Children's Books discussion

My mom said she'd buy books for ds for his birthday and Christmas presents. Any suggestions as to what I should suggest? Something involved enough for him, but he isn't into chapter books yet. Someting between chapter and picture books.

Thank you!

The books by James Marshall might be just what you're looking for. Taking traditional fairy tales, Marshall enhances Hansel and Gretel, etc. with his wonderful comic illustrations. Also look for new fairy tales by William Steig (you may know Shrek, but there are many wonderful others!), and his daughter. Tales from other peoples may appeal to your son as well.... look in the 398s!

Candy

My son (when 5 yrs) loved the Ricky Ricotta books and the Captain Underpants books. He also wanted a pretty steady diet of factual books (like so many boys I know) about bugs, reptiles, dinosaurs, machines, tornados, earthquakes and volcanoes. Eyewitness books, DK and Scholastic all do wonderful, age-appropriate books along these lines.

Have you gotten the "Frog and Toad are Friends" books yet? Or Maurice Sendak's "Little Bear?" Those are classics. When I was little my mom read them to me, a little at a time, and when she left I read them to myself.

There's also a really amazing collection of books for young readers written in the 70's by Stephen Cosgrove. They look great as a collection being hardback and colorfully bound; the illustrations are endearing and they're all stories with morals. I highly recomend "The Muffin Muncher," "Hucklebug" and "Trafelgar True."

Thanks for the recommendations! I will look up some of these authors.

Oh, and I know the North Pole isn't a country. Duh. LOL

Dav Pilkey (author of Captain Underpants) also does a beginning reader series with a dragon who takes things too literally, like Amelia Bedelia in a non-maid kind of way. I love Dragon's Fat Cat and A Friend for Dragon.
Pilkey has also done a couple of monster movie spoofs, Dogzilla and Kat Kong that are very silly and fun.

We just picked up "who's afraid of the big bad book?" from the library, what a great read.

Banzai-- I absolutely loved Stephen Cosgrove's books when I was little! We always referred to them as the Serendipity books. I really liked Leo the Lop, Morgan Mine, and Morgan Morning (which my mom wouldn't read to me because it always made her cry). My niece will be five in May and she's been pulling these books off my shelves and "reading" them for a while, but now that she can actually read it's so much better!

I'm glad to have found this group/discussion. I'm far more familiar with good chapter books and YA books, but I would love to get up to date on recent (and good) books for this age group.

SkippyJon Jones (there are several) by Judy Schachner are great to read aloud and the hardcovers come with a cd. The narrator is the author and she does a great job with the voices. A nice change from mind-numbing text.

It's great to start children reading on their own at this age, but don't forget that they love to be read to!

Ditto to "Frog and Toad" (and the others of course), my daughter was laughing (she's 6)so hard reading it last night she could hardly read. Something about Toad standing on his head got her funny bone.

And how could I forget the plethora of books by Laura Numeroff, starting with "If you Give a Mouse a Cookie"? After you've read this to your child a few times they will have it memorized and can go through the whole book by themselves!

For anyone who found this search like I did, some years after the original thread, I firstly want to thank all the contributors for some great new ideas and also recommend a couple of others that my 5 year old son is enjoying - anything by Bill Peet, older books, but he loves them, and while still picture books they are a slightly longer story. Two others that we LOVE (and are slightly longer still) are Roald Dahl's The Enormous Crocodile, and The Minpins, the later taking about 40 minutes to read.

Hi, I am looking for recommendations for books to read to my kids. They are just moving onto chapter books and we have been reading Enid Blyton. However, as much as I loved them when I was a kid I would prefer to read books which aren't so gendered. The girls don't do very much (make lunch, do the mending), and are mostly silent, while the boys make decisions and drive the story forward. Can anyone recommend anything - first chapter books that are a bit more modern?! Thanks - I should say I am in the UK.

Bink & Gollie
Clementine
Dory Fantasmagory
Ivy and Bean

These I know in the US, might also be UK.
Humorous, with active girls... but boys are mostly missing.
I can't think of any offhand with boys and girls together.
Maybe the Magic Treehouse series, for example Twister On Tuesday... are these known in the UK?

Ros wrote: "Hi, I am looking for recommendations for books to read to my kids. They are just moving onto chapter books and we have been reading Enid Blyton. However, as much as I loved them when I was a kid I ..."

I haven't really fallen in love with too many modern books or series yet. Although, we do like these that are a little shorter and have lots of pictures:
*Dory Fantasmagory
*Chews Your Destiny
*The Owl Diary series

For non-modern (but where the girls are strong characters), we liked
*Anne of Green Gables
*The Boxcar Children

The curriculum in my daughter's kindergarten class includes read-alouds of some timeless books we've read together and some that we hadn't gotten around to yet:
*The Ramona series
*The Oz series
*The Pippi Longstockings series
*Charlotte's Web
*The Mouse and the Motorcycle
*Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

My five year old grandson liked The Wizard of Oz and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory as read-aloud books.

My two children (a girl and a boy) both loved the Magic Treehouse series of books by Mary Pope Osborne. And I liked the series because they learn interesting history as they enjoy them! The brother (Jack) and sister (Annie) character both play significant roles in the stories.

My daughter also liked the Boxcar Children series but preferred the Magic Treehouse.

I hope that helps!

I've got a blog post listing first read-aloud chapter books in the fantasy genre, here: http://nydamprintsblackandwhite.blogs...
It also links to my Goodreads list of first-read-aloud-chapter-books including other genres. Some of my top recommendations are
My Father's Dragon (only a boy)
Where the Mountain Meets the Moon (girl)
The Saturdays and others in series (2 girls, 2 boys)
Kate and Sam to the Rescue and others in series (1 boy, 1 girl)
Betsy-Tacy and Tib First book in series is actually Betsy-Tacy. (3 girls)

I should add that The Saturdays and Betsy-Tacy are not modern, but the girls in them are much more active and equal.

I recommend Sleep Like A Tiger by Pamela Zagarenski.
The illustrations is just so wonderfull

Ah, The Farmer and The Clown by Marla Frazee is a very edgy one and i think it is wonderful because it is unique. I don't want to spill the story hehe. Overall, it is provocative and meaningful. The illustrations show a great deal of emotions. The mood is there. I'm afarid though if clown is not your thing then maybe other book will do. I do love this book very much tough.

The Farmer and the Clown is creative, yes, but I agree it's best to preview it yourself if your child has any strong feelings about clowns.

Sleep Like a Tiger by Mary Logue is illustrated by Pamela Zagarenski, another creative artist.

For a gentle and thought-provoking clown based advanced picture book that is perfect for a read aloud and then discuss, Misha Damjan's The Clown Said No is lovely (and Petronius, the clown who said "no" is not in any way a frightening or creepy clown, but actually a clown who desires a different type of performance life, as a storyteller and musician). I loved the accompanying illustrations, bright, imaginative and expressionistic.

The Blue Whale is a great boys book, if he's into whales. If he's into bugs, My Awesome Summer by P Mantis is loved by many. If he's into inventions, Whoosh! Lonnie Johnson’s Super-Soaking Stream of Inventions is great. I am Jim Henson by Brad Meltzer (or any books by Brad Meltzer) is great; Henson was Brad's childhood hero and you can tell in the book. You can read reviews on all these at Books4theCuriousChild.com.

My mom seconds the recommendation for My Father's Dragon. She taught nursery school for 30 years and they always read the older kids (4 turning 5, new 5s) this book at the end of the year. Last year we got it from the library for my younger niece who was turning 6. She liked it a lot and kept telling my sister that Grammie got her a book about "her daddy's dragon!" LOL! (Kids are so literal at that age).

The only books I've successfully been able to read to my 5 year old nephew is Miss Moon: Wise Words from a Dog Governess because he loves doggies.

My 4 year old nephew was intrigued by Star Wars Epic Yarns: A New Hope. His cousin, the 5 YO, came back from Disney World with Star Wars "guys" and souvenirs so I bought them the Star Wars yarns series. My brother knows the stories well enough to retell them and the children can read the one word on each page to themselves as their language skills develop.

I'm off to look up My Awesome Summer. 4 YO nephew wants to be a "bug doctor" (entomologist ?)

Oh that Miss Moon book looks cute.
And how wonderful to learn that kids are still enjoying My Daddy's Dragon... ;)

The 5 year old LOVED Peanut Butter & Brains: A Zombie Culinary Tale. It was a hit with the whole family. It's fun and unique and completely appropriate for the picture book age group despite the zombie theme.

I'm deleting two comments that look like they belong in the promotional folder. It's not my responsibility to investigate, so if you're innocent, please justify next time with a note like "just a fan, not the author or publisher."

I highly recomend
Shark In The Park
Oi Frog and its many many sequels
Supertato the whole series.
Superfrog and the Big Stink
Superbot: Toad and the Goo Extractor I believe there has been one or two other Superbots which I expect will be just as fun.

They are short and sweet picture books but great for helping him start to read independently and they are subtle enough that you won't go bonkers if one becomes a must read every night (In our house the farting superfrog. During the day our daughter reads chapter books; Esio Trot, The Little Prince, Famous Five..... but still every night is Superfrog night.)

5 year old nephew is into graphic novels now. He is enjoying looking at Dogman 4 Book set: Dog man ( . Not my idea of good literature but I guess it gets kids into books.

Zombies Don't Eat Veggies! is perfect for a 5 year old, granted they can tolerate zombie humor, and those who read to them.

Hey, new one here, I'm a writer, screenwriter (ha, poor), reader, lover of books and creating. I made 2 picture books a while ago for my friends and family that had new kids during Christmas time cuz I couldn't figure out what to buy them. Ha!

They're fun rhyming books with facts about 1: Animals and 2: Vroom (this one about cars, trucks, motorcycles, etc)

Would love comments and critiques, don't worry have thick skin, and better from strangers then family and friends that just placate.

https://www.amazon.com/Fletch-Friday-...

And you don't have to buy them, can just read the look inside amazon does if need be.

Appreciate the time and help,

J.S. Jones aka Fletch Friday Dog

Splat the Cat and the Cat in the Moon Looks cute to read with a 5 year old, especially if the 5 year old is beginning to read. I wasn't crazy about it but I think nephew who loves cats and space will enjoy the story.

QNPoohBear wrote: "Splat the Cat and the Cat in the Moon Looks cute to read with a 5 year old, especially if the 5 year old is beginning to re..."

Oh that sounds funny!

Cheryl wrote: " Oh that sounds funny!"

It's cheesy- pun intended. Not my idea of good literature or nice illustrations but I'm not the target audience. Apparently Splat is a graduated series and he has picture books, level 1 and level 2 readers. Nephew #2 loves cats now and he already read about Splat at Halloween and wanted more. He seemed happy to get this one he can push himself to read on his own.

Good for him!