Books or a 6 year old with reading age of 10

[NotAnotherChinHair]

Hi there. Title says it all really; I'd like to find books for my 6 year old DS who has a reading age of 10. I'd like them to be challenging but age appropriate. Cheers all.

SofaQueen I'm not suggesting parents were but you asked my opinion of the test and I gave an honest answer - reading ages are an unreliable measurement and vary greatly from test to test. I said I don't consider my pupils to be exceptions/G & T based on a reading age of 10.6 years (which incidentally is the limit of this particular test so they could be much higher). It isn't normal/average or any other adjective you want to use either.

and I gave my opinion that the child should be allowed to choose what he wants to read purely for pleasure

IMO,some of the reading tests are not good judges of 'reading age'. When I looked one up,I saw a list of words,words and more words. I didn't bother trying it because just by looking through,I could see that my dd could 'decode' several words on there. I do not think reading is just about words. Reading(for me)=decoding+fluency+comprehension.

I may be wrong but I just don't get the reading age thingy. Reading is reading is reading. Now do I have a reading age of a 50 even though I am in my 3os because I can decode many words? I never heard of it until lately.

OP,I think your dc enjoys books so feed him. What I want the most right now is for my dc to love books,delight in them and read them with enjoyment no matter how easy(all mean the same but that is how I feel)

I agree with all those who says children should get to choose their own reading material. Equally though, I think it is good to introduce your children to books they may not stumble upon without your help finding them.

More good (and unthreatening) retro books: Paddington Bear, The Wombles, Noel Streatfield's Ballet Shoes, Professor Branestawm.

I don't feel in the slightest inclined to justify my request to those labeling me for wanting to stimulate and enhance my dc's learning, but I do want to say a big massive thank you to all of you who have come up with some wonderful suggestions. You have been very helpful and I am going to look into all the titles/authors suggested. Thank you all.

I found some of the quality picture book to be really good. The are far better written than the books for yopung readers but arexage appropriate

I agree mrz. I too have over half the class with a reading age of 10+ measured by the Salford. This measure is so misleading to parents, when reading is all about understanding text rather than decoding words.

I would also steer clear of most retro books. I wonder how a 6 year old in 2010 is going to understand the historical context of a book written in the 1950s. There are so many fun books around now for the early readers - Jeremy Strong and Alan Ahlberg, for instance. And don't let him miss out on all those beautiful picture books!

Flat Stanley is certainly too advanced in ideas for a 6 year old - they would miss the moral of the story (although I would read this aloud to discuss the issues raised - it's all about discrimination). And Watership Down at 6???! It's an allegory about tyranny and freedom ffs - not a cute little book about bunnies!

Oh come on Stoatsrevenge - surely you can still enjoy reading books that you don't 100% understand? And parents can talk to their children about books the child is reading, as well as the stories being read to them.
As for the lack of historical context, there's a lot of value in learning that things were not always the way they are now (and a lot of Enid Blytons etc have been updated subtly to account for the more baffling stuff).
I wouldn't let a 6 year old anywhere near Watership Down, mind you - just asking for nightmares.

There are lots of great books out there So why don't you visit the library or book shop over half term and let him pick a subject he's interested in. No one is suggesting it has to be easy but not every book has to be a challenge either. Let him see reading is fun that's the way to keep him motivated.

Mrz,

Couldn't agree with you more. I wouldn't even give Watership Down to my nearly 10-yo.
And I agree with an earlier poster's point about going too retro - I can't stand Enid Blyton and neither can my DDs, they tried reading the Famous Five and were disgusted with the gender roles - and no, I did not feed them feminist indoctrination beforehand.
On the other hand there was a lot of good stuff written in the 70s and 80s which is well worth looking into.

I agree with mrz and don't think it's exceptional just the natural reading process.My twin boys were free readers in rec so who knows what reading age they were. I never gave it a moments thought just concentrated on what they were reading and encouraging enjoyment.

Reading is just reading, the important thing is fostering a love of reading as without that they won't read and they will drop. You need to read and read to keep improving and you'll only read and read if you love it.

Challenging can put kids off and to be honest if they're reading a wide breadth of books you don't need to worry about how challenging they are. It's far more important that he's enjoying it.

Not sure I agree with the sniffy views towards retro books.One of my twin boys(just turned 7) adores Enid Blyton,he's nearly read everything she's written. He's just spent all his bday money on a stash of Famous Fives. Neither of my two got on with Jeremy Strong,they liked a few but not all of them.They adored Flat Stanley too, all of them. They liked /like Roald Dahl,Horrid Henry, Spiderwick,Jack Stalwart,Dinosaur Cove,Daisy,Naughty Little Sister,the Magic Children series,Charlie Small,Wimpy Kid,Yuk etc,etc

Yes they could read far more tricky books but to be frank I think you'll struggle to find age appropriate,challenging and books they love all in one hit so to speak.

Twin2 reads at every given opportunity,he asks to go to bed early so he can read,thats because he loves books.It's priceless and encouraging that does far more good than challenging children when they get to free reader stage imvho. I actually think if they read books too challenging even though they can it doesn't help with fluency and comprehension, they don't get into the rhythm so to speak.

I make sure my boys read something simple every so often to keep things ticking over. I'm also concentrating on the comprehension as I know school are hot on it. You can get very fluent readers who can't tell you what happened in a chapter they've just read.

Actually twin1 is more into facts and Star Wars,he's not a book worm like twin 1 so as long as he enjoys what he's reading and is reading I'm not too bothered.

I find it amazing that people have the cheek to assume parents are 'pushy' because their children are doing well. Congratulations to the kids that are good readers and pat on the back to the parents who are concerned enough about their children to seek help in attempt to encourage the child to thrive. I have a 5 year old son who is reading years ahead of his age, too, and he loves the Aussie Nibbles and Aussie Bites books. Also ends up in stitches over Roald Dahl books. Hope this helps, original poster. The joy reading brings to my son is very special and a trip back from the library, to him, is like Christmas! Thanks for the posters here who have listed some good books- I have listed them and we will check them out!

Mr Gum books are good, there are also a series called Superpowers all about Hercules set in a modern day setting, definatly get him down to the library the quality of reading books these days are so much better than 30 years ago imo

My dd2 is 7 and a good reader. The books she has enjoyed include Captain Underpants, Flat Stanley, Astrosaurs, Spy Dog series, Jeremy Strong books, some Enid Blytons, she is growing out of Rainbow magic but liked them a year ago.

I kind of agree with what mrz and others have said. Dd2 probably does have a reading age much higher than her chronological age. However, she has also tried to read books that were too hard for her, and has had a miserable time - her choice, not mine. I'm thinking in particular of a book called the Secret Country, which she will enjoy in a year but does not have the maturity for it at the moment.

dd(y3) is currently reading Watership Down - she chose it from the school library - and she's thoroughly enjoying it - part of the reason she's enjoying it is that it's making her think - about half-way through she told me she realised this was the first book she'd read for ages that was 'challenging in a good way' (her words)

you know, some children actually like challenging themselves - it doesn't always mean they've got a pushy parent behind them ...

Back to the OP - books dd's enjoyed reading over the last year or so - Diana Wynne Jones (Chrestomanci, Dogsbody), Narnia (apart from the last one, I've pretended that doesn't exist!), How to Train your Dragon series, Mr Gum, anything by Roald Dahl, anything by Dick King-Smith, lots of Jeremy Strong, Ottoline series, Spy Dog series, pretty much anything she can find about ponies/puppies/kittens (most of dubious literary merit, but hey ho, she loves anything animal related), Wimpy Kid

Arthur Ransome - Swallows and Amazons and into the whole series of books.
Got all of ours from charity shops
initially DH read them to DS and DD as bedtime stories
then DD read them then DS started on them

Narnia?
Lord of the Rings?
Enid Blyton - not to everybody's style but if DS likes them, there are loads
Just William - very funny

I would agree with a lot of the retro books that others have suggested. My ds read all the Arthur Ransomes when he was 7. He loved them and was really diappointed when he had read them all and there weren't any more. He also though the Professor Branestawm books were absolutely hilarious (his teacher had to ask him to laugh a bit more quietly!)

Also enjoyed the Jeremy James books by David Henry Wilson, and Emil and the Detectives, Stig of the Dump. Also the Dark is Rising series by Susan Cooper, although he isn't really much into magic/fantasy.

And Truckers/Diggers/Wings series by Terry Pratchett, and he is now into the Just Willam books. He likes cricket and enjoyed a lovely series of books about the Glory Gardens boys' cricket club by Bob Cattell.

try 'Jeremiah in the dark woods' by Alan Ahlberg

I advise the hardback colour version for the pictures but its a great little sory about frairy tale characters....

sorry story

My 7 year old has a reading age of a 12 year old and his comprehension/sentence construction/grammer is very advanced now too according to the school - although it wasn't aged 5.

We tend to visit the library and just pick up lots of interesting books that look horrid, slimey and funny. Both fact and fiction. I don't go out of my way to choose complex books with hard stretching words at all (infact we avoid them) but I recon he must come across new words all the time in the funny books he reads.

The best way to help with comprehension is to read lots and lots of appropriate enjoyable books. Mine love to read for pleasure - the sillier the book the better! I'm so jelous that didn't discover reading till i was adult. Also I dare not tell anyone i know about my sons reading ability.

DD1 (6.9) has just finished the Harry Potter books and completely loved them. Has he tried them?
i thought she might be scared (she won't even watch toy story) but it seems that she can control the images in her mind from books that you can't from films.

have made notes from the suggestions above, thank you.

She has really enjoyed the Flat Stanley series from her class library, plus The Worst Witch series.

Same here, we go to the library and let them chose. There are some books that I read in my childhood of which I have good memories.
I will look at them and if I think dc will be able to read/understand them I will give it to them. I never consciously think about challenging/streching them.
Some of these have been books from Astrid Lindgren, little house on the prairy (and Enid Blyton...). One that is on top of my list has been translated into English but unfortunatly not been able to find it anywhere (not even amazon...).

My DS1 is a little younger than your DS (5.4) and an independent reader (although I don't know his reading age, so may be suggesting the wrong things). He loves:

Flat Stanley
Roald Dahl (the simpler books such as the Twits and Charlie and the Chocolate factory)
Horrid Henry
Usbourne Children's Encyclopedia
Anything about space
Random ladybird story books we buy at charity shops

He, of course, chooses his own books and a fair proportion of the time decides to read DS2's books (eg That's not my robot and Topsy and Tim).

I still read to him a lot, because we both enjoy it