Books for a 5 Year Old Girl

There's a vintage three-book series called MY FATHER'S DRAGON that a five-year-old might enjoy very much.

My kids absolutely LOVE the books my Mo Willems. He wrote 3 Knufflebunny books, quite a few Piggie and Elephant books (We Are In a Book and Let's Go for a Drive), and a bunch of Pigeon books (Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus). They are full of humor and great for beginning readers. The Knufflebunny books are particularly good for girls.

The Paper Bag Princess. As a mother of a girl who quickly tired of insipid Disney princesses, I have to say this is our favorite princess book ever. At the beginning of the book, the princess and her fiance, a handsome prince, are hanging out at her castle when a dragon comes swooping in, burns the castle, and carries off the prince. The princess's gowns are all burned up, so she dresses in a paper bag and heads off to rescue the prince, which she manages by using her wits to trick the dragon. When the prince comments on her bedraggled appearance afterward, she dumps him.

If she's looking for books she can read on her own, the Fly Guy series works for little girls as it does for little boys. And if she hasn't discovered Fancy Nancy yet (whose books were my son's favorite - I think Fancy Nancy was his first crush), those books are a lot of fun.

Finally, I have one recommendation you've likely never heard of. This could be a good thing, simply because this little girl may already have a lot of nationally known works on her shelf. It's called Once Upon A Saturday, written and illustrated by Leslie Lammle, a friend of mine who does beautiful work. It follows a little girl through what looks to the adults like a normal Saturday morning of chores. But in the mind of the little girl in the story, there's so much more going on...

Check your public library for a list of age/grade appropriate books. You can also ask the Librarian for suggestions as well.

My daughter is 6 and here's what she likes:
Fancy Nancy
Olivia the Pig
Junie B. Jones
Betsy-Tacy Series
Judy Moody
Pinkalicious

Junie B Jones books by Barbara Park

I would give her the same books you would give a five year old boy. It is incredibly sad that we limit book choices for little kids based upon our preconceptions.

Magic Treehouse
Blueberries for Sal and all Robert McCloskey books
Lentil
Homer Price
Ricky Ricotta and the Mighty Robots
Stuart Little (to read to her)
The Odious Ogre by Norton Juster

Go to the Scholastic website.
www.scholastic.com
And you can then search for books per age and grade level.

ETA:
Eric Carle also has great books that are not "baby" books.
And is for older kids.
And it has his typical great illustrations. And fun to read.
Just Google search Eric Carle books.

Not all 5 year olds, like "chapter books" type books.
Some do, but not all.
My daughter for example, did not like the Judy Moody books or the Ivy and Bean or Junie B. Jones books. Although many girls do like that series and it is popular.

Also, the "Little Bear" book series by Else Holmelund Minarik is good. It is a lite chapter book series.
And the "Mighty Robot" book series is fun too, by Ricky Ricotta. Both my daughter and son, liked those books.

Also: "My Neighbor Totoro" the picture book, is great. It is for 4-8 years old.

It also depends on what reading level the girl is.

Disney fairies....
Rainbow magic fairies
Ivy and bean
Magic treehouse
Fancy nancy
Pinkalicious

Check out the beautiful picture books by Elisa Kleven, her stories are sweet and remarkable.

Laura Ingalls Wilder's "Little House in the Big Woods" would be great for this age as a read-aloud. ("Little House on the Prairie" does introduce the Indian Wars and some racism toward Native Americans, so I'd let the parent get that on their own)

I like Geneva's suggestion of Robert Munch's The Paper Bag Princess. Definitely not your typical maiden in distress!

We did read the "My Father's Dragon" series and my son loved it.
Mo Willem's books are great.
The Magic Treehouse books are fun; the Rainbow Fairies are also a big hit with the little kindergarten girls.

The Pinkalicious and Fancy Nancy series make several Early Reader books that are great for this age. Young Cam Jansen are fun mysteries.
Ivy + Bean is a cute series of easy chapter books.

If you want to get picture books, Ladybug Girl, Tallulah's Tutu and Angelina Ballerina are all really nice - each one also has several books about the same characters.

A few really good authors to check out for nice picture books:
Julia Donaldson (we love The Gruffalo and Room on the Broom)
Rosemary Wells - Yoko books, Max and Ruby and many others
Kevin Henkes - Chrysanthamum, Lily's Purple Plastic Purse and several others

My sister just sent us a really cute book called Princess Hyacinth (The Surprising Tale of a Girl Who Floated)

It might be fun to give her a gift card to a bookstore. My daughter got a B&N card once and you would have thought she was in heaven!

My 6 year old daughter emphatically suggests the book Moo! By David LaRochelle. I also love it.

Anything by Jan Thomas would be perfect for a kid just starting to read.

Go Away Big Green Monster by Ed Emberley is also a favorite in our house.

The Mercy Watson series by Kate DiCamillo are shorter picture/chapter books and what I used to introduce my daughter to chapter books. Adorable books.

Anything by Mo Willems is a hit with that age.

The web site amightygirl.com is an incredible resource for finding books for girls.

Ladybug girl is a very cute story with great illustrations. My absolute favorite kids book is called All the World by Liz Garton Scanlon (sp?). It's beautiful and poetic and my kids love the last picture of the whole village where they can point out all the places that were in the book.
I like to stay away from the "liscenced character" books, like Barbie, Disney, etc. just because they are fed that stuff incessantly.
Oh! The Day the Crayons Quit is one we just got from the library and it is so clever and cute! Entertaining for a five year old, for sure:)

I second Junie B books. The little girl is 5 and in Kindergarten. My daughter could relate to her and loved having the books read to her then re-read them on her own.

Little critter by mercer Mayer, mr putter and tabby, dr Seuss, actually boys like these too!

Judy Moody
Magic Tree House
Animal Ark series
Nancy Drew Notebooks (out of circulation-buy used online)
Little House series
Fancy Nancy
Ivy and Bean
DK informational books
Wizard of Oz

Fancy Nancy
June b Jones
Magic treehouse
Sideways school

Junie B Jones
Barbie Books
Wayside School books
We both Read books