Or what did your now beyond 7 year old read when they were 7? or thereabouts?
Tim and I were talking about reading earlier. We do a lot of talking about education - yesterday we were debating how much you learn about history from visiting places like Bolsover Castle, frozen in time by English Heritage. I’m tempted to the idea that rebuilding bits of it doesn’t help what you can learn from it, but as Tim says, if they didn’t repair it, there wouldn’t be anything left to learn from in quite a short space of time.
Anyway, Big has finally finished The Railway Children
But back to Big. She has a shelf in her room of children’s books that I’ve acquired over the years, some dating back to my own childhood, but also books that I’ve picked up for my children to enjoy. She’s got some Rumer Godden, Noel Streatfield, there’s Goodnight Mr Tom that I bought for her on holiday, amongst others that I can’t remember now, and don’t want to go upstairs to look at given that Tim’s trying to have a nap just now. But there aren’t very many recent books, as I’ve not done a lot of reading of children’s fiction recently. I know of authors like Anne Fine, Jacqueline Wilson, Michael Morpugo, Philip Pullman (him I have read), and I do even have a couple of Harry Potters should she wish to indulge, although we’ve rather missed the boat on the whole phenomenon there. So I was hoping that any of you with children around or slightly above this age group could either offer from your own experience, or perhaps even ask your children what sort of stuff they’d recommend, and either drop us a line in the comment box, or blog about it yourself and drop us a link back instead.
Ta.
17 Comments
You don’t want to know about fairy books, do you?!
And I won’t get started on horsey pony ones either. Can’t tell you how relieved I was when Abbie started on Harry Potter rather than Sheltie!
Having said that my girls have both enjoyed the Animal Ark series (the original ones not the more recent more babyish ones). We had a Willard Price phase a while back, too. Anna read the Divide series recently and enjoyed those. They’re not great readers though, on the whole. They have loads of stuff on their shelves that I know they haven’t touched yet. Guess I’m not really the person to be commenting, am I?!
I enjoyed as a child and the girls enjoyed also, Enid Blyton’s Children of Cherry Tree Farm and then I think the other is Willow Tree Farm. Lots of nature study type stuff within the story. They’ve not been big on other Blyton books, but those went down well. Five Children and It, erm can’t recall any more - it’s such a long time ago!
Well, I could mention the hideous trainbow fairy, magic kitten and magic unicorn books that I just flogged for a statisfying amount on eBay. What, not interested??? Actually, we found that quite a hard stage, as most things she could read to herself didn’t interest her. Till sodding Daisy Meadows came along, that is. Most of the stuff she enjoyed was stuff Bob read to her, mainly out of the young adult section. I remember it as being a fairly arid time, in terms of her reading to herself.
We’ve done rainbow fairies, approx 35 of them, courtesy mainly of Abbie. Big still loves being read to, and Tim does a lot of that, usually on an evening, but she is willing to branch out on recommendation.
This is a tough age, but it seems like the reading ability is good? I think The Enchanted Forest Chronicles are wonderful - about a princess who runs away to live with dragons. Very strong female character. Another that we loved, though maybe above the desired reading level (?) is Swallows and Amazons. Just lovely.
ROFLMAO. Just asked Hannah, and she informs me “that, with hindsight, Jacqueline Wilson, Mallory Towers series, Famous Five, Roman Mystery Series, would all have been suitable for me at that age, had I been able to read them.”
That’s extremely helpful, thanks H (via J)
Roman Mysteries are currently on offer with the Book People. Much better than the TV versions too!
I was still on Peter adn ***** Jane at 7 but if she can manage the likes of the Railway Children then she could easily read anything really off Sonlight K or probably core 1 adn I’m sure you ahve a few of those lurking in your dining room! What about Dr Dolittle? Great story.
ooh, the book people….
Anything by E Nesbit
Philippa Pearce - Tom’s Midnight Garden
Some wonderful Alan Garner, like Tom Fobble’s Day and especially the one about going into a cave… forgotten the name. Look out though, several of his books are aimed at older children and very much darker.
I second the Arthur Ransome suggestion.
Enid Blyton - secret seven, famous five, fatuous four (or whatever they were called) - all good clean fun.
A Little Princess
Milly Molly Mandy stories are enjoyed by some little girls this age. The Family from One End Street is fun but somewhat dated. My Naughty Little Sister is a timeless classic. Winnie the Pooh?
Perhaps the Susan Cooper Dark is Rising sequence - but preread yourself in case the jeopardy will be too worrying.
Watch out for Philip Pullman - he is perfectly capable of killing off one’s favourite characters without so much as a by your leave.
Oh yes - Dr Doolittle! I had the whole series - loved the push-me-pull-you
Wait wait - Pippi Longstocking is a must. Pure genius.
And an after thought -
Hello Aurora
and
Aurora and the little blue car
(Ann Cath.-Vestly)
also
All about the Bullerby Children
The Saucepan Journey
Little O
and anything else by Astrid Lindgren or Enid Unnerstad.
I think our P was around seven when she started reading Roman Mysteries and she’s loved them, so I second that recommendation.
If she likes funny stories then Jeremy Strong is a good bet and very prolific - Fatbag, Hundred Mile an hour dog, Ms Pandemonium are a few titles I can picture on the shelf.
Leo is currently enjoying the Grizzly Tales books by Jamie Rix. He also liked the Hiccup Horrendous Haddock books like ‘How to train your dragon’.
Too many to say. Mine are both keen on ‘a series’, L especially.
enjoying reading the lists! I’m going to have a look into those Hiccup Horrendous Haddock books for M.
Nothing helpful to say except “cor blimey, Secret Garden… my she’s left my girls behind!!”
Fran has just really enjoyed North Child though.
Loved Enid Blyton (Mallory Towers, St Clares, Famous Five, Secret Seven and all the X of Adventure stories - Island of Adventure, Castle of Adventure etc.), Milly Molly Mandy, Charlottes Web and I remember a Stories for Seven Year Olds book I had which had a lot of the Hans Christian Anderson stories in it like Ugly Ducking, The Little Mermaid etc. Alice in Wonderland, Narnia (maybe a bit too old still), I seem to recall reading a lot of fairy tales as opposed to the rainbow fairies of today
- will have a peep at work next time I’m tidying the junior section for more inspiration.
I can’t rememember what i read at 7, and Sb not there though, but i did by roman mysteries and dianna wynne jones series from the book people to put on a shelf for SB. she thinks she can’t read them yet, fine, all in her own time. other things I have series of are from my childhood - e nesbitt books [lots! SB loves the story CD of railway children and 5 children and it] anne of green gables, pollyanna.
And will buy the bagthorpe family books [whatever they are called] as I found them hysterically funny. All of these I was def reading by 10, not sure from what age though.
I still love the dark is rising series, but think I would put that in the ten-ish, I think all my alan garner books are a bit old - the wind ey, whatever that owl one is called etc.
I think though having a shelf or two of books of good things available for Big to dip in and out of, and determine herslef weather she is old enough to read is the way to go. I just read everything in our house v early on - including my dads james bond, spy and aeroplane thriller books!! I def read some things that were inappropriate for my age!! [like the thomas covenant series, first book at twelve [it feature as rape scene nearly immediately] but was so hooked by the series, immediately bought the second myself with 2p pieces, but had the sense not to suggest my mum read it!
SB is enjoying reading the magic tree house books. Bug might find them a bit simple - but she can try one whlst here. and also felicity wishes books. Also try some of the barefoot books that I use as read alouds - eg fabric of fairytales etc.
Hi! You just won one more regular reader :D..
Good luck!
Laters!