Novels for young children, any suggestions?

[psychic_serpent]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "Heidi Tandy" <heidit at n...> 
wrote:
> 
> On Mon, 29 Sep 2003 9:16PM -0500, ovc88guelph wrote:
> > Real-To:  "ovc88guelph" <mckosvc at b...>
> >
> > That is, any suggestions besides the obvious! I am just 
> > beginning to read chapter books to my 5 and 6 year old children. 
> > My earlier attempts (Black Beauty, Lassie Come Home, and sadly, 
> > PS) didn't hold their interest for long. I abandoned long books 
> > for about 6 months, and then tried Charlotte's Web. They loved 
> > it! I think that it was relevant to them because we live on a 
> > farm.  

I would recommend books by Dick King Smith (I think I've got that 
right), the author of "Babe" (which also has a pig-on-a-farm theme); 
his other books include a wonderful little piece about a kelpie who 
happens to live in Loch Ness. ;)  My daughter also has been reading 
the Little House books since she was in kindergarten.  The prose is 
pretty straightforward and it can open up good discussions when 
unfamiliar words are encountered (although a lot of things are 
explained in the text).

> My son just read the word 'sabertooth' in the second book of the 
> Magic Treehouse series this evening. It's a series of books with 
> short chapters and some illustrations, featuring a brother-and-
> sister pair who discover a magic treehouse and have adventures in 
> all sorts of eras and locations.
 
My kids liked the Magic Treehouse books when they were younger.  
It's probably good to read these with them now; in a few years 
they'll find them a bit patronizing.  (Parents who know about Morgan 
Le Fey from the Arthurian legends--grit your teeth when you read.)  
My daughter still loves the Junie B. Jones books for their humor, 
despite the reading level being far below where she is now.  Those 
would be about perfect for ages 5-6.

It's possible that the Phantom Tollbooth could confuse them at this 
point, or they might just sit back and enjoy it and keep having you 
read it to them as they grow older, appreciating it more and more as 
they notice things they didn't before.  My kids enjoyed it long 
before they understood much of it. And then there are Jane Langton's 
books about the Hall family, starting with The Diamond in the Window 
and including the lovely and heartbreaking (and award-winning) book 
The Fledgling.

My kids were also still interested in having picture books read to 
them at that age, such as large-format versions of some of the 
stories from Wind in the Willows, Beatrix Potter books, and 
especially The Velveteen Rabbit (I've never made it through that one 
without starting to tear up).  There are also some really fun 
children's picture books by Berkeley Breathed, a cartoonist who used 
to produce the strips Bloom County and Outland. (My personal 
favorites are Goodnight Opus, a riff on Goodnight Moon, and A Wish 
for Wings that Work.)

Oh, and had you tried them on Peter Pan or Winnie the Pooh?  (Pooh 
is just perfect for 5-6 year olds--the real books, not the Disney-
fied ones.)   

Happy reading!

--Barb

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Psychic_Serpent
http://www.schnoogle.com/authorLinks/Barb