Good reads for 7 years old (Y3) slow reader

[Frogusha]

DD7 just started reading chapter books in school this year. It takes her about 3 weeks to read Wimpy Kid. We've been reading Harry Potter and the Philosopher's stone for the last few days - it's painfully slow. The sentences are more complex then Wimpy Kid. She'd like to read Harry Potter as everyone else in her class seems to have read it and they play re-enactment on the playground. Should we persevere with Harry Potter (though it's slow) or chose something similar to Wimpy Kid? I find the latter not really age appropriate (as it's about a boy who fancies a girl and my 7 y o can't really relate to it and it's also full of Americanisms - which is fine but breaks the flow with me having to explain the slang). Another book she actually liked a lot was Tom Fletcher's Creakers. We've tried other books by Tom Fletcher but they were not as interesting. Also any tips for slow readers would be greatly appreciated. We've tried reading together, for her to pick up on my speed, reading a paragraph each, and it helped, but she still gets confused and bogged down by long complicated sentences.

I would read to her the more complex books, like Harry Potter, or allow her to listen to them on audiobook (without trying to read along at the same time). Books that my (reluctant reader) Y3 DD likes are the Dotty Detective series and Isadora Moon series. They’re not too long, have pictures and good storylines.

Those books are very hard for a 7 year old. Diary of a wimpy kid particularly, as it's quite sarcastic, which 7 year olds won't get. Read Harry Potter to her as a bedtime story so that she can join in on the playground. I bet most of the kids have just seen the films and not read it.
Susan Gates, Enid blyton, Chris riddell, the easy roald Dahls, Dick king Smith... Look up books for 7 year olds and you'll find loads of easier books. It sounds like she needs to improve her fluency and you can't do that with hard books. The easiest way to tell whether a book is too hard is to pick a full page from the middle, ask her to read it and if there are more than 5 words which are difficult then it's too hard.
Read to her every night, even if she hasn't read to you. It's more important.

I certainly wouldn't expect a 7 year old to be able to actually read Harry Potter!
The Daisy books by Kes Grey are funny.
My Brother Famous bottom series by Jeremy Strong is another funny one.
Secret Seven
Roald Dahl

Thank you for all great recommendations. I copied down most names for her to look up in the school library and will get some on Amazon second hand for half-term. She’s not a great fun of comic books but she did like Dotty detective and Daisy on a school trip a lot. The trouble with these books (c) is that they are easy for her to read but they don’t expand the vocabulary - but perhaps we should take it one step at a time, get fluency up first, then add vocabulary. What are your thoughts on developing vocabulary through listening? Do you stop and explain each word that she might not know or just hope that she will get it in the context? Also, since she’s not actually saying the new words herself, would she retain them?

P.S. I downloaded Harry Potter by Stephen Fry last night on Audible and we listened to it at breakfast (and were almost late for school) :)

ALadyofLetters, thank you so much for the recommendation of Pamela Butchart. I'd never heard of her before but it arrived yesterday - second hand off Amazon and in terrible condition (was supposed to be "like new" but had every page scrolled on with black ink and marker) - but DD read it all in 1 seating! That was a Wigglebottom primary book and I have ordered 2 more for her half-term that she will spend with grandparents. My naughty little sister and Flat Stanley also look good but no glossy paper / pictures so seem less attractive to her (even though they paper in unmarked). Thank you all again for the ideas (more books in transit on Amazon).

I was going to recommend Pamela Butchart too. She's finally got my reluctant reader reading!

@Frogusha we have a very beautiful colour collection of my naughty little sister stories ... it’s quite a big book for little hands but the pictures are gorgeous and we loved the stories so much!