Best Books for Ages 9-12 in 2016

Recommended middle-grade fiction for confident readers, ranked by real Amazon UK sales during 2016.

“Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone” by J.K. Rowling was the best-selling book for ages 9-12 in 2016, ahead of “Diary of a Wimpy Kid (Book 1)” and “Charlotte's Web”. 92 of the 98 books below hold an average rating of 4.5 stars or better, led by “Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone” on 4.8 stars from 143,852 reviews.

Ranked by how well each book actually sold on Amazon UK across 2016 — not by our opinion, and not by how they sell today.

← Ages 6-8 Ages 9-12

2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 2026

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

by J.K. Rowling

4.8 · 143852 reviews

Diary of a Wimpy Kid (Book 1)

by Jeff Kinney

4.6 · 24093 reviews

Charlotte's Web: The beloved modern classic from the bestsel...

by E. B. White

4.7 · 32397 reviews

Goodnight Mister Tom: Michelle Magorian (A Puffin Book)

by Michelle Magorian

4.7 · 8310 reviews

Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief (Book 1): Rick Riordan...

by Rick Riordan

4.6 · 61934 reviews

How To Train Your Dragon

by Cressida Cowell

4.6 · 7094 reviews

Holes: The iconic childhood-defining phenomenon

by Louis Sachar

4.6 · 35460 reviews

The Hobbit

by J. R. R. Tolkien

4.8 · 2508 reviews

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe: Journey to Narnia in t...

4.8 · 1461 reviews

Skellig: Winner of the Carnegie Medal

by David Almond

4.6 · 4317 reviews

Dragons at Crumbling Castle: And Other Stories

4.6 · 3026 reviews

The Girl of Ink and Stars: winner of the British Book Awards...

by Kiran Millwood Hargrave

4.6 · 8173 reviews

The Accidental Prime Minister

by Tom McLaughlin

4.5 · 1257 reviews

The Borrowers (A Puffin Book)

by Mary Norton

4.7 · 2623 reviews

The Graveyard Book: WINNER OF THE CARNEGIE MEDAL 2010

4.6 · 2045 reviews

Artemis Fowl: 1

by Eoin Colfer

4.4 · 8907 reviews

Murder Most Unladylike: A Murder Most Unladylike Mystery: 1

by Robin Stevens

4.6 · 4573 reviews

Cogheart (The Cogheart Adventures #1): The bestselling, hear...

by Peter Bunzl

4.6 · 1627 reviews

The Giving Tree

by Shel Silverstein

4.6 · 34135 reviews

Once (Once/Now/Then/After)

by Morris Gleitzman

4.6 · 2942 reviews

The Secret of Nightingale Wood: the first novel from Waterst...

by Lucy Strange

4.7 · 392 reviews

Voices in the Park

by Anthony Browne

4.6 · 650 reviews

The Diary of a Killer Cat: 1 (The Killer Cat, 1)

by Anne Fine

4.5 · 1073 reviews

The Spy Who Loved School Dinners

by Pamela Butchart

4.5 · 1046 reviews

The Tin Forest

by Helen Ward

4.7 · 779 reviews

How To Train Your Parents

by Pete Johnson

4.6 · 2358 reviews

The Nowhere Emporium: 1 (Kelpies)

by Ross MacKenzie

4.7 · 1849 reviews

Shackleton's Journey

by William Grill

4.8 · 694 reviews

Atlas of Adventures: A collection of natural wonders, exciti...

by Lucy Letherland

4.7 · 451 reviews

The Silver Sword

by Ian Serraillier

4.6 · 2130 reviews

The Phantom Tollbooth: An extraordinary classic adventure st...

by Norton Juster

4.6 · 1587 reviews

Please Mrs Butler: The timeless school poetry collection

by Allan Ahlberg

4.7 · 727 reviews

Varjak Paw: An award-winning modern children's classic: 1

by SF Said

4.7 · 2540 reviews

100 Best Poems for Children

4.6 · 464 reviews

Beetle Boy (Battle of the Beetles Book 1): a bug-tastic seri...

by M.G. Leonard

4.6 · 1012 reviews

The Last Wild: Book 1 (The Last Wild Trilogy)

by Piers Torday

4.5 · 1177 reviews

Leon and the Place Between

by Angela Mcallister/Grahame Baker-Smith

4.7 · 590 reviews

Flotsam: A Caldecott Award Winner

by David Wiesner

4.7 · 1380 reviews

The Neverending Story: Michael Ende (A Puffin Book)

4.6 · 6737 reviews

The Weirdstone of Brisingamen: The classic magical fantasy a...

4.4 · 1732 reviews

The Invention of Hugo Cabret

by Brian Selznick

4.7 · 2960 reviews

The Mysteries of Harris Burdick

4.8 · 954 reviews

The Arrival

by Shaun Tan

4.8 · 2446 reviews

Michael Rosen's A-Z: The best children's poetry from Agard t...

by Michael Rosen

4.5 · 331 reviews

The Bubble Boy

by Stewart Foster

4.6 · 1064 reviews

The Epic Book of Epicness

by Adam Frost

4.8 · 86 reviews

The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane: A 6-million-copy-se...

by Kate DiCamillo

4.8 · 10488 reviews

How To Live Forever

by Colin Thompson

4.6 · 306 reviews

Oliver and the Seawigs (Reeve and McIntyre Adventures)

by Philip Reeve

4.6 · 723 reviews

Black Dog

by Levi Pinfold

4.8 · 279 reviews

Cloud Busting: Puffin Poetry

by Malorie Blackman

4.5 · 453 reviews

101 Poems for Children Chosen by Carol Ann Duffy: A Laureate...

by Professor Carol Ann Duffy DBE and Emily Gravett

4.4 · 169 reviews

Heard it in the Playground

4.7 · 293 reviews

Room 13

by Robert Swindells

4.5 · 913 reviews

Emil And The Detectives

by Erich Kastner

4.5 · 728 reviews

The Island

by Armin Greder Armin Greder

4.5 · 236 reviews

Floodland

by Marcus Sedgwick

4.5 · 944 reviews

The White Giraffe: Book 1 (The White Giraffe Series)

4.5 · 709 reviews

Cakes in Space (Reeve and McIntyre Adventures)

4.6 · 361 reviews

The Highwayman (Oxford Children's Classics)

by Alfred Noyes

4.6 · 311 reviews

Ice Palace (Young Puffin)

4.4 · 364 reviews

Boy In The Tower

by Polly Ho-Yen

4.6 · 1217 reviews

The Man Who Walked Between the Towers: (Caldecott Medal Winn...

by Mordicai Gerstein

4.7 · 805 reviews

Varmints

by Helen Ward

4.7 · 231 reviews

One and Only Ivan: A #1 NYT Bestselling Children's Animal Ad...

by Katherine Applegate

4.6 · 27567 reviews

Moondial (Faber Children's Classics)

4.5 · 386 reviews

FArTHER

4.7 · 112 reviews

The Silly Book of Side-Splitting Stuff

4.4 · 203 reviews

Zita the Spacegirl: 1

by Ben Hatke Ben Hatke

4.7 · 966 reviews

A Room Full of Chocolate

by Jane Elson

4.6 · 212 reviews

The Turbulent Term of Tyke Tiler: 1

4.6 · 150 reviews

Love That Dog

4.6 · 2434 reviews

Where My Wellies Take Me

by Michael Morpurgo, Clare Morpurgo and Olivia Lomenech Gill

4.6 · 74 reviews

Way Home: A Kate Greenaway Medal-Winning Book about Homeless...

by Gregory Rogers and Libby Hathorn

4.7 · 66 reviews

El Deafo: A Graphic Novel

by Cece Bell

4.7 · 4908 reviews

Viking Boy: An epic quest for revenge, featuring Norse myths...

by Tony Bradman

4.6 · 716 reviews

Unreal!

by Paul Jennings

4.7 · 108 reviews

Hilda and the Troll (Hildafolk Comics)

by Luke Pearson

4.8 · 1651 reviews

Kicking a Ball

by Allan Ahlberg and Sebastien Braun

4.8 · 122 reviews

The Apprentice Witch: book 1 in a spellbinding series for fa...

by James Nicol

4.6 · 271 reviews

Inside Out and Back Again: A Newbery Honor Award Winner

by Thanhhà Lai

4.6 · 7293 reviews

The Journey: 0

by F Sanna

4.8 · 346 reviews

Wild Boy: A pacy mystery adventure story set in the smoggy u...

by Rob Lloyd Jones

4.7 · 347 reviews

Compton Valance The Most Powerful Boy in the Universe (Compt...

by Matt Brown

4.6 · 117 reviews

The Complete Nonsense of Edward Lear: 1 (Faber Children's Cl...

by Edward Lear

4.6 · 291 reviews

Werewolf Club Rules!: and other poems

by Joseph Coelho

4.6 · 82 reviews

Hot Like Fire Bind-up

by Valerie Bloom and Debbie Lush

4.7 · 32 reviews

Collected Poems for Children: 1

by Ted Hughes

4.6 · 57 reviews

The Magic Box: Poems For Children

by Kit Wright

4.4 · 27 reviews

The Crossover

by Kwame Alexander

4.6 · 5816 reviews

There's a Boy in the Girls' Bathroom: Rejacketed

by Louis Sachar

4.6 · 6159 reviews

Swallows And Amazons: 1

by Arthur Ransome

4.5 · 2945 reviews

Can I Build Another Me?

4.8 · 309 reviews

Emil and the Detectives (A Puffin Book)

by Erich Kästner

4.5 · 728 reviews

Atlas of Animal Adventures

by Rachel Williams, Emily Hawkins and Lucy Letherland

4.8 · 348 reviews

The Adventures of Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend

by Dan Santat

4.7 · 1317 reviews

Cirque Du Freak Series - Complete 12 Book Collection - Kille...

by Darren Shan

4.8 · 2179 reviews

The Snow Spider: The classic magical adventure story for rea...

4.7 · 72 reviews

Best Books for Ages 3-5 (2016) Picture books for pre-schoolers and early readers Best Books for Ages 6-8 (2016) Early chapter books and illustrated fiction

FAQs

What were the best books for ages 9-12 in 2016?
The best-selling book for ages 9-12 in 2016 was "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone", measured on real Amazon UK sales rank across 2016. See the full top 98 below.

How is this list ranked?
By real Amazon UK sales rank averaged across 2016 specifically, so it reflects what actually sold to this age group during that year rather than what sells today.