Themed stories
Children often like to keep to familiar topics or authors. This is not necessarily a bad thing, as the most important thing is to keep children reading. Children will avidly read the whole series of books by their favourite author, be it Enid Blyton or J K Rowling. What is important is that reading has become a habit, so one day they will have to move on! This is where books on a similar theme to the old favourites can be useful. This will introduce them to different authors and then on to crossing over into new genres of fiction - the best authors write in many different genres.
One of the best ways to start is by reading short stories - either collections by the same author, or anthologies by many authors. Short stories are less daunting and give a child a good opportunity to sample a wide range of authors and types of story.
What are your child's special interests? There are lists here covering many of the most popular topics I have been asked for by children and which I have used in schools.
Reading stories set in the period is a wonderful way of bringing to life topics children are studying at school. I have compiled lists based on the typical periods studied during key stage 2.