Looking for books for 6 year olds? There are over 300 on this page, so I’ve picked out 21 that I’d go to next.
Six is often the year reading independently really starts to settle in. Some 6 year olds are still happiest being read to, and some have just found out they can get through a chapter book on their own (and won’t stop telling you about it).
So there’s a good mix here. Short chapters, big characters, and plenty they’ll want to read again tomorrow.
Funny books for 6 year olds
Everybody in Henry’s class has lost a tooth except Henry. He pulls, he pushes, he tweaks and he tugs, and nothing budges. So he empties the sweet jar, because sweets are supposed to make your teeth fall out. Horrid Henry Tricks the Tooth Fairy is three stories, and they read out loud beautifully.
Horrid Henry Tricks the Tooth Fairy
If you’re wondering whether your little reader is ready for him yet, I’ve written about what age Horrid Henry is for.
Stink is the shortest person he knows (apart from the cat). Every morning he makes his big sister Judy measure him, and every morning the answer is the same. Stink and the Incredible Shrinking Kid is the one for any house with an older sibling in it.
Stink: The Incredible Shrinking Kid
Roscoe Riley tells you the whole of Never Glue Your Friends to Chairs from the time-out corner, starting with the junk drawer and the don’t-you-dare glue. The chapters are tiny, and some are only two or three lines long (which is great for a reader who’s just getting going).
Roscoe Riley Rules 1 – Never Glue Your Friends to Chairs
Bertie’s favourite colour is brown, because mud is brown and so are fingernails. In Worms! he’s the only boy invited to Angela’s pink party, so he goes as a worm in his sister’s pink sleeping bag and rolls in a flowerbed to get the mud right. Dirty Bertie comes as three short stories a book, with nose-picking and burping along the way.
Dirty Bertie 1 – Worms!
Clementine notices everything, like the egg stain on the art teacher’s scarf that looks exactly like a pelican, and still every teacher tells her to pay attention. On Monday her friend Margaret cuts a chunk out of her own hair and Clementine helps by evening it up. Then she evens it up again. Clementine is one of our free books.
Clementine
Marge the babysitter is about as tall as seven packets of biscuits, and when the grown-ups have gone she whips off her hat and out tumbles her rainbow hair. In Marge in Charge and the Stolen Treasure, baby cousin Zara comes to stay and behaves like a pirate, so Marge brings out her Pirate Code. It’s the second Marge book and you don’t need the first to jump in.
Magical books for 6 year olds
This one needs no introduction (in my opinion) but in case you’ve been living under a rock…
Matilda taught herself to read at three and walked to the library on her own at four. And her parents just see Matilda as odd and wish she’d go away. It’s a very typical Dahl story where the grown-ups are rotten and the Wormwoods are up there with some of the worst.
From the very start, you’re on Matilda’s side. Also, Matilda is one of our free books.
Matilda
If they’ve already met Matilda, there’s a whole list of the best Roald Dahl books too.
Class Three’s new teacher flies in through the classroom window on a magic carpet and lands with a bump. Then he turns Hamish Bigmore (the class nuisance) into a frog and can’t remember the spell to turn him back. That’s Mr Majeika, and there are more of his books on the shelf below.
Mr Majeika
Azmina, Willa and Naomi find out they’re Glitter Dragon Girls. They can soar above the treetops and breathe glittery bursts of fire, and they have to keep the Magic Forest safe from the Shadow Sprites. Dragon Girls is free too (and it’s a series).
Dragon Girls 1 – Azmina the Gold Glitter Dragon
On her birthday Aziza gets a make-your-own fairy door kit in a parcel with no stamps and no note. That night the little door starts knocking. She turns the doorknob, shrinks, sprouts orange and black butterfly wings and steps out into Shimmerton, where the shopkeeper is a unicorn in a tank top. There are more Aziza’s Secret Fairy Door books on the shelf below.
Aziza’s Secret Fairy Door
Mira has wanted to go to Unicorn School forever, and she has a name ready for her unicorn, Princess Delilah Sparklehoof. Her classmates are matched with glittering unicorns that sweep into the hall. Mira gets Dave, who has to be pushed down the corridor on his bottom and goes wild for doughnuts. The Naughtiest Unicorn is a very silly one to read out loud.
The Naughtiest Unicorn
Princess Florizella would much rather ride her horse Jellybean than wait to be rescued. At Prince Bennett’s ball there are 121 princesses hoping he’ll pick them, and she mostly goes for the food. He asks her to marry him and she says no, thank you, they’ll be best friends instead. The Princess Rules has a sword fight with a dragon and a sad part about a family of wolves, so I’d call it a read-together one.
The Princess Rules
Animal and mystery books for 6 year olds
Iggy Peck thinks about architecture all the time (he once built a tower out of nappies). Chasing his cat into the woods in a thunderstorm, he ends up on the porch of the empty house everyone in town calls the Mysterious Mansion. The porch boards buck, doors open on their own, and somewhere inside something plays music. Iggy Peck and the Mysterious Mansion is another free one.
Iggy Peck and the Mysterious Mansion
Fern is eight. One of the pigs born in the night is a runt, and her father has gone out with the axe. She takes hold of it and won’t let go. Charlotte’s Web is a lovely read-together one at this age. Not just because there’s some wonderful characters to meet but there’s also some sad bits that you might want to unpack together.
Charlotte’s Web
Harry is desperate for a pet of his own, and working at the local animal rescue centre is the next best thing. Then he’s asked to take a birthday present to Chartwell, home of Winston Churchill and his much-loved pets. Winston and the Marmalade Cat is free as well.
Winston and the Marmalade Cat
Mercy Watson is a pig who loves toast with a great deal of butter on it, and one autumn morning she’s gone. The fire station, Animal Control and the police don’t deal in missing pigs, so the neighbours hire a detective with a fake moustache. All the while Mercy is following a smell of butter across town. Mercy Watson Is Missing! is by Kate DiCamillo.
Mercy Watson Is Missing!
Pug lives with Lady Miranda and has jam tarts for breakfast in bed. She makes him a captain for her birthday party at the boating lake, which worries him, because he walks round puddles and has never seen the sea. Then he climbs into a picnic hamper to check for jam tarts and ends up on a tour bus. Captain Pug is short enough for one or two sittings.
Captain Pug: The Dog Who Sailed the Seas
A family of cats lives in the cellars of a grand old museum, keeping the rats and mice away from the treasures. One stormy night a skinny old tabby drops a soggy black kitten on the stairs and leaves without a word. He’s called Peter and he has never caught a rat. The Midnight Visitor is the first Museum Kittens story, by Holly Webb.
Museum Kittens 01 – The Midnight Visitor
Jemima the Pig and the 127 Acorns is written as a letter from a dad to his daughter Amy, who’s nervous about her school trip to a farm. He went on the same trip when he was ten and fell for Jemima, a huge Gloucestershire Old Spot sow. One day he fed her 127 acorns, and the next morning she was ill. It’s a short one by Michael Morpurgo, and the very first line promises two happy endings.
Jemima the Pig and the 127 Acorns
Classic books for 6 year olds
Pippi Longstocking is nine and lives on her own in Villa Villekulla with a monkey called Mr Nilsson, a horse on the porch and a suitcase full of gold coins. Nobody tells her when to go to bed, so she tells herself. When two policemen come to take her to a children’s home, she plays tag with them across the roof. A few of Pippi’s tall tales about people from other countries haven’t aged well.
Pippi Longstocking
In Finn Family Moomintroll, Moomintroll, Snufkin and Sniff find a tall black hat on a mountain top and carry it home. Anything left inside it turns into something else. An eggshell becomes five little clouds you can ride, and Moomintroll comes out so changed that none of his friends know who he is. Some of the words are old-fashioned, so I think it reads best out loud at this age.
Finn Family Moomintroll
More books for 6 year olds
These 21 are a starting point. The full shelf is just below, over 300 books, and every one has been hand-picked.
For bedtime, there’s a list of bedtime stories for 6, 7 and 8 year olds with chapters that end on time. If Isadora Moon is the current fave, I’ve got books like Isadora Moon. And if the same book is on repeat every night, I’ve written about when your child re-reads the same book over and over.
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