Form Time Readers

At Ivanhoe we’re committed to providing a host of avenues for our students to access and read a variety of texts and novels. Our form-time reading campaign ensures that all of the student body at Ivanhoe access 6 texts as part of their form routine with tutors.

The Key Stage 3 form-time reading books at Ivanhoe are aimed at developing our students’ social and personal well-being. In year 7, our texts focus on inter-personal differences and look at building our students’ empathy skills. In year 8, our texts focus of socio-economic issues and the differences in ethnicity and freedom. In year 9, our texts look at the role of the self in society. These texts were curated based on student-voice over a number of years and have been selected as being entertaining, challenging, and informative.

At least once a week form members will read these with their tutors giving them a valuable opportunity to practice reading and oracy with their peer groups.

Year 7 Texts

 Coraline - Neil Gaiman                                                                                             

In this Other World, Coraline finds alternate versions of her parents who seem perfect but are actually sinister beings trying to trap her. Coraline must use her wit and courage to navigate this eerie realm and save herself, her parents and the souls of other children trapped there. Coraline rescues them and safely seals the door to the Other World, ensuring that no one else will fall prey to its dangers. The story ends with Coraline feeling empowered and grateful for her ordinary life, having learned the importance of bravery, family, and appreciating what she has.

Pig Heart Boy - Malorie Blackman              

Pig-Heart Boy picks up a topical issue, that of xenografts or animal organ transplants. Cameron Kelsey has only a few months to live, and is no longer able to play sport, swim or live a normal life in any way. With no suitable human heart donor available, he agrees to try the revolutionary new process and is given a new heart, from a pig... But he can have no idea how agreeing to have a pig's heart transplanted into his body will change not just his life, but the lives of all those around him.

"A powerful story - topical and controversial" (Guardian)

Year 8 Texts

The Bone Sparrow – Zana Fraillon                                                         

Australian author Zana Fraillon’s young adult fiction novel The Bone Sparrow (2016) exposes the plight of the Rohingya people from Burma, specifically those being held in immigration detention centers in Australia. Nine-year-old Subhi was born in the detention camp and has little knowledge of the outside world. He spends his days roaming the dusty confines of the camp and, at night, escapes to his imagination for comfort. Everything changes for Subhi when a girl named Jimmie from outside the camp sneaks past the fence and Subhi’s eyes are opened to the larger world and the depths of his and the other detainees’ suffering. In 2017, the novel was awarded an Amnesty CILIP honor for its attention to the Rohingya people and their displacement. The book was also named ABIA Book of the Year in 2017 and awarded the Readings Young Adult Book Prize. Fraillon began her career as a teacher and began writing books only after her children were born. She is the author of 11 other books ranging from children’s picture books to young adult fiction. In 2022, the York Theater adapted The Bone Sparrow into a stage production.

Noughts and Crosses – Malorie Blackman     

Two young people are forced to make a stand in this thought-provoking look at racism and prejudice in an alternate society.Sephy is a Cross — a member of the dark-skinned ruling class. Callum is a Nought — a “colourless” member of the underclass who were once slaves to the Crosses. The two have been friends since early childhood, but that’s as far as it can go. In their world, Noughts and Crosses simply don’t mix. Against a background of prejudice and distrust, intensely highlighted by violent terrorist activity, a romance builds between Sephy and Callum — a romance that is to lead both of them into terrible danger. Can they possibly find a way to be together?

Year 9 Texts

The Giver – Lois Lowry                                         

The Giver by Lois Lowry tells the story of Jonas, a young, eleven-year-old boy raised in a futuristic walled community. The community has eliminated pain, war, fear, and all negative and positive emotions. Everyone who lives there is content with the way things are and yet completely in the dark in regard to what life used to be like and the emotions, colors, and experiences they have all been stripped of.

When the novel begins, Jonas’s career is chosen for him. This sets him on a complicated path that leads to a series of horrifying revelations about his community, his family, and the parts of human history that have been removed from collective memory. Jonas’s relationship with his mentor, The Giver, helps him come to terms with the choices set out before him—either live with the knowledge he has or run and try to escape for a better life.

The Lord of the Flies – William Golding.             

Lord of the Flies explores the dark side of humanity, the savagery that underlies even the most civilized human beings. William Golding intended this novel as a tragic parody of children's adventure tales, illustrating humankind's intrinsic evil nature. He presents the reader with a chronology of events leading a group of young boys from hope to disaster as they attempt to survive their uncivilized, unsupervised, isolated environment until rescued.