Books for a 5 year old's birthday

[WafflyVersatile]

I suppose I'm looking for something between your standard Julia Donaldson level picture book and the Mr Gum level book?

Or I suppose a Mr Gum book or level book can be grown into?

What's a Mr Gum book or a level book?

We have a good book which is stories for 5yr olds or something like that. It's an anthology. Long-ish stories with some pictures.
Fantastic Mr Fox and George's Marvellous Medicine are that kind of age group too.

Mr Gum is pretty much all words. A novel.

I'll have a look at those two thanks.

What about a book that could either be read to them, or that they could later read themselves? I love the Anna Hibiscus series and also No 1 Car Spotter books by Atinuke, both good for reading aloud and they're not so very well known so perhaps less likely to already have them?

Personally I'd avoid Roald Dahl because of the risk of duplicating.

girl or boy?

there are some longer picture story books like The Lighthouse keeper by Ronda and David Armitage, Katie Morag, Katie and the Art Gallery ones by James Mayhew, Paddington, Winnie the Witch.
Or if you prefer a longer book to listen to then again Paddinton but the chapter books rather than the picture ones, Naughtiest Girl in the School, Magic Faraway Tree, Wishing Chair, Charlotte's Web and others like that.
I would probably go with a longer story picture book to be honest, much more of an immediate visual attraction at that age.

Girl.

Thanks I'll have a look at at the picture story books and Anna Hibiscus.

I'm not a massive fan of winnie the witch myself. I've had to read a few to her cousin..

'not about me, not about me, not about me'

I like the Sophie stories by Dick King-Smith, they are chapter books but the chapters are short and they are about a little girl from age 5 to 7 (lots of talk about farm animals, tractors, snails etc which my boys love as well)

Oh yes, the Katie books are brilliant. Ds aged 7 still likes them as do his 4.5 yr old siblings! There's also a Julia Donaldson about a Troll which is really good and a bit longer than Gruffalo. Angelina Ballerina's can be quite long (the originals). How about fairytales? We have a series we got in a charity shop (I think they came free with a paper) and they are excellent, similar to the ladybird fairytales. One book per 'tale'.

Usborne do some nice adaptations of classics which are fab for this age: secret garden, Heidi, treasure island, Peter Pan etc.

There are also some amazing pop up books available. We have Peter Pan and DD1 loves it. It's her special great book when dd2 is no where to be seen!

we have that Peter Pan book - VERY popular

Thank you for all your suggestions.

In the end my DB texted back with some thing to get her.

However I have several other LOs about the same age to get in the next couple of months so these ideas will not go to waste.