In my last post, I wrote about some of the new chapter books in Some New and Noteworthy Chapter Books and I wrote about some of my favorite chapter books in my post, Children’s Books for Christmas: Chapter Books.  Those books are usually written on the third grade level and higher. But what about the kids who are not quite ready for these, but are eager to feel the pride in reading chapter books? That is when I would lead them to the colorful displays of the early chapter books in the library. The displays made it easy for the kids to choose their own book, once they were familiar with the series.

And about this time of year, those displays contained very few early chapter books, because the kindergarten and first graders had discovered them. So many times, those beginning readers would come in and ask for a book with chapters. They might still be reading on the first grade level, but they wanted to have the thrill of moving on to reading chapter books. This meant the books needed to have a table of contents containing a list of the chapters and the page numbers. The book might have only three chapters, but that didn’t matter, because it was a chapter book!

Then the next step would be finding that series that would draw them in and make them eager to read another one. My assistant and I would spend what seemed like endless hours working with all of our kids to help them find the perfect book, because we knew if we could hook them on a series, most likely we would create a real book lover.

Recently, I saw a blog post about early chapter books that I was very much in agreement with. Sarah Mackensie wrote about early chapter books on her blog, Amongst Lovely Things, titled Series Books that Will Turn Your Struggling Reader into a Voracious Reader. I was very excited to read her thoughts, because her ideas and methods were so similar to what we tried to do in our elementary library. In addition, Sarah has excellent step by step instructions to help make your child into a reader who is eager to read every book in a series! She also includes a list of many chapter books that will entice your child. When I saw this post, I was already planning to write about early chapter books, so I was excited to read Sarah’s ideas and wanted to share her post with you. I would encourage you to give her ideas a try, if the child in your life needs a little extra support and guidance to make them into a lifelong reader.

cynthia rylant early chapter books

Once the kids began chapter books they had many favorites. And I was constantly searching for new series, to make sure they could find a perfect book when they were ready to move on to a new one. To introduce early chapter books, I would read the first few chapters of some early chapter books during my weekly storytimes with the kindergarten and first grade classes. I always started with Cynthia Rylant’s Henry and Mudge and High Rise Private Eyes series.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When the kids wanted to try another series (or all of Henry and Mudge and High Rise Private Eyes are checked out), I would suggest another series by Cynthia Rylant, Mr. Putter and Tabby.  

These are all well loved early chapter books that give the kids a real sense of accomplishment.

national geographic readers

For the children who would rather read a nonfiction book, National Geographic Readers are a great choice. They range from second grade through fourth grade reading level, Lexile 220 – 650, AR 1.9 – 4.2. Due to this wide range of levels, you might want to check on each book on the Lexile site and the AR BookFinder site to find the right book for your child.

Katie Woo and Max and Zoe

Two extremely popular early chapter book series for the kids, once they are ready to move on from the Cynthia Rylant books are Max and Zoe, and Katie Woo. Katie is a sassy, spunky, curious and funny Chinese American girl who is great at getting into trouble. The character was inspired by the great niece of the author, Fran Manushkin. Max and Zoe feature Max and his best friend Zoe as they explore different places and meet new people. 

BILLIE B. BROWN and HEY JACK by sally rippin

Billie B. Brown is a girl and her best friend Jack lives next door. The Billie B. early chapter book series describes her quirky adventures from her point of view. Hey Jack gives her next door neighbor a chance to be heard. At first it was hard to convince our early readers that they should read both series, even though there might be a girl or a boy on the cover (horrors!), but once we convinced them to give it a try, they loved both series.

star wars and lego chapter books

 

Finally, two more favorites are the Star Wars and the Lego early chapter books. These books were loved by kindergarteners through third or fourth grade, no matter their reading level. In fact, one little guy would come in almost every day and want a new Star Wars books. I tried to convince him to try something else, and sometimes I would succeed, but often he was adamant that he wanted a Star Wars book. He told me that he and his dad would read them together and read them over and over. I soon realized that the books might be above his reading level, but they were providing some special family time. Since the new Star Wars movie was released in December, I would guess these are even more popular now!

Finally, for Lego lovers, there is a series of Lego early chapter books. They range from first grade through fifth grade reading level. These books describe adventures of lots of different characters and include many about Star Wars, making them extra popular!

This is just a short list of some of my favorite early chapter books. There are so many more! Look for a list of these books to be added to my website within the next few weeks. I’ll let you know when that happens! And please remember, that although the links from the book titles direct you to Amazon, most of these books can be found in your public library.

Which early chapter books series are your favorites? Please let me know in the comments below!

 

Before I began to write this blog, I followed several people who blogged about adult books and their lives. My two favorites, by far, are Modern Mrs. Darcy and Emily P. Freeman’s blog, Chatting at the Sky. This past Friday, I received an update from Chatting at the Sky, titled “Let’s Share What We Learned in January”. I’m sure I’ll be reading a similar post from Modern Mrs. Darcy in the next few days. I love this practice, because it encourages you to look back and appreciate your experiences. In September, I started keeping lists of what I learned each month. It’s amazing how many things one learns, large and small, each month. This got me to thinking about all the new books from 2015. In an average year over 5000 children’s books are published. That number is always amazing to me! So I decided to put a little bit of a twist on “What I Learned this Month” and change it to “New Chapter Books I have learned about in 2015”.

When I was a school librarian, I always kept up with the new books by reading many reviews from so many sources. I received weekly emails notifying me about what was coming. I was able to keep up to date with my favorite authors and my favorite genres which enabled me to keep the library collection current. Unfortunately, when I lost my school email address I lost touch with those organizations Luckily, now I am renewing my contacts with many sources, and as I do that I am discovering some new kids’ chapter books that I missed. So I decided to share these with you. I hope you might find some special books to share with your child or your class.

Chris Grabenstein chapter books

We’ll start with the chapter book, Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library. This is a great adventure that reminds me of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory with Mr. Lemoncello, the most creative and notorious game maker in the world, being very similar to Willy Wonka. The characters are led on a wild and crazy game while they are locked in the amazing, state of the art library. Happily, the author, Chris Grabenstein has published two more books, which are equally fascinating, The Island of Dr. Libris and Mr. Lemoncello’s Library Olympics.

Wendy Mass Chapter books

Wendy Mass has been one of my favorite authors for many years. Her books all contain a surprising twist with a little magic and wonder mixed in! They appeal to both boys and girls. My favorite of all is probably Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life. Jeremy and his best friend spend the summer before his 13th birthday searching for the key to a mysterious wooden box which is said to contain the meaning of life. 

I was delighted when I was looking at my local library “Battle of the Books” shelf and discoverd a new book by Miss Mass that I didn’t know about, Pi in the Sky. 

She has written so many other notable and extremely popular books as well, such as Every Soul a Star and her Willow Fall Series.

lisa graff chapter books

I was delighted to see that another favorite author had written a new book, Lost in the Sun. This book has appeared on all of the “Best of 2015 Chapter Book” lists, and I’m not surprised. She has written so many well loved books in the past. Her books can be mystical or they can tug at your heart strings, but they are always memorable.

pam munoz ryan chapter books

The first Pam Munoz Ryan book I read was a historical fiction book, Riding Freedom, which described the first female rider for the Pony Express. This book is especially memorable to me, because I partner read this book with my third grade niece, Julia, many years ago. I was taking a Children’s Literature class at the time and one of the assignments, was to partner read a book with a child. Julia was living in New Jersey, but thanks to email, we were easily able to share our thoughts about the book. In fact, if you have a child in your life who is not close by, I highly recommend this method! It is wonderful to have that shared experience and when you do visit with the child, you have so much to chat about.

Miss Ryan published a highly reviewed book in 2015, Echo. In fact, this is a Newberry Honor book. As a reminder, this is an award given to  the author of “the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children.” There is one winner, as well as three honor authors honored each year.

brian selznick chapter books

Brian Selznick’s previous popular books, The Invention of Hugo Cabret, the 2008 Caldecott Winner for the best American picture book of the year, and Wonderstruck were always difficult to check out in my library, although we had six copies of each title. The kids loved the amazing black and white illustrations on every other page and the intriguing stories. I was so happy to see that Mr. Selznick has published a new book, The Marvels, where he creates two new stand alone stories, with the first being completely comprised of illustrations and the second an intriguing puzzle in prose. 

sheila turnage chapter books

In 2013, Miss Turnage published an extremely popular book, Three Times Lucky, a Newberry Honor book. This is a hilarious mystery, with endearing characters. Happily, two more books were added to the series this year, Ghosts of Tupelo Landing and Odds of Getting Even.                                  

 

 

 

rick riordan chapter books

Finally, I want to tell you about a new fantasy series, by Rick Riordan, author of the hugely popular Percy Jackson and Olympus Series books. It is Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard. After his mother’s death, Magnus is tracked down by a mysterious uncle his mother has always warned him about as being dangerous, but his uncle tells him an impossible secret. He confides that Magnus is the son of a Norse God. The second book in the series will be published in October.

I’m afraid this post, has gotten a little lengthy, but there are just so many new books I want to share with you. I’ll do that in the coming months, I promise! Hopefully, some of these titles will be favorites for the children in your life!