I do love those old fashioned books; you know, the ones where no one fights at all EVER. Siblings get along beautifully, parents never get divorced, and there’s always a happy ending. In fact, there is so little conflict, there isn’t much plot. It’s more like a series of short vignettes of what life was like back then. Was life that simple and conflict free back then? I doubt it, but I do love reading about it with my kids.
Category: Reading Lists: Early Chapter Books
Early chapter book for kids who are just starting to read independently.
Easy Chapter Book Series for Girls: Clementine
Clementine by Sara Pennypacker is a hit with 2-4th graders. Clementine is a third grader with a big heart and and even bigger imagination.
Books for 3rd Grade & 4th Grade
These are the book recommended by my library. It skews a little young so you can use this for Going into 3rd grade if your child loves to read. This list is from my public library (Newton Free Library) and the books are newly published this year. There is a nice mix of easy chapter books, chapter books, non-fiction, mysteries, folk tales, poetry, magazines and audio books. The range of topics also should appeal to even hard to please reluctant readers.
Best Easy Readers: Geisel Award (aka Dr. Seuss)
The Geisel Award is given annually to the author(s) and illustrator(s) of the most distinguished American book for beginning readers published in English in the United States during the preceding year. It was founded in 2004 and the first award year was 2006, so it’s a fairly new award. That’s great because it’s a list that is actually plausible to work through! What Easy Readers have you and your kids enjoyed? Let’s add it to the list!
Best Translated Books for Kids
The Marsh Award for Children’s Literature in Translation is a literary prize awarded in the United Kingdom since 1996 to the translator of an outstanding work of fiction for young readers translated into English. I haven’t heard of many of these books but if you are looking for a book that no one has heard of, this is a great list with a wide range of age appropriateness. Your child might find a great book for summer reading!
Top 10: Best Beginning Chapter Book Series (ages 6-9)
Dragons and aliens and dinosaurs, oh my! And for girls, there are interesting slightly mischieveous girls to meet as well as cousins who are really sweet. Short chapter book series can often have repetitive plot lines about nothing or language that is neither rich nor interesting. There is something special about each of these book series for the child AND the adult reading along.
Top 10: Best Old Fashioned Easy Readers
While not all these books are from when I was young, they all have an old fashioned innocent feel. In fact, my number one pick, Ling and Ting: Not Exactly the Same! by Grace Lin reminds me so much of my favorite Little Bear series in that it has a tight story line that is both silly and sweet. Easy readers are a rite of passage for both kids and parents. I remember searching for easy readers that were not mind numbingly boring as both parent and child are attached at the hip during this period of literacy.