Can you recommend some books for dd. She likes things like Narnia and Harry Potter, but...

[ISeeThreadPeople]

... I'm struggling to get the balance right between reading ability and appropriate literature. She's a fairly precocious reader but I need to keep suitability and comprehension at a level which fits.

She read the first Harry Potter herself and I've read the second and third to her as part of her bedtime stories but have stopped as I think the subject matter becomes too much at that point onwards.

She really likes worlds she can lose herself in in particular. So something like Harry Potter or the Chronicles of Narnia are good and she particularly likes fantasy. We have reams of fantasy but really it's not going to be suitable until she's 10 or older I think. DH reads lots of fantasy fiction and sci fi and she's going to be very happy in a few years time but there's sort of a gap now where she's hankering after longer chapter books, dissatisfied with shorter books but not really old enough for DH's dragonlance collection or things like Philip Pullman.

She's read or had read to her all of the Dahl books, have done Alice In Wonderland, Wind in the Willows and similar classic texts.

What don't I know about? What are the David Walliams books like for example?

[Nightwish]

The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett is the first in a set of three books, very good. I think it is pretty much perfect for her!
Actually still my favourite set out of all the Pratchett books.

[vesela]

Beyond the Pawpaw Trees (Palmer Brown) - on the expensive side but would make a nice present. (I have it for DD for Christmas).

The Wizard of Oz.

The Phantom Tollbooth (you can check it out online here)

[vesela]

The Antlion!! And those little things that stumble about like lemmings. DD is a bit more resilient than I am, though, so I'll get it for her.

[StarsGhostTail]

All the traditional Enid B's secrecy seven, Mallory towers, St.Claire's. DD2 likes the far away tree. Black beauty is a bit dark towards the end for 5.

But most of all she needs a copy of "Mrs Frisby and the Rats of Nihm"

Which was my absolute favourite.

(honestly despite DD2 being a very good reader I'm having huge difficulty getting my head round a 5yo reading books this difficult. It seems a terrible waste, do much of HP, black beauty and other things written for 8-10 year olds must go over her head. Like when people suggest Phillip Pulman for under 12s. However, clever they are, they haven't the knowledge of the world to understand it as more than a good story)

[Indith]

Marking my place! Must start a separate amazon list for ds1!

[vesela]

Love Mrs Frisby and the Rats of Nimh, but I think it would be better appreciated a bit older. It depends to what extent they're likely to revisit books, though - lots of Swallows and Amazons certainly went over DD's head, but she loved it so much that she'll no doubt read it again when she's older (we're already reading some chapters again as it is). Ditto Wind in the Willows.

[vesela]

BTW - I found this great article on the subject of reading The Wind in the Willows to a five-year-old,. The author of the article read the unabridged version to her 5-year-old and her daughter loved it (so does DD). She makes a good case against abridged versions of this and other books.

(It's a pity that when you search amazon.co.uk?tag=mumsnet&ascsubtag=mnforum-21 for it, the first version that comes up is Inga Moore's, which looks full but is abridged. The full version - e.g. the Egmont Heritage one, which is cheaper as well!! - comes up much less readily when you search).

ooh look Egmont Heritage have a nice edition of The Box of Delights too - could be a good present.

[drjohnsonscat]

Frances Hodgson Burnett? Not fantasy exactly but you can lose yourself in A Little Princess. Also The Secret Garden.

Also the Worst Witch series.

[drjohnsonscat]

Also what about Magic Faraway Tree? DD is reading some Enid Blyton atm and I think its bad reputation is undeserved. Some of the sentence structures are much more complex than typical children's writing these days - DD who is an excellent reader - has to really work at parsing the sentences because they are just longer than is usual now. A

[tribpot]

I've thought about reading ds The Secret Garden but worried about having to explain why Mary is so outraged at the maid thinking she would be Indian, and Colin being shut away because he's (essentially) a wheelchair user.

[shriekingnora]

The beginning of The Secret Garden is really upsetting. I had to edit it massively as I read it to DD. She was fine with a quick explanation of the other stuff!

[Pleasenomorepeppa]

Noel Stretfield 'Ballet Shoes'.
The Famous five.
Beaver Towers.
Bedknobs & Broomsticks.
Mary Poppins.

[ArbitraryUsername]

You could try the far-flung adventure books for slightly younger readers by Stewart and Riddell (of the edge chronicles): Hugo pepper, Corby Flood and Fergus Crane.

[ISeeThreadPeople]

You are all BRILLIANT.

Some of these we have done. Most Blyton mentioned (originals too, unsanitised), some Nesbitt, I have a lot of Diana Wynn Jones in boxes (tiny house, millions of boxes, I need to dig them out), Bedknobs we've read, Borrowers and Artemis Fowl I know people have bought her for Christmas.

I'm reading Peter Pan to her atm. I, embarrassingly, have never read it myself. She has Treasure Island lined up next but I'm wobbling about it. I have a few vivid memories of it and think I need to skim it again before we start. I have Swallows and Amazons somewhere so will probably do that next instead.

[ISeeThreadPeople]

Redwall is Brian Jacques. I can see it on the shelf from here...

[bitsofmeworkjustfine]

we liked the tumtum and nutmeg books, lots of long words as well as a fantasy plotline

[elfycat]

Have you thought about the Eoin Colfer books with Artemis Fowl? I'm enjoying them (I am 41 ) and also enjoyed the HP and Narnia books.

[wigglybeezer]

The little white Horse is lovely, a real favourite of mine.

[vesela]

Thanks, charley - glad to hear they are.

[elfycat]

x-post on the artemis fowl thing - I had to go look at my bookshelf mid-reply as my brain is fried with non-sleeping teething DD2

[Takver]

I would have thought Artemis fowl might be a bit violent for a 5 y/o, surely?

[StarsGhostTail]

We need the BBC to bring back the proper old Jackanory, the one aimed at 6-8 yearolds of my childhood. Not the dumbed down Cbeebies version.

That's where I first met the rats of Nihm.

[VivaLeBeaver]

Pippi Longstocking books

Michael Moporgo?

[TwllBach]

Oh please read her the Redwall books. I didn't discover them until I was a couple of years older than your DD but I adored them. I wrote all the characters names on pieces of paper, cut them out and tried to organise them into family trees. I made up tunes for the songs and learnt them and I was convinced I was going to have a child called Martin

Your DD will adore them!