Buying books for children

Scarinae

I want to buy books as my Christmas presents for the kids I babysit for - I would prefer to give them an actual present instead of a book token - but I'm a bit stumped as to what to get them! I loved Roald Dahl books when I was younger, but I'm finding it hard to work out what age the various books are aimed at. There are two kids - a boy who is five, and still learning to read, so I'd need something with lots of pictures; the other is a girl who is seven and a half, she devours books and would probably have a slightly higher reading age than seven. Does anyone have any recommendations of Dahl books, or other books that would be good for that age group?

BossArky

Check out the Discworld series. Great for kids and adults. They should be ok for 7 or 8 upwards. Some of them are more orientated towards younger folk i.e. Maurice and the Amazing Rodents.

If you get kids into these books they will have years of fun reading through the vast collection in the discworld series.

James and the Giant Peach is a good kiddies one from R.Dahl. Try Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory too. Timeless classics!

Kitty_N

I was recently looking for a book for my niece, who just turned eight, when I stumbled across the Worst Witch series. I adored these books when I was younger and she seems to be fairly enthralled with them too.

As for Dahl books, I always loved George's Marvelous Medicine, Matilda and The BFG.

Unfortunately I've never been a five year old boy or had an experiences with them so I can't be of much help.:)

Ruu_Old

The Book People normally have great deals on books, with boxsets from various authors that save a lot of cash including a Roald Dahl collection not that long ago that I posted under Bargain Alerts.

Monkey61

I think Matilda or Charlie and the Chocolate Factory would be perfect for the girl! You really can't go wrong with a good Roald Dahl book.

Horrid Henry would be good for the boy. The language is pretty simple and they're actually quite good. I made the mistake of presuming they were trash cos there's so many of them, but totally addicted to them now! The have a version of the very first one called I think Don't be Horrid Henry - which is basically the first book simplified for younger readers with larger print and colour pictures. Or you can get nice 10 story collection versions which are slightly larger, have larger print and coloured pictures.

Also Allan and Janet Ahlberg do some pretty amazing simple reading books with loads of pictures - Mister Biff the Boxer, Mister Creep the Crook and all those. Magically brilliant stuff.

Hrududu

I'd say The Witches, Danny the Champion of the World or Matilda for the older child and maybe Fantastic Mr Fox for the younger.

billypilgrim

I second Horrid Henry for the boy, or Captain Underpants is good for boys too, or maybe the Alfie Green series by Joe O'Brien.

For the girl, Skulduggery Pleasant maybe, it's about a zombie detective and has a girl as the central character. or Cosmic by Frank Cottrell Boyce is good, it's funny. or i really like Toby Alone by Timothee de Fombelle about a little guy who's a millimetre and a half tall and lives in a tree. Or the London Eye Mystery by Siobhan Dowd.

if you have a local (decent) bookseller you should pop in and ask for advice