I have been wanting to buy some really good books to read to the kids at bedtime or throughout the day. Some of the books I am getting are Old Yeller, Swiss Family Robinson, and Howl's Moving Castle. Do you read your small children Chapter books? Are there any good books you can suggest?
Yes. How old are your kids? Swiss Family Robinson cn be a difficult read (been there, done that!), but I loved Old Yeller. Charlotte's Web, Black Beauty, The Secret Garden . Yes, I did start them young.Phillip was listening to Treasure Island as a preschooler, because I was reading it to my older kids. Depending on the kid, you might consider letting them color or something while you read, especially if there's a a good number of years between them! Oh, and this time of year, don't forget The Best Christmas Pageant Ever!
The Boys are 5, 4, and 2. I was hoping as a sort of chapter-or-two-before-bedtime thing. I forgot about the Princess Bride, is another I have. Charlotte's Web is a good one, and Treasure Island would be awesome!!
Ah. I'd probably wait a little while for Treasure Island. Try Winnie the Pooh. Or (not a CLASSIC, but with short chapters, if that's what you need for right now!) Hank the Cow Dog books. Also, Old Mother West Wind. This is an old classic, but you can still find it. I know Dover carries a cheap paperback edition of it! When your boys get a bit older, you'll want The Adventures of the Mad Scientists' Club. Another older book, but it is SO fun, especially for boys. The first story is about the club's youngest member coming home late for dinner and not wanting to get in trouble. So he makes up a story about a sea monster in the lake. So the club makes a sea monster out of a rowboat, hiding it in a cave or something. When guys decide to start shooting at it with elephant guns, they rig it up with a remote control.
At that age for 2 of my kids I stuck to picture books. One was able to attentively listen to chapter books around age 4, but the other two were not. There are so many great picture books out there with rich vocabulary. If you have a library available I would compare the library's resources with some literature recommended for preschool/kindergarten. Picture books can be expensive, but if you have a local library I would definitely do that. For early chapter books at that age I think Winnie the Pooh and Paddington Bear are nice. Swiss Family Robinson and Treasure Island can be a bit of a snooze-fest. Treasure Island does get better as the story goes though.
I have daughters and not sons but we read aloud as a family and even the four year old enjoys our current- Little Women. Mind you- I let her color while we read but she listens and retains it and stops me to ask questions.
Your kids are stillpretty young, so I would wait a while for Narnia, Swiss Family Robinson, or longish books like that. Try Wolf Story. It was a family favorite when my kids were young. Chapters are just the right length for bedtime story. My kids howled with laughter during certain chapters.
I never knew Hank the Cowdog books, but since I read about them here, I decided to try them with DGS age 7 -- from the library, for read-alouds at night. He's enjoying them, because Pa-pa reads them with a "southwest cowdog" accent (acquired from watching tons of old westerns as a child, I presume).
Oooh, how about the Milly-Molly-Mandy books. They are absolutely adorable, warm books about a simpler time. Don't be put off by the fact that the main character is a girl. My boys loved them at your kids' ages. And one of her friends is a boy.
I use a website called Old Fashioned Education and she has some awesome books on there as well. The best part is you can use them as e-books or print them out. That's my plan once I get a new printer.
Thanks Amethyst! I'll look those up! DixieDawn- I love that website, I've been there a few time, but I feel silly because I didn't think of that for book reccomendations!! Thanks for the reminder!!
WOW!!! I've never seen that site before!!! I noticed that some of the books are Baldwin Project books. Baldwin costs to download, but you can read them on-line for free. (If I'm wrong about this, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE correct me and tell me how to do it!!!)
No problem. I downloaded all of Andrew Lang's fairy books to my iPhone and have been reading them to ds. He's not too enthused, but I like them. lol
chapter book recommendations When my daughter was 4, I started reading the Boxcar Children mysteries, which continue to be a big hit. Each chapter offers something to keep a kid's interest, so kids don't have to wait through multiple bedtimes to hear any "action". They're also completely sanitized in the sense that I haven't encountered anything too frightening or questionable for young kids. I also read the Little House series starting at age 4 -- my daughter loved those too. Same qualities apply -- something interesting happens each chapter to hold interest.
All the books on that site I've been able to find on Archive.org which pulls from Project Gutenberg as a well as many other sites (libraries) and most I've been able to find as PDFs and Kindle books so I could read them on the Kindle or print and bind them.
