The Power of a Series

Life has been getting in the way of blogging this month but when I saw this article, The Power of a Series by Kathie Muhtaris, I had to reblog it. What caught my attention was the Nancy Drew cover attached to the article. I just passed on four old Nancy Drew books from my childhood to my four elementary school granddaughters. These books started a life long love of mysteries for me. They had been in my mother's attic for half a century and were given to me by my paternal grandmother. Kathie Muhtaris' article is about the power of series to turn kids into voracious readers. The Nancy Drew books weren't the first series I obsessively read, the  Betsy-Tacy and Cherry Ames books came first, but series books kept me reading and still do.

Series books are great for reluctant readers. If the first book is a "just right" book then it is fair to assume that others in the series will be too.

From Erica at The What Do We Do All Day website are 18 Mystery Books and Series for Kids, First Chapter Books: Series About Boys and Series About Girls to get you started. Enjoy!

Word Play

Hat tip: Raising Readers

Fly Guy Presents Weather

Buzz and Fly Guy take us on a tour of a weather station to learn about the weather in Tedd Arnold's latest book in his non-fiction series, Fly Guy Presents: Weather. Buzz and Fly Guy learn a couple of things I didn't know (or remember, same thing). Cirrus (SIR-uhs) clouds (the thin wispy ones) are made up of ice and lightening is hotter than the surface of the sun. We learn about the water cycle, hurricanes, blizzards and tornadoes. Meteorologists (mee-tee-uh-RAH-luh-jists) study and forecast the weather. Climate (KLY-muht) is what the weather is usually like in an area: temperate, tropical, desert or polar. Some places can have more than one of these climates, Antarctica is both a polar and a desert climate. Buzz and Fly Guy have some tips at the end to help keep the earth healthy: use less energy and water, recycle and plant trees.

Tedd Arnold is writing for beginning readers so he puts the phonic pronunciation in parenthesis next to harder to pronounce words so his readers will learn weather vocabulary.  As in the other Fly Guy Presents books, pictures are used to illustrate weather phenomenon like tornadoes, clouds, hail and flooded streets.

The Sonoma County Library has eight copies. The book was published this week and hasn't been given an AR level yet. The previous books in the series have ranged from 2.8 to 3.9.

The Great Pet Escape

Three furry friends have been rescued from the wild and are now class pets,: George Washington or G. W. in the second grade classroom, Barry in the first grade and the notorious Biter in the Kindergarten classroom. G.W. longs for the glory days of freedom and antics in the wild, so he carefully plans his escape from his cage hoping his old friends are eager to escape the confines of Daisy P. Flugelhorn Elementary School, too. He looks for Barry in the first grade classroom. He finds Barry reading a book and seemingly content but willing to go find Biter. They find Biter, now Sunflower, doing yoga in the Kindergarten. Sunflower likes being a classroom pet and has put her rowdy past behind her, but eventually G.W. and Barry convince her to join them. As they are planning their escape from the school, a mouse named Harriet and her minions confront them. There is no way she will allow them to escape from the school because that will lead to tighter security and tighter security is not good for Harriet. What follows is an increasingly slapstick effort to keep Harriet and her minions from spoiling the next day's school lunch ending in a food fight. 

Victoria Jamieson, fresh off a Newbery Honor for Roller Girl, wrote and illustrated this funny and clever graphic novel. The Sonoma County Library has eight copies and the AR is 2.8.

Horrid Henry

Speaking of funny books for early readers, because I have have a small relative named Henry, Amazon highlights kid's books for me with that name in the title. That is how I ran across Horrid Henry. The book has been out for over twenty years in the United Kingdom, it just made its way to the US a few years ago. The author, Francesca Simon, is an American expat who lives in London. The book (and its many sequels are ) are laugh out loud funny. Our hero (or anti-hero), Henry, has "an amazing talent for trouble".

There are four short stories in the book, the first one illustrates why Henry is so horrid. Henry has a little brother known as Perfect Peter. Peter says "please" and "thank you", helps make dinner, and loves vegetables. One day, Henry wonders what would happen if he were perfect. His experiment in perfection drives his perfect brother into horrid behavior. Perfectly horrid!

In the third story, Henry and his frenemy, Moody Margaret, fight over who gets to be Captain Hook, make Perfect Peter walk the plank 14 times, create a huge mess making glop and dare each other to taste it before giving some to the unsuspecting Peter.

There are dozens of books in this series. The illustrator, Tony Ross's drawings remind me a bit of Quentin Blake's drawing for the Roald Dahl books. The Sonoma County Library has three copies and many of the sequels. The AR is 3.3.

Need Some Ideas to Get Kids Reading This Summer

You can find out more about The Summer Reading Challenge here.  

Good Advice for Parents to Prevent Summer Slide

Today was the last day of school in our neck of the woods. It is now up to parents and families to prevent summer slide. What is summer slide? Summer slide is the learning loss that occurs when kids don't read over the summer. An average of 2 months of gains can be lost each summer and the loss is cumulative. What can parents do to prevent summer slide?

Reading Is Fundamental has some good tips for parents to help their kids advance in their reading skills. The second tip is to read every day and offers some ideas including reading the back of a cereal box. I have been telling kids that for years. They usually look at me like I've lost my mind. In the olden days that was a reliable source of reading material in my parent's house. The other day I was making some muffins and happened to read a clever little story on the inside of an egg carton that would appeal to kids. You never know where you'll find interesting reading material! Another important tip is to let your kids see you read. My favorite tip is to let your child chose what he wants to read or what she wants you to read to her. The point is to pull them into a story to find out what happens next. The previous post, A Day Late and a Dollar Short, has links to online games and stories as well as the printables mentioned.

The Fun and Games page on the Sonoma County Library website also has links to online books and games for kids.

What kid doesn't like to get mail? A magazine subscription is a great way to get your kids to read, even in the summer. Erica at the What Do We Do All Day blog did the hard work of looking at kid's magazines that have no advertising. Her  16 magazines for kids posts has magazine suggestions for all ages and interests. One magazine I didn't know that was still around is Humpty Dumpty. My younger siblings subscribed for a long time (there were five of them).

To sum up:

Check back frequently this summer for more ideas to keep your kids reading, book lists and book reviews. And finally for Sonoma County residents is the application for a library card in English and Spanish and their summer reading program for kids 0-12. 

Reading and Bookish Links

This week let's start off with a fun quiz to see how many of the 100 Best Children's Books of All Time you have read. I got 69 of 100. Bonus feature: it makes a great list of book ideas for the kids in your life.

Some young kids pick up reading quickly and want to read chapter books. They may be good readers but the content of books they can read is not age appropriate. Ellen from the Cutting Tiny Bites blog has done the hard work of compiling and reviewing a list of chapter books for very young readers. Hat tip: Growing Book By Book

Would you like a way to check your beginning reader's progress? Reading Is Fundamental has a Reading Check up for Beginning Readers (Grades 1/2) to help.

Jodie Rodriguez from Growing Book By Book wrote a guest post at parenting blog, Childhood 101, How to Support an Early Reader. Her five tips include understanding a new reader, coaching a new reader, modeling fluency, checking for understanding and picking "just right books". Scroll down to see links to other articles by Jodie about beginning readers.

Parents are their child's first teacher. It is their job to lay the ground work for future success  in school. That job begins at birth. Maya Smart from Book Riot has a quiz for parents to see how they are doing in Are You Raising A Reader?

Along this same theme is An Expert's Opinion: What Parents Can Do That Apps Can't. There are many commercial programs and apps that claim to teach young children to read. Brightly has published an excerpt from Tara Haelle and Emily Willingham's The Informed Parent: A Science Based Resource for Your Child's First Four Years. Their research-based advice for parents is talking and reading to children from birth and having lots of books around. Just handling (or even chewing) books is an early literacy behavior.

The BFG

On July 1, The BFG movie will be released. I am excited about the movie but, really, the book is always better. What a great family read aloud, you get to say words like bumfuzzle, whizzpopper and gloriumptious. Then you'll be ready to see the movie.
The main protagonists are the BFG (Big Friendly Giant), Sophie, an orphan girl and the Queen of England. The antagonists are nine enormous giants who travel the earth every night getting their fill of "human beans". Roald Dahl tells modern fairy tales. Like the ones we read, Hansel and Gretel, Little Red Riding Hood and Jack in the Beanstalk, there are scary parts, but outsmarting the villain
is empowering to children.

The BFG is tied with Matilda as my favorite Roald Dahl book. You can watch the preview here.

The AR is 4.8. The Sonoma County Library has twenty-eight copies.

And a final word from Roald Dahl:

For our day, I am sure he would add phones, computers and tablets.

Word Attack Strategies

As a tutor with Schools of Hope, I work with first and second graders who are below grade in reading. I help them with phonics, sight words and reading. But my goals are larger than just learning to read, I want to turn my students into life long readers. That can be difficult if every session is a struggle. Melissa Taylor has reposted an article she wrote a few years ago, Word Attack Strategies Beyond Sound It Out, that I have found to be useful. The one I use the most is "chunk it". It works well with longer words or compound words. Picture clues also help a kid decode a tough word. She has also created a free printable bookmark to help both you and your child remember the strategies. Check it out!

Reading and Bookish Links

Every day I come across interesting blog posts and articles about kids and reading from Facebook, Pinterest and Tumblr. Each week I will try to round up the most helpful and post them here.

Do you have a child who is ready for chapter books or a reluctant reader? Melissa Taylor from the Imagination Soup blog has compiled an long list of humorous books,Funny Books for Kids. Bonus: many of these books are one of a series.

This morning on Facebook there was a picture of my 3 month old great-niece being read to by her father. Joy! Reading to your child from birth onward is the most important thing you can do to prepare her for success in school. From the Scholastic Parents Blog is 5 Tips Every Parent Needs to Rock the Read-Aloud.

A few years ago, I gave a Yulupa teacher a copy of The One and Only Ivan to read to her class. The class had just raised money and purchased a painting by an elephant in a preserve in Thailand. What I did not count on was that she did not read the book first. When she got to the part about (spoiler alert) Ruby dying, she started crying. Her students were very concerned and tried to comfort her and the next day she received flowers and cards from them. The story and the teacher's reaction brought out empathy in her students. On the Brightly website, Heather Shumaker writes  about Why We Should Share Sad and Scary Stories With Kids. When stories reflect the broad spectrum of life kids can feel empathy, wonder and relief in a safe place.

Jessica Woodbury writes for Book Riot, To Ramona Quimby, With Love about reading all the Ramona books to her children and how different it was from when she read them as a child.  I read the first book in second or third grade and two and a half decades later I read the Ramona books to my kids. My reactions as an adult paralleled Jessica's. I was amazed at how real to life the books were. Beezus and Ramona was the first book in the series, published in 1955. Real life books were not the standard in the 1950's. They are every bit as real today. On April 12th, Beverly Cleary will be 100 years old (more about that later).

Dyad Reading

Alysa Stewart writes on the Brightly website about dyad reading. You and your child read the same book out loud at the same time. You both point to each word and read naturally, no sounding out words. Your child uses sight, sound and touch to become a better, more fluent reader. She outlines the process here. I have used the technique without knowing its name with my grandchildren. It less stressful and more enjoyable for the child and the (grand)parent. Another benefit is being able to read stories above the child's reading level. Our ultimate goal is to make reading so enjoyable that it becomes a lifelong habit. It might be a method that would help your beginning or struggling reader.

Supertruck

Another 2016 Theodor Seuss Geisel Honor book is Supertruck by Stephen Savage. The story touches on two genres that appeal to young boys: trucks and superheros.

In the city there are many brave trucks, ones that fix power lines, or put out fires or tow disabled vehicles, but when a blizzard hits the city, it is a lowly garbage truck that saves the day. The glasses wearing tow truck sneaks into a garage and emerges as SUPERTRUCK! He digs out the entire city; freeing the bucket truck, the fire engine and the tow truck along the way. Where is the truck that saved the city? Just collecting the trash as he does every day.

At first, I thought the graphics were a little too juvenile for first graders, but then I was reminded of the Cars movie and books. The pictures help tell part of the story, the font is large and easy to read, there are just a few words on a page and the words are well spaced. The AR is 1.5.

The Sonoma County Library has fourteen copies.

The third Theodor Seuss Geisel Honor book is Waiting by Kevin Henkes. You can read my review here.

A Pig, A Fox, and A Box

Theodor Seuss Geisel Honor book, A Pig, A Fox, And A Box, by Jonathan Fenske  has all the things beginning readers want and need: humor, pictures that tell part of the story, just a few words on a page, an easily read font and rhyming. I have kid tested it with several struggling readers, they all loved it.

In the first chapter, Fox decides to play a trick on Pig. Like Wylie Coyote, the trick is on Fox. Again, in the second chapter,  Fox plays a new trick on Pig, at first Pig is fooled  but when Fox really needs help, Pig decides he is playing another trick and does not help Fox. In chapter 3, as the two friends walk away, a bandaged Fox decides that he is done playing tricks today. 

The AR is 1.3 (Penguin has it as a level two reader). The Sonoma County Library has seven copies.

Reluctant Readers: Parental Tips

The Scholastic Parent's blog has some great tips for parents to help their reluctant reader "that hardly seem like reading". I love the last tip, teaching your child to speak in Pig Latin. It helps your child visualize the written word so they can rearrange the letters.

Melissa Taylor (Imagination Soup) has another list of tips for parents at Parenting.com. She has had personnel experience with implementing some of these tips.

Both articles emphasize having lots of books, magazines and other reading materials around the house. Library cards are free, you can reserve books online and even borrow e-books.

100 Great Children's Books

New York Public Library's children's librarians have compiled a list of 100 great children's books.  Many of these books are decades old but are still widely read because they tell great stories. The very first book on the list was my oldest daughter's favorite book in the second grade, Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good ,Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst. My youngest daughter's favorite book (and mine, too) was Charlotte's Web by E.B. White. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis was one of my son's favorites.

My favorite book  reviewed for this blog is Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo. Others on the list reviewed here are The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats, The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick, Holes by Louis Sachar, From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L Konigsburg and Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing by Judy Blume. Authors included on the list include David Wiesner, Beverly Cleary, Eric Carle, Gary Paulsen, Jon Scieszka, Kevin Henkes, Maurice Sendak, Mo Willems, Dr Seuss, and Roald Dahl.

There are books for every level of reader on this list. Some of the books like Amelia Bedelia, Curious George, and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone are the first books in a series. If you like the first one you'll probably like the rest, great for reluctant readers.

Happiness is

Reading is Fundamental

Chapter Books for Beginning Readers

Nerdy Book Club contributor, Arika Dickens, has written an article about books she thinks are surefire hits for transitioning readers to chapter books. An added bonus is that all but The Year of Billy Miller by Kevin Henkes are the first in a trilogy or series. You can find her post here. Some of these books have been reviewed on this blog: Lulu and the Brontosaurus, Dory Fantasmagory and Bink and Gollie. Please note that two of these books are written by two time Newbery Medalist  Kate DiCamillo. It is wonderful that such a distinguished author is writing for beginning readers.

Hat tip: Growing Book by Book

Early Readers and Chapter Books From an Animal's Point of View

One of the websites I follow is Book Riot. It is a great resource for books, not only for adults but for children and young adults. This morning they posted a list of books for early and middle grade readers from an animal's point of view. Most of the ones on the early reader list are new to me except for The Story of Diva and Flea. On the middle grade list is one of this blog's favorites: The One And Only Ivan. Note that several of these books are the first of a series. Series are great for reluctant readers. If they like the first book, they will often want to read the entire series.

Early Readers

The Sonoma County Library has ten copies. This is the first of a series. There is no AR for any book in this series.

The Sonoma County Library has twenty-nine copies. The AR is 4.6.

The Sonoma County Library has seven copies. This is the first in a series and the AR is 2.6.

The Sonoma County Library has seven copies. This is part of The Park Pals adventure series. The AR is 4.7.

The Sonoma County Library has nineteen copies. This book is the first in a series. The AR is 4.2.

Middle Grade

This book will be published on February 9, 2016.

The Sonoma County Library has four copies. The AR is 4.9.

The Sonoma County Library has one copy. The AR is 4.9.

The Sonoma County Library has thirty-one copies. The AR is 3.6.

The Sonoma County Library has three copies. The AR is 5.1.

The Sonoma County Library has eleven copies. The AR is 3.7.

The Sonoma County Library has eight copies. This the first book of a series. The AR is 4.5.

You may have noticed that some of the early readers have as high or higher reading levels (according to the Accelerated Reader rankings) than the middle grade books. In this article the categories are according to interest. One of my first grade granddaughters has read The Story of Diva and Flea; the only word trouble she had was with the very few French words in the story. 

NYPL: 100 Best Children’s Book for 2013

The New York Public Library is out with an interactive list of the best children's books of 2013. You can search by reading level, genre and theme. Click on a book that interests you and it will take you to a short description  of the story. There is something for everyone.