I am very thankful that my kids love their books.  They love being read to, they love sitting and paging through their books on their own and my daughter is really starting to enjoy reading books for herself and to her younger brother.   With my daughter I have found that many standard readers have not been popular as book choices.  Instead she likes to take children’s story books and read them to herself and her brother, they both find these more interesting and as a result she will actually end up trying more difficult books then she would with her readers.  So I thought I would write a post about the children’s books that have proved popular as “readers” in our house.

I have to start with The Ark Adventures (we bought our set from The Bookpeople)

These stories where the first real story books that my daughter sat and really wanted to read by herself.  And even now months later she still fetches them off the bookshelf and I still hear her reading them to her brother.  Both of my kids have loved this small series of books.  I am thrilled that I ended up buying this set on a hunch that my daughter would enjoy the stories about the animals.

Percy the Parkeeper.   For kids who love cute stories about woodland animals and the antics they get up these are super. When my daughter was around 4 years old we bought her A Year in Percy’s park from a second-hand store.  This book is actually 4 stories in 1.  It can be hard to find a copy of this all in one version but I have often seen the individual stories  they are  – One Snowy Night, The Secret Path, The Rescue Party, After The Storm

My daughter immediately loved the animal adventures and we have since bought a number of other Percy stories for the kids.  In the last few months she has started reading these books as her readers and she loves them.

She reads the stories to me, to her brother and sometimes she just sits and reads them to herself.  And if you are anything like me and you like using children’s book as a spring-board for learning these book are great.  We have linked these stories to seasons, woodland animals, an owl topic and the kids have even designed their own Park.

Titchy-Witch.  My daughter and I recently found Titchy -Witch and the Stay Dragon at our local library and she loved.   Now whenever we go to the libary we always look for more Titchy- Witch books, so far she has read 3 of the Titchy Witch books.  They are sweet, nothing scary or sinister.  It is about a child witch who is learning how to do magic and well, makes a few mistakes and a few unusual friends along the way.

Follow the Swallow by Julia Donaldson.

This was also a book that we found in the library but we have now renewed it so many times and the kids still want to read it that I think a copy of this book is going to be found under someones Christmas tree (yes I am already thinking of possible presents for the kids).  This is a great book to both read to young kids and to have young readers read to you.  It is a story about a Bluebird and a swallow and their friendship.  The book covers migration from a garden in the UK to Africa as well as seasons (how the tree that the Bluebird builds his nest in changes).

There are lots of great points to start interesting chats with kids on.  I think it is one of the best Julia Donaldson books to use for learning.

Usborne Beginners (just a few of the ones that we own).

In my first year of homeschooling the kids I bought two of these books on sale and my kids and I loved them so much that we now have a significant collection of these books.  I have found these books really informative and the language is not to hard for young kids.  Although they are non-fiction books my kids have asked for these time and time again as bed time stories.  My husband  recently suggested to my daughter that she could read them herself and they sat and in one go she read 3 different books to her dad.  It has now become a “weekend dad activity” where she sits and reads an Usborne Beginner to her dad over the weekend.  And big bonus, while she is practicing her reading she is learning about animals or history or geography (and her brother who always sits and listens is also learning in the process).  As far as non-fiction book for young kids go I think these are amazing and both my kids agree.

The Bookpeople in the UK have a set of the Usborne Beginner animal books that they sell for a very reasonable price but you can also buy the individual ones from Amazon.

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