This list was created to celebrate 50 years of Windermere as a Round Square School.

Pupils, staff and parents were all invited to submit suggestions, which were then considered and whittled down by a pupil focus group together with the English Department. Happy reading! 

 Junior/Young Adult fiction 

 These texts are suitable for pupils in Year 7 and above, but parents are encouraged to research content and difficulty level for individuals. 

 # Denotes graphic novel. 

• Wonder – RJ Palacio 
• Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (+ series) – JK Rowling 
• Fault in Our Stars – John Green 
• The Hunger Games (+ series) – Suzanne Collins  
• The House in the Cerulean Sea – TJ Clune 
• Murder Most Unladylike (+ series) – Robin Stevens  
• Northern Lights – Philip Pullman 
• The Hate U Give – Angie Thomas 
• Heartstopper # (+ series) – Alice Oseman 
• Stormbreaker (+ series) – Anthony Horowitz  
• Something More – Jackie Kalilieh 
• Smile # – Raina Telgemeier 
• Noughts and Crosses (+ series) – Malorie Blackman 
• The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time – Mark Haddon 
• Swallows and Amazons (+ series) – Arthur Ransome 

Senior fiction 

 These texts are suitable for pupils in Year 10 and above. Pupils in Years 10 and 11 may wish to research content and difficulty level. 

* Denotes a text in translation. Read this book in English or in the original language. 

 # Denotes graphic novel or graphic memoir. 

• To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee 
• The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams 
• The Shadow of the Wind * (Spanish) – Carlos Ruiz Zafón 
• One Hundred Years of Solitude * (Spanish) – Gabriel García Márquez 
• Beloved – Toni Morrison 
• The Plague * (French) – Albert Camus 
• Persuasion – Jane Austen 
• Lord of the Rings – JRR Tolkien 
• Persepolis * # (French) – Marjane Satrapi 
• The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini 
• Far from the Madding Crowd – Thomas Hardy 
• Half of a Yellow Sun – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 
• The Colour Purple – Alice Walker 
• Norwegian Wood * (Japanese) – Haruki Murakami 
• The War of the Worlds – HG Wells 
• The Night Circus – Erin Morgenstern 
• Maus # – Art Spiegelman 
• Oranges are not the Only Fruit – Jeanette Winterson 
• Anna Karenina * (Russian) – Leo Tolstoy 
• Hamlet – William Shakespeare (read the play or watch a production) 

Non-fiction texts 

 Pupils in Years 7-9 should research difficulty level before choosing one of these books. 

• Long Walk to Freedom – Nelson Mandela 
• Being Alive – poetry collection, edited by Neil Astley 
• Prisoners of Geography – Tim Marshall 
• Game On – the Unstoppable Rise of Women’s Sport – Sue Anstiss 
• After the War – from Auschwitz to Ambleside – Tom Palmer 
• Up – Ben Fogle 
• Born a Crime – Trevor Noah 
• Fermat’s Last Theorem – Simon Singh 
• The Pleasure of Finding Things Out – Richard Feynman 
• This is Your Brain on Music – Daniel J Levitin 
• Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China – Jung Chang 
• Freakonomics – Steven D Levitt and Stephen J Dubner 
• Ways of Seeing – John Berger 
• Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance – Robert M Pirsig 
• Becoming – Michelle Obama 

Windermere School is an Independent Boarding and Day School for ages 3-18, across Junior School, Senior School and Sixth Form. The school offers holiday courses and a summer school programme, as well as short term immersion courses for international pupils, as well as an award winning IB programme. Join the adventure today >