How do wean 6 year old DD off Rainbow magic fairies?

[redskyatnight]

6 year old DD is addicted to the Rainbow Magic fairy range. Thankfully she mostly reads them to herself, so I can just nod and smile when she brings up goblins and fairy dust.

However, I would like to broaden her reading horizons :) She still needs medium length (approx 100 pages) chapter books with medium size type - not ready to tackle longer books yet. I gave her "The Worst Witch" to read a couple of days ago, and she is enjoying that. She is a very girly girl so a lot of the books DS read at this stage have been dismissed out of hand.

Any suggestions? Thanks.

dd liked the magic faraway tree books by Enid Blyton. She also got some of 'the Fairy House' books from the library. Princess Mirror-Belle is another one which is written by Julia Donaldson

The Fairy House books

Magic faraway tree series
Wishing chair
Darcy bussell ballet series went down well.
Any of the Jill Murphy books.
Beverley cleary books-Ramona and Beezus. DD laughs along.

Enid Blyton is great. Dd2 loved the Little House books.
Magic Kitten or The books that are about animals called things like "Kitten in the Kitchen" are great books to move onto. A little longer and harder though.

I used to work in a bookshop. We had several phrases used for those Fairy books; none of them good.

My Naughty Little Sister. Some of Michael Morpurgo's younger stuff, Dick King-Smith.

hahahahaha - GOOD LUCK - mine would not leave them til about 8 years old - but then went on to what I called decent books - the Lemony Snicketts and Roald Dahl type stuff...

now my girls are 10 and 11 and reading a really broad range of both fiction and non-fiction and have been told they "have a vivid imagination for imaginary worlds and fantasy"! so I guess Rainbow magic wasn't too bad a start....

Partly I think you just have to wait it out! Like BytheWay's dds mine read what felt like nothing but Rainbow sodding Fairies for at least a year; she now reads anything and everything.

However, I do feel your pain . For a bit of a change though the same sort of thing, try My Secret Unicorn.

DD moved on to Animal Ark from rainbow fairies, again there are hundreds of them but at least they're less nakedly commercial (and they're rather sweet stories with good morals).

Just weaned my 7 year old.First we got masses of similar type books out from the library so she got used to other series eg The Pony Mad Princess,The Magic Pony,The Fairy House,Dressing Up Dreams,Felicity Wishes etc

Then just kept innocently dropping piles of others on her bed.

She adores Ivy and Bean,My Naughty Little Sister,Mrs Pepperpot,The Seriously Silly Story series,Bella Donna series,Anna Hibiscus,Daisy,Ottoline etc.

Then I bought the Jacqueline Wilson comic and she's now hooked on her.She's read all those aimed at younger readers eg Sleepover etc but has just read Best Friends and Glubslyme.

Have ordered a shedload from TBP- You Me and Thing,Pippi Longstocking
series,a JW set and the Polly books.

Job done methinks.

My DD just turned 6, has thankfully not yet discovered the HUGE range of Rainbow Fairies and hoping we can jump it! She has just discovered the Rescue Princesses. They are a new series and about feisty princesses who rescue animals. About 100 pages and medium type and lovely illustrations. She LOVES these. Also she loves the Railway Rabbits series.

I normally recycle books, but those Rainbow Fairies books are going in the bin when dd3 has finished with them! Agree with all the others who suggested anything by Enid Blyton - with dd1 and dd2 I started with the Malory Towers books, and to start with I read them as they would look at the first page and claim it was "too hard". Once we were a few chapters in, they'd be hooked and literally snatched the book out of my hands to read on by themselves...

Don't bin them Rot,they're great to buy in charity shops.Love them or loath them they get kids reading,ditto Beast Quest.

I'm hoping they're like Enid Blyton was for me - a great way to develop reading stamina and a gateway to loving books. My dd5 has just discovered these and I'm encouraging her through gritted teeth (and looking for them in charity shops!). Looking forward to the magic faraway tree though. Will look out for the rescue princesses so thanks for that rec.

In return I can recommend Bad Cat Good Cat by Lynn Reid Banks. Quite easy to read but a proper story by a proper writer and no fairy dust. Good for this age group I think.

Rock pool, what polly books did you mention? Author? Thanks

They're by Frances Thomas -Polly's Running Away Book and Polly's Absolutely Worst Birthday Ever.

i will look for them. i thought you meant clever polly and the stupid wolf books by catherine storr. i like the sound of the running away book!
thanks

In answer to your original question, I wish I knew!!
DD is 6 and reading at least 2 of these awful books a day...the speed at whivh she devours them proves she is ready to move on to something a bit more challenging but she won't give them up.....
She did enjoy the Magic Faraway tree and the other 2 books in that series ....but there are only 3 of them!!! Fairy magic has 333,333,3333,33333333 titles!
Have bought the Magic Wishing Chair series for holidays and have been encouraging her to read Secret Seven (then I'll move her on to Famous Five). Also hoping she'll like Malory Towers and St Claire's.
She has also read Mrs Pepperpot, Flat Stanley and Ottoline recenlty but ultimately loves the Flippin Fairy Magic......and I've sat through it on tv too!

Is your local library having a reading challenge over the summer holidays? This will give her an incentive to try alternative books, they should have something age appropriate for her.

DD thankfully got bored of the Rainbow Fairies after about 35 of them!
She is VERY enthusiastic about the Judy Moody books and the Kes Gray series of Daisy chapter books now.

DD aged 7 loves Roald Dahl, Secret Seven, Famous Five & Malory Towers.

Have brought her some Jacqueline Wilson Books for Xmas this year.

Dd loves Enid Blyton and Horrid Henry (although they are annoying). She is also reading Mr Stink by David Walliams, although it is aimed at older readers really, so there are lots of words she doesn't understand.

She still likes the Mr Men books, but I know lots of people hate them. I'm going to try her with the Famous Five books.

She likes Roald Dahl and in particular The Twits and the BFG.

I loved Milly Molly Mandy at about 6 years old. Also Enid Blyton, The naughtiest girl stories, a sort of younger Mallory Towers/St. Clares. And the Roald Dahl books which were out then, James and the giant peach and Willy Wonka. My 10yo is into Jacqueline Wilson and I have read a few of them too. There is also a series of animal stories, Animal Ark I think.

My dd2 will read, but isn't a bookworm, but my 13yo has never been into reading, I keep telling her there's nothing better than curling up with a good book.

forgot about Milly Molly Mandy - she loved this! Her first chapter book and I loved it too!
Why can't we have more like this? sigh