Reading for Pleasure is any reading that is primarily for enjoyment. This covers a wide range range of genres, both fiction and non-fiction, and paper-based or on-screen reading. Reading for pleasure is important because it’s been shown to improve attainment at school and beyond. More than this though, the benefits of reading regularly, purely for enjoyment, can be seen throughout a person’s life. “Research finds that reading for pleasure can result in increased empathy, improved relationships with others, reductions in the symptoms of depression…and improved wellbeing,” says The Reading Agency, “In addition to the health benefits, reading for pleasure has social benefits and can improve our sense of connectedness to the wider community. Reading increases our understanding of our own identity, improves empathy and gives us an insight into the world view of others.”

Good Sites for Book Reviews

Amazon UK – Lots of reviews and featured recommendations

Barrington Stoke – book publishers specialising in providing age-appropriate books for reluctant readers and children and adults with dyslexia.

Caboodle from National Book Tokens – Caboodle Rewards include free Penguin books, local offers/events, competitions. Win £100 every week!

DC Comics –

Good Comics for Kids (School Library Journal blog) – a mix of news, reviews, interviews, and previews. Includes comics, graphic novels & manga.

Goodreads –

Guardian Review – reviews of fiction & non-fiction; includes blogs & podcasts. Follow the links for ‘Children & Teenagers’

Lovereading4kids –

Marvel Comics –

For Reading Addicts – Run by a group of self confessed ‘reading addicts’; discussions, reviews; reading promotions

Scottish Book Trust –

Spinebreakers – Penguin’s pioneering online book community for teenagers, run by teenagers themselves. Youtube channel; expect giveaways, recs, book chat and more!

If You Liked, You’ll Love…

Use Lovereading4kids‘ author ‘Like-for-Like’ recommendations tool. You must be logged in to the site to use this!

Who Else Writes Like..? – brought to you by LISU, Loughborough University, this site is designed to answer the perennial question “I’ve read all the books by this author, who else writes like that?”

Who next..? – Sister site to Who Else Writes Like..? Designed to help parents, teachers and librarians in encouraging children and young people to explore the world of reading.

Similar Authors

Kate Cann: Can’t get enough of the teenage relationships in her Moving trilogy or Leaving Poppy? Love her realistic depiction of teen love; definitely not sugar-coated? For similarly gritty real-life fiction, that packs an emotional punch, try –

Anne Cassidy’s Looking for JJ
Keren David’s When I was Joe
Chris Higgins’ The Day I Met Suzie
Sue Mayfield’s novels like, Damage, Reckless, Blue or Voices
Nicola Morgan’s Wasted
Celia Rees’s Truth or Dare

Cathy Cassidy: Does Cassidy’s Chocoate Box Girls series satify your sweet tooth? Still need more sweet ‘Chick Lit’? To read the hilarious misadventures of yet more ditzy heronies try these authors –

Meg Cabot’s Princess Diaries books
Cathy Hopkins’ Dates, Mates series
Sophie Kinsella’s Shopoholic books
Sue Limb’s Jess Jordan stories
Karen McCombie’s
Louise Rennison’s

For an ‘older teen’ read try –

Helen Fielding’s Bridget Jones’s Diary

Eoin Colfer: Love criminal genius Artemis Fowl? Other authors who write similar ‘high tech’ sci-fi are –

Derek Landy’s Skulduggery Pleasant series
Sophie Mckenzie’s MEDUSA Project books
Mark Walden’s HIVE series

For satirical crime capers without the sci-fi elements, try –

Christopher Brookmyre’s Quite Ugy One Morning
Kevin Brooks’ Black Rabbit Summer
Keith Gray’s novels, Malarky and Warehouse
Anthony McGowan’s Hello Darkness

Suzanne Collins: Like the survival games in Collins’ Hunger Games trilogy? Try other writers of post-apocalytic, dystopian societies –

Malorie Blackman’s Noughts & Crosses series
James Dashner’s Maze Runner series
Michael Grant’s Gone series
Patrick Ness’s Chaos Walking trilogy
Veronica Roth’s Divergent trilogy

Roald Dahl: Love the humourous, quirky world of Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory? Try these funny, yet slightly sinister writers:

David Walliams’ Gangsta Granny
Meg Rosoff – There is No Dog
Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events series

Lucy Daniels -> Terri Farley - If you love animals and reading about animals then these authors will be top of the tree for you.

Some of their Series: Animal Ark & Phantom Stallion.

Chris D’Lacey: Dragons! Dragons! Dragons! We think you get the idea! Read D’Lacey’s Last Dragon Chronicles fantasy series? If you love these mythical beings, emmerse yourself in worlds of magic and mystery by reading the following –

Cressida Cowell’s How to Train your Dragon novels
Cornelia Funke’s Inkheart series
Lucinda Hare’s The Dragon Whisperer
Hilary Mckay’s Dragon!
Kate O’Hearn’s Shadow of the Dragons
Christopher Paolini’s Inheritance series

Alan Durant -> Tom Palmer - If you are football mad then you’ll be scoring if you read some of their books. A brilliant mix of football, adventure and teamwork.

Some of their titles: Leagues Apart & Killer Pass.

Sally Gardner: If you’re enthralled by characters who see the world from a unique perspective afforded by having a mental health condition or learning difficulty, like dyslexia – as in Gardner’s dazzlingly good Maggot Moon – try these readalikes –

Mark Haddon’s The Curious Case of the Dog in the Night-time
Sarah Hammond’s Night Sky in my Head
Julie Hearn’s Rowan Strange
Anthony McGowan’s Henry Tumour
Celia Rees’s Truth or Dare

John Green: Love John Green’s heartbreaking tales of misfit teens in novels like, The Fault in Our Stars and Looking for Alaska? Try these authors –

Stephen Chbosky’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Jenny Downham’s Before I die
Gayle Forman’s If I Stay
Patrick Ness’s The Rest of us Just Live Here

Anthony Horowitz: If teen spies and ‘high tech’ adventure are for you and you’ve read Horowitz’s Alex Rider Series and The Power of Five, then some alternatives include:

Charlie Higson’s Young Bond books
Sophie Mckenzie’s MEDUSA Project series
Robert Muchamore’s CHERUB series
Chris Ryan’s Code Red and Geordie Sharp series

Jeff Kinney: Everybody loves the Wimpy Kid books; poor Greg’s troubles – school, teenage brothers, cheese! – are an endless source of hilarity for us cruel readers.

For more comic catastrophies, try –

Ben Davis’s Joe Crowley series
Liz Pichon’s Tom Gates books

Stephanie Meyer: Loved the Twilight trilogy but still crave a little supernatural in your romance, and a lot of vampire kisses? Might we suggest the following epic gothic romances –

Kate Cann’s Possessing Rayne
P.C.Cast’s The House of Night series (Senior Read)
Cassandra Clare’s Mortal Instruments series
Lauren Kate’s Fallen series
Ellen Schreiber’s Vampire Kisses manga
L.J.Smith’s Vampire Diaries
Vampire Knight manga series (Senior Read)

For a darkly comedic spin on the vampire trope, try –

Matt Haig’s The Radleys

For a more challenging, serious read, you can’t do better than the beautiful lyricism of anything by Marcus Sedgwick –

Marcus Sedwick’s My Swordhand is Singing and/or Midwinterblood

Michael Morpurgo: Do you enjoy the sutlely written moral and social issues in Morgurgo’s animal stores and fables, like The War Horse? Did your heart break reading his tragic, World War I tale, Private Peaceful? Try these authors for similar stories –

Animals stories –

Roddy Doyle’s Wilderness
John Grogan’s Marley novels
Jay Kopelman & Melinda Roth’s From Bagdad, With Love
Chris Ryan’s War Dog (Quick Reads)
Jane West’s Hero: A War Dog’s Tale

War stories –

Paul Dowdswell’s Auslander
Phil Earle’s Heroic
William Osborne’s Hitler’s Angel
Marcus Sedgwick’s Foreshadowing

Michael Muchamore: …………………

Alexander Gordon Smith’s Furnace series
Sophie Mckenzie’s MEDUS Project books

Philip Reeve: Like your sci-fi steampunk? Love Reeve’s Hungry City Chronicles and Larklight series? Then you might want to try –

Ian Beck’s Pastworld
Cassandra Clare’s Infernal Devices
Classics such a Jules Verne’s Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea and HG Wells’ Time Machine
Eoin Colfer’s Airman
Full Metal Alchemist manga series
Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy
Bryan Talbot’s graphic novel, Grandville (Senior Read)

Rick Riordan: Love Percy Jackson? Try these authors for similar fantasy stories packed with mythology –

Josephine Angelini’s Awakening series
Eoin Colfer’s Artemis Fowl series
Terry Deary’s The Fire Thief trilogy
Tanya Landman’s The Kraken Snores, etc.
Caroline Lawrence’s The Queen of the Silver Arrow
Garth Nix’s The Keys to the Kingdom series
Kate O’Hearn’s Pegasus books
Alex Scarrow’s Time Riders series

Darren Shan: The undisputed master of horror, every book is a gore fest of blood, guts and corpses. See Cirque Du Freak and The Demonata series, and zombies – see the new ZOM-B series.

For more zombie apocalypses, try –

Charlie Higgon’s Enemy series
Kirsty McKay’s Undead and Unfed
J.D.Sharp’s Oliver Twisted
Alexander Gordon Smith’s The Fury

For ghosts and ghouls, try –

Joseph Delaney’s Spook’s series
Leo Hunt’s Thirteen Days of Midnight and Eight Rivers of Shadow
R.L.Stine’s Goosebumps series

For mutants, try –

Steve Feasey’s Mutant City series
Michael Grant’s Gone series
James Patterson’s Maximum Ride series

For more vampires, see Stephanie Meyersand Gothic Romance (above), and try –

Nick Shadow’s Midnight Library series

For werewolves, try –

Cassandra Clare’s Mortal Instruments series
Steve Cole’s Wereling books

For witches, try –

Sally Green’s Half Bad trilogy
Diana Wynne Jones’s Howl’s Moving Castle
Elizabeth Laird’s The Witching Hour

Jenny Valentine: Do you love this author’s poignantly written stories about growing up; teenagers dealing with grief; looking for love or redemption amid tragedy and hardship? Try the following authors for similar –

Malorie Blackman’s Boys Don’t Cry
Malachy Doyle’s Georgie
Phil Earle’s Being Billy
C.J.Flood’s Infinite Sky
Linzi Glass’s Ruby Red
Amanda Maclel’s Tease
Louise O’Neil’s Asking for it
Annabel Pitcher’s My Sister Lives on the Mantelpiece and Ketchup Clouds
Robert Williams’ Luke and Jon

Jacqueline Wilson: If you love girly talk with drama and often a slightly sad background much like The Story of Tracy Beaker here are some other authors you might like:

Cathy Cassidy – The Chocolate Box Girls
Meg Cabot – The Princess Diaries
Sue Mayfield – Damage