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I have a little girl. Since so often it's hit or miss with library books, where could I go to figure out which great age appropriate books she could read? What about later on, any places that list great works of world literature as far a age groups go?
Well, I'm a teacher and I have a little girl who's almost 7. And right now she's reading the Little House on the Prairie series by Laura Ingalls Wilder and the novels of Thornton Burgess. She likes them both but at this moment seems to prefer the Burgess novels which are anthropomorphic stories that deal with the small adventures of personified animals.
They're not scary (which for my daughter is a big plus; she was scared of "Swiper the Fox" from Dora). A lot of these books were written in the 1920s, so they reflect some of the cultural values of the time -- mostly masculine characters -- which may or may not be to your liking, but personally, I'm fine with them.
Hope this helps!
Librarians are a great source for this kind of information.
Well I'm not a teacher but I do have a 7 year old daughter so hopefully this will be of some use. Some suggestions from me:
- Finn Family Moomintroll by Tove Jansson. The Moomintrolls are amazing, really beautiful books, a bit off the wall, funny and sweet. They're all great books. Comet in Moominland is also a favourite.
- anything by Roald Dahl, though for the younger reader something like The Enormous Crocodile, The Magic Finger or the Giraffe and the Pelly and Me are a really good place to start.
- Enid Blyton - okay it's very 1950's but something like The Magic Faraway Tree or The Wishing Chair are nice stories.
The Kingdom under the Sea by Joan Aitken is also an excellent book of short stories - a bit creepy/scary (in the best fairy tale tradition) with some wicked illustrations. Might be for a slightly older reader though (though my daughter has A Necklace of Raindrops and manages this perfectly well).
Hope you find something she loves.
"Fancy Nancy" is a simpler series that introduces new big words. My daughter is also seven.
The 5 Finger Rule- Have the student read the first 5 pages or so. If she is not able to decode 5 words on each page than the book is too hard. (Count each hard work on a finger.) Most second/third graders are reading simple to more complex chapter books. Or they may read longer picture books. Don't forget about poetry or biographies. Children need to read more non-fiction, according to recent studies.
Another helpful tool is to know what reading level your child is. With this information, you can pick appropriate leveled readers so she can read independently with fluency and accuracy. Most importantly, if you are not reading with your child be sure she can read the book and is interested in the themes/subject matter. Try not to make it into a chore- reading should be relaxing.
The Boxcar Children. Our teacher read it to us in the second grade, and then the book was passed around the room and we all read it.