Parents Tell Us Their Kids Like These Books!
Book Series In Order tells us what book series his kids like. Then his followers chime in. I think I’ll check out some of these. By the way, if you like to follow characters as they grow in a series of books, this website is very helpful!
Top 10 Books for 6-12 Year Olds by Graeme McGraw
As I’m sure is no surprise to any of you – I’m a big reader. I’ve always been a big reader since I was a kid. It’s great because I’ve pushed my reading love onto my own kids, and now they can’t get enough. Long car ride? No need for iPads or DVD players or whatever – they bring along books.
Of course as they get older, it can get a bit trickier in regard to what they read. I’d say from 6 years old up, they’re actually caring more about the actual story within the book rather than just the pictures.
My son is 11, my daughter is 7 and we’ve gone through a wide variety of books and series to find out the ones they like the most. Below are the ones that have really touched base with the kids. There are others but I could be doing honorable mentions for a week straight – let’s just go with our top 10 books for 6-12 year olds. Graeme McGaw
#10: Harry Potter – I’ve found this is a hit and miss series of books for kids. My son just can’t stand them at all, while my daughter can’t get enough. Of course you know all about the Harry Potter Series of Books – it’s no great secret.
#9: The Famous Five – This is a personal push by me, I must admit. Growing up as a kid in the UK, like everyone else I read Enid Blyton. I could not get enough of the Famous Five, the Secret Seven, etc. Hell I just went back and read them all again recently and I’m 33 years old, and they still kept me up at night. I’ve found it hard going to get the kids into these – but it’s worth a try because it’s great to relive your childhood through your children. Even if you’ve never read Enid Blyton, give Five on a Treasure Island a try – the first in the Famous Five Series of Books.
#8: Captain Underpants – If my son had his way, this would probably be top 3. Ugh. It’s not that I don’t enjoy the books – and they ease the kids into THAT type of humor (oh look – the planet is called Uranus!) – but they feature comic strips in them with horrible spelling errors. That’s the point of the books of course – it’s two kids writing the comic strips – but when it’s younger and impressionable kids, I think it’s a mistake having all the spelling errors. But be sure to give the Captain Underpants Series a try – kids do love that toilet humor.
#7: Goosebumps – The Goosebumps series of books –and there are a lot of them– is written by R.L. Stine. These are a great series that have stood the test of time, and are good for introducing your kids into the horror genre without it actually being that scary.
#6: Mason Dixon – The Mason Dixon series of books are written by Claudia Mills and Guy Francis. My kids really like them because they’re –quote from my daughter– “perfect bedtime books.” They thoroughly enjoy the books, but just feel there’s something about the books that makes it easier for them to drift off. And who am I to deny a child wanting to sleep?
#5: Percy Jackson –The Olympian Books by Rick Riodan are exciting. Also check out the 39 Clues books by Rick Riordan as well. Even though I couldn’t get my son into Harry Potter he ate these books up and really, really enjoyed them. Probably best for around Grade 4 or 5 I’d say.
#4: Where’s Waldo? The Where’s Waldo series of books need no introduction, and they’re usually a hit for kids. Starting easy and then getting harder and harder. It’s great watching a kids face when, after about 10 minutes of scrutinizing everything on the page they finally see Waldo or the Wizard. These books always keep them entertained.
#3: Calvin & Hobbes – It’s great to introduce kids to a series of comic strips, and there’s none better than Calvin & Hobbes. My kids love the likes of Garfield etc., but there’s just something about the Calvin and Hobbes series that every kid seems to relate to, as well as the topics they cover. I still remember my kids reaction to when they went on a family trip, Calvin forgot Hobbes and they returned home to find the house broken into and can’t find Hobbes. My son hugged his blanky extra hard that night.
#2: Diary of a Wimpy Kid – The Diary of a Wimpy Kid series is published by Jeff Kinney. It’s a tremendous series that’d be #1 except I feel it dropped off just a bit lately. My kids have read most of the books multiple times, but since the first read of the last few books they haven’t read them since.
#1: Big Nate – The Big Nate series of books is my current favorite for reading to the kids, and they love them too. The stories are very similar to the Wimpy Kid series of books, but I think the stories are better and fresher. Each character is instantly recognizable. The artwork is excellent too, which is a big plus.
If you’re a parent, what do YOUR 6-12 year olds currently like book wise?
Parents Respond
Becky – Two series that I’m glad are back in print are The Babysitters Club and Animorphs. Babysitters Club gives clear examples of situations that children can have trying to run a business and maintain friendships. It also has good advice on childcare and shows empathy with younger children. Animorphs has a world of information about the animal species into which the young teens could transform. The good vs. evil and alien adventures made it a hit with my sons. Both are highly recommended. I’ve not seen the graphic versions themselves, but that format seems to offer less imagination and literacy than the original printed word editions.
Tim – For children’s books in this age group, you might want to look into the Hank the Cowdog series by John Erickson. He basically had to self-publish long before the internet and has been captivating the south west with his stories of Hank the Cowdog who is head of ‘ranch security’ on a cattle ranch. They all start out, “Hello it’s me again, Hank the cow dog.”
BSTrue – Start reading to your kids at a very young age. Their vocabulary and use of language will grow and the added benefit is that you can introduce to them all the classics that WON’T be part of their education if you rely solely on public education. Read the Classics to them, stories like Heidi, and Black Beauty have such a strong impact on growing kids sense of compassion, fairness and family. My kids loved the Redwall series by Brian Jaques. It’s a hoot to read those characters parts as written, because you really can get across the British accents and mannerisms that the little woodland critters have. All books in this series have clear cut differences between good and evil and feed their desire for justice to prevail! Reading to them will probably be one of the most lasting lessons that will shape their characters positively.
Emily – When I was in middle school and even into high school I loved reading the Dear America series.
Sarah – Check out The Olympians series by George O’Connor featuring stories from Greek mythology, in a fabulously illustrated and brought to life graphic-novel style with scary monsters and battles, of course, but fine for most kids and adults.
Jayran – We seem to be leading parallel lives with regards to what our kids are reading. My 9 year old son is reading or has read pretty much something from every series on this list, including my old copies of Famous Five books! Right now he’s very much into the Puffin Classics series –reprints of old classics like Treasure Island, Around the World in 80 Days, The Wizard Of Oz, Little Women. He doesn’t distinguish between “boy” and “girl” books as marketed by publishers, so he has read Heidi, Little Women, A Little Princess with as much gusto as Oliver Twist or Treasure Island or Kidnapped. He also is a great fan of Roald Dahl books. And he just finished (again, my old copies) of the Super Gran series! I’m trying to find him a good copy of The Black Arrow. It was hands down my favorite book around his age and I think he’d enjoy it very much. We’ve even written a note to Puffins Classics to consider republishing it!
Graeme – I actually never read many of the Puffin classics – so that’s actually a great idea. I’d love to go back and read them, and now I can through my kids. And oh man the Super Gran series I forgot all about those – I’ll have to look for them for sure. Thanks for that link I’ll be looking through and getting some now.
Jayran – Got the first two Big Nate books for my son. An immediate hit and he agrees with you that they are better than Diary of a Wimpy Kid (which he loves). Thank you so much for the recommendation!
Source: Book Series In Order » Top Lists » Top 10 Books for 6-12 Year Olds
My name is Graeme McGaw and I run Book Series In Order. Books are my life and reading is my life. That’s me pictured with my kids – both of whom are big readers too! My son currently loves the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series while my daughter is working her way through The Babysitters Club. One of my favorite moments in life was when my son searched for the order of Diary of a Wimpy Kid books, and came in all excited “I found your site!!!! And it’s so helpful!!” I was born in Scotland and lived there until 16 years old, at which point I moved to Canada. I am based in Ontario.
