Book series the whole family will enjoy? - Page 2

[kittywitty]

It depends on your kids. Mine are advanced reading wise (9,7,5, and 2 years old), and we love:

Percy Jackson - even if you know zero mythology, it's awesome. I've learned more about Greek mythology from these books than all the mythology I've ever read on my own-and I'm a total dork for mythology of all types!

His Dark Materials

Eragon-the Inheritance Series. I got these on CD for the kids because I didn't really like them but they LOVE them.

Artemis Fowle books

T. A. Barron's books (tree of Avalon, etc.)

Anything by Cornelia Funke

[vancouverlori]

Reviving this one...

I can't believe no one has mentioned the L.M. Montgomery books!

Anne of Green Gables, Emily of New Moon, Pat of Silver Bush and all their prequels and sequels and anthologies of short stories. The first 2 Anne books, Magic for Marigold, The Story Girl and the first Pat book should be good for a 7 year old, some of the rest get a little more complicated, with more mature plotlines suiting the 9-12 age range, though we did read them sooner. When reading out loud, it's highly recommended to skim over the excessively adjective-ridden descriptive passages - they're mostly too tedious. These books make a great "next step" after the later Little House books. Montgomery's books were very influential for me and I reread them at least as frequently as I do my Austen novels.

When dd was 8, she enjoyed reading the Swiss Family Robinson, mostly on her own, despite the archaic language. Some themes come across bizarre in this day and age, but otherwise good. We still joke about the family's attitude to new animals: Look, there's a beautiful bird! Bang! Mmm, dinner.

Also Roald Dahl.

And Little Women. It's a bit moralistic and old-fashioned, but mostly still interesting.

A Little Princess - to my surprise, my DS picked this to read last year, before he turned 6, and rather enjoyed it. Also moralistic and old-fashioned, but again, a good story.

[Justmee]

Originally Posted by *Lisa*

DD just finished reading the Harry Potter series, and she LOVED that she, her dad, and I all had read it. It enabled lots of fun pretend play, and we could all talk about the books even though we read them on our own. She's now reading the Lemony Snicket series, but DH and I just can't get into it. Are there any other book series out there that will appeal to adults as well as elementary school-age kids? We read the Little House series together when DD was younger, and we all enjoyed that one.

If you liked Little House on the Prairie, have you guys read "The Great Brain" series? Love those!

[kittywitty]

You're right, Lori! Don't know how I left Roald Dahl off the list. We LOVE his books. Even my dh likes them, which is saying something.

[One_Girl]

Patricia Wrede wrote a great series with strong female characters. The first book is Dealing With Dragons.

[jake&zaxmom]

We LOVED the Bunnicula series by James Howe and Pippi Longstocking (I think there are three original chapter books and we found a wonderful book called Pippi's After-Christmas Party

[dannic]

My seven yr old loves magic treehouse books, the Chronicles of Narnia (we even have the radio theatre version on cd and I hear these daily), the great brain series (humorous!), Ralph Moody's series Little Britches, Anne of Green Gables, A Little Princess, The Secret Garden, The Swiss family Robinson, ect.
I only read aloud books that I'll enjoy too, lol.
There are some parts in the Harry Potter and Percy Jackson series that I would think were too gory, scary, whatever for under nine? ten? eleven? (Don't have one that old yet) For me, those are not books I'd introduce yet. (or preread)
Just mentioning cuz someone asked, not remarking on those who have chosen those books for their younger than 9,10,11 yr olds!
We also like Here There be Dragons. Great illustrations...again, possibly for mature readers.

[MissRubyandKen]

Artemis Fowl series

His Dark Materials series

Howl's Moving Castle (not a series, but this book was very good, humorous and well written, imo)

[AngelBee]

[TEAK's Mom]

Originally Posted by MissRubyandKen

Howl's Moving Castle (not a series, but this book was very good, humorous and well written, imo)

There are two more books that connect to Howl's Moving Castle: Castle in the Air and House of Many Ways...

We're big Diana Wynne Jones fans