If you like The Final Year, try these…
The Final Year is an extraordinary verse novel about the last year of primary school, told through poetry. The verse captures the character of Year 6 pupil Nate as he navigates issues of school, family illness, emotions, change and friendships. Year 6 is a difficult year for many children and whilst they are unlikely to have it quite as difficult as Nate, the book still captures some of that flavour, including the run-up to SATs, friendship issues and anxiety during a time when a sense of big changes is in the air.
Through powerful verses, ex-primary school teacher Matt Goodfellow pays testament to the impact of a great teacher in supporting pupils through this time as well as the power of words and writing to help manage big emotions.
The book has seen phenomenal popularity among teachers in Upper Key Stage 2, and has brought verse novels for primary into the spotlight as well as winning our Books of the Year ‘Best Classroom Read-Aloud’ category for Upper KS2.
We’ve put together a list of ten similar books for fans of The Final Year. Readers who love the verse novel format will feel at home with The Way of Dog or In the Key of Code. For those looking for more school-based stories in a similar style, try Little Light or Malorie Blackman’s Cloud Busting. Some readers will be keen to find more verse novels that capture emotional situations through narrative poetry and we recommend The Stories Grandma Forgot or Sharon Creech’s much-loved verse novel Love That Dog. If you want to try something a little more whimsical with darker humour, try Revolting Rhymes or Zombierella.
For readers who were intrigued by the references to David Almond’s classic Year 6 novel, why not pick up a copy of Skellig too?
Browse the full list below of books for children looking for more books like The Final Year…
