Books to read aloud to a dd6 who's reading books amid at 9+

[nwmum]

Hi

My dd reads extremely well on her own but I would like to sit and read a story to her still each night. Could you give me some suggestions?

She has read the following by herself:
Roald Dahl, Enid Blyton, Helen Creswell, Joan Aitken, Micheal Murpurgo, Bel Monney, Milly Molly Mandy, Wind in the willows, Around the world in eighty days, Jamie and Angus, Pippi Longstocking

many thanks

Are you looking for something that she could read herself but just hasn't done so yet so it will be something new for you to read to her, or something that's still a little ahead of her reading ability so that it needs to be read as a bedtime story?

In general...

Clever Polly and the Stupid Wolf by Catherine Storr
Mrs Pepperpot books by Alf Prøysen
The Ordinary Princess by M.M. Kaye
The Princess and the Goblin and The Princess and Curdie by George MacDonald
The Rose and The Ring by William Makepeace Thackeray
Humpty Dumpty and the Princess by Lilian Timpson (you'd have to order that second-hand as it's out of print, but I loved it at that age (was also an advanced reader)

The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
The Children of Green Knowe by Lucy M Boston

I'm looking for something she can't read herself. At present is reading Spiderwick Chronicles, and has Pollyanna, Children of Green Knowe and Inkheart on christmas list

Laura Ingalls Wilder - the early books (Little house in big Woods, Little house on Prairie, Banks of Plum Creek) are lovely to read aloud to younger children.

I'd probably look back at the classics, then -- if she can read all of those already then moving up a reading level in modern stuff would potentially bring you into subject areas/themes that you wouldn't want to introduce to a six-year-old.

Little Women
Anne of Green Gables
The Tree That Sat Down (Beverley Nichols)

We've just finished The King of the Copper Mountains which was fantastic. Definitely second Mrs Pepperpot.

I'm reading Laura Ingalls Wilders LH books to my DD at the moment, she loves them.

The Secret Garden is next after them, Anne of Green gables?

The Hobbit, maybe?

The other trouble is that I suspect there's very little she downright can't read for herself. So in a sense what you're looking for is something that can be a bit wordy and hard to get through when read silently but that is greatly enhanced by being read out loud with expression.

yy Tolkein, also Alice in Wonderland and E Nesbit - as Prof says, you want stuff that is too wordy for her to plough through but still good stories

I loved The Ordinary Princess too, haven;t seen it for years though

I would say NOT Anne of Green Gables. Much better to save it for when she is older and can really understand the kindred spirit concept properly - you need to be about 10 or 11 to really get Anne IME.
When you say Michael Morpurgo, which ones has she read - Kaspar Prince of Cats is fantastic if she hasn't read it yet.
Try reading her fairy stories - the proper original versions such as the Andrew Lang books or Geraldine McCaughran's fantastic Arabian Nights.
Alice in Wonderland is great for reading aloud too. I love Helen Oxenbury's illustrated version.
It's also a good age to start the Narnia books if you haven't already.

Greek Myths are excellent for this, lots of different versions too. Followed by Norse myths, Irish myths and any other darn myths you can lay your hands on. Classic fairytales and epics also good. You can get audio recordings of eg. the Iliad and The Odyssey which dd1 liked from age 7 onwards.

I would slow down a bit tbh, in terms of pushing her through the levels -- if she's read this much at 6 then there will be nothing for her to read at age 9 apart from teenage books which tend to be heavy on drugs, horror or teenage sex. Classic tales are the way to go. Also, you will run quite quickly into books that she can physically read, but which are emotionally too complex for a 6yo. Reading books too early spoils them twice, once at the age you actually read them, and once at the age you should have read them.

thanks for the ideas. i will probably read the Arabin nights too her.

Frogs, I agree about reading some books to early but she has chosen her own so far. I will probably encourage her to read some of the Enid Blyton Willow farm and Cherry Tree farm books as well as Just William

Oh I wouldn't worry about things she can't read. If she has that sort of reading level she'll be able to read almost anything you find for her soon enough. Try reading just for the pleasure of it regardless of whether she can read it or not. I read to DD and DS#1 even though they are perfectly capable of reading just about anything. It's just different and special when I read to them.

The Carbonel books are lovely - can't remember the author - Barbara someone.
Green Smoke - Rosemary Manning
Helen Dunmore - perhaps abit advanced but might be worth a go
Hobbit.

Barbara Sleigh (for Carbonel)

Also Gobbolino The Witch's Cat?
And the "The Worst Witch" books?

OrmIrian, there's reading and reading, though.

I do think (well, my experience anyway) that there is a stage where a child can read almost anything in terms of decoding but is still too young cognitively and emotionally to appreciate the subtleties of some more complex books. And then you run the risk that they will skip through it without really understanding it, think, 'well that was a bit pointless and boring' and then you've ruined a good book that they would have enjoyed a couple of years later. That's all.

DD1 read the His Dark Materials trilogy at 7 or 8, for example, and it was definitely too early. Whereas Just William, which is also relatively complex in terms of language has nothing like the same level of conceptual complexity, so is more suitable for a quite young child as it doesn't have that whole extra layer of allusion, symbolism and atmosphere that would just pass a 6yo by. The horror of Lyra being separated from her daemon, for example, relies on the reader having access to a range of emotional experiences and symbolism that is going to be beyond even the most fluent 6yo reader.

Books I would have similar reservations about for a 6yo would include things like:
The Hobbit
Anne of Green Gables (full of teenage angst, wasted on a 6yo)
Little Women (ditto)
The Children of Green Knowe (has a delicately spooky elegiac quality which you need a certain level of maturity to appreciate)
I Am David (ditto, both my older dc read it far too young, which is a shame)

The Secret Garden and A Little Princess would be good to read aloud to a sophisticated 6yo I think, less suitable for them to read to themselves (subtlety again, also the period detail would be lost if read alone by a child that age). The same with something like Ballet Shoes. Also some of the E. Nesbit stories like The Treasure Seekers and Story of the Amulet. And CS Lewis too, I think a child that age would get more out of having them read aloud than reading to herself.

Other ones she probably would enjoy for herself (trying not to replicate other suggestions) are:

Finn Family Moomintroll
The Bullerby Children by Astrid Lindgren
Dick King-Smith
There must be others but my brain is dead atm.

Dd1 is 8 ans also an avid reader.

She likes Eva Ibbotson, but you do need to check them before reading sometimes. dd was a little scared by one of them as they can be quite mystical and she doesn't like this.

Have you tried any poetry for her? dd1 was bought a book of poems and she really enjoyed them.

Excellent post Frogs! My thoughts exactly.

My DS (13) is/was "hyperlexic" - he has mild Aspergers and his reading age was assessed in year 5 as 4 years ahead of his chronological age. Although he read LOTR and His Dark Materials when he was 9, he missed the "point" of most of the narrative, and just read them as action/adventure stories.

He's currently really enjoying the Adrian Mole books, but is only just starting to get the irony.

I used to read the Professor Branestawm books to DS when he was 6. Lots of straightforward slapstick comedy and daft magic/fantasy. Each chapter is a story in itself, so perfect for bedtime reading aloud. The Laura Ingalls books are great for her age group as as well.

19th/early 20th Century classic children's literature will stretch her vocabulary without venturing into the realms of the unsuitable.

OMG Professor Brainstorm! I had forgotten him. Loved him as a child. Also Doctor Dolittle. Don't know if they are still in print.

I didn't mean that she could read everything, or even should, but that the fact that she can read things doesn't mean that her mum shouldn't still read them to her.

Swallows and Amazons?

Otherwise, agree with pretty much every word of frogs'17:47 post .

Professor Brainstorm is sooo fantastic, as is the Dribblesome Teapots by the same author, only problem is that I giggle too much when trying to read them aloud

DD is also a fluent reader but still likes to be read to, she's a little older (7) but our recent bedtime stories have been:

The Princess & the Goblin
The Princess & Curdie
The Lionboy trilogy (Zizou Corder)
Henrietta's House (Elisabeth Goudge)
Robin Hood (old version from my childhood)
All the Wombles books (found a lot more on Abebooks that I had never known as a child) - very funny as an adult, would thoroughly recommend them.

We're currently on the Princess & Curdie, will probably read At the Back of the North Wind next as we have the two Princess books + that one bound together in one book.

we have just started and are really enjoying Five Children and It - E Nesbit

and another pair that I have recommended on here before - Barkbelly and Snowbone by Cat Weatherill

dd (just turned 7) is at the stage where she can read anything you put in front of her, however there are plenty of books I don't want her reading just yet

I always read to her every night, and she reads her own books as well. At the moment I'm reading 'A Little Princess', which she's really enjoying, but I think she'd miss a lot if she read it herself. Recent succcesses have included Carbonel, Phillip Pullman's I Was a Rat, Noel Langley's Land of Green Ginger, MM Kaye's Ordinary Princess (in print again). I really enjoy reading out loud and will miss it when she decides she no longer needs it ...

She might enjoy having them read to her or reading on her own - Beverly Cleary's Ramona books.

Some of the writers in your first post have written a lot - has she read everything you can find by Joan Aiken?

Maybe some Diana Wynne Jones - they are aimed at various ages but I think there's some aimed at younger readers. I discovered her when I was a bit older - the first I read was Charmed Life.

Poetry anthologies?

This site includes reviews of children's books and might give you more ideas

www.thebookbag.co.uk