Easy books for a 9yo

[Hedonism]

Can anyone recommend books that are approachable in terms of reading ability and length, but with content that isn't too babyish? 😕

My DD is very much not into fairies, ponies, princesses! But is struggling a bit with the longer chapter books with more grown up stories (David Williams etc). She does like Tom Gates. I would say her reading age is a bit below average, but she is quite a grown up 9yo, so it's really hard to find books to fit. She's keen to improve on her reading; I feel sure we just need to find something to grab her and she'll be off. But books that are too hard just turn her the other way.

Kes Get 'Daisy and the trouble with...' eg Daisy and the trouble with zoos
Tom Gates '13 storey tree house' series.

You could look up Barrington Stokes books where you can set the actual age and reading age, to get a more age appropriate story without it becoming too difficult. They are also dyslexia friendly.

Sorry see you mentioned Tom Gates!!!

The Unipiggle ones and also The Pug who wanted to be a .... are both easier reads in my opinion and agree with the Daisy ones mentioned by PP

The goosebumps ones might work. Mine is motoring through them at the moment after dragging his feet about reading for a while.

DS is 8 and really likes:

Barry Loser series (🙄)

13 Storey Treehouse series

Tom Fletcher - Space Band has QR codes that takes you to a soundtrack on Spotify! So cool! I really like TF books, they’re engaging and easy reads.

Marge in Charge
The Hodgeheg
The Sheep Pig
Clever Polly and the Stupid Wolf
Butterfly Lion

My son who hates reading loves the Dogman books. They’re comic style so easy reading but more grown up!

Oh wow, lots of suggestions! Thank you all so much, I will have a look at all of them 💕

@Hiddiddleyho the Barrington Stoke books are exactly what we needed! We found some in the library yesterday and DD came home and read for over 2 hours. I have honestly never seen her so read so much! She is thrilled too, that she has been able to read a story that she has enjoyed without getting stuck on every other word. Thank you 💕

I'm keeping all of the other suggestions for future reference, especially if this wet weather keeps up!

Oh brill!!! I'm pleased to have shared something useful.

My Dd doesn't look thrilled by the ones I ordered in to our library for her. She is judging a book by its cover! Fingers crossed she gives them a go.

I agree with the “Daisy and the trouble with….” suggestion - they are hilarious.
The Ramona books by Beverly Cleary are my all time favourites.
Some of the shorter Jacqueline Wilson ones (The Mum Minder, Lizzie Zipmouth, Sleepovers).

Diary of a Wimpy kid
Tree House Serues
Benedict Society (also a TV show on Disney)

Don't discount reading alongside an audio book or you and her reading together despite her being older.

Do a trip to the library and set her up with the Libby app, access to lots of ebooks, magazines and comics and audio books and do the summer reading challenge.

My DD has always preferred non-fiction so that's worth a look into as well.

Then have a discussion about why she finds reading hard, has she been assessed for dyslexia as there are specially formatted books available that make reading easier.

Does she struggle to follow the story if reading a longer book to herself as that's more likely to be a processing issue more than a reading issue. Can she easily remember the plot over several chapters?

Have you covered the basics and had her eyes tested etc.

My DD has recently enjoyed books by David Baddiel and Adam B (the latter is a YouTuber but his book is actually pretty well written and funny). Also the Lottie Brooks series by Katie Kirby, which are quite long but lots of pictures to break up the text (also very funny).

@Singleandproud her teacher thinks the problem is lockdown related - she missed out on a lot of year 1 in 2020 and some of the basic phonics but managed to successfully mask this for a while. She needs to go back and lay the foundations again almost. We're working on it. Eye test is a good shout though, I'll get onto that over the holidays 🙂

@Hedonism it might be worth getting the reading eggs app over the summer, a couple of the pronounciations are how the americans/Australians would say it (I can't remember who made the app), but it's great as an additional tool in your arsenal. The little games are fun and it goes from the very basics up to end of Primary I believe (it's a long time since we used it as DD is in her teens now). Also the Oxford owl website is free and once registered you can access all of the ebooks on there which if I remember rightly includes the dreaded Biff, Chip and Kipper books to short chapter stories.

My Dd is in year 3 so was also at home during phonics if you like. She's been diagnosed with an eye convergence issue in year 2, which is poor eye team work. Make sure they check for that not just 20/20 vision. She's also now had a dyslexia screening and that looks likely. School were surprised by that as her reading is a high level. I think good comprehension was covering up issues with basic reading mechanics.

Oh that's interesting. Her teacher did say that she had fooled them all by using tactics to fill in the blanks when reading, but now the texts are more complex that isn't working. So I think a similar issue. She doesn't think she is dyslexic though, based on her use of phonics when she is writing.

I will definitely book her in for an eye test next week! I'll also look at those websites @Singleandproud ; we've already signed up to the phonics play one, which she quite likes.

@Hedonism i am only just starting to learn about dyslexia now. But my Dd uses phonics. So I don't think that's a reason for ruling it out. If anything my dd is stuck in phonics land, especially when it comes to spelling. School could do an initial screening, they should have a programme to do it in house so no cost involved. It might at least be worth ruling it out.

My daughter loves the 'Izzy' books by Pamela Butchart, set in a standard primary class and very funny. Also second the Dogman suggestion above, and Bunny vs Monkey & Looshkin (also graphic novels) very popular here. Easy reading and graphic novels mean they can read a chapter very quickly, seems to build confidence.

@Hiddiddleyho maybe I should have a word with the senco rather than the class teacher then! Thanks. One for September.

Daisy is good. My two liked it but it might be quite young.
Diary of a wimpy kid my 10yo still loves

Another vote for Dogman, if humour is your child's jam