Popular Books for Girls

Sleep Overs

When the Daisy’s new friends all start to plan sleep over parties, Daisy starts dreading having to have one of her own. This is a story about being a good friends, fitting in and finding your own strength. Zoe loved Sleep Overs by Jacqueline Wilson – another one for the could hardly be put down collection.

Jacqueline Wilson’s books cover a wide range of subject matters, some of which you may not think your kids are ready for just yet. But they are about real life situations and have realistic characters in them that lean how to handle the challenges that life throw at them. The storylines are reasonably complicated so your daughter will need a good level of comprehension to be able to follow the plot easily.

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More Jacqueline Wilson books Zoe loved…

Filed Under: Books, Medium Difficulty Chapter Books

Skating School Series

Another winning series from Linda Chapman! The Skating School series is about a young girl called Emily who goes to a magical world where she learns to ice skate and goes into competitions for the best skater. The books are about life lessons like friendship, not always winning and perseverance.

Zoe has really enjoyed these books and is keen to read more of them when she can. I’ve noticed ice-skating coming into some of her play since so the story lines are sparking her imagination and creativity.

This series is a bit hard to get hold of so I can’t show you too many options to purchase online but try your local library for copies if your daughter likes them as mine has most of them available.

More about/purchase Pink Skate Party

Filed Under: Books, Medium Difficulty Chapter Books, Reading to Early Readers

Animal Ark Series

The Animal Ark Series is a range of books about little girls and animals in real life situations (i.e. no magic involved this time). Koalas in Crisis is set in Australia and tells the story of a young girl called Mandy who visits Australia on holiday and gets involved with saving some starving Koalas.

This was the first Animal Ark book that Zoe read and she could hardly put it down. It was a bit longer and more complicated (in terms of plot) than other books she’d been reading at the time but the story was engaging enough to keep her focused.

There are lots of different Animal Ark books by Lucy Daniels. All the stories center around Mandy. She lives at Animal Ark in England with her parents, who are both vets, and her grandfather. Zoe is currently reading Lamb in the Laundry and she’s looking forward to reading lots more from the series in the near future…

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Other Animal Ark Books We Enjoyed…

Filed Under: Books, Medium Difficulty Chapter Books

Magic Bunny – Dancing Days

Contrary to what the name and cover suggests this is a book about a girl who loves to dance. Sue Bentley’s magic animal series of stories are all about girls learning how to cope with life’s little hurdles with the help of invisible friends (cute little magic animals who are really more majestic animals in disguise).

I couldn’t really figure out why Zoe was so keen on these books from first glance but they are definitely in her “so good I want to read it again” category. I read this one to my younger daughter yesterday to see what it was all about and once I realised Magic Bunny Dancing Days was really about a girl who loves to dance it was clear why Zoe loved it. Dancing, friends, furry animals and magic all in one story – what more could a little girl ask for!! Maya enjoyed the story too but it did take her a while to really follow what was going on so I’d probably stick to over 5s for this series.

The Magic Animals series by Sue Bentley includes books about various bunnies, kittens, ponies, puppies…. and more importantly little girls.

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More Magic Animal Books We Love…

Filed Under: Books, Early Chapter Books, Reading to Early Readers

Mr Brown Can Moo

Great for girls learning to read phonics, Mr Brown Can Moo Can You by Dr Seuss is also ideal as a book with plenty of rhyme and repetition to read to toddlers. The story is quirky and fun, encouraging interaction between the reader and the listener. My girls were happy to have it read to them many times over, which is great for a book that they are learning from while they listen.

The story follows Mr Brown and all the different types of sounds he can make including Moo, Choo, Slurp, Blurp and many many more….

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Filed Under: Books, Reading to Pre-schoolers, Starting to Read, Toddlers

Baa Baa Smart Sheep

A hilarious New Zealand story kids just love – especially when you use to voices or get your daughter to read one of the parts whilst you read the other. The story is about the ultimate con between a bored sheep and a rather gullible turkey.

If you already have Baa Baa Smart Sheep your girls will also love I Love Lemonade (surprisingly the kids don’t seem to mind the similarity in story line between these 2 books).

Zoe Says…

This is quite a silly book. I like reading it with Mum but I always want to be the sheep so I don’t have to gobble up all of the poo!!

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Filed Under: Books, New Zealand Books, Reading to Early Readers, Reading to Pre-schoolers, Toddlers

A Summery Saturday Morning

My favourite Margret Mahy children’s book, A Summery Saturday Morning, has great rhyme and rhythm.This is another great story that you can either read or sing (and I’m not even much of a singer).

When the kids head to the beach with their 2 dogs they are in for quite a surprise. Stuck in the squelchy sandy and chased by a family of geese the outing comes to an unexpected end.

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Filed Under: Books, Books You Can Sing, New Zealand Books, Reading to Pre-schoolers, Toddlers

A Kiwi Night Before Christmas

Another gem by Yvonne Morrison. Keep the CD in your car for easy entertainment. A Kiwi Night Before Christmas is a great New Zealand story about 2 kids spotting Santa arriving with their pressies on Christmas Eve. It has become a Kiwi classic – my kids half think that the sleigh really is pulled by sheep after this book!

You can read this or sing it as the rhyme is clever and catchy. It’ll get stuck in your head though so read at your own risk!!

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Filed Under: Books, Books with CDs, Books You Can Sing, New Zealand Books, Reading to Pre-schoolers, Toddlers

The Silliest Dream

The illustrations are so stunning in The Silliest Dream that I’ve contemplated cutting it up and framing all the pages – I might need a 2nd copy before I try that though!

The Silliest dream is a hardback New Zealand book about a girl called Millie and her teddy who embark on a crazy voyage to Mars and the stars. I think it’s more suitable for school age girls so that they can follow the story line more easily.

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Filed Under: Books, New Zealand Books, Reading to Early Readers

A Kiwi Jingle Bells

If you’ve ever had a New Zealand summer at the beach with family and friends A Kiwi Jingle Bells is the book for you. Sing the story to the tune of Jingle Bells or read the rhyme and enjoy the gorgeous illustrations. Kids fighting in a hot car, hokey pokey ice cream, boogie boards and pavlova are some of the Kiwi summer memories that the stories evokes.

You might have been in a tent or a caravan like me rather than a combi van but the memories will be more or less the same. It’s what summer is really all about in New Zealand so share it with your kids then get them out there before they get too big.

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Filed Under: Books, Books You Can Sing, New Zealand Books, Reading to Pre-schoolers, Toddlers

Mrs Wishy-Washy’s Farm

An absolute favourite with both girls and boys, Mrs Wishy-Washy and her cow, pig and poor old duck have been entertaining both my girls and my nephews for the last 8 years. This is one of those books that I could recite without looking at the words I’ve read it so many times. The storyline with rhyme is well done and the illustrations are clever enough to spend extra time on each page finding things.

The story is about 3 animals who get tired of having to have a bath every day and run away to the city “where the barns are big”. They get into a bit of trouble and end up n the animal jail from where they are rescued by beloved Mrs Wishy Washy and happily returned to the farm.

I started reading this to the girls before they could talk and they still loved it up to age 3. We also had the basic board variety of Mrs Wishy Washy for when they were babies.

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Filed Under: Babies, Books, Reading to Pre-schoolers, Toddlers

Pukeko in a Ponga Tree

The Twelve Days of Christmas New Zealand style. A great book for reading or singing and easy enough for young kids to remember and recite. Pukeko in a Ponga Tree is a cleverly adapted and illustrated Kiwi version of The Twelve Days of Christmas.

Maya’s daycare performed this book at their Christmas concert 2 years ago (including actions) and she still launches into it from time to time. “Five big fat pigs” is definitely the favourite but with references to huhu grubs, flax kits, haka lessons, kumara, sacks of pipi, eels, poi, fish heads and piupiu, Pukeko in a Ponga Tree should be on every New Zealand child’s top Christmas books list.

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Filed Under: Books, Books You Can Sing, New Zealand Books, Reading to Pre-schoolers, Toddlers

The Jolly Postman

Little hands just love these removable letters in real envelopes sent from one Mother Goose character to another by the Jolly Postman.

This cleverly constructed hard back picture book is an old favourite equally popular with the little girls and boys of today.

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Another book with letters that we love…

Filed Under: Books, From my Youth, Reading to Pre-schoolers

Pearlie the Park Fairy

Pearlie the fairy and her animal friends in Jubilee Park save the day in style in this action packed adventure story. Australian author Wendy Harmer uses an easy flowing fun style of language with “hurly burly Pearlie” a popular phrase throughout the book.

The Pearlie in the Park series of books don’t have chapters but are a similar level to other first chapter books and long enough to make girls feel great about reading a “big” book. The fun coloured pictures also help to keep early readers engaged in the story.

I read these to my youngest daughter, who loved them, whilst Zoe read them herself once she was ready to start basic chapter books. There are a range of Pearlie stories, all with your classic good versus evil and ingenuity saves the day type story lines.

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More Pearlie Books we loved…

Filed Under: Books, First Chapter Books, Reading to Early Readers, Reading to Pre-schoolers

Magic Ballerina Books

Superbly written for young girls by prima ballerina Darcey Bussell, the Magic Ballerina stories are ideal for young girls who love ballet, dancing and fairy tales. These were some of the junior first chapter books that Zoe read all the way through herself. Even though they were a bit harder than the others she’d been reading she loved the story lines so much she just didn’t want to stop – it was like magic.

At the end of each book are 2 pages dedicated to ballet positions to get your little ballerina practising her moves – these were a real hit.

There are 4 different series of Darcey Bussell’s Magic Ballerina Books, each about a different young girl who is learning ballet and needs some help inspiring her to become a talented ballerina. Delphie is the first of the ballerinas and she is given a pair of magic red ballet shoes by her teacher. The shoes take her to magical land where she becomes part of a popular ballet or fairy tale and helps to save the day. There’s plenty of good versus evil and learning how to be a better person in each tale. At the end of each series, when the girl has outgrown her shoes she must pass them on to a new ballerina whom she thinks is worthy. Rosa, Jade and Holly all follow.

Delphie and the Magic Ballet shoes is the first book. Zoe didn’t actually read the books in order or even keep to the same series but you could try to if you felt it was important. I read some of these to my younger daughter Maya and she was equally spellbound so I’d also recommend them as stories to ready pre-schoolers and early readers if they are interested in ballet.

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More Magic Ballerina Books that we loved…

Filed Under: Books, Early Chapter Books, Reading to Early Readers, Uncategorized

Monkey Puzzle

Monkey Puzzle is such a gorgeous story – it’s about a baby monkey who asks a butterfly for help when he has lost his Mum. The rhyme is clever and the pictures of the jungle are beautifully done.

The story is written as a conversation between the butterfly, who asks for information about the Mum to figure out what she might look like, and the baby monkey, who can’t understand why the butterfly is having so much trouble working it out. The line – “how could I know, none of my babies look like me” is etched in my mind even though I haven’t read this one for a while.

Monkey Puzzle is a great story for reading over and over to young kids who love to learn the lines of a story and finish them for you as you read. And the happy ending makes it even better!

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Filed Under: Books, Reading to Pre-schoolers, Toddlers

Secret Unicorn Series

For girls who love horses and stories about young girls, the My Secret Unicorn series are perfect. The Secret Unicorn stories are about a young girl called Lauren and her horse Twilight (who magically turns into a unicorn) who undertake a number of magical adventures with their friends.

Zoe finds these stories so engaging that she’ll read them all the way through in one sitting. The story lines are easy to follow and there are 2 or 3 sketch drawings in each chapter to help the younger readers imagine what things look like.

What Zoe Thinks….

I like these books because they involve unicorns and horses and girls. When I read them it makes me feel happy. I like them so much I want to read more and more of them.

Find out more about/purchase My Secret Unicorn – Starry Skies

Other My Secret Unicorn Books We Love….

Filed Under: Books, Early Chapter Books, Reading to Early Readers

Matilda by Road Dahl

What could be more appealing as a storyline than a small girl getting the better or a mean principal and her negligent parents? I hadn’t read Matilda by Roald Dahl until recently when Zoe and I enjoyed it together (I was doing the reading). There’s a bit of fear, plenty of humour and a good old-fashioned happy ending.

I particularly like books about girls standing up for themselves and not being afraid to go their own way – Matilda one definitely fits the bill.

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Filed Under: Books, Medium Difficulty Chapter Books, Reading to Early Readers

Percy The Park Keeper

All the Percy the Park Keeper picture books have been a hit with Maya (and Zoe, even though she was a bit older when we were given them). The ones with a fold out map or poster in the back are great for playing “I Spy” at the end to make the story more interactive.

Percy and his animal friends live in a park in England and solve a series of problems together by working through adversity as a group. The illustrations are lovely – especially the expressions on the animal’s faces (now we know what an unhappy fox might look like!). Nick Butterworth writes engaging stories with enough intrigue to hold a pre-schoolers attention for the whole story.

One Snowy Night takes place in Percy the park keeper’s little hut. Percy gets lots of animal visitors on one particularly stormy night – all looking for somewhere to sleep. Soon Percy’s bed is full of animals and no one is happy. After a little fright from a mole coming in through the floor boards they soon find better places to sleep around the hut and Percy and the mole snuggle down for the night.

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Rainbow Magic Fairies

The most popular books we have ever read, the Rainbow Magic Fairy books have been in and out of our house for nearly a year now and the girls adore them.

The Rainbow Magic stories all follow a similar plot (and yet still the girls don’t get bored with them!). One of the fairies has had their special magic item stolen or about to be stolen Jack Frost’s goblins. 2 friends, Rachel and Kirsty, who are friends of the fairies get asked to help out to save the object so that all is well in both Fairyland and the human world. The girls go on a series of adventures with the fairy concerned and sometimes get turned into fairies themselves. Only they know about the fairies and goblins so they risk everything to keep the secret safe.

I’m not sure how many we have read – over 50 would be my guess. The girls own about 10 themselves and the rest I have taken out of the library or borrowed from friends. I’ve lost track of which ones we have read now but the kids have remembered them all and can tell at a glance whether we’ve read it before. Not that they mind having them read to them several times over. Zoe can read these herself now but is still equally happy to sit with Maya and listen while I read. Amazingly Maya (3 years) will sit still for over 1/2 an hour listening right through a book – and they only have one simple sketch per page.

Tip…

When Zoe started to become more confident with her reading I got her to read the first page of each chapter and I would read the rest. We then moved onto the first 2 pages and after a while I found she’d picked them up herself and was reading chapters to Maya when I wasn’t around. Now she reads them on her own in her head – they are probably a bit easy for her now but she hasn’t got bored with them yet!

There are new books coming out all the time but with well over 100 titles to choose from there’s never a Rainbow Magic book far from hand. The books are either in various series of 7 books each (they can be purchased separately or as a set) or as larger books with 3 sub-stories within them. There are pictures on most pages and the chapters are reasonably short to easy to focus on. I quite like buying books with the girls friends names on for birthday presents and special gifts.

Find out more about/purchase Zoe the Skating Fairy and other Rainbow Magic Fairy Books

Visit the Rainbow Magic website to create your own fairy. Your kids will love it.