If you’re after chapter books for 7 year olds that they can read by themselves, my five are Ivy & Bean, the first Hardy Boys Clue Book, The Dragonling, Harry the Poisonous Centipede’s Big Adventure and Here’s Hank. Every one of them is the start of a series. All five sit with the rest of our books for 7 year olds, and the full list is a minute away.
This age can be a tricky one to navigate. Because a lot of 7 year olds still love and appreciate a picture book (especially when it’s read aloud to them). So, transitioning away from that shared reading experience to something more independent and ‘serious’ like chapter books can feel a bit scary.
I was that kid who found it scary. I loved being read to. I loved a bedtime story. But when the time came to start reading on my own, I just didn’t take to it.
I always found myself preferring to watch the latest episode of The Queen’s Nose or Malcolm in the Middle instead of picking up a book.
Luckily, my vivacious reader of a mum persisted and kept my bedroom bookshelf packed.
The first stack of chapter books that I remember willingly getting stuck into were the Judy Moody series (which also happen to be in our library…)
And that was it.
Soon I found Jacqueline Wilson, Harry Potter and you probably know the rest seeing as I went on to become an English teacher and founder of a children’s reading app (but we’ll save that trip down memory lane for another day).
So I have a soft spot for this exact moment. The one where a child stops being read to and starts reading.
What a chapter book for a 7 year old actually looks like
“Chapter book” covers a lot of ground. At 7 it usually means something quite specific.
Chapters of five to ten pages. Tonnes of pictures and illustrations so no page ever looks like a wall of words. And often a series, so finishing book one is the beginning of something rather than the end.
In ten years of teaching, the books that would make the cut here weren’t usually the big names. But they did do something pretty special. And that’s keep the chapters short (so the reader feels like they’re CONSTANTLY making progress) and the series dense. The combination of these two things for a reader in this sticky transitional phase is perfect. Because it gives the reader a sense of achievement (by finishing the chapters and books so rapidly) which also gives a little bump of dopamine (I’m no neuroscientist but I’m sure this is a thing…)
Five chapter books for 7 year olds to start with
Ivy & Bean by Annie Barrows
Ivy & Bean
The chunkiest series and the one I’d go to first.
The moment they saw each other, Bean and Ivy knew they wouldn’t be friends. But when Bean plays a joke on her sister, Nancy, and has to hide quickly, Ivy comes to the rescue, proving that sometimes the best of friends are people never meant to like each other.
Tiny chapters, a drawing on nearly every page, and four more Ivy & Bean books at the same age once this one’s done (Ivy & Bean and the Ghost That Had to Go is next). Especially good if their own best friendship started with a falling-out.
The Video Game Bandit (Hardy Boys Clue Book 1) by Franklin W Dixon
Hardy Boys Clue Book 01 – The Video Game Bandit
Perfect for the whodunnit kids.
Bayport Elementary is throwing a fundraiser so they can go on an end-of-the-year trip. The best prize of all is a brand-new ZCross50000, a video game system that every kid has been drooling over. But sometime during the event, the ZCross goes missing. Can Frank and Joe figure out who took the prize before it’s too late to save the big school trip?
This is the Hardy Boys at chapter-book length, so the case is solved by the last page and there are fourteen more to go (The Missing Playbook is book two).
The Dragonling by Jackie French Koller
The Dragonling – A Dragon in the Family
It’s giving cosy dragons without the jeopardy.
Ever since Darek saved Zantor the dragonling, they’ve been inseparable. Darek is the only family Zantor has ever known. But now Darek is bringing Zantor home from the Valley of the Dragons, and the villagers are up in arms. He and his brother Clep are called traitors. Their best friends are turning against them.
Four Dragonling books at this age, and Dragon Trouble follows straight on. It’s the one I’d pick for a fantasy fan who wants something a bit safe.
Harry the Poisonous Centipede’s Big Adventure by Lynne Reid Banks
Harry the Poisonous Centipede’s Big Adventure
For the child who constantly has mud under their nails…
Another squirmy story about Harry the Poisonous Centipede, with Tony Ross’s illustrations of the small world of Harry and his friend George as they get taken prisoner by the Hoo-Mins (that’s us, from down there).
Just a heads up that this is the second Harry book, and the first one (A Story to Make You Squirm) sits at 8, so I’d start here and go back to it. Short, funny and slightly gross, which at 7 is a compliment.
Here’s Hank: Bookmarks Are People Too! by Henry Winkler and Lin Oliver
Here’s Hank – Bookmarks Are People Too!
The funny one (and yes, that Henry Winkler).
Hank is a kid who doesn’t try to be funny, but he somehow always makes the kids in his class laugh. His class is putting on a play, and Hank wants the lead part, Aqua Fly. But he freezes in his audition and can only buzz like a fly. His teacher creates a special part for Hank, a silent bookmark. When his enemy, Nick McKelty, freezes during the performance, it’s up to Hank to save the play.
Book one of twelve, all short, all silly.
Two more that didn’t get a card but easily could have. Judy Moody Was in a Mood (my own gateway, see above, and there are sixteen Judy Moody books at this age). And The Great Crisp Robbery by Pamela Butchart, in which Izzy’s school trip turns out to be an overnight train ride, the bunk beds are tiny, and then Miss Jones gets kidnapped.
If they’re not quite there yet
Then nothing on this page is a test.
Plenty of 7 year olds want one chapter read to them at bedtime and the rest of the book left well alone, and our short chapter books for bedtime list is perfect for exactly that. The books for 6 year olds shelf is where the shorter, bigger-print end of things lives, and there’s no rule that says a 7 year old can’t be there.
If they’re racing through
Then the five above will last about a fortnight, and what you want is a big series.
Magic Tree House is the classic next step at this age, Beast Quest is for the child who wants a monster a book, and the Treehouse books are for the one who’d like the pictures to keep coming. I’ve done a list for each of them. Books like Magic Tree House, books like Beast Quest and books like The 13-Storey Treehouse.
And if they’ve already burnt through those, they’ve probably outgrown this page. My chapter books for 8 year olds list is the next stop.
Just so you know…
Little Reads is a digital library app, not a reading scheme. It holds 3,000+ hand-picked books (every series on this page included). It’s £7.99 a month after a 7-day free trial, and you can cancel anytime. A free account comes with 100+ free books, and two of the five above are in that hundred.
One honest line before you download. We’re built for children who already love reading. If yours is still learning to read, a phonics app is the better buy right now, not us.
But a 7 year old who’s just found out they can finish a whole book on their own, and wants another one? That’s exactly who we made this for.