Reading Introduction
At Ark Pioneer, we know reading is incredibly important and we support every pupil to read at their chronological age and to gain enjoyment from pleading for pleasure
Here at Ark Pioneer Academy, we want pupils to understand the positive impact reading can have on their lives and develop a culture where reading is a go-to hobby.
This starts in the summer before pupils join us in Year 7, with our summer reading challenge. Every year, pupils have a summer reading project which encourages and challenges them during the summer break.
We run reading initiatives throughout the school year, such as our 'Real People Read' where staff read a section of their favourtie book or short story for pupils during lunch time. We also create films and events for pupils as part of our World Book Day celebrations where teachers read and discuss extracts from their favourite books. Click here to see last year's film. "We want to share our love and passion for reading with pupils," said Ms Ferguson, our Head of English, "as we realise just how important reading is!"
Reading Intervention Library
Reading Suggestions
We love to encourage pupils to delve into new texts, authors and genres
The English department loves to put their heads together on the best reads for our pupils! Below you can see a range of recommendations. The selection of texts include modern classics, autobiographies and texts from a diverse range of authors. Team English has carefully chosen texts that are important and enjoyable. Some of the texts deal with very complex and pertinent issues in society: by reading these texts our pupils are engaging with great writing, developing as readers and becoming more empathetic and knowledgeable about the world.
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Our reading list for Year 7: |
Our reading list for Year 8: |
Our reading list for Year 9: |
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Nineteenth Century Literature:
Little Women (also Good Wives, Little Men and Jo’s Boys) by Louisa May Alcott
Peter Pan by J.M.Barrie
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
Oliver Twist and A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens Little Lord Fauntleroy by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Treasure Island and Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson
The Black Arrow: A Tale of Two Roses by Robert Louis Stevenson
Black Beauty by Anna Sewell
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
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Nineteenth Century Literature:
Sense and Sensibility and Lady Susan by Jane Austen
The Coral Island by R.M.Ballantyne
A Study in Scarlet, The Sign of the Four and The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
Nicholas Nickleby and Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
Mary Barton by Elizabeth Gaskell
The Happy Prince and Other Stories and Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime and Other Stories by Oscar Wilde
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Nineteenth Century Literature:
Persuasion by Jane Austen
Villette by Charlotte Brontë
The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins
Tale of Two Cities and David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
The Mill on the Floss and Adam Bede by George Eliot
Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper
Cranford and North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo
Rip Van Winkle and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (short stories) by Washington Irving
Billy Budd by Herman Melville
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Dracula by Bram Stoker
The Woodlanders and Far From The Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy
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Twentieth Century Literature: Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Restaurant at the End of the Universe and Life, the Universe and Everything by Douglas Adams
Watership Down and Shardik by Richard Adams
Skellig by David Almond
Noughts and Crosses and Pig Heart Boy by Malorie Blackman
The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan
Murder on the Orient Express, Death on the Nile, Evil Under the Sun and The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie
The Murder at the Vicarage, The Body in the Library, They Do It With Mirrors and The Mirror Crack’d by Agatha Christie
Over Sea, Under Stone and Greenwitch by Susan Cooper Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis
The Otterbury Incident by Cecil Day-Lewis
Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes
The Diary of A Young Girl by Anne Frank (950L) Bilgewater by Jane Gardam
A Little Princess and The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table by Roger Lancelyn Green
Tales of the Greek Heroes and Tale of Troy by Roger Lancelyn Green
Myths of the Norsemen by Roger Lancelyn Green
Anne of Green Gables and Anne of Avonlea by L.M.Montgomery
War Horse by Michael Morpurgo
Five Children and It/The Railway Children by E.Nesbit
The Ivory Horn and The Silver Sword by Ian Seraillier
I Capture The Castle by Dodie Smith
The Eagle Of The Ninth, The Silver Branch and The Lantern Bearers by Rosemarie Sutcliff
The Hobbit and The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R.Tolkien
The Secret Diary Of Adrian Mole Aged 13 ¾ and The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole by Sue Townsend Chinese Cinderella and Falling Leaves by Adeline Yen-Mah |
Twentieth Century Literature:
The Plague Dogs by Richard Adams
Mapp and Lucia, Queen Lucia and Miss Mapp by E.F.Benson
Girl with a Pearl Earring and The Virgin Blue by Tracy Chevalier
Roald Dahl’s Books of Ghost Stories by Roald Dahl
The Lost World by Arthur Conan Doyle
The Lord Of The Flies by William Golding
Goodbye To All That by Robert Graves
Enigma and Archangel by Robert Harris
I’m the King of the Castle and Strange Meeting by Susan Hill
The Flame Trees of Thika by Elspeth Huxley
Red Sky in Morning, Kiss the Dust and The Garbage King by Elizabeth Laird
The Earthsea Trilogy (The Wizard of Earthsea, The Tombs of Atuan and The Farthest Shore) by Ursula K.LeGuin
To Kill A Mockingbird and Go Set A Watchman by Harper Lee
The Pursuit of Love and Love in a Cold Climate by Nancy Mitford
Big Mouth and Ugly Girl by Joyce Carol Oates
Flambards, The Edge of the Cloud and Flambards in Summer by K.M. Peyton
His Dark Materials Trilogy (Northern Lights, The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass) by Philip Pullman
A Town Like Alice and On the Beach by Nevil Shute
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
Of Mice and Men, The Pearl and The Red Pony by John Steinbeck
The True Confessions of Adrian Mole and The Queen and I by Sue Townsend
Scoop by Evelyn Waugh
The Code of the Woosters, French Leave, Heavy Weather, Laughing Gas by P G Wodehouse
The Day Of The Triffids and The Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham
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Twentieth Century Literature:
Empire of the Sun by J.G.Ballard
Shosha by Isaac Bashevis Singer
Fahrenheit 451 and The Ilustrated Man (short stories) by Ray Bradbury
The Good Earth by Pearl Buck
The Big Sleep and Farewell, My Lovely by Raymond Chandler
Captain Corelli’s Mandolin and The Troublesome Offspring of Cardinal Guzman by Louis De Bernières
The Mystery of Edwin Drood by Leon Garfield (and Charles Dickens)
The Great Gatsby and Flappers and Philsophers, the Collected Short Stories by F. Scott Fitzgerald
A Room With A View by E.M. Forster
I, Claudius by Robert Graves
Chocolat by Joanne Harris
Beowulf, a new poetic translation by Seamus Heaney
The Remains of the Day and Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
The Life of Pi by Yann Martel
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
The Prestige by Christopher Priest
All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
Franny and Zooey and Raise High the Roofbeam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction (two novellas in one volume) by J.D. Salinger
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie and The Ballad of Peckham Rye by Muriel Spark
The Mosquito Coast and Great Railway Bazaar (travel writing) by Paul Theroux
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
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Twenty-First Century Literature: Clay, Jackdaw Summer and My Name is Mina by David Almond
Red Leaves and Jasmine Skies by Sita Bhramachari
Framed and Millions by Frank Cottrell Boyce
The Seeing Stone, At the Crossing Places and King of the Middle March by Kevin Crossley-Holland
The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Nighttime by Mark Haddon
Pompeii by Robert Harris
Wonder and Auggie and Me: Three Wonder Stories by Raquel Jaramillo Palacio
Private Peaceful and An Eagle in the Snow by Michael Morpurgo
Just in Case by Meg Rosoff |
Twenty-First Century Literature:
Boys Don’t Cry by Malorie Blackman
The Hunger Games, Catching Fire and Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
Gatty’s Tale by Kevin Crossley-Holland
Coram Boy Jamila Gavin
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
The Lie Tree by Francis Hardinge
Crusade by Elizabeth Laird
Mr Creecher by Christopher Priest
Witch Child and Sorceress by Celia Rees
Luka and the Fire of Life by Salman Rushdie
I Am Malala by Malala Yousafzai and Patricia McCormick (non-fiction)
The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak
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Twenty-First Century Literature:
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay and Gentlemen of the Road by Michael Chabon
Mao’s Last Dancer by Lee Cunxin (autobiography)
A Short History of Nearly Everything and Shakespeare, The World as a Stage (non-fiction) by Bill Bryson
The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
Birds Without Wings by Louis de Bernières The Islanders by Christopher Priest
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