Best Books for Ages 9-12 in 2020

Recommended middle-grade fiction for confident readers, ranked by real Amazon UK sales during 2020.

“The Boy At the Back of the Class” by Onjali Rauf was the best-selling book for ages 9-12 in 2020, ahead of “The Girl of Ink and Stars” and “Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone”. 97 of the 100 books below hold an average rating of 4.5 stars or better, led by “The Iron Man” on 4.9 stars from 501 reviews.

Ranked by how well each book actually sold on Amazon UK across 2020 — 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

The Boy At the Back of the Class

by Onjali Rauf

4.7 · 11731 reviews

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

by Millwood Hargrave, Kiran

4.6 · 8173 reviews

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

by Rowling, J.K.

4.8 · 143852 reviews

The Boy Who Grew Dragons (The Boy Who Grew Dragons 1): The b...

by Shepherd, Andy

4.7 · 5618 reviews

You Are Awesome: Find Your Confidence and Dare to be Brillia...

by Syed, Matthew

4.6 · 4344 reviews

Wonder: The Award-Winning, Multi-Million-Copy Bestselling Ph...

by Palacio, R J

4.7 · 84526 reviews

The Explorer: From the author of the internationally bestsel...

by Rundell, Katherine

4.7 · 4569 reviews

Holes: The iconic childhood-defining phenomenon

by Sachar, Louis

4.6 · 35460 reviews

Goodnight Mister Tom: Michelle Magorian (A Puffin Book)

by Magorian, Michelle

4.7 · 8310 reviews

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Getaway (Book 12): A hilarious fam...

by Kinney, Jeff

4.7 · 29725 reviews

Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls

by Favilli, Elena, Cavallo, Francesca

4.8 · 10724 reviews

The Lost Words: The bestselling, illustrated nature book – a...

by Morris, Jackie

4.8 · 3454 reviews

How To Train Your Parents

by Johnson, Pete

4.6 · 2358 reviews

The Hobbit

by Tolkien, J. R. R.

4.8 · 2508 reviews

The 1,000-year-old Boy: The captivating tale of friendship a...

by Welford, Ross

4.6 · 5612 reviews

The House With Chicken Legs: Step into the fairytale world o...

by Sophie Anderson

4.7 · 2699 reviews

How To Train Your Dragon

by Cowell, Cressida

4.6 · 7094 reviews

Murder Most Unladylike: A Murder Most Unladylike Mystery: 1

by Stevens, Robin

4.6 · 4573 reviews

Diary of a Wimpy Kid (Book 1)

by Kinney, Jeff

4.6 · 24093 reviews

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

by White, E. B.

4.7 · 32397 reviews

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

4.8 · 1461 reviews

A Pinch of Magic: Bring the magic home with the bestselling ...

4.6 · 1887 reviews

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

by Riordan, Rick

4.6 · 61934 reviews

Can You See Me?: A powerful story of autism, empathy and kin...

by Scott, Libby

4.7 · 2563 reviews

Dragons at Crumbling Castle: And Other Stories

4.6 · 3026 reviews

Who Let the Gods Out?: the first EPIC adventure in Maz Evans...

by Evans, Maz

4.6 · 2342 reviews

The Girl Who Stole an Elephant

by Nizrana Farook

4.6 · 1337 reviews

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

by Said, SF

4.7 · 2540 reviews

Letters from the Lighthouse: ‘THE QUEEN OF HISTORICAL FICTIO...

by Carroll, Emma

4.6 · 2927 reviews

A Poem for Every Day of the Year: A beautiful poetry collect...

by Esiri, Allie

4.7 · 1722 reviews

Skellig: Winner of the Carnegie Medal

by Almond, David

4.6 · 4317 reviews

National Trust: Tiger, Tiger, Burning Bright!: An Animal Poe...

by Fiona Waters, Britta Teckentrup, Britta Teckentrup

4.8 · 992 reviews

The Nowhere Emporium: 1 (Kelpies)

by Ross MacKenzie

4.7 · 1849 reviews

A Pocketful of Stars: A Gripping Middle Grade Fantasy About ...

by Bushby, Aisha

4.7 · 937 reviews

The Brilliant World of Tom Gates

by Pichon, Liz, Pichon, Liz

4.6 · 8206 reviews

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

by Sachar, Louis

4.6 · 6159 reviews

Women in Science: 50 Fearless Pioneers Who Changed the World

by Ignotofsky, Rachel

4.8 · 6389 reviews

The London Eye Mystery: Siobhan Dowd

by Dowd, Siobhan

4.6 · 3292 reviews

The Graveyard Book: WINNER OF THE CARNEGIE MEDAL 2010

4.6 · 2045 reviews

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

by DiCamillo, Kate

4.8 · 10488 reviews

Artemis Fowl: 1

by Colfer, Eoin

4.4 · 8907 reviews

What A Waste: Rubbish, Recycling, and Protecting our Planet ...

by French, Jess

4.7 · 1226 reviews

No Ballet Shoes in Syria

by Catherine Bruton

4.7 · 1102 reviews

The Goldfish Boy: the bestselling, award-winning modern clas...

4.6 · 2202 reviews

Secrets of a Sun King: ‘THE QUEEN OF HISTORICAL FICTION’ Gua...

by Carroll, Emma

4.6 · 1157 reviews

I Swapped My Brother On The Internet

by Simmons, Jo, Reed, Nathan

4.6 · 1364 reviews

The Big Book of the Blue

by Zommer, Yuval

4.8 · 2336 reviews

Nevermoor: The Trials of Morrigan Crow

by Townsend, Jessica

4.6 · 5247 reviews

Malamander: The first in a hugely original and highly popula...

by Taylor, Thomas

4.7 · 1359 reviews

Wolf Brother: Book 1 (Chronicles of Ancient Darkness)

4.6 · 1877 reviews

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

by Peter Bunzl

4.6 · 1627 reviews

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

by Leonard, M.G.

4.6 · 1012 reviews

The Sheep-pig: 40th Anniversary Edition

by King-Smith, Dick

4.7 · 742 reviews

The Girl Who Drank the Moon

by Barnhill, Kelly

4.5 · 28874 reviews

The Legend of Podkin One-Ear: 'A spellbinding story full of ...

by Larwood, Kieran

4.7 · 1308 reviews

Boy In The Tower

by Ho-Yen, Polly

4.6 · 1217 reviews

Brightstorm: 1 (The Brightstorm Chronicles)

by Hardy, Vashti, Ermos, George

4.7 · 914 reviews

Rabbit's Bad Habits: Book 1: The hilarious modern classic an...

by Gough, Julian

4.7 · 902 reviews

The Arrival

by Tan, Shaun

4.8 · 2446 reviews

Once (Once/Now/Then/After)

by Gleitzman, Morris

4.6 · 2942 reviews

Clockwork or All Wound Up

by Pullman, Philip, Bailey, Peter

4.6 · 632 reviews

The Silver Sword

by Serraillier, Ian

4.6 · 2130 reviews

A Place Called Perfect: 1

by Helena Duggan, Usborne

4.6 · 1338 reviews

The Nothing to See Here Hotel: Volume 1

by Butler, Steven

4.6 · 792 reviews

Wonderscape: Gaming and time travel collide in this exciting...

by Bell, Jennifer

4.6 · 579 reviews

The Giving Tree

by Silverstein, Shel

4.6 · 34135 reviews

Leon and the Place Between

by Mcallister/Grahame Baker-Smith, Angela

4.7 · 590 reviews

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

by Fine, Anne

4.5 · 1073 reviews

Orphans of the Tide

by Murray, Struan, Sumberac, Manuel

4.7 · 902 reviews

Shackleton's Journey

by William Grill

4.8 · 694 reviews

Charlie Changes Into a Chicken

by Copeland, Sam

4.7 · 735 reviews

The Tin Forest

by Ward, Helen

4.7 · 779 reviews

The Rhythm of the Rain

by Baker-Smith, Grahame, Baker-Smith, Grahame

4.7 · 595 reviews

Voices in the Park

by Browne, Anthony

4.6 · 650 reviews

Mortal Engines: 1 (Mortal Engines Quartet)

4.4 · 8557 reviews

The Haunting of Aveline Jones: 1: The first spine-tingling b...

by Phil Hickes, Usborne Publishing Ltd

4.7 · 985 reviews

The Borrowers (A Puffin Book)

by Norton, Mary

4.7 · 2623 reviews

You're a Bad Man, Mr Gum!: it’s the 20th anniversary edition...

by Stanton, Andy

4.5 · 1376 reviews

Sky Song

4.7 · 738 reviews

Survivors: BLUE PETER AWARD WINNER: 1

by Long, David

4.7 · 512 reviews

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

by Torday, Piers

4.5 · 1177 reviews

Floodland

by Sedgwick, Marcus

4.5 · 944 reviews

Accidental Trouble Magnet: Book 1 (Planet Omar)

by Mian, Zanib

4.7 · 1266 reviews

Frostheart: The number one bestselling epic illustrated adve...

4.7 · 602 reviews

The Iron Man: Chris Mould Illustrated Edition: 1

by Hughes, Ted, Mould, Chris

4.9 · 501 reviews

Millions: From the UK Children's Laureate 2024–2026

by Cottrell-Boyce, Frank, Lenton, Steven

4.4 · 1184 reviews

The Queen's Nose

by King-Smith, Dick

4.6 · 608 reviews

Flotsam: A Caldecott Award Winner

by Wiesner, David

4.7 · 1380 reviews

The Accidental Prime Minister

by McLaughlin, Tom

4.5 · 1257 reviews

Kick: The bestselling football adventure that invites reader...

by Mitch Johnson

4.6 · 850 reviews

A Kind of Spark

by Elle McNicoll

4.7 · 1233 reviews

Rumblestar: Volume 1 (The Unmapped Chronicles)

by Elphinstone, Abi

4.7 · 614 reviews

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

by Juster, Norton

4.6 · 1587 reviews

Fighting Fantasy:The Warlock of Firetop Mountain

by Livingstone, Ian

4.7 · 702 reviews

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

by Bradman, Tony

4.6 · 716 reviews

The Polar Bear Explorers' Club: Alex Bell: 1 (The Explorers'...

4.6 · 539 reviews

Oliver and the Seawigs (Reeve and McIntyre Adventures)

by Reeve, Philip

4.6 · 723 reviews

The Storm Keeper’s Island: Storm Keeper Trilogy 1

4.6 · 830 reviews

Arthur and the Golden Rope (Brownstone's Mythical Collection...

by Joe Todd Stanton

4.8 · 809 reviews

After the War: From Auschwitz to Ambleside (Conkers): Tom Pa...

by Tom Palmer

4.7 · 540 reviews

Best Books for Ages 3-5 (2020) Picture books for pre-schoolers and early readers Best Books for Ages 6-8 (2020) Early chapter books and illustrated fiction

FAQs

What were the best books for ages 9-12 in 2020?
The best-selling book for ages 9-12 in 2020 was "The Boy At the Back of the Class", measured on real Amazon UK sales rank across 2020. See the full top 100 below.

How is this list ranked?
By real Amazon UK sales rank averaged across 2020 specifically, so it reflects what actually sold to this age group during that year rather than what sells today.