This is the article I needed when I was 7 (or my mum did). I was deep in my Matilda obsession phase. I wanted to be her. I only ate pancakes for breakfast and was fully convinced that one day me and Miss Honey would be besties.
Not all of that was entirely reasonable. I settled for dog-earing the book cover to cover and wearing out the VHS every weekend.
If your child is in that phase right now, you’ll know that finding books like Roald Dahl isn’t as simple as it sounds.
They’ve read the lot. They want more of the same magic. Nothing else quite scratches it.
Dahl does something specific. The grown-ups are awful in a way that’s funny rather than scary.
Mr Wormwood’s “I’m smart, you’re dumb. I’m big, you’re little…” speech wouldn’t fly today, but it’s exactly the kind of cartoony rudeness that makes kids snort.
The villains are larger than life. The child heroes have a plan. The kid wins against the odds and the adults end up looking ridiculous.
Once your child has rattled through the Dahl back catalogue, it can feel impossible to know what to put in their hands next.
The trick is to stick close to the same setup (cartoony adults, short chapters, a child with a plan) while opening up some new ground.
The picks below are all funny books for 7- to 8-year-olds that pull from the same side of the shelf as Dahl.
What to look for in books like Roald Dahl
Clever isn’t enough. A book can be brilliant and still leave a Dahl reader disappointed if it doesn’t have that same quick-whip comedy.
Three things to look for:
- Grown-ups that behave badly. Every Dahl book has a horrid adult. A mean teacher, a stinky aunt, a weird dentist. If a book has one of these, a Dahl fan will feel right at home.
- Short chapters. Dahl readers are used to a quick pace. Long chapters that take 20 minutes to get to a turning point will lose them.
- Standalone or series. Dahl wrote both, so don’t worry about it.
Demon Dentist by David Walliams
Demon Dentist
When the kids of a small town start finding dead slugs, live spiders and creeping earwigs under their pillows where the tooth fairy money should be, something has clearly gone wrong.
A new dentist has just moved to town and she isn’t the friendly kind. The book follows the kids working out who she really is and what she’s actually doing with all those teeth.
Lots of illustrations on the page, short chapters, and exactly the right amount of grossness.
If your child laughed at the Twits’ beard food bits, David Walliams is the closest match to Dahl going.
Same cartoony horror, same shameless gross-out humour, same fast pace.
You’re a Bad Man, Mr Gum! by Andy Stanton
You’re a Bad Man, Mr Gum!
Mr Gum is a complete horror who hates children, animals, fun and corn on the cob.
He has an angry fairy living in his bathtub. The heroes are Jake the dog and a girl called Polly. There’s also sweets. And adventures. And EVERYTHING.
Daft from start to finish. Surreal humour, capital-letter shouting, made-up words, characters who appear out of nowhere.
If your child finds the Roly-Poly Bird and the Enormous Crocodile funny, this’ll go down well.
Andy Stanton has loads of sequels, so once they’re in they’re set for a good while.
Tom Gates: Best Book Day Ever! (so far) by Liz Pichon
Tom Gates – Best Book Day Ever! (so far)
It’s book week at Oakfield School. Teachers are making costumes and Mr Keen has put up a prize for best-dressed on book day.
The whole book feels like Tom’s actual school notebook. Doodles, lists, captions, scribbles in the margins, different fonts on every page. More pictures than writing.
Closer to Wimpy Kid than a typical chapter book. Liz Pichon has written dozens more Tom Gates books on the same model.
Lost! The Hundred-Mile-an-Hour Dog by Jeremy Strong
Lost! The Hundred-Mile-an-Hour Dog
Streaker the dog is lost. She’d gone to protect some pies from the Pie Robber and ended up miles from her two-legged Trevor. Now she’s stuck with a cat for company and a baboon to deal with.
All she wants is to get home to her pups and eat a doughnut (don’t we all).
Short chapters, daft escalation, every page a new disaster. Same chase-and-obstacles energy as Fantastic Mr Fox, in dog form.
Great for read-aloud and Jeremy Strong writes the kind of book your kid laughs through too hard to finish a sentence.
The Terrible Two by Mac Barnett & Jory John
The Terrible Two
Yawnee Valley is famous for cows. That’s it. Just cows. Miles Murphy doesn’t want to move there.
He was the best prankster at his old school, and a town built around cows sounds boring. Then he gets to Yawnee Valley and finds out it already has a prankster. A great one.
Same prankster energy as Matilda’s tricks on Miss Trunchbull, but the target is another kid. Short chapters from Jory John and Mac Barnett. Your child might try the pranks at home (don’t blame me).
For when they’re after a little more
Framed by Frank Cottrell Boyce is the right step up from Dahl.
Dylan is the only boy in the tiny Welsh town of Manod. His parents run the Snowdonia Oasis Auto Marvel garage and Dylan keeps the petrol log. So he knows every car, every name, even every favourite crisp flavour in town. Then a mysterious convoy of lorries starts trundling up the mountain to an old, disused mine.
This one’s a bigger book. Longer chapters, a proper plot, more pages. Still funny. Still cheeky. Still on the kid’s side.
Good next step from Dahl-pace to something they can chew on for a week.
Others that might take their fancy
- For a short read between Dahls: Fortunately, The Milk by Neil Gaiman. A dad goes out for milk and comes back hours later (as you do). The reason involves a silver disc above Marshall Road, time travel and breakfast cereal.
- For the younger sibling who’s still getting there: A Monster Ate My Packed Lunch! by Pamela Butchart. Izzy is on a school trip to a lake when they open their packed lunches and realise there’s a monster in the water coming for their crisps.
- For the very young end: Princess Mirror-Belle by Julia Donaldson. Ellen’s double climbs out of the bathroom mirror, says she’s a princess, and proceeds to wreck a department store, ride the ghost train, and sort out the playground bullies.
If they’re ready for the next thing
Pivoting your child off a favourite author is a big deal. I’ve stuck to picks that don’t feel too different or scary, so it shouldn’t feel like a huge leap.
If your child still wants Dahl and only Dahl, no worries. They’re just not ready yet.
Little Reads has the Dahl back catalogue in the app too. Matilda, The BFG, The Twits, Fantastic Mr Fox, James and the Giant Peach, and plenty more. Plus every book featured in this article.
There’s 3,000+ hand-picked books in the app. Funny ones included. And if you want a bit more inspiration these articles for Harry Potter readers and Wimpy Kid graduates might be worth a read.
Little Reads isn’t for everyone. If your child’s still finding their feet with reading, there are better-suited apps with phonics and reading levels.
We’re built for kids who already love books and need a steady supply.
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