of Mog. Tells of her escape from Nazi Germany through Switzerland, France and finally London.
Anna Sewell / Black Beauty / Classic narrated by the horse itself. Sad but a great tale.
Lewis Carroll / Alice in Wonderland
Alice through the looking glass. / 2 lovely adventure stories. Some have beautiful illustrations.
Susan Coolidge / What Katy did
What Katy did next / A classic about the adventures of Katy.
Louisa May Alcott / Little Women / Adventures of sisters. Set in America. Funny and sad.
Nina Bawden / Carrie’s war / Child evacuated during world war 2. A little scary.
Anne Frank / Diary of Anne Frank / Suitable for upper ks2.
Kenneth Graham / Wind in the Willows / Some of the books also have excellent illustrations.
Frank Baum / Wizard of Oz / Well written
J.M. Barrie / Peter Pan / Language has dated but still a modern classic
Richard Adams / Watership Down / A challenging read but very well written.
William Goldman / The Princess Bride / A classic.
Eva Ibbotson / Journey to the river sea / Beautifully written. A girl goes to live with spoilt cousins in the Amazon.
Tony Robinson / Kings and Queens / Lovely book which tells, in child friendly language, the history of British Kings and Queens. From Alfred the Great to the bloody Plantagenets, crafty Tudors, to present day.
J.R. Tolkein / Lord of the Rings trilogy
The Hobbit / A challenging read. Maybe read the Hobbit first? It’s much shorter and simpler. However a classic-might appeal to boys as a great adventure story.

Good quality authors who have written several books or series

Author / Title of series / Genre
Michael Morpurgo / various / All of his books are fabulous. Check out “Kenzuke’s Kingdom” or “War Horse.” Has written 20+ books. Some are about world war 1 and 2.
Philip Pullman / His Dark Materials
Other various / Challenging books but well worth the effort. Check out “The Firework maker’s daughter” or any of the trilogy from his dark materials. First book is the film “Golden Compass” (book called Northern Lights)
Michael Rosen / Great poetry / All his poetry books are fantastic.
Roald Dahl / Various / Read them all!! Include “Going solo” which is autobiographical.
Anthony Horowitz / Spy books-Alex Rider
Diamond brother series.
Various others / Very witty, challenging. Boys esp will love them. Girls will like them too!
Eoin Colfer / Artemis Fowl series. / Very witty, challenging. Much wittier than Harry Potter, little bit dark but beautifully written. About a teenage criminal mastermind named Artemis Fowl II.
Derek Landy / Skulduggery Pleasant. / A smart detective and his cunning sidekick have adventures in a magic world.
Terry Deary / Horrible histories, geography, science etc. / Fabulous series with all the gory bits left in. Often linked to what children are learning at school.
Louis Sachar / Holes / About a 13-year-old boy named Stanley Yelnats, sent to the juvenile detention centre Camp Green Lake after being wrongly accused of stealing a pair of shoes, appealing to boys of 10 and over.
Alan Garner / The Owl service / Bit scary but clever stories.
Caroline Lawrence / Roman mysteries series / Set in Ostia in Roman times. Really well written books. Exciting and clever.
Michelle Paver / Chronicles of ancient darkness (book one is called Wolf Brother) / Set during stone age Europe. The books chronicle the adventures of Torak, an adolescent boy from the Wolf Clan, and his friends Renn and Wolf. The main story revolves around Torak and his quest to defeat the Soul Eaters, a group of evil clan mages who seek out to destroy all life in the forest.
Robert Muchamore / The Cherub series / Challenging subject matter - about a group of orphaned teenage spies – would appeal to boys
Simon Cheshire / Deadline / Fabulous beginning! Sam and Karen don't know who to trust when their mum is taken away by armed police. Get ready for a breathless chase across London on bikes!
David Grimstone / Undead Ed and the Howling Moon / Hilarious new series which sees 13 year old Ed run over by a truck and turning into a zombie. His mission in this story is to track down a killer. Humorous and funny with plenty of appeal.
Jane Johnson / Goldseekers / Set in Cornwall, these pirates are not for the faint hearted. Jude is abducted and enslaved but is determined to survive. Will he ever see his homeland again?
Charlie Higson / Young Bond series / A compelling prequel to Ian Fleming's Bond series: here, we meet Bond as a 13-year-old at Eton in the 1930s.
Siobhan Rowden / The Curse of the Bogle's Beard / There's more than meets the eye to Granny Hogsflesh and her pickling empire, but even Barnaby couldn't have guessed how much more. Nor could he possibly have imagined what actually happened to his dad, who, burping and slurping, mysteriously disappeared into the night... What has Granny done
David Gilman / Ice Claw / Two thousand freezing metres high in the mountain peaks, Max Gordon is grappling with death. His race to win an X-treme sports challenge has become a race to survive. Max witnesses the last moments of a mysterious Basque monk, who screams a cryptic clue before plummeting to his death. The clue is a prophecy that fortells of a cataclysmic ecological event which will kill millions across Europe. Now Max is trapped in the darkness of a dead man's secret and the hunt is on.
C. S. Lewis / Narnia Chronicles / Don’t dismiss the other books. The Lion the Witch and the wardrobe is only no. Read all the other books (the Voyage of the Dawn Treader is my favourite.)
Various / How to be the best... / Various fun books on how to be the best girl, boy, most glamorous, adventurous etc. Good fun and light hearted!
Erin Hunter / Cat warrior series / Numerous adventures amongst different clans of cats. Set in the New Forest. Would appeal to girls esp.
Michael Bond / Olga da Polga series / Trilogy of a guinea-pig and her adventures with her friends. Laugh out loud funny.
Jamilla Gavin / 3 Princesses
Coram Boy / Beautifully written stories. 3 Princesses is 3 different stories about Rama and Sita. Very clever.

Books to engage reluctant boy readers

Author / title / Genre
Paul Dowswell / Battle Fleet Trafalgar, 1805 / Sam Witchall relates in the first person his tale as a young midshipman aboard the Victory. Through his eyes and alert mind the reader experiences things as if from right inside the ship among the crew.
Richard Hamilton / Jack Bolt and the Highwaymen’s Hideout / Jack is 10 and lives in modern London but when staying with his gran in the countryside a timeslip takes him into the sphere of eighteenth century highway robbery.
Anthony Read / Sherlock Holmes’s Baker Street Boys: The Case of the Limehouse Laundry / The seven-strong Baker Street Boys, including three girls, occasionally give assistance to Holmes but in this
series those roles are reversed.
Rick Riordan / Percy Jackson and the Titan’s Curse / The Greek Gods of Mount Olympus are still going strong, but like many other displaced folk they are living in America, in New York. Percy Jackson is 12 and he himself has an alter-ego as a demi-god, Perseus. He has a mission to fulfil – to recruit two other similar beings from military school.
Jon Berkeley / The Palace of Laughter / After a strangely lulling opening comes a somewhat different and gripping story about Miles Wednesday,
an orphan who lives in a barrel. His life is disrupted when an odd circus visits and he rescues a small girl with wings, leading into a long, hazardous quest.

Another query which was raised was about websites and online resources to support learning at home – both in Maths and English. This is a list of sites which may be helpful. Many of them have games which children can play independently to consolidate what we have been doing in the classroom.

Literacy / Maths
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks2bitesize/english/ / http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks2bitesize/maths/
http://www.fun4thebrain.com/english.html / www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/maths/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/starship/english/ / http://www.mathsisfun.com/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/spellits/ / WWW.topmarks.co.uk – look at learning games
http://www.kidsspell.com/ / http://www.multiplication.com/
http://www.teachingandlearningresources.co.uk/ / http://www.oswego.org/ocsd-web/games/Ghostblasters3/ghostadd3.html
WWW.topmarks.co.uk – look at learning games / http://nrich.maths.org/
http://www.mathszone.co.uk/

I hope that these resources are of use to you. Please feel free to pop in and speak to me if you have questions about any of the books or resources I have suggested.

Yours sincerely

Miss Drage