Book suggestions for Y2 with high reading age

[Dodgeitornot]

Does anyone have any suggestions for books that would be appropriate for a 6.5 year old with a reading age of 12? Need suggestions for books that are appropriate but sufficiently challenging.
No to scary books eg Harry Potter, anything witchy.
Loves animals so anything with that is great. Currently reading how to train your dragon but is getting towards the end of the series and we're trying to line something up.

The Moomin books and Angela Brazil might be good choices.

I was at a similar point but actually stopping trying to push on with ‘more challenge’. I think sometimes after a long day of school, they just want to chill and do something that’s easy so if that is rainbow fairies for the 50th time I’m not so bothered.

What I have done for a bit of variety/challenge is go for more non-fiction books as they seem to be a good way of getting a different range of vocab but are easier to dip in and out of. Mine has really liked the national geographic books and the big dreams biographies.

@Bunnycat101 I'm actually actively trying not to challenge. I don't think such a high reading age at 6 is that helpful to be honest. She gets through books at the speed of light, even when I'm getting her to read out loud. I try to do a comprehension quiz with her on the ones that have it as I was worried she wasn't understanding them, but she passes them without a problem and often stops to read funny bits to me.
I'm trying to find longer books with more complex plots and vocabulary just so she slows down. This has only come about recently. At the start of Y2 she was behind in reading, she's just flown in the last 4/5 months.
I think the suggestion of classics is what we will go with, shame they don't write books like this anymore with slightly more modern themes and jokes.

Check you library for the Oxford Owl All Stars series. My DS6 is bringing them home from school. They are designed for ks1 children reading at higher levels.

fdslive.oup.com/www.oup.com/oxed/primary/literacy/ort/2017Charts/ORT_Overview_All%20Stars.pdf?region=uk

I'd hit AbeBooks and look for some older Diana Wynne Jones - particularly Eight Days of Luke, The Ogre Downstairs, Power of Three, Wilkins' Tooth and Charmed Life. Possibly also the first two or three of Terry Pratchett's Tiffany Aching series (not the later ones, subject matter gets darker).

How about non-fictional books? DS loves Horrible Histories and recently I got him a book about Earth by DK (not children's edition).
Also allow her to re-read books.
My DS would often go back to stuff he hasread before. I was a strong reader when I was a child and I must have read my favourite ones 20 times.

My dd at that age loved Heidi. She was also devouring books and still is at an adult.
Wonder is a nice book too and there is a movie she could watch afterwards. Good for comparing both. Could you encourage her to write stories too as she might love that.

The Butterfly Lion- Michael Morpurgo
Roald Dahl
My Naughty little sister
Alice in Wonderland
Charlotte's web
Mr Majeika

Katherine Rundell!! The explorer!

Gobbolino the Witches cat by Ursula Moray Williams

I always love to check out Book Trust's book finder
www.booktrust.org.uk/books-and-reading/our-recommendations/

The Jungle Book.

Kiki's delivery service (the original novel) is quite lovely.

My 6yo has been enjoying Podkin One Ear, which is the first in a series if successful with your DC. She has a similar reading age, although most often plumps for stuff like Dogman or Tom Gates when given free choice. These obviously are read very quickly, but she either buys them with her pocket money (and re-reads them many times) or chooses them from the school library, so I let her crack on. They aren't a challenge, but she finds them very funny and keeps her love of reading alive. She has recently started borrowing her sister's Asterix comics with mixed success.

Agree with others about children's classics such as The Wind In The Willows and The Secret Garden. I'd avoid Laura Ingalls Wilder for now unless you want to be tackling the whole topic of the displacement of Native Americans plus attitudes to Black people (there is a scene in a later book where characters black up and perform a routine mocking black people as stupid).

How about a weekly subscription to something like The Week Junior? It has a mixture of topics, so she'll meet a varied vocabulary as well as gaining a knowledge of current affairs.

Does she have a special interest? DD1 is a science buff, and spent hours pawing over her DK science encyclopaedia at that age.

The Week Junior is a good call, it's aimed at 8+ but my DD regularly steals her brother's copy.

The wild way home by Sophie Kirtkey is great. About a boy who accidentally ends up in the Stone Age & has to get back home.

I was hyperlexic (likely neurodiverse ...) and I agree with not needing to push but to enjoy the variety of books. There are so many lovely books out there for younger readers and the library can order them all in so reading one each night isn't a problem!

Daisy and the trouble with... was a good series mine liked and I found really funny.

I also loved all the mallory towers, famous 5, secret 7 series... but my kids didn't. 😌.

Every Enid Blyton book ever written were favourites with my 6 year old. He also had no issues with Harry Potter (1 and 2). He read the others as he got older. He got great mileage from a children's Bible. Also fact books - 5000 things you must know etc..

That was like me at that age. I've still not got over my kids lack of interest! Moonface!

Usborne do some fab fact books. Libraries really are good too. If you find a series they can order in more etc..and great for your child to browse.

Anne of Green Gables?

Would she like The Bolds? Grimwood? The Worst Class in the World?

She may have a reading age of 12 but at the end of the day she is 6 years old and it would be a shame to skip the silly but fun books aimed at her age group. I would save the CS Lewis etc for a year or so.

@pointythings Diana Wynne Jones is one of my very favourite writers - high five! But I'd be cautious about letting a 6 year old who scares easily read her - some of her books are very much for older readers, and even the Chrestomanci series (some of my absolute faves) have a fair bit of peril in them. OP, if you want to try this author (and I do wholeheartedly recommend her) I'd maybe wait a couple of years and at least read summaries of the books' plots yourself first. (For example, I adored Fire and Hemlock as a pre-teen but it's not appropriate for under Y6 and also I think the relationship between the vulnerable child heroine and the young man who befriends her has dated very badly - it could definitely read as grooming.)

She might enjoy Stig of the Dump by Clive King - another classic. Also Dick King-Smith is really good - I was a very able reader as a kid and I loved DKS. Paddy's Pot of Gold was one I read over and over.

Also agree with @Rayn22's recommendation of Katherine Rundell (who you can see has been influenced by Diana Wynne Jones I think!), although her books do have a fair bit of peril in too - again, you may want to wait a year or two, or read them first. Rooftoppers is excellent, as is The Explorer.

Someone has recently recommended M.G. Leonard for my own DS - check her out too!

Dd is the same age and not into scary books she has just read the christmasaurus series.

Recent books: The last bear by Hannah gold. Fire born - twelve and the frozen forest. Mr men books. Gobbolino. The Treehouse series - which she loves. The puffin keeper by Michael morpurgo. The britannica encyclopaedia and a book about how cranes etc work both of which she dips in and out of. She has just borrowed yes/no by Tom Gates as she hasn’t read any of his yet. Big panda and tiny dragon she rereads regularly.

Dd is the same age and not into scary books she has just read the christmasaurus series.

Recent books: The last bear by Hannah gold. Fire born - twelve and the frozen forest. Mr men books. Gobbolino. The Treehouse series - which she loves. The puffin keeper by Michael morpurgo. The britannica encyclopaedia and a book about how cranes etc work both of which she dips in and out of. She has just borrowed yes/no by Tom Gates as she hasn’t read any of his yet.