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Original poster

Can you help create some book lists?

81 replies

stargirl1701 · 18/07/2018 17:12

I'm a primary school teacher and my school is celebrating a big anniversary next session. I run the upper school reading club (P5-7) and I was hoping to do some book lists - one for each decade the school has been open. A 'top ten reads of the...' idea. I need some help compiling the lists. I'm looking for chapter books for the 9-12 age range. I want to stick to books published in the UK.

1940s - I've got nothing

1950s
The Borrowers
Tom's Midnight Garden
Marianne Dreams

1960s
Summer Birds
Stig of the Dump
The Owl Service

1970s
The Ghost of Thomas Kempe
Charmed Life

1980s
The Indian in the Cupboard
Redwall
Moondial

1990s
The Story of Tracey Beaker
Harry Potter & the Philosopher's Stone

2000s
Journey to the River Sea
The Various
Millions

2010s
Goth Girl
How to Train Your Dragon
The Dream Snatcher
The Infinite Lives of Maisie Day

What would you add? I'm hoping for 10 in each decade. My childhood reading was way too heavy in the classics from pre WW2!

OP posts:
nocutsnobuttsnococonuts · 18/07/2018 23:50

Enid blyton - the naughtiest school girl (there's 4 books) 1940s/50s

Also famous 5/secret 7.

The demon headmaster (unsure of date but I loved this as a child!)

Dr suess - lovely messages too.

Terence blacker - ms wiz series. Again I loved these at school but haven't read in years.

PrivateParkin · 18/07/2018 23:44

I love The Children of Green Knowe - such a magical book.

I'd be so interested to see what you decide on as well OP! This thread has given me lots of ideas for reading with my DC (and for myself!).

UrbaneSprawl · 18/07/2018 23:24

How could I forget? The Children Of Green Knowe (1954). East Anglia might be a long way from Scotland, but it’s a brilliant series that deserves to be reread.

UrbaneSprawl · 18/07/2018 23:20

This is a brilliant idea. To the already excellent suggestions (that I might have made myself if I was not late to the party), can I add:

  • Arthur Ransome - most of the series was published in the 30s, but The Picts And Tne Martyrs and Great Northern? were both published in the 40s
  • Archer’s Goon by Diana Wynne Jones for the 80s - brilliant, still very readable.
  • Philip Pullman - though Northern Lights was published in the 90s, his first Sally Lockhart book, The Ruby In The Smoke, was published in 1985.
FreshEyre · 18/07/2018 23:20

@stargirl1701

Do come back to us when you have your finished lists - I'd love to know what you choose.

concretesieve · 18/07/2018 23:20

Antonia Forest started in the '40s - Autumn Term. Monica Thing Grin - Punchbowl books etc.

concretesieve · 18/07/2018 22:59

The Greatest Gresham 1962
When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit 1971
A Strong and Willing Girl 1980

MrsBertBibby · 18/07/2018 22:59

Violet Bibby, Many Waters. 1975. I want to read it now!

Rocinante1 · 18/07/2018 22:57

And Percy F. Westerman for the 40's and 50's.
Adventure books, often with military theme.

That's this box of my dad's children's books finished! Can have more tomorrow!

FreshEyre · 18/07/2018 22:57

The Greengage Summer - Rumer Godden - 1958

I know you've said published in the U.K. but what about the abridged version of Diary of Anne Frank (published 1952) for children of that age?

Rocinante1 · 18/07/2018 22:55

Look up Angela Brazil. She has about 6 or 7 books published in the 1940s for children.

PrivateParkin · 18/07/2018 22:54

101 Dalmatians was written in 1956. Sorry for the multiple posts OP - I should have just looked them all up at once!

Rocinante1 · 18/07/2018 22:52

Although that last one was American!!! Ignore the hundred dresses!!

Rocinante1 · 18/07/2018 22:51

The Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes in 1944.

There's no need for poetic license on the dates. You've got plenty in the 1940s to pick.

PrivateParkin · 18/07/2018 22:49

Oh wait! Cue for Treason by Geoffrey Trease was written in 1940! This is such a good book - adventure, derring-do, etc!

PrivateParkin · 18/07/2018 22:47

Yes what about Mysteries' idea of poetic licence? Could you say "1940s and before"?!

MinaPaws · 18/07/2018 22:47

1940s Just William (the original is 1920s but she kept writing them so some are from 1940s and all so brilliant)
Enid Blyton's Famous Five series

1950s - The Silver Sword (best children's book ever)

1960s Wolves of Willoughby Chase
Blackhearts in Battersea (second best children's book ever Grin)

1990s - Holes - Louis Sachar

FreshEyre · 18/07/2018 22:43

1950 - Jennings Goes to School

PrivateParkin · 18/07/2018 22:42

I thought The Box of Delights might fit the bill for the 1940s but no - it was published in 1935.

The Baker St Boys books are brilliant. They're about Sherlock Holmes' "Irregulars" - the street kids who helped him solve cases, and written from the kids' perspectives. It was a (sadly) short-lived TV series in the 1980s so I guess the books would have been written then. The Case of the Disappearing Detective is the first one IIRC.

MysteriesOfTheOrganism · 18/07/2018 22:40

1940s

Tolkien - The Hobbit (actually, 1937 - but poetic licence??? Grin)

1950s

Meindert de Jong - The House of 60 fathers

1960s

Alan Garner - Weirdstone of Brisingamen
Alan Garner - Moon of Gomrath

Rocinante1 · 18/07/2018 22:39

And William Earl Jones has a whole load of adventure book published in the 40's. I can't remember the name he wrote under... but I think it was Captain something (he was a pilot in WW1).

His adventure books are about the armed forces and were written to inspire young people (women) to join up, but they aren't rubbish propaganda or anything. Good adventure, exciting story. Might be a little old for the 9 years olds though.

Rocinante1 · 18/07/2018 22:36

Doctor Dolittle and The Secret Lake published in 1948.

It's a children's book, but by today's standards it is quite dark and doesn't have as much humour as the doctor dolittle books published previously. I Still think it is suitable, and has some important messages but you'd best read it yourself first.

W1neNot · 18/07/2018 22:35

Linda Hoy - Your friend, Rebecca. 1983

Moore6701 · 18/07/2018 22:34

Robert Westall books might suit that age group span 70’s, 80’s and 90’s. Machine gunners, the winds eye, kingdom by the sea.

Rocinante1 · 18/07/2018 22:33

He also wrote Brendan Chase in 1944. They are really great fantasy novels for rhat age group. Whimsical plots and just lovely to read with fun characters.

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