books for very competent 6 year old reader?

[ghoulgrrl]

Hi all,

My 6 yr old dd loves reading and I'm rapidly running out of books for her. I grew up in Germany and a lot of the classics I read as a little girl aren't available in English, so I need some inspiration please.

Last week she worked her way through all the 'Naughty Little Sister' books (1 a night! She's a speedreader), Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Charlie and the great glass elevator. I'm looking for books that have only a few pictures and are a bit more substantial, she's too fast and with no library nearby it's becoming very expensive. There's no bookshop near me either, so I rely on amazon.

All the books I can think of - Anne of Green Gables, Harry Potter, Jacqueline Wilson ones etc., are aimed at older children. I need something not too complex and innocent (Naughty Little Sister was perfect).

Please help.

DS1, also six and a good reader, is really enjoying the Marvin Redpost books, by Louis Sacher.

ooh lots of threads on this recently
will find

here

lol
oh sorry
u i kust know me and roisin have doen htis recently but cant find any mroe than that one

Marvin is a boy, for sure, but his girl classmate features quite prominently in the books.

Dick King-Smith (the Sophie books)
Astrid Lindgren (pippi longstocking, the Bullerby Children -- these were def. available in German in the 70s, but come in English too!)
Francesca Simon (Horrid Henry) -- not particularly well-written, but v. popular
Humphrey Carpenter (Mr Majeika books)
Enid Blyton

Ds is also 6 and working his way through Harry Potter. But he's the 2nd child and has seen the films.

Try the Little House on the Prairie series. Also the Pollyanna series (saccharine though it is). What about some of the other Roal Dahls - James and the Giant Peach, The Witches, Matilda (I'm not sure about that one, don't remember it myself)?

There's a translated German book I remember from childhood (still have it ) called Lottie and Lisa, about a pair of identical twins, which she might enjoy.

Ds (6.5) is loving Emil & the Detectives at the moment. Was that one of your childhood books?

wow, thanks. so many suggestions.

ooh yes, I used to love emil & the detectives (didn't realise it was available in english - thanks, I've just put it my shopping basket ), and all the astrid lindgren books - but only a fraction are available in english.

Also - instead of Amazon - keep your eye on The Book People and Red House - they do packs of books at fantastic prices, and almost better than the price is the way they decide to make up the packs - really interesting ideas: one of the recent ones (this is for adults, but just as an example) is books now accepted as classics which were banned on first publication. So they're not just mindless grab-bags of what's in the overstock bins.

No library nearby ... I can't bear to think!

If you look up these books on Amazon, they will also ask you if you want to see what other people bought who also bought these books. Whether it's true or just a marketing gimmick I don't know, but you might get some good ideas that way as well.

All the Pippi Longstocking books are available in English, as is something called "Lotta" which my dd1 loved, and another book called "Mardie". They're all quite girly and cosy, very much in the same vein as My naughty little sister.

Lottie and Lisa is the English version of Erich Kästner's book 'Das doppelte Lottchen".

frogs, is Mardie what we know as 'Madita'?

Could well be. It's a pretty forgettable book, but dd1 loved it. It's a variation on the Bullerby children books, which I think are also available in English.

the Dick King-smith books about Sophie are also very popular with small girls -- it's about a very determined little girl who wants to be a lady farmer(!). There are six of them, can't remember the order, or you can get two volumes with three books each. They were among the first "proper" books my dd1 read.

There's also that series of books about unicorns (My Secret Unicorn, et al.). I've read a couple of these to my dd1 (5) and she loved them. I found them a bit puke-inducing (... but I find most of what my dd likes a bit puke-inducing - she's a VERY girlie girl!) and have told her that she can read some more of the series when she is old enough to read them to herself!

On the German theme, a German friend gave us a couple of books by Otfried Preussler, which she says are classic children's books in Germany. They are in a series for German children learning English (with bits of vocab at the end of each chapter) and I didn't always find the translation very convincing (the English didn't always 'ring true') but again my dds loved them. We have read 'The Little Water Sprite' and 'The Little Ghost'.

I LOVED Lotte and Lisa as a child!
Ds, a good reader for his age (six), has just been loaned this for home reading by his teacher:

Atticus the Storyteller

It's not girl-specific but I'd have thought would appeal to both sexes. Ds is totally hooked!

I would highly recommend Gwyneth Rees books, just the right stage, and quite thought-provokig (i.e. much better than they look from the covers!). I noticed yesterday that the Book People have the whole set heavily discounted, here

I see I am not the only one who views a Nick Sharratt cover as a turn-off then tamum!
Dd, 2, loves his work, which I think is great for preschoolers.

Marina They also look so blooming girly and empty-headed, I assumed they'd be in the same vein as the colour fairy books (can't remember their real names) but these ones are streets ahead! The author was a child psychiatrist, and she is keen not to go for pat endings, it seems. Even I want to know what happens next....

Also highly recommend Molly Moon books by Georgia Byng, but a bit old for a 6 year old to raed to herself just yet, I would think.

Bel Mooney's series about Kitty are great for this age-- It's not my Fault, But You Promised etc.

Agree about Clarice Bean though-- essential reading for everyone from about age 6 onwards!