Inspiration for Year 5 reading books...

[loveinthemist]

Hi there

My twin daughters who have just turned 10. They love reading and are currently devouring 'Inkheart' and 'Tom's Midnight Garden' which they have picked from the school library. I'm also reading 'Little House on the Prairie' to them which seems to have really captured their imagination. They are huge Harry Potter fans and have now read (and reread) the whole series but I'm trying to introduce a wider range of literature to their shelves!!

I'd be grateful for any ideas; ie. books which you or your children have loved reading at that age. Books which you'd consider inspiring and 'unmissable'. Thanks in advance....

things I used to like, not sure I would say they are inspiring and unmissable but good books

Swish of the Curtain
Noel Streatfield ones
Anne of Green Gables type books
Drina (dancing books) - out of print now but still available second hand online
Moondial
Charlotte Sometimes
A traveller through (or might be in) time - Alison Uttley
I have a list somewhere of some old classics they are reprinting - will see if I can find it.

Green Knowe
Marianne Dreams - not sure what age this is but just saw a link to it and I remember reading it - might be a bit scary? can't remember
Wolves of Willoughby Chase (although I was freaked out by the wolves and had to be convinced we didn't have them in this country)
Carbonel - might be too easy, can't remember

The Silver Sword

Wrinkle in Time
Phantom Tolbooth
From the Mixed up Files of Basil E Franken(something that I can't remember)
My Side of the Mountain

The Hobbit

The Secret Garden, White Boots, The Little Princess, Five Children and It - dd has enjoyed these for a year, and she is nearly 10, but I remember enjoying them for years and years

Percy Jackson books, by Rick Riordan.

The Djinn books (eg Fire Djinn) bu someone whose surname begins with a D. Might be Davies.

Street Child by Berlie Doherty.

Not sure if they are inspirational, but dd has recently enjoyed

Dead man's cove by Lauren St. John
Charlotte sometimes
Anything by Kate Saunders (magicalamity, beswitched(?) & one about a chocolate shop)

She also loves diary of a wimpy kid

And the London eye mystery, not sure of the author

Dick King-Smith

not sure of ages of these but this is the list I was looking for, I can't remember the context of it all, it was something about old classics being republished or something

A Traveller In Time - Alison Uttley
The Little White Horse - Elizabeth Goudge
The Once and Future King - T.H. White
The Eagle of the Ninth - Rosemary Sutcliff
The Midnight Folk - John Masefield
The Railway Children - E Nesbit
Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
Ballet Shoes - Noel Streatfield
The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnet

This is a reply I posted the other day to a similar request. In particular, using maps or other resources gives added relevance to a story, and is probably a useful skill to learn for when secondary school and beyond are encountered.

QUOTE:

I think all the Arthur Ransome books are excellent, as they are interesting adventures that also impart the history and way of life of the period (1930s), AND if one is really keen you can pretty well learn to sail from them!

"Coot Club" is particularly good as it is set in real places in the Norfolk Broads. All the villages, rivers, broads etc mentioned in the story can be found on the Ordnance Survey 2-1/2" Broads map. This can give the added interest of following the route in considerable detail. Apart from there being less railway lines, and more major roads, surprisingly little has changed since the'30s!

Another book that can be followed on large scale maps, as well as on dedicated web sites is "Watership Down". The housing development that destroyed the rabbits' first home, is on the outskirts of Newbury.

UNQUOTE

Thank you everyone for all these wonderful suggestions. Lots of new ideas and some old favourites in there too. I'll slowly start stocking up their shelves (and nicking a few from their eldest DS's shelf too)... Might even re-read a few myself. I also loved the Swallows and Amazons series - just wish I'd kept them!