Books for 6 year olds: ten they will want again

At six, a child lives with two kinds of story. There are the ones they can read: short, careful, sounded out word by word, the way most children are learning to decode at school. And there are the ones they can enjoy, which are far longer and far funnier than anything they could manage alone. The best books for six year olds work on both levels. Some they can begin to read for themselves; others are for you to read to them, a chapter at bedtime.

Here are ten we would happily hand to any six year old, each with a line on why it works. All of them are real, well loved and easy to find in a library or a bookshop.

First chapter books they can start on their own

Frog and Toad Are Friends by Arnold Lobel. Five short stories about two friends who could hardly be more different. The sentences are simple enough for a new reader, and the jokes are good enough for the grown-up listening. For many children it is the first “proper book” they read from cover to cover.

Claude in the City by Alex T. Smith. Claude is a small dog in a beret who has adventures while his owners are out at work, with his best friend Sir Bobblysock, who is a sock. Big type, pictures on every page and a gentle, absurd humour make it ideal for a child stepping from picture books into chapters.

Kitty and the Moonlight Rescue by Paula Harrison. Kitty has cat-like superpowers, and on a night-time rescue high above the city she has to find the courage to use them. Short chapters, lovely illustrations, and a first adventure story that never talks down.

Flat Stanley by Jeff Brown. A falling noticeboard flattens a boy, who then discovers he can be posted in an envelope, flown like a kite and slid under doors. Six year olds find the idea irresistible, and the story is short enough to finish in a few sittings.

The Hodgeheg by Dick King-Smith. Max the hedgehog wants to cross the road, and after a bump on the head his words come out muddled. Dick King-Smith wrote animal stories with real warmth and a wicked streak of humour, and this is one of his best for younger readers.

Stories to read aloud together

The Owl Who Was Afraid of the Dark by Jill Tomlinson. Plop the baby barn owl does not like the dark, and in each chapter he meets someone who tells him why the dark is wonderful. Gentle, funny and quietly reassuring, it is a perfect bedtime book for a child with fears of their own.

Fantastic Mr Fox by Roald Dahl. One clever fox against three nasty farmers. It is among Dahl’s shorter stories and an easy place to meet him: quick, a little bit naughty, and finished before attention starts to wander.

The Enchanted Wood by Enid Blyton. Three children find a magic tree in the woods, and every time they climb it there is a different land at the top. The writing is old-fashioned, but a world at the top of a tree still works on six year olds just as it worked on their grandparents.

Picture books that still earn their place

Oi Frog! by Kes Gray and Jim Field. Cats sit on mats, hares sit on chairs, and frogs, to their great annoyance, must sit on logs. The rhyming jokes are made for reading aloud and for guessing the next line, which is exactly the skill a new reader is practising.

Supertato by Sue Hendra and Paul Linnet. After dark in the supermarket, a superhero potato battles an evil pea. Six year olds have not grown out of picture books, and a funny one is a good reminder that reading is meant to be fun and not only practice.

Making the most of reading at six

Let them pick. A child who chooses their own book is far more likely to finish it. If they want the same one every night for a month, take it as a good sign rather than a problem.

Read above their level. The books they read alone will stay simple for a while. The books you read to them can be as rich as they enjoy, and that is where they meet new words and longer stories.

Take turns. You read a page; they read a line. The story keeps moving while they practise, and they are never stuck for long enough to give up.

Keep going after “can read”. Children who can read by themselves still love being read to, and they still learn from it. Our post on reading aloud to children who can read explains why.

And one thing that is not a book

If your six year old loves a story with themselves in it, here is one more idea. Journee posts a story to your child in letters, one chapter at a time, with them as the hero and the people they love written in. At six, most children have their letters read to them and join in with the words they know, beginning with their own name on the envelope. You can see how it works on our personalised letters page.