Books to read to kids

[peggyfromwastate]

I just started reading a very fun series with my first grader. I really detest junie b jones even though we have the series, and dd6 doesn't care for them either. So we have read other books-- not getting into chapter books until just recently.

First we read Charlotte's Web which is a classic. I have read that as the first chapter book to all of the kids.

Now we tried a few series which she didn't love, but we just started the best series ever for her age group:: Ivy and Bean. We have the series on hand from one of the older girls, but I never read it. It's perfect for dd6 though-- so fun and totally engaging.

For ds10 I am planning to start Harry potter. We are reading the Rush Revere (haha) books which my parents sent us. He seems to like them but they really are not great!! Shocking right?? But he is learning about Pilgrims in school and this book, while a chore for me to read, seems to be making his social studies more enjoyable. I'm very ready for HP though lol.

He and I finished the Chronicles of Narnia series when he was in 4th grade. Usually I read that series when they are in about second grade but I think it's better to wait actually. It has some tough themes that are better discussed with older kids.

Is there anything I'm missing? This window of reading to my children is closing. It really is. I know with ds10 I will probably only get to read 1-2 HP books before he just gets impatient and reads them. He's not a reader, but no one can resist HP!!

Bittersweet. I love reading to the kids. It's always been my favorite time, even though it usually takes 30 min at least each kid.

[Auspicious]

For six year old girl we loved Because of Winn-Dixie. Sweet and classic like Charlotte's Webb, IMO. Also Edward Tulane, but my six-year-old and I agreed that one starts off a little slow and then is really good by the end.

Also the first 2-3 books of the Little House series. Laura ages through the series, so right now she's aged ahead of my girls, but in the first few she's like 4-7 years old and we loved reading those together.

I also hate Junie B., but love Ramona. To me she's somehow just as mischievous but less bratty and way more lovable.

So Kate DiCamillo, Laura Ingalls Wilder, and Beverly Cleary are the ones that make me think "Awww, but you HAVE to read . . ." (Everyone's got their list. )

Mine also enjoyed the first 2-3 of the Bunnicula series--after that they seemed to fall off in quality.

They read all of Lemony Snicket with their dad, but I've never read those. We also read Spiderwick Chronicles, but the kids liked those more than I did.

Cora would also second your Ivy & Bean recommendation, and she's currently way into the American Girl historical series.

[spotty_dog]

I've been meaning to ask about this! Keep 'em coming!

I can also recommend the Read-Aloud Handbook by Jim Trelease as a source of more suggestions.

DD5 and I are slowly making our way through A Little Princess by Francis Hodgson Burnett (sp?) DS at 7 completely adored My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George, although we eventually petered in interest while trying to work through the sequel. We've done Wizard of Oz as an audio book. We did Tale of Despereaux years ago, we are probably due for a re-read.

Both kids would be happy as clams if I could tolerate re-reading Mary Pope Osborne's Tales from the Odyssey forever and ever. They also really liked Rosemary Sutcliff's Black Ships Before Troy re-telling of the Iliad (with a bit from the Aeneid), we've read it twice now I think.

[v-girl]

Boxcar Children?

[Deebs]

We just finished Wonder. Incredible book with a fantastic message, and my kids all loved it.

[Thirteen]

If you want some kid-centric humor, and an eyeful of farm/country life, try the Hank the Cowdog series. So fun!


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[migirl]

We just finished HP and started Chronicles of Narnia. I'm slightly worried about how dark the first book seems to feel (my boys are 1st- and 3rd-grades), but they don't seem too bothered by it.

They loved (while I hated) The Magic Treehouse books, we've read all of those.

We read a couple of the Little House books, my boys didn't love them.

We read a bunch of the Roald Dahl books, which seemed to go over well.

My SIL told me about the 39 Clues series, haven't gotten to it yet but she seems to think my boys would like it.

I also love reading to my kids.

[migirl]

Books to read to kids

We just finished Wonder. Incredible book with a fantastic message, and my kids all loved it.

I need to put this on my list. I wasn't sure if my kids would like it, but yours are similar in age to mine so I'll take that as a vote of confidence.

A girl who goes to my kids' school has a lymphatic malformation and got the author to come to our school last year through Make-A-Wish. She was amazing!!

[WolfpackWife]

Boxcar Children, Beezus and Ramona, Little House. Judy Blume's Fudge books.

Oh god, yes. All of these. Yes. I am also a huge fan of Henry & Ribsy (and Ribsy's solo book) and the Nate the Great series.

[peggyfromwastate]

Wonder-- I'm reading that bc my dd13 loved it and wanted me to read it. It's super interesting and I never thought of reading it to my younger kids but I think ds10 would really love it. He'd relate to the main character.

My dd18 read almost every boxcar children book. I read several to her but we sold or donated her collection years ago.

I've read all the American girl books and they are good.

Ramona and that whole series is awesome. This was ds10s favorite last year. We read them all and ds10 reread them. Love Ramona.

We read the Kate diCamillo books too. Last one we read was the magicians elephant. Pretty interesting book.

Anyway I just wish that I had time to read to them more. I am sad that this chapter (get it!!) is ending for me soon.

But then there's the joy of reading books along with your kids-- dd13 and ds13 read the Outsiders at school just as we moved here. That was pretty much my favorite book ever (stay gold ponyboy!) and so that's fun. Dd18 is always trying to get me to read her books, but I don't like her genre (fight club etc).

[LadyFoot]

Ditto to all of these! I have so many fond memories of my parents reading to me as a kid (I'm the oldest and since they read to us all at the same time, I stuck around listening several years into my teens).

A Long Way From Chicago and A Year Down Yonder by Richard Peck are wonderful. My sister loved a book called Everything on a Waffle, although I was past listening age at that point.

When I was younger, my brother and I loved the Time Warp Trio and Encyclopedia Brown books.

For kids a little bit older, Ann Rinaldi has some phenomenal historical fiction.

I can't wait to start reading to my own little one! My mom just bought me The Cat in the Hat to start out my kids book collection and I'm planning to ask for more kids books for Christmas. Yay reading!


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[ladymoreta]

I can't wait to start reading to my own little one! My mom just bought me The Cat in the Hat to start out my kids book collection and I'm planning to ask for more kids books for Christmas. Yay reading!

One of the first things we did after finding out I was pregnant was a huge B&N trip to buy all our favorite kids books!

[spotty_dog]

Thanks to this thread I finally got motivated to start back up with read-alouds! They've fizzled lately but tonight I picked up Mr. Popper's Penguins and the kids are enthralled -- it didn't hook them last time I tried, so this is fun.

I know it's tough to keep reading to your readers (case in point: this is why I'm struggling to read to my kids lately...everything that's high enough interest is at their own reading level...) but do keep trying! A continual flow of high-quality language is so immensely valuable as they start to stockpile not just good vocabulary but also interesting turns of phrase in this transition from being consumers to producers of the written word. Sometimes when you read silently you skip words and phrases or just don't appreciate the musical flow of language the same way as when it's out loud, plus parents can read aloud at a higher level than kids are currently reading independently.

(This is what I like about the Read-Aloud Handbook. It sorts books by *interest* level, not readability, so that you can choose to read Mouse and the Motorcycle or Winnie-the-Pooh -- OMG my kids loved that one -- to your kindergartener before they can access that language themselves, and then more complicated works for more mature little ears.)

[Betty Seymour]

Harry Potter. We read it a bit at a time until we finished it. Also, the Little House series by Laura Ingalls Wilder.

[ides]

Thanks for reviving this thread Betty! O is 8 now and I am currently reading 20 Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. We previously finished The Time Machine by HG Wells. I wasn't so sure about these books - I thought they may be over his head but Dh encouraged me to try them and he likes them so far.

We've read two of the Mysterious Benedict Society books and have the other two in our line up. They are long but easy to read. We've done the Borrowers series, Bedknobs and Broomsticks, Half Magic, The Cricket in Times Square, The Phantom Tollbooth, Lord of the Flies, Poppy, A Wrinkle in Time, the Jenny and the Cat Club books, Animal Farm, a few Pippi Longstocking books, Gullivers Travels, The Children of Noisy Village, Stuart Little, Danny Dunn and the Homework Machine, Runaway Ralph series, The boxcar Children series, Ramona Books, and Fin Family Moomintroll. That's all I can recall right now. He also really liked the My Fathers Dragon books.

Some of the books we have waiting to read are: The Dragon Boy, The Cats of Tanglewood Forest, The One and Only Ivan, Mrs. Frisby and the rats of Nimh, The Hobbit, Where the Mountain meets the Moon, and Rasmussen and the Vagabond.


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