Recommended reading books for primary & secondary aged children in the UK
Nick Brooks is an American author and filmmaker from Washington, DC. He writes middle grade science fiction and young adult mysteries, and also works in short film and music under the stage name Ben Kenobe.
Brooks’s middle grade series centres on inventor Ethan Fairmont. It begins with Nothing Interesting Ever Happens to Ethan Fairmont (2022) and continues with Too Many Interesting Things Are Happening to Ethan Fairmont (2023) and Everything Interesting Keeps Happening to Ethan Fairmont (2024).
His young adult debut, Promise Boys (Henry Holt and Co. – BYR, 31 January 2023), follows three students who investigate their principal’s murder to clear their names. A second YA novel, Up in Smoke, was published in 2025.
Promise Boys was a 2023 Boston Globe–Horn Book Award honouree and won the 2024 Odyssey Award for Excellence in Audiobook Production for Young Adults.
Mystery stories for children and teens with titles by Julia Donaldson, Richard Osman, Marcus Rashford, Marissa Meyer, David Wiesner, Abiola Bello, Patrice Lawrence, Konnie Huq, Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé, and Maureen Johnson.
Summer reading challenge – A good reading challenge will not only promote reading and encourage reading for pleasure, but it will encourage a reading culture to spread like a virus throughout your school. Updated for 2026.
Season 1, Episode 7 of the School Reading List podcast. With new book post, 30 great books for February 2023, a look at our 6th form book list and why we reading records are not a good idea.
Here’s our selection of top new titles coming out in Spring 2023. These reading recommendations include picture books, early and middle-grade fiction; young adult novels and non-fiction.
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