Book suggestions for 5 year old

[buddles]

Hi all, my 5 year old son is coming to the end of his reception year at primary school.

He is a very fluent reader, currently on the 'purple' level books at school. His teacher has suggested we try some chapter books at home, so was looking for some suggestions for ones to try - obviously he is only 5 (April birthday) so going to need some that are fairly easy for him to understand, as much as I'd like to get him started on Harry Potter I think we will wait a bit for those!

Many thanks in advance.

It took DS a little while (maybe half a year) from reaching approx purple level to really start reading chapter books - as in, picking them up by himself and reading them for pleasure. The ones that got him hooked were the Magic Tree House books as mentioned by PPs. They're great as they cover many different topics, so you can find one that is close to your child's interests, then once they've read one book, they'll want to read more to see how the story continues.
He also enjoyed Frankie's Magic Football, a series that is at a similar level. And some of the shorter Roald Dahl books: Esio Trot, The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me, The Enormous Crocodile.

Before he got going with the above, he'd read books like the Ninjago Readers. Technically they are chapter books (as they have chapters) but they feel more like school readers, with full colour pictures and just a paragraph or two of large print text on every page. They aren't great for 'stretching' a child, but they nicely served my primary aim to get him to read to himself for fun/pleasure!

mrz he thinks that because his teacher suggested trying some chapter books with him. I'm quite happy for him to read picture books for as long as he wants if that's what he wants to do.

The only childrens chapter books I have at home currently are Harry Potter which I think he's too young for (tho I may as a pp suggested, start reading them to him) and all his teacher mentioned were Horrid Henry which I wanted to avoid! It's difficult because he is currently a strong reader but being only just 5 I want to try something that will challenge him but that he will still be able to comprehend.

Love all the suggestions, going to try a few from the library and see how we go! Thanks all

I would certainly read chapter books to him but I do think we (teachers) need to stop confusing chapter books with greater difficulty it really isn't the case. There is an analysis of text complexity comparing a number of picture ad chapter books

When my ds was purple level, I don't think he read any chapter books. But he read 3 purple level books a day to me.
When we went to library, he has often chosen easy picture books, sometimes without any word at all. But he read many of them, and read with great expression including body gesture and facial expression, etc. It was great fun listening to him.

Keeping up with their reading appetite is as much our reason for moving to chapter books as anything else. You only need to find a handful a week rather than 5 a day! DD (also 5) does still choose some picture books, but she's generally read them all in the car on the way home from the library.

I also find good quality picture books hard to find. Or rather, /new/ good quality picture books, we already own hundreds and have read more hundreds from the library. DD has read at a rough guess all the picture books in her classroom - she religiously brought one home every day till she ran out - the only one that was even slightly challenging was the random one in French. At the library the picture books are all chucked in boxes at random and most are very simple and twee and basically poor quality. On the other hand, chapter books that meet DC's tastes are easily available and there are loads of recommended ones they haven't read yet.

cat, I get what you are saying. But when my ds was in reception, I had no clue about how to stretch or help my ds.(Not known MN yet back then)
So I just followed his lead, he brought home 3 books, so we read 3 books. I get that reading 3 books a day seems stupid, but that was only thing I was doing back then. Also he loved reading same books again and again.
Didn't have any problem transitioning to reading chapter books later though, or maybe had advantage of getting reading stamina for reading longer books.

Reading 3 books a day doesn't sound stupid at all! You're lucky having a school prepared to provide 3 books a day.

Some good suggestions here, but I also agree with mrz. My reception son is a strong reader (currently reading up to white/band 10) but one of the lovely things that has happened is a rediscovery of lots of picture books that he can now read entirely alone. Many of them include words which are not actually found in the dictionary, which is fantastic for decoding practice of harder words.

Yes, they need to develop stamina when reading, but actually a lot of picture books are plenty long enough for this - or they can read several each day as many posters are saying.

Chapter books feel like a big milestone, but actually I don't think they always offer anything more than a lot of longer picture books.