THE New NOVI READING LIST
THE NOVI READING LIST
Reading improves your focus, memory, vocabulary and allows you to explore different worlds, times, cultures and mindsets.
THE CHALLENGE
• Read 1 book to receive a commendation
• Read 10 books to receive a distinction
• Books are ranked 1 - 4 (1 = most accessible)
• This list is just a guide to get you started. Explore the library for more inspiration
• Search the catalogue remotely & reserve books via the Library Firefly pages
This selection of books has been compiled in conjunction with the English department and represents books from all genres reflecting works from the nineteenth century to the present day.
You are not limited to the titles on this list, rather this presents a starting point from which to explore the collection.
If you require help selecting a book please ask one of the librarians for a recommendation, or nominate a book for the Library to purchase by contacting thelibrary@tonbridge-school.org
To log your reading please use the Tonbridge App.
Please enter a start and end date and then ask one of the following members of staff to verify it for you - this requires a short discussion of the book.
- Your tutor
- Your English teacher
- One of the Librarians
The
Poet X
ACEVEDO, Elizabeth
The Poet X is a raw, effervescent debut novel about the power of language and speaking your own truth. Written entirely in verse, this Waterstones Children’s Book Prize nominee follows the trials and tribulations of Xiomara, a teenager growing up in a tough Harlem neighbourhood, and her creative release in the world of slam poetry.
SHELFMARK: F ACE
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
ADAMS, Douglas
Arthur Dent, mild-mannered, out-to-lunch earth-ling, is plucked from his planet by his friend Ford Prefect just seconds before it is demolished to make way for a hyper-space bypass.
SHELFMARK: F ADA
The
Door of No Return
ALEXANDER, Kwame
A gripping and vivid coming-of-age story steeped in African history and folklore, The Door of No Return follows an eleven-year-old Kofi as he unexpectedly finds himself on a precarious journey fighting for his life and his freedom.
SHELFMARK: F ALE
Foundation series ASIMOV, Isaac
The ostensible task of Foundation, a group of savants established by Seldon on the remote planet Terminus, is to compile the “Encyclopedia Galactica”, a complete account of human knowledge.
SHELFMARK : F ASI
Case Histories
ATKINSON, Kate
Cambridge is sweltering, during an unusually hot summer. To Jackson Brodie, former police inspector turned private investigator, the world consists of one accounting sheet - Lost on the left, Found on the right - and the two never seem to balance. Jackson attempts to unravel three disparate case histories and begins to realise that in spite of apparent diversity, everything is connected...
SHELFMARK : F ATK
Empire of the Sun
BALLARD, J. G.
The classic, heartrending story of a British boy's four year ordeal in a Japanese prison camp during the Second World War. A mesmerising, hypnotically compelling novel of war, of starvation and survival, of internment camps and death marches. It blends searing honesty with an almost hallucinatory vision of a world thrown utterly out of joint.
SHELFMARK : F BAL
The Silence of the Girls
BARKER, Pat
Pat Barker’s electrifying revision of The Iliad reframes the story through the voiceless women of war in a startlingly vivid novel with a powerful message about who tells stories and why it matters.
SHELFMARK : F BAR
Noughts and Crosses
BLACKMAN, Malorie
Sephy and Callum have been best friends since childhood, and now they are older and they realise they want more from each other. But the harsh realities of lives lived in a segregated society are beginning to take their toll: Callum is a nought--a second-class citizen in a world dominated by the Crosses--and Sephy is a Cross, and the daughter of one of the most powerful men in the country.
: F BLA
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas
BOYNE, John
Bruno is nine years old, and the Nazis’ horrific Final Solution to the ‘Jewish Problem’ means nothing to him. Then he meets a boy called Shmuel who lives a very different life from him -- a life on the opposite side of a wire fence. The friendship between the two boys begins to grow, but for Bruno it is a journey from blissful ignorance to a painful knowledge.
SHELFMARK: F BOY
Fahrenheit 451 BRADBURY, Ray
Guy Montag is a book-burning fireman undergoing a crisis of faith. His wife spends all day with her television "family", imploring Montag to work harder so that they can afford a fourth TV wall. Their dull, empty life sharply contrasts with that of his next-door neighbour Clarisse, a young girl thrilled by the ideas in books, and more interested in what she can see in the world around her.
SHELFMARK : F BRA
Murder on the Orient Express CHRISTIE, Agatha
Just after midnight, a snowdrift stops the Orient Express in its tracks. The luxurious train is surprisingly full for the time of the year, but by the morning it is one passenger fewer. An American tycoon lies dead in his compartment, stabbed a dozen times, his door locked from the nside. Isolated and with a killer in their midst, detective Hercule Poirot must identify the murderer - in case he or she decides to strike again.
SHELFMARK : F CHR
Ready
Player One CLINE, Ernest
SHELFMARK : F CLI 3
2044. The real world is in ruins. Out of oil, the climate destroyed, famine, poverty and disease are widespread. Like almost everyone, Wade Watts has an escape - the OASIS, a sprawling virtual utopia where you can be anything you want to be, where you can live and play and fall in love on any of ten thousand planets. And like almost everyone, he's on the hunt for the ultimate lottery ticket that lies concealed within this alternate reality
DYSTOPIAN
CRIME
Bombs that Brought us Together
CONAGHAN, Brian
Fourteen-year-old Charlie Law has lived in Little Town, on the border with Old Country, all his life. He knows the rules: no going out after dark; no drinking; no litter; no fighting. You don't want to get on the wrong side of the people who run Little Town. When he meets Pavel Duda, a refugee from Old Country, the rules start to get broken.
SHELFMARK : F CON
The Last Kingdom
Cornwell, Bernard
In a land torn apart by conflict, an orphan boy has come of age. Raised by the Vikings, deadly enemies of his own Saxon people, Uhtred is a fierce and skilled warrior who kneels to no-one. Alfred –Saxon, king, man of god – fights to hold the throne of the only land still resisting the pagan northerners.Uhtred and Alfred’s fates are tangled, Together they will change history.
SHELFMARK : F COR
Breathe
CROSSAN, Sarah
Years after the Switch, life inside the Pod has moved on. A poor Auxiliary class cannot afford the oxygen tax which supplies extra air for running, dancing and sports. The rich Premiums, by contrast, are healthy and strong. Anyone who opposes the regime is labelled a terrorist and ejected from the Pod to die.
Skin & Other Stories
DAHL, Roald
HOW would you dispose of a murder weapon without causing suspicion?
WHERE would you hide a diamond where no one else would think of looking?
WHAT if you discovered the tattoo on your back was worth a million dollars?
SHELFMARK: F DAH (SS)
The Last Paper Crane DREWERY, Kerry
A Japanese teenager, Mizuki, is worried about her grandfather. He says that he has never got over something that happened in his past and gently Mizuki persuades him to tell her what it is. We are taken to 1945, Hiroshima, and Mizuki's grandfather as a teenage boy chatting at home with his friend Hiro. Moments later the horrific nuclear bomb is dropped on Hiroshima.
SHELFMARK: F DRE
We Hunt the Flame FAIZAL, Hafsah
People lived because she killed. People died because he lived. Zafira is the Hunter. Forced to disguise herself as a man, she risks everything to provide for her people. Nasir is the Prince of Death. A feared assassin who is forever bound to the command of his father, the sultan. Both are legends in their kingdom - but neither wants to be.
SHELFMARK : F FAI
The Ruins of Gorlan FLANAGAN, John
The villagers believe the Rangers practise magic that makes them invisible to ordinary people. And now 15-year-old Will has been chosen as a Ranger’s apprentice. What he doesn’t yet realize is that the Rangers are the protectors of the kingdom. Highly trained in the skills of battle and surveillance, they protect the people from danger. And as Will is about to learn, there is a large battle brewing.
SHELFMARK : F FLA
Norse Mythology GAIMAN, Neil
SHELFMARK : 293.12 GAI 3
Gaiman’s gods are thoroughly alive on the page – irascible, visceral, playful, passionate – and the tales carry us from the beginning of everything to Ragnarök and the twilight of the gods. Galvanised by Gaiman’s prose, Thor, Loki, Odin and Freya are irresistible forces for modern readers and the crackling, brilliant writing demands to be read aloud around an open fire on a freezing, starlit night.
Lord of the Flies GOLDING, William
The story of a group of boys who, after a plane crash, set up a fragile community on a previously uninhabited island. As memories of home recede and the blood from frenzied pig-hunts arouses them, the boys' childish fear turns into something deeper and more primitive.
SHELFMARK : F GOL
This Book Kills GURON, Ravena
When one of the most popular and richest kids in school is found dead, the student body is left reeling and wondering who the murderer could be... Jess, a student under strict instructions to keep her record clean, finds herself at the centre of the investigation when it's revealed that Hugh died in the exact same way as a character in a short story she wrote.
SHELFMARK : F GUR
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
HADDON, Mark
YOUNG ADULT
A murder mystery novel like no other. The detective, and narrator, is Christopher Boone. Christopher is fifteen and autistic. He knows a very great deal about maths and very little about human beings. He loves lists, patterns and the truth.
SHELFMARK: F HAD
Pompeii
HARRIS, Robert
A sweltering week in late August. Where better to enjoy the last days of summer than on the beautiful Bay of Naples? But even as Rome's richest citizens relax in their villas around Pompeii and Herculaneum, there are ominous warnings that something is going wrong. Wells and springs are failing, a man has disappeared, and now the greatest aqueduct in the world - has suddenly ceased to flow.
SHELFMARK : F HAR
THRILLER
Stormbreaker HOROWITZ, Anthony
Orphan Alex thought he knew his Uncle Ian Rider --until the elusive banker is killed in a tragic car accident. Immediately, Alex's life starts to get stranger by the day as his guardian's friends and colleagues start showing up and contradicting everything Alex thought he knew about the man he'd called Dad for so long. Maybe Ian Rider was not a banker after all?
SHELFMARK: F HOR
We Have Always Lived in the Castle JACKSON, Shirley
Merricat just wants a quiet life. But ever since her sister Constance was acquitted of murdering the rest of the family, the world isn't leaving the Blackwoods alone. And when Cousin Charles arrives, armed with overtures of friendship and a desperate need to get into the safe, Merricat must do everything in her power to protect the remaining family.
SHELFMARK : F JAC
When Our Worlds Collided JAEWANDO, Danielle
A coming-of-age story about chance encounters, injustice and how the choices that we make can completely change our future. When fourteen-year-old Shaq is stabbed outside of a busy shopping centre in Manchester, three teenagers from very different walks of life are unexpectedly brought together.
SHELFMARK : F JAE
When the World was Ours KESLER, Liz
Vienna, 1936. Elsa, Leo and Max have always been best friends. Then the Nazis come. As a growing darkness descends around them, Leo and Elsa run for their lives, taking two very different paths across Europe. And Max, once their closest friend, now becomes the enemy as he is drawn into the Hitler Youth. Will the friends ever find their way back to each other? Will they want to?
SHELFMARK : F KES
To Kill a Mockingbird
LEE, Harper
Through the young eyes of Scout and Jem Finch, Harper Lee explores with exuberant humour the irrationality of adult attitudes to race and class in the Deep South of the thirties. The conscience of a town steeped in prejudice, violence and hypocrisy is pricked by the stamina of one man's struggle for justice.
SHELFMARK : F LEE
Rebel Skies
LIN, Ann Sei
A beautifully written and pacy teen fantasy adventure, set in a world of flying ships, sky cities and powerful paper spirits. Inspired by Asian cultures and exploring themes of empire, slavery and freedom.
SHELFMARK : F LIN
Warcross
LU, Marie
For the millions who log in every day, Warcross isn't just a game - it's a way of life. Struggling to make ends meet, Emika Chen works as a bounty hunter, tracking down players who bet on the game illegally. When Emika hacks into the game illegally, she's convinced she'll be arrested, and is shocked when she gets a call from the game's creator, the elusive young billionaire Hideo Tanaka, with an irresistible offer. SHELFMARK : F LU
The Chosen MATHARU,
Taran
Cade Carter is lost. Convicted of a crime he didn't commit, Cade is facing a year in reform school when he finds himself suddenly transported to another realm. Populated by bloodthirsty prehistoric creatures and fierce warriors, Cade's surroundings are full of danger. Along with his fellow students, Cade is forced to become a contender in a deadly game, controlled by invisible overlords.
SHELFMARK : F MAT
The Supreme Lie
MCAUGHREAN , Geraldine
Fifteen-year-old Gloria is maid to Afalia's tyrannical Head of State, Madame Suprema. When the country is hit by unprecedented flooding, Madame Suprema runs away, fearing she will be blamed for the crisis. To cover up this cowardly act, Gloria is made to step into Madame Suprema's shoes and is thrust into a world of corrupt and desperate politicians.
SHELFMARK : F McG
Renegades
MEYER, Marissa
Secret identities. Extraordinary powers. The Renegades are a syndicate of prodigies—humans with extraordinary abilities – who emerged from the ruins of a crumbled society and established peace and order where chaos reigned. As champions of justice, they remain a symbol of hope and courage to everyone . . . except the villains they once overthrew.
SHELFMARK : F MEY
What if?
MUNROE, Randall
SHELFMARK : 530 MUN 3
In pursuit of answers, Munroe runs computer simulations, pores over stacks of declassified military research memos, solves differential equations and consults nuclear reactor operators. His responses are masterpieces of clarity and hilarity, complemented by comics. They often predict the complete annihilation of humankind, or at least a really big explosion.
The Rest of Us Just Live Here
NESS, Patrick
What if you weren't the Chosen One? The one who's supposed to fight the zombies, or the soul-eating ghosts, or whatever this new thing is, with the blue lights and the death? What if you were like Mikey? Who just wants to graduate and go to prom and maybe finally work up the courage to ask Henna out before someone goes and blows up the high school. Again. SHELFMARK : F
Nessa and her friends attend Boyle College to train for the most dangerous time of their lives - THE CALL. Without warning, each one of them will wake in a terrifying land, alone and hunted, with a onein-ten chance of returning alive. No one believes Nessa can make it, but she's determined to prove them all wrong. And she will need every ounce of spirit and courage in order to survive .
SHELFMARK : F O'GU
Black and British OLUSOGA, David
Revised and rewritten for younger readers, Olusoga’s insightful and invaluable history of the Black experience in the British Isles ranges from forgotten Africans in the Roman legions to the multicultural society of the present day.
SHELFMARK : 305.896041 OLU
Animal Farm ORWELL, George
Mr Jones of Manor Farm is so lazy that one day he forgets to feed his livestock. The ensuing rebellion under the leadership of the pigs Napoleon & Wellington leads to the animals taking over the farm. The renamed Animal Farm is organized to benefit all who walk on four legs. But as time passes, the ideals of the rebellion are corrupted, then forgotten – the history of a revolution that went wrong.
SHELFMARK: F ORW
R. J.
Auggie wants to be an ordinary ten-year-old. He does ordinary things - eating ice cream, playing on his Xbox. He feels ordinary - inside. But ordinary kids don't make other ordinary kids run away screaming in playgrounds. Ordinary kids aren't stared at wherever they go.
: F PAL
Eragon
PAOLINI, Christopher
When Eragon finds a polished stone in the forest, he thinks it is the lucky discovery of a poor farm boy; perhaps it will buy his family meat for the winter. But when the stone brings a dragon hatchling, Eragon soon realizes he has stumbled upon a legacy nearly as old as the Empire itself. Overnight his simple life is shattered and he is thrust into a perilous new world of destiny, magic and power.
SHELFMARK : F PAO
Humble Pi Parker, Matt
As Matt Parker shows us, our modern lives are built on maths: computer programmes, finance, engineering. And most of the time this maths works quietly behind the scenes, until ... it doesn't. Exploring and explaining a litany of glitches, near-misses and mishaps, Matt Parker shows us the bizarre ways maths trips us up, and what this reveals about its essential place in our world.
SHELFMARK : 510 PAR
Mortal Engines REEVE,
Philip
In a dangerous future, huge motorized cities hunt, attack and fight each other for survival.
As London pursues a small town, young apprentice Tom is flung out into the wastelands, where a terrifying cyborg begins to hunt him down.
SHELFMARK : F REE
The King Must Die
RENAULT, Mary
SHELFMARK : F REN 3
The King Must Die follows the young Theseus as he discovers that his true father is the King of Athens, and volunteers to join the annual tribute of Athenian girls and youths sacrificed to a bull-worshipping cult on the island of Crete. Trapped in the labyrinthine palace of King Minos, Theseus enlists the help of high priestess Ariadne in a daring plan to free his people.
I Must Betray You SEPETYS, Ruta
Cristian has lived his entire life in the grip of a repressive dictatorship. The country is governed by fear. When the secret police blackmail him, Cristian has an impossible choice. Save the life of his sick grandfather by informing on his family, or risk his life - and all of theirs - by resisting? Closely based on the real events of the Romanian Revolution of 1989, this is a powerful, heart-breaking thriller
SHELFMARK : F SEP
Scythe
SHUSTERMAN, NEAL
In a world where disease, war and crime have been eliminated, the only way to die is to be randomly killed ('gleaned') by professional scythes. Citra and Rowan are teenagers who have been selected as scythes' apprentices.They must learn the art of killing and understand the necessity of what they do. Only one of them will be chosen...and their first task will be to glean the loser.
SHELFMARK : F SHU
HappyHead SILVER, Josh
We are in an epidemic. An epidemic of unhappiness. HappyHead has the answer. When Seb is offered a place on a radical retreat designed to solve the national crisis of teenage unhappiness, he is determined to change how people see him and make his parents proud. The deeper into the programme he gets, the more disturbing the assessments become, until it's clear there may be no escape.
SHELFMARK: F SIL
The 57 Bus SLATER, Dashka
Sasha, was born male but identifies as agender, wears skirts and attends a private school. Richard, is an African American from a poor part of Oakland who attends a rough public school. They have no reason to meet, except for eight minutes every day, they catch the same bus home. And one day, messing about, Richard spies Sasha napping. He flicks the flame of his lighter to Sasha's skirt, and Sasha wakes up in a ball of flame.
SHELFMARK : 364.1555092279466
Cold People
SMITH, Tom Rob
The world has fallen. Without warning, a mysterious and omnipotent force has claimed the planet for their own. There are no negotiations, no demands, no reasons given for their actions. All they have is a message: humanity has thirty days to reach the one place on Earth where they will be allowed to exist... Antarctica.
SHELFMARK : F SMI
This Mortal Coil SUVADA, Emily
3 billion lives at stake. 2 people who can save them. When a lone soldier, Cole, arrives with news of Lachlan Agatta's death, all hope seems lost for Catarina. Her father was the world's leading geneticist, and humanity's best hope of beating a devastating virus. Then, hidden beneath Cole's genehacked enhancements she finds a message of hope: Lachlan created a vaccine.Only she can find and decrypt it, if she can unravel the clues he left for her.
SHELFMARK: F SUV
Spud
van de RUIT, Jean
It's 1990. Apartheid is crumbling, Nelson Mandela has just been released from prison and thirteen-year-old Spud Milton is about to start his first year at an elite boys-only boarding school. Cursed with embarrassingly dysfunctional parents, a nutty granny and a dormitory full of strange characters, Spud has his hands full trying to adapt to his new home.
SHELFMARK : F VAN
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