Recommended reading books for primary & secondary aged children in the UK
Jewell Parker Rhodes is an American author of books for children and adults. She is the Virginia G. Piper Endowed Chair and a professor at Arizona State University, and she is the founding artistic director of the Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing.
Her middle-grade novels include Ninth Ward (2010), Towers Falling (2016), Ghost Boys (2018), Black Brother, Black Brother (2020), Paradise on Fire (2021), Treasure Island: Runaway Gold (2023) and Will’s Race for Home (2025). She has also written the Louisiana Girls trilogy, which includes Ninth Ward, Sugar (2014) and Bayou Magic (2015).
Rhodes’s work has received major recognition in US children’s literature. Ninth Ward received a Coretta Scott King Author Honor. Ghost Boys won the Walter Dean Myers Award for Outstanding Children’s Literature (Younger Readers). Paradise on Fire won the Green Earth Book Award.
Will’s Race for Home won the Coretta Scott King Book Award (Author) in 2026.
Books for year 7 – our reading recommendation for 11 year olds at the start of secondary school in Year 7, including titles by A.M Dassu, Mitch Johnson, Lisa Thompson, Gillian Cross, Malorie Blackman, R.J. Palacio, Philip Pullman, Catherine Johnson & Michael Rosen.
Our recommended graphic novels for teens and young adults aged 12-16 to appeal to reluctant readers and able readers alike. This list includes works by Tony Medina, Stephen Collins, Terri Libenson, Raina Telgemeier, Meg-John Barker and Neil Gaiman.
Combat sports books for children and teens with titles by María Isabel Sánchez Vegara, James Patterson, Kwame Alexander, Jewell Parker Rhodes, Markus Zusak, Fonda Lee, Robin Ha, Nicola Adams, Ronda Rousey, and C. S. Pacat.
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