Reading Lists! First Through Fourth Grade

All from my childhood that my kids loved, too:
Sam & the Firefly
Robert the Rose Horse
Where's Wallace (This one's still my favorite)
anything by Beatrice Potter
Little Bear
You mentioned Owl & the Pussycat - get the one by Hilary Knight, I think he's the best illustrator out there.

My absolute favorite book as a child was "The Little Old Man Who Could Not Read" by Irma Simonton Black. That book is what inspired my love of reading.

I also agree with the others that recommend Judy Blume and Shel Silverstein!

One of the books that my girl likes to read are the Camp Mouse books (she is in the third grade), and they are eligible for the AR points as well!! Also Katie Kazoo books are great!!!

Hi, my favorite and now my one of my son's favorites was the Mrs. Piggle Wiggle books. Really funny and creative, deals with kids misbehaving and this little old lady who has the most creative ways to help their parents "cure" them of their misbehaving.

Also, below are Christian homeschool resources, but the books they recommend are not Christian, just wholesome clean books.

1) The book "Honey for a Child's Heart", by Gladys Hunt. I finally bought this from Amazon earlier this year and loved it, SO many good book lists for all ages in there, including poetry, and some nice chapters on the benefits of reading to kids.

2) The homeschool curriculum website, www.sonlight.com
They pick really good books for each grade level for historical fiction, reading for fun, and read alouds for the parents to read to their kids. Once again, even though it's a Christian homeschool resource website, these are not Christian books, they are just great books, that have withstood the test of time, and some new ones as well! Of course you can find some great Christian resources on the website as well if you are interested.

Hope that helps.

Hi R.,

It's great to see a Mom that is encouraging her kids to read. Too often I hear of people using the tv to entertain their child instead of a good book. Two series that I loved as a child and gave to all of my nieces and nephews were "Little House on the Prairie" and "The Black Stallion" series. There is a whole collection of stories in each and they are great reads. Good luck!

A.

P.S. There is a company that rewrites classics to fit into different reading levels. So if you wanted your child to read "Tom Sawyer" but are wondering if he/she will understand it all there is a version adapted to their level.

Books I loved as a child included "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" and "Through the Looking Glass. Also books on Greek Myths. The Little House On the Prairie series was another that I read over and over again.

Is your child in public school? I ask because there are many books that are wonderful pieces of literature, however public schools no longer offer them to the kids because of political correctness.
Go to the library and check out "The Language Police" by Diane Ravitch - there are some great reading lists in the appendix.
"The Well Trained Mind" is another one with good reading lists.

Happy reading!

My 7 year old daughter and I love reading Robert Louis Steveson's poems. A good book is "A Child's Garden of Verses". I also like Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. One of my favorite poems by him is "The Childrens Hour"

The first ones that pop into my head:

-Shel Silverstein
-A collection of Japanese Haiku, that I treasured as a child and read to my own children now.
- "The Giving Book" by Scholastic
-Upstairs Mouse, Downstairs Mole
-Watership Down
- Webster's Dictionary, which I loved reading as a child.
- Ogden Nash's poems

If I might ask R., what is this compilation for?

Good luck,
Susan

In third grade I remember reading the Frances Hodges Burnett books (SEcret Garden) and loving those. As others have suggested Amelia Bedelia and Encyclopedia Brown are great for the younger set too. Louis Sachar has lots of great books in a variety of ages. I loved the Beverly Cleary books too. The Gregor the Overlander series is fun for older elementary school. There are tons of great books out there!

Hi R.,

My daughter loves Mercer Mayer books, Franklin, Junie B Jones, American Girl Stories - Laura Numeroff - If You Give A Mouse A Cookie books are great. The Click Clack Moo books are fun for both adults and kids. We are going to read the Little House books this summer. David Shannon also writes good books. Both my kids still love NO David even though it is more Kinder or preschool.

My son is in fifth grade. He likes Goosebumps (don't read at night). His favorite author is Kate DiCamillo who wrote Tale of Despereaux (much better than the movie), Because of Winn Dixie and Edward Tulane. Also, Roald Dahl books are good - Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, James and the Giant Peach, The twits etc.

I always found that catching a library story time or just browsing the books they have on display is inspirational.

Happy Reading.

What fun books you've gotten! Our all-time favorite book is Where the Wild Things Are. We also love anything by Shel Silverstein (The Giving Tree, Where The Sidewalk Ends, etc). My 3rd grader (almost 4th) started reading and LOVES the Diary of A Whimpy Kid books. He'll read them nonstop (and he's not a reader...). My older kids loved the Boxcar Children series when they were younger.

Too tempting! I just can't resist this question. I loved the Secret Garden by Frances Hodg???? (son? kins?) Burnett. She also wrote The Little Princess, if you are old enough to remember the Shirley Temple movie of that name. My fourth grader who was a poor reader loved the Sideways Stories of Wayside School. Those were for him to read to me. I read him all the Narnia Books, and all the Tolkein Books, Hobbit (meant to stop there, but he wouldn't let me), Lord of the Rings, Two Towers and Return of the King. Anything Kipling is wonderful, from the Jungle Books to the Just So Stories. Fun for a big kid to read to a little kid. And of course, Oz. Wizard of, Return to, and all the other sequels. My good reader friend read all of those to me. My mother read us the Time Trilogy, by Madeline L'Engle, A Wrinkle in Time, A Wind in the Door, and A Swiftly Tilting Planet. For younger kids (I am starting at fourth grade and going down, in case you can't tell), my sister and I used to love My Father's Dragon, there are a couple of sequels, too. Ah, such memories. Thank you for asking!

Hi R.,

My husband found a great book for our son, it's called Wisdom Tales from around the World. It's different tales that are told generation after generation in different parts of the world. We thought it would be cool for him to not only hear the fairy tales that we grew up with but some that children in other countries grow up with as well.

My son is finishing 2nd grade-in 1st it was all about Junie B Jones and Nate the great. 2nd started out w/ all the Black Lagoon books, then Magic tree house, and those horrible Diaper baby books, now he like the Diary of a wimpy kid books. I think he's ready for Beverly Cleary/Judy Blume. I LOVED Judy Blume books. I am going to stear clear of anything about sex, he's 8 and so naive. And we have been reading Harry Potter together. he couldn't do it by himself. he is lazy.

Some of my personal favorites, which my kids also enjoyed at early elementary school age (either read to aloud, or on their own) are:

Jumanji (the movie was based on this)

The Diamond in the Window
The Swing in the Summerhouse
Both by Jane Langton (Kid heros, great adventure, but also a good introduction to classical authors, american philosophers, and existential philosophy)

The Chronicles of Narnia by CS Lewis

Anything by Shel Silverstein

Harry Potter series by JK Rowling (my son started reading these in 5th grade when they were first published and my daughter loved having these read to her until she was old enough to read them herself.)

The Goosebumps series (only slightly scary ghost/monster stories for kids. These were quite the rage when my son was in elementary school. There are a LOT of these!)

Podkayne of Mars
Between Planets
Have Spacesuit, Will Travel
Red Planet
Rocketship Galileo
Farmer in the Sky
Orphans of the Sky
Citizen of the Galaxy
Starship Troopers
Time for the Stars
Tunnel in the Sky
The Star Beast
Starman Jones
The Rolling Stones
Space Cadet
All by Robert A. Heinlein (I loved these books starting in about 4th grade -- they really sparked my imagination!)

The Forgotten Door
Escape to Witch Mountain
Return from Witch Mountain (the Disney movies are based on these two)
The Sword of Aradel
Jagger, the Dog from Elsewhere
The Magic Meadow
Flight to the Lonesome Place
The Incredible Tide
The Mystery of the Sassafras Chair
All by Alexander Key (Great adventure with kid heros!)

Tunnel Through Time by Lester del Ray

The Secret Cave (based on a true story, originally published under the title of 20 and 10) by Claire Bishop

Encyclopedia Brown series (Boy detective agency)by Donald Sobol

Several of these titles were made into movies. It's fun to watch these AFTER reading the book and gives you a great opportunity to discuss how the story might be changed in the movie, why the screenwriter/director might have made these changes, whether or not the kids thought the book was better than the movie, vice versa, or each great on their own merits, etc. It's a great way to introduce your kids to literary analysis in a fun way.

Most of these should be available through the LA public library, which runs a great summer reading program for kids, with incentive prizes. I think most of the branches have story hour for the preschool - 2nd grade set, too. Also check out Borders, and Barnes and Noble. I believe they also run summer reading programs for kids. There are also wonderful short stories published in Boys Life magazine.

Have a fun and literary summer!

My fav. was always the Ghost Eye Tree by John Archenbald. I think that is how you spell his name. He has a lot of good stuff. Around 3rd grade I started getting into the babysitters club. They so have a younger series for that too. Oh and when I was in First I loved all the Amelia Bedilia books. Happy reading!

lots of good books mentioned--don't forget roald dahl, the "choose your own adventure" books can be fun, the little prince, judy blume's starring sally j. freedman as herself, and although i never read them, my niece loved the serendipity books when she was 8 :)

All the books that Carrie B. said my kid's LOVE! They've also read all of the Magic Tree House series. It's funny with that series because my youngest is now in 4th grade and every now and then will spout off a fact from those books.He also liked the Matt CHristopher series.

Lots of luck!

hi dear. glad you have a love for reading.

a note that is important and probably obvious. make sure your child is reading age appropriate material.

that is, my daughter began reading harry potter in the 1st grade because her level was so high. she had not seen the movies at that age of course. however, i read them first and if there was a part that was coming up that was either too traumatic, violent, etc. i would cuddle in bed with her during reading time and read that part aloud "editing" it.

my son is in 2nd grade and no where near that level (he's the math crazyman) so i started him with magic treehouse in the 1st grade. funny because he said "hey there's no pictures!" and i told him to use his imagination. he is now reading roald dahl very good especially the short ones like witches, esio trot, etc. then he will be used to his style, enjoys him as an author and will be more excited to move on to slighter longer books like charlie and the chocolate factory, etc.

oh also geronimo stilton (mouse newspaper publisher) is good for all ages. there are about 35 of them in a series. they are about 100-150 pages. well illustrated. great character development. many words are written like what they are (ex//"icy" would look icy) - just another fun way to engage the kids. the author is from italy but you'd swear they were from here. very down to earth. funny.

one more thing - if your 4th grader is an advanced reader - or whenever he/she is ready ... cornelia funke is an incredible author. she's the german version of jk rowling i think - but more diverse. lots of different titles. especially inkheart. it's the 1st of a trilogy (although the next 2 are not appropriate for kids i don't think due to violence and some language) and is probably one of the best books i've ever read.

best wishes.

If you only get one book...Get the "Giving Tree" I think it is by Silverstein. Make Way for Ducklings is an old favorite. There used to be a series about 3 triplets by the name of Snip, Snap and Snur. Great stories.
The American Girl books are terrific and then there are always the Hardy boys, Nancy Drew and Trixie Belden.
Good luck and I applaud you for encouraging your kids to read! It opens so many doors for them.

The Read Aloud Handbook by Jim Trelease is a fantastic read for you and has a treasury of books listed in the back. It lists books by age or grade ranges (ie. K-3 or grades 1-4), so this could help you for many years of reading!

I got a list from ALA (American Library Association) online. There are a LOT of great books listed there.

Hi R.,
My son is 6... he loves:
1) Magic Treehouse - we've read about 36 of them so far
2) Shel Silverstein - Runny Babbit and A Light in the Attic are his favorites
3) My Dog May Be a Genius - book of poems by Jack Prelutsky
4) Captain Underpants/Ricky Ricotta/Dumb Bunnies all by Dav Pilkey
5) A to Z Mysteries by Ron Roy
6) Cam Jansen Mysteries by David Adler
7) DK Books - All factual books on different subjects and different reading levels
8) Brain Quest Cards - my son loves them and they come in different subjects and grade levels and they're small to take on an airplane or in the car

Hope this helps!

My son loved Hank The Cowdog, and my daughter was a big fan of Junie B Jones books. They both read Where The Red Fern Grows in sixth grade and loved it.

The New York Times Parent's Guide to the Best Books for Children: 3rd Edition Revised and Updated (Paperback)

I think they do a very thorough job of listing age-appropriate recommendations.

I have a 9 year old boy in 3rd grade. Here are our favorites:

My son never cared for the typical books on the shelves (like Magic Tree House or Capt. Underpants).

Dan Gutman's - WEIRD SCHOOL book series
http://www.dangutman.com/
He was a reluctant reader at the beginning of 3rd grade. We started these in October. He devoured them. They were repetitive and simple (encouraging self-confidence and fluency) and VERY funny. (Some parents object to how sarcastic he is, I don't care. My son was reading!!!!!) He recently finished HOLES by Louis Sacher (drop jaw) and loves LS's other books (Marvin Redpost book series, Junie B Jones, and others).

Hudson Talbott wrote a wonderful KING ARTHUR series (4? books) that are incredibly illustrated. I read these aloud to my son when he was in 1-2nd grade. Basically, many books in the FOLKS TALE section of the LIbrary were a hit.
http://www.hudsontalbott.com/

I'm a huge fan of illustrator Matt Faulkner.
http://www.mattfaulkner.com/

One of the best books he illustrated: YOU ARE ON YOUR WAY, TEDDY ROOSEVELT

It's a "Turning Point" series of turning points in the lives of American presidents. Those books are written by Judith St. George.
http://www.judithstgeorge.com/

BLACK BELT by Matt Faulkner
about a boy who deals with bullies in Japan - stunning illustrations and great story

THANK YOU SARA by Faulkner

BRAVE MARGARET by Robert D. San Souci
http://www.rsansouci.com/
Irish story (stunning illustrations - I believe children need to see beautiful art too) about a young woman who ends up saving the Prince. great story.

Those are off the top of my head. I could probably dig up more titles for you.

I love that you are looking for a reading list. (CONGRATS) Here are my suggestions. The "Junie B.:..." series is remarkable. Shel Silversteins line of books which are actually short story poems and poems. I'm not sure if the reading level may be appropriate but the "Wimpy Kid" series is a HUGE hit with kids and adults (i.e. myslef)alike. If anything else comes to mind I will let you know.

All time favorite: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

i loved encyclopedia brown and anything by beverly cleary and judy blume. the babysitters club was fun but that's more towards the fourth grade level.

My daughter loved the Tomy dePaola books when she was little. I am not sure how old your kids are, but if you let me know I will send more suggestions. Indian in the Cupboard was great for older, Sendek for younger......for girls "The Light Princess" was a wonderful chapter book. My husband read the entire Tolken trilogy to our daughter one chapter at a time...

I loved Shel Silverstein's poetry books as a kid. The books that really stood out to me were: Where the Sidewalk Ends and The Light in the Attic. They were quite humorous!

I see someone mentioned Shel Silverstein, and I heartily concur. One of my all-time favorites, still. From "A Light in the Attic" to "Where the Sidewalk Ends" "Falling Up" and the "Giving Tree." All are fantastic!

Hi, my Kindergarten through 3rds LOVE the series called "Junie B. Jones". In fourth grade I loved Pippi Longstocking books.
Have fun!

My two favorites from my 3rd/4th grade year were "From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler" by Konigsburg (?)and "A Key to the Treasure" by Peggy Parrish. Funny story, but my husband and I both loved "...Mixed-Up Files..." so much that it was the first hard bound book we bought together! And it was the reason I simply HAD to see the Metropolitan Museum of Art when I first visited Manhattan!

As a family we've read "The Grand Escape", "Stuart Little", "The Mouse and the Motorcycle" and some very old stories from a "Treasury of Classic Children's Literature" selected by William F. Buckley, Jr. and many, more.

Have a fun summer! Reading is the BEST!

Check out: http://www.cde.ca.gov/ci/rl/ll/