The West Bridgford School

Reading and Literacy

The West Bridgford School Subject Specific Reading List

The West Bridgford School are pleased to announce our new Read-Aloud Canon! Click on the button below for more details.

 

At the West Bridgford School, we know how important reading is: having a book is part of students’ basic equipment and all students in main school participate in weekly independent reading followed by discussions to recommend and promote books.

To find out more, please have a look at the Curriculum Literacy page.

 

Staff across school have suggested reading material that you might enjoy based on your subject interests. There is a wide range to be found; something to suit everyone from KS3 – KS5, from fiction – blogs – non-fiction texts.

Browse by department below and if you enjoy what you read don’t forget to recommend to a friend.

Art and Design

KS3

Threads of Life: A History of the World Through the Eye needle – Clare Hunter

 

KS4 and KS5

Slay in your lane - Yomi Adegoke and Elizabeth Uviebinene

Saving Bletchley Park - Dr Sue Baker

Wally Funks Race for Space - Sue nelson

Handprints on Hubble; an Astronauts story of invention - Kathryn D Sullivan

Business

Tycoon - Peter Jones 

Computer Science and IT

KS3

Foundation Trilogy - Isac Asimov

 

KS4

 Do androids dream of electric sheep? - Philip K Dick

 

KS5

Neuromancer - William Gibson

Algorithms to Live By: The Computer Science of Human Decisions - Brian Christian

Once Upon an Algorithm: How Stories Explain Computing - Martin Erwig

Economics

KS4

The Undercover Economist - Tim Harford

Freakanomics - Levitt and Dubner

Moneyball - Michael Lewis

Economix - How our Economy Works (in words and pictures) - Michael Goodwin

 

KS5

Factfulness - Hans Rosling

Nudge - Thaler and Sunstein

The Great Divide - Joseph Steiglitz

Postcapitalism- Paul Mason

English

KS3

Gulliver’s Travels - Jonathan Swift

Bridge to Terrabithia - Katherine Paterson

The Extraordinary Life of Stephen Hawking - Kate Scott

Little Leaders: Visionary Women Around the World - Vashti Harrison

 

KS4

1984 - George Orwell

The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini

We Should All Be Feminists - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Long Walk to Freedom - Nelson Mandela

 

KS5

Things Fall Apart - Chinua Achebe

One day in the life of Ivan Denisovich - Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

The Diary of Samuel Pepys

The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano

Food Technology

KS3

Lunch at 10 Pomegranate Street

A Year in Fleurville Recipes from Balconies, Rooftops, and Gardens

The Kew Gardens Children's Cookbook: Plant, Cook, Eat

The World in My Kitchen: Global Recipes for Kids to Discover and Cook

 

KS4

A History of Food in 100 Recipes - William Sitwell.

Consider the Fork: A History of How We Cook and Eat - Bee Wilson

Dinner with Mr Darcy: Recipes Inspired by the Novels and Letters of Jane Austen - Pen Vogler.

An Edible history of Humanity - Tom Standage

Eat to save the Planet - Annie Bell

French

KS3

Mary Glasgow Magazines – Allons-Y!  &  Bonjour (Available from the MFL library )

https://www.thefablecottage.com/ - different levels bilingual tales

Astérix in Britain - Renée Gosciny

Le Petit Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

The Adventures of Tintin – Hergé

 

KS4

Mary Glasgow Magazines – Ça va? (from the MFL library)

https://www.thefablecottage.com/ - different levels bilingual tales

Le Petit Nicolas by René Goscinny

No et Moi by Delphine De Vigan

https://www.thefrenchexperiment.com/stories

 

KS5

Mary Glasgow Magazines – Chez Nous (from the MFL library)

https://www.thefablecottage.com/ - different levels bilingual tales

www.newsinslowfrench.com

Le Hobbit – J.R.R Tolkien (from the MFL library)

L'étranger– Albert Camus (from the MFL library)

Geography

KS3

Half a creature from the sea – David Almond

The Rain – Vingina Bergin

Millions – Frank Cotteral Boyce

Not as We Know It – Tom Avery

 

KS4

A short history of nearly everything - Bill Bryson

How bad are Bananas?     - Mike Berners-Lee 

Prisoners of Geography - Tim Marshall 

Lord of the Rings - J RR Tolkien  

 

KS5

This is the Way the World Ends- Jeff Nesbit

Off the Map - Alastair Bonnett

Factfulness - Hans Rosling

Worth Dying For - Tim Marshall

German

KS3

Mary Glasgow Magazines – Das Rad (from the MFL library)

https://www.thefablecottage.com/ - different levels bilingual tales

https://www.thegermanproject.com/stories

https://luxdigi.at/

Die Kleine Raupe Nimmerstatt by Eric CarleThe German version of The Very Hungry Caterpillar

 

KS4

Mary Glasgow Magazines – Schuss (from the MFL library)

https://www.thefablecottage.com/ - different levels bilingual tales

Jungösterreich magazines - https://joedigi.at/

German Short Stories for Beginners – Lingo Mastery

 

KS5

https://www.faz.net/aktuell/

https://www.thefablecottage.com/ - different levels bilingual tales

www.newsinslowgerman.com

https://www.goethe.de/ins/gb/de/spr/unt/kum/dfj.html

German Short Stories: Deutsche Kurzgeshichten Ernst Zillekens - (New Penguin Parallel Texts Series)

History

KS3

The Time Traveller’s guide to Medieval England - Ian Mortimor

Treason - Berlie Doherty

Black Tudors - Miranda Kaufmann

Why do we remember? The Great Fire of London by Izzi Howell

American Indian Stories - Zitkala-Sa
-Black and British: A short essential history - David Olusoga

Lumber Jills: The Unsung Heroines of World War II - Alexandra Davis

 

KS4

The Great Gatsby- F Scott Fitzgerald

Of Mice and Men- John Steinbeck

Regeneration- Pat Barker

 

KS5

12 Years A Slave - Solomon Northup

Podcasts:

In Our Time

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qykl/episodes/downloads

The Rest Is History

https://open.spotify.com/show/7Cvsbcjhtur7nplC148TWy

Law

KS5

Nutshells, Criminal Law - Paul Dobson

Nutcases, Criminal Law -Penny Childs

Law Review -Hodder education.

Tort Law -Chris Turner

The Secret Barrister: Stories of the Law and How It's Broken

Law, Liberty and Morality -H.L.A.Hart

Maths

KS3

Mickey and the Animal Spies - Anne Miller

The Parrot’s Theorem - Denis Guedj

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time- Mark Haddon

Murderous Maths Series - Kjartan Poskitt

Mathemagic - Raymond Blum

The Indisputable Existence of Santa Clause - Hannah Fry

Alex’s Adventures in Numberland - Alex Bellos

 

KS4

Humble Pi, A Comedy of Maths Errors - Matt Parker

Hello World - Hannah Fry

What if? - Randall Munroe

The Indisputable Existence of Santa Clause - Hannah Fry

The Simpsons and their Mathematical Secrets - Simon Singh

 

KS5

Flatland, A Romance of Many Dimensions - Edwin A Abbott

17 Equations That Changed the World - Ian Stewart

Maths on the back on an Envelope - Rob Eastaway

The GCHQ Puzzle Book - GCHQ

Fermat’s Last Theorem (Not for the faint-hearted) - Simon Singh

The Music of Primes (Not for the faint-hearted) - Marcus de Sautoy

Music

KS3

If I Stay – Gayle Foreman

Swing Time – Zadie Smith

XOXO – Axie Oh

When You Get The Chance – Emma Lord

Let Me Hear a Rhyme – Tiffany D Jackson

Every Good Boy Does Fine – Jeremy Denk

Music: A Very Short Introduction – Nicholas Cook

Music – Nicholas Cook

Year of Wonder: Classical Music for Every Day – Clemency Burton-Hill

You Are The Music: How Music Reveals What It Means to Be Human – Victoria Williamson

 

KS4

The Pianist: The Extraordinary True Story of One Man's Survival in Warsaw, 1939-1945 - Władysław Szpilman

An Equal Music – Vikram Seth

Kiss and Tell – Adib Khorram

Forward March – Skye Quinlan

The Piano – Jane Campion

In The Key of Genius – Adam Ockleford

Protect Ya Neck! A Music Industry Survival Guide – Christian Farrad

The Confident Performer – Dr David Roland

The Rest is Noise – Alex Ross

How Music Works – David Byrne

 

KS5

Phantom of the Opera - Gaston Leroux

The Importance of Music to Girls – Lavinia Greenlaw

The Unsinkable Greta James – Jennifer E Smith

I Was Born for This – Alice Oseman

Nocturnes: Five Stories of Music and Nightfall – Kazuro Ishiguro

Musicophilia – Oliver Sacks

Psychology of Music: From Sound to Significance – Siu-Li Tan, Peter Pfordresher, Harre Rom

The Study of Orchestration – Samuel Adler

The Power of Music – Susan Hallam

How Musicals Work and How To Write Your Own – Julian Woolford

Philosophy and Ethics

KS5

Plato: A Beginner's Guide, chapter 3 - Roy Jackson

The Great Philosophers: Aristotle chapter - Brian Magee

Extracts from Phaedo in Antony Flew: Body MInd and Death - Plato

Psychology

KS5

The principles of Psychology – William James

The Little Book of Psychology - Ralls, E., & Riggs, C.

TED Talks -  https://www.ted.com/talks?topics%5B%5D=psychology

Delusions of Gender: The Real Science Behind Sex Differences - Fine, C.

The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat - Sacks, O.

RE

KS3

The Story of Stuff: How Our Obsession with Stuff is Trashing the Planet, Our Communities, and our Health—and a Vision for Change

Philosophy for Kids: 40 Fun Questions That Help You Wonder...about Everything!

Ethics: Behave Yourself! (ThinkAboutIt!: Philosophy For Kids)

Introducing- a graphic guide books: Descartes, Islam, Aristotle, Hinduism, Buddha

No-Nonsense Buddhism for Beginners: Clear Answers to Burning Questions about Core Buddhist Teachings

 

KS4

It’s not about the Burqa- Mariam Khan

Why we think the things we think- Alain Stephen

What would Nietzsche do? - Marcus Weeks

How Christianity transformed the world- Sharon James

Science

KS3

Frank Einstein and the Antimatter Motor  - Jon Scieszka

High Voltage Danger Lab - Bob Pflugfelder and Steve Hockensmith

The Astronauts Handbook - Louie Stowell

The Radioactive Boy Scout - Ken Silverstein

What's Physics all About - Kate Davies

Why is Snot Green - Kate Davies

Will We Ever Speak Dolphin - New Scientist

Greta's story: the schoolgirl who went on strike to save the planet - Valentina Camerini

Hiding Edith - Kathy Kacer

Stuff that scares your pants off - the Science Museum book of scary things - Glenn Murphy

 

KS4

A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived: The Stories in Our Genes - Adam Rutherford

Rosalind Franklin: The Dark Lady of DNA - Brenda Maddox

The Vaccine Race: How Scientists Used Human Cells to Combat Killer Viruses - Meredith Wadman

The Body: A Guide for Occupants - Bill Bryson

The Radium girls - Kate Moore   

The Poisoner's Handbook - Deborah Blum

Stuff Matters: Exploring the Marvelous Materials That Shape Our Man-Made World - Mark Miodownik

Oxygen: The Molecule that Made the World - Nick Lane

Mauve: How one man invented a colour - Simon Garfield

Elephants on Acid - Alex Boese

 

KS5

Biology

The Brain - David Eagleman      

Creation: The Origin of Life - Adam Rutherford  

Gene Machine: The Race to Uncover the Secrets of the Ribosome - Venki Ramakrishnan  

I Contain Multitudes:The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of Life - Ed Yong

The Gene: An Intimate History - Siddhartha Mukherjee

Cuckoo: Cheating by Nature - Nick Davies        

The Incredible Unlikeliness of Being: Evolution and the Making of Us - Alice Roberts

The Code of Life: How gene editing will rewrite our futures - Nessa Carey          Hacking

Alice Roberts     Tamed: Ten Species that Changed our World

 

Chemistry

Creations of Fire: Chemistry's Lively History from Alchemy to the Atomic Age - Cathy Cobb     

Why Chemical Reactions Happen - James Keeler      

Reactions: The private life of atoms - Peter Atkins       

The Disappearing Spoon...and other true tales from the Periodic Table - Sam Kean

Napoleon's Buttons: How 17 Molecules Changed History - Penny Le Couteur         

Molecules of Murder: Criminal Molecules and Classic Cases - John Emsley 

Why Does Asparagus Make Your Wee Smell?: And 57 other curious food and drink questions - Andy Brunning

Periodic Tales: The Curious Lives of the Elements - Hugh Aldersey-Williams   

 

Physics

The Physics of Superheroes - James Kakalios       

The Goldilocks Enigma - Paul Davies 

An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth - Chris Hadfield 

How to teach Quantam Physics to Your Dog - Chad Orzel 

In Search of Schrodinger's Cat: Updated Edition - John Gribbin

How to Build a Universe - Brian Cox and Robin Ince    

Big Bang - Simon Singh      

We need to talk about Kelvin - Marcus Chown  

Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race - Margot Lee Shetterly  

Storm in a Teacup:The Physics of Everyday Life - Helen Czerski

Sociology

KS4

Lord of the Flies – William Golding

Animal Farm – George Orwell

The Colour Purple – Alice Walker

Herland – Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Chavs: The Demonization of the Working Class  – Owen Jones

 

KS5

Poverty Safari – Darren McGarvey

Who the hell is Karl Marx? – Manus McGrogan

Mistaken Identity: Race and Class in the Age of Trump – Asad Haider

The Communist Manifesto – Karl Marx and Fredrick Engels

Invisible Women – Caroline Criado Perez

Why Ethnography Matters – Oli Williams

It’s Not About the Burqa – Mariam Khan

Is Britain unfair and unequal? – Joan Garrod

Global Culture and Popular Culture – John Storey

Hood Feminism – Mikki Kendall

Anti-Social: The Diary of an Anti-Social Behaviour Disorder – Nick Pettigrew

Spanish

KS3

Mary Glasgow Magazines – Que tal? (from the MFL library)

https://www.thefablecottage.com/ - different levels bilingual tales

https://www.thespanishexperiment.com/stories

https://www.spanishbookshop.co.uk/spanish-readers

Short Stories in Spanish King -  John.R

 

KS4

Mary Glasgow Magazines – Ahora (from the MFL library)

https://www.thefablecottage.com/ - different levels bilingual tales

Teen Readers Spanish

https://www.spanishbookshop.co.uk/spanishbooks/series/TEES

Spanish Short Stories for Beginners – Lingo Mastery

Short Stories to Learn Spanish- https://www.lingomastery.com/

https://www.thespanishexperiment.com/stories

 

KS5

Mary Glasgow Magazines – El sol (from the MFL library)

https://www.thefablecottage.com/ - different levels bilingual tales

www.newsinslowspanish.com

The Shadow of the Wind -  Carlos Ruiz Zafón

Homage to Catalonia - George Orwell