Books for emerging readers

[Anonymous]

my six year old has moved past picture books and is starting to enjoy more complicated books. What are some books young boys are enjoying these days? Any series? We just finished James and the Giant Peach and are currently reading The Pied Piper. He also loved Charlotte's Web and any Goosebumps book.

[Anonymous]

The magic treehouse and a to z mysteries are good for both boys and girls.

[Anonymous]

my father's dragon (series)
love the 26 fairmount avenue series (tomie de paolo)
assume you read frog and toad and poppleton
heard magic treehouse series is good
charlie and the chocolate factory
ramona the pest

[Anonymous]

The Boxcar Children, Horrible Harry/Song Lee, Ready Freddy, Clement's "Jake Drake" books, Sachar's Marvin Redpost series. Encyclopedia Brown.

Some kids like Cam Jansen books, mine didn't.

Also, lots by Beverly Cleary are excellent: Ramona books, Henry Huggins, the Mouse and the Motorcycle, etc.
The Chalk Box Kid is very good, too.

Judy Blume has a few good ones for that age: Fudge books, tales of a fourth grade nothing, freckle juice.

[Anonymous]

Are you lokking for books that he can read by himself?
My son is 7 and he loves Captain Underpants and Diary Of a Wimpy Kid series.
If you are reading to him, I would go with Classic Books.

[Anonymous]

homer price, my fathers dragon, wind in the willows.

[Anonymous]

thanks! I will print these out I forgot about many of these..another question-for the books that are part of a series-did you find it to be a waste of money to purchase the entire series or just take them out of the library? My son is the oldest of three so I am torn whether to buy so his brothers could read them later or do kids not reread these types of books-Magic Treehouse, Goosebumps, etc? I will def. buy the "classics" but not sure about the series type books. thanks again.

[Anonymous]

I just checked them out of the library. My son liked some series, but not others. Only if he liked the series books enough to want to re-read them or get additional books in the series would I consider buying them. All kids have different tastes...mine dislikes Goosebumps, for example, even though yours likes them.

Scholastic has some good deals on sets of books if your school participates.

[Anonymous]

i've also bought some of these books used on amazon. some of the used books can now qualify for free shipping.

[Anonymous]

Try used book sales for the series books -- Somerset Elementary in Chevy Chase has a great sale each spring.

[Anonymous]

Speaking of book sales, the Stone Ridge and B-CC annual used book sales are great, lots to choose from. They are in the spring.

[Anonymous]

My son is five and we've been reading "chapter" books together for about a year. The Beverly Cleary books as suggested as well as the George Selden "Cricket" series. He also has liked some of the "Little House" books. Dick King-Smith, I think that is his name, who wrote "Babe" also has a great series of books.

I scan the tables at used book sales. If he really takes to one I cull from those piles, then I may buy the series - part of building his own personal library. To be blunt, I avoid the "Magic Tree House" stuff as I don't really care for the prose. I'll let him read these to himself when he is able.

[Anonymous]

my son loved the Geronimo Stilton series, also available from Scholastic

[Anonymous]

My 7 year old boy has been enjoying the Down Girl and Sit books by Nolan. I'm not sure how many of them there are, but at least two! They are wonderfully funny ... they are written from the perspective of two dogs who THINK their names are Down Girl and Sit because that is all they ever hear their masters call them. You get the idea ... very clever but also fairly simple reading for a beginning reader. And a welcome break from the overly formulaic Magic Treehouse books, although they are good too.

I definitely recommend the library for series type books, because once your child's reading progresses, they will not want to go back and reread these books. But the classic picture books are revisited many, many times because they are much richer in terms of story, pictures, and text. So they are worth buying and will be cherished for a lifetime ... passed on to grandchildren.

[Anonymous]

We have great luck at the thrift store near us (Unique) for series-type books. We found the first 14 Magic Tree House books there a few months ago and paid all of $8 for the entire set. We try to pay it forward by donating our own books when we finish with them.