Month: June 2018

Eloise is 8 and also loves reading, at least we are doing something right. She reads quite a bit and has just recently finished her first 400+ page book. She was super excited about it. Here are some of her recommendations for your summer reading.

1. Ramona – Everyone loves Ramona, she’s spunky, funny and sometimes a pest. I just noticed that the final book in the series wasn’t published until 1999, which I definitely didn’t read it. I might need to add it to my summer reading list.

2. Ada Lace – Ada is a new series that we just got from the library recently, the first two anyways. We also just won them from The Mighty Girl website, but haven’t received them yet. Both Greta and Eloise loved them. Ada is a girl who loves science, math and solving mysteries.

3. My Weird School – Again another series that Greta loved and Eloise is currently loving. There are so many of these books, and I never can remember which ones we own and which ones they have read. They are all funny and based on the Ella Mentry School.

4. Bailey School Kids – Another big series, over 80 books in this one! In each book the students encounter a regular person who might be a mythical being.

5. Katie Kazoo (also George Brown and Project Droid also by Nancy Krulik) – Katie Kazoo has long been a favorite around here. Katie switches between herself and another character in each book, leading to funny antics. In the past year I looked up the author of Katie Kazoo and learned she had some other early chapter book series and so off we went to the library. George Brown, class clown and Project Droid were both a hit.

6. Who was books – I’m sure you have seen these books in every store around. They are biography books about different famous people, everyone from Jesus to Princess Diana and everyone in between. There are also What Is books and Where Is books. Lots of topics to interest lots of kids.

7. Heidi Heckelbeck – Heidi Heckelbeck is a witch trying to be a normal girl. These might be better for a slightly younger reader, they have lots of illustrations and fairly large print. Looking on amazon I realized there are several new ones that we haven’t read, off to the library request list.

8. Dog Man – Eloise got these graphic novels for her birthday. They are written by the author of Captain Underpants, which she has also enjoyed. Dog Man is part dog, part human and loves to seek justice.

9. Cam Jansen – Cam Jansen is also better for a slightly younger reader, but Eloise still enjoys them. Both of the older girls tend to read a wide range of reading level books, everything from picture books, to beginning chapter books, to longer chapter books. Cam is another spunky girl (lots of spunky girl books here) who likes to have fun and solve mysteries along the way.

10. And some repeats from her sisters’ list – Thea Stilton and Compass South – Greta added both of these to her list, but Eloise wanted them on as well, so here they are. Thea Stilton goes on adventures around the globe and Compass South is about two pirates traveling the world.

Have you read any of these? Have anything else to recommend?

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Beatrice is 6, finishing up kindergarten and reading beginning reading books that contain lots of site words and words that are fairly easy to sound out. She really loves reading and is excited to try her first chapter book over the summer. Here are some of her favorite beginning reader books. All of these books are series of books, so there are numerous options by the same author.

1. Ling & Ting – Twin girls who are up to some silly antics.

2. Mia – These books are about a dancing cat. Nothing super special here, but the girls love them, and I don’t mind them.

3. Fancy Nancy – I love Fancy Nancy, the illustrations are always so fun. There are a whole bunch of beginning reader books that tackle everything from field trips, the 100th day of school, the tooth fairy, etc.

4. Piggie & Elephant – I still remember buying our first Piggie and Elephant book when I was pregnant with Eloise. I immediately fell in love with them and we have ended up owning every single book. They are great for all ages to listen to, but they are also great for beginning readers to try and read on their own. Piggie and Elephant books are also one of my go-to gifts for preschoolers.

5. Dr. Suess – The classic beginning to read books! I know there are those who really can’t stand Dr. Suess books, but I think they are great, with all the rhyming and funny made up words. It’s great for sounding out and they have been some of Eloise and Beatrice’s favorite books to start reading with.

6. Biscuit – In Beatrice’s class the kids can bring in books to read to the class. In the beginning of the year several kids were bringing in Biscuit books and she was dying to read some of them as well. So Biscuit it is. Biscuit is a cute little dog with some silly antics.

7. Andy & Sandy – These books are by the great Tomie dePaola, who we LOVE. These are super, super easy books to start with, most has just 3-6 words per page. They are cute, simple, and come in wonderful hardcovers like Piggie and Elephant.

8. Penny – Another author I’ve loved for a long while is Kevin Henkes. In fact about 5 years ago we met him in person! In addition to his beautiful pictures books, he also has a set of books for beginning readers.

9. Pete the Cat – Pete the Cat is great because in addition to the longer picture books with songs (available on their website), they also make beginning reader books in a whole slew of topics. Pete always seems to be doing the right thing and rescuing someone.

10. Little Bear – I remember reading Little Bear books when I was a child. They are so sweet and a little silly as well, just some very classic early readers.

Do you have any other favorites for a 6 year old beginning reader?

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Here are a few of the books Felicity would like to recommend to you for your summer reading. Felicity is 4 years old and loves being read to. I’ll add that these are books we both agreed to put on the list because if I let her completely choose, it would be full of Dora, Princess, Fancy Nancy, Pinkalicious, etc. Since most everyone has heard of those books we tried to add some less familiar books (and books I, as the parent really enjoy reading as well).

1. Anna Hibiscus Double Trouble – We love the Anna Hibiscus beginning chapter books, and so we went ahead and bought the picture book as well. Anna Hibiscus lives in Africa and this is the story of her two brothers being born. Both the chapter and picture books aren’t available at our library, so we did decide to splurge on them after so many recommendations for them. They are definitely worth the investment and are wonderful stories about a family growing up in Africa.

2. Hattie & Hudson – This was on our list last week, but since we just added it to our personal library, we have been reading it quite a lot. Felicity loves it!

3. No More Monsters for Me – This is a recent favorite. It’s also a great beginning reader book as the words are pretty simple, minus the main character’s name, Minneapolis Simpkin.

4. The Giant Jumperee – Everyone here loves this book about a little bitty frog scaring everyone, including an elephant, bear, and cat.

5. The Snatchabook – This poor little guy just wants someone to read him a story. He doesn’t go about it in the best way, but makes it up to everyone in the end.

6. Mostly Monsterly – This has been a favorite around here for years. Bernadette is a very sweet monster who goes to monster school and doesn’t quite fit it, but she learns to be true to herself, even if it means being different.

7. Minerva Louise – Minerva Louise is a silly chicken who always takes things very literally, kind of like Amelia Bedelia. We have several of her books and they are all equally silly. Many of these are hard to find, but if you do find them they are worth it!

8. Piggies – Another book that has been a favorite for years. We have the paperback version and it’s definitely seen better days.

9. Take Me Home Country Roads – All of the girls loved picture books that are songs, especially ones that we know, anything from the itsy bitsy spider, to Take Me Home Country Roads. There are several John Denver songs turned into books with beautiful illustrations and we love them all.

10. You are My Cupcake – This is a super simple board book probably more appropriate for a baby or toddler, but Felicity still regularly picks it out to read. It’s full of cute sayings like you are my cupcake, my sticky little gumdrop.

Have you read any of these? Do you have any to add?

***As usual, links are amazon affiliate links.

I love hearing what books kids recommend other kids their age read, so I asked my kids. I’ll do a separate post for each of them. We all know that summer reading is a must, either for school or just for fun. All of these titles don’t necessarily have anything to do with summer, but they are favorites that my kids want to share with you.

Greta just turned 10, is a voracious reader and these are her recommendations.

1. Amal Unbounded – Greta just got this for her birthday and read it this week during exams. Amal becomes a servant to help repay her family’s debt. It’s the story of a brave girl who tries to out herself from a negative situation.

2. Compass South – This is a graphic novel Greta picked out at the library, and apparently it’s so great she wants to recommend it. Twins are trying to get away from pirates as they travel from place to place. There is a second book as well, that we are hoping to get from the library soon.

3. Anne of Green Gables – Does Anne need any explanation?

4. Hans Brinker (Great Illustrated Classics) – A boy and a girl work together to solve two problems.

5. Unicef books Children Just Like Me, Celebrations, A Life Like Me, A School Like Me. – Greta has loved these books for years. They show children all over the world living their life. There are detailed descriptions and bright colorful pictures. These are great for many ages, but she is the one who loves them the most in our house.

6. St. Clare’s & Malory Towers – These are hard to find in the USA. Our library doesn’t have any books by Enid Blyton, but I had read many good reviews and recommendations for them, so we took a chance and purchased them (one set at a time), and Greta fell in love with them. She describes them as boarding school girls playing hilarious tricks on their teachers.

7. Geronimo Stilton (Adventures in the Kingdom in Fantasy) & Thea Stilton – At this stage Greta prefers the longer Geronimo Stilton books, which are called Adventures in the Kingdom in Fantasy and she still enjoys the Thea Stilton books because they travel the world on their adventures.

8. Mandy & The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles – Both of these are by Julie Andrews, yes, that Julie Andrews. Did you know she wrote books too? And really great ones at that, what can’t she do!?! I read Mandy out loud to everyone last year and they all loved it. It’s a book that I had tried to get Greta to read many times before, but she said it looked boring. Alas, when I started reading it out loud to her sisters, she immediately got sucked in and loved it just as much as they did. The same thing happened with The Last of the Really Greta Whangdoodles, except her teacher read it aloud to the class this year. Even though her class just finished reading aloud she read ahead many months ago to find out what happened.

9. Little House – As with Anne, do these need any explanation? We need to try and read them aloud again here. I think Greta is the only one who I’ve read them all to. I’ve started a few other times with the others but they weren’t as interested or too young at the time.

10. Gooney Bird Greene – Gooney Bird Greene is written by Lois Lowry, which I previously thought of only as the author of Number the Stars. This is nothing like that, but equally good. Gooney Bird is a silly girl who gets into mischief, she is very lovable. Eloise loves these books as well.

11. The Watsons go to Birmingham – Greta read this for Reading Olympics this year. This takes place during the Civil Rights movement and the Watsons are in Birmingham when their grandmother’s church is blown up.

12. Anything by Andrew Clements – Greta has long been a fan of Andrew Clements. Eloise has just started to get into his books. He writes silly stories often about school. The most famous of his books is Frindle about a boy who decides to start calling pens, frindles.

Have you read any of these? Do you have any to add?

***As usual, all links are amazon affiliates links.