Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums Elementary School books for a 5 y/o Douglas Adams fan

ugh - me too, apparently. i totally forgot about Terry Pratchett (THANK you Dude and ElizabethN!) - i'm so glad y'all have been through this stuff just a little ahead of me. it's horrible trying to explain DD to librarians and booksellers in person - she's either right there and they look at her like she's an alien exhibit, or she's not... and they look at me like i'm insane.

HK - the Snicket is already digested by the Resident Book Eater (though will be re-read, i'm sure) hey - has anyone read the new Snicket? Who Could That Be At This Hour? - i think it's aimed slightly older but i can't imagine they'd feature "mature" content?

and Nautigal, Shakespeare's Star Wars? sweet mother of cheese, that sounds like it was written by someone who already knows DD.

you people really are the best.

Princess Bride by William Goldman

Not as "funny" but a good read for someone who likes HP, SF is the Chrestomancy Series by Diana Wynne Jones, the first one is titled Charmed Life.

Has she read Cornelia Funke? While not Douglas Adams, some of her stuff is rather funny.

Oooh, what about The Once and Future King? I reread it recently with an eye to DD9 reading it soon. Just a tiny bit of vague sex allusions, IIRC. Sad in parts, but of course so is HP.

Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising sequence?

Madeleine L'Engle-- of course.

Tolkien.

Word of warning...Flatland is not for children. I don't think I want DD16 reading it.

A Series of Unfortunate Events is good. My middle kid liked the Cirque du Freak series, though it is a bit dark.

It's satirical, to be certain, with a lot of commentary about Victorian society/gender roles, inter-class strife, and questions about identity. There is violence, but it can be skipped over. As with anything, though, I think it depends on the child. I was a child who loved the book, though I read it independently when I was older than doubtfulguest's DD (~7-8). Doubtfulguest's daughter is more emotionally mature than I was at her age.

doubtfulguest, you know your DD best. My sense of your DD is that she could handle the themes given her recent interests if it's used as a book that you read together. That way you can contextualize the material and provide a historical backdrop to the satire, even skip over any material that might not go over well.

The Hobbit, and possibly some of his short stories. But I don't think LOTR is appropriate for a 5 year old, even if she is an extremely precocious reader.

Another suggestion:

"Dealing with Dragons" by Patrica Wrede.

If it is mostly the comedy that she likes, then I'd suggest Jerome Jerome's Three Men in a Boat, Lewis Caroll's Alice books, and P.G. Wodehouse's Wooster/Jeeves books. Mark Twain is also funny, particularly A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court and his lighter short stories. Actual children's books are also often humorous - Ramona, for instance. (Beverly Cleary?) Baum's Oz books have been neglected lately, too.

I'd also second the recommendation of Terry Pratchett in general; the Discworld novels set in Lancre are the best bet, but there are some mild sexual references there, too - Granny Ogg is the opposite of shy. Pratchett's The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents and his Bromeliad and Johnny series are written especially for children. Seasonally apt and certain to delight young children is his 1000-word short "The Computer Who Believed In Santa".

I'm puzzled by the idea that the Hithhiker's Guide books have too many adult situations. Aside from a couple of references to the planet Eroticon VI and its most famous resident (references which would go right over a 5 year old's head) there are no adult situations - certainly far less of an adult nature than you would find in the Bible or Shakespeare, let alone such notorious volumes as Graves' The Greek Myths, Burton's Thousand and One Nights, Andrew Lang's collections of traditional fairy tales, or even Harry Potter, with Dumbledore's brother convicted of practicing inappropriate charms on a goat, its reference(s) to human-giant couples, sexy Veela (who turn into monsters when angered), gambling, drinking (butterbeer and stronger drinks), and drug use (potions, particularly felix fortis).

There are some other humorous SF books, though none as good as Douglas Adams'. Jasper Fforde is the closest I have seen, and I highly recommend his Tuesday Next series. From the cover: "Fforde's heroine, Thursday Next, lives in a world where time and reality are endlessly mutable -- someone has ensured that the Crimean War never ended for example -- a world policed by men like her disgraced father, whose name has been edited out of existence. She herself polices text -- against men like the Moriarty-like Acheron Styx, whose current scam is to hold the minor characters of Dickens' novels to ransom, entering the manuscript and abducting them for execution and extinction one by one. When that caper goes sour, Styx moves on to the nation's most beloved novel -- an oddly truncated version of Jane Eyre -- and kidnaps its heroine." These are more suited for adults due to the literary references, but kids should like them, too. There is an allusion to sex in one of the last two of the five books, but it wouldn't have had any trouble getting released as a film under the Hayes' Code.

Fforde's subversion of cliches bring to mind the website TV Tropes, which is not only great fun, but better education than any amount of reading of stuffy pseudo-intellectual literary criticism. (Though in the latter category Frederick Crewes' The Pooh Perplex deserves an honorable exception.)

Short story collections such as the "Year's Best SF" generally have some funny stories, and generally having been published in magazines, they rarely have much unsuitable. Collections prior to 1970 are almost guaranteed to be clean, and those of the 30s - 50s are especially so. Short stories suit young readers better than novels. Kids generally agree with Sam Goldwyn: "too much plot and not enough story!"

Some other SF humor authors worth mentioning: Keith Laumer's Retief stories (they start to hit their stride around Brass God, and really get going once the Five Eyed Sticky-Fingered Groakies come on the scene as villains.) Going a bit farther afield, and perhaps not up to a 5 year old's rigorous standards for humor: Alfred Bester, Jack Vance (all great, but humor is seen most in Tales of the Dying Earth's Cudgel the Clever - published in 1950, but verify suitability for yourself), Franz Kafka (well, he thought he was writing humor, anyway. Kids usually like horror, too though. ) J.L. Borges' stories are as humorous in a way as they are thought-provoking. The dialogues between Achilles, the Tortoise and the Crab in Hofsteader's Godel, Escher Bach are also amusing, though most of that book will go over young kids' heads. Rudy Rucker and Spider Robinson are often humorous, though generally not suitable for young children. Steven Brust's Jhreg series often has dry wit, but there is quite a bit of murder. Rodger Zelazny also had a dry wit, though it's hard to really classify him under humor. Early Charles Stross works such as Accelerando and Iron Sunrise have a good deal of humor, but there is one scene in the former which is definitely unsuitable, and perhaps neither would be that apt to appeal to a 5 year old.

Comics shouldn't be ignored, either - Girl Genius, Schlock Mercenary, Freefall, and xkcd are my staples among the webcomics. Heavenly Nostrils is a recent web/print comic that shouldn't be missed, especially by girls - a bright 9-year-old befriends a narcissistic unicorn. The author's previous comic Ozzy and Millie is also a gifted kids' classic. Aside from xkcd, these should be read in chronological order since they have long story arcs.

Try Kate McMullen's Myth-o-Mania series. DS7 has read and reread them. He also just loved a book about a donut, said it was very funny. Arnie the Doughnut ... will look over the others he has around and post later.

Also, the Dragon Keepers series and a recent favorite called "Fortunately the Milk." (We are blessed with a great library that seems to constantly have new children's books.) Another series that has been a favorite which is quite fanciful is the Geronimo Stilton series. Great illustrations, too.