Year 2, good reader but with science/maths parents - What should we ask or suggest about her reading?

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DD who is six appears to be a good reader: over the summer she devoured Horrible Histories, Wizard of Oz, etc. She now dislikes reading out loud because it's too slow.

Can you suggest books, websites, questions to help her scientific parents?

She's reading the Rumblewick Diaries at the moment so we talked about narrators, telling the story through a diary, how it's different to Winnie but since we're not good in this area we're looking for more suggestions....

Also I'm looking for a reading list since although she could cope with the words in Harry Potter and Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit, I'm not comfortable with a 6 year old picking up the themes in these.

DD1 (also Y2 and avid reader) loves some of the 'classics' and less modern stories such as A Little Princess, Heidi, The Jungle Book etc. She got into reading the originals rather than the abridged versions thanks to buying Heidi at a school bookfair. We've now bought the set and are dripfeeding them to her.

That said, she loves non-fiction books (anything historical or about artists, even her maths dictionary) especially Usborne's 'Look inside' series. She also loves Enid Blyton, Roald Dahl, Michael Morpurgo, Jacqueline Wilson, the Pippi Longstocking stories and Spy Dogs.

If your DD is interested in one, she could be encouraged to keep a reading journal and could write comments about the books she reads, draw a character etc. etc but reading needs to be fun and, at her age, she is likely to encounter vocabulary or turns of phrase that she doesn't understand... she may well come back to them when she is older and draw out more of the meaning behind such things or she may be sufficiently interested now to ask you about them or to look up words in a dictionary. Stick with encouraging her to read for fun and for an actual purpose (as in recipes, directions etc.) and go with the her flow when it comes to interrogating the text.

Just thought I'd add my twopeneth; great your dd is enjoying her reading so much & you are right to take an interest. Ds (now 8,) became a free reader in year 1 & borrowed a Michael Morpurgo book from the school library where the main character contemplates suicide. It can be a mine field, but having said that, apart from his obsession with Beast Quest (you may just be lucky you have a daughter,) that's the only really inappropriate book he's picked up over the last 3 years.

Just one word to the wise regarding reading aloud, (ds hates it too,) we were told not to worry about it once he became a free reader but have since come to realise just how important it is. As they read more sophisticated stuff they're presented with more words they don't know & as they can follow the gist of the story which will just skim past it, which can lead to gaps in understanding later. We therefore have a rule that he needs to ask me the meaning of any words he doesn't know. I only make him read aloud 1-2x a week, (its good practise & gives me a chance to keep up with what he's reading,) but always try to be on hand so when he comes across a new word he can ask, as he's never going to remember later. Just something to bear in mind.

She might like the Judy Moody series ( just coming out as a film too), or animal stories by Dick King-Smith. Also what about the CS Lewis Narnia books? She might also like books by Astrid Lingren - Pippi Longstocking, Karlson on the Roof etc - Red House books are selling a pack of these for a good price at the moment. Would she like the Arthur Ransome Swallows and Amazons books? They are good fun but a bit dated, though if she is devouring Enid Blyton she might not mind this too much!

Another one here for letting her just enjoy the books without too much analysis.

I can relate to the "scientific" part- my occupation and training are all in maths, so supporting literacy is just not as comfortable for me, never quite sure I'm heading in the same direction as school.

One thing that might help OP is the NC guidelines for the next level up for your Dd, they give a list of criteria that could be used to extend literacy comprehension, for example "children can describe the picture they see in their mind when listening to a story".