Looking for children's book recommendations.

[rivka]

I know that there are some parents of early readers on my friends list (naomikritzer, wiredferret, kcobweb...) and also some librarians. And of course probably most of the people who read my LJ were early and omnivorous readers yourselves. I'm looking for some suggestions.

Alex's reading has taken off in a big way recently. (Most frequent phrase out of our mouths these days: "Put down the book and [wash your hands for dinner/brush your teeth/put your coat on/eat your lunch/etc. etc. etc.]")

She's got her own children's-easy-series books that she's tearing through independently and in a hurry: Magic Tree House, Disney Fairies, Secrets of Droon, et cetera. But she's also now capable of reading what I think of as "regular" chapter books: books which are just there to tell stories, instead of being explicitly constructed to have a limited vocabulary, simple sentence structures, and lots of repetition. For example, Toys Go Out and Toy Dance Party are current hits (and much recommended).

Here are the characteristics I'm looking for:

• Good books of reasonable literary quality, at roughly a middle-elementary reading level. Toys Go Out is rated at a fourth-grade reading level, and it seemed to be about right. Something she might need a bit of help with is fine.


• Either fiction or nonfiction is good. Alex particularly loves history.


• Content appropriate for a five- or six-year-old. This means, on the one hand, an absence of long elevated descriptive passages, and on the other hand, an absence of socially realistic depictions of child abuse, romance as a main theme, scary violence, etc.


• Not excessively focused on social conflicts between kids and the social milieu of school. Alex might read like an eight-year-old, but she is squarely five on a social level, and she just doesn't get books that focus on girls being catty to each other and school playground dynamics. Which a lot of contemporary books at this level seem to do.

Thanks for any suggestions you can give me! Books which aren't Important Children's Classics are particularly welcome, because I've already gotten a bunch of suggestions from lists that focus on that type of thing.

Edited to add an additional characteristic I'm looking for: Because Alex is a fairly new reader, I want to avoid heavy use of dialect ("Hit's an 'orse, guvnor!") and weird language use for now. We can deal with that sort of thing in read-alouds, though.

Also edited to compile a list of particularly likely suggestions:
Farley Mowatt: Owls in the Family, The Dog Who Wouldn't Be
Ransome: Swallows and Amazons
Grace Lin: Where the Mountain Meets the Moon
American Girls series
Joan Aiken: Arabel and Mortimer
Kate Di Camillo: The Tale of Despereaux
Michael Bond: Paddington Bear
Bunnicula
Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle
Encyclopedia Brown
Clyde Robert Bulla historical fiction
Astrid Lindgren: Children of Noisy Village
Mordecai Richler: Jacob Two Two

Comments

[wiredferret.livejournal.com]

The Magic Treehouse books were vastly popular.
Beverly Cleary. Baz liked the Ralph books a lot, but then he didn't identify with either Beezus or Ramona.
Encyclopedia Brown books, although the human motivations might be a bit murky.
Garth Nix's elementary series -- seventh tower? Something like that. Very adventurey without being YA. A little scary.
There are some very nice biographies pitched at that age group. I especially remember bios of Frances Marion (Swamp Fox), and Jenner, and there was one about isolating insulin... super cool.
The children's Farley Mowat books -- The Dog Who Wouldn't Be, The Boat That Wouldn't Float, Owls in the Family.
Goosebumps.

It's a little hard to remember because it was such a fast transition. We really only had like 6 months before the only limiting factor became contextual knowledge, and not reading level. Not that that isn't its own problem...

[rivka.livejournal.com]

It's a little hard to remember because it was such a fast transition. We really only had like 6 months before the only limiting factor became contextual knowledge, and not reading level. Not that that isn't its own problem...

We may soon be in the same boat. It's kind of hard to believe that in June she was painstakingly working her way through Are You My Mother and Green Eggs and Ham. I was not expecting the trajectory to be quite so steep.

Thanks for the recommendations. I bet Farley Mowatt would go over great. Were those biographies from a particular series?

And isn't Encyclopedia Brown a little... quaint? I remember those books already being old-fashioned when I was a kid, and not necessarily in the "timeless" sort of way. But I'm going off of old memories.

[kcobweb.livejournal.com]

Elena's been really into Ivy and Bean lately, by Annie Barrows. Also Clementine, by Sara Pennypacker. She's just starting into the American Girl series, and I think she really likes the history in them.

Another which she loooooooved was Grace Lin's Where the Mountain Meets the Moon - Lin did an author visit to our school this year, and E's teacher read this book aloud to her class, but E had to have her own copy and ended up reading ahead on her own. It's all based on Chinese folklore/mythology and is *very* cool.

At the library, we still have lots of kids at that age who are checking out The Boxcar Children and those books.

Amber Brown (another series) - by Paula Danziger, though those seem a bit focused on... how did you put it? the social milieu of school and the inherent conflict therein.

I eagerly await other people's suggestions.

[rivka.livejournal.com]

Ooooh. Where the Mountain Meets the Moon looks great!

Paula Danziger! Oh my gosh. Do you remember how often we read and reread her teen books when we were kids?

Has Elena read the Toys books I linked above? They are really, really clever and funny, and have more emotional depth than you might expect.

Alex also likes Judy Blume's The Pain and the Great One books, if you think Elena might like those.

[eeyorerin]

Hm. The American Girl historical fiction books say they have a reading level of third to fourth grade, and there are a lot of them focusing on girls from different historical periods. I enjoyed reading them and I think in terms of content they have what you're looking for.

[hobbitbabe.livejournal.com]

Oh, I loved those. Not having a kid-excuse when I discovered them, I read most of them sitting on the floor of a bookstore.

[txanne.livejournal.com]

I loved, and was recently reminded of, Hitty: Her First Hundred Years.

[marici.livejournal.com]

Sounds a bit early yet, but by the end of the year, bet she's ready to go horse-mad.

[chargirlgenius.livejournal.com]

When I was in first grade and reading a LOT, I started reading the Trixie Belden series. I don’t know how available it is now, though. Even though the kids were all teenagers, Trixie was only 13 and there was not much about dating or any of that.

[rivka.livejournal.com]

I read every Trixie Belden ever written!! God, I loved those books! I'm not sure, in retrospect, how they hold up under my "reasonable literary quality" stipulation. ;-)

[rhymeswithtruculent.blogspot.com (from livejournal.com)]

She would probably really enjoy Joan Aiken's series about Arabel (a young girl, probably 5 or 6) and her pet raven, Mortimer, who live in a suburb of London. They're wonderfully funny books, and though for a while they were out of print in the US, I've seen a couple of the titles in stock at B&N. And of course, your local library ought to have them.

Titles: Arabel and Mortimer; Arabel's Raven; Mortimer Says Nothing; Mortimer's Cross.

All short stories, and it doesn't really matter in which order you read them, though Arabel and Mortimer is the first, and explains Mortimer's entrance into the family.

[rivka.livejournal.com]

Oh! Those were excerpted in Cricket magazine in the mid-70s. (I read my sisters' hand-me-down copies.) I had completely forgotten about them, but I think they'd work well.

I keep reluctantly passing over Wolves of Willoughby Chase and Black Hearts in Battersea when I'm looking for our next read-aloud - I think they'd go over better in a couple of years. But oh, how I'm looking forward to her reading that whole series.

[wiredferret.livejournal.com]

Oh, and Desperaux! Because of Winn-Dixie has bigger-kid themes, but Desperaux was totally charming. We also enjoy the Mercy Watson books, all by Kate de Camillo.

[cliosfolly.livejournal.com]

Also by the Paddington Bear author, Michael Bond, are the Olga da Polga books--about a guinea pig story-teller and the other animals inhabiting her backyard. They've been enduring favorites of mine.

At seven, I encountered Little House in the Big Woods and loved it so much it became the first book I ever bought with my own money. It think it would be accessible given Alex's reading level and interests, though subsequent books deal with Native Americans in problematic ways.

[vom-marlowe.livejournal.com]

When I was about that age, I read the Black Stallion books. They're rather dated in some ways, since they were written in the 40s, and may be too complex for her now, but if she's horse mad, she might enjoy them.

Fantastic Mr. Fox is a great Roald Dahl book. It was one I made my mom read over and over while I read along.

I second the Beverly Cleary books. Those were my first chapter books. There are a few bits of playground stuff, but quite young and Ramona doesn't understand it, so for me, it was a good way to get a glimpse of how those things worked.

For non-fiction, you might take a look at some of the DK Eyewitness series. They have lots of pictures and are designed for children. The range is quite wide, from important people to time periods to topics (animals, trains, etc). Even as an adult, I turn to them for a quick overview of a topic. The clean layout and decent scholarship make them a good choice, in my librarianly opinion. Depending on the topic, they may be too hard for her, but I suspect some would not be. They're rated at 7-9 years, which sounds about what she is reading at? (If not emotionally.) My Borders has a huge selection of them. They also include discs with clip art.

[rivka.livejournal.com]

We just finished Fantastic Mr. Fox as a read-aloud! I thought I'd read all of Dahl when I was little, but I missed that one somehow. She really liked it, and you're right, she could read it herself.

We've also been working our way through all of Ramona as read-alouds. Those really are great books.

[naomikritzer]

Some that Molly enjoyed at this stage:

* The Beezus and Ramona books by Beverly Cleary
* Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing and its sequels (she's added several since I was a kid) by Judy Bloom
* The Mrs. Piggle Wiggle books
* The Great Brain series (set in Utah in the late 1800s, this is historical fiction about the unfortunately gullible younger brother of a born con man)

And a short time later:
* The Anastasia Krupnik series by Lois Lowry. (Though beware: Anastasia At This Address runs a plot that was probably purely humorous in the 1980s and reads a lot creepier now.)
* The Babysitter's Club. (My sister joked that at least she was getting this phase out of the way early.)
* Nancy Drew (actually, check for these now; there are now younger-kid versions of Nancy Drew that are mysteries written at a somewhat simpler level).

[rhymeswithtruculent.blogspot.com (from livejournal.com)]

Seconding The Great Brain recommendation. I loved those, and still love them, and have found most of them in used bookshops (after years of looking and finding nothing).

The nice thing about the series is that while the focus is always on the latest con, there's a lot of everyday historical detail that gets recorded in the stories, and I think Alex might enjoy that.

[torontoteacher.livejournal.com]

One blog which you may find helpful is The Diamond in the Window. She has daughters and reviews a lot of books. I've taken a lot of notes there.

I also wouldn't discount the picture books yet. The so called "advanced" picture book section at our library has a lot of longer books that are still keeping my Bigger Dude interested.

As for series? Anything by Kate DiCamillio (starting with Desperaux), there's a fair amount by Jane Yolen that might suit, and my kid developed an unnatural love for "Sam, Dog Detective" and Bunnicula just a few months ago.

[wiredferret.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes! ALL the Bunnicula books.

[janetmiles.livejournal.com]

I may be way out of line in terms of themes and difficulty, or even if the books are still available, but here are some books I remember liking.

The Borrowers

Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle

Winnie the Pooh, House at Pooh Corner, and two associated poetry collections ("James James / Morrison Morrison / Weatherby George Dupree / took great / care of his mother, / though he was only three. / James James said to his mother, / 'Mother,' he said, said he; / 'You must never go down / to the end of the town / if you don't go down with me.'")

Curious George, although that may have some problematic themes and be too easy

Journey for Tobiyah: The Dramatic Adventures of a Slave Boy From Ancient Israel, which I vaguely recall being something of a mystery story, although something else tells me I'm conflating it with another book whose name I cannot remember. I think I still have it on my shelf, though, so I should look at it.

Cherry Ames and Sue Barton, Trixie Belden and Nancy Drew (but probably not at age 5)

[rivka.livejournal.com]

Oh, Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle! That's been a beloved read-aloud at our house, but you're right, she can probably read it herself now and I bet she doesn't realize that.

We tried The Borrowers as a read-aloud a while back and I found it more advanced than I remembered, in terms of the language used and the context that isn't spelled out. I withdrew it for when she is older. I loved that whole series, especially the one where they're imprisoned in the attic.

[nancylebov.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure of the reading level, but The Man Whose Mother Was a Pirate by Mahy is one I'm really fond of-- yes, I know that's an adult preference, but I'm hoping one of your readers with experience with kids and books can say whether it would do.

[bunnymcfoo.livejournal.com]

I adored that book when I was in the 2nd grade, if that counts. ;)

More Books

[kyndra steinmann (from livejournal.com)]

Here are a few I liked and are in that reading level range....

Authors:

Lois Lenski: she wrote a whole series of books about children from different parts of the country. A little dated but nice illustrations and comfortable stories about different people.

Marguerite DeAngeli:mostly historical fiction Alex would probably like The Door in the Wall which is set in the Middle Ages. Good illustrations.

Clyde Robert Bulla: A little easier to read than the first two. Adventure stories some with historical settings.

Laura Ingalls Wilder: The first four books at least the rest of the series is probably too old for her.

Carolyn Haywood: 1950's ? Adventure stories. B is for Betsy is the first one.

The Childhood of Famous Americans series. Early biography, with good illustrations, decent accuracy, and a good ability to make the people real. Mostly out of print, though some have been reissued, the library may have them.

Books:

The Courage of Sarah Noble
The Cabin Faced West

I'm sure there are others trapped in my head just now...I need coffee.

Kyndra

Re: More Books

[rivka.livejournal.com]

I just put The Courage of Sarah Noble and The Cabin Faced West in her book basket this weekend. (I loved Cabin as a child.)

I read the Lois Lenski books when I was a little older. I remember liking them, but my memory is that they use a lot of dialect, which I think would be tricky for a relatively new reader. Strawberry Girl is the only one on my shelf, though, so I'd need to look at others to compare.

I read all the Betsy books when I was... four, probably. I remember them being very, very old-fashioned - isn't there one where she really wants to adopt a "colored" baby? - but I can take a look.

I keep running into recommendations for Clyde Robert Bulla, and I don't know his books at all. I will take a look, thanks.

[hobbitbabe.livejournal.com]

What happens in your family if a too-advanced book is provided/offered too early?

There are certain Classics of Childrens Literature that people threw at me when I was quite young and found the description boring, such that I avoided them forever or til I was grown up. Wind in the Willows and Little Women and Little House, for example. I kind of wonder if I might have felt differently if they had lived in Mum's bookcase until I was older.

[rivka.livejournal.com]

Too-early books get abandoned, and it's probably too early to tell whether they'll ever be picked back up. I try to be careful not to jump the gun. Wind in the Willows is definitely one that I think often gets suggested too young.

Alex has liked the Little House books, though, at least the first few. And she enjoyed The Secret Garden and A Little Princess as read-alouds, although I suspected she would be too young for them.

[morning-glory.livejournal.com]

While not reading yet, my girls adore Ursula Vernon's childrens books, Nurk and her Danny Dragonbreath books. They're cool and interesting and not too heavy, while still being rollicking fun.

[electricland.livejournal.com]

While I adore the Swallows and Amazons series, they may be a tad long and dense for a 5-year-old. I remember being given them at age 7 and not enjoying them at all (and then devouring them at age 10).

Definitely second the others on the list though!

[electricland.livejournal.com]

Oh, also, don't know if these count as children's classics you've already had recommended multiple times, but Noel Streatfeild wrote wonderful stuff. I started with Apple Bough, but most people seem to start with Ballet Shoes.

You could also try Eva Ibbotson and Hilary McKay -- they both write for a range of ages though, so do check to make sure which age range you're getting.

[singinglark.livejournal.com]

My kids loved the Roald Dahl books-at first my husband was reading them a chapter a night, but as soon as they could manage it they started grabbing the books while he was at work to see 'what happens next?'

I will ask them when they get home what other suggestions they have.

[toadnae.livejournal.com]

Maud Hart Lovelace, the Betsy-Tacy books. They start out at an easier reading level and when Betsy and Tacy are five. As they progress through their lives, the complexity of the writing level increases.

[cassandre.livejournal.com]

Ahhh nostalgia! I haven't thought of the Betsy/Tacy books for years.

[cassandre.livejournal.com]

I am going to save this list for future reference; it's great!

My 5-year-old son loves having Roald Dahl's books read to him, so I wonder whether Alex would enjoy reading them on her own? They are a little quirky/weird sometimes, but very well-written. The BFG is excellent and has a female protagonist.

Some of my favorite series when I was young (though I expect some of them will be more appropriate for Alex in a few years):

- Marguerite Henry's horse books (Misty of Chincoteague, etc)
- Sydney Taylor's All of a Kind Family series
- Marguerite de Angeli
- Frances Hodgson Burnett
- Astrid Lindgren, Pippi Longstocking (but you can't not know this one)

I also read virtually all of the Childhood of Famous Americans series. I'm sure they are now out of print, and I haven't looked at them since childhood, so they may be frightfully conservative (heaven only knows what hash they may have made of Native American history). But god, I loved them. Favorites included Juliette Low: Girl Scout; Kate Douglas Wiggin: The Little Schoolteacher; Bird Girl: Sacagawea; Pocahontas: Brave Girl; Clara Barton, Louisa Alcott, Betty Ross, etc., etc.

Jacqueline Wilson is huge among young readers in the UK but her themes may be a bit mature for a 5-year-old.

Also popular in the UK:
Kes Gray's Daisy books
Eva Ibbotson's books for younger readers (she also writes young adult fic)
Enid Blyton (often problematic from a feminist perspective, but still good fun)

[rivka.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I've never even heard of Jacqueline Wilson, Kes Gray, or Eva Ibbotson! I'll have to see what I can find.

We've been tearing through Roald Dahl as read-alouds, and they are wonderful. And All of a Kind Family! That's such a wonderful book. When I first got it for Alex as a read-aloud I sound up having to read the chapter in which they all get scarlet fever six nights in a row, at bedtime.

Frances Hodgson Burnett was one of my childhood favorites. We've done The Secret Garden and my personal fave, A Little Princess as read-alouds.

Pippi is still a bit too hard, I think. I found a recommendation for Lindgren's Children of Noisy Village, which I don't know anything about.

I think that the Childhood of Famous Americans series has probably not worn well. I need to look for a good children's bio of Clara Barton, though, because she is one of my lifelong personal heroes and she's also a good Unitarian role model.

[naomikritzer]

Another thought: the All of a Kind Family books. The first one is still in print, the rest aren't (and are insanely hard to get hold of -- WHYYYYYYY do they not bring these back into print???) These chronicle the adventures of a large Jewish family on the lower east side of NYC. I read a nostalgia review of these recently where the person noted that the author clearly set out to write a Jewish version of the Little House books, complete with endless food porn (and she's totally right, come to think of it).

And these aren't novels, but my kids ADORE them and could read them really early -- collections of Calvin & Hobbes strips.

[rivka.livejournal.com]

I really love All of a Kind Family. We've done them all as read-alouds - our library has great old hard-cover editions with a little pen-and-ink illustration on almost every page. They're wonderful. When I first brought the first book home, Alex made me read the chapter where they all get scarlet fever six nights in a row.

[carbonel]

I bet she's the right age for Eleanor Lattimore. She wrote bunches of books, a lot of them set in China, some dealing with multicultural issues.

My particular favorites were The Journey of Ching Lai, Molly in the Middle, and The Chinese Daughter.

The Carbonel books by Barbara Sleigh are back in print and might appeal.

Also at least the first of the Mushroom Planet books by Eleanor Cameron.

[cow.livejournal.com]

I wish I remembered more from that era for me. But one I'd recommend is A.A.Milne's books -- the original Winnie-the-Pooh, House at Pooh Corner, etc. They've been Disneyfied to death, but the original books are perfect for a young reader. (I read them over and over at around age 6.)

[geminigirl]

All of a Kind Family
Ballet Shoes (and the other books in the series)
The Littles
The Borrowers
Anything by Carolyn Haywood-these were my favorites when I was around Alex's age, and I remember the school librarian giving me special permission to go into the big kids section to get them.
My other favorite at around that age were the Bobbsey Twins.
Encyclopedia Brown

Cherry Ames (may be a little old for Alex because the series starts when Cherry is 18, but I don't recall anything in the content that stuck out as inappropriate.)

Trixie Belden

I read a lot of Beverly Cleary-Ramona, Henry Huggins, Ellen Tebbits...

Some Judy Blume-there's a lot that's on Alex's reading level that's not necessarily age appropriate for her, but a lot that she could probably read and enjoy.

Mrs. PiggleWiggle

The Cricket in Times Square

Mr. Poppers Penguins

Harriet the Spy (maybe-I can't remember it well enough to know whether the content is appropriate, but I know the reading level is)

I liked E.L. Konigsburg's books (From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, etc) but I think the content of most of them is too much for Alex on her own, though the stories are good-they might be read alouds so you could talk through them.

I think Scott O'Dell (Island of the Blue Dolphins) is probably similar-on the right reading level but not okay for solo reading, and possibly even too much for read alouds right now.

Also in the category of "probably on Alex's reading level but potentially not appropriate content yet"-Lois Lowry may have some books and Louis Sachar's Wayside School series might be okay.


I can't remember when I read the Cam Jansen books or the Amelia Bedelia books...those may be below Alex's reading level right now. They were fun though.

[hobbitbabe.livejournal.com]

Harriet the Spy is a great book for an independent introverted girl -- but a big part of the plot is school bullying. I also found the class issues confusing and alienating when I first read it (although of course I didn't have those words for it).

I see that Mr Popper's Penguins is going to be a movie. So if the book hasn't always been in print, I bet it will be this year!