In the many conversations I had with parents over the years, the constant change in preferences that their child made came up a lot. One week they were obsessed with dinosaurs and the next week it was Star Wars.
I had trouble keeping up, so I can only imagine how overwhelming it must be as a parent. But throughout this time in the classroom, where trends and weekly favourites came and went, there certainly were a few patterns that I noticed around what children liked to read at a particular age.
Now that isn’t to say this is a carbon copy that you can apply to any child within this age range, but it brings together my experience with what families on Little Reads tell us their 5 to 11 year olds like. So if your little one doesn’t fit, that’s fine. This is just what our data says!
How I worked out what children like to read at each age
In the Little Reads app, families pick the kinds of books their child likes. Funny, adventure, magic, mystery and so on, across twelve genres.
I took every choice made for a child aged 5 to 11 and looked at what share each genre gets at each age. The numbers are from 6 November 2026.
Two things to keep in mind. These are families who use a reading app, so their children already like books. And it’s what families say their child likes, which isn’t quite the same as what gets read. Still, the pattern across the ages is clear enough to be worth sharing.
| Genre | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Friendship | 20% | 21% | 19% | 18% | 16% | 15% | 11% |
| Adventure | 18% | 19% | 17% | 18% | 16% | 18% | 17% |
| Funny | 15% | 15% | 17% | 17% | 17% | 17% | 16% |
| Magic | 12% | 12% | 12% | 13% | 14% | 13% | 15% |
| Animals | 11% | 8% | 8% | 6% | 5% | 6% | 5% |
| Mystery | 6% | 6% | 6% | 8% | 9% | 7% | 11% |
| Fantasy | 5% | 3% | 5% | 5% | 5% | 6% | 6% |
| Real life | 4% | 6% | 5% | 6% | 5% | 5% | 6% |
| Action | 4% | 5% | 6% | 5% | 4% | 6% | 6% |
| Scary | 4% | 3% | 3% | 2% | 4% | 4% | 5% |
| Sci-fi | 1% | 2% | 1% | 3% | 3% | 1% | 2% |
| War | 0% | 0% | 1% | 0% | 1% | 1% | 1% |
Funny and adventure never drop
Adventure and funny sit near the top at every single age. Adventure stays between 16% and 19% of choices from 5 to 11, and funny between 15% and 17%. Between them they make up about a third of the choices at every age.
Panda in the Spotlight
Panda in the Spotlight is for a 7 year old who wants to laugh. Pudding is a real panda who escaped from Edinburgh Zoo and now lives with the Campbell family as their nanny. Everyone outside the family thinks she’s an actor in a panda suit. Then a journalist starts sniffing round with talk of a Hollywood film, and only ten-year-old Callum can see she’s out to prove Pudding is real.
Friendship is biggest at 5 and 6
Friendship is the most picked genre of all at 5 and 6, at 20% and 21%. By 11 it’s down to 11%, nearly half.
Yours Sincerely, Giraffe
A friendship story for 6 year olds that happens entirely by post. Giraffe has everything he needs on the savanna except a special friend, so he gives Pelican a letter for the first animal beyond the horizon. It reaches Penguin, who has never heard of a neck and decides the Professor’s must be just in front of his tail.
Animals fade
Animal stories get 11% of choices at 5. By 11 that’s down to 5%. My children’s horse books list goes right up to 11, but the bigger pull for animal stories is at the younger end.
The Saggy Baggy Elephant
For 5 year olds. Sooki the elephant is dancing through the jungle, one-two-three-kick, until a parrot tells him his ears are too big, his nose is too big and his skin is much, MUCH too big. So he tries every bit of advice he’s given, including a tiger’s kind offer to nibble a few pounds off.
Mystery nearly doubles by 11
Mystery is 6% of choices at 5 and 11% at 11, with the biggest jump between 10 and 11. By 11 it’s level with friendship. If they’re at that stage, my books like Holes list has more puzzles to work out.
When You Reach Me
When You Reach Me is for 11 year olds. It’s 1979 in New York, and Miranda’s best friend has stopped speaking to her. Then notes start turning up in tiny jerky handwriting, from someone who already knows what’s going to happen. The first one asks her to write a letter, and that letter is the book.
Scary stays small, magic holds
Scary books stay small at every age, between 2% and 5%, and are at their highest at 11. Magic barely moves, between 12% and 15% at every age.
The Stone Child
For 10 year olds. Eddie’s family is moving to a new town when something with four long legs and yellow eyes steps out of the woods. Then he recognises a house on the hill from the back of his favourite horror book, and the author vanished from this town thirteen years ago. It’s properly frightening in places. My ghost stories for tweens list has more for this age.
And for magic at 11, Asha & the Spirit Bird. Asha sets off to find her dad in the city, and a huge bearded vulture leaves a gold-tipped feather at her feet.
Just so you know…
Every genre in that table has its own shelf 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.
Little Reads doesn’t teach reading and there’s nothing to pass. It’s a library for children who already love books, with every kind of story on this page in it.