Books for 6 year olds
Today’s post is a day late, and I’m sorry. I’ve been busy with the Skyward 3 Gamma read and working on this in the background. But today it will get done! I’ve actually been thinking about this list for quite a long time. Everyone has their favorite chapter books for kids who are just starting out. Some of these will be WAY too hard for some 6-year-old kids, while others will tackle these in a very short time and move on quickly. The average length of the books for beginning chapter books means that once a kid starts really reading independently, they can get through a LOT of books! And if your child will only do chapter books with you for a long time and reading is a struggle, that’s really okay too! I think there is a lot more pressure to get kids reading at a high level than there really needs to be most of the time.
So here are some of our favorites, and sorry I don’t have pictures of everything; we have been donating a lot as my youngest outgrows things and she’s a voracious reader. This list will in general be from easier to more difficult, though series often tend to get more difficult/complex as they go along. Meaning that Magic Tree House number 45 is significantly more difficult than number 1. Also note, I have 4 daughters. So if the best book ever that your son loved isn’t on this list it’s NOT a bad book. We just defaulted a LOT to princesses and fairies at this stage.
1. Princess in Black by Shannon Hale. These are adorable full-color illustrated chapter books. Currently there are 6 in the series I think, but there could be another one we don’t have yet. I read these with my youngest for her first chapter books and then she went back and read them independently a few months later. They follow a perfect princess with a big secret: she’s actually the hero Princess in Black! Watching Princess Magnolia manage her princess and hero lives while battling monsters is SO much fun.
2. Owl Diaries by Rebecca Elliot. Another set of illustrated chapter books that my youngest loved, a little closer to graphic novel than Princess in Black, they’re super cute and fun reads. And there are at least 15 of them (probably more!). (I can’t give more than you’d find on amazon for this one; I haven’t actually read any by myself!!)
3. Magic Tree House by Mary Pope Osborne. This one is pretty much a classic these days. Three of my girls read these with me as their first chapter books and we have gone through the first 25 many times. There are over 50 now, and skipping to some of the later Merlin Missions can be a lot of fun, but I would definitely read the first set of 4 before doing that. There are also fact books about some of the places and things that Jack and Annie see if your kid likes nonfiction. Annie and Jack travel all over the world and through lots of past events giving a good basis for historical fiction and fantasy both.
4. Rainbow Magic by Daisy Meadows. Oh these books. The darling of Scholastic Book Fairs for many years, I really couldn’t stand them. But my girls LOVED them, and felt like they were big kids sneaking around reading books mom didn’t like. So we ended up with like 6 of the series. They come in sets of 7 and each set is based on a theme, like Jewels, Flowers, Parties, etc.
5. Never Girls by Kiki Thorpe. These are slightly more difficult and complex than the Rainbow Magic books, and deal with a Disney-esque Never Land that 4 friends visit with Tinkerbell, balls, and other fun things. There are 12 in this series now, though I don’t think my girls cared much past book 8. They just grow out of them really quickly at this stage.
6. Whatever After by Sarah Mylenowski. These are adorable and fun fractured fairy tales, starting with Fairest of All and Snow White, they go through most of the classic princess stories (though the telling is somewhere short of Grimm it’s much better than Disney lol). Abby and her little brother Jonah get into the story (magic mirror style) and break it, then fix it for the correct ‘happily ever after’.
7. Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner. Of course you’ve probably heard of these. They aren’t new, but there’s a reason that classics are Classics. The story is a little outdated, but none of my kids seemed to mind much. All of my girls loved the first book, and a couple of them read 20 or more. There are nearly a hundred boxcar children adventures if this is *the book* that they love. And what kid doesn’t like the thought of living on their own in a secret spot (at least until dinner time!)?
8. My Secret Unicorn by Linda Chapman. Because princesses and fairies need unicorns to go with them, we add in this fun series. We only had the first 3 or 4 of these, but there are at least 10 in the series. Who wouldn’t want to go on an adventure with their secret unicorn? This is another series that I haven’t personally read; we got the books hand-me-down from a friend and I never quite got around to reading them.
9. Ramona the Pest by Beverly Cleary. Here we have another classic that stands the test of time. The Ramona books came out in the 60’s and 70’s, but growing up enough to start school hasn’t changed drastically since then. The themes of family, fitting in, and growing up are still truly relevant today. And this is one that can be a movie night when you’ve finished the books; the film is fun and well done.
10. Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney. This one is popular with kids of all ages. It’s full of fun drawings throughout the book, so while it looks big it’s not as scary to read as it might seem at first. While my kids love it, I think the main character is mostly annoying and whiney. But the books are fun and the fact that the kids are reading is what counts. I’m not sure how many of these books there are, but at least 15. And definitely start with book 1 on these too. The movies are… about what you’d expect after reading the books, but it could be a good reward for reading.
If you’re looking at copies of these actual books, you’ll notice that the last couple books on the list are SIGNIFICANTLY larger and more difficult than those at the beginning. This is more or less the course of reading my kids went through (with quite a few more additions for some) from the time they were 6 until 7 or close to 8. Coming soon to the blog: what to read when you’ve finished these type of books but you’re not quite ready for something like Harry Potter yet.
