living in switzerland i’m the english story reader in the house for our son who is coming up to 5..

any good books for around that age? he loves us to read to him..

thaks in advance for any ideas!

All Julia Donaldson books……….

but the Snail and the Whale most of all.

Horrid Henry!
plenty of the Roald Dahl books I’ve found great for my daughter when she was that age. Espicially the twits! George’s marvellous medicine so you can do your best Rik Mayal impression.

My 5 years old (almost 6 now) is enjoying the Claude series by Alex T Smith and king Flashypants by Andy Riley, but you really can’t go wrong with Roald Dahl.

Jonny Duddle: Pirates Next Door, Pirate Cruncher, King of Space and Gigantosaurus are all good

aliens/pirates/dinosaurs love underpants
captain flyn and the pirate dinosaurs
dinosaur that pooped a planet

Listen to Perchy Panther (well, the bit about Donaldson anyway). I’d shout for Gruffalo and The Smartest Giant in Town.

The great dog bottom swap. Future classic……

Supermarket Zoo/How to Grow a Dinosaur are also great.

We seem to read the Alien loves underpants series or a good old Mr Men book which they choose.
Oh the book with no pictures is quite a hit too.

https://www.thebookpeople.co.uk/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/qs_product_tbp?storeId=10001&catalogId=10051&langId=100&productId=584500&cm_mmc=Google%20Adwords-_-PLA-_-The+Book+with+No+Pictures-_–BWNP&gclid=CJ3uuqHJxNICFW0A0wodhqgBAw

should have mentioned that we have finished all the JD ones and he loves them but is now outgrowing that.. wants longer more complex stories..

he loved fantastic mr fox last summer..

Oliver Jeffers books are really good. Nice mix of humour with a brilliant art style.

Edit – if he’s looking for longer and more complex how about The Hobbit or Jesus The Lion series?

We moved on to Roald Dahl after the Julia Donaldson books. The BFG, The Twits and Revolting Rhymes in particular are absolute joys to read.

Ddon’t know whether they may be slightly too old an audience (target age of 5-8 ) but how about the Flying Fergus books by Chris Hoy?

May as well start the brainwashing/indoctrination when they’re still young… 😉

Julia donaldsons books are mostly brilliant but if you are looking for something to read over a few nights, then chris hoys books about flying fergus the young cyclist have really captivated my two (6 and 8) so I’d recommend those.

If you are moving on, then perhaps consider starting on Harry Potter – our two have had them read to them since they were 6 (obviously you just need to skip the off bit here and there in the later books).

ok cool, thanks v much for the ideas!

Our 5yr old is loving the Mr Majeika series right now. Roald Dahl also working well.

Horrid Henry?! I’d avoid that unless you want him picking up bad habits.

I agree with the Julia Donaldson comments, we’ve a lot of her books (kids are 7 & 3). Favorites are The Gruffalo and Stick Man. I can’t take to the Smartest Giant one, I can’t get a good tune to the rhyme that he sings.

I can’t take to the Smartest Giant one, I can’t get a good tune to the rhyme that he sings.

I struggled at first but then ‘got’ it.

Horrid Henry is a good shout though – my two girls went through a phase of them.

I can’t take to the Smartest Giant one, I can’t get a good tune to the rhyme that he sings.

This is precisely the problem.

The Giantest Smartie in Town was always problematic for that reason.

I used to love reading the Julia Donaldson books, particular favourite was The Snail and the Whale.

On the other hand I hated reading the Mr. Men books, they were always just slightly too long for a bedtime story.

On the other hand I hated reading the Mr. Men books, they were always just slightly too long for a bedtime story.

Certainly the originals – the more recent ones are much shorter.

But fast forward five years and we’ll be yearning for our kids to want us to read them a bedtime book.

Our normal routine now is that we read one book to the girls then they go to bed and read another one to themselves so they settle. But the other night one of my girls came to me, handed me a book and asked if I would read that one too. It was The Gruffalo – the sneaky little minx, I couldn’t say no to that. 👿

Where the wild things are. I remember being asked to read that night after night after night…..

[video]https://youtu.be/sU95SJDWuSY[/video]

NSFW

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Udj-o2m39NA[/video]

Alternatively, ours loves a chapter of The Secret 7.

If he’s reading then we’re working our way through ORT plus anything else from the school library that’s suitable.

Dr Zeus, Roald Dahl, Enid Blyton and David Walliams have probably been my kids favourites from age 5/6/7.

I think the ones I got begged not to stop reading the most were Enid Blyton as the chapters always seem to end on a cliff hanger which they loved. The faraway tree, wishing chair and famous 5 series have always been great for us, although they are hilariously old fashioned.

If he likes dinosaurs then the Dinosaur Cove series are excellent. Great pace, loads of illustrations, easy to interpret and fun.

Some of the Dahl books are quite lengthy and involving, so I tended to skip (or at least abridge) certain bits. Less so with the shorter stories, but certainly with the longer ones.

EDIT: we get loads of books (childrens and adults) from The Book People. Regular deals, especially on box sets.

For space stories, check out the epic Project X series. Very visual/colourful, simple to read/follow and full of imaginative stuff that you can talk about and skew.

Bedknobs and broomsticks is one I remember being read to me, other than those already mentioned.

I love doing the voices when I read stories at bedtime but I sometimes have trouble remembering the next night if the baddie was a cockney or a geordie! also if there is lots of characters all talking in one scene it can be quite difficult to do loads of different voices, James and the Giant peach was a nightmare and I ended up just making all the voices the same. 😆

Oi Dog, Oi Frog and Quick Quack Quentin. All by the same writer & illustrator and the only books that make me laugh a lot when I read them to my daughter.

Donaldson books are great. So all of them.

David Walliams books are really good too, but possibly a little mature at 5. Depends on the kid. My 6yo loves them, it’s always “just one more chapter dad”, but they can be pretty dark at times. Brought a fair lump to my throat more than once.

Roald Dahl always good too. I like “Revolting Rhymes” and “The Magic Finger” even though they are both slightly less than PC 🙂

Read her The BFG before seeing it in the cinema and she enjoyed that too. Lead to our first proper “It wasn’t like that in the book” discussion about a film 🙂

On the other hand I hated reading the Mr. Men books, they were always just slightly too long for a bedtime story.

Really? We typically used to read two of them at bedtime. She’s getting a little old for them now but still asks for them occasionally. I always find myself trying to do the voices and annunciation from the original animations. 😀

EDIT: we get loads of books (childrens and adults) from The Book People. Regular deals, especially on box sets.

They had a deal before Xmas for 10 Roald Dahl audio books on a set of 29 CDs for £20. Worth getting if it comes up again.
https://www.thebookpeople.co.uk/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/qs_product_tbp?productId=464637

Read by decent celebs too: David Walliams, Stephen Fry, Kate Winslet, Chris O’Dowd, Peter Serafinowicz, Miranda Richardson, Richard Ayoade..

Possibly good for the OP for when he isn’t available to read in English.

This is brilliant https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/Books/Naughty-Bus-Jan-Oke/0954792114

naughty bus you won’t be disappointed.

Ours all liked Polly Jean pyjama queen, Billy’s Bucket, Magic shoebox farm. One of our boys loved Thomas the tank engine. As mentioned above The Gruffalo is good as is Room on the broom. Our 6 year old is really good at reading and is almost finished Flat Stanley at the minute.

The great dog bottom swap. Future classic……

This, then send them to school with it!

Our boy is five he gets alternate nights of Roald Dahal from me and famous 5 from crankygirl , I read him Swallows and Amazons which he enjoyed and I hated . He has been unfazed by the tragic bits in Ronald Dahal .
The other week we were away and without child books so he got a chapter of Tom Holt’s Olympiad without complaint.

I’d like to add Winnie the witch series and the Giant jam sandwich.

Just started reading Captain Underpants too.

+1 for Jonny Duddle, and he’s done some story books now too.

My son loved having me read Winnie the Pooh and House at Pooh Corner to him.
We also love Dr Seuss