What age would you say the David Walliams books are suitable for?

[NannyR]

Not so much in terms of reading ability, but in terms of understanding the story lines.
Thanks.

Interesting question.
I dont think the two match up - the reading level is, imo, far below the topics covered. They were never a hit in our house, so maybe I'm biased tho.

I have only read some of the earlier ones and I found there was a lot of 'pop culture' references - TV shows, celebrities, trends etc which means the books date very easily. Most children reading these books for the first time probably won't have a clue what and who half the things mentioned are. Some children will find this quite confusing.
I can't say what the newer ones are like though.

Never!!. There are way better books!!

Mine enjoyed them from about age 5 to age 11. At the younger end I was probably reading them to them......as they got older they read them themselves. My youngest is now 9 and a bit over them......but that's more because a) he heard a lot of them at a younger age because he has older siblings and b) he enjoys more complex stories now......is currently working his way though Alex rider and previously was reading all the Young Shirlock books.

I've only read the first two or three and I wasn't that impressed with them. I know a child who has just turned five who has been bought a box set of them - they are a very good reader and would have no trouble actually reading the words on the page but I think the stories would just go straight over their head.

My dgs8 loves them

My 9 year old enjoys them.

Ours are used for bedtime stories rather than self reading. Not for the reading ability but the context. I leave them to dh to read to the kids as they arent my cup of tea!

My DD really enjoyed them in about y4 & y5, so aged 8-10. They helped move her on from Horrid Henry and bridge the gap before she was ready for Harry Potter.
(For those saying better books, maybe, but they served a purpose. DD never got on with Roald Dhal.)

My 8 yo thinks they're very funny!

I'm starting to think these are the the kids version of the Fifty Shades of Grey books. Not the theme obviously, but that they are books for people who don't really like reading that much, they will have their moment, and will all be lining the charity shops or being used as doorstops before long. But then I don't think it's was David Walliams aim to write masterpieces, just to cash in on the kids book market. And he's done very well at that. But his books are pretty hollow, some have a good idea or premis, but the stories themselves are uncomplicated, the characters are often lazy stereotypes and there is no beauty in the words of language. They feel hurried and one dimensional.

But who cares if they aren't great literature if they get reluctant readers to read? They really helped move DD onwards in her reading, and I don't really care further than that.

Yes they can be a good laugh and get kids reading, so good for resistant readers. I've had fun reading a couple to my DC, putting on silly voices etc. But the reading style doesn't match up to the maturity of content for just that reason. They are not great prose, but they are good fun if you don't mind the exaggerated stereotypical characters and 'slapstick' type humour which kids quite often like anyway. Much better than some of the animal and fairy books one of my DC go into. They had literally not one spec of humour in them

My 10 year old has really enjoyed reading them over the last two years. They aren't the best written books or what I would necessarily pick for him but I remember one of his teachers saying that it really doesn't matter what they are reading, be it comic, fairy books, silly books, things we might think are very childish or boring etc If they are wanting to pick up a book and read then that is a great thing. Obviously it needs to be something that doesn't have completely age inappropriate themes though!

I would say no younger than 9 or 10 even though people recommend them all the time for younger. Similarly Roald Dahl is always recommended for young kids when I think they are quite dark and not really ideal for little ones, even though brilliant.

Some of the themes really are rubbish, I disliked reading the one about the fat, skint horrible
Woman who only ate prawn cocktail crisps. Then there was the guy who liked killing rats in awful ways. One book has a reference to porn mags under a bed.

They are really badly written and full of nasty attitudes to low income families and overweight people. However the kids that I know read them are probably 7-11 years.

Something nasty about them, my sister kept giving them to my DD as gifts, I would skim read and they went to the charity shop. So DD didn’t read them from age 10 onwards . DD is now 15 and a bookworm hurrah. She read all the Murder Most Unladylike series age 11 and 12, a few Agatha Christie’s and then onto to Hunger Games, Allegiant series, Pride & Prejudice, Little Women, Jules Verne, Percy Jackson series and currently reading Dune.

Having been sniffy about David Walliams I do agree any reading is good and if it gets them going then go for it. Age 10 I think.

None, they are bloody dire

DS was reading them (and understanding them) very happily at age 7.

My oldest DD started reading them at 6/7 but as already mentioned, the references and the topics are a bit old. They read like books aimed at older kids reading at a younger level. In any case she eventually got bored of them being predictable and a bit mean, thankfully.

I'm not crazy about them, they're very vulgar and unkind.

But some children do find them funny. In terms of language and complexity, I'd imagine most children would follow them after probably six but they would be very simple for a nine year old.

Ds8 seems to like them. The language used is much lower than the topics covered, and they are very old fashioned in terms of some of the settings. DH has struggled through quite a lot of them and described it as Enid Blyton dumbed down, there are a lot of outdated stereotypes and a lot of bereavement.
But if DS will read them, so be it. Luckily he’s moved on to Skulduggery Pleasant and those are far more bearable.

The garb-age. Sorry, I was so pleased with myself I had to write that down. In answer to your real question, my 8 yo didn’t mind the gorilla one set in WW2 too much, but all the pages were taken up with ‘bang! Boom! Smash!’ constantly written in capitals as tho for a much younger child and the story was dull dull dull. Put me right off ever buying another.