Year 6 reading list

Ages 10 to 11 · Key Stage 2

Readers are getting ready for secondary school. Stretch them a little with classic quests and longer novels, and keep room for books they simply enjoy.

Loved by many

• The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien. The classic quest, and a stepping stone to longer fantasy.
• Carrie's War by Nina Bawden. Evacuees in Wales and a secret. A good way into wartime topics.
• Rooftoppers by Katherine Rundell. A girl who searches the rooftops of Paris for her mother.
• Millions by Frank Cottrell Boyce. Two brothers find a bag of money just before the pound is replaced by the euro.
• Letters from the Lighthouse by Emma Carroll. A wartime mystery, told partly in letters.
• Murder Most Unladylike by Robin Stevens. A boarding-school detective story.
• Journey to the River Sea by Eva Ibbotson. An orphan travels to the Amazon in 1910.
• Private Peaceful by Michael Morpurgo. A First World War story. Moving, and a good one to read together.

Recent prize winners

• A Kind of Spark by Elle McNicoll. Blue Peter Book Award 2021, Best Story (the awards ended in 2022).

At home

Keep a shared list on the fridge of books each of you has read this year. It makes the step up to secondary reading feel like progress.