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Original poster

Recommendations for chapter books to read with seven year old

29 replies

BlueCookieMonster · 08/03/2018 22:09

It's obviously been a while since I was seven.

I want some books that I can read with him, beyond the obvious Harry Potter and Roald Dahl.

Any hidden gems out there?

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Medianoche · 12/03/2018 12:48

Mine’s currently loving Pugs of the Frozen North and the other Reeve/McIntyre books. She’s struggling to decide whether they are as good as Roald Dahl or slightly better than Roald Dahl.

BlueChampagne · 12/03/2018 12:37

The Phantom Tollbooth

Lisette40 · 10/03/2018 13:37

The Roman Mysteries by Caroline Lawrence. 17 books in the series. Bit like famous five go to ancient Rome.

SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius · 10/03/2018 13:25

There's a series of books written by Helen Cresswell - about a family called the Bagthorpes - they are hilarious. In one of them, some of the family go mad on entering competitions and take all the labels off all the tins in the pantry (back in the day, when the entry form was on the label, and you needed several more as proof of purchase), so meal times become a bit of a lottery, because you don't know if the can will have baked beans or mandarin segments or cat food in!

Enidblyton1 · 10/03/2018 09:42

I've just read the first Dave Pigeon book (Swapna Haddow) with my 7 year old and we both thought it was brilliant - I think there are 3 or 4 in the series.

That1950sMum · 10/03/2018 09:39

Charlotte's Web
Roald Dahl - all of them!
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
The Parent Agency by David Badiel
Hamish Books by Danny Wallace

RatOnnaStick · 10/03/2018 09:37

Grin I assumed that. I suppose I'm going by my quite scaredycat ds. He would certainly sleep badly after some of the more traumatic parts of watership down.

fedup2017 · 10/03/2018 09:32

If not easily scared podkin one ear is a good one. My 8 year old loves it but it's a bit scary in places

Suzietwo · 10/03/2018 09:29

To be clear I am reading it to him he isn’t reading it alone!

BeBesideTheSea · 10/03/2018 09:28

Oh, and the Jack Stalwart secret agent books - good for 7-8 year olds before moving on the Alex Rider at 9.

BeBesideTheSea · 10/03/2018 09:27

The Bolds books by Julian Clary. No, honestly. Really good.

RatOnnaStick · 10/03/2018 09:24

Watership Down? Mine wouldnt cope with that. i struggled in school aged 11

RatOnnaStick · 10/03/2018 09:22

I've added lots of these to our bedtime reading list. I can add

Toto the Ninja Cat and the great snake escape by Dermot O'Leary.

Bear Grylls adventure series.

Both have been successes at bedtime.

Suzietwo · 10/03/2018 09:16

White fang went down well
Now reading watership down

BWatchWatcher · 10/03/2018 09:16

5 children and it :)

UrbaneSprawl · 10/03/2018 09:11

@CaptainCalisto I agree - Green Knowe is a great series. My DS wasn’t quite ready for them, but I might try again this year.

The house in the books is real, and is still owned by the Boston family. You can go and visit - it’s just like in the books!

CaptainCallisto · 10/03/2018 08:46

The Green Knowe series by Linda M Boston is great. There are six books about a very old house which is inhabited by spirits of people who used to live there. The boy who lives there now makes friends with them etc - I loved them at this age!

Backingvocals · 10/03/2018 08:33

Charlotte’s Web
Wind in the Willows (I skip the dreamy chapter where ratty goes a bit spiritual)
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

UrbaneSprawl · 10/03/2018 08:29

I’d read him Swallows & Amazons (he’s the same age as the youngest Swallow at the start of the series). But then, I read them to my boy because my father read them to me, and his mother read them to him.

Haroun and the Sea of Stories is excellent too - it’s the first of Salman Rushdie’s two books for children, and is full of allusions to other stories like The Wizard is Oz and the Arabian Nights. It can be enjoyed on a number of levels, as a modern fairy story, and as a powerful allegory about freedom and censorship.

SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius · 09/03/2018 23:39

The Land of Green Ginger, by Noel Langley. It is a sequel to the Aladdin story, and has a hero, a princess, two villains called Rub Dub Ben Thud and Tin Tack Ping Foo, a magician who has accidentally turned himself into a button nosed tortoise and can’t turn himself back, a flying back garden, and a donkey who sits on a pin.

Witchend · 09/03/2018 23:37

Private I forgot Wind in the Willows, another one he enjoyed. We cried "Poop poop" when out driving. His dsis did not find this funny!

PrivateParkin · 09/03/2018 14:20

We're reading Wind in the Willows, which seems to be going down well.
Witchend Cue for Treason was one of my favourite books as a kid (still is)!

Witchend · 09/03/2018 14:11

By 7yo they can concentrate on quite difficult books. I have a lot of slightly old-fashioned stories and I started reading them to ds when he was about 5/6 with explanations. He was very interested in WWII especially at that age.

His all time favourite:
Cue for Treason by Geoffrey Trease
His favourite series:
Lone Pine series (First one is Mystery at Witchend) by Malcolm Saville.

Other ones he's loved:
Adventure series by Enid Blyton
Biggles (probably a bit older than 7yo)
Various Monica Edwards stories
Little House (especially Farmer Boy)
The Black Riders and House of the Paladin (Violet Needham)
Alex Rider (older than 7yo, probably 9ish)
Cherub/Henderson Boys (definitely older than 7yo, check before you start)
Narnia series (not the Last Battle at 7yo)

BlueChampagne · 09/03/2018 12:52

101 Dalmatians

BlueChampagne · 09/03/2018 12:49

Olga da Polga
Adventures of Algy adventuresofalgy.com/books
Beasts of Olympus

Definitely How to Train your Dragon. A friend's son sagely said that you should just consider the books and the films to be two different stories, some of whose characters have the same (unusual) names. That way both can be enjoyed without carping.

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