Books for 5 year old to read over the summer

[SpanielFace]

My DS is a approaching the end of year one, and is very young for the year (August 31st birthday). We had a slow start with phonics, probably because of his age, but it has really clicked for him this term, and he’s now reading orange book band, which I believe is average for the end of year one? He is reading them fluently and I feel he is probably ready to move up.

Any suggestion for funny, exciting books at that level, or a bit higher, so we can keep the momentum up over the summer? I read to him every night and he loves Roald Dahl, Horrid Henry, dinosaur cove, some Enid Blyton etc, but I don’t feel he’s up to reading chapter books himself yet. Any suggestions?

My DD is a very similar age and is really into non-fiction. We have a whole series of books from the National Geographic ("big book of why" I believe one of them is called) and also a set from Book People about nature and animals. She'll happily sit and read those by herself.

She also likes books by Dick King-Smith (the ones for younger readers).

I've been pondering maybe getting a magazine subscription, that might be another idea?

He might manage the Horrid Henry early reader type books. At that level, my dd liked to ready the Happy Families books (Mrs wobble the waitress and others 😀).

My DD zoomed through the first two 'Dogman' books- written by Captain Underpants author i think and done in a cartoon style and very engaging. Great books to bridge the gap from picture books to chapter books for newly independent readers imo.

Project x alien adventure. But they are a notch more difficult than biff and chip of the same level, so you might need to go down a level. Book people have a massive set that is pretty good value.

I agree with the Happy Families series. They are great. Several of the Julia Donaldson books (Gruffalo etc) are available in little paperback book editions (so a bit more 'grown up' than the picture books). There is a series by Jeremy Strong called Pirate School (or something) - funny and silly with short chapters). Usbourne and Ladybird books have all different levels and nice classic solid stories. My daughter really liked the Usbourne abridged version of Heidi at that age. You should sign him up for the Summer Reading Challenge at your library - and join in yourself. You technically can't actually sign up (being a grown up) but you can join in with the 6 weeks - 6 books. And remember - comics/magazines are reading too.

Dr Seuss were huge favourites here.

I would def do the Reading Challenge, it worked wonders for us in the last 7 years.

Remember also factual books count, so if he is interested in anything particular look at these as well.

I would go for fun, even if it may not be the level he does at school, as long as he reads it is important.

If he like classical stories, myths and fairly tales, Usborne does good book, First Readers and Early Readers, Simple chapter ones with lots of picture. My DD loved them around that age.

Thanks, there’s some great suggestions there. I’d not heard of the reading challenge! We do go to our local library but not as often as we ought to. I’ll look into that. He does love non-fiction, he has several Usborne “look inside” books which he will sit and read by himself, but he is mostly just looking at the pictures. He’s not very good at voluntarily reading things, if you see what I mean! I’ll look into the national geographic ones. Dr Seuss is a good idea too, we have a few of those already.

Thanks for all the ideas. I love mumsnet for things like this!

My 6yo loves the Bear Grylls series & Squishy McFluff. He's only recently graduated to longer/chapter books but will sit & read these every second he gets!

We also loved squishy mcfluff.
And currently have bear grylls from the library but not read then yet.
There are some threads on mn about with real books at book bands.
We read some of those at each level.
We did project x turquoise onwards last yr between yr r and 1 and dd loved them.
Weve finally got to lime band at school (end of yr 1) after reading that level since last summer.

My son really likes Asterix - it helps that they are comics so not a wall of text.

Try oxford owl, they have online books, which are online versions of what they will read at school. You can choose by book band or stage so builds on what they are reading at school.

The Magic Treehouse (not 13-storey-treehouse) series are about Purple level; they were what started DS reading chapter books to himself at about this time in Y1. He had been capable for a while but not keen. There are over a hundred books in the series; pick one on a topic he's interested in (it was ninjas for DS) and he might just catch the bug!

Just place marking for ideas.

We usually sign up for the library Summer Reading Challenge. One of the librarians was on a recruitment drive yesterday!

It's a great way to encourage reading of all kinds. You do six books over the summer holidays and get stickers or something else in a card for each book read.