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Your Kid’s Next Read: recommended reading lists for kids 10+, 12+, 14+ (2018 edition)

Your Kid's Next Read: Recommended reading lists for kids 10+, 12+, 14+ (2018 edition) | allisontait.com
Posted on November 13, 2018

Your Kid's Next Read: Recommended reading lists for kids 10+, 12+, 14+ (2018 edition) | allisontait.comIn 2016, I started a Facebook group called Your Kid’s Next Read with everyone’s favourite teacher-librarian/blogger Megan Daley from Children’s Books Daily.

Our idea was to bring together a community of parents, teachers, booksellers, librarians and other interested parties to recommend great children’s books to each other, ensuring that every kid – be they a reluctant reader or an advanced reader – would have a ‘perfect next book’ for their reading journey.

Not long after we started, we created a recommended reading list, which was an overview of books that were recommended over and over in the group. There are two parts to that list:

Your Kid’s Next Read: recommended reading lists for kids 3-9+

Your Kid’s Next Read: recommended reading lists for kids 10+, 12+, YA for tweens

Both of these lists are terrific and the books and authors on these lists are STILL recommended over and over within our group.

BUT, time passes, new members join and amazing new books come out all the time.

Your Kid’s Next Read (2018)

Today, our YKNR community has 5000+ members and it’s a thriving, busy place (you should join us here). So, Megan and I, and our excellent moderator Allison Rushby, decided it was time for an update of our list. So we threw it open to our membership once again.

These are the books that YKNR members thought were missing from our reading lists, along with some stellar reads that the YKNR Admin Team wouldn’t want you to miss. Click the book title* to find out more about each book to help you decide if it’s right for your kid.

Between the new list and our earlier one, we just know you’ll find an amazing next read for your kid right here!

Books for kids 10+

Storm Boy by Colin Thiele

Anne of Green Gables by LM Montgomery

The Extremely Inconvenient Adventures of Bronte Mettlestone by Jaclyn Moriarty, illustrated by Kelly Canby

The War that Saved My Life by Kimberley Brubaker Bradley

The Turnkey by Allison Rushby

The Mulberry Tree by Allison Rushby

Nevermoor (series) by Jessica Townsend

Echo by Pam Munoz Ryan (I highly recommend the audio book for this one – Heather, YKNR member)

The Penderwicks (series) by Jeanne Birdsall

His Name Was Walter by Emily Rodda

City of Orphans (series) by Catherine Jinks

Tarin Of The Mammoths by Jo Sandhu

Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson

The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick

York: The Shadow Cipher by Laura Ruby

The Ateban Cipher (series) by A.L. Tait

Wonder by R.J. Palacio

The Ratcatcher’s Daughter by Pamela Rushby

A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness

The YKNR Admin team would add:

Figgy In The World (series) by Tamsin Janu

Woo’s Wonderful World Of Maths by Eddie Woo

The Shop at Hooper’s Bend by Emily Rodda

Missing by Sue Whiting

Kensy and Max by Jacqueline Harvey

Lenny’s Book Of Everything by Karen Foxlee

The Boy and The Spy by Felice Arena

The War I Finally Won by Kimberley Brubaker Bradley

The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate

The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street by Karina Glaser

The Endsister by Penni Russon

Lockwood & Co (series) by Jonathon Stroud

A Ghost in my Suitcase (series) by Gabrielle Wang

Greenglass House (series) by Kate Milford

The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly

The Snow Pony by Alison Lester

Out of My Mind by Sharon M. Draper

Murder Most Unladylike by Robin Stevens

Dragonfly Song by Wendy Orr

Swallow’s Dance by Wendy Orr

Raymie Nightingale by Kate DiCamillo

Freedom Swimmer by Wai Chim

Whimsy and Woe by Rebecca McRitchie

Amal Unbound by Aisha Saeed

When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead

How to Bee by Bren MacDibble

Natural Born Loser by Oliver Phommavanh

Books for kids 12+

A Thousand Pieces of You (Firebird series) by Claudia Gray

Frogkisser by Garth Nix

The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith

Geek Girl by Holly Smale

Alanna: The First Adventure (Song Of The Lioness series) by Tamora Pierce

The YKNR Admin team would add:

The Skeleton Tree by Iain Lawrence

Ghost by Jason Reynolds

Arkanae (The Medoran Chronicles series) by Lynette Noni

The Fall by Tristan Bancks

Liars (series) by Jack Heath

The Distance Between Me and the Cherry Tree by Paola Peretti

And the Ocean Was Our Sky by Patrick Ness

Indigo Blue by Jessica Watson

The Hired Girl by Laura Amy Schlitz

The Riders Of Thunder Realm (Paladero series) by Steven Lochran

Ice Wolves (Elementals series) by Amie Kaufman

Books for kids 14+

Divergent (series) by Veronica Roth

Carve The Mark (series) by Veronica Roth

The Rest Of Us Just Live Here by Patrick Ness

Across the Nightingale Floor (series) by Lian Hearn

Chaos Walking (series) by Patrick Ness

Road to Winter (Wilder series) by Mark Smith

The YKNR Admin Team would add:

I Am Out With Lanterns by Emily Gale

White Night by Ellie Marney

Living On Hope Street by Demet Divaroren

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

Begin, End, Begin: A #LoveOzYA Anthology (Edited by Danielle Binks)

After the Lights Go Out by Lili Wilkinson

Words In Deep Blue by Cath Crowley

Brontide by Sue McPherson

Growing Up Aboriginal In Australia (edited by Anita Heiss)

The Things That Will Not Stand by Michael Gerard Bauer

Warcross (series) by Marie Lu

Bro by Helen Chebatte

Small Spaces by Sarah Epstein

When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandya Menon

The Bogan Mondrian by Steven Herrick

Just Breathe by Andrew Daddo

Illuminae by Jay Kristoff and Amie Kaufman

Don’t forget to check the original recommended reads list here as well. 

A L Tait The Fire StarAre you new here? Welcome to my blog! I’m Allison Tait, aka A.L. Tait, and I’m the author of two epic middle-grade adventure series, The Mapmaker Chronicles and The Ateban Cipher, and a new ‘almost history’ detective series called the Maven & Reeve Mysteries (you’ll find book #1 THE FIRE STAR here).

 You can find out more about me here, and more about my books here.

 

*NB: This site uses affiliate links. You’ll find more information here. Most of the books on the lists are also available at your local independent bookshop, on Amazon, or at your preferred online bookseller.

2 Comments

  1. Val Clark

    Do you only recommend books that are traditionally published? If you read indie books how do you connect with indie authors?

    • Allison Tait

      Hi Val, thanks for your comment. The books recommended on these lists mostly come from members of the YKNR community. The three members of the YKNR team read a huge number of books between us, and will recommend books we love in the group, though, of course, we can’t read everything published just due to time constraints. Two of us are authors, writing our own books, and one of us is a teacher-librarian, so we are well immersed in the children’s book community and will pick up indie authors on our radar that way. Hope this helps.

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