Michael Morpurgo books

[Themasterandmargaritas]

Are they any good and are they suitable for 7 year old dd?

Spy Dog v good

Butterfly Lion prob OK - much 'softer' than some of MMs books

Dick King-smith excellent and a safe bet, haven't seen Horse Pie though.

Yes, Rumer Godden.

You MUST read. Marvellous creepy Marchpane with her china face and kid gloves. [shivers] They have excellent names.

We then read Miss Happiness and Miss Flower and Holly and Ivy.

greek myths are good, dd1 really enjoyed them

she loves descriptive language and slightly serious subjects esp if sentimental (is slightly victorian)

For girls, what about classics like Daddy Long Legs? Also the Noel Streatfeild books (not just Ballet Shoes, I loved the Gemma books but they may be out of print)

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Butterfly Lion, and Why the Whales Came, are good for younger readers.
Ds has never really taken to Michael Morpurgo, he has a strange aversion to stories about animals
Has just torn through The Outlaw Varjak Paw though, and loved it. LadyGlencora - Charlotte Sometimes is a good WW1 story - has she read that?
Ds also has Aidan Chambers' Letters from No-Mans' Land on his list but that definitely looks more suitable for 9-10 upwards.

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I love Butterfly Lion

Enid has she read Atticus the Storyteller? Good for bedtime as well.
And my fave weepfest from childhood is The King of the Copper Mountains by Paul Biegel. Lovely book - still have my old copy bought from Scoop Club.

is there really a 'drugs baron' in spy dog?

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atticus the storyteller looks FAB [buy it now emoticon]

she also loved Erik the Viking (so did I if truth be told)
(all these I read to her though as she is not a strong reader as you know)

king of copper mountain

looks perfect

What about the Daisy books by Kes Gray? They are available too?

I love all the other suggestions, I shall be asking MIL to bring some of the suggestions across when she comes. Enid dd loves the Greek myths and legends she has that Usborne book of them.

[list gets longer]

Oh I am so pleased about this thread. I have loads of books for her now (and NEW ones for me, v. important).

Drugs baron. DS1 is reading Robert Muchamore books. They are, as far as I can work out, about children who try to bust international drug syndicates. Whatever happened to putting on a play in a disused church?

I think this series looks MARVELLOUS for older readers/boys

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Enid, ds is currently furious with Rick Riordan for not cranking them out quicker. That series is pure magic
LOL at playing in disused churches 100times. Even ds agrees with me that we will, on mature reflection, save the rest of the CHERUB series for when he is a little older. "Mum, it says arse on page three!"

I heard someone talking about them on r4 and it made me sad i didnt have a boy

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I'll be honest and say, IMHO and in these times, more, better, fiction is being written with boys in mind. Or maybe it is being branded more at boys in terms of jackets and blurbs.
I would happily have read Percy Jackson myself at this age.
I think with girls, the awesome Clarice Bean novels aside, there is less quality stuff being written for them. Whenever shopping for stuff for ds, I keep dd in the back of my mind when she is that age, and I see less that I like. Those fairy/girly series make my blood run cold.

yy

dd1 is totally uncatered for atm

she has no interest in the girly series

Animal Ark make me want to slit my wrists

they are DrEADFUL and luckily dd1 hates them

maybe she doesnt have reading difficulties maybe she is just discerning

But lots of us read Biggles, Jennings, Just William etc as children - I've seen various threads about that. My dds are similar in that they'll read books which might be aimed primarily at boys. (and they don't like fairy sparkly books).

I haven't found it a problem at all finding good books for my 8 and 7yo dds. True, a lot of the books are quite old, lots of classics and series from my childhood, but a fair amount of new stuff we all enjoy too.

we have no rainbow fairies or sparkle princess or cutesie-pie kitten type books. There are plenty of alternatives.