I just started reading Harry Potter to my 5 yr old daughter. What are some other books you will read allowed to your little ones?
I just started reading Harry Potter to my 5 yr old daughter. What are some other books you will read allowed to your little ones?
My kid is almost 7. He likes magic tree house and Ralph mouse.
At that age I LOVED Mandy. I still have my copy and it’s probably 20 years old ?
Also (as a 90s original HP lover, this hurts) my kids have the illustrated versions of the HP books which definitely help to hold their attention
I’m struggling because I want to read ahead. We are doing one chapter a night. Reading it out loud is a different experience. I cried as I read when HP was left on the doorstep. My daughter wiped my cheek and asked if he was going to be ok. ?
My daughter is 6 and absolutely LOVES Junie B Jones.
She also really likes the Ramona series.
@Kimberley Junie b Jones! Yes! My best friend named her daughter June and I call her Junie all the time
James and the giant peach was one of my favorites
We’re almost done with the Magicians Nephew. My oldest is 6 and he loves it!
My 3 yo loves the Grinch who stole Christmas at the moment.
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe! My twin sons loved it at 5.
@Felicity I remember my Mom reading the entire series to me as a kid.
At that age we also started the Little House on the Prairie books, and a little older, Anne of Green Gables.
Little House on the Prairie
Try Judy Blume books, when my kids were young I read those, I also read the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. I also made up stories changing my voice for characters and I used my facial features and body language to tell the stories. My kids would bring friends over to get mom to tell stories. I’ll ask them which books were their favourites when I next speak to them.
My six year old daughter loves the Bad Kitty books. They are pretty entertaining little chapter books.
Roald Dahl
If fantasy is a hit, I would recommend the first books in the Tortall series by Tamora Pierce. Strong female leads that have very big voices. I loved those. Perhaps the ones with Alanna, book 1-3 and then all 4 with Kelladry (book 4 with Alanna is a little more mature).
I found reading to my children (which I did until they were well into double figures) a double edged sword. Childhood favourites had not stood the test of time. As an adult I hated Enid Blyton and yawned through Roald Dahl. Frances Hodgspn Burnett held none of the magic it did for me as a child. After the first 2 Harry Potter books dd asked for a break and I was happy to oblige.
We shared and enjoyed a lot of books, some I read to both children at different times (others were read to one and she read them to the other) but I mostly found I regretted reading them books I’d enjoyed as a child…
I remember reading Anne of Green Gables as an adult. Anne is SO insufferable! I loved her though, when I was 10, then she was amazing and strong-willed and fun. I can’t imagine reading that book to children, though they would love it!
@Pernille interestingly that one I did still enjoy, probably more than dd actually!!!
I loved the box car children when I was little. My mom read those to me for years until she passed away and I read them to my boys now.
My mom was probably unusual, but she read Richard III to us when my youngest brother was 5. When I was about 11-13 and he was about 3-5 she played a book about John Locke’s Second Treatise on Government in the car. They made quite an impression on us. That doesn’t mean you have to do the same. They’re just fond but slightly weird memories.
I know what you mean, I read some very old books of poetry to mine, and I was quite surprised to hear they loved those poems. I read that when we had power outages living out at a lake and the storms would get pretty fierce. I think it’s just that feeling of closeness and those family moments.
My son is 5. We are currently listening to the audiobook of Prisoner of Azkaban together. I have read him Winnie the Pooh and the first Magic Tree House and accompanying Fact Tracker. We also read 4 picture books before bed nightly. I have a 2.5 year old too.
I have 5yr old twins. We are currently reading Harry Potter. We’ve recently read The Lion the witch and the wardrobe and The witches. They also loved the Faraway Tree series by Enid Blyton.
Enid Blyton
I have read Enid blyton’s the faraway tree and my grandchildren have absolutely loved it
@Catherine my mother has fond memories of it being read to her at school so she bought it to read to my children. None of them liked it, including my mother, and it was an unfinished project.
Oh what a shame.
My Husband read all the Roald Dahl books, he got the box set from Amazon.
@Emma I left them for my dh to read too, loved them as a child, couldn’t get into them as an adult!
I still love these books, or maybe it was just listening to Husband reading them ?? he does all the voices too… he’s now reading Harry Potter and apparently Hagrid is a cockney… it’s too funny ?
Am very surprised at so many people reading / listening to Harry Potter books with such young children. It wasn’t written for little ones and the books quickly gain in maturity of content, which was fine if you were reading them as they were published because you would have been growing a year or two older with the wait for each one. Interesting!
@Alexandra My daughter will be 5 in June. I’m desperate to introduce her to Harry Potter but I know if I do it now when she’s so young she won’t sleep for weeks ? We’ll stick to picture books for now!
The first book is fine but one might have to wait a bit for the rest of the Harry Potter series depending on age. I agree: Narnia series, also Winnie the Witch series. Horrid Henry and The Worst Witch series amongst many (for child’s self reading as great chapter chunks and have comedy value) as well as the Enid Blightons and Winnie the Poo
Not in agreement re Enid Blyton or Winnie the Pooh though!
Ingo by Helen dunmore
Winnie the Pooh and Mary Poppins !
I’m part-way through The Enchanted Wood with my 6yo. I’ll read the rest of the series too.
5 is pretty young still. Watch out for content. Winnie the pooh, alice in wonderland, the borrowers, Pippa longstocking are all good and appropriate
reading this is amazing. I was read so many of the books mentioned by my mother, and one of the things I look forward to most in the future is reading the Faraway Tree, Harry Potter etc to my own son. He is 4 and a half, but has a speech and language disorder so is quite delayed. Currently we are mainly obsessed with the Julia Donaldson books… ? the teachers at school have all commented that they can tell he has been read to from a young age. And recently they were working on Room on the Broom at school, and my son was apparently trying to finish the sentences before the teacher had even read them, I would get really excited. ?? reading to your children is so unbelievably important, and an absolute pleasure to do.
I read Hollywood Wives to my niece when she was about 5/6 years old, would just fudge around the swearing and sex scenes, didn’t do her any harm, it’s not what you read but how you read it when they’re little.
Mary Poppins, Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle…
My girls used to like the Goosebumps books.
Rainbow Fairy’s…there are a gazillion of them. They are small chapter books and should be perfect at 5 to be read to..6 and 7 to read independently
Chronicles of Narnia
My Dad read me things like Narnia and the Hobbit when I was little as well as things like Just William
5 years old!!!!?? She may be too young for some of the scary things in this series.
@Mary we are reading the first book. I have read the series a number of times and don’t plan on reading straight through all the books at 5 yrs old.
My husband read Harry Potter to our daughter when she was 9 and my son, who was 5, loved listening in. He said “Yay Mommy Daddy’s going to read us Harry Potter tonight!” I said, “What’s it about?” He said, “I don’t know. I don’t listen.” They just enjoy the time spent together.
The Hobbit
Indian in the Cupboard, Secret Garden…James and the Giant Peach, Matilda, BFG by Roald Dahl
Roald Dahl books are soo good. The Fantastic Mr Fox also
Pipi longstocking
Hatchet
Roald Dahl. Books. Are amazing. Currently reading the witches to my son and Netflix is gonna do the remake on some of the his old movies
My son is 5 and we are currently reading Wishtree by Katherine Applegate. The story is told from the perspective of an old oak tree. It’s a great story for the little ones. He’s also enjoyed books by Kate DiCamillo.
Narnia series, Alice in wonderland, roald Dahl books etc
Little house on the prairie series
I loved this as a child!
@Valerie me too I just got the series for my granddaughter!
Ah you beat me to this suggestion!
I’m reading The magic Faraway tree to my 9 yr son and he is really enjoying it
My 4 yr old son is obsessed with the wizard of oz.
My daughter loves Sideways Stories from Wayside School. She’s 6.
Following
Your off to a fantastic start! Chronicles of Narnia and the Wildwood Chronicles are some of our favorites. We like Miss Peregrine’s Peculiar Children book series I read over some of the more older words. ?
@Jessica I totally forgot Miss Peregrine’s she will love that!
The Hobbit or LOTR
@Hope my husband is going to read The Hobbit to her over summer.
@Heidi that’s awesome.. I loved all of Tolkien’s books ?
My 10 year old has started reading the Harry Potter series and I was surprised when she told me there are swear (cuss) words. I never read them, so I had no idea. I always thought is was written for young readers and wouldn’t have that kind of language in it.
@Brittany It has bloody in quite a lot. Is that what she means? My daughter is 10 and wrote an amazing story with bloody in! She asked me first and I said of course, if it’s needed for the character! I can’t think there’s much else in them.
No. She told me hell was in there. I can’t remember the other ones. Will have to ask.
@Brittany Oooooooh. It probably is, as in ‘bloody hell’. It’s kind of a gentle English swear. Very tame. Ron Weasley uses it often!
Yeah that is probably what it was. Not that she hasn’t heard worse at home lol. I was just surprised.
@Brittany Ah. I don’t think of it as a swear exactly but us Brits have a wide range of vocab for swearing! It is something not to be said in certain situations though – for example the Church of England school I work at and my children attend! This is a fun article. http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20151109-english-speakers-or-not-brits-and-americans-swear-in-different-languages
The Tale of Despereaux
The One and Only Ivan
Tuck Everlasting
Fantastic beasts.
I just ordered some books from the Dear America and Royals Diaries series’s….I loved those when younger, anyone else remember those, just me? Lol
Whatever happened to Charlotte’s Web? Does anyone still read that?
@Kathy read that last year to my son
Narnia
The Magic Treehouse books.
The Creakers by Tom Fletcher was a big hit with my 8 and 5 yo. Also any Roald Dhal.
Alice in wonderland
Heidi, Pippi Longstocking
Charlotte’s Web
Also Trumpet of the Swan,Stuart Little by EB White, for a 5 year old. When reading aloud to my own kids, and to my class at school, I liked to choose books that weren’t already popular movies, so they could use their imaginations in picturing characters and scenes.