I found these authors good for upper primary kids:

1) Sophie McKenzie – Blood Ties

It has won numerous awards and the plot is thought-provoking and gripping. It is about cloning and people’s reactions to it. It links 2 kids who are actually clones but have no idea that they are clones and they need to figure out who their parents really are and how they can escape the clutches of a terrorist group.

2) Neil Gaiman – The Graveyard Book

The author came to Singapore recently during a writer’s festival. His books are usually best-sellers. This book is about boy who grows up in a graveyard and is raised and educated by ghosts and how he tries to find the murderer of his family later on. It sounds morbid but it is not gory or scary, the ghosts are more like friendly motherly kind of ghosts. The vocabulary used is good as well.

3) Anthony Horowitz – Alex Rider Series

His use of sentence structure is very varied and the vocabulary can be used to help your child write better, especially for chase, fire and explosion scenes. The plot is about a 14 year old boy solving mysteries, like a cooler version of hardy boys. Boys really love his books.