Chapter books update.
Nov. 19th, 2008 01:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rivkaA while back, I asked for recommendations for read-aloud chapter books. Since there was a lot of interest in the topic, I figured I'd provide an update about which books have worked well for us.
So far we've tried:
The Complete Tales of Winnie the Pooh, by A.A. Milne.
I don't have to supply a plot summary for this one, right? A few of the stories went over well, but other stories are fairly pointless from a three-year-old's perspective. We never got that far into it. Principally valuable at this point because it started us off on chapter-book reading, although I'm sure she'll like it more when she's a bit older.
My Father's Dragon and The Dragons of Blueland, by Ruth Stiles Gannett.
Little boy rescues dragons from terrible predicaments, using only his ingenuity and an oddball set of supplies. These books are amazing. Really, really wonderful. Alex just completely ate them up. There is a lot of adventure, but almost nothing is actually scary. The plots move quickly. These books are charming and funny and don't show their age at all.
Little House in the Big Woods, by Laura Ingalls Wilder.
Little girl grows up in the backwoods of Wisconsin in the 1870s. We read half of this very quickly, and then stopped. Some of the chapters make for great read-alouds. Others, like, uh, the hog-butchering chapter, not so much. We've had some interesting conversations about how people used to live. I guess we might take this one to Williamsburg, even though the period is off. Alex is still very fond of Laura and Mary, but she doesn't really ask for me to read this one. She's getting Little House in the Big Woods paper dolls for Christmas.
Mr. Popper's Penguins, by Richard and Florence Atwater.
Polar-obsessed housepainter raises a family of penguins in his suburban home. We started off fine with this one, and then Alex got bored after a few chapters and we didn't continue. I had to do a lot of modification of old-fashioned language. She might like this more in a year or two. I thought it was charming.
James and the Giant Peach, by Roald Dahl.
Abused little boy rolls off for adventure inside a giant peach, accompanied by giant insects. Alex's verdict: "Really good, but a little bit scary." We gulped this book down in just a couple of days, although I confess that I skipped the very long songs that the Centipede sings. There's a lot of brisk adventure and not too much description in this book, which is good for a three-year-old. Michael thought Alex would be traumatized by James's mean aunts, but she seemed intrigued by them instead.
Ramona the Pest and Ramona the Brave, by Beverly Cleary.
A little girl lives a little girl's life. Massive, massive hits. Ramona the Brave is 190 pages long. We got it from the library on Sunday afternoon, and finished it this morning. Plus, Alex has been pretending that Ramona is her friend who comes to her parties. I wasn't sure how much she would get these stories, because they're very elementary-school-centric, but apparently Ramona's appeal is universal. Her beautiful new red boots get stuck in the mud. Another kid copies her owl picture. She's simultaneously excited and a little creeped out by Halloween. Just, you know, kid stuff. I'm loving the books, and so is Alex.
Where next? One of the children's librarians sent us home with Ursula LeGuin's Catwings. Alex is plugging for Ramona and Her Father, although I remember it being kind of sad. And I've ordered Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle from an Amazon Marketplace seller. It feels like the whole world of reading is open to us now. We're having a lot of fun.
So far we've tried:
The Complete Tales of Winnie the Pooh, by A.A. Milne.
I don't have to supply a plot summary for this one, right? A few of the stories went over well, but other stories are fairly pointless from a three-year-old's perspective. We never got that far into it. Principally valuable at this point because it started us off on chapter-book reading, although I'm sure she'll like it more when she's a bit older.
My Father's Dragon and The Dragons of Blueland, by Ruth Stiles Gannett.
Little boy rescues dragons from terrible predicaments, using only his ingenuity and an oddball set of supplies. These books are amazing. Really, really wonderful. Alex just completely ate them up. There is a lot of adventure, but almost nothing is actually scary. The plots move quickly. These books are charming and funny and don't show their age at all.
Little House in the Big Woods, by Laura Ingalls Wilder.
Little girl grows up in the backwoods of Wisconsin in the 1870s. We read half of this very quickly, and then stopped. Some of the chapters make for great read-alouds. Others, like, uh, the hog-butchering chapter, not so much. We've had some interesting conversations about how people used to live. I guess we might take this one to Williamsburg, even though the period is off. Alex is still very fond of Laura and Mary, but she doesn't really ask for me to read this one. She's getting Little House in the Big Woods paper dolls for Christmas.
Mr. Popper's Penguins, by Richard and Florence Atwater.
Polar-obsessed housepainter raises a family of penguins in his suburban home. We started off fine with this one, and then Alex got bored after a few chapters and we didn't continue. I had to do a lot of modification of old-fashioned language. She might like this more in a year or two. I thought it was charming.
James and the Giant Peach, by Roald Dahl.
Abused little boy rolls off for adventure inside a giant peach, accompanied by giant insects. Alex's verdict: "Really good, but a little bit scary." We gulped this book down in just a couple of days, although I confess that I skipped the very long songs that the Centipede sings. There's a lot of brisk adventure and not too much description in this book, which is good for a three-year-old. Michael thought Alex would be traumatized by James's mean aunts, but she seemed intrigued by them instead.
Ramona the Pest and Ramona the Brave, by Beverly Cleary.
A little girl lives a little girl's life. Massive, massive hits. Ramona the Brave is 190 pages long. We got it from the library on Sunday afternoon, and finished it this morning. Plus, Alex has been pretending that Ramona is her friend who comes to her parties. I wasn't sure how much she would get these stories, because they're very elementary-school-centric, but apparently Ramona's appeal is universal. Her beautiful new red boots get stuck in the mud. Another kid copies her owl picture. She's simultaneously excited and a little creeped out by Halloween. Just, you know, kid stuff. I'm loving the books, and so is Alex.
Where next? One of the children's librarians sent us home with Ursula LeGuin's Catwings. Alex is plugging for Ramona and Her Father, although I remember it being kind of sad. And I've ordered Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle from an Amazon Marketplace seller. It feels like the whole world of reading is open to us now. We're having a lot of fun.
