11 Plus Reading List by Year Group

Choose a book your child wants to read, at a level they can manage with the amount of help available. The year groups below are editorial starting points, not assessed reading ages, publisher age ratings or a required list for any entrance test.

Each suggestion includes a reading skill you could discuss, such as inference, viewpoint or figurative language. These connect with England's Years 5 and 6 curriculum objectives. Reading a named book does not guarantee improvement in that skill or make an exam extract predictable.

How to use this list: interests, difficulty and discussion

Try a page together. Notice unfamiliar vocabulary, sentence length and whether your child can follow what is happening. A familiar or easier book can still support thoughtful inference; a demanding book can be shared aloud rather than assigned for independent reading.

Preview themes as well as language. Some later suggestions involve war, bereavement, violence or abuse. Choose an edition and text suitable for your child, with advice from a teacher or librarian where helpful. A school reading-age score alone cannot establish that a whole novel is suitable.

The skill tags work like this:

• Inference-rich. The text withholds. Characters' motives have to be worked out from what they do, not what they say. This maps to the statutory requirement to draw inferences "such as inferring characters' feelings, thoughts and motives from their actions, and justifying inferences with evidence".
• Archaic vocabulary. Nineteenth and early twentieth century diction, longer sentences, unfamiliar registers. Older diction can make an unfamiliar extract harder to follow.
• Unreliable or limited narrator. The reader knows more, or less, than the narrator does. Excellent preparation for viewpoint questions.
• Figurative language. Dense imagery and metaphor, matching the requirement to "discuss and evaluate how authors use language, including figurative language, considering the impact on the reader".
• Non-fiction retrieval. Information organised in headings, captions and sequences, which meets the requirement to read "books that are structured in different ways".

Start with one book your child wants to continue. A shared, more demanding text is an option, not a second book they must finish.

What 11 plus English actually tests

GL Assessment describes the 11 plus as "a single test or a series of tests, covering one or more of the following subjects: English, maths, verbal reasoning and non-verbal reasoning", and notes that its English and maths tests are "based mainly around curriculum content reached during the early part of Year 6" (GL Assessment FAQs). The Years 5 and 6 programme of study is a useful frame for discussing texts alongside your target test’s published requirements.

For independent schools, ISEB states that its Common Pre-Tests cover "mathematics, English (reading comprehension and grammar), verbal reasoning and non-verbal reasoning", usually sat in Year 6 or Year 7 (ISEB Common Pre-Tests). In Essex, CSSE runs an English paper lasting "sixty minutes with ten minutes additional reading time", paired with a published Continuous Writing mark scheme (CSSE). Comprehension, grammar and writing requirements vary by school and provider. Check the published format before adding a separate writing task to your preparation.

The curriculum itself makes the volume argument better than any tutor can: "Reading widely and often increases pupils' vocabulary because they encounter words they would rarely hear or use in everyday speech" (national curriculum programmes of study). Reading is vocabulary work you do not have to schedule. Our 11 plus vocabulary list covers the words that survive contact with the exam paper.

Year 3 reading list: building the stamina habit

For Year 3, choose an enjoyable chapter book your child can follow. Read together when needed and talk about the order of events.

• Fantastic Mr Fox, Roald Dahl. Skill: sequencing and cause and effect. Discuss what happens and why.
• The Owl Who Was Afraid of the Dark, Jill Tomlinson. Skill: inference-rich, gently. Feelings are shown through behaviour.
• The Iron Man, Ted Hughes. Skill: figurative language. Short, strange and full of imagery worth talking about.
• The Sheep-Pig, Dick King-Smith. Skill: dialect and voice. Prepares the ear for non-standard speech in extracts.
• Charlotte's Web, E. B. White. Skill: inference-rich, theme.
• Varjak Paw, SF Said. Skill: unusual narrative viewpoint.
• The Firework-Maker's Daughter, Philip Pullman. Skill: setting and description.

Year 4 reading list: first inference-rich chapter books

Page count alone does not determine difficulty. Notice vocabulary, sentence structure and how much the reader needs to infer.

• Stig of the Dump, Clive King. Skill: inference from action, ambiguity about what is real.
• The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, C. S. Lewis. Skill: allegory, slightly formal register.
• Kensuke's Kingdom, Michael Morpurgo. Skill: first-person retrospective narration.
• Carrie's War, Nina Bawden. Skill: inference-rich, historical context, adult motives seen through a child's eyes.
• The Wolves of Willoughby Chase, Joan Aiken. Skill: archaic vocabulary and pastiche Victorian style. A way to explore older diction.
• Journey to the River Sea, Eva Ibbotson. Skill: extended description, figurative language.
• The Nowhere Emporium, Ross MacKenzie. Skill: plot structure and foreshadowing.

If you are working out when to formalise preparation around this reading, our guide on when to start 11 plus preparation sets out a realistic year-by-year plan.

Year 5 reading list: vocabulary and viewpoint

Keep reading throughout Year 5. Many entrance tests take place near the start of Year 6, but check your target school’s dates and content.

• Skellig, David Almond. Skill: inference-rich, sustained ambiguity. Almost nothing is explained. Ideal for "how do you know?" questions.
• Holes, Louis Sachar. Skill: interwoven timelines, structure. Directly meets the requirement to read "books that are structured in different ways".
• Goodnight Mister Tom, Michelle Magorian. Skill: character change, inference from dialect and silence.
• Tom's Midnight Garden, Philippa Pearce. Skill: figurative language, limited narrator.
• The Explorer, Katherine Rundell. Skill: precise descriptive verbs, survival narrative pace.
• Street Child, Berlie Doherty. Skill: Victorian social context and archaic vocabulary.
• Northern Lights, Philip Pullman. Skill: invented vocabulary in context, moral ambiguity. A genuine stretch title.
• The Hobbit, J. R. R. Tolkien. Skill: formal narratorial voice, embedded verse.
• Wonder, R. J. Palacio. Skill: multiple narrators, viewpoint comparison.

Year 6 reading list: shared and more demanding texts

Keep reading alongside any test practice. Choose a demanding text only when its language and content suit your child; it may work better as a shared read.

• The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett. Skill: archaic vocabulary, Yorkshire dialect, character transformation.
• Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson. Skill: archaic vocabulary, unreliable first-person narration.
• A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens. Skill: dense figurative language, long periodic sentences.
• Watership Down, Richard Adams. Skill: sustained metaphor, invented lexicon, epigraphs.
• The Machine Gunners, Robert Westall. Skill: shifting viewpoint, moral complexity.
• Private Peaceful, Michael Morpurgo. Skill: framed narrative and countdown structure.

Classics for exploring older vocabulary and sentence patterns

Classics offer opportunities to explore older vocabulary and sentence patterns. Use the target school’s familiarisation materials for evidence about question format; a reading list cannot predict an upcoming extract.

Other options to explore with a teacher or librarian include The Secret Garden, The Railway Children, Treasure Island, A Christmas Carol and other Dickens openings, The Wind in the Willows, The Jungle Book, Black Beauty, Anne of Green Gables and Peter Pan. Read one or two properly rather than skimming all nine. The transferable gain is comfort with the sentence shape, not recognition of the plot.

This is also the statutory expectation. Years 5 and 6 pupils should be "increasing their familiarity with a wide range of books, including myths, legends and traditional stories, modern fiction, fiction from our literary heritage, and books from other cultures and traditions". Literary heritage is written into the curriculum, not bolted on by tutors. If you want to see how those extracts convert into question types, our guide to 11 plus comprehension questions works through each format.

Non-fiction and poetry

The curriculum includes reading for different purposes. Non-fiction offers information to retrieve and summarise; poetry offers opportunities to discuss imagery, rhythm and word choice.

• A Really Short History of Nearly Everything, Bill Bryson. The Puffin adaptation: discuss explanatory structure and retrieving information.
• The Lost Words, Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris. Skill: figurative language, precise nature vocabulary.
• A Poem for Every Night of the Year, edited by Allie Esiri. Skill: form, rhythm, one short text per sitting.
• Please Mrs Butler, Allan Ahlberg. Skill: voice and tone, an easy poetry entry point.
• A weekly children's news digest or magazine. Skill: skimming, headline and caption reading, summarising.

Options for reluctant readers

Try a format or topic your child enjoys. Listening to stories can support access to language and ideas while the child receives any reading instruction they need.

1. Audiobook alongside the physical text. Same edition, child following the line. Following the same edition while listening can support access to a story. A child who needs decoding help should also receive the teaching recommended by school.
2. Graphic-novel bridges. The Arrival by Shaun Tan, or illustrated editions of familiar novels. Inference from images is still inference.
3. Short stories and single chapters. A ten-page unit that ends is worth more than a 300-page book that does not. Anthologies and Just So Stories work well.
4. Non-fiction hooks. Let the subject carry the reading: football, space, disasters, cookery. Retrieval practice arrives free.
5. Series momentum. If your child enjoys one book, another in the same series can make the next choice easier.

Move up one rung only when the current rung is genuinely comfortable. Dropping back a rung for a fortnight is not failure.

Questions to discuss after reading

After a chapter, choose one or two of the discussion activities below. Let the conversation take the time your child needs.

Once a week, after a chapter, do this:

• Ask one inference question. "How do you think she felt there? What in the text makes you say that?" The second half is the whole exercise, because the curriculum asks pupils to justify inferences "with evidence".
• Collect three words. Not defined for them: guessed from context first, then checked. Revisit words in a new sentence rather than collecting a quota.
• Ask one language question. "Why did the author choose that word instead of a plain one?"
• Write two sentences. A description of one setting from the chapter, in the child's own words. This feeds the extended writing task directly.

For further practice, Trace Learn’s paper tests offer questions to mark alongside your reading routine. For maths, see the worked methods in our guide to 11 plus maths topics and question types.

Frequently asked questions

Is 70 per cent enough to pass the 11 plus? There is no publisher-set pass mark. GL Assessment directs parents asking about scores to "contact the admissions department of your local grammar school or local authority", because raw percentages are converted into standardised, age-adjusted scores and the qualifying threshold is set locally. We explain the conversion in our guide to 11 plus standardised scores.

How many books does a child actually need to read? There is no required number. Choose a sustainable routine and a mix of texts your child enjoys and understands. Discuss progress with the teacher rather than treating twenty books a year as a threshold.

What about archaic vocabulary? Older vocabulary can make an extract harder to understand. Address it with texts, not word lists: The Wolves of Willoughby Chase in Year 4, Street Child in Year 5, then The Secret Garden or Treasure Island in Year 6.

Can I print this list? Yes. Use your browser's print or save-as-PDF option on this page, or copy the band that matches your child into a note. There is no email gate.

My child is in Year 4 and reads well above their age. Should they read Year 6 titles? Read up on difficulty, but check emotional content first. War, bereavement and jeopardy land differently at nine than at eleven.

Does any of this replace practice papers? Reading and practice questions serve different purposes. Keep reading for enjoyment and understanding, and use the target test’s familiarisation materials for its format. Explore Trace Learn if you want structured practice for the skills your child is working on.