Secondhand Chapter Book (Age 7-10) Bargain Book Box SP4169

Secondhand Chapter Book (Age 7-10) Bargain Book Box SP4169

Twelve Roald Dahls and six David Walliams: Matilda, The Witches, The Twits, both Charlies, Gangsta Granny, Demon Dentist and Awful Auntie. Eighteen books in the current Puffin and HarperCollins editions, the entire comedy shelf of a primary-school reader in one go.

1. Grandpa’s Great Escape — David Walliams — Grandpa thinks it’s still 1940 and he’s a Spitfire pilot; Jack is the only one who plays along. When Grandpa is locked up in Twilight Towers, Jack plans a breakout. The ending in the Spitfire is a proper lump-in-throat moment.
2. The Boy in the Dress — David Walliams — Dennis loves football and Vogue, and a borrowed dress gets him into deep trouble. Walliams’ debut, more tender than anything since.
3. Gangsta Granny — David Walliams — Ben’s boring granny turns out to be an international jewel thief with one last heist in mind: the Crown Jewels. The ending floors seven-year-olds.
4. The Twits — Roald Dahl — Mr and Mrs Twit play horrible tricks on each other until the monkeys glue their furniture to the ceiling. Short, nasty, hilarious.
5. The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me — Roald Dahl — A window-cleaning company run by a giraffe, a pelican and a monkey, and a jewel thief in the Duke’s house. The gentlest Dahl.
6. Fantastic Mr Fox — Roald Dahl — Three farmers dig up the hill to get Mr Fox; he digs down to get their larders. Still the best read-aloud on the shelf.
7. The Midnight Gang — David Walliams — Tom lands on a hospital ward where the patients sneak out at midnight to grant each other’s wishes. Walliams’ kindest book.
8. Demon Dentist — David Walliams — Children wake to find their baby teeth replaced by dead slugs, and the new dentist in town smiles too much. National Book Award winner.
9. Ratburger — David Walliams — Zoe’s only friend is a rat, and a man called Burt turns up with a burger van. Walliams’ darkest, and for many his funniest.
10. Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator — Roald Dahl — The elevator goes into orbit, Grandma Georgina ends up minus two years old, and the Vermicious Knids attack. Wilder than the first book.
11. James and the Giant Peach — Roald Dahl — James’s aunts are crushed by the peach in chapter one. He crosses the Atlantic inside it with a crew of giant insects.
12. Boy — Roald Dahl — The Great Mouse Plot, the sweet shop, the beatings at Repton. Dahl’s real childhood, where every villainous adult came from.
13. The Witches — Roald Dahl — A convention of witches at a seaside hotel plan to turn every child in England into a mouse. The boy doesn’t get turned back. Dahl’s bravest ending.
14. Awful Auntie — David Walliams — Stella wakes in a country house with her parents dead and Aunt Alberta plotting to take it, with an owl as her enforcer. National Book Award winner.
15. Matilda — Roald Dahl — A genius five-year-old, parents who despise her, Miss Trunchbull hurling children by their pigtails, and the power to move things with her mind. The one everybody loves.
16. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory — Roald Dahl — Five golden tickets, four awful children and a factory that deals with each of them. Meaner and better than either film.
17. Esio Trot — Roald Dahl — Mr Hoppy, Mrs Silver, 140 tortoises and a spell written backwards. Short, sweet, funnier than it sounds.
18. George’s Marvellous Medicine — Roald Dahl — George brews his grandmother a new medicine from everything in the house. She grows through the roof.