Your suggestions for chapter books for me to read to 5 year old dd

[handlemecarefully]

She has recently 'graduated' from short books to wanting me to read her chapter books (with fewer illustrations).

We have done the Faraway Tree books I wouldn't mind something a bit more contemporary than Enid Blyton (and I don't want to get into the politics of Blyton btw!)

Any thoughs?

Thanks

I loved 'The Doll's House' and 'Miss Happiness and Miss Flower'. I think I've still got it somewhere....

Singersgirl - there are more? I'm going to get them. I didn't read The Dolls House as a child. I am in love Mr Plantagenate and dd sinks back in her pillow sighing 'well done Tottie' before we turn the light out.

I think 'Miss Happiness and Miss Flower' is another book, but perhaps I'm getting confused and they are just characters in 'The Doll's House'. Is that the one where Little Peach appears at the end - the tiny baby doll inside the peach stone?

No, no. This is the one where they all live in the house, and then the terrible china doll with the working eyes and real yellow hair, her name is Marchpane, comes to try and take over. And Tottie is the hero, and she is made of wood and is strong and wise and reliable.

And then, well, Birdie catches fire. Birdie sacrifices herself for the good of the house. She gets confused easily and words bang together inside her head.

God, it was good. I'm going to google Ms Godden for more 1940s children's literature. I think it is a rich vein to be mined.

Do not read the Rainbow Fairies books. They are bloody awful. When your dd is a bit older and starts wanting to read to herself, let her have a few. They all have the exact same plot and are so repetitive that they are easy to read. My dd1 read about 9 gazillion of them when she first started reading alone. I read one aloud... never again. God they are hideous!

DD2 is 5.6 and enjoys the Animal Ark books. (They also do 'Little Animal Ark' which she can read some of by herself - she reads a page and I read a couple of pages and so on.) They are also a bit repetitive and come in an unfeasibly large number of volumes, but they are not as repetitive or as badly written as the fairy ones.

Dick King-Smith is a winner, as is Roald Dahl. My dds also enjoyed the Worst Witch series, Mrs Pepperpot, Pippi Longstocking. Would The Borrowers be suitable for this age? (My dds haven't read it yet, but I seem to recall that it was quite gentle...)

Oh yes, I've googled 'Miss H and Miss F' and it is real. It is a lovely, lovely book. I do remember 'The Doll's House', particularly Marchpane, but not as well as 'Miss H and Miss F' (because I had it).

Time for bed. Don't think the DSs will ever take to Japanese dolls.

With some degree of mortification, I have only just noticed that I started this thread under 'Adult fiction'

Very kind of you all not to point this out

I did wonder, but just thought I was too stupid to understand the excellent reason for you doing it. That;s the sort of self esteem a good Catholic education gives you!

Yes, you must read The Dolls House immediately Cali, all on your own, on your rocker on the porch with your quilt (you DO have all these things, of course you do).

Ok. I'm going to order Miss F and Miss H. How exciting.

MOOMINS!!!!!!