How much should I censor m daughters books?

[Rivvy]

My daughter is 6 and a very good reader. My husband takes her to the library and she chooses what she likes.

Some examples of recent content has included the daughter plotting how to stop her mother having an affair (no graphic details though!), and tonight disscusions over starting periods.

She knows the facts of life - we live on a farm! But I feel she's still a little girl and should maybe be protected for a bit longer.

I try to steer her towards the more classical books - Alice in Wonderland etc but she wants to read everything!

So really as above how much should I put my foot down and does anyone have any ideas for challanging and safe books for a 6 year old with a 13+ reading age?

Thanks

Your DD saounds like me when i was was that age. I would make a little camp in my room with a bed in it and then i would pop myself into bed about 5pm with all my Famous Five books and read 2/3 a night.

I still love reading now! I will reccomend some books, they are not slong so she will wizz through them but they are good! Its the Flossy TeaCake series.

My DD (also 6) likes the Wizard of Oz books, there are absolutely loads of them (we have the first 4 or 5 I think), and they are blessedly long. Professor Branestawm is also good and the early ones are a decent length (don't be taken in by the later 70s ones which have fabulous pix but are really just 1 short story).
I have a slightly different problem in that my dd is not a particularly advanced reader, but just very enthusiastic and rather fast. IME classics are definitely the best bet for length.
DD also likes the Naughtiest Girl in the school series, rather short, but again there are lots of them (the series has been continued by another writer beyond the ones that EB wrote).
Similarly Secret seven/famous 5/five find outers (although other children I know hate them).
I would have thought Narnia was fine for a 6 yr old, depending on tastes (dd didn't like the Voyage of the Dawn Treader, but she is particularly tender hearted and was upset by Edmund being turned into a dragon).

And all the E. Nesbitts.

My DS''s BF reads all the Enid Blyton sets - adventure stuff, etc, avidly

DD started reading Jaqueline Wilson when she was about 7, but had to be heavily censored - just watch it as those books are everywhere and are so attractive and popular. Not so worried about it now she's nearly 10 and understands some of the issues dealt with more.

I wouldn't worry about getting texts that are "difficult" because she is a good reader - let her choose stuff she wants to read. And encourage some non-fiction too

Isabel Allende wrote a trilogy of children's adventure books that I have really enjoyed myself i.e. they are well written and thought provoking, but I have given them to young teenagers because they don't have "adult" themes.

They are called: City of the Beasts, Kingdom of the Golden Dragon and Forest of the Pygmies.

In the back of my copy of the last of these it also suggests that if you liked it, you might also like Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials series. I haven't read these, but dh, who has, also suggests Neil Gaiman's Stardust. He has a goddaughter like the OP's DS: gave her Ivanhoe when she was about 6, only to be told she had read it already - in German!

I didnt know there was more than one Wizard of Oz story

Roald Dahl too
Dick King smith - the ones for older readers , sheep pig etc

Thief Lord by Carolina Funke is really good

I don't recommend the Pullman's for a six year old - there are some big theological issues in there that she will need to be older to appreciate.

Charlotte's Web?

The Little House On The Prairie/Little House In The Big Woods?

Fairy tales?

Re Famous Five, on reading this I find a fair bit of stuff about how wimpy girls are, and how grubby gypsies are liable to steal away your children, and how brown children might be called Sooty.
A little retro for our tastes!

I would take care that a 6 y old was not reading content too adult, just as you do with films/computer.

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Has no-one mentioned Harry Potter?
I think the Narnia books are great, and surely you can never get enough of Roald Dahl?!
I'd also consider anything by Michael Morpurgo.

I have a complete Hans Christian Anderson fairy tales - took me ages to read!

I think the Enid Blyton/ Arthur Ransome books are great, but we need more up to date versions of these kind of adventure stories.
Anyone know any like this written more recently - real life, but adventurous children who don't end up in terrible straits?

Moondial is another favourite.

yy any e nesbit is lovely. mary renault? chalet school, blyton. i think the thing is to go for well written, she is going to be bored by bland pap. ooh little women, little house on prairie, all those american ones.

The Children of Green Knowe - there are 6 or 7 books in the series.

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Susan Cooper Dark is Rising - spooky but innocent. All E Nesbit, A Litte Princess, all the Ballet shoes type books, Tom's Midnight Garden and all Phillipa Pearce A Pattern of Roses by KM Peyton, Roald Dahl (she might identify with Matilda!) Indian in the Cupboard, all Blyton (esp school stories which are bliss) Children of Green Knowe, Pippi Longstocking, Mouse and His Child Russell Hoban, Stig of the Dump, Mary Poppins, Family at One End Street, Borrowers, all Narnia, all Nina Bawden children's books.... lovely stuff!

Yes yes yes to Just William. Perfect. Happiness distilled, really.

I don't think that you should censor reading-it is a subversive activity anyway-this is why DCs like stories about DCs going off and having adventures with no adults in sight. I read anything and everything-I don't think I read anything bad but I would have tried to if I thought adults were interfering! I learned a great deal from the agony aunt pages of women's magazines!

wrapstar what a great list.

rivvy any fh burnett lovely. i also think it is worth you talking to the library re ordering books for her, is there a charge?

I remember when very young really loving fairy stories from Grimm to Oscar Wilde too. There are some beautiful editions. Also get her editions of the Greek myths - fantastic cultural background that will enhance all later reading, and the Arabian Nights, ditto. They also feed the imagination like nothing else.

Oscar Wilde an excellent suggestion.

andrew laing fairy books

Check if your library can be accessed online. We can order books online to be delivered to our local library in Herts