I need book suggestions for a 9 year old girl who would 'rather get the audiobook thanks mum'

[Pagwatch]

Maybe she is never going to get into reading but I read all the time and her brother is doing English Literature at Exeter so it is weird for me. We are going on holiday and I want to try and take a couple of books to try and spark her interest.

I want cracking stories but with relatively simple language. Ger reading ability is fine but she is lazy so something she can read fluently would be great. The nice woman in Waterstones recommended Magyk and Rose and The Lost Princess.

Does anyone have any others? I am going to try reading with her a bit too. DS1 and I discovered the Harry Potter books doing tat so it might help.

Honest to God, if she isn't interested so be it. But she wants to visit book shops and seems to be interested but picks up things where she knows the story - like Inkheart, or things like Toms Midnight Garden which is a lovely book but for her it is like wading through mud.

All suggestions welcome. I have an amazon basket. I am ready.

Thanks

if she likes history, maybe Angel on the Square and the other books in that series. Dd liked them because they are based in Russia.

pointythings - agree - I put Elidor because it was the first one I read.

Other suggestion for slightly easier reads:
Half Magic (series) - Edward Eager
Green Smoke - Rosemary Manning
Stig of the Dump - Clive King
Emil and the Detectives - Erich Kastner

Have you considered a Kindle? You can set it to read the books to you but you don't get an actor's voice and all that goes with it. She then has the option of reading the text instead. Or a bit of both.

Also with the kindle (can you tell i love mine) if you don't understand a word you can select it and it takes you to the dictionary definition which could prove useful if she comes accross 'destrier' or 'baldrick' or other historical words, if they are not explained.

There always seems to be an obsession with this. I have never understood it. I am probably what would have been called a " reluctant reader" when younger. It was not that I couldnt read, I just didnt like it. I guess it was rammed down my throat at school, although I do not recall that. Maybe some of us are just not book people?

My own DS reads. Not that much but he has the ability to access in reading any book her wants and it seems that if he wants something, his skill improves through the motivation to do it, rather than by my pushing him.

Noth DS and I like "comics" . Magazines, or books which are specialist hobby books in my case. I have always liked magazines and I will read short stories happily - but not fiction books. I am not turned on by them. I quite like films and I too like listening to books. A Book at bedtime ( BBC Radio 4) was a favourite when I was a younger man. Also I liked when I could to listen to the Wonams Hour serialisation and the Book dramatisation on Sunday lunchtime. I "read" Lord of the Rings" that way. I could say it hasnt done me any harm. I dont think it has, although I am not a professor of litereture. Maths and statistics - yes I have been a university lecturer (senior lecturer) in that.

When I was young I had "Look and Learn" and its a pity they no longer do that magazine.

Maybe she isnt going to be the next one to read English at Exeter? Maybe she will read Physics at Cambridge instead?

I have only ever read three books in my life. The Borrowers ( when I was about 7/8) but the rest of the series left me cold. I tried the second book and left it a couple of chapters in.

I read a book called " The Silver Sword" Ian Serralier ( sp?? ) - a WW2 history novel ( similar to "I am David - which I read serialised in "Look and Learn" - hence I say its a pity that comic was discontinued) and Firefox ( but only after I had seen the film. Maybe you should just leave DD to get on with her own interests, especially if she has enough skill to be functionally literate? Just a thought

Good lord Jabed

I have said repeatedly that maybe that is just the way she is and that that is fine.
I also said that she wants to go to bookshops and chose and expresses an interest but seems uninspired by her choices.
So I am just trying to use a forthcoming holiday to look for some books that she might enjoy.

Perhaps, had you read a few more books, you might have learnt to read what is written rather than arrive with a set of incredibly pompous assumptions and just sneer for no good reason other than to be unpleasant. Who knows?

Blimey Jabed!

Another vote for Percy Jackson, DD loves The Time Riders books as well.

Jabed

Lemony Snickert?
Some non fiction via her interests/ Horrible Histories and Sciences?

I have both ends of the spectrum here, ie the 5 year old free reader and the reluctant 7 year old - I must say that with my eldest reading has always been a source of frustration (on both sides). She sounds exactly like your DD, is lazy with her reading, can read reasonably well but if she finds a book a bit of a struggle then she abandons it immediately - I found that easier, larger print is definitely the way to go.

The kindle suggestion is a really good one as you can also make the print larger, but I am a bit of a romantic and I like the idea of my children "handling" and learning to love books, although it's probably more to do with my own antiquated attitudes!!

Thanks for the other suggestions. I will come back and read them when I am a bit less irritated.
I am not in the best place for jibes about 'functionally literate' this morning.

Pagwatch - I did read what you said ( the very fact you want her to read more is in my book obsession) and that you said she likes going to the shop but prefers audio books. Whats wrong with that? But still you want suggestions for books in printed word?

OK I apologise if what I said came across as critical.
Just trying to point out there are other ways and other things in life.

I always find the horrid history books like education today - dumbed down.
All this emphasis on reading, writing, activities, learner journets etc. and at the end a pretty flower in a glass vase ( no roots).
I too am irritated this morning.

I was also going to suggest putting some books on a Kindle for her - Roald Dahl and the Percy Jackson books, for example, are available in Kindle editions.

Thank you for your apology. I do appreciate it but with respect, your post did not come across as critical - it was critical. You referenced my son at uni in a sarcastic way and you added 'just a thought' which was a device to imply that I am being blinkered and pushy.

The 'functionally literate' jibe was particularly unpleasant given that I have a child who isn't and never will be. I have always been very grateful that DD is happy and healthy and wouldn't swop that for a higher I Q. I am well aware of how precious that is without it being pointed out to me by someone point scoring.

She goes to book shops to chose books. She talks about reading but gets frustrated when a book she has chosen becomes dull to work through. She is obliged to chose books at school which needs to be read every night but she gets fed up when they are turgid or the stories are banal. She listens to audio books at night and I am more than happy about that. I also have a couple on my iPad which she Dan listen to in the car.

But given that she wants to read, is drawn to books but keeps finding that she ends up with ones which are either exciting but the text is too dense and complicated for her, or simple text but the story is dull or childish, I wanted to find done that tick both boxes - accessible text but great stories.

That hardly marks me out as a pushy domineering mum who won't let her follow her own interests and, to be honest, you can only have read that from what I wrote if you wanted to.

I get that you are also irritated too. But my irritation was created by being sneered at for asking a reasonable question and not being afforded the simple assumption that I am just trying to do something nice and positive for my child. Your irritation was presumably caused elsewhere but my thread was where you felt it most appropriate to vent.

I have managed to get completely side-tracked from all the great helpful stuff on this thread by your nastiness. I should apologise for that. But my son is having a really bad time by now and there is nothing I can do about that. My DD is fab but I just thought a little help in this area would be a good thing. Instead I get a post about not letting her peruse her own interests.
It has just crystallised all the things I dislike about MN at the moment and I don't understand it.
Why post to be shitty? Why do that? This isn't aibu - why are people so keen to be nasty.
I guess I need a break.

Pag sorry to hear you are having a rough time of it. I hope things feel a bit better soon.

Pagwatch

*Thank you for your apology. I do appreciate it but with respect, your post did not come across as critical - it was critical. You referenced my son at uni in a sarcastic way and you added 'just a thought' which was a device to imply that I am being blinkered and pushy.

The 'functionally literate' jibe was particularly unpleasant given that I have a child who isn't and never will be. I have always been very grateful that DD is happy and healthy and wouldn't swop that for a higher I Q. I am well aware of how precious that is without it being pointed out to me by someone point scoring.*

I am sorry, I can see how what I said would be hurtful. You did not say this in your original post and I did not know because I am not familiar with your posts.

a list of books I liked at about that age (I was an avid reader, though, but these are ones I liked for the stories, rather than the language, iyswim?)

The Silver Sword
I am David
the Susan Cooper series (Over Sea, Under Stone; The Dark is Rising etc)
books by Robert Westall (The Machine Gunners, The Devil on the Road, lots of others)
books by Robert Cormier (I am the Cheese is the one I still remember, but had others too)
WHen Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit (I clearly had a war thing going on, looking at this list!)

I also liked the HElen Forrester books - both fiction (can't remember any titles) and The Twopence to Cross the Mersey series (autobiographical), but may have been a bot older - 10/11 maybe? - when I read those.

The ghost of Thomas Kempe was also fab. oh, and books by Penelope Lively and Nina Bawden.

I read one about time travel/identity swapping with a boy in Shakespearean times not so long ago - it's on my kindle and I could look it up (is a children's book )

If your DD is losing interest in the middle of a story then perhaps try some short stories. Also if she doesn't like one of the stories then that doesn't mean the whole book is a write off.

Would something like these interest her?
www.amazon.co.uk/An-Oxford-Anthology-Mystery-Stories/dp/0192754041/ref=sr_1_6?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1332928862&sr=1-6

www.amazon.co.uk/White-Horse-Zennor-other-stories/dp/1405239638/ref=sr_1_35?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1332929162&sr=1-35

short stories a good idea - Roald Dahl's The amazing story of Henry Sugar (or soemthing like that) was another favourite of mine. along with Boy and GOing Solo.

My DD loves the Emily Windsnap books (The Mermaid's Tail etc).

My eldest DD loves books to an obssession, DD, 9, couldn't give a stuff. the only books she has read the whole way through are Horrid Henry, but she is in the top reading group in her class (to the disgust of DD1).

She never lifts a book in the house. She is reading a Cathy Cassidy in school atm.

How about the books that go along with the Harry potter books? Tales of beadle the bard, mysterious creatures and where to find them, quidditch through the ages?

Dd loves these.

She also enjoys michael morpogo books and is currently reading Dr Proctors FArt Powder which she won't put down and seems to be a real laugh out loud book.

I've arrived a bit late, but my dd is 8 and a big reader. She doesn't like girly wishy-washy books and these have been recent hits:

The Lady Grace Mysteries (Tudor lady-in-waiting sleuthing)
Rose books by Holly Webb (as you mentioned in your first post) - quite big writing but older themes (and a bit of gore, much to dd's glee!)
Warrior Cats (doesn't appeal to me - clans of, guess what, cats)

She also recently enjoyed When Hitler Stoke Pink Rabbit (war interest) and Harriet the Spy (American interest)

I have a whole bookshelf of "classics" (yellowing 1970s copies with minuscule writing) and frankly some of them are a bit boring. And my full set of Secret Sevens/Famous Fives/Malory Towers got the bum's rush from dd with a haughty "They're all the same".

Turnip - I loved Charlotte Sometimes, and it has reminded me of:
A Traveller in Time - Alison Uttley - about the Babington plot.

What about Mr Gum? Downside is that the audiobooks are ace, so much so that I prefer them to the books, ditto the hiccup the Viking ones. But yes yes yes to Susan Cooper.