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Compass Primary School

Year 4

The growing range of excellent books for this age group makes the task of encouraging reading for pleasure in Year 4 as delightful as it is essential. It is indeed an essential task - as children’s laureate Cressida Cowell puts it, ‘Decades of research show a reader for pleasure is more likely to be happier, healthier, to do better at school, and to vote – all irrespective of background’. When children choose to read, they gain access to a host of exciting ideas and worlds and this helps to flex the muscles of the imagination, develop empathy and better understand the lives of others, as well boosting language skills, vocabulary and comprehension.

In order to facilitate the enjoyment of reading, the provision of books that are age-appropriate, high quality and appealing is key. At the ages of 8 and 9, most children have learned to read short chapter books by themselves and have gained enough experience of books to articulate preferences about styles, themes and formats. Animal tales, fantasy adventures, funny stories, comic-style books and illustrated chapter books are popular at this age, as are non-fiction texts covering topics of interest like science or history. In addition to a wide choice of independent reads, stories being read aloud by adults continue to be an important - and much-enjoyed - aspect of the reading for pleasure journey at this age.

With this in mind, our team has carefully selected a balance of different types of books to engage Year 4 children in reading for pleasure - either for reading independently or together with an adult. They have a core set of Traditional Tales, Poems and literature which is classed as 'Literacy Heritage' alongside the Books for Topics 50 Recommended Reads. We at Compass Primary review this annually to ensure that children are familiar with new authors and texts. We also select the children's favourites from the year and send up to their next classroom, so they can continue to enjoy them again and again. 

Books for Topics, 2023 - https://www.booksfortopics.com/booklists/recommended-reads/year-4/

Traditional Tales:

 

Poetry:

 

Literacy Heritage:

 

50 Recommended Reads: