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A High Performing Specialist Academy for Technology & Applied Learning

Recommended Reads for Students

Ahmed, Sufiya -
Secrets of the Henna Girl

Life as Zeba knows it could be over for good...Zeba Khan is like any other sixteen-year-old girl: enjoying herself, waiting for exam results ...and dreaming of the day she'll meet her one true love.  Except her parents have other plans.  In Pakistan for the summer, Zeba's world is shattered.

Her future is threatened by an unthinkable - and forced - duty to protect her father's honour.  But does she hold the secrets that will help her escape?

Blackman, Malorie - Noughts and Crosses

Callum is a nought – a second class citizen in a world run by the ruling crosses.  He is also one of the first nought youngsters to be given the chance to study at a school for crosses.  Stefy is a cross – can Callum and Stefy possibly find a way to be together?

Bronte, Charlotte -
Jane Eyre

Jane Eyre (originally published as Jane Eyre: An Autobiography) is a novel by English writer Charlotte Brontë.  It was published on 16 October 1847, by Smith, Elder & Co. of London, England, under the pen name "Currer Bell."  The first American edition was published the following year by Harper & Brothers of New York. Primarily of the bildungsroman genre.  Jane Eyre follows the emotions and experiences of its title character, including her growth to adulthood, and her love for Mr Rochester, the Byronic master of fictitious Thornfield Hall.  In its internalisation of the action — the focus is on the gradual unfolding of Jane's moral and spiritual sensibility, and all the events are coloured by a heightened intensity that was previously the domain of poetry — Jane Eyre revolutionised the art of fiction.  Charlotte Brontë has been called the 'first historian of the private consciousness' and the literary ancestor of writers like Joyce and Proust.

Chainani, Soman -
The School for Good and Evil

A dark and enchanting fantasy adventure perfect for girls who prefer their fairy-tales with a twist.

Every four years, two girls are kidnapped from the village of Gavaldon. Legend has it these lost children are sent to the School for Good and Evil, the fables institution where they become fairy-tale heroes or villains.

Colfer, Eoin -
Artemis Fowl


For a start, leprechaun technology is more advanced than our own.  Holly is a true heroine and her senior officer Commander Root will stop at nothing to get her back.

Collins, Suzanne -
The Hunger Games




Welcome to the deadliest reality TV show ever...

Crossan, Sarah -
Apple and Rain

When Apple’s mother returns after eleven years away, Apple feels whole again. She will have an answer to her burning question – why did you go?

 But just like the stormy Christmas Eve when she left, her mother’s homecoming is bitter sweet. It’s only when Apple meets someone more lost than she is, that she begins to see things as they really are.

Crossan, Sarah -
The Weight of Water



Dickens, Charles -
Great Expectations




Dumas, Alexandre -
The Three Musketeers
(Pre-19th Century KS4)

The Three Musketeers is an historical novel by Alexandre Dumas. Set in 1625-8, it recounts the adventures of a young man named D'Artagnan after he leaves home to travel to Paris, to join the Musketeers of the Guard.  Although D'Artagnan is not able to join this elite corps immediately, he befriends the three most formidable musketeers of the age: Athos, Porthos and Aramis and gets involved in affairs of the state and court.  In genre, The Three Musketeers is primarily an historical and adventure novel.  However, Dumas also frequently works into the plot various injustices, abuses and absurdities of the old regime, giving the novel an additional political aspect at a time when the debate in France between republicans and monarchists was still fierce.

Erskine, Kathryn - Mockingbird

This is one of the most moving books you'll ever read. 11-year-old Caitlin has Asperger's syndrome, and has always had her older brother, Devon, to explain the confusing things around her. But when Devon is killed in a tragic school shooting, Caitlin has to try and make sense of the world without him.

With her dad spending most of his time crying in the shower, and her life at school becoming increasingly difficult, it doesn't seem like things will ever get better again.

Green, John -
Looking for Alaska


After.  Nothing is ever the same.

Green, John -
The Fault in Our Stars (Years 8 and above)

Despite the tumour-shrinking medical miracle that has bought her a few years, Hazel has never been anything but terminal, her final chapter inscribed upon diagnosis.  But when a gorgeous plot twist named Augustus Waters suddenly appears at Cancer Kid Support Group, Hazel's story is about to be completely rewritten.  The Fault in Our Stars explores the funny, thrilling, and tragic business of being alive and in love.

Hardy, Thomas -
Far from the Madding Crowd
(Pre-19th Century KS4)


Hooper, Mary -
Fallen Grace

Grace Parkes has just had to do a terrible thing.  Having given birth to an illegitimate child, she has travelled to Brookwood Cemetery to place her small infant's body in a rich lady's coffin.  Following the advice of a kindly midwife, this is the only way that Grace can think of to give something at least to the little baby who died at birth, and to avoid the disgrace of a pauper's grave.

Hughes, Shirley - Hero on a Bicycle

Florence, Italy, 1944 and the city is under heavy Nazi occupation.  For fourteen-year-old Paolo, the war is a long and boring wait.  Too young to fight for what he believes in and desperate for adventure, he sets out each night on secret bike rides.

But one night Paolo receives a message that propels his family into a terrifying and impossible situation.  Finally at the centre of the action, Paolo must work out how to be a true hero.

Hugo, Victor -
Les Miserables
(Pre-19th Century KS4)

The novel contains various subplots, but the main thread is the story of ex-convict Jean Valjean, who becomes a force for good in the world but cannot escape his criminal past. The novel is divided into five volumes, each volume divided into several books, and subdivided into chapters, for a total of 48 books and 365 chapters. Each chapter is relatively short, commonly no longer than a few pages.  The novel as a whole is one of the longest ever written.  Hugo explained his ambitions for the novel to his Italian publisher:

I don't know whether it will be read by everyone, but it is meant for everyone. It addresses England as well as Spain, Italy as well as France, Germany as well as Ireland, the republics that harbour slaves as well as empires that have serfs. Social problems go beyond frontiers. Humankind's wounds, those huge sores that litter the world, do not stop at the blue and red lines drawn on maps. Wherever men go in ignorance or despair, wherever women sell themselves for bread, wherever children lack a book to learn from or a warm hearth, Les Miserables knocks at the door and says: "open up, I am here for you."

Kinney, Jeff -
Diary of a Wimpy Kid - The Long Haul (Book 9)

A family road trip is supposed to be a lot of fun.... unless, of course, you're the Heffleys.  The journey starts off full of promise, then quickly takes several wrong turns.  Petrol-station bathrooms, crazed seagulls, a fender bender and a runaway pig - exactly Greg Heffley's idea of a good time.  But even the worst road trip can turn into an adventure - and this is one the Heffleys won't soon forget.

Kipling, Rudyard -
The Jungle Book
(Pre-19th Century KS4)

The Jungle Book is a collection of stories by English author Rudyard Kipling.  The tales in the book (as well as those in The Second Jungle Book, which followed in 1895) are fables, using animals in an anthropomorphic manner to give moral lessons.  Other readers have interpreted the work as allegories of the politics and society of the time.  The best-known of them are the three stories revolving around the adventures of Mowgli, an abandoned "man cub" who is raised by wolves in the Indian jungle.

Malley, Gemma - The Killables



McKenzie, Sophie -
Falling Fast
(Years 9 and above)


McKenzie, Sophie - Missing me


Morpurgo, Michael - Medal for Leroy

Inspired by the true story of Walter Tull, the first black officer in the British army, this is a stunning new novel of identity and loss by Michael Morpurgo.  Michael doesn't remember his father, an RAF pilot lost in the war.  And his French mother, heartbroken and passionate, doesn't like to talk about her husband.


Muchamore, Robert - Black Friday


Ryan is about to board a plane, knowing that the next twenty four hours will change everything. His mission is to stop the biggest terrorist attack America's ever seen. Ryan works for CHERUB, a secret organisation with one key advantage: even a trained terrorist won't suspect that a teenager is spying on them.

For official purposes, these children do not exist.

Ness, Patrick -
A Monster Calls




Palacio, R.J - Wonder








All he wants is to be accepted - but can he convince his new classmates that he's just like them, underneath it all?  "Wonder" is a funny, frank, astonishingly moving debut to read in one sitting, pass on to others, and remember long after the final page.

Pichon, Liz - Tom Gates - Genius Ideas (mostly)

Seeing Delia without her sunglasses on is a BIG shock for Tom, but that’s nothing compared with the surprise that Dad has in store with his new found fitness regime.  He says he’s going to compete at the school sports day.  Can you imagine the horrendous shame that will bring?

Pitcher, Annabel - My Sister Lives on the Mantelpiece

Ten year old Jamie Matthews has just moved to the Lake District with his Dad and his teenage sister, Jasmine, for a 'Fresh New Start'.  Five years ago his sister's twin, Rose, was blown up by a terrorist bomb.  His parents are wrecked by their grief, Jasmine turns to piercing, pink hair and stops eating.
The family falls apart.  But Jamie hasn't cried in all that time.  To him Rose is just a distant memory.
Jamie is far more interested in his cat, Roger, his birthday Spiderman T-shirt, and in keeping his new friend Sunya a secret from his Dad.  And in his deep longing and unshakeable belief that his Mum will come back to the family she walked out on months ago.  When he sees a TV advert for a talent show, he feels certain that this will change everything and bring them all back together once and for all.

Priestly, Chris -
Mister Creecher





But a bond swiftly develops between these two misfits as their journey takes them ever northwards on the trail of their target ...Victor Frankenstein. Friendship, trust and betrayal combine to form a dangerous liaison in this moving and frightening new book from Chris Priestley.

Reeve, Philip - Goblins


From the lands of men come fortune-seekers - and trolls, giants, cloud-maidens, boglins, swamp monsters, tree-warriors and bloodthirsty goblins are swept into a fabulous magical conflict to thrill all fantasy fans.

Roth, Veronica - Divergent



And yet she is drawn to a boy who seems to both threaten and protect her. The hardest choices may yet lie ahead...The first book in the DIVERGENT series that has swept the globe - selling millions of copies worldwide.

Rowell, Rainbow -
Eleanor & Park


Sedgwick, Marcus - Midwinterblood 




Have you ever had the feeling that you've lived another life?  Been somewhere that has felt totally familiar even when you've never been there before, or felt that you've known someone even though you are meeting them for the first time?  In a novel comprising seven short stories each of them influenced by a moon - flower moon, harvest moon, hunter's moon, blood moon - and travelling from 2073 back in time to the dark of the moon and the days of Viking saga, this is the story of Eric and Merle who have loved and lost one another and who have been searching for each other ever since.

In the different stories the two appear as lovers, mother and son, brother and sister, artist and child as they come close to finding each other before facing the ultimate sacrifice.  Beautifully imagined, intricately and cleverly structured this is a heart-wrenching and breathtaking paranormal romance, but it also has the hallmark Sedgwick gothic touch with plenty of blood-spilling, a vampire and sacrifice.

Verne, Jules - Around the World in 80 Days
(Pre-19th Century KS4)

Around the World in Eighty Days is a classic adventure novel by the French writer, Jules Verne, published in 1873.  In the story, Phileas Fogg of London and his newly employed French valet, Passepartout, attempt to circumnavigate the world in 80 days on a £20,000 wager (equivalent to £1,600,000 in 2015) set by his friends at the Reform Club.  It is one of Verne's most acclaimed works.

Verne, Jules - Journey to the Centre of the Earth
(Pre-19th Century KS4)

Journey to the Center of the Earth is an 1864 science fiction by Jules Verne.  The story involves German professor Otto Lidenbrock who believes there are volcanic tubes going toward the centre of the Earth.  He, his nephew Axel, and their guide Hans descend into the Icelandic volcano, encountering many adventures, including prehistoric animals and natural hazards, before eventually coming to the surface again in southern Italy.

Walliams, David - Awful Auntie

Have you got an awful auntie? Does she:

Make revolting rhubarb crumbles and force you to eat them?  Knit you itchy jumpers with I LOVE YOU AUNTIE on the front?  Give you a big slobbering kiss every time she sees you?  However awful your auntie might be, she will never be in the same league of awfulness as Stella Saxby’s awful Aunt Alberta. Just how awful is she?  Read on and find out!

Walliams, David - Demon Dentist



Zusak, Marcus -
The Book Thief





Curriculum Information