I'm running out of ideas for dd who is reading me out of books...

[Kfamily]

What do you do with a child who reads 4-5 grade levels above her age? I just can't seem to figure out what to do sometimes...:001_smile: My younger dd (6) just finished Understood Betsy from Year 2 and The Princess and the Goblin from Year 3 of Ambleside Online. I already having her doing a crazy combo from Year 1 and 2. I think she could do most of Year 3 next year but do I want her to? And where can I find books that are appropriate for her to read? I'm so out of ideas...:confused: She started reading Mara, Daughter of the Nile until I read some thoughts here about the book (I had not read it) and read some of it myself and was glad I did. I told her I didn't want her to read that and she was fine with my decision. I'm thinking I could try Heidi with her...what do you think? She's reading Ballet Shoes right now. We read together as a family and are reading The Phantom Tollbooth right now. Here's my big question: If she's reading like this at this age, what will I do with her next year and the year after...:lol:Please advise.

Edited December 2, 2009 by Kfamily

[WTMCassandra]

:lurk5: Seriously.

 

I have been trying to help a friend generate ideas on this very subject, with an additional variable thrown in: Her precocious 6yo reader will complain that the type is too small in some books.

 

This friend is also very concerned that the content be age appropriate, even though the child is reading very far above grade level.

 

Ideas?

 

ETA: This child was recently reading a 3rd grade ABeka history text for fun.

Edited December 1, 2009 by WTMCassandra

[Dana]

I'd ask your librarian for suggestions if you have a good library. We're very lucky.

 

You can also look at book lists to get ideas.

My son (7) said he was interested in knights. I gave him Sword in the Stone to read - he finished it in a couple of weeks. I've started him on Lloyd Alexander's Prydain Chronicles. Some of it is probably a bit much, but I'm reading it as well and we are talking about any of the scary parts.

 

One idea would be any books that are on CD (from library again). My son's enjoying listening to the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy radio show while reading along in the radio scripts book.

 

At 6 he basically taught himself to read from the Calvin & Hobbes cartoons. :glare:

 

I'd think the Beverly Cleary books would be good. Paddington Bear books may also be an idea. My son enjoyed Half-Magic (Edward Eager), Roald Dahl books, and lots of nonfiction. And check with librarians.

[Kfamily]

I can so relate...dd has read the first 17 chapters of This Country of Ours and the first dozen or so chapters of Our Island Story just for fun. She walks around every night scanning our bookshelves looking for something new.:D She is not intimidated by any book. She does put down eventually some books that are really hard for her. She grew weary of dealing with all the names in Jason and the Golden Fleece. I gave her Favorite Greek Myths by Mary Pope Osborne and she took that one and finished it happily. I even took to showing her how to use pronunciation keys.

[Kfamily]

I will look into these...and yes, I think we need to get back into our library groove again. She really liked Half Magic too and we have read some of Edith Nesbit's books too. She read 5 Children and It and we read The Enchanted Castle as a family. I need to pick up some more nonfiction too. She recently decided she likes George Washington and has read all I have about him so I could look for more of these. Maybe the COFA book with Abigail Adams or another girl as a main character. She read and enjoyed George W. Carver and Elizabeth Blackwell from this series.

 

Thanks- you are getting my mind working again...

All ideas are sooo welcome!

[dhudson]

My kids are like that so I had them read Narnia, Anne of Green Gables series, Little Women and Little Men ( and the Rose books), Boxcar children - for fun and then I spend my time searching for lists of good books. I found one book called, "What Then Shall We Read" by Jan Bloom (http://www.booksbloom.com) which gave me more authors and books to look up and spend tons of time pre-reading everything!

 

It's a good problem to have.

[zaichiki]

Check out the read alouds listed in Sonlight's catalog (or online) for their core K, 1, and 2. If you wanted American History, some of the Core 3 readers and/or read alouds may be good, too.

 

Have fuN!

[Donna]

I tend to steer my dd toward the classics in literature. http://www.classical-homeschooling.org/celoop/1000.html

 

There are many, many resources for finding great books with more advanced vocabulary and good story lines. "Some of My Best Friends Are Books" comes to mind as well as books with lists of award winning books like the New York Times Best Sellers or Caldacott Award Winners. There are also many great picture books with more advanced vocabulary than many chapter books. Our librarian became an excellant resource once she truly understood what level my dd was reading.

[Laura Corin]

I have some lists on Amazon that might help. Scroll down for the ones for younger children.

 

Best wishes

 

Laura

[Amber in AUS]

Her precocious 6yo reader will complain that the type is too small in some books.

 

This friend is also very concerned that the content be age appropriate, even though the child is reading very far above grade level.

 

Ideas?

 

My glasses wearing DD has the same problem with text size. She desperately wants to read the story and can read the words but the text is small and tires her eyes so quickly. She much prefers larger print books illustrated or not. She is basically reading fluently.

 

She is loving Usbornes Greek Myths and Gods & Goddesses of Olympus she has read and memorised most of the stories. She tried to tackle The Odyssey which i have on the shelf but it was put back. I have drawn from the FIAR books, SL lists, AO, SOTW AG and classical book lists. We borrow tones of books from the library too.

[melmichigan]

You might try www.lexile.com for suggestions. You can set the age range so that you aren't getting into overly mature content, and still adjust the reading level. So you can ask for suggestions for a six year old reading at a fifth grade level as an example. It's not full proof but might help with ideas.

[The Governess]

I just started using Renaissance Learning's website to help me with this exact problem. You can do an advanced search here that lets you select a lower or middle grade interest level (content) along with a high book level (reading level). This has been perfect for dd5 who can read now at a 4th or 5th grade reading level but isn't ready for more mature themes/storylines. So I put in 4.0 to 5.5 for book level and LG for interest level along with a topic and it gives me a nice list to start from.

 

Good luck!!:D

[Kfamily]

Thanks everyone! I've taken notes for book suggestions and will be carrying it with me to the library. The search links are very helpful! Thanks!:001_smile:

[dangermom]

I just want to chime in to encourage you to go to the library. There is tons of great stuff out there, I promise. I have a daughter just like yours, only she's 9 now. I've managed to keep her in reading material so far, thanks to the library... :001_smile:

[Julie in Monterey]

Both of my girls are avid and advanced readers. It's overwhelming at first. Your children's librarian will become your best friend. Our librarian understands that we want interesting vocab and writing but not mature concepts/content.

 

Here is a list I compiled from various posts here on the hive. I have found it to a great list and spot on for what you are asking about. Enjoy the ride! The cut and pasted list is as follows;

 

CHAPTER BOOK LIST FOR YOUNG/SENSITIVE READERS

 

Series books

 

· Animal Ark by Ben M. Baglio (30+ in series)

·The Borrowers Mary Norton

·The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner (16 books)

·Chronicles of Narnia

·Dr. Doolittle

·In Grandma's Attic

·Little House on the Prairie

·Magic School Bus

·Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle, Paddington

·Janet Oke children animal stories

·Pippi Longstocking

·The Railway Children .

·The Ramona. Beverly Cleary. All of these are more challenging reads but still REALLY geared towards a young crowd.

·Wind in the Door series, some of Madeleine L'Engle

· The You Wouldn't Want to be... series, the Remarkable Children series

The Littles Series

·Catwings series by Ursula K. Leguin

·

*Authors

 

·Julie Andrews, and

·All of the Betsy-Tacy books,

·Judy Blume books.

· Beverly Cleary- (Emilys Runaway Imagination, The Ramona and Henry Huggins series

· Edward Eager

·Elizabeth Enright,

·Eleanor Estes (Pinky Pye, Ginger Pye, the Moffats series)

·Marguerite Henry

·Dick King-Smith

Mary Pope Osborne

Noel Streatfeild (Ballet Shoes, etc.),

·E.B. White books (Charlotte's Web, Trumpet of the Swan, Stuart Little),

·David Macauley,

 

Resource Nonfiction

·If your child still enjoys books written for her age (like Dr. Seuss or other books like that), don't write them off. It is often difficult with accelerated kids to remember how young they are

·Honey for a Child's Heart might help

·Illustrated Classics they have more complex language (so it's more of a challenge to read), but they're very good about editing content for young ones.

·lot of the Great Illustrated Classics books.

Picture books that AREN'T beginner readers, but that ARE for that age--Kevin Henkes,My ds just plows through the picture books section when we're in the library, although we rarely take these home. (

·Little Lord Fauntleroy (Frances Hodgson Burnett)

·Non-fiction!! My library has TONS of stuff on animals, plants, the solar system, how to build things, biographies. My ds devours these, and I'm much less worried about the content (except for the biographies--I do give those a glance). Seymour Simon is especially good for advanced readers at that age--he's got something on everything science-related.

·

· Milly-Molly-Mandy,

· Mary Poppins,

·Winnie-the-Pooh and the House at Pooh Corner...

·The Cricket in Times Square, sequel, Tucker's Countryside

· and The Wind Boy.

·The Secret Garden,

·The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame + The Willows in Winter

_ Carolyn Haywood books like "B" is for Betsy...These are simple, old-fashioned and very sweet. Ds just read B is for Betsy this weekend and he loved it. I remember my mother reading it to me when I was five or six... Ds laughed so loud we could hear him downstairs.

·"Miss Pickerell Goes to Mars."- one of a series, for 6 y/o’s

·The Teddy Robinson Storybook by Joan Robinson

·The Ordinary Princess by MM Kaye

·and our current favorite read-alouds: Happy Little Family and Schoolhouse In The Woods by Rebecca Caudill (we are very impatiently waiting for the final 2 books in the series to be reprinted) Mom to sensitive 5 yr old girl

·Tomie dePaola's 5 or 6 book autobiographical series

·The Julian/Huey/Gloria series, Ann Cameron

·The Swallows and Amazons series, Arthur Ransome

 

·Oh, "Shadrach" and other Meindert DeJong books!

·I was told "Hank the Cow Dog" books are good, but haven't had a chance to check them out myself yet

·Go to amazon and buy everything by Enid Blyton you can find. These are wonderful!

·Owls in the family

·The Good Times Travel Agency series

· Time Cat by Lloyd Alexander (he has many others, also)

·Right now he's reading the Betsy books by Carolyn Haywood. He read "B is for Betsy" last week and loved it, so my mom mailed us a box of 20+ Carolyn Haywood books including books about Betsy and books about Eddie. Ds has read three of them this week and just loves them. They're very sweet and old-fashioned, with enough humor that we hear him giggling all the way downstairs. ;o)

·As for contemporary series, "The Secrets of Droon" (three modern kids find a secret passage into another world where they help a princess and fight an evil wizard -- I know that storyline isn't okay with everybody)

·Contemporary "Dragon Slayers' Academy" (silliness abounds -- a young boy named Wiglaf and his adventures at, well, DSA)

· Mary Pope Osborne's "Tales from the Odyssey" series. (I found the first five of these at bookcloseouts.com and they were great prices -- but at a rate of two a day, they didn't seem that cheap when he was done. Yikes!) The first two series are pretty fluffy. Ds *loves* them, and I think they're harmless, but they're not exactly great literature. ;o)

·The Tales from the Odyssey books fit so well with our ancient history studies, that I think they were worth it.

·Clyde Robert Bulla has written a ton of historical fiction on a 2nd-4th grade reading level. "Squanto, Friend of the Pilgrims", "Pocahontas and the Strangers", "Shoeshine Girl", "The Secret Valley"... I haven't read all of these recently, so I can't swear they're all appropriate, but there's nothing in the ones we've read so far.

·Meindert DeJong books. Right now we're reading "Shadrach" as a read-aloud, but ds certainly could read it himself without problem. It's a wonderful story of a boy just about his age (he calls himself "a school boy" but his mother hasn't let him go yet, because he's been very ill, and he resents being treated like a baby) from a loving though perhaps a little distant, by our standards, family in the Netherlands, and his deep bond with a pet rabbit. I can't describe for you how beautiful the prose or how sweet the story of this little boy. :o) There are lots of others by De Jong as well, that I remember loving from my own childhood. We're enjoying this one so much, I'll definitely be seeking them out for ds.

· Ds is reading Harry Potter. I suppose that's a controversial choice on my part to let him.

The Flat Stanley series are just lovely. A little more gentle and old fashioned than more modern books for that age range, but clever and lots of fun. I appreciate the respectful way the family treats each other.

·Oh, Alice Dalgliesh. "The Courage of Sarah Noble", "The Bears on Hemlock Mountain"...

·The Bear's on Hemlock Mtn

·Encyclopedia Brown

· Homer Price,

·Burgess Books

 

Betty MacDonald: "Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle" + 2 to 3 more in series

American Girl books: Samantha, Felicity, Kit, Molly, Addy, Kaya, Josephina, Kirsten

 

Half Magic (and other books by Eager)

Picture book biographies by David Alder

Bobbie Kalman books: history and science topics

Indian in the Cupboard

·

Alice in Wonderland

FREDDY THE PIG by Walter R. Brooks

The Egyptian News

The Greek News

The Viking News

The Roman News

Good Time Travel Agency series by Linda Bailey

 

"Time Cat" by Lloyd Alexander

I, Freddy (I, Freddy) - Dietlof Reiche

Warrior series by Erin Hunter (fantasy about cats)

James Herriot's Treasury for Children

Tales from the Arabian Nights

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz + others

Alison Saves The Wedding (Magic Attic Club) by Catherine Connor (10+ in series and some history topics)

Cross Country with Lewis and Clark (Tall Tails #2) & Tall Tails #1 (Tall Tails) by Dona Smith

Blacky the Crow byThornton W. Burgess (any of his books, 20 + including Old Mother West Wind)

Mike Venezia - artist and composer books

Noelle of the Nutcracker - Pamela Jane

Cryptomania!: Teleporting into Greek and Latin With the Cryptokids by Edith Hope Fine

Science books by Seymour Simon, Melvin Berger

Beatrix Potter

 

Websites to help you search for books by reading level and/or topic:

http://www.bookadventure.com

http://www.renlearn.com/store/quiz_advanced.asp

 

The Great Mouse Detective and The Rescuers- both made into Disney movies that bear no resemblance to the books.

 

 

Julie in Monterey

[Ravin]

I would do the same thing my mom did...

 

Take her to the library, often, and don't restrict her reading. If small type is a problem, you can get a magnifying sheet at most any pharmacy, or look and see if there's a large print section in your library (some do have this for children, a smaller one may not).

[Kfamily]

Julie,

Thanks so much...your list is very helpful!:001_smile:

 

She has searched the shelves twice today already looking at Persuasion (:confused::001_smile:...she decided against this...she said she wanted an exciting book as explanation for looking at this one), Swallows and Amazons, Heidi (at my suggestion) and finally picked up The Little White Horse and ran off with it. She's nearly done with Ballet Shoes...so I promised a definite trip to the library tomorrow!

 

Thanks so much to all of you and your advice and suggestions! I really appreciate it.

[HeatherInWI]

My kids are like that so I had them read Narnia, Anne of Green Gables series, Little Women and Little Men ( and the Rose books), Boxcar children - for fun and then I spend my time searching for lists of good books. I found one book called, "What Then Shall We Read" by Jan Bloom (www.booksbloom.com) which gave me more authors and books to look up and spend tons of time pre-reading everything!

 

It's a good problem to have.

 

Similar here -- series books have gone over well. Also, not everything has to be at her maximum reading level. My daughter who reads Orwell and Shakespeare still enjoys the American Girl and Little House (both the classic and the newer) ones, too.

[lisabees]

Are you kidding Julie??? That list is awesome! I was about to compile a similar list, but you have done it for me. And added oh so much more! Thank you! :thumbup:

[Julie in Monterey]

Are you kidding Julie??? That list is awesome! I was about to compile a similar list, but you have done it for me. And added oh so much more! Thank you! :thumbup:

 

I *wish* I could take the credit. I only cut and pasted from the posts others have put here. I'm just "sharing the love." Pass it on next time you see this question asked.

 

Julie in Monterey

[Medieval Mom]

My son is like this, and is enjoying reading quite a bit out of various encyclopedia sets and National Geographic, James Herriot ;)

 

I collect books about books Honey for a Child's Heart, The Read-Aloud Handbook, Books Children Love, etc. Luckily for us, there is a never-ending supply of excellent books in this world:D I've been compiling HUGE lists of books for each year, knowing we'd probably never get through them all, just to have, at hand, an excellent source from which to choose our reading.

 

Look around for the Robinson Curriculum book list, too. My ds is enjoying books from it. Check out mainlesson.com, old-fashioned education, etc.

 

As much as he likes fiction, though, he really gobbles up non-fiction, poetry, etc. Your dd may enjoy branching out into different genres.

 

HTH!:)

 

BTW, isn't this a lovely situation to be in? :)

[nmoira]

We've done well with myths/folktales/legends/fairytales, series books and classics.

 

I've marked easier readers with an asterisk.

 

Generally Safe Authors: (you can pretty much go by the book descriptions)

Enid Blyton (*shudder*... but kids love it.. The Wishing Chair stories and the Faraway Tree stories especially) *

Eleanor Estes

Edward Eager *

Cornelia Funke

E. Nesbit

Astrid Lindgren (she wrote so much more than just Pippi... her Karlson books are finally back in print) *

Beverly Cleary

Roald Dahl *

Elizabeth Enright

Marguerite Henry

Eva Ibbotson

Dick King-Smith *

 

Myths/Folktales/Fairy Tales/Epics, etc.:

Lang coloured Fairy Books (The Blue Fairy Book, The Red Fairy Book, etc.)

Geraldine McCaughrean's collections and single topic books

collections by Neil Philip, Judy Sierra, John Bierhorst, Frances Carpenter, Ethel Johnston Phelps

Padraic Colum

Howard Pyle

Greek and Roman Mythology by Oh (3 volumes, graphic novels)

 

 

Series: (I've tried to pick out some series for most younger readers, YMMV)

Arabel's Raven and sequels by Joan Aiken *

The Wizard of Oz and sequels by Baum (especially The Marvellous Land of Oz and Ozma of Oz) *

A Bear Called Paddington and sequels by Bond *

The Children of Green Knowe and sequels by L.M. Boston (a bit spooky)

the Nurse Matilda stories by Christianna Brand

Freddy Goes to Florida and sequels by Brooks (there are over 20 books in the Freddy the Pig series) *

The Sister's Grimm series by Buckley (a bit spooky, but a great reward for a child well versed in mythology and fairy tales)

Molly Moon series by Byng

Mushroom Planet series by Eleanor Cameron

Fire Thief trilogy by Deary

The Spiderwick Chronicles by DiTerlizzi

Hank the Cowdog series by Erickson *

Great Brain series by Fitzgerald

Harriet the Spy and sequels by Fitzhugh

Bunnicula series by Howe *

Joanna Hurwitz's Riverside Kids (starts out with the easy reader Rip-Roaring Russell, but gets more complex as the series goes on) *

Moomintroll series by Jansson

Emily Windsnap series by Kessler

the Worst Witch series by Murphy *

The Borrowers and sequels by Norton

Swallows and Amazons and sequels by Ransome

Time Warp Trio series by Sieszka *

Lemony Snicket series (not for literal minded, sensitive kids)

Shoes series by Streatfeild (especially Circus Shoes)

 

Asterix

Tintin

 

Nonfiction:

Horrible Histories, Murderous Maths, Horrible Science, etc.

Edited December 7, 2009 by nmoira

[skaterbabs]

:lurk5:

[Jen in PA]

I have some lists on Amazon that might help. Scroll down for the ones for younger children.

 

Best wishes

 

Laura

 

My dd6 has really enjoyed Laura's lists!

[Kfamily]

Nmoira,

This is a great list! Thank you so much for sharing it.:001_smile:

 

I remembered about Laura's really great lists after I posted...I should have checked there first! All of these lists have been very helpful.

 

Thanks again:D

[PeterPan]

If she likes the COFA's, there are over 200 including the oop ones. My dd read a lot of historical fiction at that age. Wish I had put more non-fiction toward her. We tried at times, but we're still pretty imbalanced. That's definitely something I'd work on.

[spiderwoman]

Look up the lexile levels of books, put lots on hold at the library and enjoy your child's enthusiasm. http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/reading_levels.htm is a great source of help. Look up the lexile levels of books. My child enjoyed reading through an entire series of books, say all Harry Potter books or the entire series of Unfortunate Events. Then we would see the movie (s). Have you read Charlotte's Web, tried a Shakespeare play or some poetry? My children loved all sorts of myths and folk tales from all cultures. Folk tales from Russia, Turkey, China and Japan were their favorites.

Have fun and good luck!

[1happymama]

These lists and resources are great!! I'm in a similar situation with my DD. She's very interested in horses right now so we've been flying through all of the Marguerite Henry books, as well as Black Beauty and the Black Stallion series. This is so helpful! Now I have more titles to look for on our next library trip. Thank you!!

[Staceyshoe]

You might want to try getting her interested in some non-fiction. Ds hit a wall at about the 4th grade reading level (he hates books without pics or with small font). We found that the library is full of non-fiction books with lots of pictures about all kinds of topics--geography, human body, animals, etc. He LOVES them! Almost every time, he will choose a non-fiction book over a fiction one. It's absolutely amazing how much info he has learned in the past year!

[StartingOver]

Has she read the Little House Series ? I would stick to Newbery Medals for younger readers at this stage, there are tons that are ok for younger.

[SunshineMom]

:lurk5:Ladies you are all invaluable resources!