Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Book suggestions for DS6?

You mean DD6, right? DS= dear son)

Judy Moody, Gooney Bird Greene, Ivy and Bean, Ramona (may be a bit hard--they are about 4th/5th grade level IIRC), Rumer Godden if you can find her. Many kids enjoy A to Z Mysteries and Magic Treehouse at about that level.

My ds6 started on Frankie Fernortner Mystery books. They may a little easy for dd (my ds can fly through them quickly) - but they're fun and "spooky" without being scary. He can read them by himself easily. For comparison, he loves Magic Treehouse but may need help with a word here and there.

I second Trixie Beldon and Ramona. But my DD7 is also sensitive and won't readily read anything remotely scary or dangerous on her own (harry potters, BFG scared her, even some A-Z mysteries) without strong encouragement. And she doen't do fantasy much. She plows through Ivy Bean, Judy Moody, Magic Treehouse and Junie B. We recently discovered Clarice Bean books and she is loving these too ... a bit higher level Junie B. She also loves non-fiction and National Geographic puts out some great books, especially through scholastic.

thanks for starting this as it is an issue for us too!

Oh, goodness, I'm so glad you guys realized that I meant DD, and not DS. Thanks so much for all the suggestions! I can't believe I never considered Roald Dahl. He's STILL one of my favorites, and I am fairly sure I still have all of his books around here somewhere. A lot of good suggestions here, and many that I've never heard of - but with this many ideas, I'm sure she'll run across something she likes. Thanks bunches!

I'd like to recommend the Secret Science Alliance by Eleanor Davis. It's about 3 kid inventors (one uber geek, one super cool genius girl, and one 2e jock) who have to protect their inventions from a rival scientist. It's comic book style so it's dense with images, but I think it's over 100 pages long. I think it's the sort of book that kids (especially gifted kids) can get a lot out of. Inspired by the book, we started building ("inventing") robots!

If you DD likes Junie B. Jones, she'd probably also like the Clementine books. They're about a very creative girl who is a little older than Junie B. She's extremely impulsive, which lands her in some funny situations.

The Magic Treehouse fact finders are a hit with my six year old DD (they are rated as a higher reading level than the fiction books themselves, but she was able to read them in K and I didn't think they seemd at a fourth or fifth grade level), she also likes Ivy and Bean, Animal Ark, Fairy Realm (my DD never liked girl things, but suddenly likes some fairy books)and many non fiction books on any topic that intests here (often animals or science).

I am always looking for suggestions too. I'd love to find books with more challenging vocabulary and sentence structure, with interesting non fiction tidbits sprinkled in so she learns something, but with content that appeals to a first grader. It looks like you are in the same boat.