Eager to see your child curled up with a book during the summer holidays? Below is a curated list of books suitable for year 9 and 10 students.
Engaging with texts from different time periods helps become familiar with the language conventions of the past. This will make reading Shakespeare and the 19th century literary texts in the GCSE curriculum easier.
But reading widely is important beyond the GCSE exams, too. It lets students experience perspectives outside of their own while organically building their vocabulary and sense of grammar. Reading builds compassion and emotional intelligence, and it contributes to a well-rounded education outside of the classroom.
So, encourage your child to read widely this summer with the help of our recommended reading list!
19th Century
| Book | Author | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| Frankenstein | Mary Shelley | Gripping Gothic story with a fascinating insight into destructive ambition. Victor Frankenstein’s justification of his actions is a study in self-delusion and serves as an excellent critical thinking exercise.
Especially recommended if one of the GCSE set texts is Macbeth. |
| The Picture of Dorian Gray | Oscar Wilde | Cautionary tale about vanity and unbridled, irresponsible freedom. Dorian Gray embodies the desires we all have: to stay young and have the liberty to do whatever we want. But everything comes with a price. |
| The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde | Robert Louis Stevenson | Accessible, short page-turner and an excellent introduction to Gothic fiction. The mysterious Hyde is elusive from the beginning and Stevenson keeps up the suspense until the very last pages: who is Mr Hyde and what business has he got with the respectable Dr Jekyll. |
| Dracula | Bram Stoker | Slightly longer and slower, but a masterclass in Gothic world building. Students can read up to the end of Jonathan Harker’s account to experience the epistolary novel form alongside some truly suspenseful and creepy scenes in Dracula’s castle. |
| The Yellow Wall-Paper | Charlotte Perkins Gilman | Short but stunning, Gilman’s story displays the raw and unprettified process of losing one’s grip on reality. It is an excellent study of descent into madness when everything that gives meaning to life is taken away. |
20th Century
| Book | Author | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| Flowers for Algernon | Daniel Keyes | An absolutely unique journey of language and learning. A bullied, mentally disabled Charlie is given the chance to increase his intelligence. We follow his progress reports that are first barely coherent, full of typos and grammatical errors, but soon his writing, and his life, transforms. The language grows and clarifies with Charlie, and he grows with the language – the two are inseparable. It’s a beautiful reflection on how language defines thinking and identity. |
| Animal Farm | George Orwell | Short, very accessible, easy to understand political allegory. The beauty (or curse) of Orwell’s story is that it always seems to be relevant. |
| Fahrenheit 451 | Ray Bradbury | In Bradbury’s world, technology has replaced books. People are bombarded with visual content that maximises their engagement to the point that they give up thinking itself. There are few things more terrifying than Bradbury’s depiction of a nation of puppets incapable of thinking for themselves, glued to a screen, craving the next dopamine hit. |
| Northern Lights | Philip Pullman | Northern Lights should be the gateway reading to all fantasy. Pullman’s Oxford is detailed and full of characters we grow to love and hate, and Lyra is a delightfully resourceful and witty main character. Her adventures to uncover the mystery of the strange substance called Dust take us through multiple worlds. Pullman’s subtle probing at themes like religion and education makes His Dark Materials trilogy an incredibly rich and rewarding reading experience. |
| A Wizard of Earthsea | Ursula K. Le Guin | Imagine Harry Potter but diverse, rich in meaning, and ethically less “mean spirited” (Le Guin’s words, not mine). Ged is a young boy who accidentally discovers that he has magical abilities, goes to a school to learn magic, encounters a darkness without a name which physically scars him for life, and he has to find a way to defeat it because no one else can. Sounds familiar? Well, this is the original. |
21st Century
| Book | Author | Comment |
| The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time | Mark Haddon | This mystery novel follows young Christopher’s investigation into the murder of his neighbour’s dog. Christopher is neurodivergent and his perspective is refreshingly different from all the others on this list. He is an outsider who sees the world in a “surprising and revealing way.” |
| The Book Thief | Markus Zusak | The best thing about this book isn’t even the fact that it is narrated by Death. Although that’s pretty cool. The book thief is Liesel, a young girl living with foster parents during World War II. Death follows her everywhere in Nazi Germany, but it’s kindness and compassion in a time of suspicion and unspeakable cruelty that makes Liesel’s story heart wrenching. |
| Born a Crime | Trevor Noah | The only non-fiction book on the list, Born a Crime is at once deeply touching and hilarious. Noah describes his childhood in apartheid South Africa with genuine honesty and manages to carry the reader through even the darkest moments with a touch of humour. |
| Purple Hibiscus | Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie | Kambili, a 15-year-old schoolgirl lives the privileged life of upper class, post-colonial Nigeria. Her family is held in high regard within the community, mainly thanks to her father’s successful business and seemingly endless philanthropy. But behind the high walls of their estate, Kambili’s life is defined by domestic violence and survival.
Adichie’s characterisation is subtle, her writing is gripping and beautiful, and her stories, despite the hardship, are always about hope. |
| Hani and Ishu’s Guide to Fake Dating | Adiba Jaigirdar | A light-hearted teenage love story with all the charm of the “enemies to lovers” and “fake dating” tropes. There is a diverse set of characters with a rich cultural backdrop. A super easy read for the summer! |