Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not all of these have talking animals:

Winnie the Pooh
Paddington
My Father's Dragon
A Cricket in Times Square
The Wind in the Willows
Beverly Cleary
Flat Stanley
Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle
Gail Carson Levine's Princess Tales
The Littles

Picture Book, not chapter book, but highly recommend The Quiltmaker's Gift. It's got a lot of text for a picture book and the illustrations are amazing. It has a great message too.

Cricket in Times Square contains a lot of ching chong racist talk from the old man in Chinatown. It was one of my husband's favorite books when he was a kid but we tossed it. My kindergartener also loves the Anna Hibiscus books. You could also check out the Clementine series and the Lulu books.

The nice thing about doing it as a read aloud is that you can edit that stuff out as you read.

I lasted about 2 pages into the first chapter when he shows up before saying that we weren't going to finish the book. There were also the terrible slant-eyed illustrations.

Magic Treehouse

Wind in the Willows

We’ve been working our way through the Mensa book list. The lack of diversity is problematic so we supplement with other things, but I like that some of these books are more complex chapter books that I enjoyed as a kid:

https://www.mensaforkids.org/achieve/excellence-in-reading/excellence-in-reading-k-3-list/

My kindergarten girl loves the Owl Diaries. It is a cute, light series.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not all of these have talking animals:

Winnie the Pooh
Paddington
My Father's Dragon
A Cricket in Times Square
The Wind in the Willows
Beverly Cleary
Flat Stanley
Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle
Gail Carson Levine's Princess Tales
The Littles

Picture Book, not chapter book, but highly recommend The Quiltmaker's Gift. It's got a lot of text for a picture book and the illustrations are amazing. It has a great message too.

Cricket in Times Square contains a lot of ching chong racist talk from the old man in Chinatown. It was one of my husband's favorite books when he was a kid but we tossed it. My kindergartener also loves the Anna Hibiscus books. You could also check out the Clementine series and the Lulu books.

The nice thing about doing it as a read aloud is that you can edit that stuff out as you read.

Roald dahl books have been whimsical and engaging.. but fair warning that some are a bit too scary. Fantastic Mr Fox has been good for my son.. but I think I recall it does use words like “stupid”.. if you’re watching for things like that.

A lot of people have recommended early reader / early chapter book series. I don't see a reason to read those aloud to a kindergartener. For reading aloud, I'd always go with more complex books with more difficult vocabulary. Depending on your kid's interest level, picture books or chapter books could meet that description (but it sounds like your kid likes chapter books). Save the early chapter book series for your kid to read when they're ready.

Mr. Popper’s Penguins

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Along with Mercy Watson and My Father’s Dragon trilogy, usually read Mr. Popper’s Penguins to my k class.
At that age I also began the Ramona books with my daughter.
She also enjoyed the Princess in Black and Owl Diaries series.

I would save Ramona for later - they end in 4th grade, so it's perfect for a 2nd grader who can really relate to all of it.

With series like Ramona, Betsy-Tacy (which literally goes from 5-adulthood), and others that follow a character over time it is totally OK to read the first ones, wait, read more, wait, and so on. Some series are meant to be read over time.