The below recommendations are from the children in Book Club – We asked them what were the favourite books they had read this year and these were the answers:
Male year 4: Centrally Heated Knickers by Michael Rosen
Male year 4: Millions by Frank Cottrell Boyce
Male year 5: Millions by Frank Cottrell Boyce and A Boy Called Christmas by Matt Haig
Female year 4: Wolves of Willoughby Chase – Joan Aitken and The House with Chicken Legs – Sophie Anderson
Female year 4: The Switch – Anthony Horowitz
Male year 5: Centrally Heated Knickers by Michael Rosen and The House with Chicken Legs – Sophie Anderson
Female year 5: Emil and the Detectives by Erich Kastner and The Boy Called Christmas by Matt Haig
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
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.
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)
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!
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