For those of you who love horror and are Constant Readers, who else do you like? I need some new reading material, and I've done everything King and Little time and time again.
Also, I'd like to find a few inexpensive books for my Kindle (plain, not color, no bells and whistles) for me to read to my toddler. In general, we like fun books...nothing emotional or inspirational, sorry. :) Have you found anything for a basic Kindle worth purchasing for children?
Thanks for the suggestion. As for the advice about putting a book in my 3 year olds hands, I feel the need to defend myself. We have, and I have counted, over 1000 books in our home...ALL which have been read many, many times. And those are just the children's books. I read to both my children, 2 and 7, multiple times a day. We are all book whores. Occasionally, my toddler wants to play with my kindle and I'd rather have a book for HER on it.
Thanks, though!! :) Looking forward to some good reads!
For you - have you read Dean Koontz? Horror isn't my cup of tea, but my husband loves them.
I just got a kindle for Christmas, so I'm no expert. But I downloaded a few free toddler books that got good reviews.
I don't go for horror, so I can't help you there.
For toddlers, any of these titles are great. However, the preschool teacher in me does advise that you stick with print books for kids whenever possible. They need to learn how to turn the pages in order and they need to be able to hold, carry around, play with and slightly damage books. (I don't know if Kindle carries these title, BTW, but they are child-tested many times over.) Here's my list of fun books for little ones:
Eric Carle: Brown Bear, Brown Bear
Have You Seen My Cat? (my toddler group loved this one)
Bruce Degan: Jamberry (great singsongy poem, fun pics)
Margaret Wise Brown: Little Fur Family
Runaway Bunny
Goodnight Moon
Robert McCloskey: Blueberries for Sal
Lois Lenski: The Little Train
Cowboy Small
Arnold Lobel: Frog and Toad are Friends
Ezra Jack Keats: The Snowy Day
Don and Audrey Wood: The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry and the Big Hungry Bear
Ole Rimson (illus. by Richard Scarry): I Am A Bunny
PD Eastman: Big Dog...Little Dog
(I found these just skimming through my son's bookshelf.. nice memories!)
I love Hazel's ideas, but truthfully, I'd check them out of the library rather than use your kindle. The illustrations are what bring the stories alive.
Dawn
We do not have a kindle, and deleted the kindle app.
For ebooks for children my kids like Garbage, Monster, Burp! By Tom Watson" the illustrations are pretty simple.
"Digger the Dinosaur" by Rebecca Kai Dotlich.
"Old King Cole and Friends" by Miles Kelly
My kids very much prefe the interactive ebook/magazine apps. If you can get yhem on Kindle Yabber is a science magazine app that my four year old loves.
I'll go with ditto for the print books. They are little masterpieces of art.
Any Sandra Boynton book, including our favorites of hers, Barnyard Dance, Pajama Time and Doggies. These will be the most outright fun.
Jan Brett for incredible illustrations; check out The Easter Egg, The Mitten and The Hat. Subtle humor.
Richard Scarry's Busy Day, or something like that. It is an oversized book with delightful drawings.
Lauren Thompson's Little Quack series.
Lois Ehlert has bright illustrations; we especially like Planting a Rainbow. It's not funny, but the colors are fun.
Jamberry by Bruce Degan.
Have You Seen My Cat? Eric Carle (LOVE it!)
The Snowman.
How about old horror? Shirley Jackson's short story "The Lottery;" she also has novels that are suspenseful.
Dracula and Frankenstein are quite dense books; if that doesn't grab you, there are some updated versions that can be enticing. There is a sequel to Dracula that is written by Stoker's descendant. And there are all of those zombie books, such as the one for Jane Austen.
Edgar Allen Poe is always worth a look and a rereading.
Happy Reading!
Any book by Peggy Rathman is well worth the money.. I simply LOVE her books as did my son...
I was also going to suggest Dean Koontz. I have read everything by both Stephen King and by Dean Koontz. John Saul isn't bad. Robert R. McCammon (Swan Song was a favourite) is good. I've enjoyed Anne Rices vampires and witches.
I love, love, love Michael Connelly, Kathy Reichs and James Gripando. They are mostly mystery but can certainly horrifiy.
As for kids, we are still old-school and read actual books. Love Frog and Toad and Clifford.
I don't know if Kindle has free books, but I have a Sony e-reader and they offer tons of free books. Most of the books I download are free, so I download a variety of books and if I don't like them after so many pages, I delete them and move on to the next. I read a lot of new authors just trying to get noticed and I find most of my reads very good. I don't do horror, but the mystery/thrillers are 90% of the time good.
As for kids books, my daughter loves Franklin books, Octonauts is a favorite of hers, and I'm trying to get her back into Dr. Seuss because I want her to start trying to read since she loves it so much. My daughter is 4. When my daughter was younger she loved anything that rhymed: Green Eggs and Ham, Barnyard Dance, etc.
For you anything in the Kay Hooper bishop series
For your toddler anything by Eric Carle.
You didn't ask this but I'm throwing it out there. A toddler needs the book in his/her hands not an electronic item. Start him/her off really reading not paying on an electronic.
