Junie B. Jones, Magic Treehouse, and...?

I realize you're asking re our own personal recommendations (and, alas, I have but young boys in my life and not so many girls), but Amazon says this.

BM

back tomorrow

The timewarp trio is like the magic treehouse in that kids go elsewhere. Three boys have a magic book. They think about going to a different era/epoch, they go. They face great peril make it back alive. It definately more boyish, and I feel it's more au currant and more funny than the magic treehouse books.

Also try Bunnicula - also very funny.

Cool, the "Dragon" series looks promising.

Junie B. Jones and Magic Treehouse each have something like 30 books in the series (as in, a total of 60 or so), and series are nice because once they're identified you can just go through them and not really have to think about it until the kid has finished them. The "Dragon" one seems much shorter (3 or 4?) but still promising.

I'd still like individual book recommendations, too.

Hey, I just looked up how many books are in the Magic Treehouse series and found out that the same author has a whole other series, "Merlin's Missions," with another 20 or so. I'll look into that.

Don't worry about boy/ girl stuff, sozlet likes a lot of "boyish" books. She adores dinosaurs, for example, which is typically categorized as a boy thing.

Ah! Jes' link reminds me of My Father's Dragon - great story, beautiful woodblock illustrations. I didn't realize it was a series.

Thanks littlek!

I will be keeping my eye out for more while at work. Don't let the cover of bunnicula fool you into thinking it'll be too old fashion. It's a very funny book.

I'm not familiar with either of the series mentioned, but alternate universes are alternate universes and elegant places to spend the summer.

May I suggest--if they are still in print:

Walter Brooks "Freddy the Pig" stories.

L. Frank Baum and successors: All the Oz books.

Betty MacDonald: Mrs. PiggleWiggle

Amazon has some great buys in second hand children's books--sometimes just $.01 plus $3.99 postage and handling.

Ah Junie B Jones used to be a favorite of my daughter as well.

Lemony Snicket, A Series of Unfortunate Events, is another chapter book series that are very entertaining. If you're interested, we just have about
all 13 books here.

http://www.lemonysnicket.com/

They do. A lot of these "series" books are very cheap new, and then free shipping through Amazon, too (I have Amazon Prime). They tend to be about $2.99-$3.99 each. We'll probably get a lot of stuff at the library though.

Junie B. Jones is listed as being about 2nd grade reading level. Magic Treehouse seems to be about the same. I don't know sozlet's reading level -- she had it assessed but it just said "well above grade level." (On a scale of 1-18, it was "18+".) She read "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" with evident enjoyment and that's listed as 5th grade level, but she had to work at that one, she didn't tear through like she does the Junie B. Jones and Magic Treehouse books and she seems to enjoy the tearing -- sitting down with a book and then finishing it the same day.

Bunnicula seems older -- it's listed for 9-12. Wizard of Oz, too. Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle, too. Maybe I'll get one of those and see how it goes.

Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle reminded me of Amelia Bedelia, though, she likes those and they're the same reading level as JBJ and MT.

And I bet she'd enjoy other Roald Dahl books. (Looked up "BFG," another 9-12. Urgh!)

The Oz books are great stories. I read them all to my boys at bedtime, then later they read them again on their own.

I wish the Lemony Snicket books were around then (35 years ago) they are hysterical, so my sister in law reports.

Joe(best memories of those bedtimes)Nation

Just looked up Lemony Snicket -- those 9-12 year olds sure have it good!

And there's Harry Potter waiting in the wings, of course. (I haven't read any of them yet, plan to read them along with her.)

I've read her Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, she can maybe do those on her own now...

Soz, I read Bunnicula to second graders. They took the books out and read them at home - maybe with the help of their parents?

The Unfortunate Events series rocks! For adult readers they are repetitive, but funny. Repetitive is good for young readers. I would assume they are maybe to old for Sozlet.

Soz--

I'm a strong supporter of local public libraries. No one can own all the books they would like to read.

I'm also a great believer in having a stash of wonderful books in the house, available for emergencies. (Power outages, recovery from illness, family crisis....)

Reading on or below grade level builds up reading speed. Reading slightly beyond grade level--or well beyond grade level--develops reasoning talent and an enormous vocabulary.

When the book is recreational reading, don't worry about the grade level. The idea is entertainment and diversion.

Doesn't the Sozlet have at least one devoted grandmama who might be persuaded to buy every single volume of delightful series books?

These are some that my daughter has liked:

Cam Jansen - about a girl detective
Commander Toad - (I personally like these)
Little House books (a bit longer, but great for a dedicated reader)

If she's almost done with Magic Treehouse then she can probably start Limony Snickett. The Duckie started them about that time though they were a bit more challenging than the Magic Treehouse series. He just had to ask me what some words meant, but other than that he really enjoyed them. They are more expensive than the others, though.

Ducklet is currently reading the Star Wars box set, but I'll ask him what he likes from the school library.

Cam Jansen looks perfect!

Sozlet's very into the whole detective thing just now. (She's here and wants me to add: "A few days ago she was begging and begging me to play a detective game." She was the detective, I was the distraught client.)

Bought the first 4 at Amazon (they're eligible for the 4-for-3 promotion, so all 4 for $12 + free shipping too, not bad).

Thanks for checking with Duckie, FreeDuck. Lemony Snicket is looking good. Maybe will start with checking 'em out from the library, see how it goes.

Commander Toad is Jane Yolen!!! I LOVE Jane Yolen!

Amen.