Top Ten Class Readers for years 5 and 6

A teacher in one of my schools recently asked for advice on good books to use as class readers with years 5 and 6. Pleased both to be asked and that class readers are continuing to make a comeback with the new curriculum’s emphasis on reading for pleasure, I thought I would have a go. Serendipitously, the TES published a ‘bucket list’ of the 100 books primary pupils should read by age 11 a few weeks ago.  Although this is more suggestive of a ‘cultural literacy’ obsession with which I am not entirely comfortable and is, in reality, a popularity contest in which teachers voted for their favourites, it is nonetheless an interesting list going well beyond years 5 and 6. The top ten were:

1.    Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl

2.    Goodnight Mister Tom by Michelle Magorian

3.    Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

4.    Matilda by Roald Dahl

5.    The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson

6.    The Chronicles of Narnia by C S Lewis

7.    The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle

8.    We're Going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen

9.    Dogger by Shirley Hughes

10. Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak

The 100 is a catholic mixture where elderly classics like Black Beauty, Treasure Island, The Railway Children and the Wind in the Willows sit alongside younger classics by authors like Malorie Blackman, Jacqueline Wilson and Anthony Browne. By using the poster version from the middle pages of the TES, or pasting a copy of the list in reading logs, schools might  prompt a little more wide reading with a ‘read’em all’ competition enticing keen readers, informing present buying parents and attracting the lovers of lists and collectibles. The list might also attract pupils to books that do feature but have faded from the classrooms that I go into. These include once ubiquitous works by Gene Kemp, George Layton, Alan Garner and the surprisingly absent  Betsy Byars (Midnight Fox, TV Kid, The Eighteenth Emergency) and Gwen Grant (Private Keep Out).

The full list of 100 books is available at: https://www.tes.co.uk along with a list for secondary pupils which has more of a canonical flavour than does the primary version.

Apparently the Twittersphere was alive with comment on the lists and led to librarian and author Dawn Finch compiling one of her own. Her lengthy collation (125 books) is helpfully subdivided into picture books, books where chapters appear, books with longer chapters or stronger themes and then transition texts, many of which feature as  readers in secondary schools.  She also adds poetry suggestions. Her list is available at https://deefinch.wordpress.com.

My own list overlaps with hers and with the TES compilation and focuses on texts that I think would make great class reads across upper key stage two. There are caveats around some of my choices of course. Inevitably the most exciting and interesting fiction can offend particular sensibilities and offer  various challenges, not all intellectual.  Obviously, teachers  need to read in advance to check suitability for their own classes and circumstances, anticipating objections from parents who are more conservative about what 10 and 11 year olds should be reading or from KS3 teachers who are fearful that their favourite class novel has migrated into the primary sector (as Louis Sachar’s Holes did and Dawn Finch suggests should be the case with Boy in the Striped Pyjamas). I welcome dispute and disagreement, hoping it prompts children themselves to engage in discursive or argument writing and speaking round issues of censorship and choice. Do they think they are too young to read books containing, for example, mild swearing, violence or what could be controversial subject matter? Debate can enhance their practice as readers, allowing them to consider issues such as whether a character is independent of an author or necessarily a role model in all they say or do. As more and more teen fiction crosses over into adult reading and into primary school reading (Harry Potter and Hunger Games for example) discussion and debate is likely to recur.

My list below is not exhaustive and reflects my own tastes and interests but I think the books will do what a good class read should do: engage the class; stimulate interest from both boys and girls and from both avid and reluctant readers; offer opportunities to examine how writers use language for effect, structure a story and say something about the world; and generate a variety of written and oral work. These books also offer possibilities for activity in other subject areas and, through good questioning and close reading will develop essential reading and writing skills as well as giving opportunity for all sorts of talk. My list seems a bit male heavy but it is by no means exclusive and I’d be happy for any teacher or child to take issue with any of the choices and substitute their own.

I have tried to nominate individual works but, given that some of the best books were designed to be part of a series and avid readers crave involvement in characters beyond a single encounter, I have included several series books. The list is organised by author rather than just by text.

In no particular order:

1. Antony Horowitz: Pretty much anything he has written. Stormbreaker would be first choice but any of the Alex Ryder stories has mileage. The series charts the adventures of the reluctant teenage spy and references James Bond, ( though not as much as the also excellent Charlie Higson Young Bond books do). Opportunities for a variety of work abound including non-fiction writing about the inventive gadgets Alex uses (a book exists detailing some of these and can be used as a model).  Spyology from   is also a useful non-fiction text to support topic work cntred upoin the book. A film version and graphic novel are also available for Stormbreaker. Further reading of Horowitz could include the Power of Five series and, though they may not get the allusions to classic cinema, the Diamond Brothers stories offer humour and an entry into detective fiction. Horowitz Horror and HH2 also have much to offer.
2. Robert Muchamore. The Recruit is also a spy novel and the first in a lengthy series. It is grittier than Alex Ryder and, as the central characters grow into teenhood, they also encounter prejudice, bad language and sexual desire. The Recruit is the most accessible for the under 12s, is particularly appealing to boys without excluding girls and makes an interesting contrast to the Alex Ryder books. The spy/espionage topic works just as well with this as a central text and there is a Cherub website to support readers who are engrossed in the novels and want to go further.
3. Neil Gaiman. The Graveyard Book. I think Coraline would also feature on my list, as it does on Dawn Finch’s, but it is the story of Nobody Owen (Bod) that really makes me long to be sat in a classroom on an darkening Autumn afternoon reading aloud to a class. Brilliantly written, and thus useable as a model for ghost, horror or adventure writing, the story details Bod’s childhood, living amongst the deceased inhabitants of a graveyard.
4. Joe Delaney. The Spook’s Apprentice. Other books in the Spook’s  series are worth reading but I would start with the first of them. This is appealing, partly as an alternative to Harry Potter and partly because it uses real locations around Lancashire, the home of the Pendle witches and my own place of residence. Members of the local CofE diocese have condemned it unread as it deals with the supernatural but I doubt it will drive anyone to devil worship. Good links to a history topic and lots of opportunities for exploring historical attitudes to witches and the supernatural. An appalling film version could supplanted by pupils coming up with their own scripts.
5. Vivian Allcock.  The Monster Garden. A favourite of mine for many years and offering possibilities for looking at science writing and explanation texts. The story centres on girl, appropriately called Frances L Stein, who is neglected by geneticist father and aspiring scientist brother but whose own experiments accidentally lead to the creation of Monnie, a creature who is brought to life in a lightning storm and proceeds to grow disturbingly quickly. It is a gentle read but absorbing and imaginative.
6. Morris Gleitzman. Bumface. Selected partly because of its brilliant opening, which cannot fail to hook a ten year old reader, but it is also on the list because it is touching and amusing, as is the case with much of Gleitzman’s work. It deals with arranged marriages, culture clashes, friendship and children’s perceptions of the adult world but in a way that is gentle and amusing.
7. Theresa Breslin. Whispers in the Graveyard. Another long time favourite because it is so well written and engrossing. More spooky stuff and graveyards as the hurt and neglected Solomon finds his refuge in the local cemetery is disturbed by developers who unleash dark forces locked beneath the earth. It is sure to enthral a class and offers a model for ghost story writing as well as for discussion about tales of myth and legend.
8. Phillip Pulmann. Clockwork. Some keen readers will have started on Pullmann’s Dark Materials trilogy and may have seen the film of Northern Lights but I’d be using the much shorter Clockwork  with year 5 and 6s as an introduction to his work. It is a mysterious tale which does fascinating things with language and with narrative.  Reminiscent of spiky east European animation, this tale of automata, Faustian pacts, sacrifice and heroism is imaginative and has all sorts of links to fables and morality tales. Lots of possible links to science fiction tropes too.
9. Michelle Paver.  Wolf Brother.  First book in the trilogy of Chronicles of Darkness and it will make pupils want to read the other two. It is set in an ancient, well imagined world of forest, ice, wolves and tribal loyalties and offers opportunities to explore stone age life and to chart the journeys of the hero, heroine and the wolf who aids them.
10. Lemony Snicket. A Series of Unfortunate Events. A meta-fictional treat with fascinating characters and a great story which extends to 13 self-contained books. It is rare to find a children’s book which announces the absence of a happy ending at the start and advises readers to go elsewhere but this one does it and continues to play with narrative and with language in ways which avid readers will enjoy while others are engrossed in the twists and turns of the plot. An OK film version has been made and there are some spin off books about the Baudelaire siblings who are at the centre of the narrative.

I thought long and hard about which ten books to choose and already rue the absence of Phillip Reeve, Carl Hiaasen and Patrick Ness let alone Malorie Blackmann, Louis Sachar, Ann Fine and Jacqueline Wilson but you can only get a limited number of class reads into a two year period and, if half of the above were used, I think there would be lots of reading for pleasure taking place inside and outside the classroom. My list of what kids would enjoy reading on their own would be a great deal longer!

 if anyone does read this list they should feel free to roll their eyes at my ignorance and idiosyncratic choices. No doubt they will have a better list of their own.