Books for very able 10 year old reader

[popsickle555]

DD is just 10 and gets through a book a day. I need more ideas!

she enjoys books about relationships and people and adventure I guess but tends to prefer ‘real life scenarios’ rather than fantasy. She also really likes series of books.

Authors she likes and has read:

Adam kay
sophie Mackenzie
gordon Korman
katie kirby
tom fletcher
jk Rowling (read them all)
Lauren st john
david walliams
cath howe
treehouse series
Elly Griffiths
michael Morpurgo (doesn’t love these)
onjali Rauf

shes obviously read and in many cases re read all of these. Can anyone give my any ideas? She has a sibling who is almost 4 years older and keeps taking her books which are not that appropriate so I need ideas of authors.

Thank you

Another vote for Percy Jackson, my Dd was about 8 when she found the first one and is 13 now and owns every book Rick Riordan has written and happily reads and rereads them.
Terry Pratchett's books are good, there are lots of children's ones and even some of the adult ones are suitable...

Roald Dahl.

Seasonal ideas here, OP:

https://bookadventcalendaruk.wordpress.com/

I think going classic is the answer - the stories are very much aimed at DC (and in a gentler era) but have more complex sentence structure and different (arguably wider) vocabulary. Ones to try:

Treasure Island
The Little White Horse
Children Of The New Forest
Lorna Doone (this was our class reader in yr 5)
Mrs Frisby and the Rats of Nihm
Swiss Family Robinson
What Katy Did
Pollyanna
Pippi Longstocking
Moonfleet
Just So Stories
The Railway Children
Emil and the Detectives
The Phantom Tollbooth
The Little Prince
The Owl Service
The Wizard of Darksea

And don't overlook poetry - I remember reading Hiawatha whilst still at primary. And an anthology on the lines of a "poem a day" should give a wide variety.

A Murder Most Unladylike series
Lightning Mary
Lottie Brookes series

She's the right age for the Chalet School, by Elinor M. Brent-Dyer. Not hugely demanding (but better than Malory Towers/St Clare's, imo) but there are plenty of them, and from the beginning up to the end of the war, there's quite a lot of historical and geographical background to read up on, if that interests her. (I learned all about the Anschluss from reading the Chalet School.)

The series is complete up to No.35 on fadedpage.com

Fantastic ideas thank you!

She has read a fair few of these that I forgot on my list but I do think some classics would be good now for this stage.

and yes definitely members of the library and she goes every week as has now read everything in the school one!

I let her read whatever she likes generally so often it’s less ‘literary classic’ and more Lottie brooks but she could read a lot more now so this list of classics is a great start and we can get them all from the library and if she doesn’t enjoy no money has been spent.

thank you all. And the comment about not reading too much - noted. I’d say she reads maybe 1-2 hours a day most days. Hopefully not too much, she’s just fast. More on weekends though.

I think she’d love these.

I’ll vote for the classics, they are a step up from contemporary writing and will set her up for later studies too.

Thanks, yes I agree with this.

I don't think it does, I read voraciously as a child, a book a day (I lived somewhere dull) and only now need glasses in my 50s.

The dark is rising series. It's fantasy but not really.
Ronald Dahl

Katherine Rundell is fantastic.
Second the Eva Ibbotson suggestions.
The 'pinch of magic' series and anything else by Michelle Harrison.
My ten year old has read and re-read these and I'm getting her the Terry Pratchett 'Tiffany Aching' books for Christmas.

Yes to all the classic suggestions, The Works has a box set with most of them! But if you get 'What Katy Did' I suggest also giving her Jacqueline Wilson's modern rewrite 'Katy'... she explains in a foreword why she disagrees with the moral of the original story (be good, find God and you won't be disabled any more!).

My 11yo’s main favourites (excluding yours) have been Jacqueline Wilson, Judy Blume and the Babysitters Club - these are all books I read when I was younger (back when she’d still follow my recommendations!!). She’s also a very fast reader and would consume 400 pages or more per day during lockdown age 7 - very much not caused any short sightedness as her vision is perfect unlike mine.

we get the babysitters club books second hand off music magpie/world of books etc as the new editions are very expensive for a couple of hours reading. They do a lot of collections or specials which are longer so better value!

Same here. I would read for hours outside of school and didn’t need reading glasses until my 50s.

I also read a lot at that age. Some of my favourite writers were:

James Herriot
K.M. Peyton
Joan Aiken
Nina Bawden
Molly Hunter
Margaret Mahy

Also agree that reading books absolutely does not destroy your eyesight so long as you make sure you have enough light. Prolonged mobile phone use can though.

The Hobbit?

The Wildings (long beautiful story of cats living in Dehli) and its sequels

Katherine Rundell
Emma Carroll
Liz Kessler
Eva Ibbotson
Jacqueline Wilson
David Almond
Ben Miller
David Baddiel
Ross Welford

Totally agree about the classics too. The Works do a great set.

I was a voracious reader as a kid. I read the bible from cover to cover. Also Mrs Beeton!. Rosemary Sutcliffe. All the Chalet School books. Gordon Cooper. Dickens. My mother's cookery books. Newspapers. The Readers Digest.

I’m always recommending this website .They really know their stuff. Probably worth looking at the Year 7 recommendations.
schoolreadinglist.co.uk/reading-lists-for-ks3-pupils/suggested-reading-list-for-year-7-pupils-ks2-age-11-12/

Marcus Sedgwick

I think that's a myth dating back to Victorian era.

I read all the time as a child. Never needed reading glasses until nearly 50.
Dh did not read much and needed reading glasses at 35.
Out of my siblings, my bro was the one of us who read the least and he needed reading glasses at the youngest age too.

Screen use is far more likely to effect it, and if she's reading books then that will be keeping her off screens.

By the way need to take care not to read too much. It can lead to short sightedness.
I read all the time as a child. Never needed reading glasses until nearly 50.

Reading glasses don't correct myopia/shortsightedness. I am shortsighted, and I don't wear glasses for reading. I wear them for watching television or when I'm out, to read things at a distance.

(I did read a lot as a child and I needed glasses from about seven, but I have no idea whether the two things were related.)

Lots of the suggestions on here wouldn’t be challenging for an able 10 year old (Enid blyton, roald dahl, Jacqueline Wilson). Is she very capable, or just fast? Not every book has to be a challenge of course, but those won’t do much for expanding her vocabulary or moving her reading on. They might be good for quick reads for entertainment of course which is fine. And all of them have loads of books so if she likes them she’s got some to keep her going for a while!

Philip Pullman has some good ones (his dark materials particularly), but they are mostly fantasy. Stormbreaker is also popular, and as mentioned before Percy Jackson (fantasy again!)

Little Women
Anne of Green Gables

my daughter loved the ‘Geek Girl’ series by Holly Smale for ages 10years and up.