Wonderful wonderful books for 5 year olds

[redtreesummer]

I am currently present buying for my nearly 5 year old and would love to hear you fantastic, very favourite children's picture book recommendations, we are stuck in a bit of a Julia Donaldson rut (having said that The Whale and the Snail and (Sob) The Paper Dolls are much loved here.

I was recommended an absolutely wonderful book called The Beasties on another thread and realised there is a whole world of wonderful books out there. Please tell me your favourites

The Katie Morag picture books by Mairi Hedderwick. Lovely stories, a little bit moralistic in parts, but fab rounded characters and great, detailed illustrations.

The Marvellous Fluffy Squishy Itty Bitty

Izzy Gizmo (look out for her boots and what they do at the end!)

The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig

There's a lovely compendium of Bagpuss stories - one for each episode.

Some of the 'older' Dr Seuss - The Lorax, Did I Ever tell You How Lucky You Are?, Haopy Birthday to You are all glorious

I love the Teddybears books by Susanne Gretz, even though they tell quite simple stories - there's a lot of interesting undercurrent about the bears' personalities and relationships

The Philharmonic Gets Dressed

Christmas in Exeter Street is a fun seasonal one

The Mrs Armitage books - short stories but a cool role model.

Hairy McLary books are fun, and the Shirley Hughes books are all lovely.

The Jolly Postman is a favourite here

If you haven't got the Mog books, that would be my recommendation.

Also, Hairy McLairy, Funnybones, Cops and Robbers. All the classics.

Kids in my family also liked The Highway Rat

I want my hat back

Oh yes, Cops and Robbers, Burglar Bill, Bye Bye Baby.

You're Called What by Kes Grey (and his Oi Dog, Oi Cat ones)
Dr Seuss
If you have a dinosaur lover then Gigantosaurus by Jonny Duddle

Another one I love (sorry, this is my subject) is They All Saw a Cat. Really great talking point, about perspective, different ways of seeing the same thing.

You simple HAVE to get Christmas on Exeter Street as a pp said. My nearly 8 yo still adores this and grabbed it first from the box when it came down out of the attic this weekend. Also well loved here is the Empty Stocking by Richard Curtis which was second out of the box.

As for non Christmassy books the Princess in black series is great for early chapter books. DD also loved Night Pirates, the Pirates next door and anything my Nadia Shireen (Bumblebear and The Cow who fell to earth are particulalry good) which are brilliant picture books. Nadia has also just brought out a first chapter book as well.

Courtney

The Great Dog Bottom Swap was one of our favourites when DS was young.

For longer stories, this is a good age for The Enormous Crocodile and The Mousehole Cat.

We have a picture-book subscription that sent some lovely gift books this year. We liked What will you dream of tonight? and I'm Sticking with You. What will you dream of makes a lovely present and I've bought a few copies since.

These are lovely, and a picture book subscription is on my list as well. Thanks everyone!

The “shifty mcgrifty and slippery Sam” books. They are a joy to read and the illustrations are fab.. and you have to find the spider on each page!

Emma Chichester Clark “love is my favourite thing” books.. or any of hers featuring Plummie!

My daughter loved these -

bookroo.com/books/series/no-david

My daughter also loved Tyrone the Horrible by Hans Wilhelm.

bookroo.com/books/series/no-david

Wrong link ^

childrensbooksforever.com/Childrenpics/TYRONE%20THE%20HORRIBLE.pdf

Aliens love underpants
Where’s my mum?
Room on the broom
Frog on a log?

We read the "You Choose" book every night for years around that age - you don't read it so much as pick something from each page. Pittipat's Saucer of Moon is a delight to read, with lovely rhythms and half rhymes. Anything by Emily Gravett is clever, funny and wonderful. Herve Tullet's "Press Here" is very different and interactive. Shaun Tan's Rules of Summer is strange and beautiful. Never Use a Knife or Fork odds lots of fun of you do actions. Calm Down, Boris is hilarious for kids that age, but guaranteed never to have calmed a single kid ever.

Wild Child by Dara McAnulty,
this might be slightly old for your child as it has a suggested reading age of seven, but it's full of beautiful illustrations, and packed with ideas of things to look out for in the garden, or when walking in the woods.
So it would make a lovely present to read with a child and then share their excitement of discovery of the natural world. If you loved "the nature table" when you were at school, this is the book for you and your child!

Dav Pilkey has a lovely book about a dragon making a friend. It’s absolutely lovely. I’d never have picked it but it’s really wonderful.

We love the Rachel bright and Jim Field books, the lion inside, the way home for wolf, the squirrels who squabbled, the whale who wanted more. Lovely rhyming and rhythm pattern to them and all have a nice message. We are particularly enjoying the whale who wanted more at this time of year as it's about not always needing more and more and being happy with the things we have, pertinent as the letters to father Christmas get longer and longer!
We have also enjoyed the my naughty little sister stories, I read them as a child and my 2 boys really enjoy them too, they are very old fashioned and homely, although I'm not sure about her constantly being called naughty!
A couple of longer books we've enjoyed, somewhere between picture books and chapter books, are the Claude series (we've only read one so far) and the pirates next door series have both been hits. We have more from each series on my book obsessed 4 year old's Christmas lists.

The Hat trilogy (we found a hat, this is not my hat, I want my hat back)
The Oi books (oi dog, frog etc)

Anything by Julian Hilton. The Button and the Bean is the latest and is just brilliant.