Dd is 7 and in second grade. She is a very advanced reader and despite what her PS teacher told me truly does comprehend everything she reads. She has a hard time forming her thoughts to words on paper but she can verbally answer anything and recount almost word for word everything she reads. She just started reading boxcar children and Diary of a Wimpy Kid. However she can read those very rapidly, in about a day and that's with her other stuff going on like school and playtime and being in bed by 8. Sometimes it's 2 days but still very quickly. Since she attends VA they just did testing on all the kids online with a national test and dd is at 5th-6th grade reading level and LA level. All her scores were high but those were amongst the highest. I'm looking for book suggestions at about that level that are appropriate for a 7yr old content wise. Just because she can read the words doesn't mean she needs some of the content in books or is mature enough for the content in some of the books. I'm thinking of starting Harry Potter with her and maybe the Narnia series. Any other ideas are appreciated though. Also she likes to have at least one pic per chapter but I might be able to get her to give that up. I always start new series as a read aloud so that I can see if she enjoys the story or not to be able to tell if it's too hard for her to read on her own or if she just doesn't like a book if she seems to be struggling. Also it gets her engaged past one or two pages and we both love bedtime reading together anyhow. Thanks for any help on ideas.
Charlotte's Web, Winnie-the-Pooh, Little House series. You might consider reading books to her, just for the fun of it. The Secret Garden, Anne of Green Gables, Black Beauty (which is one of the most under-rated books ever written, in my opinion!) I had the same problem with my oldest. She could read ANYTHING, but the themes of "older" books were not appropriate to her age. I would, however, reconsider Narnia, especially if you read it to her.
Some of the books I read at that age were Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, The Call of the Wild and White Fang. Not sure those would interest her, but I don't remember any themes that disturbed me (I was raised on a farm, so the wild animal conflicts were part of nature in my mind). Is she interested in non-fiction? I used to just pull out the encyclopedia and sit reading for hours when I was little. She might enjoy a change of genre from time to time.
I was also going to suggest Anne of Green Gables (one of my favorites!) and Roald Dahl (Matilda, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, etc.). If she is into science, the Horrible Science books are fun for my 9-yr old!
We are in the same boat with my DS (age 7). He has been racing through the Boxcar Children books, and we are looking into Encylopedia Brown, but it is really hard to find books for boys at that reading level that are also age appropriate.
Look for a book (library? Amazon?) called "Some of My Best Friends Are Books". It's a gifted parent guide for several different books that are above reading level, but are appropriate for various age/maturity levels. Most "classics" are usually ok. My son refuses to read HP. It scares him (about to turn 7). He likes Narnia, but even parts of that are very scary. He LOVES http://etc.usf.edu/lit2go/, though, and he has a shelf full of classics like Rutyard Kipling or Mark Twain that he's read.
For boys, find an old book called The Adventures of Mad Scientist's Club. It was written in the 60's for Boys Life Magazine (the Boy Scout magazine), and is a collection of short stories. The first story has the youngest boy coming home late for dinner, so he tells his mom it's because he saw a sea monster in the lake. Yeah, right! Of course, no one believes him, so the Mad Scientist Club builds a sea monster and starts sailing it across the lake. Then in one story, they take an old store manequin, and rig him up at the top of the statue in the park, set him iwth a speaker so he can "talk", and with jet packs so he can "fly" away. They really are funny stories, but you may have to get an interlibrary loan for them. Also Hank the Cow Dog. Might be a bit easy reading, but lots of fun for boys that age.
You can see the list of books I went through with my ds when he was reading around that level. The only thing I think might be inappropriate for a sensitive kid is Number the Stars. The list is here. Also the Scholastic Book Wizard lists books according to reading level and interest level. I find this helps if you are looking for a more difficult book for a younger reader. If the reading level is 8.0 and the interest level is 3.0 you have a much better idea that it is appropriate for a younger reader. Also, a lot of the picture books are written to be read aloud so they are at a reading level that is higher than the interest level. HTH
Echo American Girl Books, also, Dear America, The Royal Diaries (about princesses from various time periods), Lily Books (these are decidedly Christian, so if not into that, skip these), Of course the Judy Bloom Books and Beverly Cleary books that are for that age. Dick King Smith is excellent. I also like a lot of the Andrew Clements books (Frindle, A School Story, Landry News) - I'd avoid Things Not Seen until she's older, though (more mature content). The Best Christmas Pageant Ever (there's a smidge of language in this book, but it goes to the context of the story and it's not REALLY bad), Of course all the books mentioned above. OH And The Mysterious Benedict Society, 39 Clues books (although we've only read a few of them), The Series of Unfortunate Events (Lemony Snickett), Chronicles of Narnia (C.S. Lewis). Some Natalie Babbitt Books are good, but you might want to preread them. My oldest loved The Secret of The Doves when she was about 8'ish. OH, and the Doll People (can't remember the author), there's a follow up to that one called The Meanest Doll in the World. Okay....that's just what I can see from the seat I'm sitting in! LOL I could go dig..... H AH AHAAHAAAAA!!! No, dear, I do not need to clean off my bookshelves, they are my friends!!!! ETA - Agree on Number the Stars....but when you feel your child is ready, this is an EXCELLENT book....told from a child's perspective. She has another book called "The Giver". ALSO a very excellent read...but not for younger children.
Some of the Judy Bloom books wouldn't work for that age, but many of them would! Oh, the Mysterious Benedict Society is a VERY interesting book!!! We've read I think three of them. I also really like Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, but it may be better to wait until a little older!
I'd agree with your idea of starting her on the Harry Potter books. They are the best children's literature to be written in decades. While I know some get upset with the presence of witches and wizards, the series follows a centuries-old British writing tradition. As David Geddes (whose 30-minute sermons I've always respected) once pointed out: In Harry Potter, the good guys do good things, and the bad guys do bad things. This is very unlike much other writing in which bad things are dressed as good and generally accepted definitions of right and wrong are blurred. All of our children, and also my wife, have enjoyed the entire HP series. I have no doubt these books would capture your daughter's imagination. They've made avid readers of many a child. While the Narnia series is also well-written, you may want to wait another couple of years. They are not quite so easy to read.
Thanks so much. Our public library wasn't much help when I talked to them over the summer. They are a small library and can help you find things if you know what you want but for suggestions aren't very knowledgable just because they are a small library with a handful of workers and no children's/youth worker(only 1 checkout and 3 employees total). They have great books you just have to have a good idea what you are looking for to start with. In fact when we did the summer reading program they wouldn't even count a lot of books she read because they felt they were too old for her to be able to read herself and as a result dd stopped reading towards her book prize. These are some great suggestions. I think I will reread Narnia myself before reading it together as it truly has been years and years(I was a 5th grader when I read them and loved them). When she gets back from camping with grandma and we finish our book we are reading I think we will start on either Ramona or Harry Potter. I don't remember Ramona but I know my parents let me read it so it can't be too bad because they didn't allow "bad things" in their opinion to be read and were very conservative. I thought dumb was a 4 letter word until I was in 3rd or 4th grade and then I still had no idea what a real 4 letter word was. They hesitated to allow my brother to read Harry Potter because of the Wizards and magic but in the end decided after reading it that he could read it(he was about 4th grade and an advanced student who had given up on school due to not being challenged) since it was just made up fiction and the type of fantasy wasn't really much different than Narnia and they wouldn't hesitate to allow that. Harry Potter brought him back to loving reading. I have honestly never read Harry Potter or seen the movies, just bits and pieces, as it's just not a book that interested me. I've heard great things though about it from nearly everyone who reads it young and old. I am going to start reading it myself just because I always try to screen books first to make sure we don't get into something I don't want her to read or that she isn't mature enough for. I would never let her read a book that said Santa Clause or the Easter Bunny or Tooth Fairy didn't exist at this age because she fully believes and I don't want to take away that magic from her. I want to keep her innocence but expand her horizons at the same time if that makes sense. I can't wait to start looking into some of these books
Steve, are you familiar with Bryan Davis? He's a Christian fantasy author and homeschooling dad. His daughter Amanda, I guess about agae 18, has also published two books in an unfinished series. I heard him speak just a few weeks ago. Someone asked him specifically his opinion of Harry Potter. He says that he personally doesn't have trouble with the magic and wizards and all that. But what he DOES have trouble with is that the kids lie, are sneaky, etc., and ARE REWARDED FOR IT. He says in good fantasy, it's OK for people to do wrong things and mess up, but they must be held accountable for their wrong actions. It cannot be perceived that these wrong actions are acceptable, because it brought about a good consequence. Anyway, that's his opinion. (BTW, he is a very good author, if you are into fantasy!)
I agree, Jackie. I don't think the good is all good and the bad is all bad. Look at Snape... no one knows until the end whether he's good or bad.
The L'Engle series starting with A Wrinkle in Time is classic fantasy literature. The Phantom Tollbooth is also a fun read--- the copy we have includes silly pictures.
Thanks for the recommendation. I shall look into them - literally. While my wife has read all of the Harry Potter books, I've read only the first few of them. I can recall one of the characters lying to one of the "bad guys" so he could rescue a friend. This is not unlike the scenario of a Christian family, in occupied France, lying to protect a Jewish family they are harboring. In the end, it depends on the situation, right? I tried to find a transcript of David Feddes' comments, because they were well put, but that particularly talk no longer appears to be available. I hope his church didn't remove it because of flak from others, because that would be a real shame.
Not unlike Sydney Carton in A Tale of Two Cities, a book whose plot is as Christian as they come. Again, it depends on context and purpose.
