Books for Younger Advanced Readers?

[serinat]

My eldest, who just turned six, is reading like a fiend. I can't keep her supplied in books. I'm running out of stuff that is challenging, yet contains appropriate subject matter for a six-year-old. Can you help me?

She has read a lot, so I won't list it all here. (For example, she'll read through one Little House book, by Laura Ingalls Wilder, during her 1-2 hour afternoon rest time.) I'm thinking there are others who would benefit from a list like this, so suggest away.

[AnneC]

Have you tried Secret Seven or Famous Five and other Enid Blyton books? Pollyanna is good, my dd read that. Unfortunately my dd will only read Rainbow Magic books:confused: just atm so I'm out of ideas.

[EKS]

Beverly Cleary books
Roald Dahl books
Charlotte's Web
Stuart Little
Mr. Popper's Penguins
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and sequels
Narnia books
Dr Dolittle books

That's all I can think of right now.

[nmoira]

My oldest is almost 7. Here's some of our hits:

Freddy the Pig series by Brooks (starts with Freddy Goes to Florida)
Dick King Smith
Far Flung Adventures series
Edge Chronicles series
Fire Thief Trilogy by Terry Deary
Larklight and Starcross by Philip Reeve
The Invention of Hugo Cabret
Arabel's Raven series by Joan Aiken
Horrible Histories, Horrible Science and Murderous Maths
Jenny and the Cat Club series
Edward Eager
E. Nesbit
Wizard of Oz series
John Bellairs
Palace of Laughter and The Tiger's Egg by Berkley
Paddington series
Greene Knowe Series (first is Children of Green Knowe... these are a little scary) by L.M. Boston
Nurse Matilda books
Sisters Grimm series
Eleanor Cameron
Helen Cresswell, especially her Bagthorpe series
Roald Dahl
Spiderwick Chronicles
Sammy Keyes mystery series
Hank the Cowdog series
Eleanor Estes (esp. Moffats series and Pye series)
Eleanor Farjeon
Jules Feiffer
The Great Brain
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
Swallows and Amazons series
Cornelia Funke
Tintin, Asterix, Bone
George's Secret Key to the Universe by Hawking
Polly Horvath
Bunnicula series
Professor Branestawm series
Moomin novels by Tove Jansson

There are others on my LibraryThing (link in my sig). I've only made it through "J" here. Not all books there will be suitable, as I purchase ahead and DD the Elder is not a terribly sensitive reader. We also get tonnes of books from the library, but I can't keep up with her and so haven't kept track of those.

Folktales, Fairy tales, myths:

Grimm
John Bierhorst's collections
Neil Philip's collections
Frances Carpenter's collections
Andrew Lang (coloured fairy books)
Geraldine McCaughrean
Judy Sierra
Padraic Colum
just about every collection I could get from the library

[suzf242]

My dd6 is the same way. I've been trying to keep her away from the Bobbsey Twins -- seems like my mother has an endless supply for her to borrow....

She does like the Burgess Bird Book for Children.

Also, The Wonder Clock by Howard Pyle. The writing is a little more difficult, but the stories are intriguing, so she will take the time to read more slowly and go over them again to get the full meaning.

Thanks for bringing this up. I'll be checking out all of these good suggestions, too.

Take care,
Suzanne

[Laura Corin]

I have some lists (http://www.amazon.com/gp/richpub/listmania/byauthor/AJ9YYU9EDTNHJ) on Amazon that might help. Scroll down to get to the younger lists.

Best wishes

Laura

[LisaTheresa]

You might look at Sonlight's Grade 3 - 5 readers. That's what my daughter is reading and she is 6.

Lisa

[LisaK in VA]

Veritas Press 1st-3rd grade literature is a guide we use.
Milly Molly Mandy
Elsie Dinsmore Series
Grandma's Attic Series
If you're looking for Christian Content, Abeka has several Christian Novels for their "book reports" that could be helpful.

I also believe there is a new Pixie/Fairy series I've seen at Borders, although I haven't had cause to read one yet.

[nmoira]

Margaret Mahy is another author we've got lots of mileage from. I'd recommend starting The Great Piratical Rumbustification.

[Karin]

Betsy-Tacey series (my now 10 loved this around the age of 6 or 7, probably 7 as she hated reading until age 6.5)

Miss Pickerel Went to Mars (there are more in the series. My eldest enjoyed those)

You already have many other choices, but I didn't notice these in my quick scan.

[Sharon H in IL]

I don't have an accelerated learner, so I don't read here often, but I happened across your post, serinat.

Maybe you haven't seen the 1000 Good Books List from the old Classical Homeschoolers site.

http://www.classical-homeschooling.org/celoop/1000.html

If your library has an online function, you can easily tab back and forth to see what you can pick up locally, and what you can request through inter-library loan.

It might save you some cash and some energy trying to think up titles.

[cdgni]

Have you tried Secret Seven or Famous Five and other Enid Blyton books? Pollyanna is good, my dd read that. Unfortunately my dd will only read Rainbow Magic books:confused: just atm so I'm out of ideas.

:iagree:DD loves Secret Seven and Famous Five. It's too bad that they can't easily be purchased in the US.

Cathy

[Kareni]

It's too bad that they can't easily be purchased in the US.



Rather than purchasing them, you might try to see if they are in a library near to you. Alternatively, you could try to obtain them through inter-library loan. I like to use the advanced search function on World Cat (http://www.worldcat.org/advancedsearch) to locate books of interest. You'll need to enter your zipcode as you go through the search function.

Regards,
Kareni

[In The Great White North]

There have been lots of great suggestions here. Hopefully, you'll find something she hasn't read.

I have to say though, that you may not be able to find books that challenge her and are appropriate for 6 year olds. I have never seen a book at a 12th grade reading level and with a 1st grade topic! As long as she continues to read the "4th to 8th" grade genre, her reading level will continue to improve anyway, especially older books that haven't been "updated."

If you really want to challenge her, you may have better luck with non-fiction, which may or may not interest her but is less likely to be inappropriate, and periodicals, which are of questionable appropriateness at her reading level.

[AnneC]

My son reads a lot of non fiction. He has a passionate interest in trains and quite a collection of train manuals and guides.I don't know what the reading level of these books is but they are written for adults. He also reads a lot about dinosaurs and dogs. Most of the dinosaur books that he has are written for adults to read with children.

My dd has read Anne of Green Gables this year as well, while there were some concepts in this that went over her head she thoroughly enjoyed the story.

[plimsoll]

Here is a series of books by Eleanor Cameron, in order:

The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet
Stowaways to the Mushroom Planet
Mr. Bass's Planetoid
Mystery for Mr. Bass
Time and Mr. Bass

My son also liked Madeleine L'Engle's Wrinkle in Time series:

A Wrinkle in Time
A Wind in the Door
A Swiftly Tilting Planet
Many Waters

[phathui5]

Thanks for posting this thread. I have the same sort of situation. My now eight year old read all the Harry Potter books when he was seven and just finished the Eragon series. Now he's asking to read the Twilight books and I have the issue where content at that reading level for popular books isn't appropriate for him.

[OhElizabeth]

When my dd was that age, I got the TruthQuest history guides and got her hooked on historical fiction.

[DinoMom]

Mine loves both Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys.
Sometimes she likes easier ones like Magic School Bus and Magic Tree House and Boxcar Children and series by Beverly Cleary. Illustrated Classics was once a hit with her too.

[ElizabethB]

These might be a nice change of pace:

http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Reading/syllabledividedb.html

[Marie in Oh]

Pipi Longstocking Trio
The Doll People Series
Betsy-Tacey
Sisters' Grimm