Kit who is seven, is a voracious reader and so we thought together we would compile a top 10 list for Christmas reads this year. A lot of them are classics and there’s a couple of new ones on there too. We have also included a little top ten list for younger kids with Ezra who’s 4 and just learning to read himself, so was keen to list his own favourites.
Just to mention that Rex who is 9 has never been that into reading, however since subscribing to the Phoenix comic, it has really turned things around for him and he’s now avidly reading the Tomorrow Gates series and Bunny versus Monkey. Dive in below – hope you enjoy it!
A top 10 list for older kids ages 7 – 12 years old:
1. The Christmas Pig by J. K. Rowling. we’ve not read it yet but we just bought it and every year on 1 December I start a new Christmas book that I read to them one chapter a night until Christmas so we’re really excited about starting it in two weeks!
2. Two years ago we discovered the Christmasaurus by Tom Fletcher, Ezra’s lovely Godmother Eliza bought it for us and we all adored it so much so we raced out and bought the second one last year!
3. Surely in everyone’s list but SO much more exciting when the kids reach an age they can read it themselves is the Harry Potter Series with all 7 books getting slightly more grown up each school year Harry passes through.
4. The Diary of a Wimpy Kid series have been favourites in our house for a couple of years, both boys have read every single one released (however “old school” gave Kit nightmares) but all the other ones he would highly recommend!
5. The Dog Man series, more of a comic but if you love Captain Underpants you will love Dog Man. It’s very similar to the Phoenix comic book style – funny and great pictures, it will get your kids interested in reading if they are a bit slower off the mark in that regard.
No. 6 is the Tom Gates Series. The boys have read most of them and loved them all – “Spectacular” is the first one that Rex read and still the firm favourite.
7. The Boy who flew with Dragons really set Kit’s imagination on fire and he flew through books 1,2 & 3 so fast, were hoping there’ll be another soon!
8. The Danger Gang also by author Tom Fletcher who wrote the Christmasaurus. This is a brilliant book for all the kids.
9. Another comic type one is the series Bunny versus Monkey. They found out about this through the Bunny versus Monkey comic strip in the Phoenix comic subscription and now they are all putting these on their Christmas list!
10. A slightly more grown up book which is just a great start to fantasy and more grown up reading is The Hobbit – an absolute classic – and having finished that, Greg is reading the Lord of the Rings to Rex every night until 1st of December when I’m going to take over with the Christmas Pig. It’s also the first book that I remember reading and really being transported to another world at school. Kit is going to start it in the new year so I really think that’s a great one to start with and there’s way less elfin songs to get through and so much easier to follow so good one for the smaller independent readers. Click below pictures to purchase:
A top 10 list for younger kids ages 0-6 years old:
1. Barry the Fish with Fingers written by Sue Hendra. A silly book with colourful pictures and a good message exploring jealousy.
2. Where the Wild Things Are – an absolute classic that we always go back to, mainly for the beautiful pictures.
3. Poo Bum, which was given to us by my sister because it was her kids favourite is a bit silly but it’s just brilliant and all the kids love it with their endless toilet humour!
4. The Snail and the Whale by Julia Donaldson. We own all of the Julia Donaldson books but this is one of the favourites for them and it’s one of my favourites to read as it’s so soporific and wholesome.
5. Slightly less wholesome is The Dinosaur that pooped a planet given to us by our friend Julia because it was her son Louis’ favourite and even after 100 reads they would all laugh endlessly seemingly never getting bored of the dinosaurs incessant pooping!
6. Enormouse which is all about little people having big ideas. It’s a really lovely book and it’s beautifully illustrated .
7. Norman the Slug who saved Christmas which is another Sue Hendra book using the well lived Norman the slug character in a more Christmasy setting!
8. My favourite (well, joint favourite with The Twits) is Roald Dahl’s The Enormous Crocodile – it feels so good to read a favourite of mine when I was a kid and for it to become now all three of my boys favourites. Just such a wonderful, funny book with such brilliant characters, so really fun to read.
9. Super Kitty by Hannah Whitty and Paula Bowles. We bought this in the scholastic book fair at school because one of Kits nicknames is Super Kitty so he couldn’t believe his luck when he found this one and I’ve lost track of how many times we’ve read it. When superheroes meet kittens – what could be better?
10. The Night before Christmas by Clement Clarke Moore. I had to put this in because every Christmas Eve without fail Greg and I will read the night before Christmas to the kids and it just feels like a lovely Christmas Eve thing to do, and almost wouldn’t be Christmas without it ..and bit like December the 1st wouldn’t mark the start of The Christmas season without a viewing of Home Alone!.
Good luck with your kids book shopping, its such a magical thing to find the right books for your kids! Click below pictures to purchase:
Ariana x
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