Now that my eight and a half year old is really reading independently (disappearing into her room to read, sometimes for hours, I used to do the same) I am looking at books for her to enjoy that she can read alone.
I must admit that I struggle a bit with finding stuff she wants to read, that I feel I am happy with her reading. Don’t get me wrong, there are some excellent books for children out there, she is currently working her way through the Horrid Henry series at the moment, and she loves Roald Dahl, and I’ve just purchased her the first How to Train your Dragon set of books but some stuff for kids is just not what I am ready to let her read yet. Maybe I’m being conservative, but I picked up a book in the library recently aimed at 8-10 year old girls, read a brief few pages and decided that my daughter did not need to be reading about snogging, just yet…I’m not ready for that and she certainly isn’t ?
So we are starting with some old fashioned books. Books I read at her age, that I enjoyed and think she will to.
My current list and some of which are actually books I kept from childhood, including the Little House on the Prairie series, Anne of Green Gables series and What Katy Did. I’ve also ordered her the Railway Children and her grandparents bought her some of the Naughtiest Girl books by Enid Blyton.
Maybe they are older, but they are classics, full of fun, adventure, encouraging imagination and learning and I loved them, and still do, and I’m hoping she will enjoy them as much as I did.
I’d love to hear what other parents are looking at for their children the same age as mine, to read. All comments and suggestions welcome!
my 9 year old loves the Enid Blyton books, she also loves David Walliams and Jacqueline Wilson right now. Like you say it is hard to know what to let them read especially without reading the books first!! thanks for sharing with #readwithme
You must read her ‘The Children Of Green Knowe’ series, by Lucy M Boston. They can be hard to find sometimes but try amazon or Abebooks. They are beautiful, old fashioned, well written stories about a lonely boy, his Great grandmother, a huge old house where gentle magic happens and the ghost children that live there. I loved them as a child and still read them now, just finished the whole series again 🙂
Look forward to seeing other recommendations x
Sometimes the ‘old fashioned’ books are the best! They aren’t called classics for nothing! I’m only 2 but can’t wait until I can immerse myself in a good book x #PoCoLo
Has your daughter read any of Paula Harrison’s Rescue Princess books about ecologically minded princesses? If she is a bit old for the Rescue Princesses Paula has also written fantasy books for an older age range.
We’ve read several classics this year, my daughter loved Enid Blyton’s Faraway Tree stories and enjoyed Charlotte’s Web.
Thank you. I’ll check those out. They sound really interesting. I’ve ordered Charlotte’s Web too!