Reading Spine
At Meadowdale, we have developed a ‘Reading Spine’ of core, high quality texts for each year group from EYFS to Year 6. Teachers have carefully chosen a selection of books that sit at the very core of the curriculum for their own year group. The books sometimes link to our topics but not always. They are shared with all of the children in different ways – they may be read to the children, used a stimulus for writing in English lessons or as a guided reader whereby children read and respond to them in a small group.
Foundation Stage
The Apple
The Haircut
The Little Red Hen
All About Me
Farmer Duck
Whatever Next
Turtle's Day
The Gingerbread Man
The Christmas Story
Kipper's Day
Goldilocks and the Three Bears
This is the Bear
Peace at Last
Pirates Love Underpants
The Pirates Next Door
We're Going On A Bear Hunt
The Princess and the Wizard
The Ugly Duckling
Year 1
Can’t You Sleep Little Bear
by Martin Waddell
Where the Wild Things Are
by Maurice Sendak
The Elephant and the Bad Baby
by Elfrida Vipont and Raymond Briggs
Avocado Baby
by John Burningham
The Tiger Who Came to Tea
by Judith Kerr
Dogger
by Shirley Hughes
Cops and Robbers
Alan and Janet Ahlberg
Elmer
by David McKee
Knuffle Bunny
Mo Willems
Year 2
Fantastic Mr Fox
by Roahl Dahl
The Owl Who Was Afraid of the Dark
by Jill Tomlinson
Meerkat Mail
by Emily Gravitate
Traction Man is Here
by Mimi Grey
Lost and Found
by Oliver Jeffers
The Gruffalo
by Julia Donaldson
The Stick Man
by Julia Donaldson
Mog’s Christmas Calamity
by Judith Kerr
Spy Dog
by Andy Cope
A Boy Called Christmas
by Matt Haig
Toby and the Great Fire of London
by Margaret Nash
Year 3
The Iron Man
by Ted Hughes
Beowolf
by Michael Morpurgo
Revolting Rhymes
by Roald Dahl
The Sheep-Pig
by Dick King-Smith
Leon and the Place Between
by Graham Baker Smith
Flat Stanley
by Jeff Brown
Voices in the Park
by Anthony Browne
Year 4
Maroo and the Winter Caves
by Ann Turnbull
Stone Age Boy
by Satoshi Kitamuri
The First Drawing
by Mordicai Gerstein
Stig of the Dump
by Clive King
The Thief Lord
by Cornelia Funke
Gabriella’s Song
by Kay Pollack
Escape from Pompeii
by Christina Balit
The Firework Maker’s Daughter
by Phillip Pullman
The Thieves of Ostia
by Caroline Lawrence
Year 5
Bob – The Man on the Moon
by Simon Bartram
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
by Roald Dahl
Journey to the River Sea
by Eva Ibbotson
The Highwayman
by Alfred Noyes
The Fantastic Flying Books of Morris Lessmore
by W.E. Joyce
Tuesday
by David Weisner
Holes
by Louis Sachar
Tom’s Midnight Garden
by Philippa Pearce
Year 6
Skellig
by David Almond
Clockwork
by Phillip Pullman
The Arrival
by Shaun Tann
Way Home
by Libby Hathorn
Wonder
by R J Palacio
Macbeth
by William Shakespeare
The Odysseaus
by Homer
Stormbreaker
by Anthony Horowitz