First Chapter Book Read-Alouds

A common question I hear from parents is: when do I start reading chapter books out loud to my kids and what books should I read?

First, I have to encourage you not to give up on picture books too early. Even older kids can get so much out of the art in picture books. They often contain more sophisticated stories and themes than when you move up to early chapter books, which  are written more simply for new readers.

However, if you  are eager to start reading chapter books, then the best books to start with have short chapters and illustrations on almost every page. It also helps if the books are part of  a series, since my daughter's first question is always, "Are there more of these?"

Here are some treasures that we have found that will appeal to all ages.

  

Several of our friends were raving about these books and they were so right. Anna Hibiscus is a little girl living in Africa in a compound with her large African family. The stories are funny and full of gentle lessons about compassion, traditions, and family love.We are looking forward to reading the rest of the series.

 

Cynthia Rylant is one of my favorite authors. She has several Easy Reader series that are wonderful: Mr. Putter and Tabby, Poppleton, Henry and Mudge. The Cobble Street Cousins features three cousins who are staying with their aunt while their parents perform in ballets. They have lots of little-kid adventures: baking, making a newspaper, going shopping for gifts. Sweet and just right for young readers.

Kate DiCamillo brings us  a pig who loves toast with a great deal of butter. What is there not to love? These stories are funny and full of a great cast of characters. The vivid color illustrations by Chris Van Dusen are amazing! This is a series not to be missed. The audio books are some of our favorites too.

I discovered Dick King-Smith's books through a wonderful list of 50 Chapter Books for Preschoolers compiled by What Do We Do All Day? Dick King-Smith was a British failed-farmer-turned-author, and he loves pigs.You may recognize his most famous work: Babe: The Gallant Pig or at least the famous line, "That'll do, pig."  I have a daughter who loves pigs so we have read many of his books and loved them. The Lady Lollipop books are our particular favorites though because it features a princess and a pig.

  

I discovered The Racketty- Packetty House by Frances Hodgson Burnett last year and it was a big hit with my girls. When a new, fancy dollhouse arrives, the well-loved and shabby Racketty-Packetty House is shoved in a corner, but nothing can dampen the spirits of the dolls that live there. We really loved this version with illustrations by Wendy Anderson Halperin.

 

Kenny and the Dragon is a retelling of The Reluctant Dragon by Kenneth Grahame. Tony DiTerlizzi's gorgeous illustrations add so much life to the story of a poetry-loving, dessert-eating dragon who befriends a young rabbit who then must save the dragon from the frightened townsfolk. The kids had me start over at the beginning as soon as we were through.

Another wonderful series by Cynthia Rylant with lovely illustrations. A cat named Pandora lives a lonely life as a lighthouse keeper when some improbable companions wash up on her shore and change her life.

Distracted by Dulcimers: Daniel's Duck

Ella discovered the shelf where I have all of our new Five in a Row books, and picked out Daniel's Duck by Clyde Robert Bulla. It's a sweet Easy Reader about a boy living in the mountains of Tennessee in the 19th century. His family members are all preparing items to display at the County Fair, and he decides to carve a duck. When the people laugh at his creation at the fair, he takes his duck and runs away. A famous local woodcarver reaches out to him and convinces him that people were laughing because they enjoyed his artwork.

One of my favorite aspects of the Five in a Row curriculum is that it encourages your kids to look closely at books and notice things. Once they notice things, they begin to be curious and want to learn more. Before you know it, you've followed a rabbit trail that has your kids passionately interested in Jean Ritchie and other mountain folk musicians. At the beginning of the week, we were learning about cabin life and making lists of all the items in Daniel's cabin. The kids noticed that there was a dulcimer hanging on the wall. My husband bought me a dulcimer for my birthday the year before last and I really meant to learn to play it, but then I got busy with life and my hundreds of other ideas and it's been sitting on my dresser ever since.

 

The kids encouraged me to get out my dulcimer and we all tried to learn to play. It's a very simple instrument with just four strings and no chords, so the kids could learn a little. After playing a bit, I decided the kids should hear how a dulcimer really ought to be played, so I found a video of Jean Ritchie playing her dulcimer. KET has a series called Old Music for New Ears, which you can listen to for free online, and it is absolutely fabulous. It's like having a wonderful old-time musician come to your homeschool and give a concert. They have 21 episodes with old-time musicians like Ritchie, Mike Seeger, Malcolm Dalglish and Odetta. By the end of the video, the kids were singing along, and begged to watch again. By the end of the day, Ella had memorized the song "Lazy John" and taught it to the other kids. Then they began begging to sing her songs at bedtime. We ended up watching the show during lunch each day, and pulling out the dulcimer to play afterward. Halfway through the week, Ella said, "I don't know if we're learning about Daniel's Duck or Jean Ritchie!"

But we did pull things back around to Daniel's Duck and learned about the changing seasons. The kids were thrilled to make four seasons headbands with trees on them and rotate around the driveway. 

Then we did the art activity that the kids had been looking forward to all week: carving soap. We bought a few bars of Ivory Soap. I was skeptical, but it really is soft enough to carve with a butter knife. All four kids (with a little adult help on the toddler side) enjoyed drawing their designs on the soap with a toothpick and then hacking away at it with their knives. Here we have Mabel's pig and Ella's fish.

Then they decided that since soap was a temporary thing, they should recreate their carvings in playdough and let it dry out so they could keep it. They rushed off to do that exact thing while I made dinner.

Here is some free parenting wisdom for you: Never joke with your kids that they should take a bar of soap and run out into the rain to get clean that night if they actually are in possession of a bar of soap! To quote Ella, "Daddy has the best ideas, and then he lets us do them."

History Easy Readers: The American Revolution

My second-grader is reading well now, and loves to read out loud. So I like to have her read a book along with our Five in a Row units. While we were at the Revolutionary War reenactment, I discovered that the Old Sturbridge Village bookstore had a whole section of Easy Reader historical fiction, and we picked up several set during the Revolutionary War. Here are some you might want to check out with your new readers.

Paul Revere and the Bell Ringers by Jonah Winter
(Ready to Read Level 2)
This book is part of the Childhood of Famous Americans series . It tells the story of a young Paul Revere and his friends as they try to start a club to help their town. They decide to start a bell ringing club and need to make their own rules, write a contract, and learn to ring the church bells.

Sam the Minuteman by Nathaniel Benchley
(I Can Read Book Level 3)
This book is worth checking out for an American perspective on the first battles of the Revolution, but also for the illustrations by Arnold Lobel of Frog and Toad fame.






 

George the Drummer Boy by Nathaniel Benchley
(I Can Read Book Level 3)
For a perspective from the British side from the same author as Sam the Minuteman, George the Drummer Boy tells the story of a young drummer in the British Regulars at the battles of Lexington and Concord. Great for comparing two sides of an historic event.

Abigail Adams: First Lady of the American Revolution
(Ready to Read Level 3)
 This is a short chapter book biography of Abigail Adams in the Stories of Famous Americans Series. We learned a lot about Adams very fascinating life from this book: her intelligence, love of learning, and resourcefulness through the war and ultimately her time as first lady of the United States.

Sybil Ludington's Midnight Ride
(On My Own History)
I had never heard of Sybil Ludington before reading this book, and it's a wonderful story of bravery. Sybil was a sixteen-year-old girl living in New York who rode 40 miles to all the neighboring towns on a dark and rainy night to alert her father's troops that the British were burning Danbury, Connecticut. This can also be a great parent read-aloud for younger students.

George, Thomas, and Abe!
(The Step into Reading Presidents Story Collection)
This is a collection of three early readers about George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln. They include funny true stories about the presidents. Ella couldn't quite believe that George Washington really had a dog named "Sweet Lips."