UPDATE: We are pleased to announce that a number of new books have been added to the RRL. Look out for the 'NEW' symbol! *
Level I
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The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas |
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John Boyne |
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Wartime Nazi Germany: Bruno’s dad has an important new job in a place called ‘Out-With’. Bruno goes exploring and finds a big fence, and a boy in pyjamas on the other side of it. |
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Fahrenheit 451 |
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Ray Bradbury |
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Owning a book is a crime and fireman Guy Montag loves his job: burning books and the houses in which they are found. But an encounter with a teenage girl turns his world upside down. |
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The Joy Luck Club |
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Amy Tan |
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This is an extraordinary tale of the escape of four Chinese women from war-torn China and their complicated relationships with their Chinese-American daughters. |
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Flowers for Algernon |
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Daniel Keyes |
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In this moving novel of self-discovery Charlie Gordon (IQ 68) tells, in his own faltering words, the poignant story of his rise from baker’s assistant to super-genius. Contains adult themes. |
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Animal Farm |
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George Orwell |
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This timeless fable describes how the animals, led by the pigs, took over Manor Farm – with unforeseen consequences. |
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Brighton Rock |
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Graham Greene |
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Up-and-coming gangster Pinkie will do anything to conceal a murder he committed. Will Ida be able to expose him before an innocent girl becomes his next victim? Contains adult themes. |
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Silent Spring |
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Rachel Carson |
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Rachel Carson’s classic exposé of the use of a harmful pesticide created a stir and acted as a call to arms for eco-warriors worldwide. |
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Life of Pi |
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Yann Martel |
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One small boy, an enormous Bengal tiger and a tiny lifeboat adrift in the Pacific Ocean set the scene for this tale of companionship and survival in the most unlikely of circumstances. |
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Watership Down |
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Richard Adams |
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The compelling story of rabbit Hazel and his small band of brave bunny rebels who risk everything in this magnificent tale of adventure and heroism. |
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The Code of the Woosters |
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P G Wodehouse |
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Bertram Wooster is in trouble. Once again he is at the mercy of one of his aunts, blackmailed by an old flame and threatened by a wannabe dictator. Can servant Jeeves save the day once more? |
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Wide Sargasso Sea |
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Jean Rhys |
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Caught in a passionate tangle of hearsay, suspicion and history, heiress Antoinette Cosway’s marriage starts to unravel in the sinister jungles of the post-slavery Caribbean. |
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Cat's Cradle |
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Kurt Vonnegut |
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An almost unclassifiable, brilliantly written book of stupendous reach that encompasses life, death, religion, politics, misguided science and apocalyptic war. |
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Cider With Rosie |
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Laurie Lee |
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Laurie Lee’s heart-warming account of his childhood in a long lost rural England conjures up an atmosphere of bucolic nostalgia. |
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Jane Eyre |
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Charlotte Brontë |
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Harassed and abused by all she comes across, governess Jane Eyre copes with everything that life throws at her in this celebration of endurance and individuality. |
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The Chrysalids |
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John Wyndham |
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To be different can be fatal in the community of Waknuk. When David and a band of friends discover they have telepathic abilities can they keep it a secret for long enough to escape? |
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The Hound of the Baskervilles |
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Sir Arthur Conan Doyle |
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Tackling the apparently supernatural mystery of Sir Baskerville’s death, Holmes travels to Dartmoor to disprove the existence of the devil hound and solve the case. |
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I, Robot |
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Isaac Asimov |
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In this glimpse of the future, robots have become man’s best friend, until, for one reason or another, they go wrong and, from the surface of Mercury to Earth’s orbit, somebody has to go and fix them. |
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Three Men in a Boat |
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Jerome K Jerome |
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Hypochondriac J and two of his equally ‘ill’ friends decide that a jaunt up the River Thames would do them good. But their little excursion soon turns into a highly amusing expedition. |
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Penguin's Poems for Life
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Laura Barber (ed.) |
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From birth to death, this collection has a poem for every occasion and stage of life. Contains adult themes. |
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A Walk in the Woods |
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Bill Bryson |
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A side-splittingly funny account of two underprepared friends who trek through the Appalachian Mountains – one of America’s great wildernesses – dodging bears, snakes and rain on the way. |
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The Time Machine |
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H G Wells |
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A scientist travels 800,000 years into the future, where he discovers a beautiful, peaceful people. But his initial impressions are rudely shattered in a dramatic encounter. |
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David Copperfield |
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Charles Dickens |
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The ups and downs of David Copperfield’s life, from his poor, unhappy childhood to his eventual success and prosperity as a novelist, are told with Dickens’s customary wit and sharp dialogue. |
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The Knife of Never Letting Go (Chaos Walking) |
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Patrick Ness |
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Surrounded by ‘Noise’, there are no secrets in Prentisstown. But when Todd discovers a patch of silence he suddenly finds himself in a dramatic race for survival. Contains adult themes. |
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Frankenstein |
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Mary Shelley |
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Gifted and driven Victor Frankenstein creates a living being from leftover body parts. Unable to live with his creation, Frankenstein flees, leaving the child-like monster with a thirst for vengeance. |
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The Dispossessed |
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Ursula Le Guin |
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A brilliant physicist leaves his supposedly utopian anarchist planet for its luxurious neighbour, but events soon go horrifically out of his control. A fascinating book for mature readers. |
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To Kill a Mockingbird |
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Harper Lee |
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Told through the eyes of a young girl, this Depression-era story of injustice and growing up exposes the racial prejudices that troubled America’s Deep South. Contains adult themes. |
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Seven Wonders of the Industrial World* |
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Deborah Cadbury |
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This book details seven of the greatest feats of engineering in modern history, from the steamship Great Eastern to the Hoover Dam.
*Also titled Dreams of Iron and Steel
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Empire of the Sun |
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J G Ballard |
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Jim, a privileged European schoolboy, lives a cocooned life in Shanghai until Japan bombs Pearl Harbor. What follows is an authentic tale of survival in the brutal civilian camps. |
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The Colour of Magic (Discworld) |
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Terry Pratchett |
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In this magical fantasy a tourist, his many-legged luggage and an earnest wizard do their best to avoid Death, guards and the edge of the world. |
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Nathaniel's Nutmeg |
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Giles Milton |
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A fascinating true story of intrigue, betrayal and war between the Dutch and the English over the remote Banda Islands and their precious crop of nutmeg. |
* Please note that the implementation date for the revised RRL varies between regions. Both the latest edition and the 2017 edition are available on the 'Download the RRL' page.
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