Moving On (S1 Reading List)

By Miss H Murray on 2/7/2003

MOVING ON

This is the second of two lists of suggested titles for you to read during S1 and S2. It is certainly not comprehensive; there are many other titles that could have been included. The list is arranged by different genre or type of story as follows:

Looking for Adventure

Family and Friends

Other Worlds: Fantasy and Science Fiction

Future Worlds

Ghost and Horror

Other Times … Other Places : Historical or set in other countries

In and Out of School

In Time of War

Life and Times

Poetry Corner

No-body is suggesting you try to read the whole list, but it would be a good idea to try a few titles from a number of different genres. Different books appeal to different people, so if you find you are not enjoying a particular title, try something else. It is hoped that the list can cater for quite a wide variety of tastes.

Each title only appears once, although quite a few of the stories could have fitted into more than one genre. Some authors are repeated where they have written different kinds of books. Sequels and some additional titles have been included, but you should be able to find other books by many of these authors on the library shelves.

# indicates books that are not too difficult

* indicates books that are more challenging

If you find the titles on this list too difficult, then try some of the ones on the first list Stepping Out





LOOKING FOR ADVENTURE

*CROSS, Gillian

Tightrope

Eddie Beale looks after his friends, as long as they entertain him. When he takes notice of Ashley, she is happy to put on a show and be part of the excitement. Then she realises someone is stalking her and leaving messages that get uglier. Can Eddie help? And if he does, what price will she pay?

You might also try A Map of Nowhere and Calling a Dead Man.

HOROWITZ, Anthony

Stormbreaker

When his guardian dies in suspicious circumstances, Alex Rider goes from schoolboy to superspy within days as his world is turned upside down. Forcibly recruited into MI6, Alex has to take part in gruelling SAS training. Then, armed with his own special set of secret gadgets, he's off on his first mission.

The story continues in Point Blanc

HOWKER, Janni

The Nature of the Beast

On the moors above Haverston an unknown beast is attacking livestock, and Haverston itself is threatened by another beast - the threat of unemployment - as the local mill is about to close.

MAHY, Margaret

Underrunners

Living with his father in an isolated house on a windswept coast, life can be lonely for Tris. His main companion is an imaginary friend - Selsey Firebone. Then he meets Winola, who joins in his fantasy games with an evil character of her own. But Winola’s baddie is real, and she and Tris are caught up in danger and drama that is well beyond their control.

Try also The Other Side of Silence

*MASTERS, Anthony

The Day of the Dead

Alex goes to California to stay with his estranged father. Unwilling to be abandoned yet again, he stows away in the back of his father’s truck - a decision with unimagined but terrifying consequences.

Lots of other books by this author; try Whiteout and Bullies don’t Hurt

MORPURGO, Michael

Kensuke’s Kingdom

When Michael is washed up on an island in the Pacific after falling from his parent's yacht, the Peggy Sue, he struggles to survive on his own. But he soon realises there is someone close by, someone who is watching over him and helping him to stay alive.

#SACHER, Louis

Holes

A miscarriage of justice sends Stanley Yelnats to Camp Green Lake. He accepts his fate philosophically, after all his family has a history of bad luck. Each of the boys at the camp must dig a five-foot deep and five-foot wide hole daily. The warden says it’s character building. Stanley’s character shines through.

URE, Jean

Who says Animals don’t have Rights

Penny, staying for a short time with her rich uncle, is seized by an animal rights group and forced to think of the rights and wrongs of animal testing.

Jean Ure has written many books of different types; for another story of suspense try Faces at the Window

WESTALL, Robert

A Place for Me

‘You must run away to somewhere where nobody can find you. You musn’t go to anybody you know. That’s the first place they’ll look.’ With these instructions from her father and a briefcase full of bank notes, Lucy sets off, neither knowing where she’s running to, nor what she’s running from...



FAMILY AND FRIENDS

BLACKMAN, Malorie

Pig-heart Boy

Cameron lives for football and swimming, until a mystery virus damages his heart and starts a time bomb ticking on his life. No donor hearts are available and his only chance of recovery is a transplant with a pig’s heart.

*BOWLER, Tim

River Boy

As Jess helps her ailing grandfather complete his final picture, she is entranced by the scene he is painting. Then she becomes aware of a strange presence in the river, the figure of a boy, asking for her help and issuing a challenge that will stretch her swimming talents to the limit.

CREECH, Sharon

Walk Two Moons

Salamanca Hiddle is on a long journey across America and on the way she discovers all kinds of stories about her family. The trip has something to do with her mother’s sudden disappearance and these stories help prepare her for the truth, when she finally reaches her destination.

You could also try Chasing Redbird and The Wanderer.

DOHERTY, Berlie

The Snake Stone

James is in training for the Junior Diving Championships, given every support by his family. His sights are set on victory, until he discovers the snake-stone, a gift from the mother who gave him up for adoption. Suddenly he needs to know about his past, whatever the cost ...

You could also try Granny was a Buffer Girl and The Real Plato Jones.

FINE, Anne

Goggle Eyes

A very funny account of how to cope when you can’t stand your mother’s new boyfriend.

Lots of other good titles by this author including Madame Doubtfire and The Tulip Touch.

*GRANT, Cynthia

Mary Wolf

Economic hardship forces the Wolf family to take to the road in their once plush mobile home. They tour America, trying to believe their father’s repeated claims of a job in the next town. Mary, the eldest, becomes increasingly sickened by her parents’ self-delusion and irresponsibility and comes to realise only she can call a halt.

*LAIRD, Elizabeth

Jay

While Cassie is recovering from a long illness, her dad leaves home and her brother Jay runs away. At first she is jealous of his freedom, but things start to spin out of control, and Jay is in danger of losing both his music and mind.

You could also try Red Sky in the Morning and Jake’s Tower.

LEESON, Robert

Red, White and Blue

Wain comes from a family of soldiers. His brother is a thug. His father went missing believed killed in the Falklands War. In an attempt to unravel the truth about himself, Wain writes down three different versions of events: his homework, the real story, and a fantasy novel on different coloured paper.

LINGARD, Joan

A Secret Place

Snatched from their Edinburgh school gate by their father, Maria and Charlie are initially quite excited by the prospect of a Spanish holiday. But after a time they realise that their father, although genuine, hasn’t prepared a proper home for them and that their mother is distraught at their absence.

You could also try the Kevin and Sadie novels, set in Belfast, starting with The Twelfth Day of July.

MOON, Pat

The Spying Game

Joe’s father has been killed in a road accident and his anger against the man responsible builds up so much that Joe begins a personal campaign against him.

You might also try Nathan’s Switch and Truth or Dare.

#RIX, Jamie

Johnny Casanova

Johnny Worms’ father makes gnomes, his mother is in love with his uncle and Johnny himself is passionately in love with the unresponsive Alice. A funny, but sympathetic story of teenage love. The story continues in The Changing Face of Johnny Casanova.

*VOIGHT, Cynthia

Homecoming

The four Tillerman children, inexplicably abandoned by their mother, make their way across America to try to find a home.

There are a whole series of novels about the Tillerman family; try A Solitary Blue.

ZEPHANIAH, Benjamin

Face

How could Martin know when he accepts a lift late one night that it will change his life for ever? The car crashes at speed and he is left horribly scarred. This is a powerful story of bravery in the face of dreadful odds. And it isn’t only Martin who has to be courageous.

Well known for his poetry, this is Benjamin Zephaniah’s first novel.You might also like to try his second novel Refugee Boy, which deals with the issue of asylum seekers.


OTHER WORLDS


AIKEN, Joan

The Cockatrice Boys

A cargo of strange, shapeless bags appear at Manchester Airport. Gradually Britain is devastated by the cockatrice monsters they contain.

Plenty of other great fantasy novels by this author. You might try one of her short story collections such as A Handful of Gold.

ALMOND, David

Skellig

Michael and his family move to a new home. Exploring a ramshackle garage with his new-found friend, Mina, he discovers a strange part human ‘creature’. Skellig, as the creature likes to be known, is ill-mannered, with questionable personal hygiene, but in persevering with their kindness towards him, Michael and Mina find a bond forms which will change their lives forever.

*CROSSLEY-HOLLAND, Kevin

The Seeing Stone

Set in the Welsh Marches in the year 1199, this book tells the story of young Arthur de Caldicot, who discovers his namesake, the boy King Arthur, in his seeing stone.

First book in a trilogy.

GATES, Susan

Ironheads

When Rachel's parents move to Pilot Island, she soon starts to notice strange things happening. How can the local children find their way in dense fog? And why do the rabbits dig their burrows in parallel lines? As she hunts for answers, Rachael has to act quickly to prevent tragedy.

GAVIN, Jamilla

Wormholers

Suddenly cracks are opening up around Chad’s house. Not cracks in the plaster, but wormholes, passages from one universe to another. It’s not long before Natalie, Chad and Sophie disappear,

plunged into other worlds. Can they get back to their own dimension?

*HOWARTH, Lesley

Maphead

An unusual science fiction story featuring the Subtle World, a world that exists side by side with our own, and Maphead, so-called because he can flash up a map of any place across his head.

If you enjoy this, there is a sequel, Maphead 2.

*JACQUES, Brian

Redwall

The first novel in a series centred round Redwall Abbey and its peaceful community of mice, badgers and rabbits. But danger is at hand in the shape of Cluny the evil one-eyed cat.

JARVIS, Robin

The Alchymist’s Cat

This story, the first in the Deptford Histories series explains the origin of the evil monstrous cat, Jupiter, whose tale is continued in the Deptford Mice trilogy.

NEEDLE, Jan

Wild Wood

The ancient ferret, Baxter, recalls events long past, when he and his friends from the Wild Wood stormed and captured ‘Brotherhood Hall’ (otherwise known as Toad Hall). A retelling of The Wind in the Willows from a very different viewpoint.

NICHOLSON, William

The Wind Singer

In the walled city of Aramanth. exams are everything. When Kestrel Hath dares to rebel, the Chief Examiner humiliates her father and sentences the whole family to the harshest punishment. Desperate to save them, Kestrel learns the secret of the wind singer, and she and her twin brother Bowman, set out on a terrifying journey to the true source of the evil that grips Aramanth.

PRINCE, Maggie

Memoirs of a Dangerous Alien

A fast-moving and humorous story about a boy called Dominic who becomes involved in a desperate struggle to save the Earth from total destruction.

There is a sequel to this book you might like to try: Pulling the Plug on the Universe.

*PULLMAN, Philip

Northern Lights

A powerful fantasy of an alternative world, where each human is accompanied by their personal daemon, and armoured bears rule the North Pole.

The story is continues in The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass.

REEVE, Philip

Mortal Engines

In this futuristic fantasy, cities have torn themselves up by the roots in order to survive. London is on the move again seeking its quarry, while events within the walls begin to take a sinister turn.

THOMPSON, Kate

Switchers

Kate is a Switcher, meaning that she can change shape to become any animal she chooses. She always thought she was unique, but not any more. Tess meets Kevin, another Switcher, and together they turn out to have powers they never dreamed of.

The story is continued in Midnight’s Choice and Wild Blood.

*TOLKIEN, J R R

The Lord of the Rings

The epic adventures of the hobbit, Frodo Baggins and his companions in their quest to destroy the power of Sauron, the evil Lord of the Rings. The story is told in three parts: The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers and The Return of the King. A very demanding read, but well worth it.

*WHITE, T.H.

The Sword in the Stone

The story of the young King Arthur as you’ve never heard it before; A classic comic fantasy.



FUTURE WORLDS

*ANDERSON, Rachel

The Scavenger’s Tale

This novel deals with the story of a family on the run from a harsh technological state which is putting electronic tags on all its citizens.

*BRANFIELD, Henrietta

A Chance of Safety

A dictatorial and sinister government presides in this society of ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’. The ‘haves’ never question their lifestyle, or the inhuman treatment of the ‘have-nots’. That is until Alex and Nelly’s father begins to make dangerous enquires, and their lives are never the same again.

CHRISTOPHER, John

A Dusk of Demons

Ben has heard stories about terrible demons but he has never seen them except in his nightmares. But when he has to seek shelter away from his quiet island home, a terrifying adventure begins.

LAWRENCE, Louise

Children of the Dust

A hopeful account of society disintegrating and then beginning to recreate itself after a nuclear war.

Louise Lawrence has written many fantasy and Science Fiction novels: Try Ben-Harran’s Castle.

LOWRY, Lois

The Giver

Imagine a world without conflict, poverty or inequality. Conformity and happiness are a way of life. But for Jonas, things are different. While his friends are selected to be doctors or teachers, Jonas is sent to the Giver where he discovers the dark secrets that lie below the surface of his world.

STRACHAN, Ian

Throwaways

Sky and Chip, abandoned by their parents, manage to escape the clutches of the Child Protection Unit and eke out a living on the rubbish tip with hundreds of others. Even in their despair, the children find out what they need to survive.

The story is continued in Wastelanders.





GHOST AND HORROR



#BARKER, Clive

The Thief of Always

It is the middle of February, and Harvey Swick is bored, so he is glad to accept an invitation to Mr Hood’s Holiday House. This turns out to be a magical place of endless treats and changing seasons, where every childish whim is granted. But there is a price to be paid...

CROSS, Gillian

The Dark behind the Curtain

Jackus does not want a part in the school play but he is gradually drawn into the story as the cruelty and despair at its root begin to haunt the actors. Then Jackus realises that the ghosts of that mystery have returned to take their revenge.

GROSS, Philip

Plex

Mr Multiplex has the gift of ‘plexing’ - the ability to mix two things together to make ‘the best of both worlds’. But when Tod and Sly burst into his room in the middle of one of his experiments, something goes badly wrong and a monster is released.

Try also The Wind Gate.

SCOTT, Hugh

The Gargoyle

Although the rest of the family are thrilled by their new Scottish home, Marion senses an atmosphere of menace. Are the residents of the nearby castle - Callum and the mysterious German - responsible for the sinister occurrences in the area. And who has the strength to control the terrifying gargoyle?

Other books to try by this author include A Ghost Waiting and Something Watching

WESTALL, Robert

Yaxley’s Cat

Jane and Tim persuade their mother to take the lonely cottage on the marsh. But why has it been deserted for seven years? And what of the terrible cat that comes clawing its way into the house at midnight?

Most of Robert Westall’s books feature cats, the supernatural or World War 2 or some combination of these themes. Try Blitzcat (for the first two themes) and The Wheatstone Pond for another supernatural tale.

And from the Short Story Section

13 Again : Point Horror

An anthology including stories by Susan Price, Malcolm Rose, John Gordon and Dennis Hamley






OTHER TIMES....OTHER PLACES

BAILLIE, Alan

The China Coin

When Leah’s father dies, she travels from Australia, with her Chinese-born mother, in search of the other half of their family. The only clue they have is half of an ancient Chinese coin.

BEAKE, Lesley

A Cageful of Butterflies

Mponyane lives in a world of silence - he is deaf and dumb. When his grandfather can no longer care for him, Mponyane goes to live with the Sanderson family. As the Zulu boy learns about live with the white Kenyan family, he senses they are in trouble and knows he must help them.

You could also try The Song of Be

BRANFIELD, Henrietta

Fire, Bed and Bone

The Peasants’ Revolt of 1381 - as seen through the eyes of an old hunting dog! Her masters are imprisoned and she is left alone.

*CURTIS, Christopher

The Watsons go to Birmingham

It’s Michigan, 1963. Kenneth Watson is both frightened by his aggressive brother Byron and dependent on him for protection. When Byron’s behaviour deteriorates into delinquency, the Watsons decide he needs a summer with the legendary Grandma Sands in Alabama, to have sense knocked into him. But the family’s arrival coincides with race riots which change all of them.

#CUSHMAN, Karen

The Midwife’s Apprentice

Brat, a fourteenth-century orphan, fetches up in Midwife Jane’s dung-heap. In return for hard work, Brat is given shelter plus the odd blow or curse, but slowly she transforms herself into Alyce, who knows what she wants from life.

If you enjoy this book, try Catherine, called Birdy.

HENDRY, Frances

Chandra

A sensitive and gripping story about a schoolgirl in New Delhi who is married at the age of 11, but widowed almost immediately. As a widow, her fate is to be isolated from society for the rest of her life. Should she bow to tradition or try to escape?

IBBOTSON, Eva

Journey to the River Sea

Set in the early 1900s the story follows the orphaned heroine Maia as she moves from England with the mysterious Miss Minton to the Amazon Basin to live with relatives she has never met.

LLOYD, Errol

Many Rivers to Cross

When her grandmother tells her she is going to England, 12-year old Sandra is happy that she will see her father again, but sad she is leaving her grandmother and all her friends. The journey from Jamaica to London is only the first river she has to cross.

*LOVEDAY, John

Goodbye Buffalo Sky

Cappy and Alice live in pioneer country, a tranche of land in which the native Americans have been displaced. When Burkhart and Two Songs set up home together, their bold decision has devastating results for them, the settlement and the Indian Community.

McCAUGHREAN, Geraldine

Plundering Paradise

When the opportunity arises to be a real pirate, Nathan Gull can’t believe his luck. Led by Tamo, the pirate’s son, and with his sister in tow, the three sail for Madagascar in this eighteenth century adventure.

Plenty of other titles by this author, try The Kite Rider set in China in the days of Kublai Khan.

*MOONEY, Bel

Voices of Silence

Life for Flora in Ceausescu’s Romania has always been comfortable and worry-free. But gradually teenage consciousness opens her eyes to the realities and iniquities of the communist regime. Friendships become less secure, secrecy more important, no-one can trust anyone.

PAULSEN, Gary

Nightjohn

The brutality of slavery is shown in this novel set in the American South in the 1850s. It the story of Sarny, a 12 year old slave girl and her meeting with Nightjohn, who risks everything to teach Sarny to read.

The story is continued in Sarny

PEYTON, K M

Firehead

The Vikings have invaded and Edmund’s family flee before their murderous advance. Although Edmund is left behind he is saved by virtue of his unusual flame-red hair and becomes a Viking slave, but if he doesn’t escape he will be forced to fight in battle against his own people.

TOMLINSON, Theresa

The Herring Girls

When Dory Lythe’s mother suffers a stroke, the family risks being sent to the workhouse. However, Dory manages to convince the Reverend Hawkins that she is strong enough to join the Herring Girls, who gut and pack fish at Whitby.

You could also try The Rope Carriers.

WALSH, Jill Paton

Grace

The story of Grace Darling’s heroic rescue of men from the Forfarshie and the effect it had on her life.

Try A Parcel of Patterns an account of the Great Plague in the village of Eyam.

In and Out of School

FINE, Anne

Flour Babies

4C, the worst class in the school, don't get to work on the Soap factory, the Maggot Farm or the Exploding Custard Tins for the annual Science Fair. Instead they have to look after flour babies, 3 kilos of flour in a bag, which have to be nursed and protected.

JOHNSON, Pete

The Protectors

Josh and Andy only agree to become anti-bullying counsellors in the hope of benefiting from the associated perks. However, the "Protectors" as they become known, soon find themselves involved in a dangerous campaign to rid the school of its worst tormentor.

*MAGORIAN, Michelle

A Spoonful of Jam

Set in London in 1947, this is the story of Elsie, a misfit scholarship student at the girls’ Grammar School.

Among other excellent books by this author is Goodnight Mr Tom.

MORPURGO, Michael

The War of Jenkin’s Ear

Back at Boarding School for the new term, Toby is homesick. Then he meets Simon Christopher with whom he becomes friends. But there is something different about Simon, something special.

*RHUE, Martin

The Wave

A classroom experiment in history in an American High School goes too far and a Nazi-style system sweeps through the school.

#SPINELLI, Jerry

Crash

When Crash Coogan meets Penn Webb he decides this is a boy ripe for bullying. But nothing seems to bother Penn and Crash’s disdain turns to grudging admiration.



IN TIME OF WAR



BUCHIGNANI, Walter

Tell no-one Who You are

Based on a true story, this book recounts the wartime adventures of Regine Miller. After her brother is taken by the Nazis,her father sent Regine to live with a widow in Brussels where she survived by moving between four Belgian households.

CAMPLING, Annie

Smiling for Strangers

Nina escapes the civil war that killed her parents by stowing away in an aid lorry driving back from the former Yugoslavia. Once in England, she searches for the only safe haven she knows - an address on a scrap of paper.

*CRONIN, Michael

Against the Day

It’s 1941 and the Nazis have invaded Britain. Two boys find themselves caught up in the Resistance movement; a thrilling account of history as it might have happened.

*DICKINSON, Peter

AK

Paul Kagomi is a boy soldier fighting for freedom in the African bush with only his gun to rely on.

You might also try Shadow of a Hero’

HAWKINS, Elizabeth

Sea of Peril

When a ship is hit by a torpedo, forty survivors are packed into a lifeboat. This story follows six boys who must survive the eight day ordeal in the Atlantic.

RIORDAN, James

Sweet Clarinet

Billy is orphaned and severely burned as a result of the Blitz. Shielded from the outside world, he becomes despondent and bitter. He finds inspiration in the shape of Terry Clough, a disfigured war hero whose gift of a clarinet brings Billy new hope.







LIFE AND TIMES

ALEXANDER, Caroline

Mrs Chippy’s Last Expedition

This is an account of Sir Ernest Shackleton’s 1914 expedition to Antarctica, as told from the journal of the redoubtable Mrs Chippy, the ship’s cat, who accompanied the carpenter Harry ‘Chippy’ McNeish from their home in Cathcart, Glasgow.

BITTON-JACKSON, Livia

I have lived a Thousand Years

(You will find this book in Non-fiction section: Code Number 940.53)

This is the story of Elli Friedmann, who was 13 years old when the Nazis invaded Hungary. It describes the process of occupation, the family’s separation, Elli’s deportation to Auschwitz with her mother and her remarkable survival.

*BRYSON, Bill

Notes from a Small Island

(You will find this book in the Non-Fiction Section: Code Number 914.2)

After nearly twenty years in Britain, Bill Bryson decided to move back to the USA. Before leaving his much-loved home in North Yorkshire, he took one last trip around the UK, and in this book takes an affectionate but ironic look at his adopted country.

FILIPOVIC, Zlata

Zlata’s Diary

(You will find this book in the Non-Fiction section: Code number 947)

Zlata began her diary shortly before her eleventh birthday. She then lived in the city of Sarajevo, and through her eyes we experience the horrors of a city under siege.

HERIOT, James

All Creatures Great and Small

A collection of stories based on the true experiences of a Yorkshire vet

MAXWELL, Gavin

Ring of Bright Water

(You will find this book in the Non-Fiction Section code number 914.1)

In the late 1950s, Gavin Maxwell went to live off the West Coast of Scotland, in an abandoned house. There he wrote about his life with the wild creatures round about, and especially the domesticated otters.





POETRY CORNER

Look in the 821 Section for a selection of poetry books. Here are some suggestions to get you started.



KAY, Jackie Two’s Company



ZEPHANIAH, Benjamin Talking Turkeys



The Puffin Book of Twentieth Century Children’s Verse



*The Rattle Bag Edited by Seamus Heaney and Ted Hughes

This anthology is a good introduction to a wide range of poetry, old and new.


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