What was your favorite book as a child ?

Have you looked on the Redhouse Books website? I've found it really good for finding books based on age group, there are recommendations etc. and so far, going by those recommendations when purchasing the books i've bought for family/friends have been real hits.

I remember loving Roald Dahl but if she's reading Harry Potter i'm not sure they'd be a bit young for her IYSWIM I liked Nancy Drew aswell.

Has she read Roald Dahl? I loved them when I was younger. Around 11, I started reading the Sweet Valley High series (there are tonnes of them so should keep her going for a while).

Has she read any of the classics (Pride & Prejudice etc)?

Anything by Enid Blyton my favourite of hers being "The Magic Faraway Tree" and the "Mallory Towers" books. I still read them now ?

Has she read Th Hobbit pr Lord of The Rings? They should keep her busy for a while! I remember we had to read The Hobbit for English Lit and it took us months and months.

I second Redhouse.

I used to love the Sweet Vally High ones, i had hundreds of them. Also the point horror books and the goosebumps books.

My favourite book as i got into the top end of high school was Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

mine were the famous five books, i had them all, in fact my mum has still got them. in early teens it was sweet valley high

Thanks Sunset

I haven’t tried that site no I will have a look

The thing with searching by age is that she is way ahead in reading age so boks recommended for 10 year olds are often far too simple for her.

Although recommendations of good story lines are important too, not all book need to be a challenge to read IYSWIM

Yes shes read The Hobbit and LOTR she borrows often borrows my books and that is the genre I like to read

You could always skip a couple of age groups..

At the moment my 10 year old son is reading the Lemmny Snicket books(for about the 5th time). He also eats books so can be difficult to buy for as well.

Try Alan Garner or Keith Gray both very good writers, Ioved Garner at a similar age to your daughter and went to school with Keith and his early books were good, not too sure what sort of age group he is aiming at now though.

I’m not too sure about the Sweet Valley High books

I read them at about 13 or 14 but can’t really remember much of the content I’m worried that they are a bit grown up just yet .

I don’t mind books about boyfriends etc but don’t want anything too graphic

i liked A Horse Called September by Anne Digby

and For Love of a Horse by Patricia Leitch

Thanks for all the replies keep them coming

She has the Lemony Snickets books and the Alan Garner ones too

I will look into Keith Gray ?

There are some really good ideas here, split into age groups:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/?xml=/arts/2008/01/19/bokidsbooks119.xml

I read well for my age and at about 10/11 I loved To Kill A Mockingbird (still my favourite book), Carrie's War, The Silver Sword, Diary of Anne Frank, I'm the King of the Castle, that kind of thing. And for trashier moments Stephen King, Judy Bloom and Sweet Dreams books. How about the No 1 Ladies Detective Agency books?

Thunderhead (not knowing it was from the 'Flicka' series) and Great Expectations.

Maybe too young for Animal Farm? - I think I was too young when I read it (mind you, it still upsets me ?).

Has she read any Terry Pratchett? I think from what you've said she'd enjoy them. Don't think they're too old for her but I was reading Stephen King when I was 10 so I' no great judge!

x

Chronicles of Narnia

Artemis Fowl books by Eoin Colfer

The Hobbit

Lord of the Rings

The Silmarillion

Roald Dahl - I loved the Witches, the BFG and George's Marvellous Medicine.

Those look great I will add them to the list

What about the Chalet School series? If she liked Mallory Towers and St Clares these are on a similar vein, all jolly hockey sticks and being fined for slang?

Another vote for SVH - isn't there a younger series as well?

Little Women series? If it's too advanced you could start her off with the film maybe then natual progression to the books.

i used to devour books when younger, particularly between ages of 9 to 12.

i started reading terry pratchett when i was 10 - started with "the carpet people" and the nome trilogy - "truckers", "diggers" and "wings".

judy blume was good - i think she wrote "tales of a fourth grade nothing" was enjoyable, and there are a few books about the same family which was great. "blubber" was good too. i also read quite a few Paula Danziger books.

i read Jane Eyre for the first time, and although the first few chapters were really, really difficult for me to get through, once i did i really enjoyed it. actually, i also read Pride and Prejudice around that age too. both books were read with a dictionary beside me and i have a copy of pride and prejudice where i underlined all the words i didn't understand so i could look them up. some pages have a lot of underlining! ? it didn't stop my enjoyment though.

i also became addicted to The Babysitters Club books. pure trash, i don't even know if they are still around. but me and my friends bought them by the bucket load and would swap them a lot.

that's all i can remember at the moment!

edited to add that i still loved reading the Roald Dahl books at that age. his autobiography - boy and going solo - were birthday and christmas purchases around that time.

and i was too ashamed to say it, but i loved mallory towers and the chalet school. more trash books, but more innocent than sweet valley high.

my sister loved to read Anne of Green Gables. there are many books in that series, and she loved them all. i found them a little twee, but i know they were popular enough. i think a friend read Pippi Longstocking regularly also.

This is great lots of ideas thanks all

I Have a workman comming at 3.15 to fit a new intercom so if I don't reply for a while that's why.

Have just remembered I loved James Herriot's books too, I used to read my Grandma's copies of them. Thank you for starting this, I'm having a real trip down memory lane now (old git icon needed).

I loved The Hounds of the Morrigan written by Pat O'Shea. At ten, I was reading Nancy Drew, Enid Blyton, Angela Brazil (she might be fightfully old-fashioned now though). One of my all time favourite books, I first read in my early teens was Katherine by Anya Seton. Not sure if you think this might be a bit "old" but it's a cracking read. My Goddaughter has enjoyed reading Georgette Heyer for years, I'm currently reading Conqueror, all about Duke William of Normandy and it's very well researched, Heyer certainly knows her history in it and it's not the least bit fluffy and romantic.

Has she read Ursula Le Guin's "Earthsea" books? I read The Hobbit and LOTR when I was her age and loved them. "A Wizard of Eathsea" is great - I re-read all the Earthsea books recently and still enjoyed them.

Actually, David Eddings' "The Begariad" and "The Mallorean" series are good for a young fantasy reader - The Belgariad books deal with a lot of growing up issues, albeit with a sword and sorcery bent ?

I loved 'The Wolves of Willouby Chase' (might be spelt wrong - sorry!).

It's frustrating when you read at a higher level - I remember having umpteen arguments with teachers that, yes, I had read the entire book in such a short space of time and my parents having to back me up that I was an avid and speedy reader but it was so hard for my parents to make sure that was i was reading at an earlier age was still age-appropriate.

What about some classics - bit of Rudyard Kipling or Charles Dickens?

Ooh, and the 'Chalet School' series - loved that! So old fashioned and silly but used to devour them.

I remember A Horse called September, also was the book by Patricia Leitch part of a series about a girl and her family who move to the highlands of Scotland where she encounters an arab horse and a bit of magic thrown in??

I was another Enid Blyton Famous Five fan (could never get into the Secret Seven though!), and when a bit older James Herriot. I also loved Follyfoot by Monica Dickens as I was into horses in a big way.

A lot of the books everyone else has said, I also loved the Gerald Durrell books - 'My family and other animals' and all the others he wrote.

I used to read a lot of Point Horror books - they also do Point Crime, Point Fantasy and Point Romance if she's not into horror.

New intercom is fitted so I’m back

These are one of my favorite series I have them all as well as the Raymond E Feist books so they are available to her to borrow.

I was a voracious reader as a child, (probably having two librarians as parents didn’t help;-) , and three of my favourite authors that haven’t been mentioned so far were Diana Wynne Jones, Michelle Magorian and Cynthia Voight.

Diana Wynne Jones wrote fantasy books. The Chrestomanci series, starting with Charmed Life, were fab, but my very favourite was A Tale Of Time City.

Michelle Magorian wrote books based around the Second World War. You may know Goodnight Mr Tom… However, my favourite was Back Home which has a female protaganist.

Cynthia Voight wrote a wonderful series of books about four children making their own way across the US after they were abandoned in the car park of a shopping mall by their mother. The first book, Homecoming, is the best.

Other favourites were two stories by Robin McKinley, Beauty and The Outlaws of Sherwood, both re-tellings of classics, Beauty and the Beast and Robin Hood respectively.

I also loved the Whitby Witches books by Robin Jarvis, but mainly because that was the only place I ever saw my name in print/on screen.

Hope that helps!