Chapter book for me to read to 9 and 7?

[FusionChefGeoff]

Tend to do classics from my childhood but drawing a blank!

Ronald Dahl
Lion Witch and Wardrobe
Secret Garden
Little princess

DS is 9 and DD is 7 - no particular cross over in interests although they both enjoyed Wimpy Kid.

What have your best chapter books been??

A Wrinkle in Time

White Fang

Mrs Frisby and the Rats of Nimh

The Incredible Journey

Oh wow these will keep us going for a while thank you!!

I want to give them the gift of reading HP by themselves plus DS is 3 books in already.

Hitchhikers Guide and Terry P are also legacy books from my parents to me so they're first on my list.

Off to the library tomorrow!

7yo DS has just devoured the danger gang by Tom fletcher. He also loved the Christmasaurus and has now started The Creakers.

@MargaretThursday I think we have similar styles!! Cue for treason has just gone on my list, I loved that when I was a kid.

My criteria for night time chapter book is that it has to be a book that the kids wouldn't pick up naturally and read alone. So no Roald Dahl or anything like that because my kids would read that anyway, but Farmer Boy they wouldn't have but liked it when read aloud (and pinned down in bed!)

@Xiaoxiong

Ds was much more interested in factual books. When he got to about 5 or 6 and asked for the Spitfire engine manual for the umpteenth time I told him I was going to read books I like, and he could listen or not.

Typically he "wasn't going to listen" when I started a new book, but then would pop out under the covers and say "one more chapter" as I put the book down. Then sometimes I'd find he'd read several chapters in the morning-which was always a little disappointing for me!

There were a few disappointments in ones I thought he'd love and he was fairly indifferent-he was never particularly keen on Famous Five, nor the Joan Aiken Dido Twite books.

I did choose books which were more his interest. Historical normally went down well with him, then adventure or nature.
I've just remembered another he loved "Daughter of Time" by Josephine Tey, which is looking at The Princes in the Tower. I felt a bit sorry for his history teacher who tried to do a quick lesson about that one. He was determined they weren't going to blame King Richard. They'd already submitted to him knowing more about WWII, and I think they'd have liked his opinion to be a little quieter.
He also loved the Williard Price books with Hal and Roger. That necessitated a lot of googling to look up facts, which suited him down to the ground.

He loved Cue for Treason-it was one of the first ones I read.

If you like that one though it's worth trying (if you can get hold of them) The Players' Boy and The Players and the Traitors by Antonia Forest as there's a lot of similarities. Certainly their portrayal of Will Shakespeare are quite similar.

Just remembered Just So Stories and The Jungle Book.

and the Mrs Pepperpot stories and Pippi Longstocking

Can I ask how long you read for and how much you get through/how long it takes to read a book?
I'm reading Worzel Gummidge with DD and I can't always read a whole chapter, and I read Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe to DS from summer last year to about Nov and am still reading Harry Potter 1 now, I can never read a whole chapter (he has ADHD but it's more my stamina!).
I read every other night to each one and DH reads other books, but DS sometimes refuses as he wants to get on with his own reading, and DD wants to do her school reading to tick it off.

@drspouse

I tended to vary as to my feeling and his mood. Ds has adhd too, and I got used to the fact that he often didn't appear to be listening, but he was. So he'd sometimes be bouncing round the bed, or playing with his toys, but when I stopped he'd say "go on" or he'd talk about the previous chapter the next day.

I aimed to read a chapter generally, but some chapters are longer than others and sometimes I ran out of stamina!

What I tended to do was start off by reading a section and at the end of the section I'd assess how they were doing. If he was still bouncing, then often it was better to leave him to settle, if we got to the end of a chapter and he was begging to go on, then sometimes I would.

If they wanted to do their own reading then they could do that afterwards. I used to often find ds asleep on top of a book.

Mr Gum series by Andy Stanton.
How To Train Your Dragon series by Cressida Cowell.
Michael Morpurgo has covered a vast range of subjects. My boys particularly loved Born To Run and Shadow at first then moved on to War Horse and Private Peaceful but read most of his books in between. Shadow was another particular favourite.

My DC now grown up still talk about my reading of Wind in the Willows.

The Just William books are loved by both my boys (9 and 6). My 9yo is currently enjoying Percy Jackson books - there's loads of them so a good find!

We've also enjoyed all the Swallows and Amazons series. And Philip Pullman has written several short stories - The Firework Maker's Daughter, The Scarecrow and his Servant, I Used to be a Rat and so on - that are excellent.

All these stories of "all the books in a series" make me feel a bit despairing with our "two books a year" rate!

Tom's Midnight Garden

Matt Haig's childrens books - Shadow Forest especially
Anything by Ross Welford
The Explorer by Katherine Rundell

Also The Creakers by Tom Fletcher, How to Train Your Dragon and The Wizards of Once by Cressida Cowell, Gregor the Overlander by Suzanne Collins.

@drspouse would your ds listen to audiobooks?
We have an audible subscription and the Mr Gum books read by Andy Stanton (author) are brilliant, as is David Tennant reading the How to train your dragon series (and the Wizards of Once)

My fidgety dc like to do something while they listen - if I’m reading, it must be quiet, like drawing, colouring in, knitting (!), if it’s on audible they also might build Lego, or look at another book (picture, non-fiction type) … we’ve also had some success with modelling beeswax - good for wandering hands/fingers 😊

My kids the same age are big Enid blyton fans (not to read themselves, but for me to read to them)- the wishing chair collection, naughtiest girl collection etc. Land of roar trilogy has gone down well, and the bolds series by Julian Clary as well

The Railway Children.
Humphrey the Hamster series by Betty Birney
Paddington books
The White Giraffe, and later books.

We do audio books in the car but I just looked at a few and I think I've been shooting myself in the foot with chapter length. I am choosing shorter chapters next time.

Try this book. Found it on Amazon by accident, my boys loved it - very daft and far-fetched!

“Charlie Barker and The Secret of Langdon Academy”

Also anything by Tom Fletcher is good I find

When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit - Judith Kerr's semi-autobiographical account of her childhood. Suitable for older primary age, or children who are beginning to learn about WW2. (But definitely not the sequels, which are not intended for nor suitable for children.)

I'm actually reading him The Silver Sword at the moment which is also a war story - lots of parallels with Ukraine.