Hi,
My daughter loves reading and flies through anything I give her. She's read a lot of the Dr Seuss books, which she loves, and also reads a lot of her picture books (ie those designed for adult to read to child). She also likes 'reading books'-I nanny 2 older children and she likes to be like them (although is now easily reading the books the 6 year old brings home from school). She's around Oxford reading Tree level 9. The problem i'm finding though is that these books are obviously pitched at much older kids, and she would start worrying if she were reading books about burglars, kidnappers etc. So any ideas for books that she could read that weren't over her head? Thanks.

i would recommend Princess Camomile books by Varley/ Oram and Fergus the Sea dog by tony maddox. If they are too easy then i would get Flat Stanley (not sure who it's by) and maybe get Ruby the Red fairy by daisy meadows. The last two both have few cute black and white pictures and nothing scary. My six year old daughter is reading tree level 11 and is still happy to read all of these, with the fairy book being the most challenging.

That's fantastic that your daughter is so far advanced with her reading. Do you mind if I ask if you've actively taught her to read, or has she just picked up the ability by being around books and older children? I have a two and a half year old who loves being read to, and I wonder if I should be encouraging him to read words himself yet? (Sorry if this is a little OT)

My son loves Richard Scary but the prints are a bit small. Michael Morpurgo has also written some lovely books based on animals.

Try Dick King Smith's lovely and funny books, they are just right for 6 year olds (I know she's only 3, but you said her reading age was about 6).

Also the young version of the Animal Ark books would be very good for her both reading age and physical/mental age. Just type in Animal Ark to Amazon Search, Books, above and it'll list them. The young ones are for ages 4 upwards and the slightly older ones from about 7 or 8 years. You'll see which are which.

My nephew also started reading when he was 2 from just watching his older sister following a reading book with her finger.

My friend's daughter could also read very well when she started school and my friend was told off by the teacher and the child held back somewhat to match the reading age of the rest of the class. Which was totally wrong! However, she starts at Oxford next week to read Classics, so it hasn't done her much harm.

Beatrice Potter stories (the whole set) and ELF books like Mister Porter's Alarm Clock

Roald Dahl. The Enormous Crocodile and others.

It's fantastic that your daughter loves reading. However, being able to 'decode' (read) the words is only one aspect of reading and when she gets to school they will want to know that she understands the text as well as being able to 'read' the words. I'd advise continuing to use picture books (as well as showing her simple non-fiction books and other types of books) and talking to her about the cover of the book. What can she see on the cover? Who is what does she think the story is going to be about? Ask her to predict what might happen next and talk about the pictures on the pages. Talk about what happened first, what happened next, then what happened... etc. As an Early Years teacher, it is really hard when a parent tells you that their child can read well and expects them to be given 'proper' books to read only to find that they answer "I don't know" to every question about the text! When she can talk about the books she's reading, then she is ready to progress. Hope that helps!

Just got to be ''Ali and the magic ball'' a brand new one by Wayne Edwards.she'll really love this one, delightful!

My daughter could read well when she started school and has continued to have a real love of books and has become an avid reader. I agree with the comments above that 'reading' is only part of it however. My daughter had a reading age of 11 when she was 5 but her comprehension level was that of around 7. You can't expect a 3 year old to comprehend what a 6 year old does (and I'm sure you don't expect that). I would think that the best thing for now is to stick with picture books with slightly longer texts and see how she does with those. Good luck, it can be hard to find books for good 5/6 year old readers that do not have a 'too grown up' theme. It does get easier though when they get to around 7.

The Titchy Witch range of books are lovely. The stories are great for children age 3 and upwards - and perfect for little girls especially. I would say they're aimed at first readers, about age 6, to read by themselves but I read them to to my daughter. They have easy to read text but also have bright and colourful illustrations so they're ideal.

My daughter loved the Frog and Toad books. They are in the first reader I can Read series

Curious George
Curious George is a series of gentle stories about a mischevious monkey. There is a picture on every page, with a bit more writing and longer stories than picture books usually have.

Hi. The comments above by the Early Years teacher are so true. Please, please listen to the advice and just allow your daughter to enjoy the thousands of wonderful picture books that are available for children of her age and slightly older. The number given to parents as a 'reading age' can be very misleading as it depends of the type of test given to determine this age. SATs tests are based around reading comprehension and lots of talking about the stories your daughter read will really enhance this skill. You could look on the Primary Strategies website at the literacy section to find out more about reading comprehension skills - there's much more to it than you might first think!

While it is undoubtedly true that decoding words is just one aspect of reading, there is nothing to suggest that the little girl in question is only doing that. It may well be the case that many early readers are decoding without understanding, however, this is by no means universal. We too have a three year old advanced reader who fluently reads with intonation, asks questions about the text and comprehends well. She lacks comprehension only when there are story lines that go beyond her life experience. We also are on the look out for suitable books that deal with accessible age-appropriate themes.

We have found picture books by Margaret Mahy (e.g. Dashing Dog) have gone down very well. Mahy uses language imaginatively and lyrically. For non-fiction, the Nature Storybooks series have some wonderful writing and capture the imagination. ('Blue Whale', 'One Tiny Turtle'). The Wonderwise series by Manning and Granstrom have also been exceptionally popular ('Stone Age, Bone Age', What's under the bed?' )Our daughter's own choice would be Enid Blyton's Faraway Tree series which has provided endless scope for immersion in magical lands.

Try my books Fruit Lane and Mrs Blackberry's Tiring Day Aimed at 3-7 years, your daughter will find lots of things to look at in the illustrations and questions to answer in 'Fruit Lane'. Text in 'Fruit Lane' is bigger than usual to help first readers.

My daughter also reads very well for her age. She is a young Year 1 but reads with the Year 2's. These days they are very much taught in small groups to suit their ability, so much better.

My son was reading fluently and with comprehension at this age. As he has got older, I have worried that some of the content of the storybooks he is capable of reading is in advance of his emotional development (Harry Potter springs to mind). Some authors, such as Anthony Horowitz and Dick King Smith, enjoy playing with words and puns and these require a certain amount of pre-knowledge and experience in order to make sense of them.
We've got round this problem by giving him factual information books to read and he's lapped them up. It's common for these children to develop a mania about a particular topic: space, dinosaurs, cars, natural history for example, and to read anything and everything they can about their favoured topic.
I'm an Early Years teacher, too, by the way.

Thanks everyone for the advice and suggestions- lots of good ideas there. I also work in Early Years, and do try to keep a check on her understanding of what she is reading etc. This was part of my reason for my book search- her reading age to an extent is above her comprehension age. I often suggest reading her picture books (We have a lot!), but she seems to associate them with me reading to her rather than the other way round.
I haven't 'actively' taught her to read, but I care for older children and she has picked up a lot from them (also very keen on doing their spellings and maths), so I have just take cues from her and have gone from there. She asked for 'reading books' because the older ones had them, then asked for harder ones etc. She asks to read-I never push her to, but she just really enjoys it.

Milly Molly Mandy is very innocent, un-scary and suitable for younger (female!)readers but looks more like a grown up 'reading book'

Thanks for the review cinderella its extremely helpful. I have a two year old daughter and i never feel I am doing enough to help her with reading. I wondered if you could recommend books that I could do with my two year old, i find that there is so much around and difficult to know what to select, guidance would be much appreciated.

Take a look at the Happy Families series, by Allan Ahlberg. Amazon has the Look Inside feature on a couple of them to let you see the reading level of the text. I managed to purchase the whole set of 20 for only £10 elsewhere very recently.

Yes the Happy Families series is great, as are some other books by Allan Ahlberg.

There are some simple books of fairy stories as well.

As a nursery manager, I would agree that a love of story telling and talking about what is happening within books is far more important than reading the printed words. Some children do grasp word formation at an early stage and it's lovely to hear that your daughter wants to read. However, I am concerned that others reading these posts may feel that their child should also be reading! Have you considered encouraging her own story telling by making your own books?