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

Howl’s Moving castle series
Ruby in the smoke series
Mortal Engines

My suggestions have already been mentioned. My able ten year old loves Robin Stevens and the Series of Unfortunate Events books. Also Katherine Rundell.

If she likes Harry Potter get her into Percy Jackson - my almost 12 year old absolutely adores it - as do I after stealing her book! Personally think it’s actually better than HP. If she’s not too sensitive to death then maybe the hunger games as well as my daughter is currently obsessed

The classics are great, but modern books aren't "less literary"! They can be, if they're celebrity-written trash like David Walliams etc. but there are real children's writers who are producing fantastic books suited to today's children. Some authors or series to try out

Impossible Creatures
The Last Bear (and others by Hannah Gold)
Inkbound, Philipa Leathley
MG Leonard books
The Girl Who Stole an Elephant (and others in the series)
Orphans of the Tides trilogy
Boy, Everywhere by AM Dassu
Anything by Emma Carroll

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas
Tom’s Midnight Garden
Harvey Angell
Goodnight Mr Tom
A Christmas Carol
Danny the Champion of the World

Some I haven’t seen mentioned already that I liked at her age (I was also a voracious reader):
Agatha Christie
Gerald Durrell
The Nancy Drew mysteries.

I strongly disagree that the classics are better than the best contemporary fiction (books which are the classics of tomorrow & better reflect the world our children are actually living in) but that’s probably for another thread!!

I’d really recommend-

Kiran Millwood Hargreaves

Katherine Rundell

Hannah Gold

Natasha Farrant

John Boyce (especially the Boy at the top of the mountain)

Stuart Foster (especially Kick)

If my words had wings by Danielle Jawando

Boy 87 by Eli Fountain

Once is stunning, but quite tough emotionally.

But why do books have to be about the quality of them? Reading is reading and if the OP's kid is reading that's a great head start already.
I'd let her loose in your local library and see what she likes the look of .

I do believe that reading the classics will broaden vocabulary which is never a bad thing. Modern books tend to use a more limited spread - I appreciate I am generalising. I’d suggest:

Agatha Christie,
the Hobbit,
Chalet School,
the Enid Blyton “of Adventure” books,
the Dark is Rising series,
came across Wodehouse at around that age and loved it,
Cynthia Harnett’s the Woolpack,
Swallows and Amazons,
Ruby Ferguson’s Jill books, particularly if she’s likes ponies

I've got a ten year old precocious fantasy fan here, and I've had to chuck Lord of the Rings at him just to slow the speed with which he gets through books.

Also: His Dark Materials (and now the Book of Dust)

The Eragon series (and anything to do with dragons- he scorched through How to Train your Dragon a couple of years ago).

I'm thinking of turning him loose on the Fantasy shelves at the library (but vetting his choices!).

Eva Ibbotson, especially the jewel of Kazan and the river sea ones.
murder most unladylike series
the Hobbit
Everything by Frank Cottrell Boyce
Everything by Katherine Rundell
Lois Lowry the giver series

The first 50 years of the Carnegie List?

My DD10 has enjoyed books by:

Christopher Edge (Escape Room, Black Hole Cinema Club, Jamie Drake Equation)
JJ Arcanjo (Crook Island series)
Robyn Stevens
Nancy Springer (Enola Holmes series)
Beth Lincoln (The Swifts series)
Chris Smith (Frankie Best Hates Quests, Clarity Jones)

She reads a lot, although is less keen on the “classics” that I enjoyed as a child as she doesn’t find them very relatable.

Oh and also MG Leonard.

If you are gender critical, don’t let your child near The Swifts. Insidious nonsense.

I loved E. Nesbitt and Joan Aiken at her age. Agree wholeheartedly with a lot of the classics recommended on here.

You can't talk about broadening vocabulary and suggest Enid Blyton!

I definitely can. It provides insight into the language and mores of the day. Not a “whatevs” in sight.

All of these!!! Definitely agree re E Nesbit, still enjoy a re-read of "The Wouldbegoods". Definitely more classics, second all the Louisa M. Alcott books, all the Anne books and Laura Ingalls Wilder.

I did think some of the books suggested a bit limiting: Enid Blyton really for 5 year olds (though I steered my boys heavily away as writing so 2 dimensional). Phillipa Pearce, Rumer Godden definitely

I think we have the same taste in books! I did think about this but was concerned OP's child would only be able to locate Armada series. OP, if you get Chalet School , ask your library for the Girls Gone By series (uncut).

I'm going to protest against Swallows and Amazon's though...painstakingly detailed descriptions of doing something technical and knotty to boats sent me to sleep

Children’s classics - Narnia series/ Anne of Green Gables series/ The Hobbit/ The Lord of the Rings/ Enid Blyton/ Terry Pratchett (Bromeliad/ Johnny Maxwell)/ Little Women/ The Secret Garden.

Ds aged about 8yo loved them, especially the details so it depends on the DC.

That's not broadening vocabulary. EB uses a very limited set of words in her books and is a disappointing choice for a "very able 10 year old reader". Don't get me wrong, I loved her books as a child but I think modern books are far superior. And on that topic, did you imagine that modern books are full of 'whatevs'. I suggest you read some.

I think we have the same taste in books! I did think about this but was concerned OP's child would only be able to locate Armada series. OP, if you get Chalet School , ask your library for the Girls Gone By series (uncut).

Yes, some of those on Faded Page are taken from the Armada versions. They do specify which edition was used to create the transcript.

Enid Blyton really for 5 year olds (though I steered my boys heavily away as writing so 2 dimensional).

The 'Adventure' books, Malory Towers etc aren't for five yos. I was actually an adult before I realised that the premise of Valley of Adventure was drawn from the closing days of WW2. And the writing is no less 2 dimensional than many other popular authors. Not everything has to be beautiful prose. Sometimes (often) you just want a damn good story, and Enid Blyton delivers.

The books that are for 5yos, the Faraway Tree and the Wishing Chair, are really original in the fantasy worlds created. I was fortunate that I could read well enough to read them for myself at an age when I was still just young enough to believe it all could be true.