5yo Chapter Books

[northcountrymamma]

A while back there was a great thread on here for lists of good chapter books to read with ages 5-6 year olds that didn't have violence or things that may induce fear or sadness in our little ones...(or us sensitive mammas)

I thought I would start another. We are always seeking out good chapter books and have found a few good ones ourselves.

Jim Tomlinson Collection - The Owl Who Was Afraid of the Dark (our fave)
The complete Winnie the Pooh Collection
Wind in the Willows
The Little Prince
Little House on the Prairie - with some mamma edits for certain phrases we don't choose to repeat.

I am also desperately seeking a place to by the Brambly Hedge collection in Canada...for less than the $200 I can find them for online.

[Penuche]

I've been reading the Jenny Linsky books to my 3 year old. She's enjoyed them quite a bit.

Jenny and the Cat Club is what we started with.

[Daffodil]

Some not-too-scary books I've read to DD:

Tove Jansson's Moomin books
Betsy-Tacy (but there is a chapter about a baby dying)
Ramona the Pest, Ribsy, etc. by Beverly Cleary
Astrid Lindgren's Noisy Village and Pippi Longstocking books
No Flying in the House by Betty Brock
books by Dick King-Smith

Now, if I were going to give you a list of DD's very favorite books, it would look quite different. Most of her favorites have scary parts and some violence.

[Lindsay1234]

ANY Henry and Mudge!!! Oh man, my dd STILL reads those, even though shes a little too old. They come in all stages too, so your lo can start reading them to themselves when its time!

[Thalia the Muse]

LOVE the Jenny Linsky books!

Others:

The Tales of Olga da Polga and the Paddington Bear books
My Father's Dragon trilogy
Mr. Popper's Penguins
Misty of Chincoteague
The Saturdays and the other Melendy family books by Elizabeth Enright
The Fudge series, Judy Blume
The Boxcar Children
Understood Betsy
Alice in Wonderland
The Dorrie series by Patricia Coombs (these are more like picture books for older readers, but they're delightful!)
The Penderwicks
From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
Rootabaga Stories, Carl Sandburg -- LOVE them!
Freckle Juice
Clementine
Utterly Me, Clarice Bean


From the recomendations above -- I personally think parts of No Flying in the House are quite sad, but it's SO good. My daughter loved it and was not upset by it at all. I also find parts of the Ramona books very sad -- she wants so badly to be loved and accepted, and she is so afraid that she will not be -- but those might be my issues coming into play! Still, excellent books and not to be missed. And hey, I think The Little Prince is sad, so if she can handle that, Ramona and No Flying should be no problem.

Just adding:

The Cricket in Times Square and The Genie of Sutton Place. I loved these when I was a kid!

[Daffodil]

I suggested Ramona the Pest because it seems mild to me, and I think most kids would enjoy it, but of all the books I read to DD when she was 5 - including lots that I didn't mention here because they might be too scary for some kids - that was actually the one she found most disturbing. She liked most of it, but near the end when Ramona gets in trouble at school and thinks her teacher doesn't like her anymore, and her big sister teases her and she gets really, really angry, DD asked me to stop reading. (I told her that it would get better and there would be a happy ending, and kept reading until we got to the happy ending, and she felt better about the book then, but still mostly ended up feeling bad about it.) I guess for her, realistic unhappiness in a kid her own age is way more disturbing than the fantasy scariness in something like Peter Pan or the Narnia books (which she loved.)

[kangamitroo]

my 5yo really liked Mercy Watson to the Rescue by Kate DiCamillo. we giggled all the way through. we have not read the other Mercy Watson stories yet. she is a pig who has humorous adventures. the books are quite short for chapter books, and have colored illustrations.

(we are trying out The Tale of Despereaux...but i think there is too much sadness. dd says she wants to keep going though, because she knows it will end happy. she was like that with Peter Pan, too. insisted i read it.)

[jessaroo]

My daughter really enjoyed the Magic Treehouse series by Mary Pope Osborne.

[Savoir Faire]

Most of the books I would recommend have already been here....but my daughter seems to really like Junie B. Jones (she's 4)...though I do "mama edits" as well.

Have you tried Hank the Cowdog? I haven't, yet, but I always see them at the library and can't wait to try them out.