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Hi All -

I'm looking for book recommendations for a 5 year old girl reading at roughly a 6th grade level. Her favorite topics are princesses/fairies and fantasy as well as the American Revolution/historical figures. She just finished a bunch of Roald Dahl (thank you costco). She is definitely a pretty young/sensitive 5 - so some of the Dahl stuff was pushing it a bit. Something clean and non-violent would be good.

My DD was/is the same way (now 9) She started reading the guardians of Ga'hoole and loved it til she got to a part where they shove one of the owls off a cliff and what not and she quit reading it. It was too upsetting to her. SHe recently read
The familiars and LOVED it. It was a very light, harry potterish type book without the darkness. We too, can read much higher levels but some of the content of books is just not appropriate for her and her sensitivities. She is better with much of it now that she is older but we still have some issues with that.

I go onto Am@zon and look for books and read through tons of the reviews because chances are someone else has a child like mine and mentions the not so good parts and that tells me how it will be for my child. I used to preread books but I can't keep up now. Bookwizard by scholastic is supposed to be very helpful in picking appropriate books.

American Girl Series,
Childhood of Famous americans (Start off with one of the newer covers, so she doesn't lose interest),
Magic tree house series- Midnight on the moon by Mary Pope Osborne
The cricket in Times Square / George Selden
Poppy by Avi,
Books by DiCamillo, Kate.
Rainbow fairies series- Gabriella the snow kingdom fairy by Daisy Meadows.
Disney Fairies - I'm not sure of the title
That should keep her busy for a while.

Some of the books by DiCamillo are touchy though. Good books but Edward Tulane (though my DD liked it, has sad parts). Tiger rising also has some touchy issues.

I think the Magic treehouse are good (as many have a research guide to go with them.) The librarian actually asked me what they kids do with the research guides. I was appalled. I told her we read them for fun, because we do *are we that abnormal that we like to read to acquire knowledge, not just for entertainment?* LOL! The treehouse books are easy for a child who is a good reader, but there is notable knowledge in them as well. the Merlin Mission ones are slightly more challenging reading level wise than the actual Magic Treehouse series itself.

Many children like the boxcar children or AtoZ mysteries but we skipped all those as we had no interest. Again, many may be below level, but that is totally fine.

DD read some of the disney fairy books but eventually lost interest in those, but those would be a good place to start.
Rainbow fairies were good too, as Onthego mentioned. I think they are a little easier reads than the disney ones.

We've read so many books it's hard to keep up!

Has she ever read The outlandish Adventures of Liberty Aimes? We LOVED this book. it was so good, I could see them making a movie out of it!

No DDs here (only DSs), but I thought I'd suggest Igraine the Brave by Cornelia Funke, which has a female protagonist. How about EB White's Stuart Little, Charlotte's Web and the Trumpet of the Swan? We have really enjoyed Dick King Smith's books. They're nice because they have good storylines, and some nice healthy words, but the stories are still young and fun. She also might like Misty of Chincoteague and My Father's Dragon.

Happy reading!

Thanks so much for the help. She has read so much already - She read a many of the magic tree house books a few years ago... Are there different levels of these books? I might re-visit those. I wonder if there are any grown up books that might be good for kids too. She keeps wanting to pick up my husbands kite runner... but alas - it is not quite what she is thinking.

I can't think of any adult books that would be appropriate for what you described as a young/sensitive 5.

I'm sure your DD will get to Harry Potter at some point. DS9 just said he would definitely not recommend it for anyone who was troubled by Roald Dahl's books. There's murder, violence and evil in every book. He asked me to say these are his FAVORITE books. (DS7 and I like them, too!)

When my kids were quite a bit younger, they both liked the historical biographies by David Adler (A Picture Book of...) but they'd probably be too young for someone reading at 6th grade level.

DS7 is sitting with me now, and recommends "United Tweets of America" which is about all the different state birds. They have fun pictures, and good info.

Has your DD read D'aulaire's Book of Greek Myths? Both my kids really enjoyed that. And Usborne has a lot of good non-fiction books. You might also consider the kid versions of many of the classics like White Fang, Call of the Wild, Robinson Crusoe and Journey to the Center of the Earth. My kids started with those, and DS9 has since enjoyed reading the unabridged versions.

DS7 just asked me to tell you that he likes the Eye Witness and Eye Wonder books. They have lots of pictures, and lots of facts about their subjects.

DS9 is also recommending The Mysterious Half Cat by Margaret Sutton.

Funny, both the boys are enjoying contributing to this post. They like to meet avid readers, even if only virtually. :-)

I'd better run so they can get their homework done. Have a great night!

The Merlin Mission Magic treehouse books tend to be a little longer. Most of them read the same, but if you look at actual grade level of the books, they are rated slightly different from one another, but again, they will all be easy. My DD enjoyed them for the knowledge they presented. She particularly liked the Merlin Mission Magic Treehouse: Monday with a Mad Genius *If I recall it was about Leonardo D'Vinci... I think. Again, the research guides are interesting reads if you want to pair the two. DD read those well before she was 5 too and it drove me batty when someone would suggest she read those in 2nd grade, etc. LOL! We didn't read them all, only the ones that were of particular interest or if she was into learning about a certain topic, then we'd read that, and get the research guide etc.

All the books people are recommending are great reads! We haven't done Harry Potter yet (at 9) for the same reason people stated here, so definitely avoid that for some time!

Not sure if your child has the capability of doing AR tests at school on books but if she does, then even if she reads below her capable level, she can add a bit of a challenge (maybe) by taking the computer tests on them and strive for a goal for herself with it. I like to look books up on ARBookfinder and it tells you points books are worth and levels etc.

Beyond the very basic chapter book series like Magic School Bus, Magic Puppy/Kitty and alike, here are some ideas that your dd may like:
- Time warp trio series (short but fun and decent reading level)
- Moongobble series (easy reads but superfun)
- Little Wolf series (easy reads but superfun)
- Franny K. Stein series (easy reads but superfun)
- Who shrunk Daniel Funk series
- Cornelia Funke has a book about a dragon and one about a princess that are higher level reading and my dd loved them at 4ish
The other series my dd loves may not be Ok for a sensitive little girl (mine was fine with these and she loves, loves Roald Dahl): Percy Jackson, the 39 clues, the Red Pyramid, the How to Train Your Dragon Series
Hope you can find something that works here, if not let me know, I've been on this road with my 5 yo and should be able to dig up more ideas, though my dd is not sensitive.

There was a somewhat similar thread started a while back that has some good suggestions that might work for you, mom123:

http://giftedissues.davidsongifted.org/BB/ubbthreads.php/topics/33477/1.html

peace
minnie