Non-scary, -sad books for 5 and 7 year olds

[LyrasOmlette]

Both of my kids are very sensitive and easily troubled by scary and sad things in books. We've talked about how every good story has to have a conflict, but they still sometimes completely lose it over a character getting lost or separated from someone they love (Mango & Bambang) or mean/"rude" characters (Roald Dahl).

Any suggestions for some gentle books?

I’m just reading the Sophie series with my youngest DS. Lots of animals, very sweet. Dick King Smith.

I've got a very sensitive 7 year old, who is now loving Enid Blyton's Naughtiest Girl series (she can't cope with Famous Five etc, too much peril!). She also enjoyed, when younger, Dirty Bertie and Horrid Henry, though as she was always thoroughly shocked by their antics I wasn't worried about the influence on her.

Paddington Bear stories are quite tame, Worst Witch. I find school-based stories, even if there is bitchiness, is easier for her to deal with than adventure peril, I guess because the setting's more familiar.

I’m the parent who wouldn’t read “Dogger”. My boy didn't mind the story, but I remember finding it really sad as a kid (even though it’s all OK in the end) and still don’t like it for that reason...

Roald Dahl has a nasty streak a mile wide, and while his sense of the grotesque appeals to most kids, it floats my boat much less now than it did when I was little.

I reckon ‘Swallows & Amazons’ and its sequels are a pretty rich vein. Grown-ups are only occasionally cross or disapproving, and the stories are gripping despite any threat or peril being largely imaginary (less so in Winter Holiday, to be fair, but it’s still one of the best).

My DS loves My Naughty Little Sister. It’s the most gentle series imaginable!

Enid Blytons 'Far-away Tree' books are also great, my gentle DS loved them at that age.

The Claude books by Alex T Smith.
Paddington.
My naughty little sister.

The magic tree house series are nice. Boy and his sister transported to many different times/lands.

adventuresofalgy.com/ - free delivery at the moment too.
The Owl that was Afraid of the Dark
Just So Stories?

ojell I'm with you on Dogger. Have deliberately never bought The Velveteen Rabbit either!

Green Smoke by Rosemary Manning is worth a look.

The Land of Green Ginger, by Noel Langley - a very funny sequel to the Aladdin story, where Aladin’s son sets off to win the heart and hand of Princess Silver Bud. It includes a flying garden, a magician who has accidentally turned himself into a button-nosed tortoise, villains called Tin Tack Ping Fu and Rub Dub Ben Thud, and a donkey who sits on a pin.

The Phantom Tollbooth?

Milly Molly Mandy
Olga da Polga
Mary-Mary
Teddy Robinson

Another vote for My Naughty Little Sister, and the Sophie stories (although i cried reading a few of those chapters .. DD said “just be brave, mummy”!) we also love Pippi Longstocking, Children of Noisy Village (& other Astrid Lindgren stories) and Mrs Pepperpot and another very old series of stories called The Cat Club. Also The Great Piratical Rumbustification, and others by Margaret Mahy

Thanks for all the suggestions. Just wanted to follow-up with some of the books that my 5 and 6-yos recently enjoyed:

Enid Blyton's The Wishing Chair
Roald Dahl's The Giraffe, the Pelly & Me and Esio Trot
Pugly Bakes a Cake
The Claude books

Devon the sheepdog?

Iggy & Me books by Jenny Valentine are the modern day versions of the My Naughty Little Sister books.
Humphrey the Hamster books by Betty Birney.

The little house books? Although you'd have to talk about the historical context as quite a lot of beating children for discipline. As said above Pippi Longstocking would be great - some mild peril but she can handle anything. I remember really liking 'the family from one end street' (Eve Garnett) but not sure if that is around still.