Happy Friday, readers! Today I’m excited to bring you a children’s lit edition of the newsletter. In the last year or so, our oldest kiddo (Graham, 8 years old) has gotten into chapter books. Thank goodness. Mind-numbing board books and The Cat in the Hat
A Wrinkle in Time had a big impact on me as a grade schooler. I remember it as intense and kinda scary. I am intrigued by the graphic version for the grandkids. Lots of other good suggestions I need to pursue!
I recently read A Wrinkle in Time for the first time, for myself and as a preview for my 7 year old, to see if it would be too tense or scary for him. He is pretty sensitive to tension and violence. And I thought it was great, I am hoping to read it to him soon. I've been wondering how he'd do with Percy Jackson especially since we've been learning about the Greeks in History, I should probably read one and see what I think! He and my 2yo are also into anything animal/nature so I will be seeing if those anthologies are available at our library too.
We started with Winnie the Pooh and House at Pooh Corner. I know this seems like an obvious place to start when reading longer stories to children, but I had never read them until reading them aloud to my oldest when he was 3 and we still love reading them aloud and listening to the full cast audiobook when in the car. They really are delightful. Some others that we read which have stayed in the read aloud rotation and that we often reread on Audio are: the Cricket in Times Square series by George Selden, The Mouse and the Motorcycle series, Stewart Little, Trumpet of the Swan and Charlotte's Webb. We really enjoy E.B. White.
He is now really into most of the Katherine Applegate novels and is reading to us The One and Only Ruby as his reading practice. However, at this very moment he is in his room reading a Dog Man graphic novel to himself which is decidedly not literary but he does enjoy it! :)
My kids loved the two "Wild Robot" books--I thought the writing was actually better than most adult books I read! We're also about to finish "The Eyes and the Impossible" by Dave Eggers and I can't believe how literary it is.
We love DK books, too; also Smithsonian picture books for nonfiction and Usborne for fiction. My son and a friend enjoyed Usborne’s illustrated Odyssey around 4th grade. He also enjoyed the I Survived series ... and I survived it! 😬🙄 I was such a huge Wrinkle in Time fan as a girl that I illustrated a post with a movie still on my Substack. 😂
This was very well-timed as one of my reading challenges for the year is to read a book written for children and I had no idea where to start! My recent dive into Greek myth would make Percy Jackson the perfect choice. Thanks for the tip!
When I worked with fifth graders as a literacy interventionist, I found that most kids who were struggling to read either 1) didn't read for fun AT ALL, or 2) only read graphic novels (good, but you miss out on a lot if you're a developing reader). Interestingly, some of the "bridge" books that made reading more fun were the Wayside School books, which I remember loving in elementary school, too. Just the perfect amount of strange silliness!
I'm looking into those DK anthologies, thanks!!
They're just great. :)
A Wrinkle in Time had a big impact on me as a grade schooler. I remember it as intense and kinda scary. I am intrigued by the graphic version for the grandkids. Lots of other good suggestions I need to pursue!
Yeah it gets a little dark, but the kiddos seem to enjoy it despite that. :) We're reading the others in the series, too!
I recently read A Wrinkle in Time for the first time, for myself and as a preview for my 7 year old, to see if it would be too tense or scary for him. He is pretty sensitive to tension and violence. And I thought it was great, I am hoping to read it to him soon. I've been wondering how he'd do with Percy Jackson especially since we've been learning about the Greeks in History, I should probably read one and see what I think! He and my 2yo are also into anything animal/nature so I will be seeing if those anthologies are available at our library too.
We started with Winnie the Pooh and House at Pooh Corner. I know this seems like an obvious place to start when reading longer stories to children, but I had never read them until reading them aloud to my oldest when he was 3 and we still love reading them aloud and listening to the full cast audiobook when in the car. They really are delightful. Some others that we read which have stayed in the read aloud rotation and that we often reread on Audio are: the Cricket in Times Square series by George Selden, The Mouse and the Motorcycle series, Stewart Little, Trumpet of the Swan and Charlotte's Webb. We really enjoy E.B. White.
He is now really into most of the Katherine Applegate novels and is reading to us The One and Only Ruby as his reading practice. However, at this very moment he is in his room reading a Dog Man graphic novel to himself which is decidedly not literary but he does enjoy it! :)
Thanks for all the recommendations!
Thanks for the comment, Carinn! Great recs here. :) Appreciate it.
My kids loved the two "Wild Robot" books--I thought the writing was actually better than most adult books I read! We're also about to finish "The Eyes and the Impossible" by Dave Eggers and I can't believe how literary it is.
My 7yo and husband also really enjoyed reading aloud the "Wild Robot" books. We'll have to check out "The Eyes and the Impossible" too.
We tried Wild Robot a couple years ago and it didn't land. It definitely might now though.
And I love Eggers! Don't know why I hadn't thought of his books for kids.
We love DK books, too; also Smithsonian picture books for nonfiction and Usborne for fiction. My son and a friend enjoyed Usborne’s illustrated Odyssey around 4th grade. He also enjoyed the I Survived series ... and I survived it! 😬🙄 I was such a huge Wrinkle in Time fan as a girl that I illustrated a post with a movie still on my Substack. 😂
Nice! Thanks for the recs. :)
This was very well-timed as one of my reading challenges for the year is to read a book written for children and I had no idea where to start! My recent dive into Greek myth would make Percy Jackson the perfect choice. Thanks for the tip!
Wonderful! Yeah it's a good one. :)
When I worked with fifth graders as a literacy interventionist, I found that most kids who were struggling to read either 1) didn't read for fun AT ALL, or 2) only read graphic novels (good, but you miss out on a lot if you're a developing reader). Interestingly, some of the "bridge" books that made reading more fun were the Wayside School books, which I remember loving in elementary school, too. Just the perfect amount of strange silliness!
Ordered the almanac through the local bookstore link! Thanks for the awesome suggestion. Can’t wait to snag some at the library and get started!