Recommendations for gentle age 7 books like Five Find-Outers, mysteries etc

[PetitesVoix]

My 7yo has really enjoyed the Secret Seven and Five Find Outer books by Enid Blyton - even though they are a bit old-fashioned. Can anyone recommend similar mystery books? I think Famous Five are a bit older/harder to understand at the moment.

Preferably ones that aren't full of kids calling people names or ker-aaaazy /streetwise stuff - nice and gentle is more his style! He's also read and loved the 13 Storey Treehouse series (they are crazy but not mean).

A loooong time ago my DS loved Osborne Puzzle Adventures. They might be out of print, but are available second hand on The dreaded Azn.

Olga da Polga

Not exactly mystery stories, and possibly too old fashioned and un PC, but how about the 'William' stories by Richmal Crompton - she also wrote a few books about a slightly younger character called 'Jimmy'
Or the 'Jennings' stories by Anthony Buckeridge, or the 'Adventure' series by Willard Price. Or the pony themed stories by the Pullien Thompson sisters
Same comments apply about being un PC, but I loved them all as a child and still enjoy reading them now.

Are you sure he's too young for Famous Five? I loved them at his age!

those puzzle adventures are great!

I loved all the Dick King-Smith books at that age (he wrote The Sheep Pig which Babe the film is based on, and loads and loads of other fabulous funny animal stories). I think they're very gentle and have unforgettable characters (many of them pigs, cats etc).

Some of the younger Diana Wynne Jones ones? (fantasy/time travel and things, really fun)

I think Anne Fine is one of the best kids' writers ever - her website handily divides things by age of the reader as well: www.annefine.co.uk/index.php

He's probably ready to try some of those for middle readers listed on there?

Thanks very much! Anne Fine looks good as does DWJ.

I do have a stash of Famous 5s so can try them out on him.
We read The Queen's Nose together which I loved as a child but I was surprised at how much was possibly over his head, sort of older language I don't think he quite gets yet. (His reading is good but knowledge of the world quite limited!). I don't think it's that big a deal though if he can re-read them when older and get more out of them.

He always gets any Puzzle adventure type book he can find out of the library so I'll check out if there are any more!

I think he'd like the early Harry Potters too but he has seen a bit of one of the later films and declared he didn't like HP as it's too scary....

The nice thing about Secret Seven/5 Find Outers etc is it's mainly about eating ice-creams in tea parlours, playing with dogs and winding up the local copper, with a very minor but simple mystery in there - he likes seeing how the clues add up to the outcome and laughing at how they rib each other!

What about something like Five Children and It and the other E Nesbit books in that series? They have a group of siblings in them who do lots of eating and squabbling and then go on magical adventures. I particularly liked the realistic sibling arguments!

If the Queen's Nose was a bit tricky do try another, his website also lists things for younger readers (over multiple pages) so you could see if any look good and if the library can order them in: www.dickkingsmith.com/book-category/books-for-young-readers/

Try the Judy Blume Superfudge books - I think the first one is ‘Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing’. Also ‘The Turbulent Term of Tyke Tiler’ by Gene Kemp. The Narnia books work well too - try ‘The Magician’s Nephew’ before ‘The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe’. My kids also liked ‘Coot Club’ and ‘Swallows and Amazons’ by Arthur Ransome.

The Clifftoppers series by Fleur Hitchcock are pretty Famous-five-esque without the ginger beer and sexism! They're good adventure stories.

The Adventurers series by Jemma Hatt also fun but maybe a little bit more advanced as a read.

There are tons of Enid Blyton adventure stories.

There's a set of kids where every adventure starts with an R

The Rilloby Fair mystery, the rocking down mystery etc

The of adventure series (island/ castle/ mountain/ ship etc about 8 books.)
(Can't remember how these compare to famous five)

I love the The secret Island and the secret of spiggy holes mysteries.

Also Blyton but not mysteries, the six cousins at misletoe farm and the six cousins again.

No idea how well any of these have aged but as a child I loved Hurrah for the circus - I think there were a few of those.

No son and daughter both loved Olga. They loved Dirty Bertie at that age, Tom gates, toto (the one by Dec?) the cat one, I introduced them to classics like Gobbilino, dick king smith, Ro Dahl, most of Enid blyton, Harry Potter etc

Meant my son and daughter not no!