Easy reading for a reluctant 7 year old?

[TokyoSushi]

Morning! DD is just 7 and in year 2, to be honest she's not a great reader and is becoming 'it's too hard/don't like it/won't do it.'

Obviously we read together but she would like to do some independent reading as well. Can anybody recommend any books that would appear to her to be a bit more grown-up, but that she might find quite easy to read?

I'm afraid that despite my best efforts, she's a very stereotypical girl so probably would prefer something about fairies and the like than dinosaurs or similar.

Any ideas?

What level is she at? Topsy and Tim? I like the Walker books - eg What Lola Wants Lola Gets. Frog and Toad? The Worst Witch?

Rainbow Fairies? or is that insufficiently grown-up? I only have sons... They loved Beast Quest around that age (it does have a girl as Secondary Hero).

I had a very reluctant reader in Yr 2 who is now an avid reader (yr 10) so don't give up. I recommend yellow banana books, there are loads of them to choose from so I am sure you will find something that appeals to her

If you can cope with the fall-out of the implicit classism and racism and general unkindnessism, what about Malory Towers? I loved them when I was little.

how to train your dragon.

the books are seriously funny and so very different from the films.

beast quest

the worst witch

reading with phonics fairy tales

Oh these are brilliant already, yes the Malory Towers, Rainbow Fairies, Worst Witch type are probably the sort of thing she'd like!

She's on book band 9/Gold.

I am a big reader and I feel like she's missing out!

Around that age my dd enjoyed the Sophie series of books by Dick King-Smith. Ottoline stories are lovely and have interesting illustrations, you may need to read them with her though. Meg and Bog? Funnybones by Allan Ahlberg?

There are hundreds of the Rainbow Fairies collection of books including early reader books.

There are some Famous Five colour short stories with a manageable amount of text and a bit of intrigue that might keep her reading.

You could also buy magazines or comics that she could pick to see what interests her?

How to train your dragon is aimed for accomplished free readers / year 6 level, great to share though.

What is she finding difficult? Does she track words OK, or lose her place alot which makes it difficult to follow the story? DD enjoyed reading books along with a CD audiobooks version.

13 story tree house books have lots of pictures to break up the text and are fairly zany and bizarre that I think most children would like them and the text is fairly easy.

Diary of a wimpy kid is great and very funny but perhaps for year 4 up.

When libraries open up its worth getting signed up for the Libby app for both of you as it has all of the libraries ebooks and audiobooks so she can try them out and see what sort of stories she likes.

DD is 10 now so it's hard to remember what she liked.
Would Roald Dahl interest her, Dd loved Matilda but you also have the shorter o es Magic Finger, George's Marvelous Medicine, Nelly, Pelly and Me.

Also the witch war books, starfell.
Cressida Cowell Magic series are great - perhaps one to share for now though.

And my dd still re-reads Mrs Pepperpot stories

I think she was a bit older about Yr4 when she loved Mallory Towers/ Harry Potter etc. Sometimes I think the amount of text in books can be off-putting even if they are capable of reading it.

There are loads of books aimed at this age with lovely colourful illustrations. Favourites here...

• Hubble Bubble - little girl whose Granny is a witch, and they get into all sort of mischief together
• Hotel Flamingo- girl inherits a hotel, and all the guests and staff are animals
• Zoe's Rescue Zoo- girl lives at a zoo and can talk to animals
• magic Ballerina- series of girls have magic Ballet shoes transporting them into ballets
• Fabio the Great Flamingo Detective
• Dotty Detective- 8yo got this from library and read it herself (she's Yr4) but loved it

They find a lot of older stuff a bit dry- I'm reading Malory Towers with my 8yo, but it's very wordy.

Horrid Henry
Flat Stanley

Stitchhead series of 4 books by Guy Bass.
David Walliams books

DD was put off by books where the text was too dense. Harder books like the Guy Bass ones which still had pictures helped get her past a plateau.

The Magic Faraway Tree was a bit hit with mine at that age. Start with The Enchanted Wood

Dog man or captain underpants were a great hit in this house. They are comic style so it doesn't feel too onerous

Well, this is fabulous, thank you so much!

I think it's reading longer words, and absolutely, the layout, being presented with a lot of text doesn't help!

So many brilliant suggestions, I'm going to check them all out!

If she's struggling with the amount of content on a page keep an eye out for books aimed at those with dyslexia. They'll be the normal stories but the formatting: less words per page, more space around each word and normally a larger font size will help her. Also the more demand there is for them the more publishers will produce.

"Daisy and the trouble with... " books are a fun read at this stage. The main character is between 5 and 7 and gets into various scrapes. They're chapter books with Nick Sharratt illustrations. My DD loved them and they were good to read aloud.

Two more...
Amelia Fang
Isadora Moon

My reluctant reader in Yr 1 (favourite books are Harry Potter, How to Train your Dragon, Magic Faraway Tree, Roald Dahl etc) will engage with reading Project X Aliens and Project X Code books himself. The Code books in particular are pitched at children who are a year or two older than their reading age, so the content is a bit more interesting to keep them motivated. Both series are a continuing story arc which also keeps them interested. Aliens might be a bit "boyish" for your DD but there are two girl characters in the Project X Code series so possibly worth a go.

the jolly rodgers (pirate next door)

My DD loves the Daisy and the trouble with... series by Kes Gray. They're the only books she will read cover to cover! Not too many words to a page and lots of pictures. They sound like the type of thing you're looking for, definitely worth a look.

My daughter (nearly 8) was a reluctant reader to start. I found she really struggled without pictures.
She really enjoyed the early readers type books especially the my little pony series. Another series was the early readers rainbow magic. They made my eyes bleed with the shiny covers 😂 but I thought the most important part was that she was reading.
Now she is really good at independent reading and enjoying books such as the second Harry Potter book and Taylor Turbochaser by David Badiel. It's only now she has started on Malory towers and The Faraway Tree.
She used to be put off by the sheer amount of words on the page.