Bedtime stories for a 4 year old

[Sam1515]

Hello
My daughter is 4 years old and is starting reception. She will be 5 in 3 months time.

We started bedtime stories when she was born with the standard picture books such as “the tiger that came to tea” or “the gruffalo” (her favourites when she was one). When she turned three we started on longer stories with less pictures such as Dr Seuss or Peter Pan.
By age 4 we used to have to read her two or three books to satisfy her so we moved onto chapter books as I felt she had the concentration span to listen and follow the story by this time.

Her bedtime books have recently been Enid Blyton; the wishing chair and the faraway tree. Her absolute favourite is the faraway tree and we have just finished the third book. We are now looking to move onto another book or series.

The ones she has been read so far:
Molly Molly Mandy- really liked them
Lion, witch and the wardrobe- didn’t like at all
Faraway tree- absolutely loves it and will tell everyone she meets about this amazing story they should read.
The wishing chair- likes but not as much as the faraway tree
Amelia Jane- likes these books but again not as much as the faraway tree

We have read Matilda and the BFG but she doesn’t like the style of writing and didn’t like Matilda as a story.

I thought about the worst witch as I loved that series as a child but I think she’s too young to enjoy a lot of the concepts since she’s not actually in school yet herself and the same with Harry Potter. She also doesn’t like the silly humour in books like David Walliams.

Ideally I think we are after books that have a fantasy element to them. Many of the fantasy books I have seen have male leads only so it would be nice if I could find one about a young girl adventurer if possible.
My sister did mention some books about a young girl scientist but she couldn’t remember what they were called and I haven’t managed to find them

Unfortunately most chapter books I have found for someone her age have been about unicorns, princesses, kittens, puppies or fairies and she just doesn’t enjoy those stories.

Any help for suggestions will be appreciated

Have you tried her on the Dick King Smith books? Not exactly what you were after as they are all about animals but i don't find them too curtsey.

No I haven’t thanks, I’ll have a look at them now.

My Naughty Little Sister
Pippi Longstocking
Sophie series by Dick King Smith
Mrs Pepperpot
Clever Polly and the Stupid Wolf
Paddington Bear
Marge in Charge
Mudpuddle Farm
The Borrowers
The Dragonsitter series
Hotel Flamingo

@Ricekrispie22 thanks - good recommendations.

Katie Morag (short stories)
Sophie and the Shadow Woods

Olga da Polga
101 Dalmatians

Swallows and Amazons

They still enjoy picture books at this age. You can get 'wordier' ones.

I would have suggested Clever Polly, Mrs Pepperpot and Katie Morag (the picture or short 'chapter' books) as above. There's an offshoot of the Milly Molly Mandy books (there are 6 of them, have you read them all?) called Bunchy - a recent discovery of mine.

I think the scientist is Izzy Gizmo?

How about the Wombles? Or children's short story collections - my dd (very similar age to yours) loves the Puffin Book of Five-Minute Stories. There are the (original!) Winnie-the-Pooh stories. Or how about some poems? Dd loves TS Eliot's Practical Cats (I miss out the gorier ones).

She's much too young for Harry Potter and certainly for Swallows and Amazons IMO. I read the latter to my older two starting when the younger of them was perhaps 5 or 6, but I would think 7 and up is the ideal age there really.

Claude books (but they are rather silly so might not appeal)
If she likes pets, there are some quite nice series like Zoe Rescue Zoo and one by Helen Peters

Isadora Moon- bit simpler than Worst Witch

Hotel Flamingo- my DDs favourite

(I do think some of the ones you've tried her on - LWW and Matilda, for instance - are really for much older children. There's plenty of good writing around that's more accessible to this age group)

The Moomins might be possible, but perhaps more when she's a year or two older, and while the writing is stunning I do find them a bit heavy on the gender stereotypes tbh.

I do think Clever Polly and Mrs Pepperpot are your best bets for now - tick the 'strong female lead' box, element of fantasy, and there are lots of them (about four Polly collections IIRC and a big thick volume of Mrs P stories).

Wind in the Willows
Toad of Toad Hall
Winnie the Pooh

I have a DS aged 5.5 and an almost 4 year old DD. They currently like Isadora Moon, which is about a half fairy / half vampire but still a reasonable story, there are loads. Ottoline has been a big hit, there are 4 of them. They also like the longer Winnie and Wilbur books (by Laura Owen). The Iron Man by Ted Hughes also went down well with both - the version illustrated by Chris Mould has very good illustrations, I don't know if a less well illustrated version would have worked. We've also had a chapter book called Unipiggle which has been very successful, funny but not banal if that was the problem with other fairy books.

Clever Polly and the stupid wolf might well work as your DD is older, it didn't have enough pictures for my 3 year old. We've had an illustrated Mrs Pepperpot out the library which went down well, I'm still working for one of the longer ones to come in to try.

My DD turned 5 in august and has recently enjoyed the following:

Clever Polly and the Stupid Wolf
The Naughtiest Unicorn series by Pip Bird (fantasy elements and female main character)
Zoe’s Rescue Zoo
Teddy Robinson
Wigglesbottom Primary series
Mummy Fairy and Me by Sophie Kinsella
Mary Kate series by Helen Morgan
Melanie Brown series by Pamela Oldfield (both this and Mary Kate are very old fashioned and some explanation may be required, but they are sweet stories)