These are the books for 5 year olds I’d reach for first. There are over 200 on this shelf, and I’ve picked 21 to start with.
At five, most books still get shared. A grown-up reads, a child listens and joins in with the voices. Then one day they’re reading a page back to you, very slowly and very proudly.
So everything here reads well out loud, and 12 of the 21 are free.
Funny books for 5 year olds
Mabel knows exactly how the world should work. Birthdays should come sooner and packed lunches should have chocolate in them. In the first of three stories, she cancels her party, then finds out you only get presents if you have one. Magnificent Mabel and the Very Bad Birthday Party is free, and it’s the most-read book on this shelf.
Magnificent Mabel and the Very Bad Birthday Party
At Wigglesbottom Primary the class are warming up for Sports Day when they notice the school chicken copying their stretches. By the big race it has escaped from its pen and is heading for the finishing line. The Sports Day Chicken is three silly school stories, and important words come in capitals, so there’s plenty to shout.
Wigglesbottom Primary: The Sports Day Chicken
It’s lunchtime at Pirate School. The teachers are shut in a cabin with sausages, fried eggs and about four hundred baked beans. The children get one baked bean each. The Bun Gun is very loud, with CHOMP and BANG all over the page.
Pirate School – The Bun Gun
It’s Daisy’s seventh birthday and Mum is taking her to the zoo, with a secret surprise that involves penguins, a bucket of fish and a zookeeper. Something goes wrong, and Daisy tells you so on the very first page. She just won’t tell you what yet. Daisy and the Trouble with Zoos uses a lot of capital letters, so you can hear exactly how to read it.
Daisy and the Trouble with Zoos
Albert comes from a long line of Master Bakers, and he’d much rather kick a ball. So his dad buys the Doughmaster 5000, an enormous baking robot with laser eyes and an oven for a tummy. Albert volleys a football into its face, and that night it wakes up and marches through town firing rock cakes from its fists. Albert Johnson and the Buns of Steel is free.
Albert Johnson and the Buns of Steel
Marshmallow Marmaduke Vanilla-Bean Sugar-Pie Fluffington-Fitz-Noodle is a big fluffy cat, and everyone calls him Pie anyway. He tells the story himself. Amelia comes home with a leaflet for an animal acting audition, sure that he could be a huge star. Pie won’t jump through a hoop and he won’t do a high five for a tiny piece of ham. That’s Marshmallow Pie The Cat Superstar.
Marshmallow Pie The Cat Superstar
Books for 5 year olds that love being read aloud
Plop is a baby barn owl, fat and fluffy with very knackety knees. He thinks the dark is nasty and he isn’t going out in it. So his mum sends him down from the nest to find out about it, one meeting a night. The Owl Who Was Afraid of the Dark is free, and each chapter is a natural place to stop.
The Owl Who Was Afraid of the Dark
The hen is very small and her egg is humongous. Out pops a chick far too big for the coop, and the other chickens decide he must be an elephant. Then a squirrel. Then a sweater. Your reader will see what he is long before they do. Chicken Big is free.
Chicken Big
Bork, Gork and Nklxwcyz leave home to find planets of their own, with one warning from Mama. Watch out for the Big Bad Robot. The Three Little Aliens and the Big Bad Robot is the three little pigs in space, and the Robot bleeps and meeps and groinks its way from door to door. Also free.
The Three Little Aliens and the Big Bad Robot
Billy’s one big wish is to fill the empty old sweet-shop near his house with sweets. Then a Giraffe, a Pelican and a Monkey move in and start cleaning windows without ladders. The Giraffe is the ladder, the Pelly’s beak is the bucket and the Monkey does the polishing. Almost everything they say in The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me comes out as a song. The Duke roars for his gun at one point, and it’s played as him being ridiculous.
The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me
Hannah loves gorillas and has never seen a real one. Her dad is always busy, and whenever she asks him something it’s “Not now.” For her birthday she asks for a gorilla and gets a toy one. In the night it’s real and very big, and it puts on her dad’s coat and hat and takes her to the zoo. Gorilla is a picture book by Anthony Browne, and the words are short and simple.
Gorilla
Thousands of years ago, Kali’s father gives him a bow so he can practise for his first hunt. When Kali sits down to rest he plucks the bowstring, because he likes the noise it makes. Soon he has forgotten about the arrows and is playing into the night, and the stars come down to listen. Kali’s Song is very short, and it’s free.
Kali’s Song
If you want more to share across the ages, there’s a list of family read aloud books too.
Animal books for 5 year olds
Peter Rabbit squeezes under the gate into Mr McGregor’s garden, the one place he’s been told to keep out of. He eats lettuces, French beans and radishes, loses both shoes and hides in a watering can that turns out to have water in it. The Beatrix Potter Illustrated Collection opens with him, and Squirrel Nutkin comes next. Animals do get eaten in these stories, and Peter’s father ended up in a pie.
Beatrix Potter – Illustrated Collection
Sooki the little elephant is dancing through the jungle, one-two-three-kick, when a parrot tells him his ears are too big and his skin is much too big. So Sooki tries to smooth out his wrinkles. He rubs them with his trunk and soaks in the river like a crocodile, until a real crocodile swims up. The Saggy Baggy Elephant takes about five minutes to read, and it’s free.
The Saggy Baggy Elephant
Anatole is the cheese taster at M’sieu Duval’s factory in Paris, and nobody there knows he is a mouse. He bicycles in at night once his six children are asleep. Then he hears a cat on the floor above and writes down whatever comes into his head, and the next morning the cheese men are told to wrap cheese in a banana peel. Anatole and the Cat is free too.
Anatole and the Cat
Badger is a newborn kitten found beside a bin in a snowstorm. He wakes up warm in Fosterland with a teddy bear, a purple crocodile and a two-inch moose, and he does all their voices himself. Then a stray cat called Mia moves into his room and has five kittens, and Badger does not want a neighbour. Baby Badger is the third Adventures in Fosterland book and it’s fine to begin here. It’s free as well.
Adventures in Fosterland 3 – Baby Badger
For when they want a bit more story
Zoe lives at the Rescue Zoo, where her mum is the vet, and she can understand what animals say. Nobody else knows. When Great-Uncle Horace floats in by hot-air balloon with a lion cub who’s too sad to eat, Zoe creeps into the zoo hospital after dark with a torch. The Lonely Lion Cub is book one of a long series. The cub’s family were taken by poachers, which is told, not shown.
Zoe’s Rescue Zoo 1 – The Lonely Lion Cub
Mrs Davis’s canary has vanished from his cage. That evening Ruth Rose’s cat goes missing too, and by the time Dink, Josh and Ruth Rose reach the police station, so have a rabbit and a parrot. The Canary Caper is a first mystery with clues to spot along the way, and it’s free.
A to Z Mysteries – The Canary Caper
Isadora’s mum is a fairy and her dad is a vampire who only eats red food. When it’s time for school she tries a day at fairy school and a night at vampire school. Her wand turns one small carrot into a giant flying carrot that wrecks the classroom, and Pink Rabbit lets every pet bat out of the window. After Isadora Moon Goes to School there are more of her books on the shelf below.
Isadora Moon Goes to School
Nate is a detective who works alone, and he always leaves a note for his mother when he’s on a case. Annie from down the street has lost the picture she painted of her dog. Nate asks if her house has any trapdoors or secret passages, and it hasn’t. In Nate the Great the lines are short with plenty of white space, and he tells you each thing he notices as he notices it.
Nate the Great
Destiny has her very first sleepover tomorrow, in a tent in Olivia’s garden, and her tummy feels funny. So she practises in her bedroom with a tent made from the clothes horse and a spotty sheet. In the night something starts snuffling inside it. It’s Trog, a small monster with three eyes, and he’s even more scared than she is. Destiny Ink: Sleepover Surprise is free.
Destiny Ink: Sleepover Surprise
The rest of the shelf
Those 21 are where I’d start. Every book below has been hand-picked, and there are more Rescue Zoo and A to Z Mysteries books in there too.
For a first taste of Roald Dahl, I’ve written about what age Roald Dahl books are for. And if it’s witches and fairies they’re after, books like Isadora Moon has the next step.
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