Always looking for new ideas here. Tonight one of my kids pulled out Howl’s Moving Castle and requested it and I suddenly saw light at the endless tunnel of paddington and my naughty little sister (I really liked them the first time I read them to my offspring…I have 3 kids who all love these books and I have read them a LOT of times).

Have jsut put a few books from my childhood in my Amazon basket: some stuff by Henry Treece (kids historical fiction), cynthia harnett (ditto), a few more diana wynne jones…what else? I’d love any excuse to buy stuff like Nicholas Fisk or Neil Gaiman or Philip Pullman but tbh my kids are too easily scared for that stuff.

I’m kind of after stuff with really good stories, the slightly more grown up stuff than ramona/worst witch/etc. Plus we’ve done, I think, most of the classics. My oldest is 7, so i’ve read most well known stuff for that age group nine or ten times by now .

Any thoughts?

I’ll keep an eye on this thread as we’re “Naughty Little Sister” fans too. I love them..,but like you say, after you’ve read them for the zillienth time you could really do with another book!!

My dd likes Roald Dahl stories too but my ds isn’t so keen.  We keep looking for more at the library but I don’t recognise most of them so I can’t choose from experience and dd and ds aren’t very good at choosing - they go for the ones with the “fun” picture on the front which means nothing with regards to how gripping the books are.

The books dd brings home from school are horrendously boring so now its the school holidays I really need to dig out a few good ones. But they also need to be good for ds who isn’t a natural story-listener. He does love naughty little sister and the original Mr Men books though.

Hope you find some more! x x

re your ds, I do think sometimes, especially with boys, that a story has to be REALLY good for them to be pulled in. How old is he? I’ve always had more success with books “above” my kids level , I think when ds was about 3 or 4 we were reading stuff like wind in the willows-and 90% of it more than likely went over his head, but the thing with these books is that the storytelling is really really strong. so it worked, and it got him into the habit of accepting that not all books have pictures (much as I love picture books).

My DS just loved the ‘How to Train your Dragon’ series by Cressida Cowell, but don’t know if that’s the sort of thing you are after and it does have some kind of gruesome bits in it.  Really enjoyable books to read from an adult point of view too though.

Haven’t read him any Diana Wynne Jones, but like the sound of Howl’s Moving Castle, so might give that a go, thanks.

My boy is 6, and has just really enjoyed the first two books of “The Magic Thief” by Sarah Prineus.They do contain a bit of violence and gruesomeness, which, if not really necessary in the flow of the story, I edited out as I read (as long as I wasn’t on “automatic read” while thinking about something else   but overall I thought they were really good.
The Moomin books are strange, surreal and charming, but wouldn’t recommend “Moominvalley in November” as it’s really depressing!
Tom’s Midnight Garden was a great success last year, and we’ve read some Michael Morpugo books, although many of them have themes which are a bit too mature yet.
On the whole we have always read books that were aimed at older that T’s age. The only one he couldn’t stick with was Lord of the Rings! (Although the Hobbit was fine.)

Hannah loves The Boxcar Children series by Gertrude Chandler Warner, and we’ve just bought a few books by Holling Clancy Holling including Paddle To The Sea, Pagoo and The Tree In The Trail which look like they are going to be really good. For slightly younger children we really enjoyed the Junie B Jones books as well. They are by Barbara Park and Denise Brunkus.

I adored this book : http://www.amazon.co.uk/Gobbolino-Witchs-Cat-Kingfisher-Classics/dp/0753412098
Also how about Little House in the Big Woods (and the other ones in the series) http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0060754281/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_2?pf_rd_p=103612307&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=0749709316&pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_r=11Y80WW2RXDAS3P8HFT6
They are just beautiful books and so interesting and cosy to read! Although some sad bits in places. There are 9 books in series, the link for the set has only the first five.

I also adored Milly Molly Mandy, but if you read My Naughty Little Sister, you probably have that already!

Thanks so much for the reminder of the “my naughty little sister books, I remember them from when I were a wee lass!

We enjoy most Roald Dahl stuff, especially Fantastic Mr Fox, Jake has also really enjoyed the Magic Faraway Tree stories as each chapter (more or less) is a new story in itself. I used to love the Worst Witch books, and if you like that then “Which Witch?” by Eva Ibbotson was my utter favourite at age 7.

We are currently enjoying the Brer Rabbit stories, as retold by Enid Blyton.  They are very funny. xx

Dd aged 6 years, (but understanding higher, but ability to cope with too much trauma probably lower)has really enjoyed having all these read to her in the past 6 months or so:

Enid Blyton, for example, Secret SEven, Magic Faraway Tree, Amelia Jane.
Ransome - Swallows and Amazons (I loved it aged 7yrs)
Tolkein - Hobbit
Little House on Prairie - whole series (up to and including the Long Winter which I found fairly traumatic, but she didn’t)
Worst Witch stories
non-fiction on subject of interest (volcanoes, dinosaurs, earthquakes, Scottish history, British history, baking).  The Scottish history one went down a storm, she absolutely loved it - go to library and see what they fancy.
Sorry, can’t remember the author, but the books are the Oliver Moon series (about a young wizard)
Milly Molly Mandy
Teddy Bear Robinson

I think I’m going to start dd on the Artemis Fowl books by Eoin Colfer.  I read them all as an adult a few years ago and loved them and I think they aren’t too violent for her.

Not sure of age range, but I must have been about 8 or 9yrs and I loved Willard Price (adventure author), Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys (series titles).

Also, could you ask to speak with a member of library staff who could make some suggestions.  It’s lovely when someone asks me at work and I can look over the stock with them and say, ‘oh yes, this was fun’, or ‘I haven’t tried this, but it’s got some good reviews’

Hope this helps

Tanya

How about Percy Jackson? An absolute fav series in our house!

had completely forgotten about teddy bear robinson!   I used to love him. I off to look up his books on amazon xx

I loved Narnia from around 7 when my mum started reading it to me. 

The Little Prince is a beautiful story, simple and doesn’t have scary stuff.

Tom’s Midnight Garden is a great adventure.

I was a massive Enid Blyton fan.  Started with Famous Five.  But I also like the series about the magical tree.

Is Wind in The Willows too young?

I was very easily scared as a child and I was fine with all of these.  The only one I found too scary was The Silver Chair in the Narnia series and I think that was because I’d seen the BBC version before.

I’m looking forward to moving on into big stories.  Not for a while yet.

Our DD is five and currently loves being read Stig of the Dump every bed time   Also Wind in the Willows.  We are going to start looking at some Enid Blyton, I loved them as a child.

We have enjoyed the Spy Dogs series by Andrew Cope, and there is now a follow up series of Spy Pups.  And I have to say that DS2 has fallen in love with Diary of a Wimpy Kid, it has illustrations which helps, as he tends to have mental block when it comes to a page full of text, even though h could probably read it, he thinks that he couldn’t iykwim.