Good Books for 5- and 10-Year-olds

I would also recommend just about all the books everyone else already has (especially the Magic Tree House -it's great for both ages), but also add to the list Nancy Drew & the Black Stallion series - oldies but goodies.

For the ten-year-old "The Thief Lord" by Cornelia Funcke. It was translated from the German, but the translation is truly excellent (I am a translator myself). An out-of-print book that my girls loved is "The Velvet Room" by Zilpha Keatly Schneider. It is not that hard to find.

For 5 year olds, books by Eric Carle are wonderful, as are the Olivia series. For a 10 year old girl, what is she interested in? I teach 5th grade and my girls are into Goosebumps, anything with horses or dogs, Harry Potter of course, and the Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan. One book they all love is Because of Winn Dixie. If she likes mysteries, there is still Nancy Drew, updated of course. If you are looking for something that is just out, try going to Barnes and Noble.com and looking at the new books list for children.

Junie B. Jones and The Alphabet Mysteries were big hits when mine were 5. 10 is a tougher age. It depends on her interests.

K.
www.nomiebaby.com

Hi M.! My oldest, who is now 12, enjoyed The Jewel Kingdom series by Jahnna N. Malcolm. My second daughter, who is now 10, is reading The Series of Unfortunate Events. My son, who is 8, loved The Magic Treehouse series two summers ago. All of these books are great! Good luck! K.

For the five year old Mary Pope Osbourne has reworked a few fairy tales with girls as the heroes - I love them:
Kate and the Beanstalk
Sleeping Bobby (the prince is asleep and a princess comes to save him)
The Brave Little Seamstress

For the 10 year old I always loved the Little House series by Laura Ingalls Wilder and also Charlottes Web by EB White, and Nancy Drew

I love gift cards for my daughter. Then she can pick out her own books.

i would imagine fancy nancy books would be awesome for the 5 year old. mine are almost five and my tongue falls off reading fancy nancy :)

The 5 yr old is to young, but the Harry Potter books are great for the 10 yr old. Also, what about the Judy Bloom books or The Babysitters club. There is also the american girl books. What about The little house on the praire books.

My almost 10 year old loves the A to Z mystery series, the Animal Ark series and the Boxcar Children series. Also, the Dear America books were something my daughter loved when she was that age.
For the 5 year old, the Junie B Jones books or the Fluffy the guinea pig series would be good choices.
Happy Shopping!

I looove books for 10 year olds. I taught 5th grade, and it was so much fun to get books for those kids! If it's a boy- pick stuff that's gross. I'm serious! Nonfiction books like Ripley's Believe It Or Not, or funny fact books that involve weird things....boys tend to love nonfiction! They also love Captain Underpants (could be too easy though, depending on the child) and the best of all is the Rotten School series.

http://www.rottenschool.com/rottenbooks.html

My entire class, girls included, absolutely loved these books! If the child is advanced, the Redwall and Harry Potter series are wonderful too.

For girls, go to Barnes and Noble and check out the theme books for preteens. H. Montana, Cheetah Girls, etc. Girls at 10 are pretty smart and aware already, so they're ready for books about relationships (friendships, not romance, obviously!) and other girl stuff, and they'll talk to their parents about what they read. Harry Potter, Bridge To Teribithia, Judy Blume, etc. are also great for girls.

For 5 year olds, check out lists like this:
http://www.amazon.com/Best-Books-for-First-Graders/lm/3BZ...

You can get really good ideas from Amazon!

My son is 6, he loves the Magic Treehouse Series. They are "chapter books" and are good for 10 year olds, and have enough pictures to interest a five year old. He became interested in them last year in kindergarten, and they have encouraged him to read more. He now reads at a 3rd grade level and he is in 1st grade. They have about 40 books in the series. Another classic book series the older one would probably like is Little House on the Prairie. The younger one will be reading them soon enough as well. The series was fairly well done, in the 70's (Starring Michael Landon) but nothing compares to the actual stories written by the authors point of view, and expressed by the characture Laura in the series (played by Melissa Gilbert)

For a 10-year-old, Beauty by Robin McKinley. It's a re-telling of Beauty & the Beast, with a strong female character and vividly wonderful setting. I read it as a 6th grader in school, but a 10-year-old should easily enjoy it. Nice to see a fairy tale that empowers young ladies!

Hi M., my 5 year old girl loves Fancy Nancy books, they're very cute. Nancy is a little girl who loves all things fancy including big words. The pictures are fun, too. And my 10 year old girl enjoys Sattle Club Books, but she is really into horses. I hope this helps.
S.

Hi, M., these are all great suggestions and I'm going to add two more, for the 10-year old: Beverly Clearly makes a great series of age-appropriate books, like the Ramona books. Check out Barnes and Noble's website, too. They categorize by the age and gender, so it makes it easy to navigate and find what you want, both for the 5 and 10-year old. Hope this helps, too.

for the 10 year old .. Diary of a Wimpy kid... they have I, II and III. III just came out... and the kids love them all. they are a lot of fun. for the younger one.. Walter the Farting Dog is hillarious. hope they like these..

Hi:

For the 10 year old, there's a series of books called "Dear Diary" that are numbered 1 thru I beleive 6 or 7. My daughter age 11 has these - she will not put them down. I bought these books and never read them, which I usually do - you never know of the content these days. I finally picked one up and figured out why she won't put them down - THEY ARE ABSOLUTELY hilirous.

For the 5 year old, anything with pop ups will do. If she is not reading, I suggest the line of Grolier letter books. Each book represents a letter of the alphabet and contains items that begin with that letter. There are 26 in all and they are inexpensive. I taught my 11 year old to read from them and my 4 year old is learning now.

Books are excellent gifts! Good luck.