Books for 10 year olds: ten worth staying up for

At ten, the question has usually changed. Many children read fluently by now, so it is no longer whether they can, but what they will choose to. This is the age of the book that will not be put down: the series raced through in a fortnight, the novel that makes them cry, the mystery that simply has to be finished after lights out.

It is also the age when reading can quietly lose out to other things. That makes a book that grips worth more than a book that improves. Here are ten real, well-loved books that tend to grip a ten year old, and a line on why each one works.

Adventure

The Explorer by Katherine Rundell. After a plane crash in the Amazon rainforest, four children have to look after themselves, until they discover they are not alone. It won the Costa Children’s Book Award, and it reads like the best kind of survival story: tense, funny and beautifully written.

Kensuke’s Kingdom by Michael Morpurgo. Washed overboard from his family’s yacht, Michael wakes on an island where somebody is already living. Nobody writes the quiet, moving adventure better than Morpurgo, and this is among his finest.

Holes by Louis Sachar. Stanley Yelnats is sent to a desert camp where the boys dig holes all day long, and nobody will tell them why. At the end the plot clicks together like a puzzle, which makes it perfect for a child who likes working things out.

The Wild Robot by Peter Brown. A robot washes up on a wild island and must learn to survive among animals who are not at all sure about her. The short chapters and lovely drawings make it easy to begin, and its story about what it means to belong stays with you long after.

Magic and other worlds

Nevermoor: The Trials of Morrigan Crow by Jessica Townsend. Morrigan is cursed to die on her eleventh birthday, until a stranger whisks her off to a magical city and a set of dangerous trials. It is big, funny and inventive, and many ten year olds fall into it the way an earlier generation fell into Hogwarts.

Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan. Percy finds out he is the son of a Greek god, and that the monsters from the myths are very real and very interested in him. Fast, funny, and a painless way into the Greek myths.

Mystery

Murder Most Unladylike by Robin Stevens. At their 1930s boarding school, Daisy Wells and Hazel Wong set up a secret detective society, and then they find a real body. This is a proper whodunnit written for children, with clues to follow and a friendship at its heart.

Stories with heart

Wonder by R. J. Palacio. Auggie was born with a facial difference, and he is about to start school for the first time. The story is told by Auggie and by the people around him, and it opens a gentle conversation about kindness at home.

The Boy at the Back of the Class by Onjali Q. Raúf. A new boy joins the class, a refugee who has had to leave his family behind, and a group of children decide to help him. Winner of the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize and the Blue Peter Book Award, it is warm, funny and hopeful about a hard subject.

A Kind of Spark by Elle McNicoll. Addie is autistic. When she learns that her Scottish village once tried women as witches, she decides they deserve a memorial. It won the Blue Peter Book Award and became a television series, and it is one of the most honest books about being different that a ten year old can pick up.

Keeping a ten year old reading

Talk about the book, not the reading. Ask what happened, who they would trust, how they think it will end. A child who is allowed opinions about a story is far more likely to finish the next one.

Let them read below their age as well as above it. A ten year old rereading a comic or a series they loved at eight is still a reader. Comfort reading counts.

Leave good books lying about. Plenty of children this age will turn down a recommendation, yet pick up a book that happens to be on the kitchen table.

Share a big one aloud. Ten is not too old to be read to, especially with a longer or harder book. Our post on reading aloud to children who can read explains why it helps.

And one thing that is not a book

For a ten year old who likes a story that waits for them, here is one more idea. Journee posts a story in letters, one chapter at a time, written for their age, with them as the hero, the people they love inside it, and a choice at the end of a letter that steers the next one. Their name is on the envelope, and at ten that still feels like news. You can see how it works on our personalised letters page.