Year 5 Recommended Reading list surprises

[bubblebubblebubbletrouble]

Are Lord of the flies, Diary of Anne Frank, the Hobbit & Boy/Going Solo stardard yr 5 recommended reads?? It's a long time since I've read any of them but was surprised to see them on dd1's list.
There is also Walliams/Wimpey Kid etc, but these stuck out.

My ds (y5) will be reading The Hobbit and Percy Jackson. He’s not a fan of reading and both seem way beyond him really. Wimpy kid is just about his level. My dd on the other hand would have been fine with these in y5. Suppose there isn’t much harm in ambitious titles unless they just seem too hard and out children off?

I would not say Lord of the Flies is suitable for Y5 - I read it for GCSE! I can't really remember if it was particularly graphic or not, but it's pretty gruesome regardless.

DD read The diary of Anne Frank and the Hobbit in year 5. She loved both of them, although she did cry a little when she asked me if there was a sequel to Anne Frank. She'd read Boy the year before, but we didn't have Going Solo.
I wouldn't have given her Lord of the Flies, but I didn't like it much. I would have thought they were too young at that age to get enough meaning out of it.

I did think "Flour Babies" in year 3 (Flour babies are, as the name suggests, six-pound sacks of flour that are meant to pass as babies in a scientific school experiment. The babies’ “parents”, charged with taking care of such a precious load for 3 weeks, are the 14 years old children from the naughtiest and worst learning class in an all boys school. ) was not the best choice by the school, but when she read it she found it interesting, and it was something totally different from her normal choice.

My Yr5 couldn't read The Hobbit. Her class reading at the moment is Land of Roar. I read it in Primary School though- it was studied by the whole Yr5/6 class, we didn't read it independently.

She has read a book about Anne Frank (not her Diary) that is aimed at younger readers (probably Yr3+).

My DD had read all of those except Lord of the Flies by y6 - I think that's more suitable for secondary personally as its a bit gruesome iirc

I think my y5 would be a bit sensitive for a few of those tbh.

She'd probably be fine with the Hobbit and the Dahl, but I think the other two would be upsetting.

Bubble, is your DD an advanced reader, and is this reading list tailored to her or her reading group, or is it a general class list? Is it quite a high achieving or ambitious school? Is the Y5 list quite long and varied in terms of the difficulty of the books?

I don't think someone telling you their DC has read The Hobbit in Y5 is relevant. The question I think you're asking is whether it's common to have these quite 'mature' titles on a Y5 reading list.

IMO The Hobbit is quite advanced for Y5, but the storyline is not inappropriate for the age group. I, like others, am surprised to see Lord of the Flies mentioned for this age group, not due to the difficulty but the story.

Www.schoolreadinglist.co.uk have some good suggestions for books on each year group.
I'd be dubious about Lord of the flies or Anne franks (unedited) diary for this stage of Y5.

DC1 was pretty advanced with literacy/comprehension, and there's no way she would have been ready for Lord Of The Flies at that age. DC2 is in year 5 now and wouldn't be ready to tackle any of your recommended reads apart from Going Solo. I'm still not ready for The Hobbit at 42 .

Lord of the Flies is the only one I'd be dubious about (when I was at school we read it in Year 9!). My DC read Anne Frank in Y6, so early Y5 may be a little early for that one as well (and I think it helps to read it with historical context which the average Y5 likely won't have).