The books featured here include a large number of new books just published, but they may also include books which appeared some time ago but never made it into our lists until now.
Year 1
There are some differences between boys and girls. For boys, there were four books by Dav Pilkey and four by Jamie Smart (a new name). For girls, Harriet Muncaster had four books and C.L. Reid two. Otherwise, boys’ and girls’ choices were vastly different. Kinney did not feature. The average ATOS score was 2.8 for boys (lower than last year), while girls scored 3.0 (a considerable increase from last year). Thus, the difficulty of these books for boys was two and a half years above the chronological age of the pupils (nearer three years for girls). However, average APC was 0.92 for boys (much increased from last year on these easier books), while girls increased even more to 0.95, even on these harder books than last year.
Year 2
Again, boys’ and girls’ choices were somewhat different. For boys, newcomer Jamie Smart had five books, while Dav Pilkey had two (Pilkey was popular last year as well). For girls, Harriet Muncaster had five books (she was popular last year as well). Newcomer Saadia Faruqi had three books about Yasmin (the Ice-skater, etc). Again, Kinney did not appear (see table 19 on the web). The average ATOS score was 3.1 for boys (a further decline from last year) and 3.7 for girls (a significant increase from the previous year). Average APC was 0.89 for boys, 0.91 for girls (the same as last year for boys, lower for girls). This was much the same for boys but a considerable increase for girls (despite the increased difficulty of the books). The difficulty of these books was about two years above the children’s chronological age for boys, but more than two and a half years above for girls.
Year 3
In Year 3, Jeff Kinney’s new book Diary of a Wimpy Kid: No Brainer was top for both boys and girls. Second for both boys and girls was Dav Pilkey’s Dog Man: The Scarlet Shedder. After that, choices diverged somewhat. Boys favoured Jamie Smart (seven books) and Dav Pilkey (two books). Girls favoured Harriet Muncaster (four books) and newcomer Pip Bird (two books), but also featured Jamie Smart (two books) and more Dav Pilkey (one more book). The average ATOS score was 3.6 for boys (a decrease from 4.1 last year) and 4.1 for girls (a significant increase from the previous year). Boys were reading at about a year and a half above their chronological age, girls two years above. However, the APC remained essentially unchanged for both boys and girls.
Year 4
Jeff Kinney’s new book was top for both boys and girls. David Walliams‘ The Blunders was also highly placed for both boys and girls, followed by Dav Pilkey’s Dog Man: The Scarlet Shedder and Andy Griffiths’ The 169-Storey Treehouse: Monkeys, Mirrors, Mayhem! After that, boys preferred Jamie Smart (seven books) while girls preferred Harriet Muncaster (three books) and Maria Isabel Sánchez Vegara (three books) (see Table 21). The average ATOS for boys had sharply declined from 4.3 to 3.7, so boys were reading at half a year above their chronological age. For girls, ATOS remained the same at 4.3, indicating that they were reading at more than a year above their chronological age. Despite the change for boys, APC was much the same as last year at 0.89 and 0.91.
Year 5
Jeff Kinney’s new book was top for both boys and girls. David Walliams was also highly placed for both. Andy Griffiths was also relatively highly placed for both. Otherwise, there was diversity. Boys preferred Jamie Smart (six books), Louie Stowell (two) and Marcus Rashford (two). Girls preferred Maria Isabel Sánchez Vegara (three books), Jacqueline Wilson (two books), Katie Kirby (two books) and Harriet Muncaster (two books) (see Table 22). The average ATOS score was 3.9 for boys (a sharp decline from 4.5 the previous year) and 4.3 for girls (unchanged from the prior year). For boys, this meant that they were reading at about their chronological age, while girls were reading at slightly above their chronological age. Despite this, APC was 0.91, just as last year.
Year 6
Jeff Kinney’s No Brainer was top for boys but second for girls, while David Walliams’s The Blunders was second for boys but third for girls. Top for girls was Katie Kirby with Lottie Brooks’s Totally Disastrous School Trip. For boys, after this came Jamie Smart with four books, and Marcus Rashford and Louie Stowell with two each. For girls, Maria Isabel Sánchez Vegara had three books, and Kate Kirby had one more (see Table 23). The average ATOS score was 4.4 for boys and 4.6 for girls (both were only very slightly down from last year). These children were reading half a year below their chronological age. APC stayed much the same as for previous years, sustaining the increase (0.91 – 0.92 for both boys and girls).
Year 7
Kinney was top for boys but only third for girls, pushed out by Katie Kirby and Alice Oseman. For boys, Louie Stowell, Matt Oldfield and Jamie Smart all had two books. For girls, Maria Isabel Sánchez Vegara, Jennifer Killick, Katie Kirby and Mari Schuh all had two books (see Table 24). The average ATOS scores for boys and girls were 4.6, representing a slight decline for girls compared to last year. Children were reading at a level one to one and a half years below their chronological age. However, the APC was 0.89 for boys and 0.91 for girls, the same as the previous year.
Year 8
Kinney was top for boys, but Alice Oseman was top for girls, with her new book Heartstopper Volume 5. For boys, Matt Oldfield had three books and William Anthony two. William Anthony also had two girls, in addition to two for Katie Kirby. Otherwise, the lists were more diverse (see Table 25). The average ATOS had declined from 4.9 for both boys (4.7) and girls (4.6). Thus, they were reading at a level two and a half years behind their chronological age. However, APC had risen for boys (from 0.87 to 0.90) and declined very slightly for girls (0.92 to 0.91).
Years 9-11
Kinney was again top for boys, but girls preferred Colleen Hoover’s Ugly Love. Boys had three Matt Oldfield non-fiction football books, but the girls’ choices were all diverse. The average ATOS score was 5.2 for boys and 4.8 for girls; this was not significantly different from last year, but still slightly higher than for students aged a year younger, indicating that these pupils were reading at a level of difficulty four years below their chronological age. APC was Boys 0.97 (a significant increase on the previous year’s 0.86), Girls 0.92 (no significant change).