Ashwicken Recommended Reading for Year 6
Dear Parents/Carers,
Reading is an important part of everyday life. The more our children read, the better readers they will be and the better writers they will become.
Read a selection of books from the recommended book list attached:
Parents and family members play an important role in building successful readers. Hearing your child read is vital to your child retaining and building on the skills he or she has learned in school. But most importantly, this is a time for children to engage their imaginations, find amusement in books, and to learn to love reading. We ask that your child read for at least 15 minutes a day. Books can be of any genre or on any subject that is of interest to your child.
Here are some quick tips to encourage your child’s love for reading.
- READ! READ! READ! Make reading important. Be a role-model for reading. Let your child see you reading throughout the day and use daily routines as reading opportunities. Cooking, reading TV listings, looking for information on-line, reading directions, or following a map all provide authentic reading experiences.
- Give your child the power of choice. Having reading materials available, such as: books, magazines, comics, etc… is key to helping children love to read, and the reading materials they choose themselves are best. Help your child find texts that appeal to his or her interests, yet are age appropriate and ‘just right’ in difficulty.
- Find opportunities to read aloud to your child. Read your favourite childhood book aloud, read signs while driving in the car, read at stores, and read while you’re on holiday!
- Take frequent trips to the library.
- Read a great story over and over again to help your child with fluency and reading with expression.
- Talk it up. Talking about books during and after reading helps improve comprehension. Encourage your child to share their ideas and opinions by asking open-ended questions. Talk about what you read to let them know that reading is an important part of your life. Tell them why you liked a book, what you learned from it, or how it helped you— soon they might start doing the same.
We hope you and your family will read many stories and reap all of the wonderful benefits that reading has to offer!
I look forward to hearing all about the exciting books you have read.
Happy reading!
The following information is provided on the BooksForTopics website where you will also find a variety of other booklists and links for purchasing book.
BooksForTopics’ recommended reading list
What kind of books do 10 and 11 year olds like to read?
At the ages of 10 and 11, most children are able to read chapter books and think critically about what they read. They begin to enjoy multi-layered stories that present different characters’ viewpoints about key issues, and to think deeply about books that explore relevant social issues. Try feeding the Y6 appetite for interesting themes by giving them thought-provoking stories about the environment like The Lost Whale or the eco-thriller Boy in the Tower, as well as stories that explore contemporary social issues like No Ballet Shoes in Syria and Front Desk, which both address the complexities of immigraiton at a level appropriate to Year 6.
Children in Year 6 are often drawn in by stories set in fantasy worlds like Skandar and the Unicorn Thief, Nevermoor and the darkly humoured seaside fantasy Malamander. You’ll also see flying off the Y6 bookshelves laugh-out-loud funny books, inspirational books and non-fiction that cover topics of interest.
Also popular with this age group are graphic novels and books with illustrated elements. Year 6 children who are not keen on longer sections of text might prefer graphic novels like Mega Robot Bros, or the thrill of a mild horror element in the shorter-length books Gamer and The Invasion of Crooked Oak. Some of the most popular read-it-yourself books for this age include stories with a humorous tone, like A Beginner’s Guide to Ruling the Galaxy.
We recommend that teachers and parents supplement children’s independent reading with adult-lead storytime through Year 6 and beyond. Some books are extremely well suited for being read aloud and benefit from deeper discussions with adults – try The Explorer or The Boy Who Made Everyone Laugh for books with a real storytelling quality about them.
Which books are recommended for Year 6 to be reading?
The books on our Y6 booklist feature 50 recommended reads for pleasure in Year 6. Some of the books cater well for children who love to laugh, like David Baddiel’s Head Kid or the humorously information-packed Kay’s Anatomy. Other stories on the list are designed to leave readers on the edge of their seats, from Phil Earle’s gripping WW2 story When the Sky Falls to puzzling murder mysteries like Murder Most Unladylike . Graphic novels are also very popular with many children in Year 6, and we recommend trying Raina Telgemeier’s popular middle school series starting Smile or Jerry Craft’s more serious story of displacement in New Kid.
Many children at this age are ready to engage with stories that explore social issues or offer insights into a diversity of ways of seeing the world. Catherine Bruton’s award-winning No Ballet Shoes in Syria charts the experience of a young refugee finding her feet in a new country and Boy in the Tower hauntingly explores the experience of isolation when it does not feel safe to go outside, as well as the topics of parental mental health and the coming together of community in the face of a crisis. Other stories in our collection give insight into what life is like for those who feel like they don’t quite fit in, from a case of trauma-induced kleptomania in Cath Howe’s My Life on Fire, to the tale of hearing loss in Can You Feel the Noise, to Elle McNicoll’s neurodivergent main duo in the superbly gripping Show Us Who You Are.
If you are looking for classic stories suitable for 10-11 year olds, we recommend Tom’s Midnight Garden or Judith Kerr’s When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit. Poetry collections offer a wealth of enjoyment for reading for pleasure at this age too, from Mandy Coe’s upbeat Belonging Street or Benjamin Zephaniah’s Funky Chickens, which is always a hit with Year 6.
For those without the time or reading stamina to pick up a longer read, try one of the shorter chapter books included in our Y6 reading list, like Dan Smith’s The Invasion of Crooked Oak or David Long’s Tutankhamun’s Treasure, both of which are specially formatted to be accessible to dyslexic readers. For excellent picture books suitable for Year 6, we recommend the super-intriguing The Viewer by Gary Crew and Shaun Tan, or the beautifully illustrated exploration of shared humanity in I Am the Subway.
What are the best non-fiction books for Year 6?
High-quality non-fiction is a brilliant option for reading for pleasure in Year 6 and there are some really interesting offerings available for this age group. Look for information books that offer children a deeper insight into a particular topic, including biographies of interesting figures or deep dives into geography, science and history topics.
For Y6 non-fiction, we recommend the inspirational trip across the galaxy in Space Maps, the intricately presented Oceanarium and DK’s super-helpful guidebook to the science and technology behind everyday things in How Everything Works.
