Bink and Gollie

Bink and Gollie, Kate DiCamillo

How can you not like a pair of friends named Bink and Gollie? Brought to us by favorite author Kate DiCamillo, the two friends take off for amazing adventures and escapades. The text is simple, with lots of pictures to aid in comprehension. The chapters are short while still encompassing a good story within each. These are even good read alouds for a younger audience ready to launch into books that look more like chapter books vs picture books. Winner of the 2011 Theodor Suess Geisel Award. High interest, low vocabulary.

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Age 6-9
Grade 1-4
88 pages

Yes! Day

Yes! Day, by Amy Krause Rosenthal

I had great hopes for this book, and it was as cute as I'd hoped.

A young boy and his family celebrate Yes! Day, the one day a year when the answer to anything is YES! This book taps into every child's desire to have, well, everything their heart desires. Our friend eats pizza for breakfast, pulls crazy pranks, and has a great day. At the end of the day the fun is over, but instead of being gloomy he looks forward to next year when Yes! day returns.

Age 4-8
Grade Preschool - 3
40 pages
Lexile 200L

Oh My, Pumpkin Pie!

Oh My, Pumpkin Pie!, by Charles Ghigna

Aimed toward beginning readers, this book teachs about the sizes and shapes pumpkins come in. Readers travel to the county fair to see award winning pumpkins, visit jack-o-lanterns, and see pumpkins growing on a farm. Written in rhyme it lends to easy sentence completion and with plenty of word repetition and short sentences help comprehension is easy and straightforward. The story isn't thrilling, but the easy text will appeal to young readers.

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Age 4-6

Grade Preschool - 1

29 pages

Too Many Pumpkins

Too Many Pumpkins, by Linda White

Rebecca, who hates pumpkins, discovers that she accidentally grew an entire pumpkin patch. What do you do with too many pumpkins? This cute and clever book incorporates counting and seasonal interest. Not strictly a Halloween book, but great for anytime you're in the mood for a fall harvest pumpkin story.  A great read aloud for younger kids, some challenging vocabulary and sentence structure for older readers.

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Age 5-9
Grade K-4
32 pages
Lexile 770L

Mercy Watson: Princess in Disguise

Mercy Watson: Princess in Disguise, by Kate DiCamillo

Author Kate DiCamillo and illustrator Chris Van Dusen make a formidable team when it comes to children's books. The Mercy Watson books are a series of 6, Princess in Disguise is book #3. The books do not need to be read in order, but if you do read them in order you will notice that characters get added each book leading to a huge and hilarious cast by the end of book 6.

Mercy is Mr. and Mrs. Watson's pet pig. At Halloween the Watsons decide Mercy might like to dress up and go trick or treating. Mercy isn't sure that dressing up is really that great an idea but trick or treating sounds, and smells, like fun. Being a pig in a human world she ends up in all kids of silly situations which are always fixed with mountains of hot buttered toast.

We started reading the Mercy Watson books after falling in love with Chris Van Dusen's Mr. Magee books. Along with Winnie the Pooh they were the first chapter books we introduced to our son. While there are a few spreads that are all text there are enough pictures to keep young ones entertained. The print and font are easy to read for beginning readers but some of the vocabulary can be a bit tricky.

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Age 6-9
Grade: 1-4
80 pages
Easy Reader - Advanced

Frankie Stein

Frankie Stein, by Lola M. Schaefer

It's Halloween season and Nightly Read has ideas for what to read to your kids! Nothing scary here, just fun and funny reads.

Frankie Stein is born into a family of monsters, but instead of being scary looking he's cute! A cute and completely non-scary story about fitting in and being yourself. While the recommended age starts at 6 I think this would be an appropriate book for most kids down to age 4.

Age 6-8
Grade: 1-3
32 pages
Easy Picture book

The Berenstain Bears and the Bad Dream, by Stan and Jan Berenstain

When we hit a childhood struggle our son responds really well to reading about how other people or characters cope. One challenge that we struggled with for a long time was how to contend with nightmares. The faithful Berenstains have addressed nightmares, and hundreds of other childhood trials, with their usual rhyming prose. This particular book, while fun to read, did not work to address our night time issues, but it might be just right for other kids.

Age 3-7
Grade: Preschool - 2
32 pages
Easy Picture Book

Attack of the Tyrannosaurus

Attack of the Tyrannosaurus, by Rex Stone

One of the things I find most challenging when looking for books beyond the picture book stage is finding an author or series that speaks to boys. The abundance of book series for girls is daunting, and while we aren't picky it's nice to find one that speaks to guys (insert Tim the Toolman grunt here).

Rex Stone hits the nail on the head for boys. Using good grammar, decent science (ignoring the magic cave that leads to dino land), and good story telling (there's a magic cave that leads you to dino land!) he ropes you in to the exploration adventures of two boys. The boys meet one day on the beach, become friends, and start exploring. Nothing is too scary or violent, but the adventures are exciting all the same. The vocabulary is simple, other than the dinosaur names there aren't any tricky words, and the pace is quick enough that it will keep the pages turning.

courtesy amazon.com

Ages 7-10
Grade 2-5
68 pages

Lulu and the Brontosaurus

Lulu and the Brontosaurus, by Judith Viorst

We checked this book out at the library on a whim. The cover has a dinosaur on it, the name Lulu cracked us up, and it looked to be about the right length for our son to read on his own. Only after he read the whole book to me did I realize that it's written by the same author that wrote one of my childhood favorites, Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, Very Bad Day. To top it all off the Alexander book was in my son's backpack as assigned reading for the week.

Lulu is a brat. The author tells you straight up she's not a nice child. She demands a pet brontosaurus and when her parents refuse she goes on a quest to find one on her own. Comedy, side stories, and adventure ensue and in the end Lulu makes a new friend. One of my son's favorite aspects of this book were the asides where the author spoke directly to the reader, it was very special to him to get an insider look at what was going on in the book.

This is great for kids just starting into chapter books, the chapters are short and have plenty of pictures still. Even short attention spans will be able to make it through a chapter or two before getting the itch to move on.

photo courtesty of Barnes and Noble

Ages
Grades 1-4
113 pages
Easy Reader Advanced

Bad Kitty

Bad Kitty, by Nick Bruel

Those who know our child well know he's slightly obsessed with cats. Even if you don't like cats you'll enjoy Bad Kitty.  Kitty is not the cuddly type, she's rough and cranky and hilarious! This book's humor is just coarse enough for young kids without crossing the line into uncomfortable. The first in an ongoing series, this book is suitable for a younger audience than some of the others. It's text is simpler with fewer of the puns and jokes in the other books that will appeal to the older readers. While this book is probably best categorized as a picture book it's look and feel are similar to a chapter book. The subsequent books fall into either the traditional picture book style or chapter books with more challenging vocabulary. Looking for a funny book? Bad Kitty fills the bill.

courtesy www.

40 pages
ages 4-8
Preschool-3
Picture Book

Amelia Bedelia and the Cat

Amelia Bedelia and the Cat, by Herman Parish

courtesy of Harper Collins

Amelia Bedelia is always getting mixed up. When the weatherman forecasts a storm that will bring rain like cats and dogs, Amelia gets concerned. These books are great for exploring common phrases that can be easily misunderstood - raining cats and dog, saving for a rainy day, etc. At 48 pages long with no chapter breaks it can be a long read for a beginner, but the text is large and easy to follow with a few tricky words thrown in.

48 pages
Ages 4-8
Grade level 1-3
I Can Read level 2

Marty McGuire

Marty McGuire by Kate Messner

 Marty is a third grade tomboy who finds herself cast as the princess in the school play. She struggles with a mildly "mean"girl on the playground and learns about how to put on a play. While the lead character is a girl, this book feels gender neutral. This is a fairly easy chapter book with straightforward vocabulary. There aren't too many tricky words and the jokes are easy for younger readers to pick up.  Well liked at our house.

Ages 7 and up
Grades 2 and up

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Waking Up From Hibernation

After more than a year of letting this blog sit, I discovered that several loyal friends were still looking for good ideas about what kids would like to read. We don't read picture books every night anymore, now our son is busy reading to us. Welcome back, I hope you have a great time reading with your kids!