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 former 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 as boosting language skills, vocabulary and comprehension.
To facilitate the enjoyment of reading, the provision of a wide choice of books that are age-appropriate, high quality and appealing is key.
What kind of books should Year 4 read?
In Year 4 at the ages of 8 and 9, many children have learned to read short chapter books by themselves and have gained enough experience with books to articulate preferences about styles, themes and formats.
Chapter books with fantasy adventures like The Land of Roar and How to Train Your Dragon are perfect choices for keen readers in Year 4. Readers who are reluctant to get stuck into lengthy chunks of text usually find they enjoy books punctuated with illustrated elements, and series like Tom Gates and Murray the Viking are ever-popular choices for Year 4 children too. Year 4 children should also be encouraged to read stories that help them better understand the lives of others, like The Boy at the Back of the Class or The Girl Who Stole an Elephant.
It’s best to give Year 4 children a wide choice of different styles of stories, as children at this age are still forming their identities as independent readers. Try to collect a good mix of animal tales, fantasy adventures, funny stories, comic-style books and illustrated chapter books, which are popular at this age. You should also provide non-fiction texts covering topics of interest like science or history, like a dive into Shackleton’s Journey or the classic favourite A Street Through Time.
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.
The books on our Y4 booklist feature 50 recommended reads for pleasure for ages 8-9. Many of the books in the collection are well-known for getting children hooked on reading due to their humorous style and highly illustrated elements, like the comic-style Bunny Vs Monkey books or the pie-chart-filled Planet Stan. Other stories featured in the Y4 collection have been chosen especially for making children laugh out loud, like the gag-filled Mr Gum or Nadia Shireen’s darkly humoured Grimwood.
Many children at this age have developed the ability to make connections within a story and spot finer details in the text, and this enables them to enjoy a good mystery story. For a cracking mystery adventure, we recommend the Highland Falcon Thief, the Anisha: Accidental Detective series or, for an interactive, head-scratching mystery that puts the reader in control, try Solve Your Own Mystery: The Monster Maker.
Animal rescue stories also remain popular with Year 4, with Jess Butterworth’s exciting Himalayan adventure When the Mountains Roared or Elizabeth Laird’s poignant tale of the dangers of ocean pollution in Song of the Dolphin Boy being excellent choices. Dragons feature heavily in the Y4 collection too, and readers looking for fantasy adventures will be happy to let their imaginations feed on The Land of Roar, the space-themed Interdimensional Explorers series or Cressida Cowell’s hugely popular How to Train Your Dragon books.
Not all of the stories on the list are longer reads. For readers looking for shorter texts, try Serena Patel’s humorous short chapter book Test Trouble (specially formatted for reluctant and dyslexic readers), Eve Ainsworth’s football-themed Finding Her Feet or get political with the short, illustrated chapter book Keisha Jones Takes on the World. Graphic novels have seen a burst of popularity in Key Stage 2 recently, and we’ve included some suitable Y4 graphic novels like Mr Wolf’s Class and the new graphic novel version of Guy Bass’s popular Stitch Head. For picture books suitable for Year 4, we recommend I Talk Like a River or the thought-provoking The Barnabus Project, which is stunningly illustrated by the Fan Brothers.
If you are looking for classic stories suitable for Year 4 to read, you’ll find among the collection some favourites that have been entertaining children for generations, like The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe or Dick King Smith’s The Queen’s Nose. Poetry books that are proven hits with Year 4 are well represented in the collection too, and in particular, we love the year’s worth of nature poems in I Am the Seed That Grew the Tree or the delightfully imaginative and funny animal-themed poems in Welcome to Wild Town.
What are the best non-fiction books for Year 4?
When choosing information books for Year 4, look for highly illustrated information texts well structured into chunks of text, on topics of popular interest. Books about science, history or geography are usually a hit with this age group, and there are some stunning large-format non-fiction books available to wow the crowd.
Try the large-format inspiring geography book Earth is Big, William Grill’s fascinating illustrated retelling of Shackleton’s Journey or the comic-style How Do Meerkats Order Pizza?, which is packed with animal facts.
If you are looking for non-fiction books themed around a particular topic, head over to our KS2 topic booklists.
Where can I purchase the books on the BooksForTopics Year 4 booklist?
What other booklists for children in Y4 are available?
For resources and booklists specially catered to 8 and 9-year-olds, we have a thorough selection here are BooksForTopics. Our lists of children’s books based on popular Year 4 curriculum topics include Ancient Egyptian topic texts, recommended children’s books about the Human Body, and stories about Mountains and Volcanoes. You can also find lists suited to children with a special interest, such as space books for children or stories about football. Browse through the BooksForTopics KS2 topic booklists to explore our extensive collection.
For children’s books showcasing a broader range of characters, cultures, and experiences, our collection of Diverse and Inclusive Books for Lower KS2 is recommended for parents and educators seeking diversity and inclusivity.