The transition from children’s books to teenage fiction to adult novels can be hard to navigate. Here are four reading lists to give you a helping hand.
Year 8
From Malorie Blackman to Alex Shearer to Suzanne Collins, there are some fantastic authors out there for young teenagers. If your child is a confident reader, they might also like to try some classic novels. Animal Farmand Of Mice and Men are great places to start, as they’re action-packed and not too long.
Thrillers
The Angel Factory– Terence Blacker
Fantasy
Noughts & Crossesseries – Malorie Blackman
The Hunger Gamesseries – Suzanne Collins
The Midwich Cuckoos– John Wyndham
Crime
And Then There Were None– Agatha Christie
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Arthur Conan Doyle
Adventure
Journey to the River Sea – Eva Ibbotson
Classics
My Family and Other Animals– Gerald Durrell
Of Mice and Men– John Steinbeck
Refugee Boy– Benjamin Zephaniah
Humour
Adrian Mole’s Diaryseries – Sue Townsend
Historical novels
The Roman Mysteries– Caroline Lawrence
Year 9
Fourteen and fifteen year-olds often find choosing books tricky without the help of reading lists. Having outgrown children’s literature, lots of Year 9 students still find adult novels daunting. Alexander McCall Smith’s No.1 Ladies’Detective Agencyseries is perfect for this age group, as are Agatha Christie’s murder mysteries. For something more challenging, try Kazuo Ishiguro’sNever Let Me Goor F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby.
Classics
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland– Lewis Carroll
The Great Gatsby– F. Scott Fitzgerald
TheCatcher in the Rye– J.D Salinger
Historical novels
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas– John Boyne
Chinese Cinderella – Adeline Yen Mah
Adventure
Never Let Me Go– Kazuo Ishiguro
Crime
The Mysterious Affair at Styles – Agatha Christie
Bridge to the Stars– Henning Mankel
The No.1 Ladies’Detective Agency series – Alexander McCall Smith
Fantasy
The Amulet of Samarkand– Jonathan Stroud
Year 10
As teenagers start their GCSEs, they are faced with tougher reading material on a daily basis. They are also mature enough to enjoy more difficult reading lists. Gothic tales like Wuthering Heightsand The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hydeare popular with this age group, as are modern thrillers like The Girl on the Train. For historically-minded students, Philippa Gregory and Lindsay Davis have written a huge number books for readers to get their teeth into.
Classics
Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte
The Catcher in the Rye– J.D Salinger
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie– Muriel Spark
The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde– Robert Louis Stevenson
Modern fiction
The Poisonwood Bible – Barbara Kingsolver
Short story collections
Crime
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd – Agatha Christie
The Monogram Murders – Sophie Hannah
Thrillers
Before I Go to Sleep– S. J. Watson
The Girl on the Train– Paula Hawkins
Historical novels
The Falcoseries – Lindsay Davis
Memoirs of a Geisha– Arthur Golden
The Other Boleyn Girl– Philippa Gregory
Year 11
By Year 11 most teenagers are sampling adult fiction. For students hoping to pursue English Literature at A Level, the likes of Emma and Oliver Twistare well worth reading. Meanwhile, Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dallowayoffers a brilliant introduction to Modernism and Ian Rankin’s Knots and Crosses is crime writing at its finest.
Classics
Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens
The Picture of Dorian Gray– Oscar Wilde
Modern fiction
Captain Corelli’s Mandolin– Louis de Bernières
Historical novels
The Tattooist of Auschwitz– Heather Morris
Thrillers
Crime
The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle– Stuart Turton
