Book Suggestions for Kids

I love Jon Scieszka. He's got great silly stories like 'The True Story of the Three Little Pigs" that would be good for the younger kids and other books like the Time Warp series for the older. I love math/science and love his Science Verse (science poetry - seriously) and Math Curse. He is very active in trying to encourage kids to read - especially boys.

Here is his website: http://www.jsworldwide.com/

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Look under the Summer Reading heading:
http://www.standrewapostle.org/School/library.html
There are some good suggestions there for the younger boys. The 18 year old, I agree with just letting him pick his own at the library.

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Well the 18 years old should already have an idea what he likes Why don't you g o to ge liberary and take if rom there

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Get a copy of Jim Treleases's READALOUD HANDBOOK for a great list of recommended books for all ages of children. A wonderful experience for you to share with all of your boys would be to read to them the book WHERE THE RED FERN GROWS.

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WOW! 5 boys!!
Our 5 1/2 year old has enjoyed the Magic Treehouse books and also the Junie B Jones series.

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A series called 'The Magic Tree House' is fun for the kids aged 8 & 9 - a lot of different adventures. Berenstein Bear Books are great for all kids - although there is a lot of writing in them, kids can usually pick up on what's going on b/c of the wonderfully detailed pictures. Of course, Dr. Seuss books are great too. I'd recommend the ones such as One Fish, Blue Fish,; The B Book; Green Eggs & Ham; Go Dog Go; Fox in Sox, etc.; b/c the wording & rhyming helps the kids to read themselves.

For those just learning to read/sound out words a series called "The Bob Books" are excellent. Based on phonemics and rhyming.

Good Luck & Have Fun!
B. B.

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My boys really enjoyed the Animorphs series of books. Horrible Harry books are good, Junie B. Jones, Franklin (yes, the turtle from NickJr.), Arthur, Cam Jansen, etc. I imagine you'll need some books for you to read to them and some for the older ones to read to themselves.

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The 8 and 9 yr old might like Harry Potter Hardy Boys.The 2 younger one Dr Seuss books

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I have twin four-year-olds, so we're a bit behind you in ages, but we play books on CD for them to go to bed by. They seem to get a lot out of books much higher than their reading level. Sorry, that's beside the point. We love Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder (the only one about boys because it is Almanzo's childhood). Johnny Tremain and Carry on, Mr. Bowditch are both great. And I recently discovered an author named Sid Fleischman. I read By the Great Horn Spoon and loved it for my son, but I think he has a few others with male characters. I am interested to read your other responses because it seems like so many of the good children's books focus on girl characters. My son enjoys them too, but I'd like to have a more even mix.

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The magic treehouse series is great for the younger ones. And add in hardy boys for the 8 and 9 yr olds as well as some classics like robinson cruso ( I cant spell lol ). And for the 18 yr old , it depends on what he's into , what is he interested in? The Harry potter books if he hasnt read them yet are great for any age ranging from 13 up.

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I have a 9 (soon to be 10) y.o. boy. Last year the class read together 4 books from The Little House on the Prairie series. I thought he might not like it because the main characters are girls but he loved it. His teacher really got into the whole history of it (complete w/ colonial days and minature log cabins). He has since read more on his own.

Depending upon your kid's level - I truly believe Harry Potter books are too hard for the average kids this age. I'm also not a big fan of Junie B. Jones. I even had to ask his 1st grade teacher to not suggest them. Junie B. is very sassy to adults and does not make good choices. Something I didn't need him to mimic.

My son really enjoyed the "Far Side of the Mountain" books. I think there's 3(??). He has just started getting into biographies, i.e. sports people and historical figures.

When he was younger he loved Magic Tree House, Droon series and anything Star Wars.

I think boy books are always a challenge. I'm lovin' many of the other suggestions and will look into those as well.

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I homeschool using a program that's really heavy on literature. The book lists are easy to view at www.sonlight.com Just look at the age range you have and they have books appropriate for reading aloud and for independent reading. Most are available on amazon and many will be at you local library if you have a good one! (we don't) :)

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My sun started getting into the Magic Tree House series when he was 8, he still cant get enough of it, also Choose Your Own Adventures.

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Try the Magic Treehouse series, or the Boxcar children series or even Captain Underpants. My 5 year old is not reading yet, so I red these to him, but in the next few years I anticipate him wanting to read them himself.

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Like a lot of the readers here my boys have really liked the Junie B. Jones books and the Magic Tree House books. I recently introduced my 8 yr. old to Encyclopedia Brown books because I loved that series when I was young, and he really seemed to enjoy it as well. My nephew says that he likes the Goosebump series, we have to read but haven't started it yet.

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Harry Potter is my first suggestion for the 8 and 9 year olds. Starting with the first book now is very appropriate. Also, my son enjoyed the Artemis Fowl books. There are the Goosebumps books as well.

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my recently turned 13 yr old loves the Warrior Series.

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For the younger boys, the Henry and Mudge books are great. For the older ones I want to suggest a series of "Soup" books by Robert Newton Peck. I think the were published in the 70's and 80's so they won't jump out as something new, but should be easily found at your public library. It's about two very adventuresome boys, Soup and his friend. My son adored these books when he was around that age. And no, he was not inspired to go out and get in to any mischief. Another that he loved was Hatchet and the sequels. I hope that you are using the library and teaching your kids about the greatest bargin in the world!

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Hey K.,
I used to teach first, second, and third graders and the boys used to love the Magic Tree House series. The children in these books go on different adventures around the world. I just found a good search engine for children's books on www.pbs.org. I hope this helps.

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I always loved "Homer Price" books and the book "Caddie Woodlawn" (like Laura Ingalls Wilder) "The Rescuers" and "Miss Bianca" were fun, too. These would be for the slightly older kids.

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Hi K.!

Great question! I homeschooled my son for 5 years and we were both extremely thrilled with the reading books suggested in the Sonlight curriculum. Go to their website, Sonlight.com, and look through the History part of the curriculum for your boys' ages/grades. (Don't be fooled by the word History. These stories are real character-building dramas mostly about kids!) Sonlight will list all of the books in several categories-Readers, Read-alouds, etc. within the age you call up. I ordered a free catalogue so that I could take it with me to the library after checking on-line at my local library to see which ones they had and if they were already checked out or not. Of course, we purchased them from Sonlight and will keep them for future generations of to enjoy they were such unbelievable great reads!

The Sonlight.com website gives you a brief synopsis so you can get a feel right away for the story lines. These books were fabulous and reading aloud was the highlight of our day. If you have trouble or want more specific help, just let me know.

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