Great Reads for Key Stage 4 — Free Reading Guide for Parents (Ages 14–16, IGCSE & GCSE)

Helps with: finding books your IGCSE or GCSE teenager will genuinely enjoy – with a frank note for parents on every one. Free to download.

What should a teenager be reading alongside their GCSE or IGCSE course? This guide is my answer.

Great Reads for Key Stage 4 is a 22-page guide to 46 books that older teenagers genuinely enjoy – books for reading for pleasure, not set texts. Wide reading is what separates good English students from excellent ones: it builds the vocabulary, the feel for structure and the range of ideas that examiners reward, and it makes students far more confident with unseen texts.

• 46hand-picked books
• 6sections
• 14–16IGCSE & GCSE
• 22page PDF guide

What does every book come with?

• its real cover, author and year
• an age guide (books for mature readers of 15+ are clearly marked “Upper KS4”) and a length badge
• Page-turner ★ and Challenge ★ ratings – so you can find a gripping story for a reluctant reader, or a real stretch for a strong reader
• what the book is about, and the themes and issues it explores
• a frank note for parents – books for this age deal honestly with difficult subjects, so every sensitive issue is flagged clearly
• a skill boost showing how the book helps with English
• “Loved it? Try…” – what to read next

Six sections

• Thrillers & Page-Turners
• Growing Up: Friendships, Bullying, Identity & Mental Health – including Face, Heartstopper and Eleanor & Park
• Big Issues – including The Hate U Give, The Book Thief and Noughts & Crosses
• Asian Voices – including two novels set in Malaysia by Penang-born Tan Twan Eng, The Gift of Rain and The Garden of Evening Mists
• Classics – from Jane Eyre to Nineteen Eighty-Four
• True Stories – gripping memoirs, real-life adventure and eye-opening non-fiction

Find a book by topic

Twelve topics, from bullying, body image and mental health to online life and relationships, help you find the right book quickly.

Buying the books

Each book has a “Buy this book” button, which is an affiliate link to Bookshop.org UK (UK delivery only). If you buy through it, Thorogood English earns a small commission at no extra cost to you, and independent bookshops benefit too. Outside the UK? All of these books are easy to find – try Kinokuniya, MPH, Popular or BookXcess in Malaysia, your school library or your local bookshop.

Chosen by Jacqueline Thorogood, an English teacher with 26 years’ experience in UK and international schools.

Format: 22-page PDF · free · add it to your basket for free to receive it by email.