English Essay / Grammar books - recommendations??

[svg123]

Hi,

Does anyone have any recommendation of books for English Essay for children preparing for 11+ exams?
For Grammar, I am looking at : First aid english, Bond, Basic Skills by Collins. Any more to add?
Thanks in advance.

- svg123

[um]

AE Tuition 'Creative Writing' series seems very good for essay writing tuition/techniques.
They're a series of 3 (pretty thick) books and I would anticipate a good 4-6 months are needed to go through them in detail.

[svg123]

I looked at their website and it seems there are six "Creative writing" books.
Do you have first hand experience of these books?

[Optimist]

Hadyn Richards 3 and upwards are very useful.

[um]

I used the first 3 with my ds1 (now at Grammar school) to prepare him for the Indie tests.
He was very half-hearted about it unfortunately - first choice was the grammar and I think he knew he'd made it then.
But of all the books I've looked at, they provided a clear, thorough and structured (if slightly turgid) approach.

I don't think (nearly 3 years ago now) that all 6 were published then, so haven't seen the last 3!

I also don't know of any Grammars with an essay writing component, so assume you are preparing for the Independent sector. You can download lots of past writing papers by going to the Indie schools websites - try Haberdasher's, Manchester, City of London, Alleyns, and others

[Akiko]

Please, let me know which Basic Skills by Collins do you use, svg? There seems to be quite a few of them like Practise Basic English skills etc...

[menagerie]

Um, I think Sutton grammar has a composition paper.