Reading List for children in Year 1 and Year 2 (Age 6 and 7)
Parents often ask us for reading recommendations and so we have compiled the following list below as a good starting point! These are all either personal favourites or recommended on well renowned book lists.
Preparation for the 7 plus takes place at a key point in most children’s reading journeys where they are moving away from the more structured phonics linked reading schemes and into a new world of chapter books, non fiction texts and even poetry. It is a time where they start to explore and learn who their favourite authors are and what their favourite types of stories might be. Embedding reading into daily routines and encouraging this with plenty of different choices can set up lifetime habits. Evidence shows us that fostering a love of reading can support the child not just with reading comprehension but in multiple different ways including vocabulary acquisition, creative writing and even maths and science skills.
At Keystone we recommend that children read or are read to every day. I also love to point out the joy of using audiobooks to create an enriching literary environment. I use these with my own children in the car, at bedtime and at other points throughout the day when just sitting down and reading a book isn’t possible. It means we can access a wide range of stories and both Audible and Librivox are excellent purveyors of a vast array of titles with plenty to choose from.
I also recommend Pie Corbett, an inspiring English educator, who has developed four reading spines of the books and poems for children. These have been divided into year group categories and are well worth looking through for further ideas.
https://shop.scholastic.co.uk/reading-spine
https://peters.co.uk/pie-corbett-poetry-spine
https://peters.co.uk/pie-corbett-rich-and-diverse
https://peters.co.uk/pie-corbett-page-turners
Finally, the Paul Jennings book The Reading Bug is a great one to look through for ideas and strategies for parents to help encourage a love of reading in their children.
Fiction recommended reading for 7 Plus
- Aesop, Fables
- Jill Murphy, The Worst Witch
- Tom Percival, The Invisible
- Ibtihaj Muhammad, The Proudest Blue
- Benji Davies, The Storm Whale
- Judith Kerr, Mog series
- Allen Ahlberg , Happy Families Series
- Barkhem J, Bramble Hedge Series
- Browne A, Miscellaneous
- Roald Dahl, George’s Marvellous Medicine, The Enormous Crocodile and others
- Dick King Smith, Dumpling and others
- AA Milne, Winnie the Pooh and others
- Michael Morpurgo M, Miscellaneous
- Seuss Dr, Green Eggs and Ham and others
- Beatrix Potter, Tales of Peter Rabbit
- Prokofiev S S, Peter and the Wolf
- Joan Aiken, Arabel and Mortimer
- Lynne Reid Banks, Indian in the Cupboard series
- Michael Bond, Paddington series
- Humphrey Carpenter, Mr. Majeika series
- Jeff Brown, Flat Stanley series
- Cressida Cowell, How to train you dragon series
- Sally Gardner, Magical Children series
- Jeremy Strong, The Hundred Mile an Hour Dog series
- Kate Umansky, Sir Quentin Quest series
- Michelle Coxon, The Cat Who Lost His Purr
- Peta Coplans, Frightened Fred
- Betty Birney, The World According to Humphrey
- Jan Fearnley, Mr Wolf’s Pancakes
- Max Velthuijis, Frog is Frog
- Michael Rosen, Cat and Mouse Story
- Shirley Hughes, The Snow Lady
- Mary Hoffman and Caroline Binch, Grace and Family
- Dav Pilkey ,The Adventures of Captain Underpants,
- Anne Fine, The Diary of a Killer Cat,
- Ian Whybrow , Little Wolf’s Book of Badness,
- Jeremy Strong, Pirate School: Just a Bit of Wind
- Joseph Coelmo and Daniel Gray-Barnett, Poems Aloud
Non-fiction recommended reading for 7 Plus
- Horrible Histories Terry Deary & Martin Brown
- Horrible Geography Anita Ganeri and Mike Phillips
- Horrible Science Nick Arnold and Tony De Saulles
- Children’s Illustrated Dictionary DK
- Neal Layton A Planet Full of Plastic: and how you can help
- Yuval Zommer The Big Book series
- Helaine Becker Counting on Katherine: How Katherine Johnson Put Astronauts on the Moon
- Betina Ip The Usborne Book of the Brain and How it Work
Download our 7 Plus Reading List
7 plus tuition
Keystone Tutors have a number of highly experienced 7 Plus tutors who can help with exam and interview preparation, wherever you are in the world.
For more details on how Keystone can help prepare your child for the 7 Plus, please call the office for a chat with one of our client managers, or contact us via our request a tutor form.