Finding a brilliant book series for 6 year olds can be a tricky task, because this is usually the age when picture books feel too ‘babyish’ and chapter books filled with walls of text are too much. And if this isn’t balanced right, it can really turn a child off reading.
These five series all sit on our books for 6 year olds shelf. They’re The Sisters 8, the Questioneers, Goofballs, Penguin Pandemonium and the Amelia Bedelia chapter books.
Why these five book series for 6 year olds
At six, a lot of reading still happens with a grown-up, and some of it is starting to happen alone. I’ve picked ones that work both ways, read to them or read alone, and every one will bring out the giggles.
I’ve put a note with each one about anything that might need you nearby. Two of them have a sad or worrying thread under the jokes, and I’d rather you knew before page one than halfway through.
Five book series for 6 year olds
The Sisters 8
The Sisters 8 1 – Annie’s Adventures
Eight sisters running a house on their own, and book 1 is one of our free books. The Huit girls are octuplets. On the last night of the year one parent goes out to the woodshed for logs and the other goes off to pour drinks, and neither comes back. It takes the girls a good twenty minutes to notice. Annie is the eldest, so she takes the silver spear off the suit of armour and carries it round the house. There’s also a robot called Betty who was built to do the dusting and puts the duster on her own head.
We have eight of them. The parents go missing on page one, and one sister keeps saying they might be dead, so this one depends on your child. Durinda’s Dangers comes next.
The Questioneers
Iggy Peck and the Mysterious Mansion
The most read of these five in our library. Iggy Peck thinks about architecture all the time, and he once built a tower out of nappies. Chasing his cat through a thunderstorm, he ends up on the porch of the empty house everyone calls the Mysterious Mansion. His friend Ada’s great-aunt has just inherited it. Upstairs there’s a room for every country the old owner ever visited, and the house does things. Doors open on their own, and somewhere inside something plays music.
We have five Questioneers books. In this one the children find newspaper pages about the 1918 flu, and read that the owner’s wife and seven-year-old daughter both died of it. It’s short and plain. Ada Twist and the Disappearing Dogs has none of that, and Rosie Revere and the Raucous Riveters is the one for 5 year olds.
Goofballs
Goofballs 01 – Crazy Case of Missing Thunder
A detective series for the child who wants a mystery without the scary bits. Jeff Bunter tells the story and writes everything down in his cluebook. A creaky old voice on the phone asks for the original Goofball, and turns out to be a boy called Randall Crandall whose butler does his sneezing for him. Randall’s pony Thunder has vanished on the morning of a big storm. There are petals all over the stable floor and small footprints outside.
We have six. The clues are there for your reader to beat Jeff to the answer, and the Goofballs dress up as bushes to spy in a flower shop. Startling Story of the Stolen Statue is the second case.
Penguin Pandemonium
Penguin Pandemonium
A show-off penguin trying to save his zoo. Rory the rockhopper used to be the star of City Zoo, and now nobody comes. If more visitors don’t turn up, the zoo will shut by the end of the season. Then a metal thing appears on a pole over the pool. Rory is sure it’s a gun. It’s Penguin Cam. Big Paulie the emperor penguin talks like a film gangster, and a goose painted black and white turns up to the auditions claiming to be the world’s only flying penguin.
We have four. It uses a couple of American words, like vacation. Big Paulie’s best friend was eaten by a leopard seal, which is played for laughs. In The Rescue, Rory gets landed with babysitting two emperor chicks.
Amelia Bedelia
Amelia Bedelia Means Business
For the child who fancies themselves as a bit of a comedian. Amelia Bedelia wants a new bike, and her parents say they’ll meet her halfway. So she gets up and walks exactly halfway round the table. What they mean is she has to earn half of it. Her first job is at Pete’s Diner, where a trucker orders cherry pie and tells her to step on it. She’s let go in under an hour.
We have thirteen of the chapter books. A lot of the references are Americanised, so one or two jokes might need explaining. In Amelia Bedelia Shapes Up she’s picked last for kickball, after a water fountain.
What about Magic Tree House?
It’s the series most lists start with for this age, and we have plenty of them. They’re mostly on our shelf for 7 year olds, and I’ve written a whole list of books like Magic Tree House for when Jack and Annie run out.
More series if those are done
Mr Majeika is the one I’d go to first. He used to be a wizard, and nobody believes in wizards any more, so he’s had to get a job as a teacher. He arrives through the classroom window on a magic carpet. We have fourteen, and the first one is also on my bedtime stories for 6, 7 and 8 year olds list. Mr Majeika and the Music Teacher is the next term at St Barty’s.
Here’s Hank is Hank Zipzer, who wants to play a superhero fly in the class play. We have twelve. In Dragon Girls, a new girl finds out she can turn into a dragon, and we have nine.
Luma and the Pet Dragon is a girl who wanted a puppy for her seventh birthday and got a dragon instead. J.D. and the Family Business is about an eight-year-old who cuts hair, properly, on Saturdays at the family barbershop. We have three of each.
If 6 isn’t quite the right shelf
For a younger reader, my chapter books for 5 year olds list starts with The Owl Who Was Afraid of the Dark. For one who’s racing ahead, my book series for 7 year olds list has five more to start.
If it’s the magic they love, try books like Heidi Heckelbeck. If it’s the cheeky school stories, try books like Junie B. Jones.
Just so you know…
All of these are in Little Reads, a children’s library app with 3,000+ hand-picked books. It’s £7.99 a month after a 7-day free trial. Cancel anytime. The first Sisters 8 book is among the 100+ free books on a free account.
Little Reads doesn’t teach reading and there’s nothing to pass. If yours already loves a story and wants book two the minute book one is done, that’s what it’s for.