We just officially found out our 6 year old is reading at a 5th grade level, and are struggling to find books that arent too simple but also don't have tween themes to them. She loves graphic novels, but hoping to find something that will take her longer to get through (still with pictures if possible), and a series would be great. We have read a ton of Magic Treehouse out loud to her, as well as 3 of the Bunnicula series. Planning on asking the librarian next time we go as well. Thank you!
by Stinky-Pickles
9 Comments
I loved the redwall series as a kid. There are some TV episodes of it some where.
My kid adored Warriors. There are graphic novel versions too.
Danny Dragonbreath and Harriet Hamster Princess, the Bad Guys, Princess in Black, Bink and Gollie are all good options for reading that’s a little more advanced but still fine thematically (not too scary or violent). Skip the Danny Dragonbreath ghost volume, which my kiddo disliked at that age (he thought it was too sad).
The 13-Story Treehouse series by Andy Griffiths
The Beverly Cleary books about Beezus, Ramona and Henry Huggins, and Ralph S. Mouse
The Critter Club & Purrmaids (cat mermaids) series, if she likes animals
The Ivy & Bean series
My Weird School series by Dan Gutman
The Sophie Mouse books
I was a similar reader, and I enjoyed the Great Illustrated Classics series – these have a picture on every other page and are adapted from classic stories like David Copperfield, Little Women, and 20,000 Leagues under the Sea.
Narnia
Dragon Girls!
The Doll People by Ann M. Martin (of Babysitter’s Club fame), a chapter book series illustrated by Brian Selznick before he became known for The Invention of Hugo Cabret. Like Toy Story, the dolls move and talk when people aren’t around. A 100-year-old china doll family meets a new plastic doll family, and the perpetually 8-year-old girl dolls become friends. In the first one they search for the auntie china doll who has been missing for decades.
Brian Selznik’s books might also be a good fit. They look huge but are about half text, half full-page illustrations with parts of the story only told through pictures. I personally like The Invention of Hugo Cabret and Wonderstruck the best.
Dragonbreath by Ursula Vernon like someone else mentioned is also fun. Danny is a dragon going to a school for regular lizards and he drags his iguana friend on adventures with other supernatural creatures like sea serpents, jackalopes and ninja frogs. They are mostly text with some illustrations, with sections of full graphic novel pages when there’s a lot of action. The Halloween book is a little dark like the other person mentioned and would be worth a parent skimming through first (they get trapped in a haunted house with the ghost of a boy lizard who got sick and couldn’t trick or treat and ended up dying, so he haunts other trick or treaters).
Terry Prachett ‘s Discworld books, phantom tollbooth. If you are open to foreign books, my brothers and I enjoyed abridged and illustrated version of Journey to the West and Romance of Three Kingdoms (book is mostly historical battles and strategies so depends on your child) growing up around that age.