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AmyZ
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Posted: Tue May 8th, 2007 04:54 am |
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Around here, the Magic Tree House books are a staple! I started reading these to my son when he was four years old at the suggestion of some of the parents at ballet to whom I am eternally grateful and he still likes reading them at 7-1/2, even though they are no longer challenging as far as the actual reading goes. He loves learning about other times and other places and he uses the stories as jumping off points for his own creative play. I love these books!
Son also likes the Ready Freddy series. Freddy is a first- or second-grade student who loves sharks and has all the typical adventures of a kid 21st century kid. Added fun: the word "fin" is hidden in every picture in the book. Just challenging enough to be quite fun!
The Magic School Bus chapter books are a bit more advanced--I would consider them intermediate chapter books--but my son decided they were the same as Magic Tree House and plugged through them early on. His favorite was when we team-read them.
I am having a hard time thinking of other beginning chapter books. What else has tickled your kids' fancy? Doesn't have to be a series--any good book is great!
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LLMK
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Posted: Tue May 8th, 2007 05:01 am |
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| My son's first official chapter books were the Super Fly books by Ted Arnold. He carried them around with him for a couple of months. The next series was Dragon Slayer's Academy and then Magic Treehouse.
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Cassie
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Posted: Tue May 8th, 2007 11:56 am |
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The series about Polk Street School are nice, I think, but unfortunately my ds9 doesn't do dialogue in books....
Ds6 enjoys Nate the Great books. Some of the humor is over his head, but he is OK with a little explaining.
Are we going to list Capt Underpants?  A better spin-off is Ricky Riccota's Robot, although both are quasi-chapter books.
Ds6 has checked out some Junie B but I discourage those.
The Sarah Plain and Tall series seems nice- ds9 has checked out Caleb's Story with a more boy angle.
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Shay
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Posted: Tue May 8th, 2007 02:13 pm |
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Great topic! We have many, many favorites at our house. I'm going to attempt listing them in order of increasing difficulty (just a stab at it). When beginning to read chapter books the very first thing my dd would check was how long each chapter was.......the shorter the better.
*Amelia Bedelia (series) by Peggy Parrish: Funny favorites.....
*Frog and Toad (series) by Arnold Lobel: I guess these qualify as early chapter books.....we loved them. Also by Lobel (and our favorites) is Mouse Tales and Owl at Home (first time I caught ds giggling out loud at what he was reading).
*Hopscotch Hill (series) : These are by American Girl, but both my dd and ds enjoyed them.
*Animal Friends (series) by Janette Oke : She is a Christian author, so you may or may not be interested. I actually didn't read them, but my dc loved them. Each book focuses on a character trait (patience, etc.). The chapters are very short.
*Anything by Clyde Robert Bulla: These seem especially geared to boys. We enjoyed Riding the Pony Express, Squanto , and Viking Adventure. I recently read A Lion to Guard Us aloud, but could they could have read it alone.....we loved it.
*Magic Treehouse Books: I agree with Amy on this one.....these really are good. Ds is loving these right now and dissolved into tears when I wouldn't fork out $30 for a set o them on the Scholastic Book Order (our library has all of them).
*The Littles (series) : All of my reading children have enjoyed liked this series.
*The Courage of Sarah Noble by Alice Dalgliesh : Dd loved this one.
*Sable by Karen Hesse: Another that Dd enjoyed ( I didn't read it).
*The Boxcar Children (series) by Werner: My oldest absolutely loved this series.
*Betsy (series) by Carolyn Haywood: She wrote a series of books about Betsy and her friends and also some other wholesome books. "B is for Betsy" was my dd's first chapter book. It was too hard for her at the time but she insisted on reading it. She took all summer to read it just to prove that she could do it. Dd just marveled at the fact that children could just walk to school alone, to the store etc., and had many questions for me about why we don't live that way anymore 
Last edited on Tue May 8th, 2007 02:15 pm by Shay
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AmyZ
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Posted: Wed May 9th, 2007 03:17 am |
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How could I forget Dragon Slayers Academy, Nate the Great, or Boxcar Children??? One thing with Boxcar Children, though: son noticed a difference between the original ones and the gazillion written after the original author passed away. It seems they were resurrected as living in the 1990s for a while, and they just don't have the same panache. Captain Underpants certainly counts, but didn't go over well here. Phew! 
The Flat Stanley books are favorites that I forgot, too. I think son likes the one where they go to space best of all. Stanley Lambchop is only flattened in two of the books; he and his family have other adventures.
Geronimo Stilton (Geronimo is a mouse and this is a sort of "pre-manga" series) was a bust here, but there are a number of kids who really like it. Ditto Junie B. Jones (and I'm glad because I don't like the first grader who learned a lesson every time either! )
Pippi Longstocking surprised me as being a favorite--son even picked her up during a RIF day.
(edited to add Pippi--AZ)
Last edited on Wed May 9th, 2007 03:19 am by AmyZ
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AmyZ
Administrator
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Posted: Mon Jun 25th, 2007 05:04 am |
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The Black Lagoon series (link to first of series only) probably fits in here. It's actually more of a series of picture books, but with Lexile scores in the 500 - 600 range they are more challenging than Magic Tree House and really on a par with beginning chapter books. They are fun, goofy kid humor stories, not "junior horror" stories.
And I am remiss in not having put a general link to Amazon in here, just in case your local library doesn't have copies on the shelves.
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