Chapter Books for the Young

Last week, I put out a call for help on Facebook and Twitter. N1 is reading like a crazy girl and I'm hard pressed to keep up with her request for little chapter books that she can dive into safely, i.e., meaning, I don't need to preread before her). Well, let me just tell you that my friends on FB & Twitter more than came through for me with suggestions. In case you have a budding reader on your hands and are stuck, this list is for you. (If I've read the book or at least some in the series, I've put an asterick beside them ... otherwise, they've been recommended to me, but I haven't read them yet).

• The Boxcar Children (we have one on our shelf, but haven't read it)
• Beverly Cleary books (Ramona, Henry Huggins, The Mouse & the Motorcycle, Socks, etc.)*
• Mandy by Julie Edwards (a.k.a. Julie Andrews ... one of my favorite books)*
• Nate the Great series
• Magic Treehouse series (One of my college friends said that these are hit-or-miss as to whether or not they are okay)
• Magic School Bus series (we used the Magic School Bus plant book recently and it's good!)
• A to Z Mysteries (a few creepy titles in there that we have avoided, but some have been fine)
• Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew*
• Animal Stories by Thornton Burgess*
• Rover Boys Series
• Tom Swift
• Anne of Green Gables for early readers
• E. Nesbit books (loved The 5 Children & It!)
• Andrew Lost books
• The beginning Betsy-Tacy books (Betsy-Tacy, Betsy, Tacy & Tib, Betsy & Tacy Go Over the Big Hill, and Betsy & Tacy Go Downtown - we've read all these aloud ... so good!)*
• Cam Jansen*
• Ivy and Bean*
• Alexander McCall Smith series for kids*
• Judy Blume: Freckle Juice, The One in the Middle is the Green Kangaroo (I already know that there are some Blume books that my girls will not EVER be reading if I can help it and I don't remember these ones, so I'm putting them on here with a huge "pre-read" label.)
• Kate diCamillo's series about a pig named Mercy Watson* (super cute!)
• some chapter books (w/ pictures) by Patricia Polacco
• the Amber Brown series by Paula Danzinger
• Little House series*
• Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle series (we've read book 1 and loved it)*
• The Bobbsey Twins (we've read the first two in the series)*
• anything by Dick King Smith (he wrote animal stories, some that you might be familiar with are Babe and The Water Horse. Noelle has read one called George Speaks and loved it).

Edited to add:

• Clementine books by Sara Pennypacker (thank you!)

More additions:

• My Father's Dragon books by Ruth Stiles Gannett (we loved these and own them! Great for boys).
• The fantasy series by Andrew Peterson: North or Be Eaten and On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness, book 3 hasn't been released yet) I have read these and loved them - I don't know that I would hand them off to one much younger than 3rd grade, but they would make great read-alouds for a younger audience (especially boys).
• The Mary Poppins books
• Tumtum & Nutmeg books by Emily Bearn
• Redwall (another long series about mice that I've heard good things about, but haven't read)

Edited again to add books that our local librarian recommended. Again, I've not previewed lots of this and am just typing from her list. These are all listed as 2nd grade easy readers:

• Fly Guy Books
• Wiggle and Waggle
• More Mr. and Mrs. Green
• Golly Sisters Books
• Minnie and Moo Books
• Agapanthus Hum
• Forest
• Iris and Walter Books
• Frances Books*
• Winnie the Pooh Adaptions
• Clara and the Bookwagon
• Frog and Toad books*
• Tillie and Mert
• Pearl and Wagner Books
• Little Bear Books*
• Amelia Bedelia books*
• Henry and Mudge books*
• High Rise Private Eyes Books
• Mr. Putter and Tabby books*
• Poppleton Books*
• There is a Carrot in my Ear and Other Noodle Tales
• Cowgirl Kate and Cocoa
• The Know Nothings
• Oliver Pig / Oliver and Amanda books

This is listed as 2nd grade fiction:

• Secrets of Droon series
• Arthur Chapter books
• Tiara Club Series
• Zack Files Series
• Pinky and Rex Series
• Ready Freddy Series
• Song Lee Books
• Horrible Harry Books
• Katie Kazoo Series
• Rainbow Magic books (These are okay as far as subject matter, just kind of cheesy & lame in my opinion) : )
• Junie B. Jones books (I don't care for these)
• Ricky Ricotta's Giant Robot Series
• Ricky Ricotta's Mighty Robot Series
• Jigsaw Jones Series
• Marvin Redpost Series
• Capitol Mysteries Series
• Geronimo Stilton Books 

/end edit : )

Right now, we're reading through The Chronicles of Narnia (and listening to them on audio book) and will probably continue those read-alouds through the summer. I want to come up with some fun read-alouds for the summer to alternate with Narnia ... so far, Farmer Boy is on the list and possibly Mary Poppins.

Other places that I've looked for suggestions have been Honey for a Child's Heart by Gladys Hunt and book lists that go with different curriculums: Sonlight, Charlotte Mason (Ambleside) Online, etc. Those have given me some suggestions as well. I would also love to purchase at some point Sarah Clarkson's book on reading which I understand is full of suggestions as well.

Whew. I think I have enough to keep both her and me busy for the summer, don't you? : ) If you have anything that you want to throw out, please let a comment and I'll edit and add it to the list.