5 year old with reading age of 10 - book recommendations please

[LeOrange]

Evening all. We received my daughters reception year report this evening, which was lovely. They have carried out a reading assessment and she has a 10 year old's reding age. The school is relatively new and her teacher (whilst brilliant) is relatively inexperienced and has been unable to guide us in the right direction, but has suggested that we provide books for my daughter that are age-appropriate yet set the appropriate level of challenge. We are both English teachers, so you would think well placed to deal with this, but we are secondary specialists and a bit stumped here. I am going to ask to speak with the Head tomorrow about appropriate challenge etc, but would really welcome any advice. Thanks.

The Borrowers, Rumer Godden, Noel Streatfield, Paddington.

On that point we are entirely agreed, that is why I asked for advice on age and ability appropriate books.

My 6 yo dd is an advanced reader and has been off reading scheme books for a few months now. Whilst I can fully see that others will get to the same point and there'll be no way of knowing she was an early reader in the end necessarily, I do think right now it needs specific handling.

Dd is not keen on any peril or upset so we have not tried anything like Harry Potter or Roald Dahl. We have had success with the Horrid Henry early readers, Milly Molly Mandy (though it does need some translation!) Mary Kate stories, My Naughty Little Sister, Enid Blutons, The Borrowers, Mrs Pepperpot. We also got the Early Reaser sets from the book people - lots of the Alfie and Annie Rose books and all the Katie Morag books. The Worst Witch she found a bit scary in places. I've tracked down some of my childhood favourites on eBay but many need translation and discussion or have physical chastisement etc in which dd is unfamiliar with ie Stories for 5 year olds. I loved The Family From One End Street, The String Family etc.

We go to the library once a week and she borrows from the Rainbow Fairies, Tiara Princesses, Secret Unicorn, Battersea Dogs, Froendship Fidge and Brownies Series' - the library is a fantastic place as its got loads of these fairly benign early chapter books!

There's a series of Early Readers by good authors like Julia Donaldson and Malorie Blackman etc too - I get them second hand in eBay.

If you want to offer complexity of sentence structure and language, I'd go for books aimed at younger readers but written a while go...Gobbolino, Beatrix Potter, Milly Molly Mandy etc. The Astrid Lindgren Lotta and Pippi stories might appeal. But I wouldn't worry too much, just give a wide variety of fun books and magazines...Nat Geo Kids is great, aimed at 7+ but my six year olds, who I'd say are upper middle readers for their age (lime at end of Y1 so not advanced like your DD) find it perfectly accessible.
For fun reads I'd recommend The Worst Witch, Wigglesbottom Primary, Sparky at Magic School, the Faraway Tree books. Not sure but for Dahl I seem to remember The Giraffe, The Pelly and Me being very low threat. My two love The Enormous Crocodile but they find it funny, others may be scared.
Please Mrs Butler is fun for poetry.

Depending on whether she has a vocab reading age of 10 or a comprehension reading age and stamina reading age of 10 would make different books more suitable. But when they were 5 my boys loved this animal set, Roald Dahl especially his shorter stories like the Giraffe, Pelly and Me, Enormous Crocodile or George's Marvellous Medicine. And Monster and chips. Lots of these books are down as age 7+ rather than 10+ but it means they are shorter so easier for a younger reader to finish. DS3 is now 7 and loves reading the Warrior Cats series but I think these may be a bit scary for your DD or possibly too long.

My 9 year old who is an excellent reader struggled with the Borrowers because of the vocabulary. She had no problem with Little Women etc.
She is really enjoying the "Murder Most Unladylike" series
My 7 year old is enjoying Narnia & the Daisy & the trouble with books from a recommendation on here. We are enjoying the Little House series but mainly me reading to her as they are long.

Presumably you still read to her? Does that not readily tell you what stories she enjoys? Surely that will tell you more of what books she'll enjoy than a load of strangers who've never met her, without any knowledge of what she enjoys?

I still don't really know what a reading age of 10 actually means, but the books she enjoys are likely to be best books to read, regardless of a particular age group target.

I'd second the claude books. My DD1 now aged 7 has enjoyed them for a couple of years and DD2 who is 5 and a good reader is also really enjoying them.

The Ottoline books by Chris Riddell are also great.

We really like both of these series as they are illustrated beautifully as well and the girls like a picture as they read!

My just-5yo DD is also finishing reception and has a pretty advanced reading age (not measured - I wouldn't think it's as high as yours). People talking about 'barking at print' are being silly - I understand exactly what you mean - they love reading and the 'easy readers' are not interesting enough for them in terms of the sentence structure and complexity of story. Yet, many books are too old in theme or too scary etc. The more old fashioned books work better IMO.

She is reading James & the Giant Peach at the moment and enjoying it.

She has loved the Teddy Robinson books when they were read to her (a year or two ago) and I think they might be good for her to read to herself now. Also Ponder and William, which are lovely stories.

Possibly Gobblino the Witches' Cat?

Olga da Polga? Famous Five/Secret Seven?

Some of the Usborne classics are brilliant - the Treasure Island and Jane Eyre for example .

Oh - also 'THe Trouble with Daisy' books.

Pippi Longstocking!

One thing I recommend for early readers is the electronic dictionary.
It is good skills to know how to use real one, but when reading books and encountered new vocabulary, electronic ones are really easy for them to use and don't break "reading" so much. Also it has thesaurus, so if the child doesn't get what the word means straight away, they can use thesaurus function to find the word that they understand better.

Just be guided by what your child likes. There are plenty of more traditional books which are really 'safe', but as someone above mentioned, it depends if they have the reading stamina of a 10 year old, the comprehension of a 10 year old, the vocabulary of a 10 year old (this one I'm assuming is yes at least). If your child likes simpler stories, stick with those. If she likes more complex stories, then the classics are really good. But I would just say, these things can change quickly in children who are very strong readers. I thought my DD was quite sensitive, but whilst she was to some things, her tastes developed almost as rapidly as her reading ability. I realised quite quickly that she was more interested in complex plots, and her ability to handle more complex themes and issues developed quite quickly too. Once your child starts to develop their personal preferences in literature, it becomes easier to feed them reading material suitable to them (assuming she is or becomes an avid reader).

My 6 year old DD has read (and enjoyed) over the past year the Enid Blyton Faraway Tree books, all the Roald Dahls other than Boy and Going Solo (she loved The Witches), Milly Molly Mandy, the Claude books, the Worst Witch books, a couple of the Lemony Snicket books (and wants to read more), The Secret Garden (which she adored), Mr Gum (wants to read more), Gobbolino, some of the Alison Uttley Little Grey Rabbit series and she LOVES Horrid Henry. Also the Ottoline books (and she liked the Goth Girl ones as well).

At the moment she is obsessed by the How to Train Your Dragon books though.

I tend to read her some of the more complex classics just to get her used to the vocabulary - we're currently reading The Children of Green Knowe for example.

My DD1 was like this but she had no tolerance for threat at all. So fiction was very hard because while she could read the stories she wasn't emotionally ready for them. Even the goblins in the rainbow magic books could only be born if she was sat next to one of us when reading them.

We read a lot of nonfiction. Especially books about science and space. Even books like the ones that accompany Brian Cox to David Attenbourgh's series', which we'd read together so we could talk about what they meant.

Also poetry was great. Her teacher sent her home with a brilliant book of poems. Her favourite was 'The Night Mail' but there were also poems in different voices which really stretched her.

By the time she was 7 her favourite books were the horrible science and murderous maths ones.

6 months later we're now pushing fiction a bit more again. She loves Enid Blyton and Roald Dahl. She's also read The Secret Garden, The Queen's Nose, etc. The Railway Children is her favourite for some reason.

ooh I remember those days! DD was the same and loved the 'Olga da Polga' books!

The Magic Faraway Tree series
Wishing Chair Series

Roald Dahl
Oh and my DD loved Lauren StJohn at 5 see link these are really enthralling stories
[[http://laurenstjohn.com/book/the-white-giraffe/]]

Another vote for Millymollymandy lovely and sweet yet interesting words.
Also look at what you can get from Astrid Lindgren I see Pippi mentioned a fair few times but see if you can get Emil from Lonnebjeg delightful books and also likely to make her giggle without scarring her.
Avoid brother Lionheart for now bit highly recommended for when she is older.

Also what about the little house on the praire series. By Laura Ingalls Wilder

We were in this exact situation a few years ago (DD is now 9, reading age of 13.5 at the end of reception though I don't know how they measure it!) and school didn't really help much. Fortunately, a class mates mum is a children's librarian, and she was fantastic!

Suggestions:

Magic Treehouse series
Dinosaur Cove series
Matilda - a favourite for years now, she didn't get on with most of the rest of Roald Dahl at 5, but Matilda was perfect.
Classics - Ballet Shoes, White Boots, Secret Garden, Lost Prince, Little Princess, Water Babies... most are free downloads if they have access to a Kindle.
Enid Blyton - Faraway Tree, Wishing Chair, Secret Seven (might need to wait a year or so depending on how she does), Naughtiest Girl in the School, Malory Towers, St Clare's, the Adventure series etc etc.
Pippi Longstocking
Holly Webb books - we started with Animal Ark which moved her on to Lily, Rose etc.
Curiously the Milk by Neil Gaiman
Non fiction - Usborne See Inside series in particular was brilliant, also "Is a Blue Whale the Biggest Thing There Is?" and the rest of that series is excellent.

Good luck!

What about some of the Laura Ingalls books? Good stories and I can't remember anything being too scary etc for a younger child.
There is a big difference in 5 and 7 and certainly by the time I was 7 I was reading a much more mature book...
At 6 I particularly liked 'the Old Man and the Sea', I also liked parts of Heidi but the later parts were too sad etc. If she can get past the first few pages of 'Children of the New Forest', that may also be good... Princess and the Goblin and Toms Midnight Garden could be a little scary... The Secret Garden?

The start of the Secret Garden is very scary - when Mary's parents die of Cholera(?) and she is left alone in the house when everyone flees. And nobody loves her enough to remember she is there.

WE have had the same issue with DGS - for him it was easy as he loves non-ficiton and happily devours encyclopaedias.

The Colin Dan books are good - nature tales that are not twee.

His school was giving him books that were from the top class and well within his reading capabilities, but completely unsuitable content for a 5 year old.

My 6yo loves Paddington and also the Clever Polly and the Stupid Wolf books.
In general, chapter books from a generation or two earlier are your friend in this situation - not the Victorian/Edwardian stuff because there is too much peril, but the stuff we and our parents were given which tends to be a slightly more challenging read than things aimed at children that age these days.