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I posted recently on my Facebook page asking you all for reading suggestions and thought that opening it up here would be fun to see what other great ideas you all have!
Laurianna has been reading unbelievably {don’t know where she gets that from ~ grins}. Her reading is in turn motivating McKenna to read more…which is fun to watch. We’ve read books/series together as a family and she has read some independently, but I’m wondering what books your 3rd/4th graders enjoy reading ~ especially books that have a little more ‘substance’ to them.
Here are a few books/series that we’ve read and loved:
~ Little House on the Prairie {reading this again soon!}
Some suggestions that I received from readers were the original Nancy Drew books, Peter and the Starcatcher series…
What books do YOUR kids devour?
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I used to teach 4th grade, and some of the favorites in our classroom were Treasures of the Snow, the Best Christmas Pageant Ever, Narnia books, Ramona books, and if you can still find the Grandma’s Attic books, they are wonderful stories.
Also, do you have Honey for a Child’s Heart? Or Sarah Clarkson’s Reading from the Heart book? Both have great wholesome recommendations for each age group.
I have one of Sally Clarkson’s other books {heard her speak at the Relevant Conference}, but I’ll have to check those two out! Thank you!
Have they read the Ramona books by Beverly Cleary? Then there’s The Secret Garden and A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett and any of the horse books by Marguerite Henry.
Read all of those!! We haven’t read the ones by Marguerite Henry though…
Makayla (4th grade) has loved these this year:
Fablehaven by Brandon Mull and sequels.
By the Great Horn Spoon
The Twenty-One Balloons
Black Beauty
The Tale of Desperaux
Tale of Desperaux and Black Beauty we loved!
Toys Go Out and Toy Dance Party by Emily Jenkins. They are both fantastic! The prequel to these books, Toys Come Home, is coming out soon. I did this as a read aloud for my children and every single child in the home was captivated! So sweet and funny! Your girls can read them independently, however, you won’t want to miss what these toys are up to…my daughter still goes on and on about the toys’ personalities. I can’t say enough about these books.
My kids are younger than yours but we are currently looking ahead and building up our library… Some books we have recently added are books from http://www.lamplighterpublishing.com – excellent books! They have them broken down into age brackets for boys and girls. Books by Elizabeth Yates are also very good. Girl of the Limberlost is excellent as well. A Father’s Promise is another good one.
Happy Reading!
At that age my son read EVERY SINGLE Magic Treehouse book. He loved (and still loves) historical fiction.
Magic Treehouse was a favorite here too…and they have read most of those.
American Girl series are others that we love too and have all of. So
many I forgot to write down!
The Anne of Greene Gable series is great! Olivia loves it You can easily work up a unit study if you want or just let her read to her hearts content.
We just discovered the Dear America series by Scholastic, my daughter (3rd grade) loves it. I just purchased the Daring Adventure Series put out by Focus on the Family written by Peter Reese Doyle. I bought the Cul-de-Sac kids off Christianbook.com and these aren’t great, but she enjoys them and reads them in about a half hour to an hour. Of course the classics are always good and I’ve been picking them up at yard sales and Target dollar spot.
My daughter who is in fourth grade just started the American Girl Series, and she is loving it. I would like to invite you to visit a post I did yesterday Meet Addy: An American Girl @theworkplan.blogspot.con
Jolanthe,
My children have been “eating books too.” Both my son and daughter are currently enjoying the Cam Jansen series. There is a regular and a “young” Cam Jansen collection.
I have a ten year old boy who reads incessantly and an 8 yo daughter who reads mostly non-fiction, but enjoys the fiction read alouds we do as a family. A few that are good for boys and girls are the Wrinkle in Time series by Madeleine L’Engle; Ginger Pye, Pinky Pye and the Moffats books by Eleanor Estes, The Mouse and the Motorcycle trilogy and others by Beverly Cleary (these have been read and reread in our home), Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh, Pippi Longstocking trilogy (hilarious for a read aloud), Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle books, James Herriot’s stories, The Year of Miss Agnes, E.B. White’s books (my favorites are The Trumpet of the Swan and Stuart Little). A site that we have found is excellent for suggestions of good quality literature (with reviews and reading levels) is http://www.eagerreaders.com.
We love “Anne of Green Gables” at that age, as well as the “Misty of Chicoteague” series.
My kids loved the series Conspiracy 365, sold through Usborne Books. They couldn’t put them down(neither could I)!
Have you browsed Sonlight’s independent readers? You don’t have to use their curriculum (although we love it!), just steal their book list and have fun at the library. We can’t get enough of their recommendations, all by age level too… :)
Hope you are having a great day!
Karen
My kids aren’t that age yet, but when I was that age I read The Fairy Rebel about a hundred times =)
My 4th Grade Daughter devours series like:
1. The Boxcar Children books – created by Gertrude Chandler Warner
2. The Bobbsey Twins, yes they’re retro but she still likes them
3. Nancy Drew mysteries
4. Trixie Belden mysteries
5. Encyclopedia Brown
And classics like:
1. Heidi
2. Caddie Woodlawn
3. The Little Princess
4. Stuart Little & Charlotte’s Web
5. The Borrowers books by Mary Norton
6. Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle books by Betty MacDonald
7. All-of-a-Kind Family books by Sydney Taylor
Now her younger sister (1st grade) is trying to keep up. I love to walk into their bedroom and find them both reading! :)
I loved Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle! My 6 year old wants nothing to do with me reading it though. LOL!
My daughter (5 yrs.) and I are reading one of the All-of-a-Kind-Family books!!
Since your oldest is a girl, I’m not sure if she would be intersted by my son just LOVED Take Your Best Shot. It’s not a fiction story and it has inspired him to help others.
http://www.amazon.com/Take-Your-Best-Shot-Something/dp/1400315158/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1238172693&sr=8-1
http://www.hoopsofhope.org/index.cfm
:)
Janet
http://www.homeward4.blogspot.com
http://www.homeschoolercafe.blogspot.com
As far as I can remember … many of my students LOVED reading the Magic Treehouse and the Magic School Bus books as mentioned by Nicole. Other series they enjoyed reading were Goosebumps, The Bailey School Kids, the Secrets of the Droon, A Series of Unfortunate Events, Pony Pals, Horrible Harry, Little House on Prairie series (Laura Ingalls Wilder), and books written by Roald Dahl or Paula Danziger (Amber Brown series). Please check content of the books as these were allowed in school and I obviously haven’t read them all. A lower level often enjoyed by the students was the Flat Stanley series. I hope this helps!
Tracey
My daughter loved the Ramona books when I read them to her and The Littles.
My two really enjoy reading the Magic Treehouse series.
Those have been favorites here too! :)
My fourth grade son loves reading Diary of a wimpy kid, the treehouse books, the hardy boys, and goose bumps.
Mrs. Piggle Wiggle
Magic Tree House
Judy Blume books
Toys Go Out
Junie B Jones
The Littles
Marvin Redpost
The Boxcar Children
Andrew Clements books
Kate DiCamillo books
The Hundred Dresses
Wayside School
The Invention of Hugo Cabret
James and the Giant Peach
Anything by Chuck Black(Kingdom series) the Mandie series by Leppard(my 6 year old loves these, she reads at a 4th grade level) and they just made them into a movie so it was fun to see it come alive on screen. Grandma’s Attic series by Richardson, Ramona and Henry books by Beverly Cleary, also Socks and Ralph S. Mouse, and the Encyclopedia Brown series. There are also the Trailblazer books by Dave and Netta Jackson, missionary stories written for the younger level, those are read all the time here and also great for book reports if your girls are doing that sort of thing. Those are just some of the books my children are reading right now and others that have all ready been mentioned. There are so many good books out there but they are sometimes hard to find through all the yuck that seems so popular these days.
whipping boy
bridge to terabithia
indian in the cupboard series
the orphan train series (this would go well with your american history study)
secert garden
charlie and the chocolate factory
charlie and the great glass elevator
percy jackson and the olympian series (this is a huge hit in out house if you don’t mide greek myths)
harriet the spy
riding freedom
fridle
goone bird green
dear mr. henshaw (really and of beverly cleary’s books. i remember reading most of them when i was a kid.)
there is more but i can’t think of them. but those are my suggestions for now. most are classics i remember reading and loving them. but you could also go to the library and ask for the new berry award lists or google it on the web. my sister and i read most of the new berrry award list when we were kids. it was my mom’s idea so we would love to read. it worked.
Homer Price
Ben and Me
Abel’s Island
The Castle in the Attic
The Cricket in Times Square
Cheaper by the Dozen
The Indian in the Cupboard
The Golden Goblet
We really like Star of Light (same author as Treasures of the Snow) and Understood Betsy. GREAT read-alouds :)
A lot of wonderful recommendations here!
One I haven’t seen earlier: The Phantom Tollbooth by Norman Juster
It’s a book from the 1960s or so, and is a fun read – a good one to read aloud to them, too.
(And Phantom in this case means “mysterious”, not so much ghostly or such things.)
Have you considered “The Cricket in Times Square” and the sequels?
I haven’t!! Thanks for the suggestion!
We received the 39 Clues series for Christmas. We’re well into the first book…and now we’ve heard some good reviews from friends. My boys love geocaching/letterboxing…so this whole clue thing is really great for them.
I saw lots of good ones, some ones I’ll echo and add to:
In American History realm:
Dear America and My America series
Caddie Woodlawn and the sequel, something about watermelons
Lois Lensky books, in particular Strawberry Girl
Fantasy:
Fablehaven
Spiderwick Chronicles
anything by Gail Carson Levine
Madeleine L’Engle (there’s one I wouldn’t recommend, but I’m blanking on the title), but in general her time series is really good as are the Austin books.
anything by Dianna Wynne Jones
the Young Wizards series, which I think is by Diane Duane
Patricia Wrede has several good young adult ones
Jane Yolen has several good young adult ones and there’s one for World War 2
Umm, that’s about all I can think of offhand. Also, Christian Children’s Book Review blog does a good job reviewing books.
Our 3rd grader LOVES the The Cul-de-sac Kids Books by Beverly Lewis…I know that I can trust the content completely because they’re Biblically based and teach moral character values that our family supports. Plus it’s a series and so your students will fall in love with the characters and enjoy following along with them. These are a must to check out!
M.M. Kaye’s The Ordinary Princess
Girlz of Grace is similar to American Girls, but Christian
There is another series I forgot to mention that are similar to American Girls but also Christian ~ Sisters in Time series. We have about half of them and our girls love them!!
sign of the beaver was a GREAT book.
The Mandie Mystery Series by Leppard is great…read them as a kid!
Strawberry Girl by Lois Lenski..
And I just ordered the Dear America Series through Scholastic.
Older books — teh Trixie Belden mystery series is good and we also like the Grandma’s Attic series.
The Dear America series has popped up more than once ~ I’ll have to
check them out.
Great topic! I love seeing all the suggestions. One of my daughters’ favorites is the Betsy-Tacy series. She is saving her money to buy the whole series!
My 19 year old (formerly homeschooled) daughter has a book review blog. She posts reviews, author interviews and giveaways for middle grade and young adult books.
http://bookreviewsbymyself.blogspot.com/