reading recommendations for 8 yo girl

[kayjay70]

Hi all,
I've just joined mumsnet and have had a quick look through the topics but can't find an answer - forgive me if it's been covered elsewhere (and if it has I'd be grateful of a point in the right direction incase I'm doing this horribly wrong :) )
My daughter is 8 (year 4) and has a reading age of over 12 which is creating a problem in terms of finding her reading books that she finds interesting / challenging / not too easy but don't start to deal with more 'adult' or 'teenage' themes.
She's read all Roald Dahl, adores all the David Walliams books and is starting on some Michael Morpurgo - can anyone recommend any others - her friends are mostly reading rainbow fairies and they just don't interest her.
Many thanks!
Karen

DD is the same age, she loves the Roman Mysteries by Caroline Lawrence, and all the "Little House" books by Laura Ingalls Wilder.

She is reading her way through the Nellie the Monster Sitter's series just now too.

Joan Aiken, Diana Wynne Jones (fantasy)
Also classics like Noel Streatfield, Elizabeth Hodgson Burnett
Rosemary Sutcliffe for historical fiction

My 8 year old DD is year 3 and her reading age is 11. We were like you and your DD in that she has read a lot of Roald Dahl etc but we were in a bit of a lull and couldn't find anything to capture her imagination. I then suggested that she read one of the Enid Blyton 'Secret Seven' books and I told her that I used to love those books when I was her age. We borrowed one from the libary and she absolutely loved it . She has asked if she can buy another one using her World book day token.

We are just enjoying the first Harry Potter.

My dd's in year 4 too. In the couple of terms some of the books she has read include:
The Hobbit
Green Knowe Series
Chalet School
Black Beauty
Katy Did set
Secret garden
Little Princess
Lots of Jacqueline Wilsons
Ballet Shoes/White Boots
Blue Door theatre set
Swallows and Amazon series.

She was also into Willard Price stories last year, which are also quite fun.

If you ask around I suspect you'll find some ideas from friends, most of dd's friends have left the rainbow fairies behind, and they are sharing a lot of books around. Several of them have an arrangement that they'll bring a book in on a day and all swap round.

At that age my daughter read anything by Jacqueline Wilson, Michael Morpurgo and Enid Blyton (the famous fives and the schools series were particular favourites). Also, the "classics" by penguin books - Heidi, Black Beauty, etc.

If you go for the classics you'll often find age-appropriate subject matter with relatively challenging language -- so E. Nesbit, say, or [hmm, actually most of the rest of what I was going to suggest pps have already mentioned].

You could also look at something like the James Herriot books or Gerald Durrell's My Family and Other Animals -- I remember reading those at around that age.

The Chalet School series

Books by:
Tamora Pierce
Gail Carson Levine, eg Ella Enchanted
Shannon Hale
Dianne Wynne Jones
Patricia Wrede
Eva Ibottson - she wrote for a few different ages, the middle ones should be good (eg A Company of Swans etc).
Enid Blyton's boarding school series? Naughtiest Little Girl etc
Lorna Hill's Ballet series

Anne of Green Gables?

There are also some good suggestions on these threads:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/childrens_books/654454-Any-good-books-for-9yo-advanced-reader

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/childrens_books/1092886-Books-to-Follow-Harry-Potter-series-for-8yo-girl

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/childrens_books/647562-Recommendations-for-9yr-old

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/childrens_books/424662-suggestions-please-for-ds-8-his-reading-level-is-about

My dd also 8 but in year 3, not sure of reading age but was 10.5 over a year ago, has recently enjoyed the famous 5, the how to train your dragon books by Cressida cowell (not for every little girl, but mine is a bit of a tomboy), anything by jacqueline Wilson and the abonimables by Eva Ibbotson.

Always looking for books she will enjoy myself so interseting to see what other suggest.

My dd is 7 and in Year 2. I have no idea of her reading age. She loves reading anything by Enid Blyton especially Malory Towers, Famous Five and The Island of Adventure series. She has also enjoyed reading the Ramona series by Beverly Cleary, the Narnia chronicles, Princess Mirabelle by Julia Donaldson, books by Gwyneth Rees, some Jacqueline Wilson and Arthur Ransome, Five Children and It, and early Little House on the Prairie books.

Hi - retired TA (male) here :

Someone just beat me to it! I was going to say Arthur Ransome! I ALWAYS say Arthur Ransome as he has been a favourite of mine for over sixty years!

Swallows and Amazons was the first, of course. But if she also likes history or geography, then Coot Club is brilliant because all the locations are real, in the Norfolk Broads. The OS 2-1/2 inch map of the Broads shows all the places the children visit, and allowing for a few new roads and less railways, it has hardly changed. The social history of the area is also covered: the children want to send a letter to friends in a nearby village, and say if they post it in the morning, it will arrive in the 'second post' the same afternoon! They buy provisions in a riverside shop, and all their purchases are carried down to their boat by the 'shop boy'.

And if she likes poetry, some John Betjeman might be a possibility, or bits of Dylan Thomas' Under Milk Wood.

DD 9 is reading Mallory Towers and really likes it. Loves Jacqueline Wilson too.

My dd is nearly 7 and these are the books she's enjoyed recently. We go to the library every week and she gets lots of books out and sometimes they're loved, sometimes they're not. These are the recent successful ones.

Enid Blyton
Animals of Farthing Woods
My Family and other animals
Spiderwick Chronicles
Poetry - try things like Edward Lear
Just so stories
Aesops fables
The Hobbit
Charlottes Web

My dd is an 8 yr old year 3 & on top of a lot of the ones that have been mentioned, she also enjoys the Sophie & The Shadow Woods series & Monstrous Maud. Clarice Bean & the spin-off Ruby Redfort books too.

I would just let her read what she wants to read. As she is so far advanced they don't have to progress her abilities at all.
Just encourage her to read for fun, take her to the library and let her choose, even something under her ability won't be wasted if its fun and she enjoys it.

I would never have thought of My Family and Other animals without this thread.
My DD will love that!

wordfactory recommended Chips, Beans & Limousines and its sequels for my 8 year old DD a few months ago and she raced through them.

Can I just add the Septimus Heap series by Angie Sage - big fantasy books, witty, lots of substance. Also Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson series - there are 8 so far - and his Egyptian series (3 so far).

DD2 is now in Yr5 but is just like yours, reading age off the scale, and it is hard to find age appropriate material that is challenging. A nice mix of the classics and new authors works well.

Oh, and I forgot to mention Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising series.

I think letting her read what she wants is a good idea, but IME she will probably want to read big interesting stuff - however the odd Diary of a Wimpy Kid won't hurt either. DD2 still vegs out with Judy Moody when she's tired.

I buy the Usborne Young Reading Series Three books for my DD too - especially the historical biographies (Victoria, Marie Antoinette etc).

Squeak DD1 read a gigantic Gerald Durrell anthology when she was 9 - starting with My Family And Other Animals, but also The Bafut Beagles, The Drunken Forest, A Zoo in my Luggage, Menagerie Manor. She's also read Golden Bats and Pink Pigeons. I had to explain some of the more adult references to her (chimps masturbating and so on) but she was more interested in the comedy and in the facts about animals. They're great books, very accessible but with challenging vocab.

My 8yo dd thoroughly enjoys:
How to train your dragon series
Lemony Snicket
Mr Gum
Percy Jackson

The Wolves of Willoughby Chase series by Joan Aiken going down well here.

I loved Arthur Ransome (all of them except 'we didn't mean to go to sea' which is just annoying) and Lone Pine Five (Malcolm someone). I think if you go for 'classics' (ie the books a lot of us read as children) it is a lot easier to find non-boring books without teenage angst themes.

Yy to Rosemary Sutcliffe and Michael Morpurgo, BTW.