Books for 5 year olds?!

[Booville3]

That's about it really what stories are you reading to your 5 year old at the minute?! I feel like I'm reading my son lots of stories we've already had & I'm wondering now if he might be ready for a longer story maybe with chapters & I could maybe read him a chapter a night instead of a book a night type thing?? Any suggestions?

[DiscoDancer]

Place marking!

[Lordylordy]

My two have enjoyed Pippi Longstocking and Mr Gum recently.. My dd who is 5 is still keen on picture books - iggy Peck, Rosie Revere are current favourites. I have also just started reading Harry Potter to both - DS is 7. I thought dd wouldn't concentrate but she seems to enjoy it.

[MrsDumbledore]

We read a mixture of picture and chapter books to 5 yo dd - started with the most simple chapter books occasionally about a year ago. I think the biggest success so far was Charlie and the chocolate factory! Maybe a bit long for first Roald Dahl though. Popular early choices were enormous crocodile and fantastic mr Fox.
We like the Claude books by Alex T Smith. Still have pictures but longer and VERY silly!
Also Magic faraway tree books.

I found initially Dd was quite reluctant to choose books with no pictures at all, but lots of books have some pictures and you can get lovely colour illustrated versions of some of the Dahls.

[Booville3]

I hadn't thought of any dahl's yet bet I might be underestimating him as i can see there would be added excitement to story time if it was the whole finding out what happens next in our book rather than another book from start to finish & then another new book etc!

[clearsommespace]

YY to Dahl. We also read Jeremy James (short stories but same characters) when DCs were this age.

[gourd]

Our DD will be 5 in September and loves Roald Dahl. We've read The Twits, George's Marvellous Medicine, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Matilda. She also has Fantastic Mr Fox (read by Melvyn Bragg), The Giraffe the Pelly and Me (read by Hugh Laurie) and The Enormous Crocodile (read by Stephen Fry) on CD for car journeys and loves them all. Other loved books at the moment are the full versions of the little mermaid by H C Anderson - it is wordy, though beautifully poetic, full of Christian messages from a certain era about immortal souls etc but she adores it, possibly due to the beautiful pictures and the comforting ending. Sally Pomme Cayton's Persephone is wonderful (lovely illustrations, beautiful re-telling) and DD really enjoys that too. Clayton's Greek Myths book is quite good too (it doesn't include the Persephone and Demeter story so I got that separately).

DD likes non-fiction too so we have numerous Dinosaur and pre-historic animal books plus a few of the Children in History series by Fiona Macdonald (books on Tudors, Stuarts and Victorians) which are an easy read but are about the lives of children, so strike a chord with her. Usbourne early reader on Elizabeth 1 is very good too, again easy to read but just enough information to be useful and appeal to young children. The information kids retain from these books is amazing - DD saw a different picture in another book and said "Anne Boleyn" and "King Henry" -I had to read the print under the woman's picture to see who it was but DD was right, even though ti was a different picture of her to the one in her other book! Usbourne see inside books are also really good, DD has The Human Body and How Things Work. Would also suggest early reader or beginner books on Ancient Egypt will grab the imagination. DD is fascinated by the idea of the mummification of anyone but especially of cats.

[ch1134]

Try 'My funny family' series by Chris Higgins.

[gourd]

DD also likes the "Rainbow Magic" series - they are utter tosh really, but she loves them all. They are gentle stories about fairies who, with the help of two children, always manage to defeat Jack Frost and his naughty goblins. Complete drivel, but she seems to really enjoy them. They says age 5+ on the back.

[IDontWantToBuildASnowman]

Faraway tree was a huge success at 5, and yes to Roald Dahl, my 5yo loves them.

[PeterParkerSays]

Enid Blyton 's Magic Faraway Tree books. DS is loving them.

[BlueChampagne]

DS2 is 5.6 and has enjoyed the following chapter over the last few months:

Astrosaurs
Space Penguins
Beastly Boys books
Dinosaur Cove
Skylanders books
Beast Quest
Dinosaur's Diary

Plus various factual books.