Ok time to refill the book shelves...

[hipumpkins]

I have cleared out all the baby board books and now have 2 full shelves ready for more advanced books.
I am looking for books for my 7 year old. I don't know her exact grade level but she is beyond simple easy readers at this point.
she seems to be able to read just about anything she picks up She can read Charlotte's web style books and the original Winnie the Pooh stories (level?)
She loves animals.
she is sensitive to scary and to people being mean to either animals or people even if the story ultimately has a happy ending she does not care for those kind of stories.
She likes Mr. Putter and Tabby but her level is beyond that writing.
TIA for any suggestions....

[lach]

I might look into the Carolyn Haywood Betsy books, the Cam Jansen books, the Wayside School books, Ramona, Little House in the Big Woods (written at a slightly easier level than the later books), the early Betsy Tacy books (like the Little House books, they get more advanced as the series progresses). The All of a Kind Family books and some of Elizabeth Enright's books might still be a little bit advanced, but shouldn't be too far off on the horizon.

[ChristaN]

My kids are 9 and 11 now, so I'm not as in tune with recalling difficulty or level of reading. From what I can recall, though, the Magic Treehouse series was popular with one of my dds when she was about that age or a bit younger. The same dd really liked the book Mandy by Julie Edwards. I liked Mandy when I was a little girl too .

[tammyw]

Subbing to this thread because we're always looking for new ideas also.

My daughter right now (nearly 7) LOVES the Capital Kids mysteries (11 total) plus the A to Z mysteries. But she's almost finished them all, so we'll be needing some new ones. She's tried the Cam Jansen ones and they are fine (a very quick read also).

[Momma Aimee]

My Aunt is a prof in Education, but hig school ed and is not great with little kids. However i am her only neice and thus the boys are all she has. she gets then GREAT clothing and good books (though not as many books as i would have expected) and lot of craft stuff.

well she got Theodore

the llama who had no pajammas

http://www.amazon.com/Llama-Who-Had-No- ... 060&sr=8-1

and it is awsome

it is a collection of poems.

most short, most silly, most a chant style ..

some are loonger though, a nice mix

but what is sooooooooooooooooooo cool is that so many animals have poems -- animals you would NOT expect like the sloth and the roach and the termite, the tarpid, the shrew .......they are great

right now we are useing nusery rhymes for memory work, but these poems will be great -- for copy work (soooome day) and for more memory work (in addition to Bible Verses for us).

It is soooooooooooo cute

they are funt o read, i am really enjoying them myself.

Aimee

[Daffodil]

How about:

the Moomin books by Tove Jansson (Comet in Moominland and Finn Family Moomintroll are the first two)
No Flying in the House by Betty Brock
Pippi Longstocking, The Children of Noisy Village, or Emil in the Soup Tureen by Astrid Lindgren. (There are more books about Pippi, Noisy Village, and Emil if she ends up liking the first ones.)
The Five Sisters by Margaret Mahy
Jenny and the Cat Club (and other books about Jenny and her friends) by Esther Averill
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
The Doll People (and the 2 sequels) by Ann M. Martin and Laura Godwin
books by Cynthia Ryland like the Lighthouse Family series, Thimbleberry Stories, or Gooseberry Park

[meetoo]

I remember liking the Nate the Great books around that age. And the box car children....

[Geerbabe]

My daughter is seven and she is loving the "Animal Ark" series right now. It's not something that I would read personally, since it isn't wonderful literature, but there is nothing wrong with her enjoying it herself. The main characters are a girl who is the daughter of the local veterinairians and her best friend who is a boy. They usually spend their time trying to help some animal in need.

[tammyw]

Some of my daughter's favorite stories (I read them to her years ago) were The Little Princess and Secret Garden. Still her favorites. I also recently read most of the Roald Dahl books to her and those are really fabulous.

[AAK]

How about the Mercy Watson books? My older dd loved them at 7.

Amy

[tammyw]

Mercy Watson books are definitely worth owning - they are such cute stories with beautiful illustrations and colors. *I* love those books

[MamaMonica]

The Boxcar Children are great! Anything by Cynthia Rylant is good, too.

[water]

The Spiderwick Chronicles
The Judy Blume "Fudge" series
A Series of Unfortunate Events

are three series my son just read recently.

Also the Avi books: Poppy, Poppy and Rye, Ereth's Birthday. Good stuff.

[elizawill]

we also love the boxcar children, pippi longstocking, and little house books. they should all be at your dd's reading level but still gentle in content. hth.

[lach]

Originally Posted by Geerbabe

My daughter is seven and she is loving the "Animal Ark" series right now. It's not something that I would read personally, since it isn't wonderful literature, but there is nothing wrong with her enjoying it herself.

IMO schlock is a really important developmental step when it comes to reading. That's definitely where Charlotte Mason and I disagree. Reading that type of series, which requires little comprehension (same characters, same plot devices, same resolution, none of it requiring all that much mental energy) is the best thing for building reading fluency. And you need to build fluency before you can worry about comprehension. The same step happens again when older kids transition to adult literature, and they usually delve into the world of adult books by reading really awful thrillers or romances.

I wanted to add to the list: Understood Betsy by Dorothy Canfield Fisher, Edgar Eager's magic books, and Rumer Godden's doll books.