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Can we share fun/easyish chapter books for fluent, but challenged reader?


Alicia64
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Ds is 8 and in third grade. He can read chapter books, but it's slow going. He needs practice.

 

The thing is that I LOVE to read aloud to him and his brother. So I don't want to give him books that are so awesome I know we'll want to share as a family.

 

So. . . any ideas?

 

TIA,

 

Alley

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Owls in the Family

:iagree:Just popped in here to mention this because I read this as a kid and am now rereading it with my kids. Might be tough going, but it's so irresistably boyish...! And the opposite of the babyish kind of "remedial" reading material you want to avoid with challenged readers.

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I love the "Mr Putter and Tabby" series by Cynthia Rylant. They are like chapter books with training wheels. There are small illustrations sprinkled on each page. The print is larger with more white space than most chapter books which alleviates any developmental eye tracking stress. They are less dense than average chapter books but much more substantial than easy readers. It might help him build up reading stamina. I love them, but they might be too easy for your son. I wish I could find more transitional choices. Chapter books feel like such a leap in skill level.

 

Lori

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Ds is 8 and in third grade. He can read chapter books, but it's slow going. He needs practice.

 

The thing is that I LOVE to read aloud to him and his brother. So I don't want to give him books that are so awesome I know we'll want to share as a family.

 

So. . . any ideas?

 

TIA,

 

Alley

 

Magic Tree House (I know the objections to the sometimes simplistic writing, but it was a lot of text that #3 son gobbled up.)

The Mouse and the Motorcycle

The Lighthouse Keeper (these are British books and aren't widely available, but they are good)

Tim books by Ardizzone (good pictures, lots of text)

TinTin by Herges (lots of text here too)

Billy and Blaze by C. W. Anderson (six have been republished in paperback versions)

Homer Price

 

When my son was not quite ready for long chapter books, we read LOTS of Frog and Toad, Mouse Tales, Uncle Elephant, pretty much all the Lobel books we could get our hands on. He also liked Commander Toad and Mr. Putter and Tabby.

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A current 'easier' chapter book series that DS is loving right now is Nate the Great - and like a PP mentioned, almost any of the Lobel books (Frog & Toad, etc). We've also moved on to Magic Treehouse, etc but DS only wants to read one chapter and then he's done...so for now, to build up, I am keeping it simpler with letting him get the 'easy' chapter books and building stamina...

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My son just read The Trouble With Chickens by Doreen Cronin aloud (over many days) and we all loved it. Sometimes after he read a chapter I would read one or two aloud (at his request) so we could hear more of the story.

 

My dd is reading Grin and Bear It, about a wanna-be comedian bear.

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Geronimo Stilton?

:iagree:

DS 8 loves this series. They're funny, and have plenty of play on words and bits of real info in them. They even have occasional words written in cursive which he loves (he doesn't use cursive yet). I Know he would recommend them to your son because he tells everyone who will listen about them.:lol:

Edited by fairy4tmama
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My ds8 is in the same place. He has read a lot of the Magic Treehouse series, but really won't push himself past that on his own. He can read well, it just isn't what he finds joy in yet. To stretch him a little and build his stamina, we have read Stuart Little and Charlotte's Web by E.B. White. We read it piggyback style so he doesn't get totally burned out, but I try to get him to read some of the longer chapters and I read the shorter ones. This method has gotten him to read stuff he wouldn't have picked up otherwise and hopefully he will start reading longer books on his own. This is a great thread. I have made a list of some other books to get at the library for him.

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DD8 has finally moved up to a similar place. And she rejects things like Nate the Great as too babyish. She will still read Mercy Watson books which she has loved from the first- when I had to read them aloud to her. So far she's started a lot of chapter books and dropped them after a few chapters, including Magic Treehouse, Geronimo Stilton and others (more girly). We've talked about sticking with it but so far she's only finished one chapter book :

 

Cool Zone with The Pain and The Great One by Judy Blume. It is ar 2.8 - which I think it helped because it's easier - and is part of a series, about a brother and sister. There's also a picture book called The Pain and The Great One.

 

Another easy series is Down Girl & Sit -I haven't actually read any of these but they always catch my eye at the library.

 

Shorter chapter books that I like but DD hasn't been interested in (hopefully YET because these are all a little harder):

Roald Dahl The Enormous Crocodile, The Giraffe, The Pelly and Me (and some others?)

Catwings series

The Lighthouse Family by Cynthia Rylant

Sarah, Plain and Tall series

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The Great Classics Illustrated series

The Robinson Crusoe Reader (Cowles)

Thornton Burgess nature series

Magic School Bus chapter book series -- science

True Tales chapter book series -- non-fiction science/animals

 

 

REAL LIFE

 

2nd/3rd grade reading level

- Billy and Blaze series (Anderson)

- Light at Tern Rock (Sauer)

- Follow My Leader (Garfield)

 

3rd grade reading level

- Henry Huggins (series) (McCleary)

- Understood Betsy (Fisher)

- B is for Betsy (Haywood)

- Betsy and Tacy series (Lovelace)

- The Moffats series (Estes)

- Grandma's Attic series (Richardson)

- The Hundred Dresses (Estes)

- House on Rocky Ridge (Macbride) -- series following Laura Ingalls Wilder's descendants

 

3rd-4th grade reading level

- The Toothpaste Millionaire (Merrill)

- Mountain Born (Yates)

- Plain Girl (Sorensen)

 

 

DETECTIVE

 

2nd grade reading level

- Nate the Great series (Sharmat)

- Ant Eater series (Cushman)

- Inspector Hopper (Cushman)

- Dinosaur Detective series

 

2nd/3rd grade reading level

- Jigsaw Jones series (Prellar)

- A to Z mystery series (Roy)

- Cam Jansen series (Adler)

- Third Grade Detective series (Stanley)

 

3rd grade reading level

- Boxcar Children series (Warner)

- Einstein Anderson series (Simon)

- High Rise Private Eyes series (Rylant)

- Invisible Inc. series (Levy)

 

 

ANIMALS (real)

 

2nd grade reading level

- Billy and Blaze series (Anderson)

- Buddy, the First Seeing Eye Dog (Moore)

- Barry, the Bravest St. Bernard (Hall)

- The Bravest Dog Ever: The True Story of Balto (Standiford)

- Balto and the Great Race (Kimmel)

- Five True Dog Stories (Davidson)

- Seven True Horse Stories (Davidson)

- Nine True Dolphin Stories (Davidson)

 

 

2nd/3rd grade reading level

- Animals Do The Strangest Things (Hornblow)

- Birds Do The Strangest Things (Hornblow)

- Insects Do The Strangest Things (Hornblow

- Fish Do The Strangest Things (Hornblow)

- Reptiles Do The Strangest Things (Hornblow)

- Jumbo: World's Biggest Elephant (Worth)

 

3rd grade reading level

- The Bears on Hemlock Mountain (Dalgliesh)

- Christian Liberty Nature Readers

- Dolphin Adventure; Dolphin Treasure; Dolphins and Me (Grover)

- Follow My Leader (Garfield)

- Horse Heroes (Petty)

- Man O'War: The Best Racehorse Ever (Mckerly)

- Horse Named Seabiscuit (Duvowski)

 

 

ANIMALS (talking)

 

2nd/3rd grade reading level

- Catwings (series) (LeGuin)

 

3rd grade reading level

- My Father's Dragon (Gannett)

- Mr. Popper's Penguins (Atwater)

- The Cricket in Times Square (Selden)

- Chester Cricket series (Selden)

 

3rd/4th grade reading level

- Charlotte's Web (White)

- Trumpet of the Swan (White)

- The Mouse and the Motorcycle (McCleary)

 

 

 

FANTASY

 

2nd grade reading level

- Magic Tree House (series) (Osborne)

- Toots and the Upside Down House; Toots Underground (Hughes)

- Moongobble and Me (series) (Coville)

- Dragonslayer Academy (series) (McMullan)

- The Littles series (Peterson)

- Catwings series (LeGuin)

 

3rd grade reading level

- Magic Rainbow Fairy (series) (Meadows)

- Flower Fairies Friends (series) (Barker)

- Fairy Realm (series) (Rodda)

- The Unicorn's Secret (series) (Duey)

- The Borrowers (series) (Norton)

- My Father's Dragon (and sequels) (Gannett)

- Charlie & the Chocolate Factory; Great Glass Elevator (Dahl)

- Pippi Longstockings; Pippi in the South Seas (Astrid)

 

 

MYTH / FAIRYTALE

 

2nd/3rd grade reading level

- The Blind Men and the Elephant (Backstein/Mitra)

- Sim-Chung and the River Dragon (Schecter)

- The Warrior Maiden (Schecter)

- A Grain of Rice (Pittman)

 

3rd grade reading level

- Tales of Robin Hood (Claybourne)

- Aladdin (Mistry)

 

3rd/4th grade reading level

- Mermaid Tales from Around the World (Osborne)

- Beauty and the Beast (Osborne)

- Tenggren's Golden Tales from the Arabian Nights (Tenggren)

- Tales from the Ballet (Barber)

- The Tall Book of Christmas (Smith)

- Jan Brett's Christmas Treasury (Brett)

- The World's Best Fairy Tales (Sideman) -- a Reader's Digest Anthology

 

 

FUN TALL TALE

 

2nd grade reading level

- Fly on the Ceiling (Glass)

- Ben Franklin and the Magic Squares (Murphy/Walz)

- Commander Toad series (Degen)

 

2nd/3rd grade reading level

- Flat Stanley series

- The Bears on Hemlock Mountain (Dalgliesh)

- The Whipping Boy (Fleischman)

- McBroom's Wonderful One-Acre Far (Fleischman)

- riddle series by Eisenberg and Hall (ex: Ribbit Riddles, Bunny Riddles, Puppy Riddles, Creepy Riddles, etc.)

 

3rd grade reading level

- Pippi Longstockings; Pippi in the South Seas (Astrid)

- Miss Pickerell (series) (MacGregor)

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HISTORY ADVENTURE

 

2nd/3rd grade reading level

- Viking Adventure (Bulla)

- The Sword in the Tree (Bulla) -- Medieval England

- The Minstrel in the Tower (Skurzynski) -- Medieval England

- A Lion to Guard Us (Bulla) -- Colonial US

- Phoebe the Spy (Griffin) --American Revolution - true story

- The Secret Valley (Bulla) -- Gold Rush/pioneers

- Riding the Pony Express (Bulla) -- Pony Express, 1861

- Wagon Wheels (Brenner) -- true story of a black pioneer family

- The Josefina Story Quilt (Coerr) -- true story of a wagon train

 

3rd grade reading level

- Robin Hood: Tale of the Great Outlaw Hero (Bull)

- Robinson Crusoe Reader (Cowles) -- adaptation of the classic story

- Marco Polo (Graves)

- The Courage of Sarah Noble (Dalgliesh) -- Colonial US

- Toliver's Secret (Brady) -- Revolutionary War girl disguised as a boy to get a message thru

- Sarah Plain and Tall; Skylark; Caleb's Story (MacLachlan) -- US - pioneer times

- Hannah (Whelan) -- blind pioneer girl

- Silver (Whelan) -- daughter of an Alaskan "musher" gets a sled dog puppy

- Pioneer Cat (Hooks) -- pioneer girl and her cat travel west in a wagon train

- The Little Riders (Shemin) -- WWII occupied Europe

- Clouds of Terror (Welch) -- 1870s US prairie grasshopper plagues

- The Copper Lady (Ross) -- building of the Statue of Liberty

- Dust for Dinner (Turner) -- Dust Bowl/Depresssion

 

3rd/4th grade reading level

- The Kite Fighters (Park) -- 1400s Korea

- The Cabin Faced West (Fritz) -- pioneer times US

- Twenty and Ten (Bishop) -- WWII French children hide Jewish children

 

 

BIOGRAPHY

 

2nd/3rd grade reading level

- Keep the Lights Burning, Abbie (Roop)

- The Story of Thomas Alva Edison (Davidson)

- Helen Keller (Davidson)

- Helen Keller's Teacher (Davidson)

- Helen Keller: Courage in the Dark (Hurwitz)

- Louis Braille (Davidson)

- Little Sure Shot: Annie Oakley (Spinner)

- Phoebe the Spy (Griffin)

 

3rd grade reading level

- Brendan the Navigator (Fritz)

- The Wright Brothers (Reynolds)

- Robin Hood: Tale of the Great Outlaw Hero (Bull)

- Joan of Arc (Corey)

- Eric the Red and Leif the Lucky

- Christopher Columbus (Krensky)

- Johnny Appleseed: My Story (Harrison)

- George Washington's Mother (Fritz)

- Robert Fulton, Boy Craftsman (Henry)

- Dinosaur Hunter (Alphin)

- The Great Houdini: World Famous Magician (Kulling)

- The Girl Who Struck Out Babe Ruth (Patrick)

- Flying Ace: Story of Amelia Earhart (Bull)

- Vanished! Mysterious Disappearance of Amelia Earhart (Kulling)

- Great Black Heroes: Five Brilliant Scientists (Jones/Garnet)

- Great Black Heroes: Five Notable Inventors (Hudson/Garnet)

 

3rd-4th grade reading level

- Escape North! Story of Harriet Tubman (Kulling)

- Eat My Dust! Henry Ford's First Race (Kulling)

- The Daring Escape of Ellen Craft (Moore)

- The Great Houdini: World Famous Magician & Escape Artist (Kulling)

- The Secret Soldier: The Story Of Deborah Sampson (McGovern)

- The Daring Escape of Ellen Craft (Moore)

- Can't You Make Them Behave, King George? (Fritz)

- What's the Big Idea, Ben Franklin? (Fritz)

- And Then What Happened, Paul Revere? (Fritz)

- Paul Revere's Ride (Corey)

- Sybil Ludington's Midnight Ride (Amstel)

 

 

HISTORY -- WORLD

 

2nd grade reading level

- Gargoyles (Dussling)

- Minstrel in the Tower (Skurzynski)

- Keep the Lights Burning, Abbie (Roop)

- Fly on the Ceiling (Glass) -- very fun!

- Titanic: Lost and Found (Donnelly)

- Tut's Mummy: Lost and Found (Donnelly)

- The Titanic: Lost and Found (Donnelly)

 

3rd grade reading level

- The Trojan Horse: How the Greeks Won the War (Little)

- The Trojan Horse: The World's Greatest Adventure (Davies)

- The Arrow and the Apple (Buff)

- Days of the Knights: A Tale of Castles and Battles (Maynard)

- Pirates: Raiders of the High Seas (Maynard)

- Spies! (Pratt)

 

 

SCIENCE

- Magic School Bus series

- Usborne science titles

- Let's Read and Find Out About Science series

- science books by Gail Gibbon

 

2nd grade reading level

- Greg's Microscope (Selsam)

- Hill of Fire (Lewis)

- Pompeii… Buried Alive! (Davis)

 

2nd-3rd grade reading level

- Race Into Space (Arnold)

- Dinosaur Hunter (Alphin)

- Giant Squid: Mystery of the Deep (Dussling)

- Tentacles! Tales of the Giant Squid (Redmond)

 

3rd grade reading level

- Race Into Space (Arnold)

- Moonwalk (Donnelly)

- Ice Mummy: Discovery of a 3,000 year old Man (Dubowski)

- Civil War Sub: Mystery of the Hunley (Jerome)

- USS Monitor: Iron Warship That Changed the World (Thompson)

- Finding the Titanic (Ballard)

- Mountain Climbing: Scaling the World's Highest Peaks (Martin)

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