I am sitting on a deck in Michigan on a beautiful day and looking out at the glittering lake. I hope your summers are going as well as mine, and you are enjoying lots of happy family times in the warm weather. We receive such a limited number of these perfect summer days, so I try to make the most of every one!

This  past month has been a whirlwind of family activities! We drove to Lubbock, Texas, to attend our niece, Haley’s Honor Ceremony and Graduation from Texas Tech. She is now a Speech Language Pathologist and we couldn’t be prouder! It meant so much to us to be able to be a part of the special weekend. We then visited old friends in Colorado and Kansas and created lots of special, new memories. The fun didn’t stop there. We then returned home and hosted a wedding shower for our niece, Kelly! Now we are looking forward to her July wedding and to our niece, Julia’s shower and wedding later this summer. It’s a little crazy, but giving us so much joy and great family memories!

I know school has been our for many of you for a few weeks now, and because I remember what happens once the newness of summer vacation begins to wear off, I want to share some books that might add some fun and joy to your summer. Some of these are for the parents and teachers, and some are for the kids.

SUMMER ACTIVITY BOOKS

Nature Anatomy by Julia Rothman, is perfect for all of your little ones who are fascinated by nature and are bombarding you with questions! I gave this to a special little neighbor and he keeps it by his bed, making sure it’s always available to answer his questions. It is a wonderful book for any family who loves the outdoors and are taking those summer walks to the park or the woods or the beach. And as a bonus, that this former librarian loves, it introduces the concept of research to your kids!

 Henry David Thoreau for Kids by Corinne Hasfield Smith, a tour guide at Thoreau Farm, in Concord Massachusetts, has written a book which is a good choice for parents and kids to read together to introduce older children to the wonders of the world. It provides background about Thoreau and 21 hands on activities that relate and honor Thoreau’s ideas, such as  keeping a daily journal, planting a garden, baking trail-bread cakes, going on a half-day hike, and starting a rock collection. It even integrates technology with nature activities such as describing and providing a link to a birdcall identification app.

PARENT AND TEACHER SUMMER READING SUGGESTIONS

If you are looking for a feel good book that will inspire you to read to your kids every day, this is it! In The Reading Promise Alice Ozma shares the story of her father reading aloud to her for eight straight years. If you are wondering if spending so much time each evening reading to your children, is truly worth it, this will surely convince you that it is!

I first read about Thirty Million Words by Dana Suskind last fall, and immediately knew I wanted a copy. Dr. Suskind  is a Cochlear Implant Surgeon who discovered the true value of talking to and with your children from birth through age three. She  was concerned about why some of the children who were returning to see her for their post operative appointments were so talkative and some were not. Were the cochlear implants not successful with some children? However, after much research she discovered that some of the children were hearing lots of language in their homes and some were not. This book will tell you how to create the “best language environment” for your child. It will help you to understand why the first step to successful lives for our children is to simply talk to your children in a way that builds their brains. This is a perfect gift for young parents and early childhood teachers.

I first learned about Reading Picture Books to With Children by Megan Dowd Lambert on the Eric Carle Picture Book Museum Facebook page. I truly think it’s an important book that all teachers and librarians need to read! It describes the techniques to use when reading aloud to help the children interact with the story and to truly see and understand the importance of the pictures and to get them to “think with their eyes”. I always thought it was so important to interact with the kids when I was sharing a story (that’s why my story times were always so long!), but this opened my eyes to new techniques and vocabulary to use during my story times in the future.

TWO HISTORICAL FICTION BOOKS FOR KIDS

The War that Saved my Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley, a Newberry Honor book for 2016, is the story of Ada and her brother, Jamie, during World War II in both London and then the English countryside. I read this in a few hours. I just couldn’t put it down! Children will learn so much about history during World War II and the impact that it had on the children.

Ada has a club foot and her mother is very ashamed of her. Ada is never allowed to leave their one room apartment in the slums of London and is punished by being locked in the cabinet under the kitchen sink. When Ada learns that Jamie is leaving on the train with many other London children to escape the war and live with families in the English countryside, she decides she must go with him. This story describes their adventure beginning with their escape from their apartment, their harrowing train ride and then their new life in a small village. Because Ada has never left her apartment, she has so much to discover and to learn to trust. You share her joy, as well as her terror that she may have to return to London and face the wrath of her mother.

Glory Be by Augusta Scattergood tells the story of Gloriana June Hemphill and her life in Hanging Moss, Mississippi, during the summer of 1964. Glory is so excited. School is out and it’s just a few weeks until the most important day of the year – her birthday on the 4th of July. Every year she celebrates in the same way. She invites all of her friends to have cake and ice cream and to go swimming at the town pool. However, this year things are different. There are rumors that the town pool may close because it must now be integrated. Glory can’t believe it, so she decides to write a letter to the town newspaper to protest. The story is a memorable novel about family, friendship and making choices.

CHAPTER BOOKS, BEGINNING CHAPTER BOOKS AND PICTURE BOOKS FOR KIDS

Finally, I want to remind you to visit my past posts that will give you some more ideas for your kids when they just don’t know what to read next!

Beginning Chapter Book Series List is Here!

New Picture Books for All Ages!

New Kids Books You Don’t Want to Miss!

The Chapter Book Series List has Arrived!

Are there some books you would like to suggest for the summer reading lists? Please let us know in the comments below.

Happy Summer!

A few weeks ago, I sent out an email to all of the library volunteers from the past school year, to let them know about Red Canoe Reader. I received a lot of kind and supportive responses. It meant so much to me. When I was an elementary school librarian, the volunteers played a vital part in the success of the library. They are the moms who didn’t mind trying to make sense of the crazy and mixed up library shelves, to check in hundreds of books or to rearrange the furniture. And most importantly, they were the moms who kindly helped the kids with their many requests and needs. There was never a complaint when a little one would ask, for example, for the “blue book with an elephant on the front”. Even with that small amount of information, they would always do their best to help the kids to find the perfect book! And that was not an unusual situation. It happened multiple times through out the day! So, when one of the moms mentioned in her reply to my email that her son, a rather reluctant reader, was  needing some new beginning chapter book series on the second and early third grade levels, I got busy with this addition to the website. I was planning to compile a list of beginning chapter book series, so this prompted me to get started! I had already posted a list of middle grade chapter books a month ago, Chapter Book Series, so if you have some kiddos who are ready for books on the 3rd – 6th grade levels, that is the list for them. If your kids are not quite there yet, then try some of the series in this new list, Beginning Chapter Books.

Reading Strategies for beginning chapter book Series

I suggest going to the public library and getting several books on the list. It doesn’t need to be the first in the series. Luckily, the majority of these series can be read in any order. Then let your little one choose a book, cuddle up and begin to read it together. You can take turns reading pages. Perhaps, you can read a few chapters each night or more if you can’t put it down! In that case, keep reading! I found with my kids that once they found a series they loved, a great strategy was to buy the books. There’s something about owning the book, that adds to their confidence. Of course, if you have a great public library, you may not need to do that. You may just be making lots of trips to pick up new books!

As always, this list is certainly not all of the beginning chapter book series out there. For one thing, early chapter books are defined differently by publishers, librarians, teachers and parents. These are simply books that appealed to lots of different kids with lots of different interests in my library. And when a child finds the perfect series for them, they are going to keep reading. I’ve seen it happen so many times and it’s magical! It’s one of the reasons I loved being a school librarian.

Do you know of some beginning chapter books to add to the list? I’ll look forward to hearing your suggestions in the comments below.

Before I wrote my first post for Red Canoe Reader, I had plans of composing several lists of books that I would share with you through links in the menu. Unfortunately, I spent so much time composing the posts that I neglected to make those lists. Well, I posted my first list – Chapter Book Series List! It includes many titles that you can find at your public library, purchase at your favorite bookstore or possibly even have on your own shelves.  I have included links to Amazon, if you’d like to purchase these for the children in your lives, as well as the Accelerated Reader and Lexile Levels to help you find a series on your child’s level. I’ve also divided the list into realistic fiction, graphic novels and fantasy to help you choose.

I have included chapter book series in many of my previous posts, so I hope you’ll check these out, as well. Here are the titles of the posts and the links:

Some New and Noteworthy Kids Chapter Books

HISTORICAL FICTION: READING ABOUT KIDS FROM THE PAST

CHILDREN’S BOOKS FOR CHRISTMAS GIFTS: CHAPTER BOOKS

ENCYCLOPEDIA BROWN SERIES

Of course, you might be having a hard time enticing your child to read any book, or at least anything you suggest! I recently read about an idea that I want to share. On the blog, Modern Mrs. Darcy, Anne Bogel recently described  her strategy about getting her kids to read. She goes to the library and brings home a large stack of books. They might be chapter books, nonfiction, graphic novels or picture books. Then she plops the stack on the kitchen table. When the kids walk by they get intrigued and usually pick up a book and begin to read! She never says a word. I just wish I had thought of that when my kids were little!

And finally, please remember, the chapter book series titles in this list, as well as the books in my previous posts, don’t begin to be a complete list of chapter book series titles. What books should I add to the list? Let me know in the comments and I’ll make updates!

And please share this post with your friends who might be looking for some ideas to entice their kids to read.

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!

There were so many biographies in my library that were never touched by the kids. Mostly those were the ones that were at least an inch thick and contained very few pictures. Although I had based my purchases on the respected reviews that I had read in a variety of library sources, these books were ignored. The
kids taught me very early in my career which biographies I should be buying or the books would simply sit on the shelf! They liked the to read the ones which gave them lots of facts, but not using too many words to relay the information. They liked indexes and table of contents. And most importantly they liked pictures!

 BIOGRAPHIES FOR YOUNG READERS

In the Common Core Curriculum, which is now found in schools across the country, children are being exposed to many more biographies. I found when I shared biographies with first and second graders, they were fascinated and rushed to check them out. A series that is great for this is First Biographies from Capstone Press.These books are available in public and school libraries, as well as from Capstone Press. The books are 32 pages in length, contain many pictures, as well as an index and table of contents. They are perfect for pleasure reading or research.

BIOGRAPHIES FOR oLDER rEADERS

Another publisher I really like for nonfiction is Bellwether Media and their Blastoff Readers. A great series for older readers, third grade reading level and above, who are looking for biographies about authors, is the Children’s Storytellers Series. These books are 24 pages in length and contain a table of contents, index, glossary, timeline and fun facts about the authors. They are perfect for both pleasure reading or research. 

JANE GOODALL BIOGRAPHIES for home and school

A new biography that I recently discovered is Untamed The Wild Life of Jane Goodall by Anita Silvey, with a foreword by Jane Goodall. Lexile Level 1100, Accelerated Reader 7.4

I was initially drawn to this book when I read a review on the site, The Nonfiction Detectives. I have been an admirer of Jane Goodall for many years. When my son was a freshman at Beloit College, he had the opportunity to attend a lecture given by Ms. Goodall. Immediately afterwards, he called me to tell me all about it. If you have ever been a mother of a college boy, you may recognize the importance of this call! First of all, he actually called me immediately after hearing the lecture and was extremely excited! He was very impressed and motivated after hearing about her work in Africa and her mission to make the world a better place for animals. He wanted to buy some of her books for me! His enthusiasm led me to read many books about her and to share picture biographies with the children in my elementary library every year to introduce the biography section of the library. This included early reader biographies, as well as Me, Jane by Patrick McDonnell and The Watcher: Jane Goodall’s Life with the Chimps by Jeanette Winter.

However, I never had a Jane Goodall biography to offer to the older students. Untamed is that book! It reinforces the stories the children learned in the previous biographies, and then expands on that. It follows Ms. Goodall from childhood through the present as she travels the world to teach about conservation. It includes many photographs on every page with very descriptive captions. The vibrancy of these photographs and the engaging text will appeal to children and inspire them to continue reading.

What are some of your favorite biographies? Is your child looking for biographies about a particular person? Please let me know in the comments and I’ll try to help them find that “perfect book”!