Wednesday, June 11, 2008

After Seuss

If you look over there to the right, you will see a new widget for the AJ's Clubhouse goodreads account. A while ago, clubhouse contributorfreshhell and I were discussing the challenges of finding good books for kids with advanced reading and comprehension skills. AJ outgrew the text of picture books ages ago, but he still loves the pictures. He loves long chapter books, but the themes of many of them go over his head, because they're designed for older kids. So we started thinking about what were the best books for our kids. Because our kids are still young, we focused on books for intelligent 5-8 year-olds, or as freshhell has put it, "what to do when they outgrow Dr. Seuss." We made separate lists (which were frighteningly similar) and solicited ideas from other friends and readers. Freshhell is now in the process of publishing that list as a goodreads bookshelf. This list is a composite of our findings. Some of the books are good for early readers to read to themselves. Others might be better to read out loud now and maybe read independently when they are a little older. All of them are great books that are worth reading, no matter who you are. This list is primarily fiction. I hope eventually to add non-fiction as well and will probably have some posts on individual topic areas here as we we add to the general list.

We hope you will check it out and that you will find the list helpful and interesting. If you have any comments or suggestions, please let us know. But please keep in mind that the list will take a little while to be up in full. Freshhell's typing as fast as she can!

5 comments:

Hannah said...

I'm glad to see that Mrs. Piggle Wiggle made the cut. My kids love these stories as much as I did as a kid. I feel like I'm always making mental lists of books for the kids to read, so I'm especially interested to see what you two come up with.

My Kids' Mom said...

Pook just finished "Summer reading is killing me!" by Jon Scieszka. He enjoyed the book and has made a list of all the other books referenced in it. (I know Homer Price was in it since he'd just finished that one.) If I can find his list, I'll send it to you. We're working on "Charlotte's Web" right now, plus he's in the middle of re-reading "Mouse and the Motorcycle" AND the newest Magic Treehouse book.

Anonymous said...

Mrs. Piggle Wiggle was freshhell's contribution, Hannah, and I don't think I've ever read them. I need to look for them at the library. It's funny you mentioned Scieszka, MKM, because I was just sitting down to email freshhell that we should add Scieszka's Time Warp trio, which I remembered as I was putting Math Curse and Science Verse on the non-fiction list I'm working on. I don't know Summer reading is killing me. I'll have to check that one out. AJ loved Charlottes Web and all the Ralph S. Mouse books. I'm saving the new MTH book for him for tonsillectomy recovery. I'm glad to hear that AJ is not the only one who reads a bunch of books at a time. I was afraid he was picking up my bad habits -- I currently have 17 books on my nightstand. Oh, how I wish I were joking.

FreshHell said...

OMG - You MUST read Mrs. Piggle Wiggle. They are hilarious! And, yes, Time Warp Trio is on the list (paper list) and I'll add the Summer Reading one, too. Dusty enjoyed that one.

Anonymous said...

I checked Hello, Mrs. Piggle Wiggle and Summer Reading is Killing Me! out of the library for AJ today, along with about a million other things. You all inspire me!