Fantastic books for bright 5 y os...?

[Roseylea]

Could anyone recommend any great books for a bright 5 yo? My dd has just stated yr 1 and is beyond the pre-school stuff like the Gruffalo etc, but not quite up to the Famous Five yet. I have just ordered some of the Rainbow Fairy books from Scholastic, and she loved 'Flat Stanley' (but not 'Stanley in Space' - there were too many things she didn't 'get' and I had to explain, like who the President of the United States is). I have trawled around the bookshops and charity shops this morning, but still feel like there's either a bit of a gap in the market, or I'm just not seeing the best stuff for this age.

I adore books and am so excited about the stuff she'll be able to read soon, but don;t want to give her stuff that's too hard now in case it puts her off reading (I was force-fed Dickens far too young and it's ruined him for me for life - what a shame!)

Any ideas?

this is the series

Thanks

They look good. DD is reading ORT Level 6 fluently at home. Just finishing Level 5 at school - but they do a whole range of schemes at same level, so all 18 (or 12 not L2) on ORT followed by another several books of other schemes at similar level, so vocab and comprehension very good. These may be ideal

They really are good Hula.

Second flamingtoaster completely.
Here is thread from me on nostalgic rediscoveries for dd (aged 5/6).

Found lots of those books on Amazon, second hand, Popsy. Shame you have to pay P&P on every single item. Books came to £1, P&P £25 - will keep looking for a better deal on postage I think.

Nice piece about the forthcoming reissue of Pippi Longstocking, in English, with new pictures by the mighty Lauren Child, in Saturday's Telegraph Review.
Astrid Lindgren may have been fuelled to make Pippi so feisty and anarchic in part by her dismay at the state of the Swedish welfare homes for orphans in the 30s, apparently ("Welfare Board" gets a hard time more than once in the books).
I learned a lot about Lindgren's life and work from the article.
PS dd, not reading yet, only four, is enthralled by the illustrations in the Milly Molly Mandy reissues we got this week for her!

Anyone notice that MN, in its great wisdom & new-brooming of overhauled categorisation, has just shifted my thread (as linked to below) into ... guess what ... Adult Fiction.

Hmm

Great ideas coming up, it is so difficult when the shops seem to stock bloody rainbow fairies and nothing else, so it does help to know what you are looking for.

Thank you to whoever mentioned Mary Plain, wow, I'd forgotten about those books, I loved them when I was young.

Also, dd nearly six and recently I was reading the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe to her. She loved it. I'd never read it before so we both found it very exciting. I thought it might be too much for her but it was a great success.

Also wanted to remind people here that this age group is not too old for the more complex picture book format.
Dd loves "Ella's Big Chance" a glorious Shirley Hughes retelling of Cinderella, and Quentin Blake's The Green Ship (as did ds before her), plus East of the Sun, West of the Moon, with stunning and complex illustrations by PJ Lynch. Finally, with Christmas coming up, three of ds' favourite older-child picture books...

The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey
The Greatest Gift (story of the fourth Wise Man, from Barefoot Books) and The Good Little Christmas Tree, by Ursula Moray Williams, are all good, thought-provoking reads for December!

has anyone mentioned the usborne young puzzle adventure series here

Also Tomi Ungerer is good at this age

absolute CORKERS!

They look good, suzywong. (Adds to dd2's Christmas present list!)

On the subject of 'older' picture books, can I recommend (again) The Glass Heart. We are going to Venice soon and I shall be digging it out for the dds before we go.

Is she already too old for Angelina Ballerina? So beautifully illustrated and seems to fill the gap between nursery reading and Yr 1.

Have discovered Green Banana and Blue Banana books today. DD read most of the grenn Banana book "I win" last night. Look similar level to the Young Hippo ones, which they didn't have at the bookshop.

oh yes, dd1 brought home the red banana book from school, with the delightful title of Fierce Milly and the Swizzled Eyes

marvellous

Have managed to order a couple of Sprinters from ebay too - chose one about a girl called Molly - thought it would appeal to DD

Didn't see any red banana books in the bookshop but didn't really look TBH as would be too hard for Dd just yet.