Chapter Books for 5 year old

[Youreatragedystartingtohappen]

Hi all,

My DS turns 5 soon and I'd like to recommend some books for people to get him. I'm keen to move towards chapter longer books but only really know of Roald Dahl which we already have. Are there any particular books that your children have enjoyed reading? Seeing books by David Walliams and Tom Fletcher recommended but really like word of mouth suggestions too.

Thanks for your time, all genres welcome!

Dog man by dav pilkley.....comic books but quite a good story line. Alfie and annie rose stories by Shirley Hughes......old fashioned feel good family stories x

faraway tree is an amazing classic

My son loved Pamela Butchart Wrigglesbottom Primary School books

Some absolutely fantastic suggestions here definitely pick up some.
Probably not something you were going to do but I would definitely not replace picture books completely at this age though. I have used picture books all the way up to 12 year olds. Good quality picture books can be much more valuable for comprehension and oral language skills than chapter books as it is a complete story in one sitting.

As I said probably not a situation for you where its one or the other but picture books are my passion!!

The Faraway Tree was a hit with my 5 year old too. We found comic books a good transition to full on chapter books as he could use the pictures to help with his comprehension and reading. My son's favourites are Dog Man and the Bad Guys. Dog Man is the first book he ever read by himself.

faraway tree is an amazing classic

With the original illustrations, if you can get a copy with them. (Try abebooks, if not currently in print.) They really bring the characters to life.

And not to forget The Wishing Chair.

Bear Grylls does a good series of books for younger children.

Oh god, David Walliams' books are truly awful.

My son and I enjoyed:

The Claude books by Alex T Smith
Moomins
All the Eva Ibbotson books for younger children, e.g The Beast of Clawston Castle
Paddington
Anything and everything by Astrid Lindgren: The Pippi Long stocking books, Karlsson on the Roof, The Noisy Village
Clarice Bean by Lauren Childs

Ds is 4 but has really enjoyed the Helen Peters books. Granted DH and I have read them to him previously, but he is starting to read and has been slowly working through the first with us.

Personally I'd avoid David Walliams, I did a book club for Yr 5 and 6 last year and The Boy in a Dress was one we read, some of the language was wholey inappropriate. I'm sure I read somewhere he said that he puts awful stuff in his books to sneak bad stuff through. A decent author needn't do that!

My DD enjoys Mr Gum books and many of the Enid Blyton stories.

I would avoid David Walliams books at all costs.....no way am I lining the pockets of that creep.

Can I ask why you want to move your son to loner chapter books at this very early stage in his reading life? There are so many fabulous children’s picture books. As a teacher of children his age I wouldn’t recommend moving to chapter books at this stage except in very unusual circumstances with a child that is clearly advanced well beyond the expectations for his age. How long can he concentrate for? How much does he take in, understand and retain?
I’d be intrigued to know why you feel the wonderful books available for his age range aren’t enough?

My DS (6) loved 'The Boy who grew dragons' and the other books in this series.

Junie B. Jones. So cute, and lots of them, really funny and unexpected, but completely domestic.

@Smartiepants79 I don't think the OP has said at any point that these are for her child to read independently, and I think it's pretty standard to be thinking about reading chapter books to this age of child? I was an infant teacher for many years and I would read chapter books to my class - I'd pause and check understanding regularly, but my classes always really enjoyed them. They are a very different listening experience to picture books, and I think both have a place. I've been reading chapter books to my son since he was 5, and despite having additional needs (he's not reading or writing yet himself) he's always enjoyed them and it has developed a really strong love of literature as well as giving him an amazing vocabulary. Reading him a chapter of a longer story at bedtime is a really special time for us, and very different to sharing a picture book or three.

So many good recommendations on this thread! We use borrowbox a lot for audio books, so there are a few new ones for me to look out for too :)

My daughter is coming up 5 and is obsessed with the Rainbow fairy books - they’re dull as dishwater to an adult and have the same storyline in every one but shes loving them. She has also enjoyed the Claude series which are far better in my view!

following for more ideas though!

The [item] gets stolen by Jack frost [name] the [type of] fairy eventually finds [item]

I would be the complete opposite to you @Custardslice3 . I never read a chapter book while I was an infant teacher.i found children of this age needed the visual stimuli of the images and the vast majority have not developed the language skills and working memory to process the pacing of the story of a chapter book. Ironically I think the absolute best book you can "read" with your child is a wordless picture book. The scope for language and conversation is amazing.
I now teach 5th class and still use picture books for lessons.

@Custardslice3 i didn’t assume for a minute that she was expecting him to read them to himself but my opinion still stands.
I teach eyfs, reading chapter books to this age range is heavily discouraged. And, with the huge flourishing of children’s books I just don’t feel the need to propel these very young children into books that they will appreciate better in 2 years time.
There are just so many books out there for them now. They have years to read all these things. Why race ahead? Let them enjoy what’s written for their age range first. Let them be 4.

@modgepodge The 'Slinky Malinky' books are also excellent and similar in style to the Claude books. The first few that were written are standard picture books (we still enjoy them age 9) but then there are some that are more of a beginner chapter book with a lot of pictures like the Claude ones.

I'm reading this thread and slightly panicking as my almost 5 year old (who I thought was bright) is reading simple phonics books at school and I am reading her things like Spinderalla and a dress with pockets.
My 6.5 year old is reading very thin books - eg Marv and the robot and is a bit way off from reading Roald Dahl independently.
Should I be reading more complicated books to him or to both of them.
I thought I was supposed to be reading stuff similar to what they do at school.
I did read the twits to both of them but my youngest was more interested in the illustrations.

So yes- do I need to be doing more to stretch them?

@Smartiepants79 @Nctodayjan24 I completely agree that there are amazing picture books and that their audience stretches to much older children - I still share picture books with my 9yo. But I don't think it has to be one or the other, I think children can gain different things from different types of books.

For the record I've not taught EYFS and can't imagine if I did that I would read them a chapter book - I expect many of the children would struggle to sit and focus and have sufficient comprehension without pictures to support, or for the length of time of a longer chapter. But by Y1/2 my experience was that it was a really positive experience for the children to hear some appropriate chapter books, alongside many picture books of course! And I appreciate also it will depend on the class and on their prior experiences with books and language.

This sounds perfect to me! Keep doing what you’re doing!

Hannah sparkes- she writes dragon books for younger kids and they’re geared towards boys and girls. My sons adored them! Also there’s Famous five short story books

@notanaturalmum if you're sharing books with them and you and they are enjoying the experience then I suspect you're all good! There's no right or wrong in what books parents should read to their children. All families are different.

(Caveat, I appreciate there are some books we might all consider are wrong to read to children! But I hope you get what I mean 😆)

My five year old loves How to Train Your Dragon at the moment. I think some of it is a bit too grown up tbh but he's been watching a spin off TV show on Netflix and is really into it. We've also read a few Roald Dahl, Fantastic Mr Fox is his favourite so far.