Books for little girls

[shmokes]

My daughter is five. I've graduated from reading the likes of Dr. Seuss to her (she reads him to me now) to what we call "chapter books". Anybody have some good suggestions? My first experiment with reading a chapter book to her was Charlotte's Web, and it couldn't have been a more resounding success. She followed the story from day to day, the language didn't pose a problem. She absolutely loved it. We've now finished almost the entire collection of Roald Dahl's books. I'm on The Great Glass Elevator now, then Fantastic Mr. Fox, then I'll be in the market for new books to read to her.

I was thinking of maybe checking out Tarzan and Robert Louis Stevenson's stuff . . . but it occurs to me that she might like something a bit more girlish. Plus, she's probably a bit too young still for Robert Louis Stevenson--lots of killing and the language may be too advanced/archaic for her to fully enjoy it. I've never read Tarzan, so I can't really speak to that.

Anyway, I'd love to hear some suggestions. The language doesn't have to be dumbed down too much. Like I said, she had no problem whatsoever with Charlotte's Web or even some of Dahl's more advanced books like Danny the Champion of the World and Matilda. On the other hand, I'm not going to try any Steinbeck on her.  

[Le Chuck]

Frank L Baum's series is great for young girls.  There are a ton of them too, Ozma of Oz, Return to Oz, TikTok...

CS Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia are fantastic read alongs as well that are good for both girls and boys.  If that doesn't tickle your fancy go pick up a giant stack of Judy Blume and explore the awesome worlds of How to Eat Fried Worms, Tales of a 4th Grade Nothing, and the in-conquerable Superfudge.      

Once it's time for bed and she's not having it switch over to the bean field chapters of Walden Pond.  That existential baloney has me snoozing in no time.  

<Edit:  Don't know how I could have forgotten to mention Beverly Cleary's Romona books.  Great for young girls.>

[Dervacumen]

Barbara Park - Junie B. Jones series about a 1st grade girl.
Daisy Meadows - Rainbow Magic The Fun Day Fairies
Nick Bruel - Bad Kitty series is really different, kinda like a comic.
And all the Beverly Cleary books.
You might also like reading the Phantom Tollbooth with her.  It provides a ton of teaching moments.

[Hoopz]

I'll second most of what's already been mentioned and throw out a couple that aren't necessarily chapter books but are still great books.

Fancy Nancy by Jane O'Connor
Skippyjon Jones by Judy Schachner

I still laugh out loud reading Skippyjon Jones books.

For additional chapter books, try:

Allie Finkle by Meg Cabot
Judy Moody by Meg McDonald

When she's a little older, she may like the Trixie Belden series.   

[Rando]

Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass can be fun as they read/talk "funny".
Can also try "Coraline".  My daughter (3) loves the movie which I thought could be a little scary, but the book could be good.

[shmokes]

Barbara Park - Junie B. Jones series about a 1st grade girl.

I read two of the Junie B. Jones stories recently. I sort of detested them. For one thing, I think the protagonist is a spoiled brat. She has a horrible attitude about everything. Page after page I'm thinking to myself, pretty much non-stop, "Oh god . . . please don't let Maddy get any ideas." Junie B. just an absolute spoiled rotten nightmare, nonstop. And the author bugs me with what I perceive to be constant little nods to the parent-readers, meant to have the parents chuckling to themselves about the silly way children interpret their world. Only . . . most of it doesn't seem authentic to me at all. It feels really contrived--not the least of which being Junie B.'s annoying speech patterns.

Moreover, it doesn't seem to me that Junie B. is the hero of her stories. Her bad attitude and dysfunctional behavior get her into messes and instead of having her, like, stop and think about the situation and overcome the conflicts, she just ends up being rescued by an adult or coincidence or something.

My daughter seemed to like them fine, though.

[shmokes]

Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass can be fun as they read/talk "funny".
Can also try "Coraline".  My daughter (3) loves the movie which I thought could be a little scary, but the book could be good.

My daughter (3) loved Coraline. My daughter (5--the same daughter, but two years later) is afraid to watch it. Lol.

[shmokes]

Fancy Nancy by Jane O'Connor
Skippyjon Jones by Judy Schachner

Maddy loves Fancy Nancy. We only have one Skippyjon Jones book, but it's a regular. And it's one of the few non-chapter books that I still regularly read (as opposed to my daughter reading to me) because I do voices for all the characters. When Maddy does read it, it's hilarious to hear her subtly try to do the same voices.

[leapinlew]

My daughter is five. I've graduated from reading the likes of Dr. Seuss to her (she reads him to me now) to what we call "chapter books". Anybody have some good suggestions? My first experiment with reading a chapter book to her was Charlotte's Web, and it couldn't have been a more resounding success. She followed the story from day to day, the language didn't pose a problem. She absolutely loved it. We've now finished almost the entire collection of Roald Dahl's books. I'm on The Great Glass Elevator now, then Fantastic Mr. Fox, then I'll be in the market for new books to read to her.

I was thinking of maybe checking out Tarzan and Robert Louis Stevenson's stuff . . . but it occurs to me that she might like something a bit more girlish. Plus, she's probably a bit too young still for Robert Louis Stevenson--lots of killing and the language may be too advanced/archaic for her to fully enjoy it. I've never read Tarzan, so I can't really speak to that.

Anyway, I'd love to hear some suggestions. The language doesn't have to be dumbed down too much. Like I said, she had no problem whatsoever with Charlotte's Web or even some of Dahl's more advanced books like Danny the Champion of the World and Matilda. On the other hand, I'm not going to try any Steinbeck on her.  

How did the ending of Charlottes web go over? It was super sad for me and I was sad for weeks.

[DillonFoulds]

I'm impressed, sounds like you have a strong little reader. Someone mentioned Beverly Cleary, maybe you could also consider Judy Blume? She's a writer in the same vein as Beverly, but maybe more oriented towards boys. The "Fudge" series was a favourite of mine growing up.

[shmokes]

How did the ending of Charlottes web go over? It was super sad for me and I was sad for weeks.

She was sobbing. It was my first time reading the book too (though I knew the story of course). It would have been embarrassing reading aloud in the company of adults cos they'd have noticed the subtle, involuntary cracks appearing in my voice. But she got over Charlotte's demise and for a long time she was naming her toys after Charlotte's little spider babies. She looks back at reading the book with great fondness and if I were to suggest rereading it she'd jump at the chance.

[shmokes]

I'm impressed, sounds like you have a strong little reader. Someone mentioned Beverly Cleary, maybe you could also consider Judy Blume? She's a writer in the same vein as Beverly, but maybe more oriented towards boys. The "Fudge" series was a favourite of mine growing up.

Thanks. Yeah, she's amazing. We've never formally worked with her on reading. But since the day she was born I've read stories to her every night before bed. My wife has always been half-cross with me about it because my story times typically run up to like 45 minutes to an hour or more, and my wife is always like, "Jake! You can't keep her up that late." But, of course, she's only half-cross. The other half sees how much Maddy loves books. And now she's just a phenomenal reader. She got her first-ever report card from school like a month or two ago. It said that she's surpassed the reading benchmark for the end of first grade. She was only halfway through Kindergarten. I'm extraordinarily proud of her.

It's so easy with reading, though. Like . . . I don't know how I would so effortlessly teach her math or music. She's in violin lessons, for example, and we explicitly practice the violin. I mean, I suppose we also explicitly have "story time", but it's not the same thing. Story time is a highlight of the day. It's a super fun thing we do every night before going to bed. It would be much harder to do that with something like, e.g., math. I mean, even if I started when she was very very young, I just don't know if I could ever make a before-bed "math time" the same kind of amazing experience that she'd look forward to every day. And it seems much more difficult to teach without explicitly teaching it, i.e., "Two plus two is four. Two plus three is five." Shrug. Maybe that's just for lack of trying, I suppose.

[elkameleon]

I'm a big fan of Shel Silverstein's 'Where The Sidewalk Ends', what a great collection of poems and illustrations!

[HaRuMaN]

I'm a big fan of Shel Silverstein's 'Where The Sidewalk Ends', what a great collection of poems and illustrations!

His recordings of his poems are excellent, btw...   

[EightBySix]

Quite old fashioned, but still popular for a reason are Enid blyton books....

[EightBySix]

Quite old fashioned, but still popular for a reason are Enid blyton books....

[Dartful Dodger]

Judy Moody by Meg McDonald

+1

My neices enjoyed these books.

[SithMaster]

I have no mouth, and I must scream by harlan ellison.

The only novels I could suggest are ones from elementary school required reading (Island of the Blue Dolphin, Where the Red Fern Grows, and many others I can't remember) for something normal.  I always liked those choose your own adventure novels (even better with the 3d image pages).

As far as math goes perhaps this Math Rescue with an incentive for high scores.

[Dervacumen]

Fancy Nancy by Jane O'Connor
Skippyjon Jones by Judy Schachner

Maddy loves Fancy Nancy. We only have one Skippyjon Jones book, but it's a regular. And it's one of the few non-chapter books that I still regularly read (as opposed to my daughter reading to me) because I do voices for all the characters. When Maddy does read it, it's hilarious to hear her subtly try to do the same voices.

Skippy Jon Jones and Fancy Nancy were huge hits here, too.  Just this morning my daughter was singing a Skippy Jon Jones song on the way to school.

I'm impressed, sounds like you have a strong little reader. Someone mentioned Beverly Cleary, maybe you could also consider Judy Blume? She's a writer in the same vein as Beverly, but maybe more oriented towards boys. The "Fudge" series was a favourite of mine growing up.

Thanks. Yeah, she's amazing. We've never formally worked with her on reading. But since the day she was born I've read stories to her every night before bed. My wife has always been half-cross with me about it because my story times typically run up to like 45 minutes to an hour or more, and my wife is always like, "Jake! You can't keep her up that late." But, of course, she's only half-cross. The other half sees how much Maddy loves books. And now she's just a phenomenal reader. She got her first-ever report card from school like a month or two ago. It said that she's surpassed the reading benchmark for the end of first grade. She was only halfway through Kindergarten. I'm extraordinarily proud of her.

It's so easy with reading, though. Like . . . I don't know how I would so effortlessly teach her math or music. She's in violin lessons, for example, and we explicitly practice the violin. I mean, I suppose we also explicitly have "story time", but it's not the same thing. Story time is a highlight of the day. It's a super fun thing we do every night before going to bed. It would be much harder to do that with something like, e.g., math. I mean, even if I started when she was very very young, I just don't know if I could ever make a before-bed "math time" the same kind of amazing experience that she'd look forward to every day. And it seems much more difficult to teach without explicitly teaching it, i.e., "Two plus two is four. Two plus three is five." Shrug. Maybe that's just for lack of trying, I suppose.

Learning to read provides the foundation for reading to learn.  What's better than that, really?  Children your daughter's age aren't normally great at math, since there's no survival advantage to being able to calculate at that age.  There is an advantage to being able to communicate effectively, though.

I have no mouth, and I must scream by harlan ellison.

The only novels I could suggest are ones from elementary school required reading (Island of the Blue Dolphin, Where the Red Fern Grows, and many others I can't remember) for something normal.  I always liked those choose your own adventure novels (even better with the 3d image pages).

As far as math goes perhaps this Math Rescue with an incentive for high scores.

Bought one of these just two days ago.  An instant hit.  I wrote my first computer adventure game based on this concept.  Unfortunately, Zork had a larger following.

Judy Moody by Meg McDonald

+1

My neices enjoyed these books.

[SavannahLion]

Barbara Park - Junie B. Jones series about a 1st grade girl.

I read two of the Junie B. Jones stories recently. I sort of detested them. For one thing, I think the protagonist is a spoiled brat. She has a horrible attitude about everything. Page after page I'm thinking to myself, pretty much non-stop, "Oh god . . . please don't let Maddy get any ideas." Junie B. just an absolute spoiled rotten nightmare, nonstop. And the author bugs me with what I perceive to be constant little nods to the parent-readers, meant to have the parents chuckling to themselves about the silly way children interpret their world. Only . . . most of it doesn't seem authentic to me at all. It feels really contrived--not the least of which being Junie B.'s annoying speech patterns.

Moreover, it doesn't seem to me that Junie B. is the hero of her stories. Her bad attitude and dysfunctional behavior get her into messes and instead of having her, like, stop and think about the situation and overcome the conflicts, she just ends up being rescued by an adult or coincidence or something.

My daughter seemed to like them fine, though.

I dislike those books.for exactly the same reason. Worse, in an interview with the author, she admits to having no desire to writing children's books. She continues for no other reason that it's a cash cow.

[Ed_McCarron]

The Magic Treehouse series.

[Dervacumen]

Barbara Park - Junie B. Jones series about a 1st grade girl.

I read two of the Junie B. Jones stories recently. I sort of detested them. For one thing, I think the protagonist is a spoiled brat. She has a horrible attitude about everything. Page after page I'm thinking to myself, pretty much non-stop, "Oh god . . . please don't let Maddy get any ideas." Junie B. just an absolute spoiled rotten nightmare, nonstop. And the author bugs me with what I perceive to be constant little nods to the parent-readers, meant to have the parents chuckling to themselves about the silly way children interpret their world. Only . . . most of it doesn't seem authentic to me at all. It feels really contrived--not the least of which being Junie B.'s annoying speech patterns.

Moreover, it doesn't seem to me that Junie B. is the hero of her stories. Her bad attitude and dysfunctional behavior get her into messes and instead of having her, like, stop and think about the situation and overcome the conflicts, she just ends up being rescued by an adult or coincidence or something.

My daughter seemed to like them fine, though.

I dislike those books.for exactly the same reason. Worse, in an interview with the author, she admits to having no desire to writing children's books. She continues for no other reason that it's a cash cow.

Barbara Park - Junie B. Jones series about a 1st grade girl.

I read two of the Junie B. Jones stories recently. I sort of detested them. For one thing, I think the protagonist is a spoiled brat. She has a horrible attitude about everything. Page after page I'm thinking to myself, pretty much non-stop, "Oh god . . . please don't let Maddy get any ideas." Junie B. just an absolute spoiled rotten nightmare, nonstop. And the author bugs me with what I perceive to be constant little nods to the parent-readers, meant to have the parents chuckling to themselves about the silly way children interpret their world. Only . . . most of it doesn't seem authentic to me at all. It feels really contrived--not the least of which being Junie B.'s annoying speech patterns.

Moreover, it doesn't seem to me that Junie B. is the hero of her stories. Her bad attitude and dysfunctional behavior get her into messes and instead of having her, like, stop and think about the situation and overcome the conflicts, she just ends up being rescued by an adult or coincidence or something.

My daughter seemed to like them fine, though.

I dislike those books.for exactly the same reason. Worse, in an interview with the author, she admits to having no desire to writing children's books. She continues for no other reason that it's a cash cow.

This causes me to take notice.  I must admit I have a different sleep pattern than most so I don't read to my kid at night, it's more during the day and most of our interactions are about learning the way the world works.  I'll read through these and decide, and thanks for putting it on my radar.  I still think that exposure to this gives tons of teaching points.  Reading about others' actions gives so many opportunities to have genuine discussions with your child.

[shmokes]

The Magic Treehouse series.

I read one of these recently too. It was fine; I liked that the book was overtly educational, but still had plenty of adventure and so on. But, honestly, I'm really looking for books that can step into the shoes of Charlotte's Web. The Magic Treehouse is for my daughter to read by herself. I'm hoping to find some more books that I'll enjoy reading to my daughter on account of the quality of the book.

[Ginsu Victim]

Bring a laptop or iPod with a text adventure and get her involved in the story. Read it to her and ask her what you should do.

Or just get some old Choose Your Own Adventure books. 

[shmokes]

Have any of you ever actually read Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator? I had read the Chocolate Factory multiple times in my life but this is the first time I've ever read its sequel. It is garbage. I can't understand it. It's as though it is not even written by the same person. Or maybe Dahl suffered a head injury and for a time his sense of humor and imagination were drastically, though temporarily, compromised. Slogging through the chapters every night has been painful.

[Hoopz]

Have any of you ever actually read Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator? I had read the Chocolate Factory multiple times in my life but this is the first time I've ever read its sequel. It is garbage. I can't understand it. It's as though it is not even written by the same person. Or maybe Dahl suffered a head injury and for a time his sense of humor and imagination were drastically, though temporarily, compromised. Slogging through the chapters every night has been painful.

I read it in 4th grade or so.  Vicious knids or something like that?  I think if you're 8 or 9, it makes perfect sense. 

[HaRuMaN]

Vermicious knids...   

I liked it...

[shmokes]

Sure . . . sure . . . but that's faint praise. Kids may not be able to articulate or recognize the difference in quality between, say, Toy Story and Pocahontas, but the difference is nevertheless there. And even if Maddy doesn't recognize how crappy this book is, it seems very much to me that she doesn't enjoy it nearly to the extent that she's enjoyed all the other Roald Dahl books we've read, including Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, which we read immediately before starting The Great Glass Elevator.

In short, kids no doubt will enjoy Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator, but kids enjoy all kinds of garbage.


Edit: don't you love when you type something like "does" when you mean "does not"

[Hoopz]

I think the important thing to focus on is that a child reads and that they enjoy it.  It's no different than other books that aren't well written.  Children that read do infinitely better at school than those that don't.  I've yet to see a study that compares children that read crappy books to those that read better written books.  I wouldn't get too worked up about it.

I used to think that Grisham wrote some good novels, and to an extent, he did.  The first few books in his career were much better written than the drivel he started putting out later.  Maybe Roald was writing to complete X number of books with his publisher, had lost a bunch on the Super Bowl, etc.

[shmokes]

You misunderstand. I'm not talking about the books my daughter reads. I'm talking about the books that are read to her. By me. You see my predicament. 

[Hoopz]

My bad.  "Accidentally" skip a few extra pages at a time?  Lose the book?  Turn on the tv?   

[popsicle]

My favorite Dahl book is The Twits.  Fun reading for both of you 

[leapinlew]

I bought these as an impulse purchase, but I've kept them hidden ever since they arrived.

[DillonFoulds]

Being as we had a 6 month old this last Christmas, we got GTF to sleep from my mother, and my wife's brother. Never expected to see it coming from my mom though, she's very reserved when it comes to language.

[shmokes]

My favorite Dahl book is The Twits.  Fun reading for both of you 

I like that one very much. But Danny the Champion of the World is still my favorite. Matilda gives Danny a run for his money, though. It might be better. And I skipped the BFG in this recent Dahl marathon I've done, though I remember loving the book as a kid.

[elkameleon]

I have 'go the f*ck to sleep' on my ipad, i love it! My son is right about that age too, doesn't want to go down, has an excuse for everything.

[Turambar]

The Boxcar Children books are good little chapter books:  http://www.amazon.com/The-Boxcar-Children-Books-1-4/dp/0807508543/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1332348601&sr=8-2

My first grade daughter is currently reading A Wrinkle in Time at night.  She is 7 (She'll be eight this December).  There are a ton of good Madeleine L'Engle books:  http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=sr_tc_2_0?rh=i%3Astripbooks%2Ck%3AMadeleine+L%27Engle&keywords=Madeleine+L%27Engle&ie=UTF8&qid=1332348654&sr=1-2-ent&field-contributor_id=B000APZXFW#/ref=sr_pg_1?rh=n%3A283155%2Ck%3AMadeleine+L%27Engle%2Cp_82%3AB000APZXFW&keywords=Madeleine+L%27Engle&ie=UTF8&qid=1332348787

Lauren loved Matilda.   http://www.amazon.com/Matilda-Roald-Dahl/dp/0142410373/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1332348852&sr=1-1

[ark_ader]

Roald Dahl has a few good books you can introduce to her, great for bedtime stories.

[Mikezilla]

When I was young I read a book called The plant that ate dirty socks. It was a fun read. Same with Indian in the Cupboard. I think those are timeless.

[shmokes]

Roald Dahl has a few good books you can introduce to her, great for bedtime stories.

Yeah . . . we're just about out of Dahl books to read, though.

We've now finished almost the entire collection of Roald Dahl's books. I'm on The Great Glass Elevator now, then Fantastic Mr. Fox, then I'll be in the market for new books to read to her.