Category Archives: Book group

29th January 2019
0

Books for children in Year 4, 5 and 6

By | Book club N21, book clubs for children North London, Book group, Book Reviews, The Story Room, Uncategorised, Winchmore Hill | No Comments

Books for children in Years 4, 5 and 6

We have been running a Book Club for years 4, 5 and 6 for at least 4 years now and have read some fantastic and some not-so-fantastic books… 

We often get asked for book recommendations for children in this age group – so here is a list of books that have been popular with the children at The Story Room Book Club. The books highlighted in gold were the children’s absolute favourites leading them to read other books by the same author.  We also discuss poems, stories and books, and make reading suggestions for the children, in all of our creative writing workshops too.

Sky Song – Abi Elphinstone   

Shadow – Micheal Morpurgo  

Wolf Brother – Michelle Paver  

The Explorer – Katherine Rundell  

The Magician’s Nephew – C.S.Lewis

Mary Poppins – P.L Travers 

Cosmic – Frank Cottrell Boyce 

The Jungle Book – Rudyard Kipling 

Emil and the Detectives –  Erich Kastner

Warrior Cats – Erin Hunter 

Beetle Boy – M.G. Leonard 

A Dog called Grk – Joshua Lacey  

Private Peaceful – Micheal Morpurgo

Street Child – Berlie Doherty

The Boy Called Christmas –  Matt Haig

Groosham Grange – Anthony Horowitz

Cogheart – Peter Bunzl

Coraline  – Neil Gaiman

Time Train to the Blitz – Sophie Mackenzie

Harriet The Spy  – Louis Fitzhugh

Goldfish Boy – Lisa Thompson

Gobbolino The Witch’s Cat – Ursula Moray Williams

Millions – Frank Cottrell Boyce

Falcon’s Malteser – Diamond Brothers – Anthony Horowitz

The Silver Sword – Ian Serraillier 

The Last Wild – Piers Torday 

Time Travelling with a Hamster – Ross Welford

Once – Morris Gleitzman

The Switch – Anthony Horowitz

The Accidental Prime Minister –  Tom McLaughlin

Skellig – David Almond

Scary Tales, Home Sweet Horror – James Preller

The London Eye Mystery – Siobhan Dowd

For more information about our Book Clubs click here 

https://www.storyroom.co.uk/book-clubs-for-children-north-london/
12th March 2018
0

Varjak Paw – Book Recommendation

By | Book club N21, book clubs for children North London, Book group, Book Reviews, story writing with children, Winchmore Hill | No Comments

Dear SF Said,

We recently read Varjak Paw in our Book Club for school years 4 to 6 and they all really enjoyed it. It was a very popular choice and was received and read with much enthusiasm.

I promised to send you some of our Book Clubber’s questions and comments… so here goes….

  • I thought Varjak Paw was a good book. Do you have children? If so, do you ever read your stories to them?
  • I really like Varjak Paw. It was really exciting and fun. I especially loved ‘the way’. It was so cool how Varjak could do lots of amazing things. I will read your other books. Maybe Sally Bones gets territorial and they have battled but Varjak find out that there is another skill in the ‘they way of Jalal’ that has been buried in history.
  • I thought the book was brilliant I thought that the action was amazing and the mystery bits added tension. I would rate it 9/10
  • I would rate Varjak Paw by SF Said (3 stars out of 5) Because you didn’t know much about the mysterious lady. How did she die? Or the man? Why did he want to turn the cats into robots?
  • I think Varjak Paw is very interesting when he went from a boring life as a pet into a wild cat. He was very clever at finding out that the gentlemen were dangerous.  I think Holly is a very important because she told Varjak Paw that the vanishings were happening.
  • I couldn’t put Varjak Paw down. I loved it!

Thank you for reading our comments and writing such a wonderful book.

Kind regards,

The Story Room.

21st February 2018
0

11-Plus Reading List

By | 11 plus creative writing, 11-plus courses N12, 11-plus mocks, Book group, Book list 11-plus, Reading for 11-plus | No Comments

At The Story Room we believe that children should be encouraged and praised for reading books of their choice. However,  when your child is preparing for their 11-Plus entrance examinations they need to prepare for the sort of language they will face in the comprehension papers. Reading a variety of books will help them with this challenge.

Reading old and modern children’s classics will help your child develop their comprehension skills and expand their vocabulary, which is essential for the Verbal Reasoning tests. Reading good writing will  also help improve your child’s writing style as they will be able identify the use of literary devices e.g. similes and personification etc. in sentences and be able to use these techniques in their own writing. Reading helps improve grammar and spelling too!

The following  is intended to be a guide to books suitable for children in years 4, 5 and 6. It covers a range of genres. Some of the texts will be more difficult to read than others, so care should be taken when choosing a book that your child might enjoy. Reading should not be regarded as homework or a chore, but seen as something pleasurable. If your child is not enjoying the book they are reading then reading extracts from the book and discussing the story with your child is a valuable exercise too.

Happy Reading!

E. Nesbit

Five Children and It

The Railway Children

Frances Hodgson Burnett 

The Secret Garden

C.S. Lewis

The Magician’s Nephew

The Lion the Witch and The Wardrobe

Phillippa Pearce

Tom’s Midnight Garden

Michelle Magorian

Goodnight, Mister Tom

Eva Ibbotson

Journey to the River Sea

Michael Morpurgo

Kensuke’s Kingdom

The Butterfly Lion

Private Peaceful

Lucy Montgomery

Anne of Green Gables

Louise Sachar

Holes

J.R.R Tolkien

The Hobbit

David Almond

Skellig

Mary Poppins

P.L. Travers

Philip Pullman

The Firework-Maker’s Daughter

Northern Lights

Clive King

Stig of the Dump

Ian Serraillier

The Silver Sword

Richard Adams

Watership Down

T.H. White

The Sword in the Stone

J.M. Barrie

Peter Pan

Kenneth Graham

The Wind in The Willows

Michelle Paver

Wolf Brother

Erin Hunter

Warrior Cats

Jack London

White Fang

Call of the Wild

Berlie Doherty

Street Child

Lynne Reid Banks

The Indian in the Cupboard

Penelope Lively

A Stitch in Time

The Ghost of Thomas Kempe

Roger McGough (Edited by)

The Ring of Words (An Anthology of Poetry for Children)

Joan Aitkin

The Wolves of Willoughby Chase

Rudyard Kipling

The Jungle Book

Lewis Carroll

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

 

21st February 2018
0

Thank You Tatum Flynn!

By | Book club N21, book clubs for children North London, Book group, Creative writing workshops North London, Events for teenagers, story writing with children, The Story Room | No Comments

Dear Tatum Flynn,

Thank you so much for the inspiring workshop on graphic novels last night. We all enjoyed your company and your wisdom! We have many talented writers in our group, so it is always great to see them learning something new and discovering new ways and styles of writing. Your inspiration will remain with them for a long time. The drawings you did for them, of  the characters they created, will be treasured. Thank you for your patience and kindness.

Thank you to Allan Burroughs for organising and planning the workshop with Tatum!

Please visit us again!

 

21st December 2017
0

BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS

By | Book club N21, book clubs for children North London, Book group | No Comments

 

For those of you who have asked me (Helena) for book recommendations for  relations (and for those of you who haven’t) here are the favourites of the children in the Middle Graders’ Book Club, Teen Book Club and Young Adult Book Club.

FROM 13-16 year olds

Caitlin – One of Us is Lying – Karen M. McManus
The Silver Sword – Ian Seraillier

Jake  – More Than This – Patrick Ness
One of Us Is Lying – Karen M. McManus

Ellie  – One of Us Is Lying – Patrick Ness

Zahra  – Every Day – David Levithan
More Than This – Patrick Ness

Zaki – One of Us is Lying – Karen M. McManus

Ashiana  – One of Us is Lying – Karen M. McManus

Amario  – Every Day – David Levithan

FROM 11-12 year olds

Zayne  – My Sister Lives on The Mantelpiece – Annabel Pitcher

Jake  – Warrior Cats – Erin Hunter

Leah  – Time Travelling with a Hamster – Ross Welford

Bella  – Warrior Cats – Erin Hunter

John  – Warrior Cats – Erin Hunter

Kian  – Warrior Cats – Erin Hunter

FROM 8-10 year olds

James – Coraline – Neil Gaiman,
Wolf Brother – Michelle Paver

Bella – Time Travelling with a Hamster – Ross Welford

Freya – Mary Poppins – P.L Travers

Katerina – Wolf Brother – Michelle Paver
Time Travelling with a Hamster – Ross Welford

Mary Ellen – Time Travelling with a Hamster – Ross Welford
Mary Poppins – P.L Travers

Rian – The Diamond Brothers series – Anthony Horowitz

Maria – Cogheart – Peter Bunzl

Angelina – Cogheart – Peter Bunzl

Zain – Wolf Brother – Michelle Paver

Helena’s Favourites – A Kingdom by the Sea – Robert Westall, Wolf Brother – Michelle Paver, Mary Poppins – P.L Travers, Coraline – Neil Gaiman,  More Than This – Patrick Ness, My Sister Lives on A Mantelpiece – Annabel Pitcher, The Rest of Us Still Live Here – Patrick Ness, How I Live Now – Meg Rossof, The Knife of Never Letting Go – Patrick Ness