Why a single book at 10<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
A series is lovely when a child wants to stay with the same people for months. A single book suits the child who wants a proper ending and then something completely different.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Four of these five have a narrator who talks straight to the reader. A few also have something sad underneath the jokes, and I’ve pointed it out where it comes up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Five chapter books for 10 year olds<\/h2>\n\n\n\nStarboard by Nicola Skinner<\/h3>\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/readingmate.co.uk\/littlereads\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1737447451_678f581b6ef30-195x300.jpg\")
<\/div>Starboard<\/p>
Nicola Skinner<\/span><\/span>Age 10<\/span><\/span>Funny<\/span><\/div><\/div>›<\/span><\/a>\n\n\n\nKirsten Bramble has been on the telly since she was seven and a half, ever since a video she made to find her dad a girlfriend went viral. Now the show has been dropped, the money is running out and she has no real friends at school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then her class visits the SS Great Britain in Bristol. Kirsten puts her hands on the ship’s wheel, and the museum ship smashes out of her dock and into the harbour with Kirsten on board. Olive, the ex-best friend she’d rather avoid, is on board too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The narrator keeps popping in with cheeky asides, and Dad explains everything with maths. Under the jokes is a lonely girl who has been pretending she’s fine for a long time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Duncan Versus the Googleys by Kate Milner<\/h3>\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/readingmate.co.uk\/littlereads\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1737034507_67890b0b19e76-196x300.jpg\")
<\/div>Duncan Versus the Googleys<\/p>
Kate Milner<\/span><\/span>Age 10<\/span><\/span>Mystery<\/span><\/div><\/div>›<\/span><\/a>\n\n\n\nFor the child who likes an odd mystery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Duncan’s parents are off to Japan to build a tree house, so he’s left for the summer with Great Aunt Harriet at Arthritis Hall. The manager, Mrs Linoleum Grunt, confiscates his robot pet within minutes. The old ladies seem to have vanished, there are cameras everywhere and a helipad on the roof, and a boy from a TV advert for a toy called a Googley has just stepped out of the lift.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ursula, the caretaker’s daughter, sleeps in a cardboard bed and moves through the walls like a ghost. Something up in the attic keeps asking her for juice. There are a couple of creepy moments, and if those go down well, the ghost stories for tweens<\/a> are a good next step.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe Nowhere Thief by Alice Ross<\/h3>\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/readingmate.co.uk\/littlereads\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1737647028_679263b44b76d-200x300.jpg\")
<\/div>The Nowhere Thief<\/p>
Alice Ross<\/span><\/span>Age 10<\/span><\/span>Adventure<\/span><\/div><\/div>›<\/span><\/a>\n\n\n\nIf they love a bit of fantasy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Elsbeth can feel a shimmer in the air, step through it into a dark, silent place she calls Nowhere, and come out in another version of the world. In one the cat has two tails. In another a wave is rolling over the rooftops towards her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She brings strange things home to sell in Mum’s antiques shop, because nobody’s buying and the landlord keeps putting the rent up. Then a man with a twirly moustache buys three of her antiques, asks for more and tells her to be careful. Elsbeth keeps telling herself she isn’t really a thief, and she doesn’t quite believe it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Jamie Drake Equation by Christopher Edge<\/h3>\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/readingmate.co.uk\/littlereads\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1714991793_6638b2b1a9cca-194x300.jpg\")
<\/div>The Jamie Drake Equation<\/p>
Christopher Edge<\/span><\/span>Age 10<\/span><\/span>Adventure<\/span><\/div><\/div>›<\/span><\/a>\n\n\n\nFunny, with a lot of real space science in it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jamie’s dad is an astronaut on the International Space Station, and his big spacewalk falls on Jamie’s birthday. Jamie is living with Granddad Neil, a retired heavy metal singer who practises guitar in the barn, VERY loudly. He climbs Beacon Hill for some peace, finds an observatory that’s meant to be abandoned, and plugs his phone into the wrong cable. Something starts downloading from the Hubble Space Telescope.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mostly Jamie just misses his dad, and their calls are short, with a delay on the line. Christopher Edge also wrote The Infinite Lives of Maisie Day<\/a>, where Maisie comes downstairs on her tenth birthday to an empty house and nothing at all outside the front door.<\/p>\n\n\n\nA Talent for Trouble by Natasha Farrant<\/h3>\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/readingmate.co.uk\/littlereads\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1737034080_67890960cd8a9-200x300.jpg\")
<\/div>A Talent for Trouble<\/p>
<\/div>Starboard<\/p>
Kirsten Bramble has been on the telly since she was seven and a half, ever since a video she made to find her dad a girlfriend went viral. Now the show has been dropped, the money is running out and she has no real friends at school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then her class visits the SS Great Britain in Bristol. Kirsten puts her hands on the ship’s wheel, and the museum ship smashes out of her dock and into the harbour with Kirsten on board. Olive, the ex-best friend she’d rather avoid, is on board too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The narrator keeps popping in with cheeky asides, and Dad explains everything with maths. Under the jokes is a lonely girl who has been pretending she’s fine for a long time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Duncan Versus the Googleys by Kate Milner<\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>Duncan Versus the Googleys<\/p>
Kate Milner<\/span><\/span>Age 10<\/span><\/span>Mystery<\/span><\/div><\/div>›<\/span><\/a>\n\n\n\nFor the child who likes an odd mystery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Duncan’s parents are off to Japan to build a tree house, so he’s left for the summer with Great Aunt Harriet at Arthritis Hall. The manager, Mrs Linoleum Grunt, confiscates his robot pet within minutes. The old ladies seem to have vanished, there are cameras everywhere and a helipad on the roof, and a boy from a TV advert for a toy called a Googley has just stepped out of the lift.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ursula, the caretaker’s daughter, sleeps in a cardboard bed and moves through the walls like a ghost. Something up in the attic keeps asking her for juice. There are a couple of creepy moments, and if those go down well, the ghost stories for tweens<\/a> are a good next step.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe Nowhere Thief by Alice Ross<\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>The Nowhere Thief<\/p>
Alice Ross<\/span><\/span>Age 10<\/span><\/span>Adventure<\/span><\/div><\/div>›<\/span><\/a>\n\n\n\nIf they love a bit of fantasy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Elsbeth can feel a shimmer in the air, step through it into a dark, silent place she calls Nowhere, and come out in another version of the world. In one the cat has two tails. In another a wave is rolling over the rooftops towards her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She brings strange things home to sell in Mum’s antiques shop, because nobody’s buying and the landlord keeps putting the rent up. Then a man with a twirly moustache buys three of her antiques, asks for more and tells her to be careful. Elsbeth keeps telling herself she isn’t really a thief, and she doesn’t quite believe it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Jamie Drake Equation by Christopher Edge<\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>The Jamie Drake Equation<\/p>
Christopher Edge<\/span><\/span>Age 10<\/span><\/span>Adventure<\/span><\/div><\/div>›<\/span><\/a>\n\n\n\nFunny, with a lot of real space science in it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jamie’s dad is an astronaut on the International Space Station, and his big spacewalk falls on Jamie’s birthday. Jamie is living with Granddad Neil, a retired heavy metal singer who practises guitar in the barn, VERY loudly. He climbs Beacon Hill for some peace, finds an observatory that’s meant to be abandoned, and plugs his phone into the wrong cable. Something starts downloading from the Hubble Space Telescope.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mostly Jamie just misses his dad, and their calls are short, with a delay on the line. Christopher Edge also wrote The Infinite Lives of Maisie Day<\/a>, where Maisie comes downstairs on her tenth birthday to an empty house and nothing at all outside the front door.<\/p>\n\n\n\nA Talent for Trouble by Natasha Farrant<\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>A Talent for Trouble<\/p>
<\/div>Duncan Versus the Googleys<\/p>
For the child who likes an odd mystery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Duncan’s parents are off to Japan to build a tree house, so he’s left for the summer with Great Aunt Harriet at Arthritis Hall. The manager, Mrs Linoleum Grunt, confiscates his robot pet within minutes. The old ladies seem to have vanished, there are cameras everywhere and a helipad on the roof, and a boy from a TV advert for a toy called a Googley has just stepped out of the lift.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ursula, the caretaker’s daughter, sleeps in a cardboard bed and moves through the walls like a ghost. Something up in the attic keeps asking her for juice. There are a couple of creepy moments, and if those go down well, the ghost stories for tweens<\/a> are a good next step.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Nowhere Thief<\/p> If they love a bit of fantasy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Elsbeth can feel a shimmer in the air, step through it into a dark, silent place she calls Nowhere, and come out in another version of the world. In one the cat has two tails. In another a wave is rolling over the rooftops towards her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She brings strange things home to sell in Mum’s antiques shop, because nobody’s buying and the landlord keeps putting the rent up. Then a man with a twirly moustache buys three of her antiques, asks for more and tells her to be careful. Elsbeth keeps telling herself she isn’t really a thief, and she doesn’t quite believe it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Jamie Drake Equation<\/p> Funny, with a lot of real space science in it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jamie’s dad is an astronaut on the International Space Station, and his big spacewalk falls on Jamie’s birthday. Jamie is living with Granddad Neil, a retired heavy metal singer who practises guitar in the barn, VERY loudly. He climbs Beacon Hill for some peace, finds an observatory that’s meant to be abandoned, and plugs his phone into the wrong cable. Something starts downloading from the Hubble Space Telescope.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mostly Jamie just misses his dad, and their calls are short, with a delay on the line. Christopher Edge also wrote The Infinite Lives of Maisie Day<\/a>, where Maisie comes downstairs on her tenth birthday to an empty house and nothing at all outside the front door.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A Talent for Trouble<\/p>The Nowhere Thief by Alice Ross<\/h3>\n\n\n
<\/div>The Jamie Drake Equation by Christopher Edge<\/h3>\n\n\n
<\/div>A Talent for Trouble by Natasha Farrant<\/h3>\n\n\n
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