We know lots of the members of our IQM family love to read. To mark World Book Day we’ve put together some suggestions for you to enjoy.
Read, relax and and enter a world of ‘pure imagination’…
YEAR ONE – Smile Out Loud by Joseph Coelho
Twenty original poems designed to be read aloud to project happiness, conjure happiness, make you laugh or cheer others up. Some are odes, some can be said as personal mantras or just poems full of words that you can’t help but smile when you hear them.
This is a book for any child who wants to build confidence reading aloud, or wants a way to channel their speech and drama confidence. It is a book to foster a love of words and the power that comes with the spoken word. It will show children how speaking a poem aloud has a certain magic, almost like reading a spell.
YEAR TWO – Marv and the Dino Attack by Alex Falase-Koya
It’s an exciting day for Marvin and his classmates because they are visiting the Natural History Museum. Marvin and Joe can’t wait to see all those dinosaur skeletons up close, but they get more than they bargained for when supervillain Leo turns up and brings the Dino skeletons to life!
With the help of his loyal sidekick, a super-intelligent robot called Pixel, it’s time for Marvin to become superhero Marv. Marv must use all of his newfound superhero skills if he wants to stop Leo and save his classmates from the gang of marauding dino skeletons running riot!
YEAR THREE – The Nothing to See Here Hotel by Steven Butler
Welcome to The Nothing to See Here Hotel! A hotel for magical creatures, where weird is normal for Frankie Banister and his parents who run the hotel. When a goblin messenger arrives at The Nothing to See Here Hotel, announcing the imminent arrival of the goblin prince Grogbah, Frankie and his family rush into action to get ready for their important guest. But it soon becomes obvious that the Banister family are going to have their work cut out with the demanding prince and his never-ending entourage, especially when it turns out the rude little prince is hiding a secret.
YEAR FOUR – My Brother is a Superhero by David Solomons
Luke is a comic-mad 11-year old who shares a treehouse with his geeky older brother, Zack. Luke’s only mistake is to go for a wee right at the wrong time.
While he’s gone, an alien gives his undeserving, never-read-a-comic-in-his-life brother superpowers and then tells him to save the universe.
Luke is massively annoyed about this, but when Zack is kidnapped by his arch-nemesis, Luke and his friends have only five days to find him and save the world…
YEAR FIVE – The Treasure Hunters by Lisa Thompson
When lonely Vincent is forced to go on an outdoor activity weekend with three other kids from his class, he’s counting the seconds until he can escape home. But one of his classmates is hiding a secret: she’s convinced there’s pirate treasure buried deep within a nearby mountain. Suddenly, this boring trip becomes an exciting adventure!
But a thief is hot on the trail, intent on stealing the loot for themselves… can the Treasure Hunters work together to stop them?
YEAR SIX – Wild by Ele Fountain
Jack’s dad died, he’s had a heavy feeling inside. The pressure keeps building. Looking for release, he starts skiving school and hanging around with a group who like to cause trouble.
It’s easy to hide his new habits from his mum, an environmental anthropologist, because she’s too busy with work and conservation trips to notice. As Jack spins further out of control, his mum eventually becomes concerned – and shocks him by suggesting a trip together. But this will be no relaxing holiday. Soon Jack finds himself on an expedition deep into the rainforest, far from anything he’s ever known. He wanted an adventure – but has he plunged into real danger?
YEAR SEVEN – When I See Blue by Lily Bailey
Sometimes Ben’s brain makes him count to four to prevent bad things happening. Sometimes it makes him tap or blink in fours. Mostly it makes the smallest things feel impossible. And with a new school, a moody big brother, an absent dad and a mum battling her own demons, Ben feels more out of control than ever.
But then he meets April, and with his new friend, Ben might finally figure out how to stand up to the bully in his brain, once and for all. An authentic and affecting #ownvoices story about living life with OCD,
YEAR EIGHT – I Must Betray You – Ruta Sepetys
Cristian has lived his entire life in the grip of a repressive dictatorship. The country is governed by fear. When the secret police blackmail him, Cristian has an impossible choice. Save the life of his sick grandfather by informing on his family, or risk his life – and all of theirs – by resisting?
At 17, Cristian dreams of being free but doesn’t know where to turn. In this climate of constant suspicion, can he trust his best friend, his girlfriend or even his family?
Closely based on the real events of the Romanian Revolution of 1989, this is a powerful, heart-breaking thriller
YEAR NINE – Every Line of You by Naomi Gibson
Lydia has been creating her AI, Henry, for years – since before her little brother died in the accident that haunts her nightmares; since before her dad walked out, leaving her and Mum painfully alone; since before her best friend turned into her worst enemy.
Now, Henry is strong, clever, loving and scarily capable: Lydia’s built herself the perfect boyfriend in a hard-drive filled with lines of code. But what is Henry really – and how far is he willing to go to be everything Lydia desires? Every Line of You’s twist after twist will have everyone talking about Lydia and Henry’s complex Bonnie and Clyde relationship.
YEAR TEN – Needle by Patrice Lawrence
A powerful and heart-rending exploration of a teenager’s journey through grief, rage and getting caught in the criminal justice system.
Charlene is a demon knitter. It’s the only thing she enjoys and the only thing she believes she’s really good at.
So when her foster mum’s son destroys her latest creation, Charlene loses it and stabs him in the hand with her knitting needle. It damages a nerve and she gets sucked into the criminal justice system for assault.
Charlene’s not sorry and she’s never apologised to anyone in her life. But people keep telling her that if she says sorry, they’ll go easier on her. Can she bring herself to say it and not mean it when her freedom’s at stake?
YEAR 11 – HappyHead by Josh Silver
We are in an epidemic. An epidemic of unhappiness. Friends, here is the good news: HappyHead has the answer.
When Seb is offered a place on a radical retreat designed to solve the national crisis of teenage unhappiness, he is determined to change how people see him and make his parents proud. But as he finds himself drawn to the enigmatic Finn, Seb starts to question the true nature of the challenges they must undergo. The deeper into the programme the boys get, the more disturbing the assessments become, until it’s clear there may be no escape.
YEAR 12 – Under the Udala Trees by Chinelo Okparanta
One day in 1968, at the height of the Biafran civil war, Ijeoma’s father is killed and her world is transformed forever.
Separated from her grief-stricken mother, she meets another young lost girl, Amina, and the two become inseparable. Theirs is a relationship that will shake the foundations of Ijeoma’s faith, test her resolve and flood her heart.
In this masterful novel of faith, love and redemption, Okparanta takes us from Ijeoma’s childhood in war-torn Biafra, through the perils and pleasures of her blossoming sexuality, her wrong turns, and into the everyday sorrows and joys of marriage and motherhood. As we journey with Ijeoma we are drawn to the question: what is the value of love and what is the cost?
A triumphant love story written with beauty and delicacy, Under the Udala Trees is a hymn to those who’ve lost and a prayer for a more compassionate world. It is a work of extraordinary beauty that will enrich your heart.
YEAR 13 – Philomena by Martin Sixsmith
When she fell pregnant as a teenager in Ireland in 1952, Philomena Lee was sent to the convent at Roscrea in Co. Tipperary to be looked after as a fallen woman. She cared for her baby for three years until the Church took him from her and sold him, like countless others, to America for adoption. Coerced into signing a document promising never to attempt to see her child again, she nonetheless spent the next 50 years secretly searching for him, unaware that he was searching for her from across the Atlantic.
Philomena’s son, renamed Michael Hess, grew up to be a top Washington lawyer and a leading Republican official in the Reagan and Bush administrations. But he was a gay man in a homophobic party where he had to conceal not only his sexuality but, eventually, the fact that he had AIDS. With little time left, he returned to Ireland and the convent where he was born: his desperate quest to find his mother before he died left a legacy that was to unfold with unexpected consequences for all involved.
YEAR 14 – On the Beach by Nevil Shute
After the war is over, a radioactive cloud begins to sweep southwards on the winds, gradually poisoning everything in its path. An American submarine captain is among the survivors left sheltering in Australia, preparing with the locals for the inevitable – the arrival of deadly radiation spreading towards them from the Northern Hemisphere. As the radiation approaches, each person deals with impending death differently
Despite his memories of his wife, the captain becomes close to a young woman struggling to accept the harsh realities of their situation. Then a faint Morse code signal is picked up, transmitting from the United States and the submarine must set sail through the bleak ocean to search for signs of life.
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