Chapter books for a 4 year old boy.

[mootime]

DS (nearly 4) is a real book worm and has just finished his first chapter book courtesy of a MN giveaway, Johnny Duddles' Ghostly Galleon.
Can anyone recommend some other chapter books for this age group?
They don't have to be traditional 'boyish' stories.

[legoballoon]

Wow, that's impressive. 'The Amazing Top Secret Diary of Pig' (by Emer Stamp) is good for emerging readers, but not sure if you / he would be ready for all the fart/poo jokes.

[Indith]

Roald Dahl obviously. The shorter ones like The Giraffe and The Pelly and Me are a good place to start. Dd is 5 and adores the Dinosaur Cove series which are pretty short and stick to a formula. She is rattling through those at some speed. Visit your library and experiment. Ds1 loves Mr Gum. Mine have not taken to Enid Blyton, ds1 is more into factual stuff and they don't have enough dinosaurs in for dd but they are worth a shot. Dick King Smith, Anne Fine etc are good to try too.

[HanSolo]

Have you heard of the Arthur books by Johanne Mercier? They're short but nice.
Claude series (Claude is a dog that has fantastical adventures) by ?Alex Smith?
Moomins
The Three Little Pirates by Georgie Adams (but not the 'young readers' version- it misses out half the story!)
Horrid Henry
Enid Blyton- the faraway tree is good, or the wishing chair
Pippi Longstocking, or Lindgren's other books- Lotte or Emil stories are good. Also Carlsson on the roof.
My Naughty Little Sister are great for this age group, several in the series.

[emmaMBC]

Yeah, he is on a fantastic journey!!

I'd echo the recommendation for the Claude books.

Other wonderful, and new, illustrated chapter books I LOVE are;
Dixie O'Day by Shirley Hughes and her daughter Clara

Fortunately, the Milk from Neil Gaiman is fantastic

[mootime]

Thank you for the recommendations. I do have to admit though that I'd not realised my post made it sound like he was reading them himself!
He can read a bit, but I'm reading the stories! He just can't get enough of them, and the chapter book really grabbed his attention. Looks like I have some good ideas for his birthday.

[NeverQuiteSure]

The Worst Witch series. My DS is also 5 and loved them.

[NeverQuiteSure]

...just noticed your DS is 4 not 5

As someone else said, the Faraway tree books are great for this age. The Worst Witch books are probably best when they're at school, so if your DS is in reception I'd give them a shot.

[WingDefence]

My DS loved the faraway tree and we also got a box set of Roald Dahl because he loves them too. We started with Fantastic Mr Fox as it's nice and short, then Esio Trot, next read Charlie & the Chocolate Factory (but have up half way through the Great Glass Elevator I'm afraid), then James & the Giant Peach and are now halfway through George's Marvellous Medicine.

And I love reading them to him!

[HanSolo]

Look on The Book People for Dahl, Arthur, worst witch etc sets- their prices are great, always bargains to be found, and there are usually codes floating around MN for free delivery, sometimes 10% off too.

[BlueChampagne]

Dino FC
Josh Lacey's The Dragon Sitter

[lostintoys]

The Magic Treehouse series, especially the first six or so, are great for that age.

[Britchic]

Definitely the three faraway tree books. Also the Magic Wishing Chair. And ditto Roald Dahl. My sons loved Oliver Moon (a boy wizard, but much more innocent than Harry Potter!).

Happy reading!!

[timtam23]

The "Sophie" series of books by Dick King-Smith? Sophie wants to be a farmer when she grows up and there are lots of animals featured in her stories, including snails - my DSs (aged 4 & 6) really liked me reading the books as bedtime stories.

[mootime]

Thanks for all of your advice. DS got one of the Oliver Moon books, one Claude and the faraway tree series. So far Claude has been finished and there are cries for more and we are getting stuck in to the boy wizard.

[nonicknameseemsavailable]

Dick King Smith books are a favourite of mine, agree with Enchanted Wood etc and Wishing Chair. our youngest LOVED Charlie and the Chocolate Factory at the age of 4. In fact we have had terrible trouble finding any books to come close to it in her opinion.

[BlueChampagne]

Dinosaur Cove
Julia Donaldson's "Dinosaur Diary"

You can guess what the current phase is!

[gamescompendium]

DH is currently reading 'Little House in the Big Woods' to the DDs (6&4). Their current favourite game is 'Mary and Laura' and they pretend they've gone out in the woods without a gun and now there's a panther. DH and I are now referred to as Ma and Pa. Although it's obviously written from Laura's viewpoint (the DDs love that it's a true story) it's not a 'girly' story so he might well enjoy it.

Agree with lots of the recommendations above, in particular 'The Worst Witch' which we started off reading to the kids but DD1 has just read the next in the series by herself.

[Leeds2]

Mr Majeika series by Humphrey Carpenter.

[Sirzy]

DS is 4 and loves horrid Henry, flat Stanley and sheep pig

[hdoodle]

Gerald Durrell's Fantastic Flying Journey. Colour illustrations on every page.

[BertieBotts]

Marking place :) I tried DS with James and the Giant Peach but he got bored. Would be interested in more age appropriate suggestions. We've just got back into bedtime stories.

[TheNightIsDark]

Me and DS (just turned 5) have just started the secret 7.

[TheNightIsDark]

Oh and he's listening to Gobbolino the witches cat on cd at night time too.

[glowstick]

My 5 & 7 year old DSs have enjoyed these being read to them. Might be a bit old for 4.

The magic far away tree trilogy - mine just loved them.
The little House house on the prarie trilogy - these were are surorise big hit
The lion witch & wardrobe books - we read then watched the movies and compared the differences.

[hdoodle]

Catwings by Ursula le Guin is a great series. Also we loved aesop's fables and Just So stories.