Can you help create some book lists?

[stargirl1701]

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!

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

@stargirl1701

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

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.

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.

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!).

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.

Oh and forgot these are some my 9 year old dd loves and should fit in.

Captain underpants.
Diary of a wimpy kid.
Tom gates.
Dennis the menace.
Harriet the spy.
Dork diaries.

Was his name captain WE johns ? - wrote the biggles books- loved them growing up.

1940s - Theatre Shoes by Noel Streatfield.
1960s - I am David by Anne Holm.

Big yes to the Swish of the Curtain.

I'm quite intreged by the 1940s books. I feel the need to research this for myself!
Biggles is the adventure series I think someone was thinking of further up the thread. I believe Worzel Gummage was 1940s (first ever Puffin paperback). That's a tough decade with the war and paper rationing. Enid was one of the few authors who got to churn stuff out then. Ladybird Books like Bunnikins First Birthday etc were 40s. Ooh I want to go to the library tomorrow to find more out!

Great thread!

I Capture the Castle Dodie Smith 1948

Millions Frank Cottrell Boyce 2008
He wrote quite prolifically around that period so well worth looking up for more ideas.

Pity Ballet Shoes is just a bit early!

Carrie's War Nina Bawden 1973

Tom's Midnight Garden Philippa Pearce 1958

The Little White Horse Elizabeth Goudge 1946 (Perhaps for the younger ones)

Placemarking as going to bed but have lots of suggestions.

Lovely idea OP.

Rosemary Sutcliff was prolific during the 1950s and 1960s, two of my favourites are
The Lantern Bearers 1959
Knight's Fee 1960.

Skellig David Almond 1998

The Little Grey Men - BB (nom de plume of Denys Watkins-Pitchford). It's a children's fantasy novel from 1942.

Also the sequel
Down the Bright Stream (1948), later republished as the Little Grey Men go Down the Bright Stream. I loved that book as a child (in the 90s, not the 40s I should add!)

@Moore6701

That's it! I remember my dad reading those to me when I was younger but he always told me the authors full name. They weren't in the box with his other old books and I couldn't remember what name he actually published under!

Thank you!

1980s - The Queen's Nose by Dick King-Smith
1990s and 2000s - some Malorie Blackman perhaps?

The Emerald Crown Violet Needham 1940 This was my favourite book when I was about eight or nine.

I've just remembered that my daughter (born in the 80s) absolutely adored Enid Blyton's Malory Towers series (1940s).

Lorna Hill's Sadlers Wells series was written during the 1950s, it starts with A Dream of Sadlers Wells.

Elidor Alan Garner 1965

Rumer Godden - The Doll’s House (1947)