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.