Reading age: 8 - 10 yrs

Interest level: 8 - 12 yrs

Year groups: 5, 6, 7, 8

Hi Lo? No

Best year group: Year 6

Summary - Red is a rare red dragon who lives with his Mag and Dag in a world where dragons and Uprights are sworn enemies. Then Red meets his first Upright, a girl called Lou, who is nothing like he had imagined: she's smart, and funny...and kind! As the pair become friends, Red learns that not only can the two species live in harmony - but maybe it's his destiny to bring them back together.

Reading age: 9 - 11 yrs

Interest level: 9 - 12 yrs

Year groups: 5, 6, 7

Hi Lo? No

Best year group: Year 6

Summary - All Ember wants to do is fly with the golden flamebirds who stop over every year at Bright Beacon before heading west across the seas to their mysterious home. Their fiery arrival is also the signal for the waiting Flame Chasers in the harbour below to get ready to follow the birds, whose glowing tail feathers grant the finder a wish. But when Pa tells Ember he is chasing without her, she is devastated. Can she find a ship and captain to help her find her father, and the flamebirds secret home?

Reading age: 9 - 11 yrs

Interest level: 9 - 12 yrs

Year groups: 5, 6, 7, 8

Hi Lo? No

Best year group: Year 5

Summary - When Summer and her foster family are having lunch one day, a hole that leads to a dragon appears in the middle of the living room.

That hole leads to a dragon and the promise of three wishes, granted by a witch. Wishing for friends and for money, things are looking up, until Summer realizes that the hole in the floor is getting bigger and the witch is getting more sinister. Will Summer get her dearest wish - for a true home?

Reading age: 10 - 12 yrs

Interest level: 9 - 13 yrs

Year groups: 5, 6, 7

Hi Lo? No

Best year group: Year 6

Summary - When Liv finds a secret box from her Grandmother's childhood she uncovers an extraordinary war-time story of bravery, betrayal and daring defiance
Holland, 1942. The world is at war and as the Nazis' power grows, Jewish families are in terrible danger. Hannie, determined to fight back, is swept into the Dutch resistance as an undercover agent: Code Name Kingfisher. And though Mila does her best to make friends and keep out of trouble, there is danger at every turn and the sisters are soon left questioning who they can trust...

Awards

Shortlisted - Children's Book Award (Older Readers) 2024
Shortlisted - UKLA Book Awards (Ages 7-10+) 2025
Longlisted - Children's Book Award (Older Readers) 2024
Longlisted - UKLA Book Awards (Ages 7-10+) 2025

Reading age: 9 - 11 yrs

Interest level: 9 - 12 yrs

Year groups: 4, 5, 6, 7

Hi Lo? No

Best year group: Year 5

Summary - The Gods of Olympus and their descendants have lost their memories. They think they are ordinary humans. Only Hannah Messenger and her friends know who they really are. And that means when the God's objects of power start to go missing, only Hannah and her friends can stop the thief. An urban fantasy about learning that real power is in the friendships you make.

Reading age: 8 - 10 yrs

Interest level: 8 - 12 yrs

Year groups: 5, 6, 7, 8

Hi Lo? No

Best year group: Year 6

Summary - Number 14 Darlington Road, looks like a perfectly ordinary townhouse - at first glance, anyway, but magic is good at hiding . . . when it's waiting for the right person to discover it... Martha Pennydrop is ten, and desperate to grow up. But growing up is a tricky business. It means turning your back on imagination, fun and magic, because those were the things that led to the Terrible Day when something awful nearly happened to Martha's younger brother, Scruff, which would have been All Her Fault.
But when Martha and Scruff discover mysterious gold dust in their bedroom in their new house - along with a window that's seemingly impossible to close - it's the start of an incredible adventure to a magical world: Neverland! The Pennydrop's new house used to belong to another family - the Darlings - who once visited this world themselves. Now Peter Pan is back, and in need of their help. Neverland is in the icy grip of a terrible curse - cast long ago by Captain Hook. And only Martha and Scruff can save it...

A reluctant Martha and excited Scruff are swept to Neverland and into the company of the Lost Kids. But when Scruff is kidnapped, Martha must rediscover all the imagination, magic and belief she has buried deep inside herself for so long, to save him - and Neverland itself.

Reading age: 10 - 12 yrs

Interest level: 9 - 13 yrs

Key stage: 2, 3

Year groups: 5

Best year group: Year 5

Summary - When his mother dies, Jim is all alone in the workhouse and is desperate to escape. But London in the 1860's is a dangerous and lonely place for a small boy and life is a constant battle for survival.
Just when Jim finds some friends, he is snatched away and is made to work for the remorselessly cruel Grimy Nicks, constantly guarded by his vicious dog, Snipe. Will Jim ever be free?

Reading age: 9 - 11 yrs

Interest level: 9 - 12 yrs

Year groups: 5, 6, 7

Hi Lo? No

Best year group: Year 6

Summary - An epic battle between extra-terrestrials and an evil professor. Reuben lives in an observatory with his astronomer grandma who is determined to win the Guzman prize, based on a real historical French prize
This prize was the sum of 100,000 francs, to be given to a person who succeeded in communicating with extraterrestrials. Mars was ruled out as being too close, and too easy because life definitely exists on Mars! Grandma has a competitor, the evil professor Pinfield. Reuben isn't allowed to leave the observatory but one day he sneaks out and discovers an alien whom he calls Blue. Professor Pinfield wants to capture Blue and put her in a cage. Can Reuben save Blue?

Reading age: 7 - 9 yrs

Interest level: 7 - 11 yrs

Year groups: 3, 4, 5, 6

Hi Lo? No

Best year group: Year 4

Summary - Controlling the wind, smelling fear, farting colours... The people of Walsham can do it all! The WHOLE TOWN has been granted powers by a mysterious treasure, except for Sara. She can't even levitate a squirrel! But the school football trophy (and her best friend's lucky charm) has been stolen, and powers or no powers, it's up to her to find it and catch the criminal. And who knows - maybe Sara will discover her super skills in the process... (She certainly hopes she will!).

Reading age: 9 - 11 yrs

Interest level: 9 - 12 yrs

Year groups: 5, 6, 7

Hi Lo? No

Best year group: Year 6

Summary - Jamie and July are both eleven-year-olds living in London - but they have very different lives. They meet for the first time at Waterloo Station in the last week of the holidays. They are both desperate to get away from home. July is really worried about her unreliable mum - she needs to get help. Jamie has done something terrible - and left in a panic. Despite their worries, the sun is shining and, as they escape everything they've left behind in the city, Jamie and July can't help but sense adventure in the air. But running away isn't just harmless summertime fun. What are they really trying to escape? And will either Jamie or July find a place that finally feels like home?

Three homes, two kids, one journey.

Content advisory: One use of the word bugger and a child that has had to deal with a parents drug addiction.

Reading age: 9 - 11 yrs

Interest level: 9 - 12 yrs

Key stage: 2

Year groups: 5, 6, 7, 8

Hi Lo? No

Best Year group: Year 6

Summary - When Kai's big sister Jen leaves the family home, Kai knows it's all his fault. His secret burns, but he tells no one, just keeps pulling at tufts of his hair. But in the broad branches of a wasteland sycamore tree, Kai feels safe and free from his worries. Up there he feels he can be whoever he wants to be. And when a girl called Sky starts climbing Kai's tree, a friendship blossoms ... a friendship with the power to heal.

Reading age: 10 - 12 yrs

Interest level: 9 - 13 yrs

Key stage: 2, 3

Year groups: 5

Hi Lo? No

Best year group: Year 5

Summary - Twelve-year-old Matthew is trapped in his bedroom by crippling OCD, spending most of his time staring out of his window as the inhabitants of Chestnut Close go about their business. Until the day he is the last person to see his next door neighbour's toddler, Teddy, before he goes missing. Matthew must turn detective and unravel the mystery of Teddy's disappearance - with the help of a brilliant cast of supporting characters.

Awards

Shortlisted - Children's Book Award (Younger readers) 2018
Shortlisted - Waterstones Children's Book Prize (Younger fiction) 2018
Shortlisted - Teach Primary Book Awards (Key Stage 2) 2017
Longlisted - Children's Book Award (Younger readers) 2018
Longlisted - Waterstones Children's Book Prize (Younger fiction) 2018
Longlisted - Teach Primary Book Awards (Key Stage 2) 2017

Reading age: 9 - 11 yrs

Interest level: 9 - 12 yrs

Year groups: 4, 5, 6, 7

Hi Lo? No

Best year group: Year 6

Summary - When an unfortunate incident in a space shuttle simulator turns twelve year old Franklin Wilson into an accidental viral sensation, he attracts the attention of Xavier Drake, the third richest person in the world, who invites Franklin to take part in a competition to become the actual first kid in space.

But after the competition launches, and the five young contestants begin to compete in a series of trials that will see them eliminated one by one until only the winner remains, Franklin discovers that everything is not what it seems - and it turns out there is much more at stake than just a trip to space...

Reading age: 7 - 9 yrs

Interest level: 6 - 9 yrs

Year groups: 1, 2, 3, 4

Hi Lo? No

Best year group: Year 3

Summary - Angela McAllister's seven original stories follow the changing landscape of lives on one hillside from the Stone Age to the present day. Once upon a hillside, the hedgerows were loud with sparrows and thick with blossom. Blue butterflies flitted over the anthills, lapwings danced in the big sky. And time passed...'

Beginning with a Neolithic clan, who leave an arrowhead later found by a Roman boy, then a Roman mosaic found by a medieval herbalist and her daughter, relics of past lives and people are embedded there - left in one story and found in the next.

Following in their footsteps are a Civil War runaway, an eighteenth-century shepherd, a Victorian archaeologist and a nineteenth-century botanist - all play a part in the history of the hillside, just as it has played a part in their lives. Wilderness, weather, history, archaeology and folklore infuse each tale.

Reading age: 8 - 10 yrs

Interest level: 7 - 12 yrs

Key stage: 2, 3

Year groups: 5, 6, 7

Summary - Hear and listen well, and I will tell you a tale that has been told for a thousand years and more. It may be an old story, yet it troubles and terrifies us now as ever it did, for we still fear the evil that stalks out there in the darkness and beyond.

This tale is of Beowulf, a fearless warrior who battles three evils so powerful that they terrorize the entire kingdom of Denmark. Standing head and shoulders above his comrades, Beowulf single-handedly slays Grendel, the murderous and merciless ogre, followed by his vengeful sea-hag mother. But it is in his third bloody-battle, against the death-dragon of the deep, that Beowulf truly meets his match.

The author and illustrator breathe new vitality into the oldest surviving Anglo-Saxon legend with this masterly retelling of Beowulf.

Reading age: 8 - 10 yrs

Interest level: 10 - 12 yrs

Year groups: 6, 7, 8

Hi Lo? No

Best year group: Year 7

Summary - Will has the wrong shoes - he's always known it but doesn't know how to change it. Navigating the difficulties of home and school when you feel you stick out is tough, but finding confidence with the help and empathy of friends can be all you need to see the way.

Awards

Winner - The Week Junior Book Awards (Older Fiction) 2025
Shortlisted - The Week Junior Book Awards (Older Fiction) 2025
Shortlisted - Diverse Book Award Children's Prize 2025
Longlisted - The Week Junior Book Awards (Older Fiction) 2025
Longlisted - Diverse Book Award Children's Prize 2025

Reading age: 9 - 11 yrs

Interest level: 9 - 12 yrs

Year groups: 5, 6

Hi Lo? No

Best year group: Year 5

Summary - The story of a young boy's connection with his grandpa - and a mystery that may come between them. Trader and his grandpa have combed the beach of Bognor Regis for as long as he can remember, and every time they find a beautiful or special stone, it's added to the treasure collection.

Reading age: 9 - 11 yrs

Interest level:8 - 11 yrs

Year groups: 5, 6

Hi Lo? No

Summary - A young boy forms a close relationship with a whale while his mum is in hospital, but when it suddenly goes missing he sets off on a quest to find it.

Portsmouth Big City Read book 2025