Favourite first/early reader books?

[Twofingers]

I’m looking for recommendations for great first readers for a five year old girl who likes animals, fairies, horse riding, music, dancing, art… Preferably books that don’t feature a traditional family unit.

I know Enid Blyton's a bit out of favour these days but her Faraway Tree books are perfectly pitched for young readers. Exciting, magical, funny, scary, but written in accessible language.

The family in it is probably traditional but hardly appears. Mostly the children are up in the Tree or in magical lands having adventures with pixies, gnomes, and goblins etc.

Thank you I’ll look at those, hopefully not too advanced as she’s just learning but a great reminder as I loved Enid Blyton, I still remember everything about The Enchanted Wood yet I read it over 50 years ago.

My daughter is also just learning (at the sounding out simple words stage) and I've found this set fantastic:

www.amazon.co.uk/Usborne-First-Reading-Library-Collection/dp/B00PW93WG8/ref=mp_s_a_1_5?crid=1SFLQW2R9INIY&keywords=usborne+first+reading&qid=1652337029&sprefix=usbotne+fi%2Caps%2C90&sr=8-5

They go through all the sounds and get increasingly more advanced. What I love about them is they are designed for cooperative reading, so one page in the spread is for the adult to read and the opposite page is in a different font for the child to read afterwards. Our bedtime routine is to read a chapter of whatever book I am reading to her (she's loved Wizard of Oz, Secret Garden and My Naughty Little Sister recently) then one of these little books together. They have games at the end of each book that reenforce the sounds covered, so we do those together and then she gets about 45 mins independent reading before lights out. I put the little phonics book on a shelf above her bed after we've done them together to encourage her to revisit them independently.

It's working out well for us, and if you work out the price per book its very good value!

Thank you, that’s great value!

My 5 year old is reading the Julia Donaldson songbirds books and loving them. They go from first phonics, up in stages to go with them as they learn. It's the only books she will sit and engage with!

Oxford Reading Tree which goes right up to independent reading of chapter books. Usually find them in charity shops.

There are a plethora of books aimed at young girls featuring those things. A lot of them focus very much on friendships rather than families though. I didn't really do many first phonics type books but once moving onto chapter books the Princess in black series are good and rainbow magic fairies have some first reader books. Chapter books she'll probably enjoy progressing to include anything by Daisy Meadows, Zoes rescue zoo, Isadora Moon and Mirabelle series, The Magic Ballerina series, etc.

Do you mean first reader books or early reader? These tend to mean very different things, with first reader being a single easy sentence per page and early reader being starter chapter books.
The former: DDs liked the Songbird and Reading Champion books. They have more variety and better stories than Read Write Inc and Biff/Chip. There are also some good non-fiction Oxford Reading Tree and National Geographic collections about animals.
The latter: Esio Trot, The Magic Finger, The Princess in Black series, Happy Families series, and Mr Penguin series have been hits and fulfill one or other of your criteria. Also the Rainbow Magic series mentioned by a PP, but I would rather stick pins in my eyes than listen to DCs reading those because they are dull and repetitive, so they are worth saving for your DD to read to herself.

They look great. Thank you.

I have got my 5 year old DD some Julia Donaldson Songbirds to read herself and also likes to read Mr Men books. At the moment I am reading the Isadora Moon books - she adores them.

Reading the Isadora Moon books to her - not for my own fun! But they are good.

My little boy has just turned 5 and he really enjoys Julia Donaldson songbirds, Usbourne early readers and is just getting into these Pokemon early readers too. He gets Oxford Reading Tree from school. I would suggest going to your local library and seeing what is available as we get ours from there. Ours has a whole section dedicated to Early Readers and also can order in from surrounding libraries too.

If you mean first readers, then I'd agree with the recommendations for Songbirds and the Usborne First Reading Library. Once she gets to about yellow book band, you can get Usborne Phonics Readers www.books2door.com/collections/phonics-books/products/usborne-first-phonics-reading-library-12-books-ages-0-5-paperback . There are loads more than in this set covering animals as main characters doing a wide range of different things, our local library has loads.

The other option I can think of is the Usborne Apple Tree farm set, The Complete Book of Farmyard Tales (Farmyard Tales Poppy and Sam) smile.amazon.co.uk/dp/1409562921/ref=cm_sw_r_apan_i_ADXAH3VXNW3R33MNXTFZ . Whilst the children are in a traditional family the father barely features at all (think he's in 1 or 2 stories) - the male character on the front is the farm worker not the father. The top line on each page is in larger text and foe the child to read, the bottom set of lines in smaller font is for the adult. DD loved collaborative reading like this.