Fun for parent to read, newer chapter books for first grader

[Anonymous]

Boxcar Children were my favorite growing up, but they definitely have gender role issues - the oldest brother is always going off to work for money while the oldest sister is cooking, cleaning, setting up the boxcar, and looking after Benny.

[Anonymous]

If you want to read something together, and their attention span is long enough, I'd start with Harry Potter. It's probably best for 2nd grade and up though. It does get dark pretty quickly, so if you read it before then, I'd pause for awhile before reading the other books.

[Anonymous]

Wings of Fire
Sideways stories from wayside school
Mrs. Piggle Wiggle
Superfudge
Upside down magic (such a sweet series!)
Harry potter (#1-3 are light, then use your judgement)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My 1st grade daughters current favorite is the Zoey & Sassafrass series - magic animals, cute cat, some lite science/scientific method, what’s not to love.

We enjoyed this too! What's not to love? The fact that it's a pretty short series and now I'm back to book #250 of The Rainbow Magic series and the same stupid plot with the goblin.
Will definitely check out the Dory one. Great thread!

[Anonymous]

Chapter-ish books with pictures
Dory Fantasmagory
Bad Kitty
Nate the Great
Katie Woo
Princess in Black
Princess Pulverizer

Graphic Novels
Hilo
Catwad

Chapter books
Wayside School series
Stuey Lewis
Harry Potter
Where the mountain meets the moon

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The hobbit
The swan and the trumpet
The mouse and the motorcycle
The secret garden
Charlie and the chocolate factory
Junie B. Jones
Little princess

Uh what? The Little Princess is SO DATED and incredibly boring. Same with the The Secret Garden. There is SO much excellent children's literature being written now, there's no need to read things written at the turn of the century.

Troll fail.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The hobbit
The swan and the trumpet
The mouse and the motorcycle
The secret garden
Charlie and the chocolate factory
Junie B. Jones
Little princess

Uh what? The Little Princess is SO DATED and incredibly boring. Same with the The Secret Garden. There is SO much excellent children's literature being written now, there's no need to read things written at the turn of the century.

There's a lot of value in older literature. We need to maintain a connection to the past. Their errors can be corrected by our improvements in those areas, and our blind spots (and culturally we definitely have blind spots) can definitely be corrected by the past. Our culture values diversity in so many areas, but not temporal diversity. That's a shame.

That said, I really hated The Little Princess and The Secret Garden as a kid. They are both pretty trite books in my opinion. But my kids who in general read a lot of good lit love them, so OK. I tell them that those books (and other bad books) they like are kind of like cupcakes. Good for fun sometimes, but not for a steady diet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My first grader LOVED Howl’s Moving Castle (much to my surprise). He says it’s his favorite book. He did not enjoy the second book in the series and thought the third was okay.

Also liked:
Harry Potter
Wings of Fire
Gregor the Overlander (be warned some death and dark themes, though)
Wind in the Willows
Shadow Weaver series
The Girl Who Drank the Moon
Watership Down (more death and dark themes if your kid can handle it)
Artemis Fowl series

Some of these are really quite dark. Great books many of them, but not what I'd read with or hand to a first grader. My sixth grader? Absolutely.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Boxcar Children were my favorite growing up, but they definitely have gender role issues - the oldest brother is always going off to work for money while the oldest sister is cooking, cleaning, setting up the boxcar, and looking after Benny.

And that’s actually a completely FINE division of labor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My first grader LOVED Howl’s Moving Castle (much to my surprise). He says it’s his favorite book. He did not enjoy the second book in the series and thought the third was okay.

Also liked:
Harry Potter
Wings of Fire
Gregor the Overlander (be warned some death and dark themes, though)
Wind in the Willows
Shadow Weaver series
The Girl Who Drank the Moon
Watership Down (more death and dark themes if your kid can handle it)
Artemis Fowl series

Some of these are really quite dark. Great books many of them, but not what I'd read with or hand to a first grader. My sixth grader? Absolutely.

Ok. That’s why some of them are noted as being dark.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The hobbit
The swan and the trumpet
The mouse and the motorcycle
The secret garden
Charlie and the chocolate factory
Junie B. Jones
Little princess

Uh what? The Little Princess is SO DATED and incredibly boring. Same with the The Secret Garden. There is SO much excellent children's literature being written now, there's no need to read things written at the turn of the century.

There's a lot of value in older literature. We need to maintain a connection to the past. Their errors can be corrected by our improvements in those areas, and our blind spots (and culturally we definitely have blind spots) can definitely be corrected by the past. Our culture values diversity in so many areas, but not temporal diversity. That's a shame.

That said, I really hated The Little Princess and The Secret Garden as a kid. They are both pretty trite books in my opinion. But my kids who in general read a lot of good lit love them, so OK. I tell them that those books (and other bad books) they like are kind of like cupcakes. Good for fun sometimes, but not for a steady diet.

The Secret Garden is full of white supremacy, colonialism and bad attitudes towards people with disabilities. I wouldn't read it to any kid these days.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The hobbit
The swan and the trumpet
The mouse and the motorcycle
The secret garden
Charlie and the chocolate factory
Junie B. Jones
Little princess

Uh what? The Little Princess is SO DATED and incredibly boring. Same with the The Secret Garden. There is SO much excellent children's literature being written now, there's no need to read things written at the turn of the century.

There's a lot of value in older literature. We need to maintain a connection to the past. Their errors can be corrected by our improvements in those areas, and our blind spots (and culturally we definitely have blind spots) can definitely be corrected by the past. Our culture values diversity in so many areas, but not temporal diversity. That's a shame.

That said, I really hated The Little Princess and The Secret Garden as a kid. They are both pretty trite books in my opinion. But my kids who in general read a lot of good lit love them, so OK. I tell them that those books (and other bad books) they like are kind of like cupcakes. Good for fun sometimes, but not for a steady diet.

The Secret Garden is full of white supremacy, colonialism and bad attitudes towards people with disabilities. I wouldn't read it to any kid these days.

So kids shouldn't know that those things happened? They shouldn't know that people thought that was totally OK, so they can realize that people can be total jerks?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The hobbit
The swan and the trumpet
The mouse and the motorcycle
The secret garden
Charlie and the chocolate factory
Junie B. Jones
Little princess

Uh what? The Little Princess is SO DATED and incredibly boring. Same with the The Secret Garden. There is SO much excellent children's literature being written now, there's no need to read things written at the turn of the century.

There's a lot of value in older literature. We need to maintain a connection to the past. Their errors can be corrected by our improvements in those areas, and our blind spots (and culturally we definitely have blind spots) can definitely be corrected by the past. Our culture values diversity in so many areas, but not temporal diversity. That's a shame.

That said, I really hated The Little Princess and The Secret Garden as a kid. They are both pretty trite books in my opinion. But my kids who in general read a lot of good lit love them, so OK. I tell them that those books (and other bad books) they like are kind of like cupcakes. Good for fun sometimes, but not for a steady diet.

The Secret Garden is full of white supremacy, colonialism and bad attitudes towards people with disabilities. I wouldn't read it to any kid these days.

I think you read a different secret garden than i did.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The hobbit
The swan and the trumpet
The mouse and the motorcycle
The secret garden
Charlie and the chocolate factory
Junie B. Jones
Little princess

Uh what? The Little Princess is SO DATED and incredibly boring. Same with the The Secret Garden. There is SO much excellent children's literature being written now, there's no need to read things written at the turn of the century.

There's a lot of value in older literature. We need to maintain a connection to the past. Their errors can be corrected by our improvements in those areas, and our blind spots (and culturally we definitely have blind spots) can definitely be corrected by the past. Our culture values diversity in so many areas, but not temporal diversity. That's a shame.

That said, I really hated The Little Princess and The Secret Garden as a kid. They are both pretty trite books in my opinion. But my kids who in general read a lot of good lit love them, so OK. I tell them that those books (and other bad books) they like are kind of like cupcakes. Good for fun sometimes, but not for a steady diet.

The writing is also generally better or at least uses more advanced vocabulary. It's great for kids to get exposed to reading like books like those.

[Anonymous]

My Father's Dragon
Mr. Popper's Penguins