Books for 5-year-old boy

[Roaming]

What books can you recommend for a five-year-old boy? He's curious and loves exciting adventure (he and his friends play a lot of Ninjago and Star Wars right now). He has become less satisfied with our picture books, so is it time to try chapter books? Can anyone recommend some? I'd love to find some new books to read aloud to him.
Thanks for any suggestions!

[cinnamonwoman]

My son loves ninjago and Star Wars too.
We've been reading him Greek mythology short stories, very high brow!! A lot of the stories need to be edited though as they are quite gory at times.

My husband has just finished reading him Danny champion of the world which he liked, he's read a few Roald Dahls with him now.
It's quite a difficult age book wise. Too grown up for short picture books, attention span too short for chapter books....

he likes to 'read' his own comics in the ninjago magazines and batman comics. (He's not actually reading them himself yet, just makes up stories around the pictures!)

I'll watch this thread for Christmas book ideas!!

[Ricekrispie22]

Anything by Jeremy Strong or Babette Cole.
The Wishing Chair and The Magic Faraway Tree series.
There are some Roald Dahl suitable for this age: Esio Trot; The Giraffe, The Pelly and Me; The Enormous Crocodile and The Magic Finger.
Paddington Bear
The Diary of a Killer Cat by Anne Fine
Dirty Bertie series by Alan MacDonald
Mrs Pepperpot series
No. 1 Boys Detective series
Geronimo Stilton series
Ted Rules the World by Frank Cottrell Boyce
Snug by Michael Morpurgo
The Snake who Came to Stay by Julia Donaldson
Skulduggery by Tony Robinson
A Twist of Tales - Julia Donaldson
Billy Button, Telegram Boy by Sally Nicholls
My Friend's a Gris-Kwok by Malorie Blackman
Mr Birdsnest and the House Next Door by Julia Donaldson
The Hodgeheg, The Guard dog and The Fox Busters and others by Dick King-Smith

[Roaming]

Thanks for the ideas! I remember some of these from childhood I'm definitely finding this a challenging time because I don't feel quite ready to explain the darker ideas in some older books (i.e. when characters die), especially as his 3.5yo brother is also listening! Having said that I think he'd love myths and some of the others. Great to have some suggestions to look up :)

[Jessicabrassica]

Astrosaurs?? Intergalactic dinosaurs - what's not to like!

[ojell]

‘Chapter’ books that still have quite a few pictures are good at this stage. We read ‘Fortunately The Milk’, the ‘Clarice Bean’ series (helped that he was already familiar with the characters from the picture book), and Chris Riddell’s ‘Ottoline’ books.

From these my boy progressed quite quickly to having the attention span for longer and more grown-up chapter books - when we start a new one we read one chapter and decide if he wants to carry on - if not, we put it aside for a few months and read something else.

The ‘Little Gems’ editions that we find in our local library are good, too - around 100 page short stories, lots of pictures, so bridge that gap between picture books and chapter books really well. They’re also written in an easy read font, and text is on a tinted background, so really good when kids are beginning to read independently, as well as being dyslexic-friendly.

[Roaming]

Thanks for these suggestions. We live in Germany so I get a little out of touch with what's around in English. This has been helpful.

[schmalex]

We also like the Greek and Norse myths - Usborne do a nice, highly illustrated version of both.
My 5yo is enjoying the illustrated BFG by Roald Dahl. Also, the Enormous Crocodile went down well!
Neil Gaiman’s Odd and the Frost Giants and Fortunately the Milk were both good too.
Philip Reeve and Sarah McIntyre have a few books that work well for this age - Oliver and the Seawigs, Cakes in Space, etc.

[BlueChampagne]

Astrosaurs, Beast Quest, Dinosaur Cove - all a bit samey but well-loved!
For something a little different, try adventuresofalgy.com/

[Taytotots]

Have you tried the Claude the dog books by Alex T. Smith? Short chapters and illustrated. Very silly (Sir Bobblysock, who is indeed a sock, features as a main character!).