Q: One of my superiors wants me to start a book club with the 10 children, aged 11-13, in years 7 and 8 who have the highest reading ages. I worry that forcing them to read “classics” – the kind of books she has in mind – will put them off reading challenging texts for ever. What classics (with a lower case C) would you recommend? (This is kind of a moot question because there isn’t any money to buy books, but what the hell…)
English teacher, 24, Nottinghamshire

A: Phil Earle, award-winning children and young adults author
A book doesn’t need to be penned a hundred years ago to be a classic, and there are many wonderful, enduring novels written in the past two decades that will fuel young imaginations.

The London Eye Mystery by Siobhan Dowd is a great place to start. If Mark Haddon channelled his inner Agatha Christie, it would look something like this, as a young sleuth hunts for his cousin – who gets on the Eye, but never steps off.

I also adore AF Harrold and Emily Gravett’s The Imaginary. Reminiscent of Neil Gaiman at his very best, this tale of imaginary friends is by turns funny, touching and terrifying. The perfect marriage of words and pictures.

The second world war has been a springboard for many a tale of derring-do, and one of the finest is Sandi Toksvig’s Hitler’s Canary. I can’t recommend this story of Nazi-occupied Denmark enough: it has terrific warmth and is brilliantly accessible, despite its period setting.

Finally, not one book, but three. Brock, Rook and Pike are written by Anthony McGowan and published by Barrington Stoke, who specialise in books for people with dyslexia and reluctant readers. Imagine Barry Hines resetting Of Mice and Men in the north of England and you’ll have a sense of the tone. Never have three sparsely written novellas packed such an emotional punch. Not a word is wasted and, for me, they are the absolute definition of the word “classic”.

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