I was supposed to post on Thursday and forgot (life happens, right?), but I’d rather post two days late than not at all.
First of all, I’ve got a review up at Bookshop Talk of one my favorite series for young girls: Jeanne Birdsall’s charming Penderwick series. If you’ve ever felt nostalgic for the Anne of Green Gables books or other strong girl-centric books from your childhood, this series has a similar, slightly-old fashioned feel. The books follow the adventures of four sisters, and without major drama (except perhaps in the third book), the stories manage to be funny, clever, and just delightful. I’d recommend them to anyone looking for a good book–or a good book to read with a pre-teen daughter.
That brings me to my second point: a plea for help.
I have a six-year-old son who’s been reading the local library out of the non-fiction section (he’s working through all the natural science books one set of animals at a time). Each time we go (about twice a week now), he maxes out his library card at 20 books and reads them within a couple of days. While the reader in me delights in his passion for books, I’d like to encourage a little more diversity. He read a bunch of Magic Tree House books last summer, but since then he hasn’t been very interested in chapter books (although he did like Ivy and Bean). While he’s a decent reader for a kindergartner, he’s still daunted by most chapter books, which have a high text to illustration ratio.
So, here’s my plea: what are some good chapter books you’ve found that interest young boy readers? I know Elaine is working on some, but until those are published . . . any suggestions?
Thinking Through Our Fingers 
How about the Horrible Harry series by Suzy Kline or Ghostville Elementary by Jones and Dadey? Of course my boys always loved Captain Underpants and I giggled right along with them when we read together!
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Dawn, thanks for the suggestions! I'll have to check them out. (We've read some Dave Pilkey and my son liked those, so he'd probably like Captain Underpants).
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We've struggled a lot with that, too, but The Knights of the Kitchen Table by Jon Scieszka and other stories in that series were pretty fun. Sideways Stories from Wayside School are fun as well. I like that each chapter is a story of its own. I'll let you know if I think of any others.
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You know how I feel about the Akimbo books by Alexander McCall Smith. 🙂 Jack is loving Geronimo Stilton right now, and there are TONS of those if Andrew ends up liking them. He also likes A-Z Mysteries and devoured the sample of The Secret Zoo that I downloaded, so I think that will be our next purchase. Good luck! He is such a great kid.
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