KBA Reading List

The expectation is that students will read at least 100 of the texts on the KBA Reading List before the end of year 11. The books on the KBA Reading List have been selected to provide students with broad range of writing styles and subject matter and styles.  They are not titles that children would typically choose to read themselves and in many cases, books have been chosen for their literary or cultural significance and contribution to the global canon. In some cases, books will be read as extensions to work studied in class in order to deepen and enrich pupils’ understanding of key literary texts and historical periods. The list is comprised of a range of fiction, non-fiction and plays. All texts are intended to stretch and challenge pupils of all ability levels. Some texts contain mature content and will not be read unless/until pupils are mature enough to handle it.  Tragedy, sex and scenes of physical violence are inescapable aspects of the human condition, and consequently feature often in literary writings.  Whilst we do have some limits, we will attempt to tackle mature content in year 11, particularly if the texts are of a high cultural and literary value.   Our general rule of thumb is this: if you read with an adult, read something ludicrously hard. So yes, some of the books on this list are extremely difficult, but that is something we will not apologise for.

1 A Christmas Carol- Charles Dickens
2 A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court- Mark Twain
3 A Doll’s House- Henrik Ibsen
4 A Farewell to Arms – Ernest Hemingway
5 A History of Modern Britain- Andrew Marr
6 A Kestrel for a Knave – Barry Hines
7 A Little History of the World- E.H. Gombrich
8 A Little Princess- Frances Hodgson Burnett
9 A Long Walk to Freedom- Nelson Mandela
10 A Passage to India- E.M. Forster
11 A Picture of Dorian Gray- Oscar Wilde
12 A Suitable Boy- Vikram Seth
13 A Tale of Two Cities- Charles Dickens
14 A View from the Bridge – Arthur Miller
15 A Vindication of the Rights of Women- Mary Wollstonecraft
16 Agamemnon- Aeschylus
17 Alice in Wonderland- Lewis Carroll
18 All Quiet on the Western Front – Erich Maria Remarque
19 An Inspector Calls- J.B. Priestley
20 Angela’s Ashes – Frank McCourt
21 Animal Farm- George Orwell
22 Anna Karenina- Leo Tolstoy
23 Antigone- Sophocles
24 Around the World in 80 Days- Jules Verne
25 Birdsong- Sebastian Faulks
26 Black Boy- Richard Wright
27 Bleak House- Charles Dickens
28 Blood Brothers- Willy Russell
29 Boy- Roald Dahl
30 Brave New World- Aldous Huxley
31 Breakfast at Tiffany’s – Truman Capote
32 Brick Lane-Monica Ali
33 Brighton Rock – Graham Greene
34 Burning Bright- Tracey Chevalier
35 Cannery Row- John Steinbeck
36 Cat on a Hot Tin Roof- Tennessee Williams
37 Catch 22 – Joseph Heller
38 Catcher in the Rye- J.D. Salinger
39 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Roald Dahl
40 Charlotte’s Web- E.B. White
41 Chinese Cinderella- Adeleine Yen Mah
42 Cider with Rosie – Laurie Lee
43 The Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas
44 Crime and Punishment- Fyodor Dostoyevsky
45 David Copperfield- Charles Dickens
46 Death of a Salesman- Arthur Miller
47 Dr Faustus- Christopher Marlowe
48 Dracula- Bram Stoker
49 Dubliners- James Joyce
50 Eagle of the Ninth- Rosemary Suttcliffe
51 East of Eden- John Steinbeck
52 Educating Rita- Willy Russell
53 Emma- Jane Austen
54 Empire of the Sun – J G Ballard
55 Far from the Madding Crowd – Thomas HArdy
56 Farenheit 451- Ray Bradbury
57 Flowers for Algernon – Daniel Keyes
58 For Whom the Bell Tolls – Ernest Hemingway
59 Frankenstein- Mary Shelley
60 Franny and Zooey- J.D. Salinger
61 Grendel- John Gardner
62 Gulliver’s Travels- Jonathan Swift
63 Half of a Yellow Sun- Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche
64 Hard Times- Charles Dickens
65 Haroun and the Sea of Stories- Salman Rushdie
66 Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone- J.K. Rowling
67 Heart of Darkness- Joseph Conrad
68 I Am Malala- Malala Yousafzai
69 I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings- Maya Angelou
70 In cold blood – Truman Capote
71 Ivanhoe – Sir Walter Scott
72 Jane Eyre- Charlotte Bronte
73 Jekyll and Hyde- Robert Louis Stevenson
74 Journey to the Centre of the Earth- Jules Verne
75 Journey’s End- R.C. Sherriff
76 Jude the Obscure- Thomas Hardy
77 Jungle Book- Rudyard Kipling
78 Jurassic Park- Michael Crichton
79 Just So Stories- Rudyard Kipling
80 King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table - Roger Lancelyn Green
81 Les Miserables- Victor Hugo
82 Life of Pi- Yann Martel
83 Little Women- Louisa May Alcott
84 Lord of the Flies- William Golding
85 Madame Bovary – Gustav Flaubert
86 Matilda- Roald Dahl
87 Middlemarch- George Eliot
88 Midnight’s Children- Salman Rushdie
89 Moby Dick- Herman Melville
90 No Logo- Naomi Klein
91 Northern Lights- Philip Pullman
92 Of Mice and Men- John Steinbeck
93 Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens
94 On the Road- Jack Kerouac
95 One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s nest – Ken Kesey
96 One Hundred Years of Solitude- Gabriel Garcia Marquez
97 Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood- Marjane Satrapi
98 Peter Pan- J.M. Barrie
99 Pride and Prejudice- Jane Austen
100 Rebecca – Daphne du Maurier
101 Revolutionary Road- Richard Yates
102 Rob Roy – Walter Scott
103 Robinson Crusoe- Daniel Defoe
104 Roman Myths- collection
105 Sense and Sensibility- Jane Austen
106 Sherlock Holmes- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
107 Short Stories- Edgar Allan Poe
108 Short Stories- Roald Dahl
109 Silas Marner – George Eliot
110 Silent We Stood- Henry Chappell
111 Slaughterhouse Five- Kurt Vonnegut
112 Sophie’s World- Jostein Gaardner
113 Streetcar Named Desire- Tennessee Williams
114 Tess of the D’Urbervilles- Thomas Hardy
115 The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn- Mark Twain
116 The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
117 The Adventures of Tom Sawyer- Mark Twain
118 The Aeneid- Virgil
119 The Alchemist- Paulo Coelho
120 The Autobiography of Malcolm X
121 The Bell Jar- Sylvia Plath
122 The Big Sleep – Raymond Chandler
123 The Bonfire of Vanities – Tom Wolfe
124 The Book Thief- Marcus Zusack
125 The Bookseller of Kabul- Asne Seierstad
126 The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas- John Boyne
127 The Call of the Wild- Jack London
128 The Color Purple- Alice Walker
129 The Count of Monte Cristo- Alexandre Dumas
130 The Crucible- Arthur Miller
131 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night time- Mark Haddon
132 The Daydreamer- Ian McEwan
133 The Diary of a Young Girl- Anne Frank
134 The Fellowship of the Ring- J.R.R. Tolkien
135 The Giver- Lois Lowry
136 The Graduate – Charles Webb
137 The Grapes of Wrath- John Steinbeck
138 The Great Gatsby- F. Scott Fitzgerald
139 The Handmaid’s Tale- Margaret Atwood
140 The Help- Katherine Stockett
141 The History Boys- Alan Bennett
142 The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy- Douglas Adams
143 The Hobbit- J.R.R. Tolkein
144 The Hunchback of Notre Dame- Victor Hugo
145 The Iliad - Homer
146 The Jew of Malta- Christopher Marlowe
147 The Kite Runner- Khaled Hosseini
148 TheLast of the Mohicans – James Fenimore Cooper
149 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe – C.S. Lewis
150 The Little Prince- Antoine de Saint-Exupery
151 The Man in the Iron Mask- Alexandre Dumas
152 The Mill on the Floss- George Eliot
153 The Odyssey- Homer
154 The Old Man and the Sea- Ernest Hemingway
155 The Outsider- Albert Camus
156 The Pearl- John Steinbeck
157 The Phantom Tollbooth- Norton Juster
158 The Picture of Dorian Gray – Oscar Wilde
159 The Princess Bride- William Goldman
160 The Republic- Plato
161 The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole aged 13 ¾- Sue Townsend
162 The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Teenagers- Sean Covey
163 The Signalman- Charles Dickens
164 The Story of English- Joseph Piercy
165 The Sun Also Rises- Ernest Hemingway
166 The Three Musketeers – Alexandre Dumas
167 The Time Machine- H.G. Wells
168 The Trial- Franz Kafka
169 The Wind in the Willows- Kenneth Graham
170 The Woman in Black – Susan Hill
171 The Woman in White- Wilkie Collins
172 The Yellow Wallpaper- Charlotte Perkins Gilman
173 Thérède Raquin – Émile Zola
174 Things Fall Apart- Chinua Achebe
175 To Kill a Mockingbird- Harper Lee
176 Treasure Island- Robert Louis Stevenson
177 Ulysses- James Joyce
178 Uncle Tom’s Cabin- Harriet Beecher Stowe
179 Waiting for Godot- Samuel Beckett
180 War and Peace- Leo Tolstoy
181 War of the Worlds- H.G. Wells
182 Wonder- R.J. Palaceo
183 Wuthering Heights- Emily Bronte

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