Your Kid’s Next Read
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There is featured books, links to interviews with authors and lots of lots of great book ideas for your kids – it is a happy and inspiring little Facebook space in which to hang out in. You can join here.
Quite some time has been spent (not by me!) putting together some master lists of books which get mentioned time and time again in this group and you can see the ‘Early Childhood’ (birth to eight years) lists below, other lists to follow. Please note that these lists are member generated and not edited with my teacher librarian hat on! Some books may be more suitable for slightly older readers as independent reads, but will work brilliantly as read-alouds for bedtime books.
Use the lists below how best suits your child, student or library patrons.
Popular Kindergarten Reads (Age 3-5) from Your Kid’s Next Read Members
The ‘Tashi’ series by Anna Fienberg and Kim Gamble (ill.)
‘Pig the Pug’ by Aaron Blabey
‘The Bad Guys’ by Aaron Blabey
‘Samurai vs Ninja’ by Nick Falk and Tony Flowers (ill.)
‘Winnie the Pooh’ by A.A. Milne
The ‘Selby’ series by Duncan Ball
‘Engibear’s Dream’ and ‘Engibear’s Bridge’ by Andrew King and Benjamin Johnson (ill.)
The ‘Moomintroll’ series by Tove Janssen
‘Cook Me a Story’ by Bryan Kozlowski
The ‘Ruby Red Shoes’ series by Kate Knapp
‘Room on the Broom’ by Julia Donaldson
‘Giraffes Can’t Dance’ by Giles Andreae
‘Cheeky Monkey’ by Andrew Daddo and Emma Quay (ill.)
The ‘Eddie’ series by Sarah Garland
Because I can’t help myself with suggestions, my own fav kindergarten age reads are ‘Billie’s Super Dooper Adventures’ here, my Top Ten Early Childhood books of last year are here and a link to all my ‘birth-5’ read ideas are here.
Popular Starting School Reads (Age 5-7) from Your Kid’s Next Read Members
The ‘Riddle Gully’ series by Jen Banyard
Roald Dahl various
The ‘Zac Power’ series by H.I. Larry
The ‘Captain Underpants’ series by Dav Pilkey
The ‘Selby’ series by Duncan Ball
The ‘Fizz’ series by Lesley Gibbes
The ‘Mr Men’ series by Roger Hargreaves
‘Ben 10’ by C.B Lee
‘The Huge Bag of Worries’ by by Virginia Ironside and Frank Rodgers (ill.)
‘Pippi Longstocking’ by Astrid Lindgren and Lauren Child (ill.)
‘What Mr Darwin Saw’ by Mick Manning and Brita Granstrom (ill.)
The ‘Treehouse’ series by Andy Griffiths and Terry Denton (ill.)
The ‘Riddle Gully’ series by Jen Banyard
The ‘Ivy and Bean’ series by Annie Barrows and Sophie Blackwell (ill.)
Roald Dahl various
The ‘Clementine Rose’ series by Jacqueline Harvey
The ‘Clarice Bean’ series by Lauren Child
The ‘Famous Five’ series by Enid Blyton
The ‘Violet Mackerel’ series by Anna Branford
‘The Magic Faraway Tree’ by Enid Blyton
The ‘Treehouse’ series by Andy Griffiths and Terry Denton (ill.)
The ‘Sparkle Spa’ series by Jill Santopolo
The ‘Lulu Bell’ series by Belinda Murrell
The ‘Lotta’ series by Astrid Lindgren
‘What to do when your temper flares’ and ‘What to do when you worry too much’ by Dawn Hueber
The ‘Billie B Brown’ series by Sally Rippin
‘The girl who never made mistakes’ by Mark Pett
The ‘Squishy Taylor’ series by Ailsa Wilde
Popular Lower Primary (age 7-8) from Your Kid’s Next Read Members
The ‘Treehouse’ series by Andy Griffiths and Terry Denton (ill.)
The ‘WeirDo’ series by Ahn Do and Jules Faber (ill.)
The ‘Captain Underpants’ series by Dav Pilkey
‘The Magic Pudding’ by Norman Lindsay
‘The Tale of Despereaux’ by Kate DiCamillo
‘Goosebumps’ by R.L. Stine
‘Trixie Belden’ by Julie Campbell
The ‘Samurai Kids’ series by Sandy Fussell
The ‘Land of Stories’ series by Chris Colfer
‘Captain Jimmy Cook discovers Third Grade’ by Kate and Jol Temple
‘Flora and Ulysses’ by Kate DiCamillo
‘Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing’ and ‘Superfudge’ by Judy Blume
‘The Naughtiest Girl’ series by Enid Blyton
‘The Anti-Princess Club’ series by Samantha Turnbull
‘City of Ember’ by Jeanne DuPrau
‘Where the sidewalk ends’ by Shel Silverstein
The ‘Horse Crazy’ series by Alison Lester
‘The Worry Tree’ by Marianne Musgrove
The ‘Our Australian Girl’ series by various authors
‘A Series of Unfortunate Events’ series by Lemony Snicket
The ‘Emily Eyefinger’ series by Duncan Ball
‘Charlotte’s Web’ by E.B. White
The ‘Fairy Detective Agency’ series by Sally Gardner
‘Ramona the pest’ by Beverley Clearie
‘Nim’s Island’ by Wendy Orr
‘What Katy Did’ series by Susan Coolidge
‘The Worst Witch’ series by Jilly Murphy
‘Withering-by-Sea’ by Judith Rossell
‘Black Beauty’ by Anna Sewell
The ‘Ruby Redfort’ series by Lauren Child
The ‘Friday Barnes’ series by R.A. Spratt
‘On Track’ and other verse novels by Kathryn Apel
‘Finding Serendipity’ by Angelica Banks
The ‘Verity Sparks’ series by Susan Green
‘The Quigleys’ series by Simon Mason
The ‘Casson Family’ series by Hilary McKay
‘The Red Wind’ by Isobelle Carmody
‘Anne of Green Gables’ by L.M. Montgomery
The ‘Max Remy Super Spy’ series by Deborah Abela
The ‘Truly Tan’ series by Jen Storer
‘Harriet Clare’ series by Louise Park
‘The One and Only Ivan’ by Katherine Applegate
Some lists I compiled, which are now several years old but still relevant, can be found here (for 9 Years+) and here (for 12 years+). You’ll also find a list of Your Kid’s Next Read recommendations for older kids (10+, 12+, YA for tweens) here.
[…] Megan’s list covers age groups from pre-school to 8+ years, boys and girls. […]
[…] For kids aged pre-school to 7+, go here. […]
Great lists – thank you.
I was a bit surprised at some of inclusions in the 3-5 years group. I cannot imagine either of my children (2.5 and 4.5yrs) listening to me read the Treehouse books or even Bad guys…they LOVE books and listening to stories, but they just don’t have the attention span to follow along with chapter books.
A minor detail…I noticed your mention of Pippi Longstocking (my fav!) has the illustrator as Laurel instead of Lauren Child.
Thanks for the amazing work that you do for all of our benefit.
Hi There! I do somewhat agree! These lists were created by the members of our Facebook group and I possibly wouldn’t read The Treehouse Books with my four year old, although she ADORED listening to them on audio book and she has really enjoyed ‘The Bad Guys’ but mainly as her 8 year old sister read it to her! Sometimes little people with older siblings are keen to listen to longer books. And thanks for the edit – I type like I speak…FAST so I often make typos!
My eldest son LOVED the Magic Faraway Tree and Wishing Chair books at 4 (his 5th birthday was Magic Faraway Tree themed). We read both series twice through before we were allowed to move on. We’ve always had a chapter book on the go ever since. His 6th birthday theme was How to Train Your Dragon as we’d just finished reading that book together. Every child is different 😉