reading lately: chapter books!

Everyone in my household is ahead of the 2019 reading goals game at the moment, thanks to our Florida trip... where we discovered we're at a new magical age of kid where he actually wanted (and was able) to sit and read to himself poolside with the rest of us, which was delightful for my own reading time, but also just for the sake of this budding little reader! All of a sudden he's gotten good enough at reading on his own that he's actually been starting to tackle a few (short) chapter books solo, after we read them to him for the first go-round.

For this stage of early reader, these are some favorite shorter chapter books that we have enjoyed lately:

Magic Tree House
While we like to do longer chapter books with him as well, it's nice to have some slim ones like this series to be able to finish in a couple of days. I find the dialogue rather inane in these, but Hendrik loves the time travel to various historical eras (he's an especially big fan of the dinosaur one, but also enjoys the Egypt and knight ones), and he likes the semi-suspenseful endings to many of the chapters when Jack and Annie get themselves into semi-sticky situations in whatever era they've traveled to - because he's always asking me to read another. Dinosaurs before Dark is the one he picked up to read on his own after hearing it read aloud, and he did really well with it!


Narwhal: Unicorn of the Sea!
We came across this on vacation when browsing for a new book for Hendrik (didn't bring enough along!), and it looked adorable just from the cover alone. Lucky kid was shopping with his grandma, who bought him the book and finger puppet set, so we got to discover how adorable it is overall. It's more of a graphic novel layout, great for the cute illustrations and funny dialogue of these two sea creature friends with a mutual love of waffles. Narwhal is an exuberant, infectious kind of character, with Jelly as the perfect foil - if you're a fan of Mo Willems (Elephant & Piggie), this is similar in tone and format for a little bit older readers. We can't wait to read more of this series.


Bink & Gollie
Our original favorite short chapter book series is Mercy Watson by Kate DiCamillo, so of course we had to try this series from her too. These are almost between a picture book and a chapter book - they have chapters, but quite a few illustrations, and occasionally a bit of a graphic novel layout. I like that the stories about these two friends show them being creative and imaginative together, but also show them having some disagreements or frustrations with each other - and then working through those. The series of 3 books is pretty quick to read through, and they're all sweet. (I also like reading stories with girl protagonists to Hendrik - not being overt about it or anything, but just giving some balance and avoiding falling into a trap of pigeonholing certain books for "boys".)


Magic Tree House Fact Trackers
At the end of each Magic Tree House book we've read, there has been a teaser chapter from the accompanying non-fiction volume called a "fact tracker," in which kids can learn more details about the era that Jack and Annie visited in that book. Very enterprising of these publishers, because of course when we finish a story, Hendrik things we should definitely get the fact tracker! He is a kid who really loves facts though; this one has inspired him to get out his own notebook and copy down things like Jack does in the stories. The dinosaur fact tracker was the one he picked on our book-buying outing in Florida, and it's a good non-fiction option for kids around this age if they have particular historical interests.


The Boxcar Children
I saw this on a Kindle deal a while back and just couldn't resist - I loved these books as a kid. I started reading it to Hendrik in Florida as well, but I have to admit that he didn't love it as much as I remember doing - but then, maybe the first book is just a little slow, since it has the setup of actually finding the boxcar, whereas some of the other stories have a bit more action. Comprehension level and length of chapters/overall book are good for this age though, so we'll keep trying, and see if I can kindle the flame of love for this one in the next generation...

If this isn't the most idyllic reading situation, I don't know what is... take me back, Florida!


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