Books for your grandchildren

Romola why not take her to the library and try and get an idea of what might hold her interest and find out what her level might be? The librarians would probably help. The only other thing would be to ask her school for recommendations. They’ll know where she is on their reading scheme and you can go from there.

Romola
Have a look in your local library and ask also teachers for recommendations. Jacqueline Wilson is an outstanding children’s author, she writes for several age ranges from about 7 to teenage. My granddaughters especially enjoyed the Hetty Feather series.

Romola

What would you recommend for a clever South Asian girl of 11 who has been in this country for just a year? Her spoken English is fairly good but reading level is, I would estimate roughly, year 8. She would love to read Harry Potter but it's a bit much for her.

I wrote out a list but lost the post (again).

Year 8 is age 12-13 so is the girl's reading age above her chronological age of does she have a reading age of 8?

I was going going to suggest
The Worst Witch series by Jill Murphy
Charlotte's Web by E. B. White & Garth Williams
The 13 Storey Tree House Series by Andy Griffiths

But, if her reading age is above her chronological age, they might be a bit to easy for her.

Excuse typos,I was worried about losing the post and should have checked it first.

Mine are loving Enid Blyton. None of the woke nonsense and proper stories and characters doing exciting things.The 7 year old is reading it on his own.

I used to take DD to the local charity shop,we bought some books and when she was finished with them we took them.back as a donation and boughr some more, she loved looking through tbe book shelves

My 10 yr old GS is obsessed with playing football and we simply cannot get him interested in reading a book. Despite this he is a good reader and his English standard is high but we would all like to see him sit down quietly and read a good story. He is missing so much.

My grandson is the same.
He really was an excellent reader, and interested in lots of things as a result, but now he can't stand reading.

Its so disappointing.

My GS (7) is currently really enjoying the Andy Shepherd series that starts with The Boy Who Grew Dragons.
GD (11) is loving the Lottie Brooks series by Katie Kirby.

We do visit the local library, there are loads of interesting looking picture books but it's much more difficult to decide between those with no illustrations. Our local librarians have, sadly, not proved to be very helpful.
I've found that one way to find something suitable is to sort out one book that you know they've enjoyed and look it up on Amazon. That way you can see other books written by the same author, and suitable books by other authors will be suggested.
f you go the the start page for books on Amazon you can also use the menu down the left-hand side of the page to choose an age, and various subjects (mysteries, humour, fairy stories etc) are offered.
My nine year old granddaughter enjoys non-fiction much more than fiction at the moment and her current favourite book is the Guiness Book of Records! Generally I feel that if anything gets them reading it is a good thing, whatever it is.

Our children and grandson loved The Gruffalo books, and GS absolutely loves I Need A New Bum!
But I agree with those who say it's important just to have books around. I was an avid reader as a child, and would even work my way through our encyclopedia set if I couldn't find anything else.

MOnica reading is in our family DNA too. My mother took us to the library from a very young age, and I did the same with my DDs and DGDs. I just bought yet another copy of "Each peach pear plum" for my 4month old GD, although her mother knows it off by heart! My 12 year old GD is into Manga at the moment.

Each, peach, pear, plum.
I spy Tom Thumb.
I loved that book when my girl was little.

The Lion The With and the Wardrobe - C S Lewis. I feel that this is such a great book the whole series is so interesting and takes you to another world through the Wardrobe. The Land of Narnia. I read it years ago and passed on to my children and grandchildren.

Was it the water babies, where Mrs. DoAsYouWouldBeDoneBy appeared?

The very hungry caterpillar is very good. Meg and Mog is about a witch and a cat. Good little books and the illustrations are good. You can draw round and cut them out too , which is quite fun. Then there is the great Ahlbergs Each Peach Pear Plum. cheaper in the paperback version. Great book with good pictures and connects to the nursery rhymes, and you can do estmating - guessing with good ideas as you see the skirt of someone and can guess who it is - turns out to be Old Mother Hubbard. So they are for younger chidren.

Oh thought of another one Gumdrop. It is about a an old car and talks about all the bits of the car. Which my son enjoyed

My grandson. - six - loves the Horrible Henry series that I found in a charity shop. His parents are not so keen as the stories are about a little boy who really is "horrible". They're not to everyone 's taste I suppose but hey ho - he loves them, finds them hilarious and if they get him into reading it's win win situation in my opinion.

Miss Adventure yes! MrsDoAsYouWouldBeDoneBy was in The Water Babies, one of my favourite childhood books.

Captain Underpants ?

All the books for the young ones as mentioned before but now my granddaughter is older (9) she is enjoying Mallory towers, the secret garden, Tom's midnight garden, all the books I enjoyed as a child and that makes me very happy 😊

I absolutely love the Allbergh books.
The illustrations are beautiful.
The Jolly Postman by them is brilliant

They might enjoy a visit to the local library or bookshop with you to choose something?

Mine all loved anything by Roddy Doyle,to be honest I loved reading them for them they are hilarious whatever your age

Many familiar books and authors here. I'm surprised Phillip Pulman and Terry Pratchet haven't been mentioned yet. I love the stage where they can read them well alone but enjoy the shared enjoyment of being read to . These writers fit the bill for junior ages but the rhythm of Hairy Maclary can't be beaten for little ones.