My daughter is almost 5 and is interested in having longer books read to her at night. We just finished "Trumpet of the Swan", and are starting "Charlotte's Web", but with the exception of Stuart Little and the Little House on the Prairie series I'm at a loss.....especially because I think some chapters in Trumpet of the Swan were a little too long at times.
Suggestions for chapter books (ideally with some pictures) welcome!!
Subbing! I need more bedtime books, especially for my newly 6 year old son--but most of these do seem too advanced, have so far been on picture books and Curious George...he is stll quite a long ways away from reading.....
I second 'The Children of Noisy Village' - a huge favorite here! My four-year-old is loving 'Mr. Popper's Penguins', too. Have you read the Brambly Hedge collection? Somewhere between picture and chapter books, but SO well-loved in our house. Enjoy this new stage! Such fun.
I love books like Pooh because they are written for adults, too. Books like Berenstain bears and Dr. Seuss drive me nuts.
Not a chapter book, but nice and small if you are lying beside a small child in bed are the Beatrix Potter books. Some are better than others for 5 year olds and they are charming. Good vocabulary, too, and no "filler." Just straight story.
Rutabaga Stories 1 and 2 are fanciful and fun to read. Mary Poppins. Raggedy Ann. Kids love the magic. Wizard of Oz is too scary for 5 I think. Uncle Wiggly (which was serialized in the newspaper when I was a child.). They are totally dumb but full of lovable characters. Any danger is quickly averted (in 2 sentences) so no stress, a good thing at bedtime.
Rudyard Kipling's Just So Stories are wonderful. Raold Dahl is great but might be too scary for a 5 year old at bedtime.
The Borrowers, about tiny people who live in the walls. A Treasury of Curious George has 8 stories.
My little 5 year old loves the "Daisy Dawson" series, "Amelia Bedelia" books, "Judy Moody" books, "Clementine" books, "Anna Hibiscus", the books from the Our Generation girls at Target, and "Nancy Clancy" or "Fancy Nancy" books.
My daughter is 5 and loves reading and being read to. We did the Little House books. Right now we are reading The Secret Garden. A huge favorite at our place is The Little House in the Fairy Wood which you can get for free on Kindle if you have a device that does ebooks. It is the perfect bedtime book and so beautifully written!
My 5-year-old and I take turns reading the Magictreehouse series and the Junie B. Jones series. Those are both about 10 chapters that are short and have a few pictures. She loves the Narnia books and Harry Potter, too.
My four year old and I really enjoyed the Disney Fairies chapter books. I recommend Return to the Hundred Acre Wood by Benedictus. Great for both Milne fans and those who find him too wordy. We also liked Kenny and the Dragon and Tale of Despereaux. We couldn't get into Ramona. We homeschool so the books that are set at school like Junie B are a bit hard to relate to. Toys Go Out was also great. I can't wait to check out some of these other recommendations!
Here are some of my favourites for read-aloud chapter books:
By Astrid Lindgren: Pippi Longstocking, Pippi Goes On Board, Pippi in the South Seas, Pippi on the Run, The World's Best Karlson, Karlson on the Roof, Karlson Flies Again Emil and the Great Escape, The Children of Noisy Village, Happy Times in Noisy Village, Lotta on Troublemaker Street, and more…
Betsy-Tacy Books by Maud Hart Lovelace
The Finn Family Moomintroll books by Tove Jansson
Tumtum and Nutmeg books (there are a lot of them!) by Emily Bearn
The Wonderful Adventures of Nils by Selma Lagerlof
The Wind Boy by Ethyl Cook Eliot
Half Magic, Magic by the Lake, Seven Day Magic and more by Edward Eager
We started on Beverly Clearly with Ralph S. Mouse, but only read the first book before moving onto Ramona. My daughter adores her, and we're nearly finished "Ramona the Pest" (second book). The issue with chapter length appears to have been limited to EB White because we read at least one chapter a night (but usually two, and as many as four with her prompting). I'm so excited to start in on some of the others that have been suggested; especially those that I haven't read myself!
See you later, Berenstain Bears....you are dead to me.
Glad you found some books you both enjoy! We haven't read Ramona yet, but it's on our list. The Roald Dahl books I mentioned in my previous post seem to be for older kids.. we will try again in a year or so. I do remember them fondly
BIG WARNING about "The Children of Noisy Village!" This may have ruined Santa Claus for my friend's kindergartener. She's an advanced reader so it couldn't be edited. The characters don't believe in Santa and this raised uncomfortable questions. It's a delightful book otherwise, and I love Astrid Lindgren in general.
I think a great starter book of hers, a lesser known one, is "Mio My Son." The language is more accessible for a 5 year old, and it's a wonderful take on the classic hero-and-companion adventure story. If you love lord of the rings but it's far too early to break out "The Hobbit," try this one.
BIG WARNING about "The Children of Noisy Village!" This may have ruined Santa Claus for my friend's kindergartener. She's an advanced reader so it couldn't be edited. The characters don't believe in Santa and this raised uncomfortable questions. It's a delightful book otherwise, and I love Astrid Lindgren in general.
I think a great starter book of hers, a lesser known one, is "Mio My Son." The language is more accessible for a 5 year old, and it's a wonderful take on the classic hero-and-companion adventure story. If you love lord of the rings but it's far too early to break out "The Hobbit," try this one.
Yes, "Mio My Son" is a great choice for kids who like books with some danger and excitement. Some 5 year olds might find it too scary, but my kids were fine with books like that at that age. Ronia the Robber's Daughter and The Brothers Lionheart are great, too and would be fine for some (but not all) 5 year olds.
I'm going to put in another vote for the Magic Tree House series - what I love about them is they have both a boy and a girl hero who work together as equals. There is lots of magic, adventure, and true historic information and really well written stories.
I find so many kids books now are marketed and written directly to try to appeal to either girls or boys, but not both, which drives me nuts! The Fairy series was ok but really formulaic and boring after a few books, my daughter found, although they do seem to appeal a lot to 5 year old girls just starting to read- there aren't enough pictures imo but some.
My kids are really sensitive to books that are either too emotional or too scary, so we are saving Charlotte's Web and the Narnia series for when they are a little older.
My 8 year old daughter can't get enough of the Thea Stilton and Geronimo Stilton books, lots of adventure, good role models both male and female, not too scary and really good factual info included as well.
My parents read me the Chronicles of Narnia and all of J.R.R Tolkien's books when I was little. I started reading them on my own when I was 7. I didn't understand everything, that's for sure, but I do have warm, fuzzy memories of those books, and it made me want reread them as an older child and adult. What about fairytales from around the world? Are the Andrew Lang Fairy books still around? I loved those as a child.
We started on Beverly Clearly with Ralph S. Mouse, but only read the first book before moving onto Ramona. My daughter adores her, and we're nearly finished "Ramona the Pest" (second book). The issue with chapter length appears to have been limited to EB White because we read at least one chapter a night (but usually two, and as many as four with her prompting). I'm so excited to start in on some of the others that have been suggested; especially those that I haven't read myself!
See you later, Berenstain Bears....you are dead to me.
If she likes Ramona, try Ivy & Bean, and Clementine and maybe Judy Moody. My dd2 loved Ivy & Bean when she was Kindy aged. She also loved Junie B Jones, but Mama did not so the deal was she could read those to herself or listen to the audio books by herself.
So many good books already listed! Some that I didn't see mentioned already that my 4 and 6 year old daughters love:
The complete series of Anna Hibiscus chapter books by Atinuke (Also by the same author, The Number One Car Spotter books) These are fabulous books set in Africa, about a little girl who has a Canadian mother and an African father. Super good stories that besides being interesting and fun, also teach about African culture.
Twig by Elizabeth Orton Jones We've read it multiple times already!
Milly Molly Mandy by Joyce Brisley
The Chronicles of Narnia
James Herriot's Treasury for Children
Thimble Summer by Elizabeth Enright
Babe The Gallant Pig by Dick King Smith (we read this one shortly after reading Charlotte's Web, as they wanted another good 'pig book')
Some of these we did books on CD for long car trips too Grandma and Grandpa's... the kids were captivated!
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