Best Book Gifts for Newly-Independent Readers

This list of must-have books is for little readers who are just starting their independent reading journey and can read a text with minimal assistance. Age range varies here as reading progression happens at various ages and stages. These books are generally aimed at little readers from 6 – 8 but are suitable for readers outside of this category.

Publishers do tend to make decisions about covers which affects parent and educator perceptions of ‘what is a book for a boy and what is a book for a girl’. I would urge you to consider these books for all readers rather than limit your young reader to books which have been given a ‘gender’ and do take the time to read Jacqueline Harvey’s thoughts on this here. Obviously your child will have particular interests and obsessions (my ten year old will only read horse books at the moment for goodness sake!) but it’s important to read widely and across text types.

Click on title links to purchase.

‘Tiggy and the Magic Paintbrush’ series by Zanni Louise

‘Did You Take the B From My _ook’ by Matt Stanton and Beck Stanton (and others in the ‘Books that Drive Kids Crazy’ series)

‘Flat Stanley’ series by Jeff Brown. Illustrated by Scott Nash

‘The Treehouse’ series (and others in this younger readers series) by Andy Griffiths. Illustrated by Terry Denton

‘Toocool’ series by Phil Kettle. Illustrated by Tom Jellett

‘Sporty Kids’ series by Felice Arena. Illustrated by Tom Jellett

‘Mates: Great Australian Yarns’ series (various authors)

‘Billie B Brown’ series by Sally Rippin

‘Hey Jack’ series by Sally Rippin

‘Solo’ series (various authors)

‘Ginger Green, Playdate Queen’ series by Kim Kane. Illustrated by Jon Davis

‘Star Girl’ series by Louise Park

‘Lola’s Toy Box’ series by Danny Parker. Illustrated by Guy Shield

‘Flying High’, ‘Going Bush with Grandpa’, ‘The Memory Shed’ and ‘One Rule for Jack’ by Sally Morgan and Ezekiel Kwaymullina. Illustrated by Craig Smith

I have previously written a three-part series of posts about newly-independent readers which you can find here: Part One, Part Two, Part Three.