The Cam Jansen series has been a quick favorite for our daughter. She instantly seemed to want to know more about the little girl with the photographic memory, and the stories have not disappointed. This is a great early reader chapter book series which introduces the reader to the genre of mystery and the element of suspense.
Our daughter received the Kirsten book set along with a mini American Girl Kirsten doll this Christmas, and it was love at first sight. She has simply delighted in the fact that her doll has her very own stories and now playtime often includes re-creating Kirsten’s stories in our home. As a parent I appreciate that the books not only introduce our daughter to a historical time period, but they also share stories of a little girl and her family and reinforce the values of hard work, determination, cooperation, and kindness.
With our daughter’s help, I was able to find lots of wonderful new titles this year. Here is a listing of Once Upon a Storyville’s top ten finds for 2012 – Enjoy!
Amazing Magnetism is part of the Magic School Bus Chapter Book Series. Ms. Frizzle and the adventures of the Magic School Bus have been favorites for a long time at our home in their picture book format. We recently discovered that the adventures continue in chapter book format. Our kindergartener is incredibly delighted. These books provide solid science information while continuing the humorous adventures of Ms. Frizzle’s class as they have one of a kind field trips in the Magic School Bus.
Violet captured our daughter’s heart and imagination within the first few pages of Violet Mackerel’s Brilliant Plot. Violet is a little girl of substance who has a big imagination and often finds answers to problems she encounters with “out of the box” solutions. Ultimately, her kind spirit triumphs when faced with a big decision that is key to her brilliant plot.
Violet Mackerel’s Brilliant Plot provides great messages about working toward a goal as well as kindness. The next book in this series will be released in February, and our daughter is looking forward to it with great excitement and enthusiasm.
I was not familiar with the well loved Betsy-Tacy series until I was introduced to them by a friend. Our daughter has quickly fallen in love with them. Betsy is five years old and longs for a best friend. She finds one in her new neighbor five year old Tacy. The two girls are so inseparable that their names are merged into one. Although some things in our world have changed, specifically the amount of freedom the girls have to play outside unsupervised, the character development and the adventures detailed captured our daughter’s imagination within the first few pages. The wholesome nature of these books is refreshing, and I like how the difficulty of the text increases with each book as the girls get older. This series is well worth giving a try…
I really like children’s books that address facing challenges. Grin and Bear It has a silly premise, but in the end it shares a meaningful message. Bear wants to tell his jokes on the Woodland Stage and make all of his friends laugh. Sadly, his fear of getting up and speaking in front of others is holding him back from realizing his dreams. With help from his forest friends, Bear finds that he just may be able to make his dream a reality in spite of his fear.
We are always on the hunt for independent reader books that feature colorful pictures. Our daughter is delighted with our newest find ~ The Frog and Friends series. It features Frog and his friends: Rabbit, Raccoon, Squirrel, and Possum who enjoy spending time together and highlights their adventures. Each book is made up of three short stories and the text of each story is enhanced with the use of colorful pictures.
The Magic Treehouse series has companion research guides that provide additional non-fiction details regarding each of the adventures. These have been a HUGE hit at our house. I love how these books incorporate Annie and Jack and introduce a myriad of ways to find answers through doing research. They are a terrific supplement to the book series.
A few months ago our daughter started slowing reading the Magic Tree House Series. As she grew more comfortable and confident reading beginning chapter books like Cowgirl Kate and Mercy Watson, we started to partner read The Magic Treehouse Series books together. The series centers around Jack and Annie who discover a magical treehouse that takes them on adventures based upon the books they select.
Dinosaurs Before Dawn, the first book of the series, was our daughter’s first introduction to the element of suspense, and it has been a delight to watch her response to it. I often find her reading speed increasing as excitement builds within the story, and she often continues reading well beyond “her turn” in order to satisfy her eagerness to know what happens next.
The Magic Treehouse Series is a wonderful imagination based reading series for young readers. We are now checking out two and three books at a time at the library in order to keep up with our daughter’s desire to know what happens next.