Recommended high quality texts to create units of learning around

These are the texts we base our English teaching around. Please note that we do not teach exactly the same texts every year.

Year group / Text
One /
  • Peace at Last by Jill Murphy
  • The Night Pirates by Peter Harris and Deborah Allwright
  • Farmer Duck by Martin Waddell
  • We’re Going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen
  • The Great Big Enormous Turnip by Alexei Tolstoy and Helen Oxenbury (or The Gigantic Turnip by Tolstoy & Sharkey)
  • Too Much Talk by Angela Medearis (probably out of print!)
  • Dinosaurs and all that rubbish by Michael Foreman
  • Owl Babies by Martin Waddell
  • The Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister

Two /
  • Amazing Grace by Mary Hoffman
  • The Mousehole Cat by Antonia Barber
  • The Lighthouse Keeper’s Lunch (and other Lighthouse Keeper books) by David Armitage
  • Katie Morag Delivers the Mail
  • The Whale Song by Dyan Sheldon
  • The True Story of the Three Little Pigs by Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith
  • Ananacy and Mr Dry Bone by Fiona French
  • The Twelve Dancing Princesses by The Borthers Grimm ; Jane Ray illustrations)

Three /
  • The Wreck of the Zanzibar by Michael Morpurgo
  • The Selfish Giant by Oscar Wild
  • The Seven Chinese Bothers by Margaret Mahy
  • The Orchard Book of Magical Tales by Margaret Mayo
  • The Shrinking of Treehorn (and other Treehorn texts) by Florence Parry Heide
  • The Julian Stories by Ann Cameron
  • The Snow Queen by Berlie Doherty
  • The Thieves of Ostia by Caroline Lawrence

Four /
  • The Firework Maker’s Daughter by Philip Pullman
  • The Village that Vanished by Ann Grifalconi and Kadir Nelson (probably out of print!)
  • Sir Gawain and the Loathly Lady by Selina Hastings (probably out of print!)
  • Mufaro’s Beautiful Daughters by John Steptoe
  • Bill’s New Frock by Anne Fine
  • How to Live Forever by Colin Thompson
  • The Iron Man by Ted Hughes
  • The Gentle Giant by Michael Morpurgo
  • Greek Myths by Michelle Magorian
  • Krindlekrax by Philip Ridley
  • Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White

Five /
  • Journey to Jo’burg by Beverly Naidoo
  • Coraline by Neil Gaiman
  • The Silver Sword by Iain Serraillier
  • Smith by Leon Garfield
  • Julius Caesar – Shakespeare’s animated tales
  • The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery
  • Jade’s Story by Helena Pielichaty
  • The Garbage King by Elizabeth Laird
  • The Wedding Ghost by Leon Garfield

Six /
  • Goodnight Mr Tom by Michelle Magorian
  • The Highwayman by Alfred Noyes
  • Beowulf by Kevin Crossley-Holland
  • A Christmas Carol (abridged version) by Charles Dickens
  • Street Child by Berlie Doherty
  • Macbeth – Shakespeare’s animated tales
  • The Iron Woman by Ted Hughes
  • Northern Lights by Philip Pullman