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Thursday, May 2, 2013

Book Recommendations for ages 5-8+

As you've likely noticed, blogging has taken a back seat to life this past year.  A lot has changed!  One quick update is we are expecting girl #6 in June!  Yes, another girl, and we couldn't be more thrilled!

One of the questions I get asked a lot is what books my girls have enjoyed reading and that we would recommend.  It is so hard as a parent to keep ahead of your kids once their reading takes off!  Which books and series are suitable and appropriate for their ages?  I have searched high and low for a good book recommendation site (kind of like pluggedinonline for movies, but for books), but so far I haven't found one.  If you know of one, please let me know!  It would be great to have a searchable site with some details about content, etc.

Since I haven't found something yet, I rely on word-of-mouth recommendations from friends I trust.  When picking up a new book, I also read the back, try to scan a few pages throughout the book, and then hand it over to my oldest with the qualifications of "you know what is appropriate--let me know if this book is okay". So far she has demonstrated good judgment, we've had some good conversations about topics that are starting to come up in the "tween" books, and some books we decide to skip. Then she can recommend them to the younger girls! ;-)

I have done a couple of other posts in the past with books we have read and recommend, and you can see those here and here.  I won't repeat those recommendations again here, so be sure to check out those links for other good book choices.

Since I did those last two posts awhile ago, there have been MANY more books the girls have read individually or that we have read together as read-alouds.  So it is high time for a new post! Here is a list of books and series that I have tried to group into rough age groups, but you can certainly go outside these age ranges. 

Early Readers and Short Chapter Books (ages 5-8, or as read-alouds to younger kids)

  • Amelia Bedelia Chapter books--Everyone loves Amelia Bedelia, and now there's a new series of chapter books about Amelia when she was young!  
  • Arthur Chapter books--Arthur and his friends have adventures in elementary school.  Check the content of these for what you think is appropriate for your kids' ages.  
  • Mercy Watson series--Mercy is a pig (a porcine wonder!) who has all sorts of funny adventures, and loves toast with a great deal of butter on it! 
There's more to come!  Stay tuned for more posts with longer chapter books for ages 6-9 and 8-10+!

Do you have any recommendations to share?  
I'd love to hear them!  

1 comments:

Kay said...

I'm so glad you're blogging again! From you, I learned about the book 100 Easy Lessons for Teaching Your Child to Read. I used it when my son was 4; he is now 7 and reading way above grade level. I have just started the book with my daughter who just turned 4, and I have also recommended it to all friends, 3 of whom have used it with their own children. Thanks for the Christian fiction book tips!

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