Books for 7 year old girl

[MuffinMclay]

She has recently read all the Secret Seven and Famous Five books. Is currently working through the Magic Faraway Tree series. She is very reluctant to read anything that isn't by Enid Blyton (and doesn't like boarding school stories - Malory Towers, St Claire's etc).

To my dismay, she wasn't impressed with Pippi Longstocking or Milly Molly Mandy.

Any ideas? Would Noel Streatfield's Ballet Shoes be suitable? (She does ballet).

I'd like to get a handful of paperbacks for her.

amelia bedelia is fun

How about Blyton's ADventure series?

The Little House on the Prairie Books are great at this age

Dimanche Diller

some of the younger Jacqueline Wilsons (my 7 yr old is hooked on these at the moment)

we started little house on the prairie for dd1 (also 7) and the language was quite impenetrable. I'd forgotten that it was for older children.

Lots of good ideas there, thank you.

I forgot she's done the Blyton 'X of adventure' series already.

Any more?

Off the top of my head...

The Angel of Nitshill Road by Anne Fine

Araminta Spook by Angie Sage

Nelly the Monster Sitter by Kes Gray

My Naughty Little Sister by Shirley Hughes

Lucy Willow by Sally Gardner

Ramona series by Beverly Cleary

I agree with all of MariaLuisa's list especially the Ramona series. There is also Nancy Drew, if she likes mystery books. Ballet Shoes good, might be a bit hard for a seven-year-old depending on how much of a challenge she is up for. There are two ballet series that I do recommend, one by Adele Geras and one by Antonia Barber - both out of print but easily picked up on Abebooks.
Totally agree with whoever said Little House on the Prairie series too old for seven, I never get why people keep recommending it for younger girls, it is more appropriate for 10 and up imo.
There loads of good Anne Fines for this age group - Diary of a Killer Cat, Design a Pram and so on. I also recommend Jeremy Strong.

What about Dick King-Smith? DD1 has read loads of his books and has always liked them. It's a bit repetitive, but the 'My Secret Unicorn' series was a big hit with my dd, too. She also read a lot of the Animal Ark books before getting a bit bored with them (this was after about book 923,465,789, though !).

Also... not exactly 'great literature', but dd finds the Sleepover Club series huge fun... she has been known to fall out of bed laughing .

Those Animal Ark ones are dreadful Ellbell. I have never knowingly bought one, but the house seems to be full of them all the same -DD2 is rather partial to them, although DD1 has never been interested.

The "My secret unicorn" series is nice for 7 year olds, and Shirley Hughes has written some lovely stories for that age group. There is a series of fairy books in Waterstones at the moment that dd liked when she was 7.

Roald Dhal (sp?)- Fantastic Mr Fox, and George's Marvellous Medicine, and best of all, The Twits.

They are marginally better than the Rainbow sodding Fairies, Rosa, but that's about all that can be said for them. Mind you dd2 (who's 5) likes the 'Little Animal Ark' books, and, tedious as they are, they are quite a nice transition between picture books and books that are 'all words'.

That's interesting Ellbell. DD3, who is also five, is a bit of a nightmare to find books for at the moment - she can read really well, but refuses to read, or be read to, out of any book that does not have colour pictures. She used to love My Naughty Little Sister but now just thrusts it aside because the pictures are black and white. It is exceedingly irritating.

DD2 doesn't mind the lack of pictures, Rosa, as long as the text is quite easy. She gets frustrated if she can't read it easily and just gives up. The 'Bananas' series (they start with green and then work up through different colours/difficulties) might suit your dd. Nice colour illustrations. There are also some factual books in the series. We have a 'maths' one which is called Spinderella, and have had one from the library which I thought was just a story book but which turned out to be about different materials and their properties.

enid blyton does a series called mallory towers, and anothe rone called st claires, i used to and still do get a great pleasure out of reading, and i started reading all the same ones your daughter has when i was young, i progressed onto the above books,a nd then onto sweet valley books, sweet valley is amazing, they have the storys for all age groups, sweet valley kids for when they are your daughters age, sweet valley twins, sweet valley high, sweet valley university etc i still used to read them ALL the time.

Hi Marialuisa,
Sorry to be pinickity (SP?), but 'My naughty little sister' is not by Shirley Hughes. It is by Dorothy Edwards. But SH illustrated it.

Naughty Amelia Jane.

Dirtie Bertie

Plop the Owl who was afraid of the dark

My Naughty little Sister

Felicity Wishes

Some Roald Dahl books - Georges Marvellous Medicine

Esio Trot (also by Roald Dahl